28.10.39

Frost again last night (not so hard as before). All today raining almost continuously. Impossible to do anything out of doors. One double egg today.

6 eggs. Total this week 41.

27.10.39

I think there must have been a slight frost again last night. Today about midday heavy rumbling sound which may have been either thunder or gunfire, & soon afterwards heavy sleety rain. More showers in the afternoon. Ground is very soggy again. Could not do much out of doors owing to the rain. Dug a little patch for the shallots.

6 eggs.

26.10.39

A very sharp white frost last night, the first severe frost of the year. The day overcast with a short sunny interval, & rather cold. Water in the hen’s basin frozen solid this morning. Turned it, & this evening there was still a little ice left. The dahlias blackened immediately, & I am afraid the marrows I had left to ripen are done for, as they had gone a funny colour. Brought them in & added the haulm to the compost-heap, which is now completed except for the old straw which is still in the flower garden.

Finished clearing the waste patch, piled the turf in a heap & marked out where the path is to go. This leaves another yard width of soil. Began digging this as it will do for the shallots. Collected another sack of dead leaves & sprinkled a little saltpere (advised in Smallholder) among them. Shall try & note the number of sacks collected so as to see what amount of mould they make. The turves old H. stacked earlier in the year have rotted down into beautiful fine loam, but I think I had first killed the grass on these with sodium chlorate, so presumably what I am stacking now will not rot so rapidly or completely. Put some wood-ash on the place for the broad beans. If I can’t get that bit fine I must try & find space elsewhere & simply the bad clayey patch a good liming. The broody hen goes to her nest every night. Last night she would have frozen to death if I had not happened to find her. Considerable number of goldfinches in the garden today.

7 eggs.

25.10.39

Fine, sunny, cold wind. Began clearing the vacant ground between the old garden & the new patch. Burnt a little of the rubbish. Limed another strip, also the rhubarb patch, but have not turned the lime in here. Collected the first sack of dead leaves (beech). Had noticed for two days that a brown hen was sitting out somewhere. Tonight found her nest – 10 eggs, 1 broken. Took the eggs, which may possibly be good, being unfertilized. Tonight she had gone back to the empty nest. Put her in the house, & hope she may be cured in a few days. This morning[1] shifted the wire of the run. Posts are not long enough for gate posts, but can have an extra piece fitted on if I can get hold of some timber. Yesterday, when sinking holes for the posts found that the chalk is only about 6” beneath the surface, but possibly it isn’t so all over the patch.

4 eggs. Sold 20 @ 3/6 (to milkman).

[1] Orwell originally wrote ‘Tonight,’ presumably when he was writing up his diary. Peter Davison

24.10.39

Evidently a good deal of rain last night. Today overcast, not cold, a few spots of rain in the afternoon. Leaves coming down pretty fast now.

Today went into Baldock. Bought small sieve (2/-). Impossible to get iron stakes for wire netting. Timber almost unprocurable. Managed to get 2 very poor 6 ft. stakes for gate-posts of hen-run. Put them up this evening & shall shift wire tomorrow if not raining. Tried to mow grass, but the machine in its present state makes no impression. Shall have to leave it till the spring, then get it scythed. Mr K.[1] mended the spade by using the handle of the broken fork. Quite a good mend but leaves the spade a bit short. Paid 1/-. Impossible to sow broad beans yet as the ground will not get fine. Clarke’s sent shallots today & shall plant them by way of experiment when I get time. NB. That 2 lb. shallots = about 60 bulbs (say 2 rows). There are now 2 barn owls which live in the stumpy elm tree, & evidently it is they that make the sawing noise. I suppose these are the ones that used to be called screech-owls, & the ordinary brown owl is the one that makes the to-whoo noise.

6 eggs. Started hens on course of Karswood today[a]. Also giving them more shell-grit.

[a] Lasted till 14.11.39 (26 hens). [Orwell’s note]

[1] Unidentified neighbour. Peter Davison

23.10.39

Not cold & fairly fine, but a few drops of drizzling rain in the evening. Cleaned out the piece between the rockery & the trellis, made a bed of sorts, planted 20 forget-me-nots in it, made a bed ready for the rambler. There is now nothing to be done in the flower garden except to plant the flowers (phlox etc.) when they are ready, make up path & perhaps cut the grass once again. Made 2 lb. apple jelly yesterday. Found some eggs of either worm or snail, about the size of match-heads, whitish, translucent.

6 eggs.

22.10.39

Very misty, not cold, a short spell of sun in the afternoon. No wind. Turned out & examined some of the bags of potatoes. Found that some K. Edwards had gone bad, but no Red Kings, or very few. Threw away the bad ones, changed into fresh bags & scattered a little lime on the heap. Hope this will be enough to prevent serious damage. Planted out a few clumps of aubretia. Cut the pumpkin which was ripening. Only about 10 lb. T. is selling first-rate cooking apples (called locally Meetrop or some such name – have not seen this apple before) at 1 d lb., eating apples (Blenheims) @ 1¹/₂lb. Cut the first savoy today. Arranged to let the milkman have our eggs @ 3/6 score instead of the 3/- the butcher has been paying. T. says you can get 3/8 at the market, but in that case there are commissions to come off.

6 eggs.

21.10.39

Very fine, clear, still autumn weather, with a touch of mist. Distinctly chilly morning & evening. E., Lydia[1] & self picked 4¹/₂lb. blackberries. Nuts seem to be already ripened & fallen. Oak trees now mostly yellow, hawthorn & ash leaves falling.

7 eggs. Sold 15 @ 3/- score. Total this week: 41.

[1] Lydia Jackson (1899-1983), a friend of Eileen’s from the time they met at University College London in 1934, wrote under the pen-name Elisaveta Fen; see 534A. After being bombed out of her flat in 1940, she and her flat-mate, Patricia Donahue, rented the Orwells’ cottage at Wallington. The 21^st was a Saturday, so Eileen could come down from London for the weekend. Peter Davison

20.10.39

Fine, still, sunny but not particularly warm. Finished digging the rhubarb bed, prepared the frame for dead leaves, made up a little more of the path, grubbed up the last lot of French beans. T[itley]. cannot get any stakes so shall have to buys some iron ones.

5 eggs.

19.10.39

Raining almost continuously till late evening. Impossible to do much out of doors. Dug a very little more of the rhubarb bed, cleaned up the remaining bit of the path, which however cannot be re-gravelled till I have got some more cinders (no coal delivered for the past 10 days). Tried experimentally some of the lime & naphthalene mixture,[1] also crushed rock salt, both said to be good weed killers. Tits are common about the house now. In the elm trees in the field some kind of bird makes a sawing noise every night. Don’t know whether this can be the owls.

If possible the following things have to be done before the end of November: [2]

Move wire of hen-run.

Clear all the grass off the new patch & the bit joining it to the old garden.

Heap turf so as to rot.

Rough-dig the new patch.

Transplant all the fruit bushes.

Clean out & dig the patch where the fruit trees have been.

Lime the vacant piece, the empty part of the rhubarb bed, & the place where the fruit bushes have been.

Clearing out the remaining patch under the hedge & prepare for rambler.

Remove most of the chrysanthemums when they have withered back.

Take up & store dahlia roots.

Plant shallots.

Sow broad beans.

Plant phloxes, michaelmas daisies (if not too early.)

Plant roses, rambler & polyantha. Transplant peonies.

Transplant apple tree.

Procure and plant blackberries.

Collect several sacks dead leaves.

Clean out strawberry bed.

Possibly also:[3]

Make up paths in kitchen garden.

Make new bed by gate.

5 eggs.

[1] Makes no impression whatever. T. thinks it would actually encourage weeds in the long run. However this mixture is also said to be good for expelling wire-worms. [Orwell’s note]

[2] All items have been ticked except ‘Clean out & dig the patch where the fruit bushes have been’ and ‘Sow broad beans,’ which are marked with a cross, ‘& the place where the fruit bushes have been’ and ‘Plant phloxes…’ which are not marked at all.

[3] These two tasks are marked with neither tick nor cross.Peter Davison