The light at the end of the tunnel …


Plot 17 – The Earthly Comforts Garden

Season Three – Plot 17 Growing Season April – September 2023


The Allotment Plotters Directory
The light at the end of the tunnel …
The journey is never ending. There’s always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.

Antonio Brown

Mr Cheeky

June has been a busy month, and considering we are only seven days in, that is saying a lot. The last time Suze and l worked hard at the allotment was last weekend. They were gruelling hours and long days. The weekend was physically demanding and tiring. We should be back there later this afternoon or tomorrow and back next weekend.

We are nearly there regarding the last of the crops. We still have a few things to plant out homegrown, as in what we planted seed-wise, and we will have a few trays of plants arriving that l ordered way back in March. Plus, this week, sometime, we need to visit the local nursery and purchase some grown-on courgettes and butternut squash plants to replace the ones damaged by the northeasterly winds we have been experiencing for the last few weeks. The new ones will be protected by the Bells l have bought.


I ordered a few trays of plugs back in March, and they were delayed by poor weather last month but are due to arrive this coming week—the plants have a good selection and some beautiful wildflowers. We either needed more of the vegetables in addition to our own or to give us a head start on other vegetables.


Suze, l know, will be thrilled when all the plugs we have are in the soil, as it takes a long time to plant out seedlings. There are other things we need to get on with on the allotment and not just planting.


The last of the plus will have calabrese, rainbow chard, wild rocket, and a host of dwarf beans and both sugar snap and Kelvedon peas alongside the previously mentioned wildflower plugs, which have a vibrant selection present, such as cornflower, poppy, yarrow and knapweed to name a few.


Hopefully, the polytunnel will be erected this coming weekend as well, and once done, l can order the fruit cage so that we can plant the fruit trees and bushes out in situ.


The last major construction will be the water station, but l will be ecstatic when all the planting and the building works are completed, so l know all too well how Suze is feeling. I have written this before, l don’t regret taking the allotment on board, but it has been one helluva slog! But the light at the end of the tunnel is nearing.


I don’t take many photos of the allotment anymore because everything changes quickly. But l do still take actual progression shots like the one displayed below.


I am looking forward to the usual run-of-the-mill chores that l have passions for, like composting and worm farming, as a lot has changed significantly on those levels – such as the wild worm farms and herding as well developing my own earthworm food – l would like to manage as well as write about the other aspects of allotmenteering and hopefully get back to photography a bit, especially with the likes of our cheeky resident blackbird.


That will come when we can sit down and take a breather and enjoy the fruits of our labours and not feel so exhausted all the time. Till then, this is how the allotment is currently looking.


I hope you have enjoyed this post, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time. Till then, have yourselves a terrific day!

The Autistic Composter

Earthly Comfort Designs available on my Redbubble Store.

Collections – Earthen Wurmin, Inspired By Nature and The Autistic Composter


Merchandise includes T shirts, Pin Badges, Stickers, Aprons, Bucket Hats, Postcards, Journals …

Please Pop Along and Check Them Out.

Hexed


If you would like to submit a poem, inspirational musing, or even a photograph you have written or taken to the Poetry Directory to be displayed in Earthly Comforts, l would love to hear from you.

Don’t Be Shy 🙂


Please email me at Rory Matier – theautisticcomposter@gmail.com, with Poetic Art for Earthly Comforts in the title.

Magnetic

Forsythia

Hexed

A casting glance was all, but it took,
… and l was caught,
Mesmerised within her web,
Of fine gossamer silkiness,
Entwined by shadow threads,
… of such delicate caresses!
Brushing my soul lightly,
… touching me, holding my gaze,
Enticing me further into darkness,
And dazzling my spirit with magically,
… incensed scents of desiring kisses,
Lost in the clouds of moonlight,
… flightless and silent,
Yet so mysterious,
… dancing to harvest songs,
Smelling her upon the night’s breeze,
Tangled up in the darkening skies,
.. Helpless was l,
Snared by her hex upon my heart,
And upon the hour,
… did l awaken to such a smile,
Miss do l, such beauty from then,
Timeless castles of memory,
From dreams of night afore,
.. When dance did l,
And make love till dawning,
With my mistress of golden mornings



Copyright © 2017 – Rory Matier

Not just OSTEOarthritis! Case Closed!


Fascinating Musings
Season 1 – Tuesday – 06/06/23

If you want to enjoy the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm.
Warren W. Wiersbe

Music – backyard-party


Last October, l had a couple of falls in the street where l live a couple of days apart in the same week. You may also recall that l wrote about it. I tripped over raised paving slabs here in Sandwich and, on each occasion, suffered small but immediate injuries.

On the Tuesday fall, l tripped on my right side and pulled my knee; on the Thursday fall, l tripped and pulled my hip. The immediate effect on my right side was that my knee and lower back were very sore, whilst, on the left side, my heel and hip were very painful.


Several months passed from October to January, and l experienced further pains and strains with my pelvic area, hips on both sides and lower back. The pain was, at times, quite intense and debilitating.


I put up with it as we do, thinking it was a sprained muscle and would heal naturally, but it never did.


Eventually, when l couldn’t take the pain anymore, I booked an appointment with my doctor in March, who, after examinations, decided to book me in for x-rays which l had later that month.

The results back from those diagnosed me with osteoarthritis. Something that well over 50% of the over 55’s here in the UK would experience at one point.


There are two common types of arthritis – osteoarthritis and rheumatoid. The former is caused by the ageing process and the general wear and tear of that process on the body with the cartilage between the joints and manages how much shock or judder to the joints the body can take, whilst the latter is less common. Still, it is more to do with the body’s immune system attacking joints.


Osteo is regular arthritis, of course. If you speak to my mother, it is almost like the end of the world type of problem. You can’t tell her, “Mum, it’s just arthritis.” Oh no, she will correct you and say, “Rory! It is OSTEOarthritis! There is a difference, you know! Mine is more damaging” But then my mother always has to have something more deadly even if it is not.


So the main bulk of my body has OSTEOarthritis, and as far as the doctor’s surgery was concerned, that was the end of the story. “You are getting old, pal. That’s the way of the world! Sort of diagnosis. There needed to be no follow-up in their eyes. It was the case closed.


This is all good, except no one told my left and right hip those things and most assuredly, the lower left-hand side of my body didn’t get the memo.


Over the last few weeks, the pain in my lower left back, or the upper part of my hip, was bone-jarring and left me quite crippled. I still worked it because l can be a bit of a donkey like that, but also l have high pain tolerance, so sure it’s sore; it has to be a ten+ for me to say l need to stop.


Last week, however, l was walking around with pain in the high tens – just moving in bed was becoming a problem it could take agonising minutes to roll over to the left or the right side, and it was constant and not letting up. The last week alone has been gruelling with many things. l took a couple of quieter days and then booked myself in for an ultrasound scan for the 3rd.


That was last Saturday, and l finally got a thorough examination and was correctly diagnosed with the actual problem, which is still a common medical problem amongst a certain percentage of the population but isn’t JUST arthritis but a little more of a painful issue.


Greater trochanteric pain syndrome, also known as lateral hip pain or trochanteric bursitis, is a problem associated with pain on the outer side of the hip on the thigh. This explained why l couldn’t accurately pinpoint the pain-sensing. It was either the top of my hip or just below my buttock on the thigh side.


In my case, it is a long tear in the gluteus medius tendon initially caused by the trip last October, which started the injury off and then over time, as the tear became more extensive, this was due to the increased workload of gardening, composting, the allotment and ironically walking but also sitting and sleeping on my side which further explains my troubles sleeping for the last six months.


My left hip area has also been swollen for the last two months. Hey ho.


To avoid the knife, so to speak, because whilst some people opt for surgery, l have taken the path of exercise. I was saying for months that l wasn’t limbering up properly before working, which would cause an injury. Well, the actual damage was a raised paving slab in Sandwich. But informal exercise replaced with physical exertion caused the significant strike, so it’s my fault in many respects.


But at least l now know that it’s not just OSTEOarthritis! Case closed.


It will take three to six months to heal correctly, even with the exercises, and my right gluteus also has a milder tear. Gardening and doing everything l am doing can continue unless l can’t walk, and as l can still walk, and now l know what the issue is, l can work around it.


My business is now bending down and getting up again, twisting, bending, moving, hoeing, raking, digging, walking, hauling – that’s business and will award strains, sprains, and pains. I have had pain for the last thirty years due to stomach and digestive issues and so have gotten used to the presence of it, rightly or wrongly.


I have reset my pain scale to a new realistic level for me of coping to 14 points. I can cope with ten points of pain ish relatively easy, but not 14. But l have been advised that if my pain hits seven, l need to switch tasks and take on a new chore while the pain subsides. I don’t mind using some Deep Heat if needed, but l refuse to take chemical medications.

I can work with that motto. I am an advocate of no pain, no gain. So it’s fine with me. People can put up with more pain than they give themselves credit for. It is a case of mind over matter.


I don’t mind, and it doesn’t matter.


Greetings from the Garden


Be thankful for the life you have.
Music – Strolling Along


Good things take time.


“Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun’s shining or not.”
Marty Robbins

Wishing each and every one of you a totally fabulous day!

Grim Reality


If you would like to submit a poem, inspirational musing, or even a photograph you have written or taken to the Poetry Directory to be displayed in Earthly Comforts, l would love to hear from you.

Don’t Be Shy 🙂


Please email me at Rory Matier – theautisticcomposter@gmail.com, with Poetic Art for Earthly Comforts in the title.

Believe

Skull – Pixabay

Grim Reality
 
Oft remarked by others of me,
Is it possible that l don’t sit well within conformity?
Now to say this ‘of me,’ l do find it odd,
Considering that it comes from the so-called normal societal body!
To say that l am extremely cynical,
Is l personally believe overly critical!

Since when has it been so wrong,
To not agree with the rest of the throng?
Just because l choose to view the grim reality,
Of life and people within it, in actuality,
Does not make me cynical,
Just honest.

I prefer facts, not watered-down pastels!

This does not mean that l abhor conformism,
Politically speaking, l deal in realism!
Am l overly critical of the human race?
Not really, but I am not quick to fondly embrace!
Fools nor their follies and strange actualities!
Suffocatingly engulfed by their sense of legality!

I see, as often described in the black and white,
Of life alone, and concentrate not on shite,
Greyer areas are created for people’s comfort!
Easier to explain to them when looking to convert!
I prefer my brain to think,
Rather than agree with society’s automated clink!

Oh, l suppose l must admit, by my own choice,
That l am overly cynical, but it’s my voice!
Which can declare that grim reality,
And not yours because you fear lethality!
Of the harshness of honest brutality!
Found in today’s not-so-funny eventualities!


To write within the spectrum of written conceptualism,
Simply too much for the greys of supposed realism!
Irrelevant is it that we see all colours here,
And that it is the grey, black and white in which we share,
Prejudices, failings, ailing, as well as ignorance,
It makes up us all and all our stances!
 
But the grey thinkers are, in fact, the true cynics,
Players of the invisible game of oblique!
Insanely remarking that the black and whites,
Talk the most shite,
Easier by far to blame the honest speakers,
It takes away the pressure off the squeakers!

Sure, l am so upfront and in your face!
Making you think twice must be a disgrace
Forcing your eyes to widen and your brain to click,
Whirring loudly to compensate for working ‘quickly.’
Well, oops, that is what comes with factuality,
Especially from one looking at the grim reality!


Copyright © 2023 – Rory Matier