21.4.39.

Posted on 21 April by orwelldiaries

Fine & very warm all day. Very dry.
Believe I saw the first shoot of bindweed today. Scythed down a patch of nettles to see the result. It is said one can eradicate them if they are scythed down 3 or 4 times in the year. Those treated with the sodium chlorate are dying.
Sowed broccoli, savoys, leeks, sprouts, cos lettuce.
Thirteen eggs.

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10 Responses to 21.4.39.

  1. Stephen says:
    21 April at 7:41 am

    Another day not writing the masterpiece. Another day not wondering about the impending war. But at least he scythed those nettles.

  2. zenomax says:
    21 April at 11:45 am

    George sprayed half the nettle patch a few days back. Now he scythes another patch. He is always testing things to see what happens – bending & prodding the physical world just as he bends and prods at ideas.

    Is it all to test reality… to understand what reality really means..?

  3. holden caulfield says:
    21 April at 12:04 pm

    and he made ? 30 cents on the eggs…Deep thinker,and future Capitalist…
    what is/was 1/8 d worth,in 1938…?
    We see (I see) more clearly where the whole egg obsession is coming from…He is “scratching out a living”…
    Probably saves up balls of old string too…

  4. JamesonLewis3rd says:
    21 April at 12:45 pm

    Coming Up for Air will be published in June. He is (I assume) currently writing Charles Dickens which he finishes in July. In March of next year, Inside the Whale will be published. The “masterpiece[s]” are percolating.

    I agree that this was “another day not wondering about the impending war” not because I am able to read minds postmortem, but because I know he is [and has been] busy watching it evolve, up close and personal—he’s not “wondering.”

    As far as my memory is able to recollect from the past 8 month’s posts, so far, this log [which I respectfully refer to as George Orwell’s Blog] has yet to reveal any of Orwell’s thoughts or concerns, whether political or otherwise. Nevertheless, therein lies [for me] the beauty of this experience; this Log of the Mundane, combined with what Eric Blair has written to this point and what he is currently working on (that of which we are even aware), is an impossible puzzle.

  5. Stephen Downes says:
    21 April at 3:07 pm

    Thanks Jameson for the context.

    One wonders why he is writing in this diary at this point. Is he recording his experimentation with eggs and nettles? Is it important that the firs shoot of bindweed has appeared? Is he trying to understand what it is to be a farmer?

    What’s not said in this diary is as fascinating as what is said.

    In the meantime – go get those Nettle, Eric! I _hate_ nettles.

  6. J Harold Hutchinson says:
    21 April at 4:21 pm

    To equate roughly the shilling to Canadian dollars I found that when i went over to Britain in 1943 to serve with the British Navy that the pound (20 shillings) was worth about $4.36 Canadian. This would make the shilling about 25 cents and the price of a pint (20 imperial ounces) of beer while the price at home was 10 cents for a seven ounce glass (mostly tax) or 30 cents for 21 ounces. A bit cheaper in England.

  7. Holden Caulfeild says:
    22 April at 1:09 am

    so what fraction of a pound is 1/8d ???

  8. Steve says:
    22 April at 3:26 am

    According to Wikipedia, 1/8d would be read as “one and eight,” meaning one shilling and eight pence. In 1940 the pound was pegged to the US dollar at 1 pound = $4.03. In the old money (before decimilization in 1971) here were 20 shillings per pound, and each shilling was worth 12 pence, so 240 pence per pound.

    1/8d would have been equivalent to 20 pence, and (in 1940) that would have been worth 20/240 * 4.03 = $0.33 in our Yankee money. There’s an ad in the current local paper for a dozen (only 3/5 of a score!) organic free range eggs on sale for $3.49, about as much as a 16 oz pint of good beer. So eggs would have been the better investment.

    Are eggs still sold by the score in the UK?

  9. Holden Caulfeild says:
    22 April at 11:04 am

    Eggxellent eggsplanation !! thanks Steve!

    ? Maybe he was drinking away the profits??

    I might add that I have seen “free range/hormone free eggs” for up to 6$$ (Canadian)…..
    Perhaps if George had not despised “marketing” so much he could have been making a bit more doss…

  10. Noodle says:
    23 April at 3:01 pm

    Hi Steve.

    I’m in England and I’ve never heard of eggs being sold by the score. They come in half dozen/dozen sized egg boxes. If thats what you meant?

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