very late last night I had a break through, I decided to work on and went to bed around 3 am so got up later than usual and as I needed to go to town got the morning bus, I thought I’d post an update on my dilemma of yesterday, I started planning my made up woman with family by thinking of people I know and myself at a younger age, I also took several breaks and yesterday evening worked through some of the exercises on my current studies, I then started flipping through some of the numerous language books I have and that was when I got the ‘light bulb’ moment and started writing, I know it’s a spoken assignment but I can’t just say it I have got to write first, by 2 am I felt I had a good start so opened the recording programme and gave it a go, I did 3 tries and they are not too desperate but do need more work, the assignment needs to be in by next Thursday 12th Jan. so I have almost a week to tweak it but at least I have something started, I think one reason it threw me so yesterday was the previous assignment we had to write about very much the same things so I had expected something different but I guess they are following the old teaching rule, say it once repeat it then say it again, it is a good rule and does work, for anyone who may be interested my made up self is,
a designer late thirties, married with 1 daughter, I have a sister who is married with 3 children (I have always wanted nephews and nieces), I live in a small village with 1 church, 1 food shop and post office, no supermarket,
so the place I live is very near a description to my area, one of the subjects we studied for this assignment was directions, getting from A to B and one of the things I should include is ‘location’ so I think I need to add some directions,
now some garden news, when I was in the library last week I found they had a new gardening book,
the RHS Fruit and Vegetable Gardening by Michael Pollock,
it is proving to be a good read, it has even included ‘peat soil’ in the section soil types ~ nearly faints in amazement ~
reading all these blogs on allotments and their bountiful crops, I want to grow more food and so need to learn much more,
the amount of rain we have had this week I will soon be able to swim in the lower part of the garden, must make a note to see if I can improve drainage,
update, from some of the comments I have realised that because some people are reading on blotanical they only see the most recent post and this post is part 2 of wet wordy Wednesday, the Wednesday post will explain that the made up me is not a dream or wishful me but a person that better fit’s the criteria of an assignment where I have to talk about certain aspects of myself and my family or a made up self and made up family,
©Copyright 2011 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.
Hi, came upon your blog by searching something else. Since I am a gardener also, I subscribed and am enjoying your entries. Keep up the good work.
thank you mch, Frances
Frances, glad to hear you found a way to handle this assignment. I hadn’t thought of the fact that some might not have relatives to discuss. Although I have siblings it’s the relationship with them I’d rather not discuss with strangers, which is why I try to glaze over any details. Welcome to the wonderful world of food growing, the only thing I’ve learned in the past two seasons with acidic (peaty) soil is use plenty of lime. (and apparently seaweed is quite useful too)
thanks Marguerite, yes I had read that most (not all remember those tatties) fruit and veg like a sweeter soil and I have been adding lime in some areas, I’ve decided to buy a ph metre, another thing lime/raising the ph of a soil does is release minerals etc. just because your soil is acidic doesn’t mean it’s peaty I’ve learnt that most clay soils are acidic, the clay soil I know in the south east of England is alkaline but I have now learnt that it’s the clay that’s on the chalk/lime cliffs and hills that are alkaline where as the plain between is acidic,
I use seaweed for my tatties/potatos and other areas of the garden, now is a good time to collect it as the storms wash it up but the storms won’t stop long enough for me to take a walk to the beach! Frances
Reading gardening blogs always inspires me as well. I hope you finish your project and get some rest. Happy new year!
Michelle how lovely to hear from you, thanks for your wishes and I hope you had a good holiday, all the best for 2012, Frances
Frances your resolution to your assignment is wonderful…now you can relax a bit and read more of that book you discovered…take care!!
thanks Donna, Frances xx
Or get yourself a pond. ;-P
Congratulations on your light bulb moment and coming up with your made up self. If I had to have a made up self it would be a billionaire who had all the time in the world to garden. LOL!
Bom I was thinking about a pond myself,
lol the criteria we have to follow doesn’t include wealth! not only could you garden you could afford the garden of your dreams and employ others to do the hard and nasty jobs, ah heaven,
thanks, Frances
It sounds like a fun assignment! Amazing how inspiration seems to come late at night. Good luck with the presentation!
thanks Deb, Frances
So glad you have found a result for your assignment, sounds a good one. You mention a pond, fantastic, it will bring in all sorts of wildlife, wouldn’t be without ours. Like you, must grow more veg and learn how to follow one crop with another and not leave the soil empty over the winter.
Had a taste of your gales yesterday, a mere 67mph!!You would call that a light breeze, but it blew the fence over by the field next door and took the roofing felt off our shed!!!Today, all is calm, thank goodness.
thanks Pauline, a pond, yes I would love one and have been planning one in my head for several years, last year I thought I must think small, as I have such a large area I would love something large, well medium, I am a bit scared though as I don’t know how to manage a pond, when I read about making and keeping a pond it all sounds so complicated especially the cleaning of them! I had hoped to sow a green mannure this winter but the weather did not permit,
it seems almost all of the UK has been windswept this week, strangely here in this little corner the wind has not been as strong as the previous month, I think a lot of the damage is due to people not being used to such strong winds and things not being secured to cope with it, sorry about your shed roof though better your shed than house! I hope no one, nothing was hurt by the falling fence or flying felt, up here everything is secured very strongly and anything that can’t be is put inside, take care, Frances x
It is good you are making headway on your assignment. The made up self is probably harder to do than the actual life for me though. So good you had the light bulb go off. I am like Bom. If I made it up, it would be so outrageous to just to reek of the imagined or the coveted, lol.
thanks Donna, Bom and your made up sleves would fail the assignment, my made up self in this instance is to fit the criteria of the assignment as my real self doesn’t fit the criteria of the assignment, guess I’m not their typical student! Frances
Frances, if you’re going to make a pond, then can I say, make it as big as possible, I wish we had made ours 3 times the size! Cleaning? what cleaning? Must have had ours for 12 yrs now and it has never needed cleaning. We started with water from our water butts, not tap water, and no fish, they eat all the tadpoles! If you have a bit of shade from water lily leaves the pond shouln’t heat up too much and get algae, apart from that, just enjoy all the wildlife it brings in, we certainly do!
thank Pauline, I have worked out where I would put a good sized pond and had hoped to get started last year but the weather had other ideas, if I get a chance I’ll get started this year but I’m not holding my breath only to be disappointed due to bad weather,
‘shade from water lily leaves the pond shouln’t heat up too much’
LOL we should be so lucky!!!!
Frances x
Hi Frances, I have an imaginary self where I am 22 yrs old 6ft 2″ and well fit, how shallow! Never mind, the real me is on my current posting. In our early gardening days before we knew any better we constantly added peat to the borders mistakenly thinking we were doing good.
not shallow but just you when you were young,
I’m not surprised you used to put peat on your garden my Dad did too in his retirement years when he became interested in gardening back in the 70s and 80s, I think there has been a lot of hype about peat as a sort of cure all for many years and it’s only recently they (the ‘expert’ gardeners) have started to realise peat has little to offer, it’s just very low nutrient organic matter, Frances
Made up me is easy, its the real one that is disinclined to share too much personal data. Does your imaginary you have a name – that might help in what is effectively role playing as long as you say…”And now back to Frances, reality and the solitude garden…”.
p.s. Happy 2012 – did so enjoy the retrospective through the planning and planting of last year. If only the blasted winds would leave it all alone.
yes Laura name is Monica because a name is a ‘monica’ surname Emanrus surname backwards, I couldn’t be bothered to be creative,
thanks and a happy 2012 for you, Frances