The waiting game

It has now become the norm that most of my substantial gardening endeavours take place during the autumn and winter months. That doesn’t stop me from itching to get on with the tasks I’ve got planned, though.

At least, I’ve got crafting to keep me from going up the wall while I wait. On Monday, I went up to Ripon to do a morning’s spinning with one friend and then at long last on Saturday the York District Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild held its first face-to-face meeting since the start of the pandemic.

The Guild holds these meetings at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming just outside York. I’d passed the signs for the museum on the A64 on countless occasions and yet surprisingly had never considered venturing inside before.

Now, I have, albeit only on the periphery. So, here is a small taster of what you can see.

What you see as you approach the museum from the car park. I was on the first floor, where the Guild has its equipment and book store.

Once you have entered the museum through the shop, this is the first exhibit, which also happens to be by the rooms we weavers, spinners and dyers were ensconced in for our morning, afternoon, day of chatting and crafting.

I had actually done a little work in the garden earlier in the week. Yet more strawberry plants have now gone in the Green Johanna and so the path leading up to the shed is clear.

When we moved into the house, there was a path along the side of the garden, where the shed now stands. It was a highly inconvenient space, as the stepping stones were interspersed with pebbles over a decaying membrane to keep weeds at bay. This all made for a difficult journey to get the bins out on collection day.

Once I’d taken up the stones, pebbles and membrane, I discovered that the soil was impenetrable by spade. In other words, it was the best place to site the shed. However, the path had been longer than the shed, so a few feet of garden were still uncultivable.

This did not deter the strawberries from making in-roads onto this patch of ground. Their deep roots have broken up the soil and if I could find a suitable replacement for the strawberries, cultivation might be possible.

I’ve not thought about what I could do with this part of the garden, so for the moment, I’ve put some newspaper down to suppress/discourage unwanted vegetation. I’ve also added a stepping stone from my stash courtesy of various Freeglers, which makes it more comfortable walking to the shed.

Perhaps one day, I’ll make a more permanent path. After all, much as I hate to admit it, one day I might not be quite as nimble-footed as I am now and fewer trip hazards would be a bonus.