I am very fortunate having my allotment so that I can just go there and dig. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not going to worry about things that I can’t do anything about. Therefore I just concentrate on the ‘farm’ and cultivate as much as I can. We are not able to eat it all, of course, but the neighbourhood benefits, I bottle and freeze as much as I can. It will all be very useful. When I work there I listen to the birds and talk to my own resident robin. He really thinks I dig the ground just for him so he can find all the worms. He is very tame, he keeps only a few steps behind me. I sometimes think that nature was especially good to me this year, the harvest has been great.
Even though I’m getting older I am still quite fit and well and really enjoy working the land.
One happy old woman.
Lovely, Helen! Nice to see a picture of you, looking so good. And your harvest, as usual, looks very yummy. Yes, it seems a good option to just keep digging …
You look gorgeous Helena! I agree completely with you concerning Covid – just keep digging👍
Thank you very much Eva. Hope both of you are keeping well.
Thank you we are fine so far – just hoping to survive👍 But you never finished the story of the pipes, Helena, I’m waiting for it.
Sorry, there is not much to add. I have found an institute in Liverpool, wrote to them, emailed a photo of the pipe and had a lovely reply. It seems to be quite old, around 1600, he knew the name of the pipe maker and was very pleased I contacted him. It looks like our plot is the furthest from the usual finds which are around Cheshire. So far the next find is the rake but that is not very old – I don’t think so. I will clean it and keep it at home.
Very interesting, Helena. Do you think that all the other clay pipe pieces come from the same age? I’m still wondering why so many? Somebody was manufacturing them on the plot? And what did people put in the pipe around 1600? Tabac came from America after 1500, so it was’nt wide spread a 100 years later, was it? Never mind my questions, you won’t be able to answer them either😀
Well, I’ll try to answer anyway. The broken pipes are from an old rubbish tip that was used to be where our plots are. That might be the reason why there are so many. When pipe tobacco was sold they included the clay pipes with it either for free or for a very small amount of money. that is the info I was told by the man from the university where he did his research.