Don’t get crabby with me

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

These are from a tree at the end of our drive. In the twenty years we’ve lived here I’ve never managed to pick them. They seem to be ripe one day and fall off the tree the next. But in so, so many ways, this year is radically different.

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Eyes on the prize

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

My honey, my local show 😀

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It’s an artichoke Jim, but not as we know it

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

I went to collect some stuff for my daughter from a property in a nearby village. Outside the front of the house was this. Such a stunning piece of work that I had to take a photo of it.

Art for artichoke’s sake?

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Siamese peppers

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

Not entirely sure how this happens. Two flowers, one stem?

?

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New swarm box in action

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

I was asked if I could take a look at this swarm that appeared one Sunday afternoon above a path leading to a childrens’ nursery.

“Not much chance of taking that in one hit”, I thought. Nonetheless I knocked as many off the tree into the box as possible. Most of the rest fell onto the floor, so I closed up the lid of the swarm box and opened the rotating door. From that point on, it was absolutely textbook 😀

And within an hour, as the light was starting to fade, I could close up the door and take them all away to be looked after somewhere safe, for both them and humans.

Not without taking a photo of this first however. Clearly they were desperate to start drawing comb.

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The ironies just keep piling up

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

Yet another immigrant who people might be forgiven for believing hates immigrants, Nadhim Zahawi has just defected from the Conservatives to Reform 2025 Limited, claiming that the country needs a “glorious revolution”.

Isn’t that where they kill the entire ruling elite and install a communist government?

Or is it the one where they kill the entire ruling elite and invite some foreigners in to run the place? Last time I think it was William of Orange. I wonder if they’ll be sticking with the theme? If only I could think of an orange raving lunatic who is desperate to control even more of the world’s land mass than he already does.

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No dig diary, 12th January 2026

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

“Peppers propagating!”, I whispered as I tapped the empty packets with my dibber, before using it to cast “Expecto Capsicum!” over the trays of newly-sown seeds…

All my pepper varieties are now sown, though thanks to other things that needed doing I had to spread it over two days. Given that the propagator is only just about getting up to temperature now despite being switched on by lunchtime last Saturday I don’t think there’s going to be an issue there.

I gave the polytunnel a water, too. The salad crops that went in last November when the tomatoes came out are getting pretty close to being edible now. I reckon they’ll be there before the end of the month unless the weather turns really dull and cold.

Because rust has been an issue with outdoor garlic in the past, that all gets planted under cover in the polytunnel (and in a greenhouse if I run out of space) now and the first shoots were just showing, perhaps 10mm high. I also found a few cloves that had been pulled up. I don’t know if it’s mice or birds that do it, but whatever it is they’re damn clever at finding the cloves as they were all completely buried when I planted them. I’ve put them back in the ground and hopefully that will be an end to it.

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Empty, vacuous lives

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

are presumably what the people who buy this sort of thing lead:

Why luxury carmakers are now building glitzy skyscrapers

What a bizarre, selfish, negative way to want to define oneself as a human being: because almost no-one else can have what you have and because you believe that other people will think more positively of you as a result. Well, perhaps other selfish, vacuous people will and that’s all that matters to them.

I read the last paragraph of the article and thought, “Nah. You’re way too late there…”

I genuinely don’t think I could live like that. I’d probably be suicidal within a couple of months.

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First seed-sowing of the year!

Posted on January 11, 2026 by james

I planned to get all my sweet and chile peppers down today in the hope of giving them a good start early in the year so I collected them all together:

From the top left I have:

  1. Cayenne chiles, home-saved seed
  2. Zitava sweet pepper, to try making paprika
  3. Chocolate sweet pepper
  4. Slovakia sweet pepper, a red cone-shaped pepper
  5. Purple sweet pepper
  6. Red Corno di Toro sweet pepper
  7. Yellow Corno di Toro sweet pepper
  8. Malawi piquante chile, both bought and home-saved seed
  9. In four small ziplock bags:
    • Biquinho red chile
    • Cayenne chile — bought, this time
    • Khang Starr Lingria, a freebie chile
    • Jalapeño chile
  10. Hungarian Black chile, bought and home-saved seed

I got about halfway through before running out of light so I’ll have to finish the rest tomorrow. It took longer than planned because one of the seed suppliers I used recommends scarifying the seeds first in cold tea. I’m honestly not sure if that’s actually going to achieve anything, but I decided it wouldn’t do any harm so this year I’d give it a go.

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More laser-cut honey boxes

Posted on January 11, 2026 by james

First, one for six standard 1lb round jars for Wivey Kitchen, from Wivey Grows.

And then another box for my own honey, this time with my contact details on the back.

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