Domestic Diary, 18/8/46

Barnhill, Isle of Jura

Diary not filled up for some days owing to journeys etc.

Last 5 or 6 days very fine weather, sunny & windy, with an occasional brief shower but one or two days with no rain with no rain whatever. Roads dried up almost completely in this period. Today very dirty again, with south wind & rough sea.

Visited Islay for the first time. Note that jackdaws are common there - have never seen one on this island.

[…]

Have caught two more lobsters & one or two crabs. Have now mastered the trick of tying a lobster’s claws. Much the hardest part of the operation is getting them out of the creel, especially in the case of crabs, which cling to the netting.

[…]

Sowed spring cabbage a few days ago. Planted some cuttings of perennial cabbage a few days ago. Planted out some cheddar pink seedlings, & brought in a few clumps of thrift to see whether they be acclimatised. If so it would be a good rockery plant, but this may be the wrong time of year for transplanting.

Fishing is variable. One night we got 22 fish & could have got many more if we had not been preoccupied with baling the boat. Another night only 1 - a mackerel. There seem to be very few mackerel about this year, & we have not caught any on the spinner.

[…]

A.¹ procured some specimens of edible seaweed - dulse, not carragheen. She is drying it. Directions for preparing and cooking vary somewhat, but it is said, when cooked in milk, to make a pudding rather like blac mange.

1. Avril Blair, Orwell’s sister

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