Host Cath Yates of Bluebell Garden Organics in Yorkshire sent us this, saying, ‘We received this lovely letter from a recent WWOOFer who is happy to share it if you wish to include in newsletter’.
Here’s a little goodbye note just to thank you for having had me here at Bluebell during this month. I can remember that in the middle of my stay, it already felt like I had been here for months, but now that I am leaving, and that my stay gets all wrapped up into the memory ‘WWOOF Bluebell, Nov 2017’ in my brain, it feels like a short time.
I still have a lot of questions in my mind (that I didn’t get the chance to ask, or that I thought of too late), and these just enhance this feeling of shortness. Collis* says that on the farm, days are long and weeks are short – I completely sympathise with this perspective. Probably that is why I got both a feeling of short stay and long stay.
I think of the things that have changed here since I first saw them: the cucumber tunnel turned into a nice pair of platforms (I think that I do enjoy raking btw); the tomato tunnel covered in plastic and fleece…all these names will very soon be in need of revision since the WWOOFers won’t know what they refer to. The trees have lost their leaves for the most part, and it’s now very easy to spot the rooks on the branches at dusk! They looked like thick black and strange winter fruits.
Now I know why the gates need to be closed at all times. Many more bottles of juice have appeared. The pack shed is empty. The chard has been butchered and rotavated… there’s a wheelbarrow next to the compost piles.
I took a walk in the garden yesterday. The trefoil and onions have started to sprout! I was very pleased by this and it gave me a glimpse into understanding what the motivations for and joys of farm work/management may be, in spite of how hard and demanding it can be.
I hope to have been of some help to you, even though I’m not a thick sturdy guy with big arms to carry hundreds of boxes around everyday! I was very happy to meet you all and to get the chance to have some cool conversations together. All the best, Ariane
*Collis – The Worm Forgives the Plough – A. was reading this during her stay (Your editor has also read The Worm Forgives the Plough by John Stewart Collis and loves it. She’s delighted to find that it’s still available in paperback from Penguin ISBN 978-0099529484.)
photos: from Bluebell Garden Organic’s listing on our website
