First dry enough day I made a one-pass seed bed and sowed parsnips and the onion sets I had bought in anticipation of it eventually stopping raining. I did not expect a Global Pandemic to focus my mind on the garden as a wasted resource.

It was lucky I found last years seeds packets that I didn’t use and also some mail order stuff was still being sent out. For sure I can not harvest what I haven’t planted but it also must concentrate the mind on the storage of that harvest – we will need to get that van body secure against rats so that I can dry store apples and onions etc and house the freezers.

It hasn’t escaped my notice that back in the autumn with fruit rotting on the ground I made an effort to gather what I could and store what I could – very little in relation to the whole but it was some – I did not think we would ever eat it and I planned to make wine with it TBH. Yesterday I hooked out some frozen plums to feed this self-isolating family and thought ‘they won’t last long’ but at least we have some… No apples though as the storage in boxes in the open fronted hay store simply allowed them to become rat fodder 🙁

A certain amount of expectation of better days to come when we will all be free to come and go-get things like doors again…