I know it's not true, but it sometimes feels like everyone else is on holiday except me. I'm very fortunate to have a job that will continue to pay me for longer than most. I've faced precarity of income and the slow liquidation of assets in the past and I'm glad I'm not facing it right now. If you are, I'm sorry to hear it, but I have trust that things will get better that isn't just the smugness of someone who happens to have landed on his feet when other things have gone pear-shaped.
One of the things I learned in my most precarious years was to stay closer to the rhythms of the earth - enjoying the nature all around me, even if it was just for five minutes before I went back into a meltdown about what else was happening in my life.
So this weekend, I opened up my compost bin, into which I've been piling kitchen scraps for a couple of years without turning and had a rummage round to get the good stuff out from the bottom. I've often seen people grab a handful of homemade compost like this and squeeze it and say "look at that it's lovely, isn't it?" and I just couldn't get it - I mean really? Yuk! But no, it really is lovely to sink your hand into the damp lumps of mulchy goodness and see how it crumbles or oozes depending on how much water it's soaked up.
I used it to make half of one of my lawns into a starter vegetable plot. And I'm getting going with the things I have to hand, mostly regrowing from the roots of veg that we're eating - I want to see how far we can get without having to order in seeds and seedlings. I have broccoli seeds that I usually use for sprouting salads, so we'll see what they do. And we have organic veg delivered so I can spare a few garlic cloves to plant and I've got some onion bottoms drinking water to get the roots going to replant. We had a lettuce this week so I'll give that a go too. And then I'll see where we get to next.
It's gone a bit chilly again today and frost is possible here into the end of April, so these little ones have a covering of bubble wrap for the time being.
Good luck with your crops. I think a lot of people are thinking they should 'dig for victory' and be more self-sufficient. We have the space for it, but need to get organised. Got a few things sprouting in the greenhouse. I saw this that has suggestions for growing from what you have anyway. We have some old seeds that I ought to try to see if any come up.
I am lucky that I can still work, but I wonder how long that can continue.