Title tba

Not sure what to call this update. There's nothing much of substance in it and yet I feel the need to mark my presence in the world.


 
 The lovely weather has definitely morphed into summer. This is marvellous and has made me much happier. Unfortunately, the very high temperatures give me another excuse to shirk on work in the garden, it's just too hot out there for most of the day.

The replacement beans and sweet corn are just beginning to sprout. I did put up a couple of bean wigwams on some land Paul cleared while he was here and hope soon to be able to plant out the Painted Lady runners and a mishmash of climbing French beans, Carter's Polish which impressed me last year and some Cosse Violette which are part of my ongoing search for the lost purple bean of my youth.  I'll probably start another half dozen climbing beans to extend the season and there are some bush beans, Royal Red, nearly ready for a row of their own.

 I've also got a batch of Striped Bunch half runners but I have to clear the land for them in the back garden where they are isolated from other beans and also from the depredations of deer. To plant out with them I have the Dutch Cappuciner peas that came from the Heritage Seed Library this year and survived mouse attack in the greenhouse. One lonely Moschata pumpkin makes the set for the patch which is sharing with the soft fruit until a new fruit garden can be made for it.

I'm disappointed that the other pumpkins, Whangapararoa Crown and some Sweet Dumpling are yet to germinate. I don't think the seed is too old but they do seem very slow and if they're not up in a couple of days the worst will have happened.

 

The fluffy girl cat managed to choke on something yesterday evening and has hurt her throat. Her meow, always a bit reedy, has gone altogether and she has had some wheezy breathing over night. I've been worried enough to consider taking her to the vet although I could see no obstructions but she had some breakfast and seems happy enough so I'm hanging on to see if the irritation passes by itself.



Crow is looking skinny and rather seedy too but that probably comes from lying in the long grass waiting for mice to pass by. He is still the best hunter of the three and the most demanding of my time waking me at all hours of the night for no particular reason I can see.



Big fat Rook on the other hand never seems to trouble himself over much. As long as he gets a good cuddle when he wants it, and he'll jump right up and take it, he manages life with dignity and gravitas.



Just for the record, our only pair of swallows have successfully raised their first brood of the year. The strongest baby came out for a flight a few days ago and for the last couple of days there have been four young swallows practising their flight and enjoying the sunshine. It's remarkable how the parents managed to find enough food for them all during the terrible weather of April and May but they did it. I hope the babies grow strong quickly and learn to look after themselves in a wicked world.

And the sun came out

After 72 hours of nearly constant rain and heavy overcast which prevented any warmth from reaching the soil the wind changed and spring arrived. The weather forecasters assure me that it's going to last in the region of 10 days or more although somewhat unusually that it won't be as warm here as it is several hundred miles north in Newport Pagnell.

No matter, there is blue sky and solar heat, it's a relief.



Still a bit breezy for butterflies, if any have survived these last two apocalyptic months of dreadful cold and wet, but small flying insects like this hoverfly on a strawberry flower are out and about for a good feed.



This orange-red bottomed bumble bee is, I think, a queen Bombus Lapidarius. There were a couple of them about foraging greedily on the clover.



And there you have it. If my resown seeds come up, if the weather holds and if  I don't go mad with the isolation this year, the season has begun. Roll on summer.

Beginners mistakes

It was easy to get a few seeds to germinate indoors, I sowed sweetcorn and some Striped Bunch half runners. As soon as they started to come up I moved them from the propagator to the windowsill for a few days to harden off and then out to the greenhouse where it was warm and the light was good even if the weather wasn't.

The mice didn't just eat what they could see, they dug up each baby seedling and chewed off every last scrap of cotyledon and seed under the ground.

This was so depressing I held off doing anything for a while. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just write this season off and do something more useful instead. But the sun came out today and I found, contrary to my recall, that I did have a handful of sweetcorn seed left so I've brought the seed trays back in and resowed. Who knows what will happen.



Despite the continuing poor weather the imperative of growth keeps things moving on slowly in the garden. There are a few flowers out now, the elderflowers are just coming into bloom, some may, lilacs and other garden shrubs showing blooms.

On a sunny day like today that's quite cheering.



And this is our new toy.

I looked away for a moment

And the beech leaves came out.

From the Greenhouse

I've been offline for a  few days although it won't have been obvious. Gales took down a tree and with it my telephone line. It's been quite a while getting fixed although putting the positive spin on it they did get it done two days before they said they would, so I'm pleased really.

Apart from the very first year here, when we didn't move in until quite late in the year, I don't think we've ever been quite so far behind with the planning, planting and sowing. Some toxic combination of missing direction or ambition and the appalling weather has put a stop to nearly all progress.

Yesterday finally I did plant some rows of root veg; burdock, large radish, carrots, parsnips and beetroot, but if the land hadn't been prepared in the last few days of the good weather of March it wouldn't even have been possible to do that.

I'm looking at starting everything else indoors this year, plug plants that can be popped into the ground when (or if) the conditions improve sufficiently for some rapid cultivation of a bed for them and it's become warm enough for  growth. It's late for that but late starters often catch up better than weedy straggling seedlings that have struggled through the chill and poor light of early spring. With fingers crossed we should get some harvest.

It's in complete contradiction to everything I've been striving to study and improve on for the last five years because except for a very few tender or slow growing plants nearly everything we eat can normally be grown in the open without this sort of molly coddling. For sustainability that's the better way to be. Still, I'd like to have something good in the garden and so concentrating on things like sweetcorn and salads will be useful practise, these are things which have not been so successful in recent times.

The bad weather (don't be fooled by the picture, it's cold and windy and has been raining for two weeks) has had some effects on the wildlife too. We seem to have only one pair of swallows this year which is really sad and the early butterflies have had a hard time getting out and about to feed and mate, that's probably going to reduce numbers substantially next spring.

Can't wait for some real springtime sunshine and warmth.

First the good news

It was a much nicer day today than the forecast would allow, sunny enough that I managed to wash and dry a load of washing in the afternoon - I wish I'd been more hopeful in the morning, could probably have done two or three loads.

 The first potatoes, not just the Swift but the Red Duke of York are showing. The Duke is a passionate purple tinged shoot, most exotic looking next to the rather sickly Swift. The onion sets, even though planted very late, are also showing life.

Rook has taken another tumble into the pond and survived. He wasn't just sopping wet but layered with thick mud indicating he'd gone in at the deep end and had to struggle to escape. I'm glad he seems to have learnt what to do as I fear a cat that panicked would come to a sorry end in the sucking quagmire of the silted up pool.

He hates to be brushed but he did eventually allow me to remove a substantial quantity of muck from his coat and was soon returned to shiny cleanliness.



However, almost continuous rain and strong winds interspersed with heavy hail storms in the last ten days mean that little useful work has been achieved in the garden and nearly all motivation to get anything at all done has been lost in feeling miserable and trying to keep warm. I'm wearing five layers of clothes topped off with an outdoor fleece jacket every day and don't need to dress up to go outside since the temperature in both places is much the same.

And although today has been a welcome respite the pattern is set to resume tomorrow with 100% chance of rain and high winds forecast, the rain continuing well into next week. It's tremendously depressing and despite starting some of the more tender plants like courgettes and morning glories I doubt it will ever be possible to let them outside.

Almost worse than that - can you hear me Google? - they've finally forced me to use their broken and confused new editing system for blogging. There were very few problems with the old one but the new one isn't WYSIWYG nor is the HTML pane much better. Laying things out is almost impossible in either mode and it's making me very cross indeed.

Slowly, very slowly

The skies over Normandy are cold and grey at least half of the time so far this April. It's not making it any easier to settle back into the routine of managing alone. I feel jumbled and lost, not sure what I should be doing or why, but life is beginning to assume some sort of pattern that will help hold things together although I'm having to use this blog as an aide-memoire to direct my actions - it's April I should be digging, that sort of thing.



This egg was on the ground below the big pear tree. Almost undamaged apart from one small puncture where yolk was leaking out I think it must have fallen after the nest was attacked by magpies this morning. I saw the wretched birds flying away when I first went out. I don't have my Girls Book of Egg Identifications handy so I can't tell you what sort of bird it might have become but it's a very pretty egg and I'm sorry it's dead.

By the way, all the photos today were taken with the Ixus330, my brilliant little point and shoot digital camera which is nearing 10 years old. I wish all cameras were as sturdy and long lasting.



Despite feeling abandoned and lost I've plenty of contact with people and need to think about planning ahead for our summer party here, which we've been promising without really thinking much further than that about it. It will be a handfasting and summer ball as well as a chance to view the new tractor. Applications on a postcard if you've not had your invitation already!



The bumble bees were out today, they have no existential doubts, they were gathering nectar from the dead nettles as fast as they possibly could and it was difficult to find one stopped for long enough to take a picture.



I'm hoping the cold nights we're still having won't prevent the pears and plums setting a good crop. The apples flower a couple of weeks later and are usually o.k.



Today I dug some onion patch, weeded the strawberries and did most of the cleaning in the greenhouse ready for the new season. It's so wonderfully warm in there I'm tempted to set up a desk and chair so I can sit with my laptop without my fingers freezing off.