Return of The Gurgle Monster



Wednesday 18th April 2012



Tuesday 17th April 2012





 



Friday 20th April 2012

Thursday 19th April 2012

On 5th April a hosepipe ban came into place.

Since then I've been unable to till the land to sow seeds.

Why? Because the ground is rock hard, set like concrete? Because it's too difficult to transport water to the seeds?

No! It's been too wet! Every single day it has rained. Water butts overfloweth. Even the bath which sits down near the chicken enclosure has filled up - that's about a foot of rain then.

For the first time, I've had to hunt slugs in the veg beds. In fact, this is the first time since we moved in that I've not been worried about watering the garden.

To be fair, before the April showers I had been worrying about the freshly sown broad beans and peas just sitting in dry soil.



So, with seed sowing put off for another week, what was I to do with my spare morning today?

How about dealing with this carnage...



Every time I go down into the meadow at the moment I am flushing hares, sometimes from right under my feet. Up till now they have only taken the very occasional nibble from the pines I have planted, but one of them has obviously developed gourmet tastes. So I gathered together what few stakes I had left, a pile of old bamboos, a roll of tree protection, hammer, staples and twine, and headed down into the meadow.



For the first time in a long time the ground actually squelched under my feet. As I drove in the stakes, I could hear the meadow's stomach rumbling below.

The Gurgle Monster has returned!

The strange gloopy, spongy noises which echo and ripple through the fenland soil as the water is sucked down below and into the dyke system. I have no idea why this happens, but it is a disconcerting experience when every footstep seems to send ripples out through the soil causing burbling, babbling and bubbling. Even more eerie when, alone in the middle of a field away from any other human, the ground starts to talk to you!