'wide eyed -----'
Although spring was about three or so weeks late here at the eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK midlands, it's come on apace by now (mid June). In fact the transformation of the countryside has probably been more dramatic because of it. Only a couple of months ago at md-April, landscapes here were still looking cold and barren, whereas now burgeoning growth seems everywhere, giving an almost breath-taking, fresh 're-birth' type of feeling. On a break in good sunny weather last week in North Wales, the countryside looked dramatically beautiful, especially with the backdrops of hills and mountains, so often seen in that part of the world, and particularly clear in the sunny air. It's been like going from one dimension to multi-dimension here in the countryside
Likewise growth here on the micro-holding has been suitably dramatic, with the earliest potatoes, for instance, now nearly a half a metre high and in flower - be time to start digging them in a day or two. The onions are similarly well grown, as are the broad beans, now in full flower and currently having their top growth pinched out, which both encourages bean development and helps to stave off black fly attack. The latter is variable year to year, with one year four or five years ago being particularly bad - you'd wonder where the tiny wee black beasties sprang from -? Nature's incredible, really. If the broad bean seed, normally home-saved here, is put in the ground under glass around mid Feb, then the plants from it planted out 4-6 weeks later, an early crop of beans can be had, which then minimises black fly attack, and means there's time for either winter veg or leeks to be planted in the ground after the beans have cropped. Salad produce seems to have come on well this year too, with lettuce, radish, spring onions and land cress (like watercress) now having been available for a week or two. Tasty, too, eaten straight after picking. Everything else seems to be thriving, fingers crossed, although besides salad stuff, and shortly to be had spuds, there's only really good ol' spring cabbage to pick until the braoad beans come on stream in two to three weeks.
Next winter's wood for woodstove burning is now stashed away in the woodstore, no doubt drying nicely, and now the main lot of planting and sowing's done, attention turns to other areas, notably the construction of a new porch protecting the back door of the cottage, currently in the 'planning stage' till hopefully a head of steam can be got up to tackle the job. The solar panels produced well in May, too, averaging just over ten kilowatt hours per day - already, fingers crossed, looking better than last year, which was pretty light on sunlight and pretty heavy on rain
'wide berthing----'
The news these days has been that some large firms are being charged with 'not paying their way' by avoiding paying tax, and that in spite of these astringent times, chief executives as a group still seem to be doing ok with reported 10% pay rises over the last year. Some firms operating care of the elderly in the home have been charged today that sometimes their services aren't up to scratch on the caring front, this problem being attributed to a 'low pay' culture, according to one UK minister (politician) today. If people are in receipt of low pay, isn't the inherent message that the same are 'not worth' that much, so is it realistic to then expect 'high care' values from them - ??
Doesn't seem quite to add up - ? Maybe if the 'playing field' seemed a bit more level to folk, the 'astringency' measures would be a bit more understandable/acceptable---? One UK national daily paper now has, as its principle campaign, 'Campaigning for a Fairer Britain'.
'wider view---'
An answer maybe lies in a recent Dalai Lama quote, along the lines that it's ok to think of self, but that doesn't necessarily preclude thinking of others, and the level of 'self' focus in recent times might have masked such a bigger, wider approach, one that's needed to give the 'natural balance' - ? A competitive-based culture might give the message that individuals are 'separate', but presumably, and as psychologists suggest, people are also social beings, and as the old saying has it -'no man is an island' --?? One society on a South Sea island solved the individual v. society problem by recognising the need for people to 'strive individually', and then when they had done so and ammassed considerable wealth and riches, the form was for them to then pass most of it back for society to then use it productively, for which those individuals got high acclaim.
Quite a few have warned against the potential dangers of high concentrations of wealth and power - Aldous Huxley ('Brave New World'), George Orwell ('Animal Farm'), Erich Fromm ('The Sane Society'), Fritz Schumacher ('Small is Beautiful'), George Richter ('The Macdonaldisation of Society') and Robert Pirsig ('Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance), to name a few doughty writers. One of those humouous old-stlye postcards may have nailed it: 'money is like manure', it said, 'in heaps, it stinks, but when spread around , it does some good'.
Robert Pirsig argued that the individual had been 'dis-enfranchised' by the larger organisations, and that, as the individual was the source of 'quality', the 'cost' would pan out as a triumph of quantity over quality, which could bring it back to the modern scenario - 'quantity' (bigger profits?) winning over 'quality' (low care levels). Maybe Mr. Pirsig had something-?
'wide boy----?'
S's appearance might well have labelled him 'anarchist' to many - he was a burly figure and with his 'biker' appearance, complete with resplendent black beard, carried a hint of menace about him, until you got to know him a bit, to then realise he was a pretty sociable sort of chap - in fact 'sociable anarchist' might have been an apt description. He certainly lead a pretty 'freerange' sort of life, incorporating a variety of activities. He was a handy tractor driver and having done an agricultural course earlier in life, he still enjoyed farmwork - to a point. To have been tied to a farm day in, day out wouldn't have suited him: instead he contract worked at peak times on three or four farms for a total of around five months a year, providing valuable additional skilled labour to those farmers in their busy times. He'd also had mechanic-ing training, and the rest of his time was spent on mower, car -whatever -mechanicing jobs mainly for his circle of friends and aquaintances, and also on his own projects - he built a ride-on mower for himself mainly out of scrap bits - the steering apparatus was from an old car, for instance - amazing man.
Taking a job to him was an experience. He'd scrutinise it, stroke his copious beard, pull hard on his left-ear earring, and then mutter 'I dunno, you'd best leave it with me, maybe somat can be done with the darn thing!' Like as not, in a day or two, good as new, and probably with a fairly unique remedy having been applied. 'Thirty quid do you?' he'd say. He may not have been the world's greatest social contributor in financial terms, as seems to be the trend these days, but he made-up for it in the good services he rendered to his friends and aquaintances, and, for instance, to one old girl down the road, a poor-off pensioner who's ancient plumbing he kept going in return for the odd home-made cake. A really useful and valuable social contributor - almost a model citizen - just don't tell him that.
' wide world--not'
Whilst the individual's life may seem to be incredibly small compared with the notion of 'world life activity', would it only be a 'might is right' standpoint which would see it as insignificant -? Certainly to the individual, the 'small' life is significant, and if the individual does lead a 'quality' life, can that then 'stack up' against 'quantity' - ? That's the draw to some extent of the self-reliant style of micro-holding life - having the active 'quality' life, in 'quality' surroundings, and trying to maintain the vision and faith that 'natural life' can offer 'quality', and all in a wider environment which at times seems to value 'quantity' over 'quality'- ?
As Willy Blake said, 'All the world in a grain of sand'
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