Rained again in the night, fine today & reasonably warm. Started digging the patch where the bushes were. This is in a terrible state & will take a long time to do, also is poor chalky soil & needs a lot of enriching. Began making path for henhouses, as the mud is very bad.

6 eggs. Sold 1 score @ 4/4.

Still, not too warm, Some frost in the night. Finished the new latch. This will take 5 or 6 rows of potatoes. Showed the briar stocks to T[itley]., who explained that one must cut the side shoots off & bud those onto those which appear in spring.

7 eggs.

Heavy rain in the night & all this morning. Finer & windless this afternoon. Everything very sodden. Dug another trench. Have now almost finished the amount I intend doing of the new bit. Stuck in 2 more briar roots. Shall plant about 6 of different heights & see how they do. Collected another sack of leaves. This amount (about 10 sacks) fills the frame. Covered over with fine soil & shall not disturb till next year.

7 eggs.

[1] Orwell noted collecting 8¹/₂ sackfuls. Peter Davison

Cold & windy, rain some of the day. Stuck a root of a wild briar in, experimentally, but not certain whether it will take as it had not much root. Shall plant some more as I want to try budding next year.

10 eggs. Sold 4 @ 2d each & 5 @ 5 for 1/-.

Hard frost last night, which started about 4pm. Thawed this morning about 10 am, cold & miserable all day. Lumps of ice turned out of hens’ basins were still frozen in the evening. Made bonfire, added some of the hay which had rotted to the compost-heap. This uses up the Adco, which will not have made the 7 cwt. of manure as specified, but perhaps I used it too liberally.

7 eggs. Sold 20 @ 4/4. Total this week: 49. + 12 laid out = 60.

Fine, still, rather cold. Finished digging limed patch. Transplanted apple tree. Had great difficulty uprooting it & fear I damaged its roots seriously. Cut down remaining michaelmas daisies & transplanted one clump. Found nest of 11 eggs, not say on & seemingly O.K., so will do for the house, but shall not enter them in book.

4 eggs.

Rain again last night, light rain all day. Cold. Impossible to do much out of doors. Dug some more of the limed patch.

8 eggs.

Much as yesterday. Dug some more of the limed patch, planted out the remaining black currants. A double egg again today & also an egg of the type the Smallholder describes as pimpled. Tom R. says he saw a rat come out of our garden yesterday.

9 eggs.

Still, overcast, rather chilly. Did nothing out of doors. New cwt. Full-o-Pep begun today. Clarke’s say the grain-shortage, such as there is, is of maize & dari (wheatings)[1]. The former comes from the Argentine. The latter was usually imported ready ground, & at present the English mills are not turning it out fast enough, though there is no shortage of wheat.

8 eggs.

[1] Dari, or durra, is Indian millet. ‘Wheatings’ is a proprietary name for the residue of milled wheat. OED, Revised edition, 1991, dates it from 1931. Peter Davison

Fine, still, reasonably warm. Planted 6 lupins (paid 9d), said to be mixed colours. NB. that T[itley]. says that with lupins one should spread their roots out & not insert them too deep. Limed & began digging the final strip. This will need more doing than the rest as the ground is very sour & full of weeds. Cut down the remaining phloxes, tied up some of the chrysanthemums which had been blown over. Difficult to do much these afternoons now it is winter-time. The chrysanths now in full flowers, mostly dark reddy-brown, & a few ugly purple & white ones which I shan’t keep. Roses still attempting to flower, otherwise no flowers in the garden now. Michaelmas daisies are over & I have cut some of them down. The second lot of Brussels sprouts (planted as little plants 19.8.39) sprouting[1] up, also some of the savoys planted at the same time beginning to hearten up a little. All that lot are small kinds. None of my broccoli yet heading to any extent, though the plants have grown well. T. says oak leaves make the best mould, & then beech.

8 eggs. Sold 8 @ 2d each (a mistake – price miscalculated).

[1] Orwell wrote ‘sproutening’. Peter Davison