At a time of year in the vineyard when we might expect a fair amount to be going on – destemming, feeding, tying up, that sort of thing, events are taking place off-stage rather than on, you might say. Truth be told there aren’t enough leaves to feed them, nor stems to remove, on account…
Category: Vineyard
Vineyard 72: laugh? I thought my trousers would never dry
Or, laugh? I nearly went to Bradford if you prefer. One thing is certain if you’re going to own and run a vineyard in the far North, you’d better have a well-developed sense of humour. If I hadn’t banned myself from using the word irony, I’d be definitely rolling it out again for this vineyard…
Vineyard 71: The irony of it all
I may have published my eBook and paperback version of The Vineyard Years and that’s quite neatly wrapped up the first 70 blogs on the topic of arguably most northerly vineyard in England. But life goes on after the last chapter. Admittedly at times over the last few weeks it hasn’t seemed like much has…
Vineyard 70 : And now for the book
You might be forgiven for thinking that this blog is about our vineyard. The 70th in the series in fact. And in a way you’d be right. It actually has two parts to it. First, it is the 70th vineyard blog but as it has been written at the time of lock-down it doesn’t have…
Vineyard 69 : What can I say?
They say small is beautiful, that the best things come in small packages (is that the right word?). Having read the article above about the man in France who has 20 hectares (about 50 acres) of top class Chablis producing Chardonnay vines, I’m doubly relieved our 500 vine, half an acre of non-commercial North Yorkshire…
Vineyard 68 : February and plenty to do
Is there really anything to write about our vineyard in February? Is there anything happening? Well yes and yes. Apart from the mundane chores like replacing the tubes that three successive storms have removed and scattered around the vineyard, replacing the odd post that’s snapped off. Wooden posts look nicer and they’re cheaper but they…
Vineyard 67 : a new start
When I worked as an educational psychologist and, in my role as a trainer of teachers vaguely in the area of managing difficult behaviour, I used to always start my presentations with the following quote from Thomas Harris who wrote the book on Transactional Analysis, I’m OK, You’re OK. It went something like as follows…..
Vineyard 66 : End of year review, 2019
This morning, after our election results, I thought I’d leave that topic alone, at least until a more mature reflection blog later and provide an end of year summary about our vineyard in 2019. Be warned it’s not a pretty story. It is not one of those cosy-couple-plant vineyard in the wild north and against…
Vineyard 65 : As you were
I absolutely promise that this will be the last vineyard blog for a while. It’s just that so much has been happening in these last few weeks and most of it has been bad. This means I have a real desire to share my problems and in so doing, hopefully, making myself feel a bit…
Vineyard 64 : Things looking up?
Now this really is a first. Three vineyard blogs in a row. I said that two together was unusual but this is unique. And the reason is threefold. One, there’s a lot been going off. Two, I still need the writing as therapy to cope with all that is going off. Three, I have slightly…