Alchemy

There's been a lot of it about today.

The compost bin has had some additions in the form of layers of: old soil from the pepper and chilli pots; fresh grass cuttings; and mown-up raspberry canes, pepper and chilli plants, and other dead vegetation from around the property. It was a good mixture of carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials, important for optimal composting.

I had enough stuff to add two layers of each ingredient, with a good watering between each one. By tomorrow it should be hot beneath the surface. 

I will check it with my compost thermometer - for interest only. When I first made hot compost in this way I was in the midst of a permaculture course, and there was a composting assignment to be completed, which included daily temperature readings amongst other details of the process. 

These days I rarely make a full hot compost all at once, but instead I do it as the ingredients become available. So today's work added a depth of about 50cm on top of five previous composting additions done in the last four months. I find it works well. 

I don't turn it either these days - mainly because my back isn't up to it. But it seems not to matter. The compost will break down for at least a year, and by then even the outside bits have been tackled by bacteria and bugs: I get good even compost through the whole bin.

In the kitchen there has been cheese alchemy happening. I got a Lancashire cheese underway at lunchtime and it will be ready in April next year. 

As I cheesed I listened to the latest episode from Strangers on a Bench. It is a gem. 

Tom Rosenthal has a lovely way about him, asking gentle yet penetrating questions and rarely causing offence (or so it appears). This one - a conversation with a person who has terminal cancer - made me laugh and cry. It will stay with me for a long time. 

And I will never think about brass screws in the same way! You will have to listen to understand that...