August 2016

We seem to be emerging from a cold southerly blast that has lasted a good couple of weeks, into a string of cloudy, wet days.  After last summer’s drought, the rain is still kinda welcome.  The woodstove has been glorious at keeping us warm and heating bath water.  The chill has only really affected evening and night time temperatures, as daytime usually reaches between 12-16 degrees.  Once the frost has cleared, some days have been positively balmy.
 

Spring is beckoning and crop preparations are underway.  Well, the potatoes are chitting at least, and the ordered seeds have arrived.  Seed planting will begin in earnest in the next couple of weeks – with all that tantalising promise of bountiful produce.  There's no sign of animal bounty in the form of lambs (darn), but fruit buds are getting bigger and weeds are just starting to make their mark in the keyhole beds.  It’s like the calm before the storm.

The paths in the vegetable garden are gradually being re-covered with weed-mat, though nothing like as quickly as I’d hoped.  It’s a monumental task that I’m looking forward to completing so I can get on with other garden stuff.  I’m aware that my standards are slipping the longer the job takes, so here’s hoping I don’t stuff up too badly.  Roll on the gravel stage.

The new pond behind the pump shed is filled and work has begun on its rocky surrounds.  We’ve liberated some rocks from the garden (the lawn will have to be extended to fill the gap they’ve left) and they’re now around the pond.  There are plenty more to move, so it should take shape further.  Eventually gravel will extend from the paths to meet the rocks.  It’ll need a bit more titivating in terms of planting, but so far so good.

In the meantime the vege garden remains productive, though probably not for too much longer.  We’re out of potatoes, but carrots are still go, as are baby leeks, cavalo nero, kale, beetroot and (my favourite) purple sprouting.  Fruit supplies for smoothies are still ongoing too - currants, gooseberries, plums, peaches and rhubarb - though these are frozen, not fresh.  I’m sure there’s more in the hairy depths of the freezer.  They’ll be like buried treasure when they’re eventually discovered.  

The chooks spent a few days confined to barracks after breaching the vege garden boundary, and have not attempted to re-enter since they were re-released.  Not that we’ve seen anyway.  They are laying again (we’re getting around 3 fabulous, huge eggs a day) so they’ve been cut a bit of slack.  I’d like to lay down some straw in the flower beds, but that will have to wait until they have to be contained again i.e. when vege seedlings are eventually planted out, or if they misbehave otherwise.

Karyn has finally come and pruned the roses.  I get very impatient with them, looking all ugly and straggly, and for months she insists it’s too soon, and in any case I’m not allowed anywhere near them with a sharp implement.  To be fair she’s not the only person to have expressed reservations about me and sharp things.  I gave her fair and due warning that I’d had enough and was about to take the chain saw to them.  That did the trick, and now they’re beautifully pruned and ready for bud burst.  As per her specific instructions I have scattered horse poo around them, though it goes against the grain to waste perfectly good manure on roses rather than edible crops. 

The bees seem to be enjoying the mild daytime temperatures.  They’re buzzing around in their hundreds so are visible as well as audible.  Honey supplies are lasting out.  They make fantastic gift currency.  I either give them away or trade them for whatever else people have.  So far that’s meant hazelnuts and a hazelnut tree, a jar of award-winning zucchini chutney (from ‘Chuntey’ queen Tanya) and some fish.  Much better than money.

The pizza oven is still in use, mainly for roast dinners.  Amazing that something we constructed has lasted so long and works so well.  The sparrows do like to warm their toes on the outside. So much for thinking it was well-insulated.  Maybe another outer layer with cow poo is in order.  Our supplies of fire-wood have increased thanks to Jill and George.  They’ve been coming round and chopping up trees, and sharing the bounty with us.  They were even able to borrow a wood-splitter and have worked through all the bigger logs turning them into wood-stove and pizza-oven sized chunks.  That would have taken Peter days of axe-work, so is a massively welcome gesture. 

Hot on the heels of my nearly award-winning honey (technically it didn’t win the public vote, but it was the judge’s choice, and that’s plenty good enough for me), I’ve had international success with my first cider.  Ok, another exaggeration, but it did win the 2016 Onamalutu Best Cider prize.  Some of our neighbours organised a social event for the valley residents, which cleverly centred on a beer and cider competition.  My cider was made from Foxwood Broxwelp apples, using a kitchen blender and wild yeasts.  My dad’s family originates from Somerset - where the cider apples grow - so maybe some of my luck was spirited down from my ancestors.  The prize was a beautiful wooden bottle, turned on a lathe, and a voucher for the local brewing shop. 


The voucher bought a dozen solid dark glass bottles with clip tops, which are perfect for the kombucha and water kefir drinks that have been fermenting away in the kitchen.  I prefer the taste of the kombucha, but the water kefir is rampant, needing attention every 2 days.  It's currently getting a rest in the fridge.  It's great to have these drink options available, and no doubt they'll be even more refreshing in the summer.  They're good for my liver too, if only because of being an alcohol-alternative!

Peter has been playing with his new tool toy – a glass bottle cutter.  It was a birthday present from Marcus and Nikki, and should mean that we don’t ever have to buy glasses again.  For a family who smashes glass on a frequent basis, that’s perfect.  He’s even having a go at a spot of engraving.

Sam's 19th birthday has been and gone, and so has his wine-making course.  New plans are afoot for him.  Billy’s doing his prelim exams and has chosen his subjects for next year, though still has no idea what he’d like to do in the future.  We’re expecting another Japanese visitor next week, a school boy from Jissen Gakuen, where Mikiru and Kakeru came from last year.  He’ll stay for a week, and hopefully the snow will last out on Rainbow so that we can take him sledging. 

Welcome spring and the many contented solitary hours working on the land that lie ahead.  I definitely enjoy the almost meditative element to gardening, getting totally absorbed in whatever it is I'm doing.  Ernest Hemingway (A Moveable Feast) has the best words:

‘When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself”