Another really lovely week at the YPC. So much happens, and as always the main limitation is time. Everyone is here by 8.45am, and we are always leaping over the gate at 4pm to catch the bus, and yet we never have enough time!!
A small selection of what happened this week.
Much of the insulation went down this week. Rich created a clever wooden structure to make sure the celotex is cut perfectly square. There was also more bricklaying to do, to fill the holes around the stables. We had thought of naming the stables “The Chapel”, partly because of Kate Maestri’s offer of an exquisite 3m tall piece of stained glass which might have gone into the workshop, and partly as a celebration of the work of the hand. But now it feels like the humility of the stables, of the hard work that goes into its structure, and the sense of pride that comes with the ordinary – the grasp of a brick, the use of a square, the hammer and the nail – there doesn’t feel a need to elevate it through language. As Tiernan said, “Now I know why houses cost so much”.
Walking back Eva and I saw this little mouse, whose hind leg was cut off. It was lying down, in the open, and moved feebly into cover as we approached. It was difficult to decide whether to leave it where it was almost certain to die, or to bring it in and terrify it in the process. We decided to leave it – but ran back with some seeds from the kitchen so it had something to eat. Eva asked, “What is it in human beings that makes us feel like this towards small animals?”
Tracey Younghusband came by this week, the children were hugely inspired to see her with her gorgeous 4-week old baby Kit, hanging up dormouse boxes! We hung about 10 around the (abandoned) swimming pool, marking them with hazard tape because they are so easy to loose. Tracey says it will be a few weeks before they lose their smell, and then after that we might start to see dormice using them.
Isaiah is keen on Scratch and programmed a game which he shared within the Scratch community. I tried playing it, it looked pretty simple but in practice I’m afraid I didn’t get past the first level!
Tiernan has been getting into Arduino. His patience and tenacity have found a perfect place, because it is detailed work where it is easy to go wrong.
Pete came over to check our growing experiment. Perhaps the subject of another post, but briefly – Pete said that at Hankham Organics he has developed a sense for the depth at which to sow seeds but has never quite tested it. So we set up an experiment with a perfect mix of 5 kinds of composts, and 7 different seeds (rocket, coriander, purslane, lettuce, spinach, pea, wheat) and at 6 different depths (surface, 0.5cm, 1cm, 2cm, 4cm, 7cm), and 2 of each – so 84 pots. We are focused on germination rate, it is easy to see and gives a good sense of the process we follow. Some are more enthusiastic growers than others.
We’ve also started off a Bokashi composting system, and that will be perhaps the subject of another post. A couple of us also started inoculating logs with mushroom spores, more on that later.
Wildlife all around. A grasshopper here, but more excitingly today we found a dead goldfinch, perfectly intact except for a leg that was missing (hmm… missing leg, again!). It was exquisite.
This is actually a photo from last week. This week Aidan and Sofia (on her first day!!) made a delicious apple crumble for us to enjoy at tea time. Perhaps the best part about Fridays?
The most excitement this week was about the discovery of newts (identified to be smooth rather than palmate) and that spurred some wonderful research.
I haven’t mentioned the amazing musical talent we have – Luca and Isaiah spent much of this morning in the music room practicing with the electric and bass guitar, and it was just glorious to hear them playing a White Stripes song. We definitely have a band in the making…
Lots more happened – the YPC is covered with posters promoting Jeremy Corbyn in a distinctly Leninist style, we had a heated discussion on an excerpt from Peter Singer’s 1979 book ‘Practical Ethics’ on whether or not animals have rights, and so on – but it is 7pm on a Friday evening, the evenings are growing cooler and darker, and the sounds of evening drifting in through the open doors in the conservatory tell me it is time to say goodnight.
