While I can’t resist commenting on the weather, I’ll resist for a moment because something sad is happening in Tullow, our local town. It is dying. Tesco, the UK supermarket mega-group, opened a large store a month ago and already all traders in the centre of town are feeling it. Whether its the other supermarkets, grocery store, newsagent, hardware shops, craft shop, even off-licenses – they have all felt the drop in business as Tesco sucks in customers with special deals and bright marketing. Its very sad because the heart of the town is being ripped out by their trading tactics. Don’t get me wrong, Tesco is an excellent business which is well run – they know how to advertise, promote themselves and compete on price. But they care little for the local community, their prices soon go back up once other traders have been put out of business. They start with a good selection of products, but in a short time, once people have got in to the habit of going there, their stock becomes mostly Tesco brand. They squeeze their suppliers and never buy locally – at least even we were able to supply the local supermarket with a few seasonal veg. And all their profits go out of the country. I don’t know how they got permission to build and open their store in Tullow. There were already two differentiated supermarkets. They even had to get the road layout changed which must have cost someone, either them or the local authorities, a lot of money. My guess is that they’ve made such a big investment that they will hang on there for a while – which means the chance of traders in the town surviving is small. I won’t go there, for need or convenience. Every purchase there is another nail in Tullow’s coffin.
Now, back to the weather … 🙂
So, that was a great summer we had, wasn’t it? Its a bit boring to go on about the weather all the time but at this time of year it makes a difference to see the sun. The warm, humid weather is actually OK for most of us. We can still enjoy the outdoors and have a lot of fun when its not cold. And the moisture is needed by nature. But it does seem to be that the torrential downpours we’ve had during July are not normal – more akin to what one would expect in a sub-tropical monsoon. In July we had the normal full month’s rainfall in the first week, … and again in the last week! That is twice the rainfall in half the time. So while I got lots done in the garden intervening time, its now quite difficult to keep the weeds down or turn the soil.
A disappointment in the garden has been the onset of blight. I knew it was coming because warm humid weather is its favourite breeding condition. And we’d been lucky not to get in in early July. But three days ago its onset had touched a row of potatoes, and because I choose not to spray chemicals in the garden, it is difficult (impossible) to control. My only solution is to pull the potatoes, which is what I’ve started to do. While potatoes planted in March are generally full size, those put in later in May are still not big. There are lots of them, but they’re small. The good thing is that, because I’m getting them out of the ground before the blight can take hold, they are mostly clean, so they should eat well,store well and provide good seed for next year. The other busy chore in the garden has been harvesting soft fruit. The sunny weather gave the chance to get out and get it off the bushes, so we have plenty of black-currants and gooseberries. Still more to come if we get a fine day.
Other exciting (for us) news in the garden is that my brassicas are not yet dead! They’re well away from harvest but it is the furthest I’ve been able to bring them so far. Usually they’re wiped out by transplanting, slugs or birds by now. I’m still not optimistic given my track record, but I guess I’m slowly learning 🙂 And we’ve added geese to our flock. I like them. They’re easy and eat green – i.e. I don’t have to feed them and they keep the grass down!
We had our self-catering cottages inspection in July. It was really encouraging to get compliments from the inspector “the nicest I’ve seen so far”. That’s mostly thanks to the hard work of my parents re-building and furnishing them and Pam and Alice maintaining house and gardens. Thank you. We also received a welcome email from Toby Sawday of Sawday’s Green Places to Stay in Europe telling us that we’ve been awarded all three qualification stamps: food, community and environment. Its encouraging to see that people are turning more quickly to green and eco-living.
For those of you looking for something to do next weekend, the Irish Green Gathering is lots of fun for everyone. Its in a beautiful setting – Woodbrook House – and has lots going on from yummy food to face painting to innovative DIY projects. You’ll enjoy it. Check out the website here.
If you’re browsing the web, you’ll enjoy a very cool video called the Story of Stuff. It covers a lot in only 20 minutes and is well done – good for adults and children too. You can find a link to it and its associated website here.
By September it will be back to school and the usual rhythms of work. Yoga classes will start again too – let us know if you want to sign up and Pam will be in touch with the class schedule.
We’ll also be ramping up planning for the eco-village we’re co-sponsoring. Please let us know if you’re interested and let your friends know about it. There’s preliminary info on-line here.
We like to mention festivals in our newsletter. For a change we’ll suggest a quick look at another site’s selection: Check out August, 2008 Bizarre and Unique Holidays and a diverse selection of holidays, celebrations, birthdays and facts about August on ButlerWebs ( 🙂 unrelated).
Now, back to pulling potatoes …
Tom
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