4.7.39.

Fine & hot. A few raspberries reddening. Phloxes in bud, also bergamot. Goats escaped this morning & ate a lot of fruit tree shoots, rose shoots & some tops of phloxes. Pullets still limping badly & fear some kind of paralysis, tho’ she seems otherwise in good condition. Put gate on duck run & allowed the ducklings out of the coop. Today started new cwt. Of Full-o-Pep & cwt. Of corn. The pullets are also having from the latter, but of course not having laying mash. On the other hand 4 old fowls sold today. The mash therefore has to do for 24 hens, the corn for 32. Mash should therefore last about 35 days, corn about the same (allowing 11 /2 oz. per bird.) Shall try & reach the end before ordering new stuff next time, in order to see how it lasts out. This lot ought to give about the 8th August, which is a Tuesday.
Started the hens on a course of Karswood spice today.

3.7.39.

Warmer, sunny most of day.
Planted pumpkin (somewhat too late, & in a too shady position). Earthed up north[1] side of the maincrop potatoes. No gaps, but some very immature. Lifted tulip bulbs. One early potato withered up – trust not disease. Turnips (28.6.39) are showing. One pullet limping.
15 eggs.

[1] Circled by Orwell; ‘west’ written by him on facing page. Peter Davison

2.7.39.

Foreign & General
1. Poland states that Danzig will be occupied if Danzig Senate declares for the Reich. Sunday Times [a]
2. N.L.C.[1] of Labour Party broadcast in German in much the same terms as at September crisis. Observer [b]
Party Politics
Sinclair, Ramsay Muir, Amery, Eden, Cripps, Burgin make virtually identical statements re. resistance to German aggression.° Sunday Times [c]

[a] (TimesArchive) [b] [c] (TimesArchive)

[1] This is probably an error for NCL (National Council of Labour); see 15.7.39, Party Politics, 2. The sense is elliptical, but seems to refer to an appeal to the German people under the heading ‘Why kill each other?’ made by the NCL. Summaries were broadcast by the BBC on the night of Saturday, 1 July 1939, in German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The NCL also arranged broadcasts to German workers from the secret radio stations on the Continent and distributed printed copies of the appeal throughout underground organization. Peter Davison

[2] For more information on Orwell’s ‘Diary of Events Leading Up to War’, click here.

2.7.39.

Overcast most of day, a heavy shower in the afternoon, & cold enough to have a fire.
Both the hens guarding chicks have begun laying eggs & the younger one showed a tendency to stray away. E. therefore put her with the other hens & put all the chick together with the other hen. This morning two of the youngest badly pecked, especially the one which for some reason is white. Have segregated these two, & we are going to wean the others at once. Three of the elder ones are already perching.
Picked about 1 lb. Of strawberries & had some broad beans (young, eaten pod & all). These are about the first produce of the garden. A few loganberries reddening. Apples on the grenadier as large as golf balls. Clarkia beginning to flower.
11 eggs
Cylinder of Calor gas, started 8.6.39, gave out today.
Cwt. Of Full-o-Pep, started 6.6.39, getting low in the bin. Should last till 12.7.39. Actually might last till about 8th or 10th, but some of it has been fed to the pullets occasionally.

1.7.39.

Fine most of morning, very heavy showers in afternoon. Garden mostly in good condition. Some strawberries ripe, a few broad beans fit to pick, onions improving, runner beans just starting to climb strings. Hay is cut & stacked in small stack about 6’ by 5’, but not yet certain whether we can preserve this. M.’s milk going off considerably. Ducklings all healthy & lively, young chicks making good growth. Such currants as there are ripening.
Marigolds (a few) in flower. Wild scabius° appearing.
10 eggs (plus 14 laid out = 24).
Sold this week 72 @ 2/2d. Total this week = 120.

30.6.39.

Ducklings still under hen this morning but in the afternoon came out to eat (brown bread crumbled with milk & dried a little with a sprinkling of chickmeal).
Thundery weather with heavy showers.
14 eggs.

29.6.39.

Hot & sunny most of the day. One duck had hatched this morning. Later moved the hen to a new coop & left the more backward eggs with another broody. By evening 7 ducks; the eigtth° shows no signs of hatching but have put it under the hen for the night. The first ducks are fluffed up but show no disposition to walk about. Apparently ducklings are much slower to walk than chickens, being ‘weak in the legs’ (Mrs R.)[1].  Made an awning with adjustable sacking cover & put flat dish of water in coop.
Rehoed onions which are growing at last. Marrows also growing, one strongly. White rose out. 15 eggs.

[1] Probably Mrs Ridley, a neighbour. Peter Davison

28.6.39.

Much cooler & occasional showers. Mr H. finished cutting the hay & collected it today. Sowed turnips & planted out a row of mixed greens from the seed bed. Both broody hens with chickens laid today, & one (the youngest) had three other eggs hidden at back of the coop.
14 eggs + 3 in the coop.

27.6.39.

Very hot & sunny. Thinned carrots & hoed peas etc. Planted out 48 larkspurs, removing some poor sweet williams. Apparently sweet williams sometimes ‘shoot up’ for several years but cannot be made to do so.
15 eggs + 8 found in a nest.

26.6.39.

Warm sunny morning. Threats of thunderstorms in afternoon but no thunder & little rain. Potatoes earthed up. Gaps filled in French bean rows with extras sown in a box in the frame when the original rows were found to have germinated badly – ie. after an interval of ten days or so. There is very little difference in development. Blackfly have already settled on about a quarter of the broad beans, though not in great numbers; pinched out growing points. The strings for the runner beans were tangled & stretched out by rain & wind. Apparently four or five stakes are necessary for one of our rows. Weeded & hoed onions which are now three or four inches tall but with many gaps in the rows. Beans & peas have grown very rapidly, some runner bean tendrils lengthening by a couple of inches since Saturday.
12 eggs.