Spring is on its way

The cold weather has broken down the soil into a fine tilth; just hoed with a push-pull hoe, cuts the weeds well. Burning rubbish, hope to make some charcoal to incorporate into the soil, great benefits and easy to do.  Get the fire going, put on the wood or organic matter, waste, cuttings... cover up with weeds or soil to excluded air. Next day open up the reduced pile. There should  be charcoal (bio-char) amongst the ashes. Rake shovel out and work into the soil. Planted shallots, easy to grow, keep well and a high value crop. Half my onion sets in now rest in later. Very early potatoes in now.
Met my friends John & Sarah Snyder, from the Sahara Project 1986 - 1992, after 18 years. John has just digitised the 35000 images he took in Mali and converted them into a film. A copy of the 43G file now sits on a tiny 250G external hard drive that easily fits in my pocket. Oh how the technology has changed since laser vision disc of the late 1980s. John is still working with Dr Mark Porter of "Muscat" fame (an early  probablisitic search engine). Their current project is "Grapeshot".