Planting and poetry

Crouching down low to use a trowel to make drills made me smile. Maybe because it felt like planting hope. My daughter helped me sow beetroot seeds or 'tiny stones' as she called them. I took my daughter home then went back to the allotment and dug a trench for Charlotte potatoes. Then I sowed kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli parthenon, iceberg lettuce, parsley and rocket. A guy who has an immaculate plot stopped by to give me a yellow courgette he'd grown from seed and told me how good my plot was looking and said to keep up the good work. It made me see how much I'd done instead of worrying about all the stuff I haven't done yet. My broad beans have germinated - so exciting! I usually plant them in November but planted them late so I was very glad to see they had germinated. Our local mayor staged an exhibition of portraits of poets by Peter Edwards in the council chamber and invited a few poets to read including me. I felt quite intimidated by the chamber as it looked like a court room but I loved performing. Got such an amazing buzz. We read surrounded by paintings of Carol Ann Duffy, Penelope Shuttle, Peter Redgrove, Wendy Cope to name a few. Happy planting everyone!

Happy New Year! Writing and Allotment news.

Wishing you all wealth, health and happiness.

It's taken me three days to add the picture of River of Stones to my blog. Hopefully it won't take that long before I come up with a small stone. If you don't know about river of stones hop over to Fiona Robyn's blog and take a look. I could add a link but that would probably take me a month to work out so have a look at the blogs I follow.

I don't cope with transition well (probably something to do with my star sign) so new years eve is always torturous. Now we are in the year properly I feel fine.

I suddenly finished the first rewrite of my novel. But arghh it's only 63,000 words and a load of them are slashable. I'm not going to panic. After 6 years of producing half assembled poems I managed to finish 13 into as near as possible finished poems after attending Katherine Gallagher workshops at Torriano House. The only thing that worries me is that the poems all ended up much shorter when they were finally finished. I just hope it's different for novels.

End of the month I've got a spot reading my poetry over jazz in a pub - bit nervous as they weren't written with jazz in mind. Well it's an adventure....

The allotment has been neglected- I've not been for 3 weeks but the weather has been bad for most of that time and when it improved I got a nasty cough that required bed and films back to back (ohh it was lovely). My strawberries were terrible last year and I just let them run riot afterwards. I don't know whether to just rip them out. I keep being advised to grow them in pots but I am a lazy waterer. Any ideas? I still have some leeks and parsnips to harvest but they don't mind the cold so that's ok. I still have frozen french beans but the turn out really watery - is there a secret to freezing them that can keep them nice. They are ok in soup and stews etc.

I've ordered my seeds for spring and they have arrived. Another mother and I have been doing some gardening with the kids at school - any ideas for stuff to do in January. We've already done compost- very messy and enjoyable. Is it too late /early to sow sweetpeas or herbs?

Have a fab 2011.

Poetry

I've just been asked to be a guest poet locally next month. I'm very excited and nervous. Strangely I'm not that nervous about my poems but about all the chatting you need to do in between. Saw Elaine Feinstein last night and she was fab - so engaging. She spoke so clearly that you didn't miss a word.
Any tips from experienced and inexperienced readers very welcome. It's lovely to have a reason to sharpen up some more of my poems.

Poetry and potatoes.

I'd put potatoes on my new plot as they involve a lot of digging opportunities to come across and pull out bindweed. It always amazes me how bindweed can regrow from any tiny bit of root left in the ground. My potatoes did have more scab than I've ever seen but it was a dry summer and i didn't water them . One of the old hands told me that there often is a lot of scab in ground uncultivated for ages. As the scab is only skin deep and does not affect the potato I'm not too concerned. Have not been to allotment for few days as son's birthday party preps took over and the accompanying panic over somehow inviting 17 kids to our small roomed house. it passed very well thanks to my sister. The kids loved it. I loved their dancing.
I went to a poetry reading locally which involved 4 published poets reading from the floor then people were invited to read from the floor. This was the second time I had read from the floor and it was worse than the first time. I could hear my voice tremble and had to slow down which was good as I often race through my poems wanting to finish asap. I got a great round of applause and two of the published poets said what a v good poem it was. Members of the audience also gave me very positive feedback. I have been walking on air.

Festival

I had a fantastic time at the Latitude festival. We put a tent up for the first time in sixteen years with no mishaps-. It was very middle class - the acts far more diverse than the audience. I loved the poetry. Simon Armitage was very good. Jackie Kay was brilliant such a bubbly person and really funny. Kate Tempest rapped her poems and actually got the audience on their feet. Great to see the poetry tent so energized. She's going to be big. Grace Jones was brilliant - hula hooping through slave to the rhythm. Her costumes were amazing -magnificent ridged head-dress. She changed between each song. Lisa Hannigan who I'd never heard of before was very good. What was great about the festival was the variety of stuff to do - theatre, film, comedy, poetry, literature and ballet by the lake. The site itself was lovely. The lake cut the site in two and had giant delicate fabric lilys floating on it. The lake set off the ballet on its bank beautifully. Later in the day a cube was floated on the lake with a quartet playing inside. In the evening jets of water acted as a projector screen for giant cupcakes rising and falling in the sky. It was a really chilled out festival. A tent tucked away in the woods held the mellow tunes of The Boy trapped by the Sun - very good. I love Nick Cave but the sound wasn't very good - the music was too loud and kind of buzzing. I don't mind loud music - in fact that's the only way to do justice to most songs but it just didn't sound right. Oh and the compost toilets in the woods were the best festival toilets I've ever been too.

Chatting with like minds

I had such a lovely day today. Saw some people I hadn't seen for years. We talked about how it's taken us decades to realise that mistakes are necessary and how much you lose when you avoid doing things for fear you'll do them wrong. One of the people is the person who started me writing poetry in a determined way. I spent six years churning out fetuses of poems and till this year could not bear to go back to them to see if they could be fully fledged poems. I now have four poems I am pretty happy with. One of the poems was born from some prose I showed to that person years ago to which she replied that it was poetic and had I tried poetry. So today I got the chance to thank her. Tina one of the other people has helped me by reading the poems and encouraging me. Her mum gave me amazing feedback too. Oh and Tina has offered to lend me a camera till the insurance gets sorted. I can't believe how much I've missed taking photos. My garden has white lavender coming into flower. I really love white flowers and I know it probably sounds really weird to not just have purple lavender but there's something so delicate about the tiny white flakes of petals. The broom has gone to seed and they rattle in their pods like a kid's toy. Baby tomatoes growing -yipee.

Payment

Yipee - looks like one of my poems will be on EverydayPoets http://www.everydaypoets.com/ next month. Complete strangers will get to comment on it. I'm up for it!

Saturday had a good evening at a fundraiser at my son's school. It was a karoake evening and yes I'm afraid I did sing and dance a little. Would have danced more but my son was mortified. I was far too self conscious at his age to care what my parents were doing.

Went to the allotment today and sowed my parsnips. I used a dibbler to make holes 6 inches apart and put a soil and peat mix into the hole to provide a easier medium for the parsnips to grow in - did the same for my carrots as we have clay soil which makes it hard work for root veg.

Here's my kale. In February my mother-in-law told me that if you snap off the tops then you get lots of flowering shoots. Before they open into flowers you can eat them like broccoli (delicious). Just don't let it flowere or it will stop producing new shoots.

Potatoes came up a couple of weeks ago -wasn't expecting them so fast. My father-in-law did a grand job.

Daughter's forgotten dresses

danced all day and night

quickly drying under

the bright blue sky

poetry on the web

I sent a couple of things I'd written to the wonderful Charles Christian who accepted them and if you'd like to read them they can be found here:
http://ink-sweat-and-tears.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2009/4/30/4169170.html
and you can see an older poem I had published on the same webzine at http://ink-sweat-and-tears.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/12/24/4034357.html

Feedback welcome!!

sunny afternoon in my garden

I love my garden at the moment. These tulips have come up from the year before last. I like the red against the purple of the perenial wallflower. The wallflower was a present from my friends daughter and it has flowered continuously all seasons since I got it two years ago.








This is my parsley before I pricked out the seedlings and put them two to a 3 inch pot.










These chanomeles (spelling?) otherwise known as flowering quince are lovely can't wait till the climb up against the fence and cover it.






Oooh and this ribes is related to currant family but is just ornamental but flowers smell beautifully fruity and the colour is gorgeous as the bush is covered in these flowers this time of year.






Last but not least the forsythia that has grown on me. When I need a burst of sun I just stand under, look up and soak up the yellow.

This time of year my head is full of all the jobs that need doing. Poems I need to write, seeds to sow and potatoes to plant. My tomatoes germinated and have now got four leaves which means they need rehousing. Need to get some peat first and wash some more pots or I could stick them in toilet rolls. I got a poem accepted by Everday Poets - not up this month but will keep you posted. Very excited as will be my first ever payment for writing - I know it's only a dollar but it means a lot to me.

A new post on a new laptop

Finally I have made the transition to the new laptop and it's been pretty painless. It's so much faster than the old one. OOps spoke too soon - can't seem to add photos. Oh dear will try and describe them. Well in my garden now the forsythia is looking splendid. I can't believe I'm saying that as I don't really like it - I must be going soft. It's filled with yellow flowers which come before the leaves. You actually feel like you are covered in sunshine even on a grey day when you stand under it - it is that gloriously yellow. It warms. More daffodils are budding. I picked some from my allotment and there are at least four varieties there. My favourite has pale petals and a yellow heart deeping out to orange. It has gorgeous scent that greets me everytime I come back in the house. I'll really miss it when they fade. My parsley now has four leaves which means it's time to prick it out. Basically each seedling needs more room so it can grow. I put two seedlings in a cup filled with compost I got for mothers day whose ear got broken off even before I got it home. I put some broken crockery in the bottom of it to provide drainage. Need to pay my rent at allotment tomorrow and will get some more potatoes(Charlotte ones coz we love them). Have let kids stay up as they have made up a brilliant game and it doesn't seem right to stop them. Got a poem accepted by EveryDay Poets will let you know when it comes up. It will be my first ever payment for writing. It's only $1 but that'll be the best money I've ever earnt.
I got the go ahead from physio to start digging. Have to take it easy at first. Weather permitting hopefully can get started soon. Need to sort out when I'm going to write and when dig. Think it's all going to get a bit busy soon.