We celebrated part one of my husband's birthday with a local trip out. In years gone by we would have ventured north - Arnside is a particular favourite - but this August the weather has been so wet and indeterminate, autumnal and blustery, that we went south as recommended to the Ribble estuary and true to my usual navigational habits described a circuit from Tarleton to Banks returning via the Shore Road to Hesketh Bank. We will do the four mile heritage walk at a later time and perhaps I will post the history of the now disused railway, the brickworks and the harbour on the Douglas.
As we drove on raised narrow causeways above the former marshlands there was some evidence of the heavy and unseasonable rainfall bearing out what we had heard on local radio that farmers were having problems harvesting their salad crops and also re-sowing. We know a family who farm at Hesketh Bank and it has been a difficult year for them.
Fortunately it is not a matter of economic life or death for us that our runner beans, for example, are approximately a month late but the experience of adverse weather connects us to those whose lives are bound up with the soil both at home and abroad.
In the meantime we have sown carrots. Carrot Autumn King was on sale at the local bargain store for 10p along with Little Gem lettuce. A bargain too good to miss. My husband has covered the raised bed with a cut down roofing panel that our neighbours donated a couple of years ago. Warm under this the inundated carrot seed, intersown with last year's Spring Onions is at last beginning to germinate. With a fair September we may hope for an autumn harvest.
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