I've finished the potato planting for this year -- just in time for the BSBP reveal tomorrow. Wouldn't you believe we managed to be free on the days the sun shone and work the days it was windy, drizzling -- or both. Working indoors it would've been perfect, being able to enjoy the sun on the days off, but working outdoors you pretty much want the opposite. Especially when the drizzle wasn't enough to bind the soil, which sand blasted us when it started to get windy. On the first field, we have trees that stop some of the wind. Not so on this second field, which is much more exposed as it's basically on a hill with some bushes rather than a forest between us and the wind.
But I'm not whining too much: it's work and I desperately need the money. Partially to buy beads and supplies. And there are worse jobs. Good thing about manual labour of this kind is that at least your mind is free: my hands work and let my mind focus on whatever I like, e.g. design ideas, what jewellery or embroidery techniques to try next, ideas for new stories (though I rarely write fiction these days), planning the economy -- everything. Not all have that luxury in low-income jobs.
And some days there's time during the lunch to take a nap in the sun or go for a walk with the camera, which I did on the last day (wednesday). I'll show those pics after the BSBP. Haven't shown pics of that part of the neighbouring hamlets before so I hope a new view will be interesting despite the lack of greenery what with spring being so cold.
Since last blogging about sunsets and spring flowers (meowy monday tuesday doesn't count), I've also got quite a few photos of both from the last couple of weeks. That will hopefully also be something that'll appear on the blog soon. I'll leave you with a couple of photos I took the other day. Hope you like them.
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| View towards Västra Karup (which you can't see as it's downhill) with Kullen peninsula at the horizon. |
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| Pond with a tiny island where the anemones are blooming. |
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| The potato field with one of all the bronze age burial mounds in the background. |
It's easy to understand why ancient people chose to live in this fertile area. Hard labour by generations of people before the fields started looking like this. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes before the landscape turns green. Mea
ReplyDeleteYes, there's some good land around here with soil that isn't too heavy (the first inhabitant didn't have the tools to cultivate the fertile, but very heavy scanian clay soils). But they did have a lot of stone to shift. Sure, some of the big stones that are troublesome today weren't unearthed before the steel ploughs came, but still: a lot of work just to clear stones before cultivating.
DeleteThere's more traces of our prehistoric ancestors just beyond where the hill dips in the second pic. That's where you find the stone carvings of Drottninghall. I have some pics of them, though sadly the most memorable ones, the footprints, were hid under moss so we didn't find them.
As for a green landscape it's slowly getting greener and greener, though there's still some time before it's anywhere near lush. I mostly feel sorry for the cows who have so little pasture and have had to wait so long before being let out (many/most are still waiting, even here in southern Sweden). This particular field isn't covered so it'll take longer for the potatoes here to add to the greenery. Normally it takes approximately 8 weeks from planting to harvest in the first field.