Good News & Bad News
Well its been a bit of a ‘good news, bad news’ time since my last entry. The good news was that Val’s fractured ankle had healed and so they were able to take the plaster off. Keeping the weight off, hopping around on a frame for six weeks has not been fun for her and a strain on me as well, especially as I was over the deadline on a new book.
The bad news is that her ligament is damaged so she’s wearing an aircast boot. It’s very fetching and the height of fashion amongst Star Wars storm troopers! It means she can get around now, in fact they’ve said she should move around now. However, she still can’t drive or even walk without a stick so it’s cramping her style.
We’re back to the hospital in 3 weeks when they’ll check it out again. We’re hoping to avoid an operation but it’s a possibility.
The good news is I’ve finished my new book, Vegetable, Fruit & Herb Growing in Small Spaces so I’ve more free time but the bad news is that the weather has turned. Winter is here and the plot really needs me. Still, it can’t rain every day, can it?
I’m rather pleased with myself on the new book, I’ve drawn on our experience from a few houses back where the back garden was covered in concrete. It was attractive, walls painted in pastels and old stone walls to the sides, terraced up a slope. But concrete is not the best growing medium.
Anyway, we had more than you would believe in pots and the few tiny borders. I’ve researched a fair bit with friends in the National Vegetable Society. They tend to grow in containers, so a lot of good tips have gone into this work. I say it’s finished, but that’s not quite true, still got editorial changes and illustrations to sort out. You’d be surprised how much goes into a book.
New on the Poultry Pages
I’ve added a few more of my chicken keeping tips videos to the poultry pages. They’re only short clips but I think sometimes things sink in better if you see them ‘live’ rather than read about them. Besides, I love the introduction music! The latest videos are:
Moving from the world of streaming video back to an age before the telephone. I’ve downloaded some more digital copies of old chicken keeping books from the 1800s. They’re fascinating not so much for the information, which is, as one may imagine, somewhat outmoded now, as for the assumptions contained therein and the writing style itself, and the punctuation.
Poultry keeping was common amongst the rural poor, of course, but the gentry were into showing their prize fowl. The main reason for this interest was, I suspect, due to Queen Victoria engaging in the hobby. Her ‘poultry house’ is what most of us call a palace!
These were from an age where most of the map was coloured red and an attitude of innate superiority was the norm and it pervades the books. A vague understanding of inheritance didn’t help their breeding programs but you need to understand that one of the authors, W B Tegetmeier, was a correspondent of Charles Darwin.
Anyway, I’ve been extracting the pictures and enhancing them for your delectation, dear reader. Some of them are really amazing. I’ve added a few comments and titled them etc.
I’ve not finished yet, it’s quite time consuming, but I’ve got the 1853 edition of The Poultry Book done and Ornamental, Aquatic and Domestic Fowl and Game Birds from 1850 done. I’m still working on the 1867 edition of The Poultry Book and the 1857 A Treatise on the History and Management of Ornamental and Domestic Poultry by Rev. Edmund Saul Dixon, A.M.
The Poultry Book (1853)
The Poultry Book (1853)
The Poultry Book
- Poultry Book One – Set 1
- Poultry Book One – Set 2
- Poultry Book One – Set 3
- Poultry Book One – Set 4
- Poultry Book One – Set 5
Ornamental, Aquatic and Domestic Fowl and Game Birds
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