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Tag: garden

status 15jun26

Published June 15, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Yesterday, as is tradition, I gave herself the first ripe raspberry of summer. Today, we were out in the garden in the rain with a bowl collecting raspberries and redcurrants.

I had a whole plan to Go Outside today, but the weather has not cooperated, so I’m indoors going through my Bandcamp queue and probably buying too many records again.

On Friday, we went to see The Cobras in Harlow, because we know the bassist, and on Saturday I went to the final Konsztrukting Soundz of the season. Konsztrukting Sounds is a monthly experimental music night, and it’s become the highlight of my month – I’m going to miss it over the summer. They’re running a crowdfunder to support the upcoming third season of the event right now.

Julian Simpson connecting his various audio fiction and prose fiction “universes” into a single space and brand made me sit into space and think for a while. At the same time, a musician acquaintance has been sharing with me the video album she’s making to support her new music project (shooting them with an old comics acquaintance of mine, it turns out), and that’s been making my brain churn too. Social media is a dead zone but the wider internet is still a possibility space.

TODAY:

Just arrived, the new issue of NORTHERN EARTH:

OPERATIONS: consulting job needs to be wrapped by Friday, but this week I also need to get a big chunk of the novella down, and I had an idea Saturday night for a short story that I absolutely want to get landed in first draft this week, so this week is going to get a bit crunchy.
STATUS: was intending to go out this morning, but it’s cold and wet again. I also need to clear this laptop off in prep for the new one that should be arriving some time in the next week – this one is still working, so long as I don’t try to do too much on it at once. Software repair processes helped it a little, but the chipset is clearly failing. Very sad.
READING: HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT, Olga Tokarczuk (UK) (US+)

I don’t know why I have stored this kind of detail while forgetting the rest of the story. It must have made some sort of sense – it was a story, after all, with a beginning and an end – but I remember nothing but the pips, which my memory, quite rightly, has had to spit out later on.


LISTENING: Harju sent me their new record and it’s amazing:


LAST WATCHED: MOCK THE WEEK summer specials
DRINK: Cafe de Parisienne liqueur, for an affogato with double chocolate ice cream I made

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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buds: 10mar26

Published March 10, 2026 by Warren Ellis

The cherry trees I transplanted the other week are coming into bud, which mean I didn’t kill them. Go me. You will also note some scat on the soil, because whenever I clear a garden bed, every cat and fox in the area considered that an invitation to shit all over it. This is actually very bad, as cat shit is toxic. So I have another job – scoop up the shit and surrounding soil, re-mulch it, put down a bunch of sharp sticks, and sow catnip at the back of the garden, away from the crop plants.

Li Hui

Seems awfully quiet out on the internet today, so I’m going to take it as a sign to wander off with my notebook.

OPERATIONS: deep in development
STATUS: trying to work out if I can buy myself three days of just working in the garden
READING: THE BOOK OF COMMENTARY / UNQUIET GARDEN OF THE SOUL, Alexander Kluge (UK) (US+)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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rewarded by a return to the earth: 22feb26

Published February 22, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Sky Hopinka

Yesterday I reduced a viburnum by half, hacked back salvia and holly, raked a bed, dug a trench in it, mixed a hundred litres of compost into the trench, and planted three cherry trees. Today I am actually less achy and knackered than I expected, especially bearing in mind that I still have this plague in my system. Once I have some charge in my phone, I’m going to check the weather and see if I’m going to have the space to plant some apple trees today.

Today it’s the Swatch Metropolis, yesterday it was the G-Shock G-Rescue because it was a day of working with saws and chainsaws and other implements of destruction.

New newsletter is out.

And my fourth leather notebook cover arrived, so now I have a system that can contain everything I’m working on with space to accommodate more.

TODAY:

“Kiyoshi Awazu［KIYOSHI AWAZU SCPAP BOOK］.published by Tabata Shobo.1970.”

Accessions: The complete works of Plato


READING: THE BIG THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)

When asked why he had made death the penalty for most offences, Draco replied that he considered the lesser offences to deserve it and had no harsher punishment for the greater ones.


LISTENING: Monument Podcast (MNMT 506 : Síoda Rua) – listened to a lot of it yesterday while working in the garden and it’s an amazing mix

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL WILD PLANTS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND, Robin Harford

Published January 5, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Handy Xmas gift. I let the garden largely alone last year, but this year it requites intervention, sowing and planting, and I want a lot of flowers and edibles (both of which have been getting increasingly difficult to raise), so I’m hoping this will help.

EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL WILD PLANTS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND (Amazon)

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4oct25

Published October 4, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Add harvesting the rhubarb to the endless to-do list. I started trying to reclaim the garden, what, three or four years ago now? I now have a sense of what I can and can’t grow, and am starting to think about winter planning, and finding some flowers that will actually grow and draw in pollinators.

Windy day. The mancub hates the wind – he doesn’t like his precious furs ruffled, apparently – and keeps nipping in and out to see if the wind’s gone away.


READING: finished HERESY: JESUS CHRIST AND THE OTHER SONS OF GOD, Catherine Nixey (UK) (US+) last night
LISTENING: Spaceman’s Transmissions


MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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A Little Tree

Published April 9, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Managed to germinate a lemon pip left from a lunch a few weeks back. I’m really kind of surprised that worked, and will be interested to see if it live longer. But I am weirdly happy about this little baby tree.

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29jan25

Published January 29, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Big bright day. Note also the masses of weeds that have infested the rose bed even though I mulched that with two inches of wood chips at the end of 2024. I’m looking at the weather forecast to decide when I bail out of the office for a few days to prep the place for spring, which is going to be a lot of work. I’ve already decided that 2025 is the year of chaos gardening. After the nightmare of last year, I want masses of wild colour this year.

OPERATIONS: Seem to have lost my scripting energy. Different kinds of writing, I have found, require different mindsets and different parts of your availability. And this week I just can’t make my hands do the scripting. So today I’m going to move on to other ideas. Because if you can’t do one thing, maybe you can do something else instead. And that’s how you keep working.
STATUS: Inbox 75, still have emails to reply to. 8hrs 23mins sleep. I’ve had no real exercise in days, I’ve just been at the keyboard or in the notebook. Not sure I’ve actually been outside for more than five minutes in the last few weeks. This is probably Not Good.
READING: DOWNFALL (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: AVILA IN ALBICELLA, Julian Cope
LAST WATCHED: honestly, after herself went to bed, I put Bloomberg on and just stared at the wall for a few hours as I chased thoughts around my head.

THINKING ABOUT:

…the only person you’re ever competing against is yourself. The rest is out of your control.

THE CREATIVE ACT, Rick Rubin

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter. Now: DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast. Forthcoming 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, The LIGHTS OUT Anthology

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Published October 22, 2024 by Warren Ellis

I love the colour this blueberry has taken on after repotting. It didn’t do that last year,

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Published October 22, 2024 by Warren Ellis

That sudden burst of heat last week after soil-mulching and downpours seems to have coaxed out one last magnificent rose.

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Published September 17, 2024 by Warren Ellis

Garlic sets arrived.

Garlic (Spring & Autumn) Germidour 2 Bulbs

Garlic (Autumn) Messidrome 2 Bulbs

Garlic (Autumn) Lovers Collection Inc:

Garlic (Autumn) Kingsland Wight 2 Bulbs

Garlic (Autumn) Eden Rose 2 Bulbs

Noting this because I KNOW I will lose the list.

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