Compost Victory in Sight

Yesterday was a much better day, for I kept off the sugar and pressed on with work, cranking out four articles and passing along an additional quote to be added to a previously published one. Also, our Veg Trug arrived, both weeks later and weeks earlier than I expected. Beautifully designed in the West, it was shoddily manufactured in China, but B.A. wielded the wood glue, and all will be well. By the time it falls apart, the quarantine will be over and I can hire a lovely local to make me a proper raised bed out of good British oak.

After B.A. and I had built as much of the Veg Trug as we could without the gluing part, I went to Tesco in search of compost. All soil and compost had disappeared the day before, so I was not too hopeful. However, to my joy there was a full pallet of Miracle Grow All-Purpose compost, so I put it in my Ikea bag and lugged it home. 

This morning B.A. and I went back to Tesco with two Ikea bags before the NHS-and-Elderly Hour and each carried a 40 L bag of compost home. I feel that this is a great victory over the Vile Germ, the suspension of our civil liberties, and a car-centred society.  Only 140 L to go!

I also amused myself, yesterday evening and this morning, by conversing on Twitter with a gay Muslim You-Clap-For-Me-Now fan in Qatar and a White Nationalist from who-knows-where. I'm quite pleased that I didn't ask the Qatar chap how he treats his mother's maid and that I haven't pointed out to the White Nationalist lady  that the biggest enemy to ethnic homogeneity in European nations is the birth control pill. The first reply would have been cheap and the second  probably pointless, as White Nationalist lady might fervently agree with me and want to know how many children I have. 

The Qatari was slightly amazed I'm talking to the White Nationalist at all, but I'm always intrigued by people who stick by incredibly unpopular views. What lies beneath them? Do they have coherent arguments or just strong emotion caused by--what?  

(I do draw the line, however, at her idea that Canada and the USA have been "white countries." Not only have there been black people in North America since 1619, there have always been millions of First Nations people. Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that Latin America will spread upward into the USA, and if I were American, I would learn Spanish and get with the historical program.) 

I'm also glad I looked up the biography of Baroness Warsi before publicly suggesting she has more privilege in her little finger than the drunken young Scot who told me and a Polish shopkeeper to speak English. In fact, Baroness Warsi clearly worked hard to get where she is now, so mad props to Baroness Warsi. Meanwhile, the Polish shop has gone out of business, weep weep, so the shopkeeper may be as much a victim of history as the Scot.

Right-o. I was going to give up politics on my blog for the duration of the lockdown, and now look. The pull of ethnic politics is just too strong for me; I blame my elementary school's International Nights and Italy's World Cup victory in 1982.  

In gardening news, I also bought a strawberry plant, and it is sitting happily out-of-doors. And if all goes well, the Veg Trug will be finished today and filled with compost tomorrow. I will be able to plant my precious broad bean babies in it, a much richer environment than the old raised bed the radishes and lettuce are growing so slowly in.

Update: It did not end well with the Irish White Nationalist. He (turns out it was a he) She seems to lack intellectual integrity. But although pointing out that a vast number of disparate peoples fall under the category "white," I forbore from observing that at certain times in history, some unpleasant white people have regarded the Irish as subhuman. Of course, she could have replied that as she is dedicated to "White Togetherness", she objects to any European ethnic group labelling another subhuman. But ultimately she has decided that I have dismissed the apparent sufferings of white children in London, so no more interesting conversation.

Update 2: Actually we chatted some more, so I think it has ended pretty well.