Absence of noggins.
Quite suddenly, autumn's come and it's going dark at tea-time. The characteristic northern rains and winds are here. The leaves are [...]
Making a hay wain
Ranch: I open the door after a week away. Everything is overgrown and all the beds need weeding. The embers [...]
Punk Rock Party
A basking baking smouldering heat reigns supreme and I can stand any amount of it. The English, famed for their complaining [...]
Where are the sparrows and WWTD?
Ranch: We get back from Beatherder late on Monday and it's still searingly hot. Helen has watered the greenhouse, and apart [...]
Ticker le Punk
'I never even liked punk'. I said. 'Cover your ears Carmen'. Said Ticker. Louise was in the kitchen making a cup [...]
The Chattering of Sparrows
The heady, exotic, musky, smutty scent of valerian flowering from mid-May heralds summer full-steam-ahead. The plants grow as tall as 8 [...]
A triumphant February beginning
Ranch: In the grey midwinter, a tawdry clinging cold pervades, yet spring heralds in the shape of brand new electric-green hawthorn [...]
Intellectual curiosity and the spirit of critical thinking
Ranch: For the benefit of my new readers, 'The Ranch' is the name I jokingly gave to my allotment many years [...]
Unsubscribing and a new beginning
The Ranch: I’m on the ranch in demi-shed A. It’s raining. The long late run of balmy September sunshine has come [...]
Noble Art
Ranch: As a child, I remember arranging my pillows round my head and imagining that I was in an aeroplane [...]
Medicine and Rock & Roll
The Ranch: Once again, the weather catches me out. I'm all psyched up for settling into my curmudgeonly Autumn and Winter [...]
Hey app! Sense and censorship.
I've been slowly levelling off an area next to the greenhouse in anticipation of a poly-tunnel, by emptying wheelbarrow [...]
Mending a double bass.
Sun 16th Feb: Mending a double bass? The rhubarb is peeping through. The sloping hillside gives some protection against the [...]
I’M IN THE LIBRARY!
I wake up and look out of my window and something is different - the bands of silvery grey are [...]
Computer addiction and the Arts association
Oh well. We're out and February is here. Occasionally daily life gets so overwhelmingly busy that I can't get to the [...]
The film
Ranch: I once vaguely considered writing a gardening book but I wouldn't get far - I'm just too gormless and [...]
Full steam ahead
Ranch: There's a sense of urgency in the air - a sense of nervous fragility. The 'quietest' time for gardening/pseudo-farming is [...]
Pendle Punk and Mad friday
Sun 22nd December 2019: 3:14pm I'm just back from the ranch. It's mild grey. I spotted a small flock of long-tailed [...]
Plant-based and poltroontard
Ranch: At work we do tests of change. It's a common sense way of trying out new ways of working to see [...]
More floods and family & friends
Ranch: More floods - Hebden last week then South Yorkshire & Venice plus catastrophic fires overseas. Here, the weather is pretty [...]
Back on the road
Ranch: The beginning of November is the arbitrary time when I start pruning the hedge. Fencing is a big consideration when [...]
Punk rock and mud
Ranch: Autumn rain and sogginess are so extensive, that the area below the beds in the field is a mud-bath, making [...]
Fig fiend, potato blight, emergency medicine and science.
Ranch: Summer has tumbled into autumn, with a brief late-summer hot and sunny reprieve which has given way to North-west lashing [...]
In which the bees arrive and Sagefest finally happens GalleryIn which the bees arrive and Sagefest finally happens
Digging a well, drainage, Ferguson tractor, Festival, Irrigation, NOTSENSIBLES, organic gardening, permaculture, Punk rock, Rock & Roll, self-sufficiency, soak-hose, The first ever Sagefest, VW split screen
In which the bees arrive and Sagefest finally happens
Ranch: Summer has catapulted along and August is here. North-west English weather remains my favourite: blustery; often grey; patchy rain and [...]
Talking to the bees
Ranch: 7 am. Friday 10th May - computer at home. I have that Friday feeling for a very good reason. I'm [...]
Me and the trees
Ranch: Whenever I arrive at the ranch, I wander round, having a look at everything. I jokingly call it a ward [...]
Transcending the apocalypse
Ranch: I’m cold and wet. I’ve just walked through the park and the blustery March gales delivered a dose of HHWDR [...]
A new chapter and relinquishing control.
Ranch Christmas, New Year, Winter, Summer and so on. Do the trees celebrate? Do the foxes and tawny owls have an [...]