In the meantime

I have had net troubles today. Couldn't get connection at all with laptop, and had to miss one meeting completely. Another was teams-meeting, and that I can use from my phone. I should be able to use skype from my phone, too, but it is just not working.

Well, co-worked had a chance to bragg about his catch (13,4kg salmon) and all other important but now seriously neglected information was finally shared. It's so good to gossip sometimes.

But because everything else was not working, I called it a day after 10am and used my time much more better way - gardening.

Than you Jo for your kind words.

Old man was awake in the mid morning when my mother called the ward, everything seems to be ok. Operation went smoothly, it was easier than surgeons had anticipated. So far so good. Now old man has to learn how to live as a type 1 diabetic, he has no pancreas to produce any insulin at all. Of course many other hormones and entzymes are also missing, and because part of his stomac was also removed, eating is so much more difficult and important from now on. He's lost too much weight already.

His operation was now, because there has been no new covid19-cases (in that university hospital area). The medical team thought it would be better to have the operation now, even if there migh have been some benefits with postponing it with medication old man was having. Later this year there might be new covid-cases again, so no better time than now.

Weather has been very summery, 'Suma the poor girl doesn't understand why she's feeling so hot. Poor puppy. I planted all sun flowers (14), and chards. Yesterday I planted all broad beans which have been growing in the polytunnel, they were way too big already, but... Better now than never, I guess.

Little cucumbers are in cold frame, and most of tomatoes and aubergines in glass greenhouse.

I have never grown aubergines, di I need to support them somehow, with canes or strings?

Tomorrow I'll have to go to my office (because of the connection problems), but in the evening I'll plant other beans I have and hopefully most of brassicas, too.

Then there's zucchinis and pumpkins left and when they are gone I can use that free space in the polytunnel to plan rest of tomatoes, aubergines and peppers...

And then the weeding starts.

Week 11?

I don't know anymore which week this is - the "new normal". I still can't do certain things that are part of my work, but I'm still overworked most of the time - I know I'm doing something wrong because some of my co-workers have had basically a long spring vacation and my hours keep adding.

But I don't actually care, I know I'm doing my part and when this is over no-one can tell me I didn't do enough.

Children are out of school, D has still one language course to attend (4h a day + homework for two weeks) but she didn't return to school in the first place like boys did, they had 12 days - but mostly they were biking, hiking, picnicking and studying outside the classroom and outside the school building.

But I'm relived school is over for now.

I've been in the veg plot, in polytunnel and all around. I try to work on my veg plot or polytunnel at least an hour a day, but it's not so easy in this househould.

Weather has been nice, too nice, if you ask me. We need rain - yes, we had snow during mother's day weekend, but it's not enough. And it's been several weeks since.

I still haven't planted everything on my plot or cold frames, Most seedlings are still waiting in the polytunnel. We usually cet frost in mid June (it was 10th June, but lately it's been near 15th - we do get the worst from climate change, no snow in winter but more snow in summer).

I have weeded strawberry boxes, I got 10 runners to plant (2 of them will go to my co-worker, they are from plants I got from our nice cleaner lady and I promised to give her any I can find). In another box there's plenty of runners left, but NOW it's raining so I'm not doing it. With rain come mosquitoes, and we have plenty of them in sunny dry days. I have seen several flowers already!

Glass greenhouse has all planted. Six tomatoes, two cape gooseberries, two spinach wines (I don't remember the name of that plant) and four aubergines. Plants are still very tiny, but if I'm lucky I'll get at least some harvest. There was a critters nest in the greenhouse, mole or mouse, I have no idea, but it was VERY productive during winter. I scooped droppings and used as a fertilizer in growing bags (I didn't change the mulch this year). So, time will tell how powerful those droppings are 😁

My corn is my biggest worry - os likes fresh corn cobs so I sowed over 40 seeds. I have six plants! All other seeds sown using same soil are doing well. Yestarday I saw few small green dots in pots - they might grow now, ut it's so late! I think I have to harvest them as mini cobs (like ones used in fry ups). i don't know what's wrong with corn, seeds were bought this spring and they were of expensive/hight quality brand.

Old man is finaly having an operation next week. It's a major operation, at least six hour in the theatre, a couple of days in ICU, few weeks in the university hospital and after that he'll be moved to local hospital to recover -if he makes it through the operation. First he was told the tumour was inoperable. Timing is always poor, of course, but at least he has done all firewood, all field work (potatoes are planted) and fixed his tractor.

I'm considering if I should ask my sister to live with mom for the summer with her family. Even with her partner working benefits overpower risks, I think.

We'll have a family meeting this weekend.

Week six

My co-worker counted on wednesday we have been working from home for 43 days (inculding weekends and easter days off). So now it's 47 days. And children have been at home even longer, d for 50 days (they stayed home before this lock down came compusory, because school was needed for those doing their final exams) and sys and ys for 48 days.

Sys's school project -  and as you can see, everything is WIP.

It's fine. I go shopping once a week if there's no special needs. Like next week, my car is due MOT and I need some soil bags for my veggie plot and my aunt need gardening gloves and my mom wants me to check if there's any leftover goodies from shops. Old man should eat much more, he's losing weight and he's already bag of bones. Pity he can't eat anything healthy or fatty (and everything must be cooked to oblivion). No full corn anything - with exception of oats.
Here is no restrictions to go outside or working outside (just recommendation for high risk people to stay at home and away from other people - however they are allowed to go shopping etc if there's no-one to help them) , but no public meetings over 10 people are allowed, no restrictions on shops or supermarkets (or megamarkets).

So because he doesn't do shopping anyway, he decided our wood needed cutting. Wearing overalls I got him almost 30 years ago. If you want to find a thrifty person, old man is one. If there wasn't corona, I would have been there splitting the wood while he was cutting it.

So, because people are trying to avoid other people, they are flocking here.

And of course they parked right in front of our back gate. Which hasn't have an acual gate ever.

Somewhere behind all those bushes are those old (more than 100yrs) fish ponds, which nowadays might have some frogs, a pair of cranes nesting (they have laid eggs already) and two pairs of swans (which will fly away in few weeks, they will not nest here). It was magnificent park once, a very popular place for walks while in honeymoon in the manor house (it was very popular hotel at the time, even after the WWII). Old people still remembers that and NOW they want to see them again. Or their children. Or people whose parents have worked either in the manor or hotel or those fish ponds. Since then land is split and sold to several other people (part of it belongs to a country house which was spilt from the original manor), fish were harvested with dynamite and all buildings were either relocated or demolished (again using dynamite - you might think people nowadays are stupid, but think again, after WWII all kinds of stupidities were done all the time!) Pump house is gone (dynamite), caretaker's cottage is gone (relocated) as well as gamekeeper's hut (relocated, it was moved only few hundred meters and is now our closest neighbouring house, and it is empty now). Our grounds are part of that original fish pond area.

Rush hour - I haven't seen more than one plane in weeks before that and not afterwards either

 

Another uninvited visitor. We had snow for a day.

 No more snow. I put on that strawberry plastic to keep weeds on bay until soil is dry enough to plow. Might take some time, because ground was still frozen a week ago. Hopefully lack plastic warms it.

Salad!

I just had to get something in to the polytunnel, so I sowed some salad seeds. Now there is also radishes, more salads and perpentual spinach (new zealand spinach). In one of the cold frames I sowed carrots. Inside I have peppers, chillies, aubergines, brassicas and so on. I had parsnip seeds from last summer, and knowing how poorly older seeds might germinate I wrapped them on moist paper towel to see, if any seed will sprout.

Hb has been working on my car since Friday, and he might finish with it today evening. It will not pass MOT and keys are not working, but I have to take it there anyway, otherwise I can't do it at all.
I've been looking for a replacement, but haven't found any yet. I can borrow old man's car, but he needs it occasionally, when he has to go for blood tests or treatment or such. No longer taxi drives for him, too hig risk for infection.

I have made several face masks, this was the first one (instructions from New York Times, not good). I won't use this pattern again.

It is easy to us to stay at home and not to meet other people (Number Two excluded). D has it harder, she actually has friends now, and had realized she misses their hugs and closeness. Boys have a great time, they are only worrying if they have to go back to school before summer. I doubt it will happen, but you never know nowadays.

I have less freetime than before. My days are filled with cooking, walking with 'Suma, doing dishes, washing, gardening, helping children with their school - and yes, I have to work eight hours a day on top of all that.  (I cook at least one big meal a day, usually two, I make lunch for hb to take with him to work, and then there are breakfasts and snacks). I don't bake much, on Friday I made buns and one loaf, I got the loaf out of oven 1am.
There's been some very nice days, and some very difficult. But overall, we are doing fine.

Preparing for colder months

Mid September. Somehow it feels like winter is going to be here right now, but in real life I know it'll take at least two months until we are really in to the winter.

I have a bunch of tasks to do before serious frosts and snow (and the darkness October and November brings).

Garden, veggie plot, geenhouse and polytunnel:

Things need to be done now (before we have first frosts at the end of this week):
- harvest everything that can be harvested (beets, chard, nz spinach, zucchinies, beans, corn, potatoes from bags)
- cover plants that need shelter (pumpkins, zucchinies, beans)
- get strawberry runners planted
- make sure greenhouse and polytunnel are kept ready for cold nights

Things need to be done ASAP:
- build a new additional cold frame for garlic
- build a new frame ready for next summer's cucumbers
- build a new additional frame for more strawberries
- empty compost bin to aforementioned frames
- harvest everything that will not be producing anymore from greenhouse and polytunnel (cucamelon, herbs, potatoes)
- mix old spoiled concrete mixes with sawdust and fill holes on the forest tractor tracks (so that tractor is no longer in danger to fall over or lose it's oil plug)
- forage more mushrooms (boletes are soon over)
- get chillies and peppers from polytunnel inside house (and buy a growing light for them)

Things need to be done before winter is here:
- harvest all pumpkins
- harvest all tomatoes
- harvest carrots and parsnips
- plant garlic to new frame
- empty all growing bags (excluding ones inside greenhouse) and pots into cold frames
- harvest everything else left in greenhouse and polytunnel
- empty greenhouse and polytunnel, rescue rosemary and ginger (they need growing light, too)
- harvest aronia berris from aunt's garden
- harvest rowan berries (from aunt's garden?)
- empty ash buckets to cold frames (this needs to be done several times to get all frames covered)
- take poly from polytunnel down and put it into greenhouse for winter
- try to figure out how to protect kale from hares during the winter....

And some additional stuff to be done:
- try to locate some free apples
- buy new winter shoes fro three kids
- check kids' winter coats if they neew new ones
- mix sawdust and (garden) peat for outhouse use
- get some heavy duty candles for outhouse
- grind ys's new room's outside wall ready for filler
- level out that wall with filler
- get one wall done with planks, treat planks before that
- fill, sand and fill again plaster walls to be painted
- figure out what colour ys wants for those plaster board walls (hopefully not wallpaper)
- make floor with vinyl planks
- move ys to that room!
- and then the toilet...

Miles of strawberries

So far I have managed to freeze about 10kg of strawberries, 2 kg went into jam. Os asked me to make some strawberry jam to taste (he doesn't eat shop bought jam anymore).

Boiling jars and lids.

And strawberries - I use jam sugar with some pectin. It'll keep at least a year, but I think this one will not see next summer...

I was away for three days driving along smallest of small country roads trying to find berry farms, and two days again this week. I have seen ostriches, lambs, the most huge orpington cockerel, bunnies and miles after miles of rows of strawberries (and Ukrainian berry pickers). Blueberries are not in season yet, and raspberries are ripe only in tunnels. lasti week I drove 500 miles, and in the end of day three I thought I wouldn't walk five hundred miles more... This week only 300miles.

And this wasn't the narrowest road I drove...

Next summer I really hope I don't have to do those tours, they are exhausting. (I do this as part of my work, not to get berries)

Kids have been eating handful of our own strawberries almost daily, they say they are far more better than bought ones.

Most of firewood is cut and split and stacked in storage for the winter. There is s small(ish) pile of cut and split wood in the field, it's still wet and have to be stacked somewhere to dry. There is also 8 stacks of dry and split wood which is still 1m long, so it needs to be cut. Kids hate me, because they have been stacking wood for three weeks now...

These 5 piles need to be cut, and we have three more piles like these to be cut as well. 'Suma found a new playground.

Veg path and polytunnel as well as greenhouse survived my being away. D had watered them just fine, not too much and not too little. Of course because we had very cold weather so there was no need to water anything much. There was even frosts at night a bit north from us, luckily we have had +5C or +6C nights. If I had basil, it would have suffered.
Well, now we have Saharan heat wave coming. Talk about u-turn.

I found first flowers in tomatoes -  I know, most people are already eating their tomatoes. I also have nice flowers in my melons, watermelon is a bit behind now. Cucamelon is also flowering.

This is  melon, do I really need to pollinate them by myself?

 We ate first potatoes a week ago, with pickled herring, chanterelles (from pur own forest), fried eggs and roasted vegetables. Kids were not impressed with violet potatoes, to me they were ok. We do have normal white/yellow potatoes, so kids will not be starving this summer. But those potatoes are really dark, deep purple.

Violet Queens and some unidentified white potatoes.

They are spuds even if they look like black beets. They even bleed blue.

Today I'm going to pick some more chanterelles, as well other mushrooms I'll find. Os will eat them happily, and I noticed last weekend all children eating them (fried in butter). Even ys, who has been refusing 'shrooms lately.

I weeded under my black currant bushes, they are not quite ripe yet, but soon. Noighbours white currants are ripe, asn well as reds. I might pick some tomorrow, I have room in freezer. Pity there's no lingon berries coming this year, I saw no flowers in spring and therefore no berries... Kids like them in smoothies.

Is this a hazelnut?

Carrots my ow (I have purple too, but they are tiny), saskatoon (serviceberry) I bought from a berry farm to taste. Ok.

I have two weeks off again, I have a list of tasks in my mind I'd like to complete:
-plant cherries (bought in early June?)
-weed veggie path
-feed kids carrots from cold frames
-start using beets from frames
-harvest Belgian garlic from both frames
-eat potatoes from bags (I still have 13 growing bags of potatoes)
-forage mushrooms
-find some more strawberries to make more jam (to say it was a succes is a bit understatement)
-take sys and ys to adventure park
-move cut and split wood from field to forest (there's pallets waiting them to be stacked)
-have a little day trip with my sister.

I had to come inside, because there's too hot for black dog like 'Suma. Now she's been sleeping an hour so we can go back outside, this time to pick mushrooms I found yesterday while at 'Sumawalk.

No heatwave no rain

We have had basically very boring weather all spring/summer. No great heatwaves (not Spanish bubble here), neither rain or floods. Some light shovers, only one thunder (can't call it storm) and some warm days.

Weeds love that.

I finally managed to tackle all weeds I wanted to get rid off, I left on purpose one patch in which I have sown calendula, but it never germinated. I'm going to cover it with plastic (empty mulch bags I have abundance of). I did found some swedes, but I think I'm not going to have a meal out of them. My magne touts/sugar snap peas have germinated very sparingly - I can't even blame pidgeons, haven't seen them or any traces of them at all in veg plot. Peas have made a bit better, but I will not dream of a huge harvest. I think I should sow some broad beans on empty spots, it'll look better (but it's too short time to autunm, so I'm not going to have any harvest on bbs either, unless I'm having them as greens). Few chards were still alive, some might even survive 'Suma who wasn't very amused to be at the veg plot day after day. Poor puppy.

Notice the strategic alignment along rows. Her head rests on empty spot at the end of a brassica row.

Potatoes in car tyres are thriving, there's plenty of blossoms. I don't remember last time my potatoes actually flowered!  On the veg plot they are not very pretty, but alive nevertheless.

This is what they usually get.

We (kids) have been eating our own strawberries on several evenings, I picked nine even sized ones a couple days ago, and yesterday I picked maybe twenty? I divided them between kids (didn't divide berries, like I usually do, to each get their fair share) and sys looked at them confused "You mean I can eat ALL of them, as WHOLE?" Poor kids, their childhood is miserable.

This was the very first fistful of strawberries.

(I did bought 5kg box of strawberries to freezer, and let kids eat as much as they wanted to. 2,5kg ended to freezer - but our own strawberries are tastier.)

There is not much to eat at the veg plot or polytunnel, some salad and herbs. Radishes have gone over, but I did read somewhere you can eat the seedpods, too. So I left them to flower and go to seed, I'll have a taste then.
Today I took first garlics off, they are that Dutch variety which is not doing well in our place. It's softneck variety, and two years of growing it has only managed to grow a bigger cloves, not bulbs.

That dark spot is actually just dirt. They're quite strong flavoured, I couldn't use all of those in my hummus.

My Russian variety (hardneck) is doing much better, it's growing scapes now (I really should harvest them), and I did plant last autunm about 80-90  tiny cloves from scapes and they are growing now, too. I think it takes at least two summers for them to get to the point of forming bulbs, but after that all my garlic is basically free (I will have enough cloves to plant every autunm and still eat all garlic I want). Last winter I bought about half adozen garlic bulbs, my own made it until March?

Hb and I met 30 years ago. Boy that makes me feel old! D said the other day she's only third of my age, and yes, she is. I'm feeling ancient.

What else... My brother got bees for the first time this summer, this week they harvested their first batch of honey, 35kg! And they need to harvest honey at least once if not twice this summer. Bet they'll be in sticky stuff up tp their necks in autunm. No, not really, I think there's a line behind their door asking for honey.

It's wonderful, golden, runny, clear. Even os wanted to taste and liked it. He's not fan of honey.

Very tasty with creamy Turkish yoghurt.

 I have also found some 'shrooms. Boletes.

I think this is a bitter bolete (tylopilus felleus)

Didn't pick it up for some reason...

Bitter boletes are not actually poisonous, but...

I have picked maybe the last batch of rhubarb (from neighborough's garden). I wanted to try rhubarb liqueur (equal amounts sugar, fruit and vodka). Maybe it's ready before Christmas? For hampers, perhaps.

And I'll end this with best picture of  'Suma I have managed for a long time.

Nearly there

Even if this summer has been wonderful weatherwise, I'm very late in my gardening. I haven't planted all plant intended to polytunnel or greenhouse, and just yesterday got last gourgettes/zucchinis planted in to the vegplot. My mother will bring me some tomato plants, and I'll give her four potatoes (planted on milk cartons), Violet Queen. I have no space left for them.

Veg plot is hiding under jungle of weeds. I think I have some peas and magne touts, but can't find them yet. Broad beans are doing well, a year ago I tried to precultivate them, and it didn't turn out well. They were leggy and got attacked by blackflies, they suffered much more than the ones I sowed right to the veg plot. So it's direct sow for now on.

In veg plot there is of course potatoes, two varieties (Violet Queen and something I can't remember, but it is not Annabelle, it didn't like my soil at all last summer), brassicas (mostly cabbages, some kale and few others). I sowed swedes, but I think they're gone, as well as chard directly sown to soil. Beets I planted as small plants are doing fine. Cucumbers, on the other hand, are dying. I have no idea why. If cabbages and pumpkins are doing fine, so why not cucumbers (pickling ones)? I have some sweet corn (leftovers from raised bed) and sunflowers. They(sf) too don't want to grow, and I have no idea why. One fennel plant. It suprised me by staying alive!

On friday we had our annual Midsummer party at communal beach. I was hoping we wouldn't organize it, but no such luck. I have been working there about 17 times in last 20 years, and full decade in a row now! I haven't spent Midsummer with my kids at all, ever. I have been pouring coffee, cashing people, picking litter, taking care of roulette for children etc. This year we had few new volunteers, but not enough for me to stay away.
Then we celebrated the second birthday of my nephew and since that I have been stacking firewood for the winter. Loading a wheelbarrow to the brim, pushing that wheelbarrow up hill to wood shed and unloading it, and then stacking. All that while horseflies and mosquitos are trying to eat me.

Oh yeah, I sew pants to my sister one evening, she needed something else than jeans or leggins to wear while they were spending time by the lake (sister's bf's relatives has a hut there). I had some pale blue fabrick with pink flowers (thick cotton jersey (?) you could sew a hoodie) and matching pink ribbing. I had to find a pattern, copy pattern pieces to parchment paper, cut the pieces and sew... Haha. All in less than an hour. I just love me when I have those wonderful ideas. But, pants fitted her perfectly and protected her from mosquitos.
And I have one piece of fabric less to store here.

Since all that, I have been weeding veg plot. It's miserable. It is curious that some potatoes are doing fine while others are dying or just sprouted! Some spuds suffering have ant nest right in their roots, but others don't. I have no idea why some are doing fine and some not - it would be logical if most plants would be suffering? I weeded broad beans and beets, I have two more rows of potatoes to weed and then I have to tackle pea rows. There's so much thistle I'd like to cry, but most times I just make not so pretty faces when they prick me.
D cut all lupins from our yard, only one wheenbarrow, full. Most lupins I can see are in someone else's grounds, and I can't kill them without permission. Our neighbour will like me to tackle them too, I'm not sure if I want to. But needs must.

In the autunm I need to build at least one more raised bed, because I need one for brassicas, too. Now I have one for corn (doing fine), one for beans (doing more than fine) one for garlic (seeing scapes already) and one for carrots (and parsnips, I'm testing if my family wants to eat them), and two for strawberries. I could do with one shallow and narrow (like I have for strawberries) for pickling cucumbers, that's the last solution I can come up. If they don't grow in box, I don't have a clue what to do to get them growing.
And because strawberries are doing it so nicely in their boxes, I might need to build another just for strawberries... They are already forming runners, I have to remember make sure I'll get them at some point.
How lucky I have seemingly endless supply of used wood.

Suddenly June

It's suddenly mid June. Oh dear.
What has happened...

I finally got my new specks, I bought two pairs because 'Suma might eat these, too. I'm not sure about frames, they might be too bulky, but I decided it's better that way, they might better chance to survive one more attack of 'Suma? But I can see clearly now.
Much hasn't happen on polytunnel, greenhouse or veg plot. I've been waiting 'til this mid June to plant tender plants (beans, corn, brassicas, pumpkins and zuccinis and cucumbers etc) outside, and until that they occupy polytunnel and prevent planting in there.
I was supposed to do some (most of it) planting today, but farmer decided today is fine day to do some spraying. So it's a no-go at the moment. But I do have plans, everything will be done.

Our another car got through MOT, it needed some serious welding, but it was rather cheap work, 300€. Kids got out of school and are enjoying summer holiday. D left high school and is accepted to nearest college, she needs a new laptop for school, but according to school they can be rented! She has a decent laptop at home, she needs it because she draws a lot (not only computer, mind you, she is excellent artist in paper, too), but it's too good (expensive) for school! If she has to drag that laptop to school every day, it must be something easily replaceable. She also realized that she might have some use for drivers license, which she didn't want last year. So I'll need to look that, too.
Money makes the world go round...

We went to a consert with hb, and in the end it was complete disaster. There was funfair and of course he went with his (younger) cousin. And got his back hurt, so we ended up on ER in the middle of the night ( and didn't see the band) and I was going to work trip the very next day. I know I'm not as young I used to be, it was really difficult to keep sharp after one hour sleep... But I made it and maybe hb understands now why I told him not to go to that sling or whatever it was. At least he didn't go bungee jumping...
And of course hb had that week off, he was supposed to cut wood for the winter. No such luck.
We took a short relaxation trip with my colleague, she is a mother to two teenagers and two toddlers and really can use some time to rest. So, we had dinner at nine o'clock and went to sleep at half past ten. We slept 'til 8 o'clock in the morning, we had a massive breakfast at hotel and took nice slow paced walk around town center. And then we came back home. It was wonderful.

And in the meantime 'Suma ate antoher pair of cheap crock imitations and a plate full of chicken wings. It's been several days and she seems to be ok, so I think no harm done. Wonder what happens when I go for a two day trip on July (working trip, no long summer holidays for me).

We have had some not so pleasant visitors at our yard/forest. We have racoon dogs, and not only they smell dreadfull, they make unpleasant noise (they scream like cats fighting). They are considered as invasive alien species and I could hunt (trap) them, but atm I'm not able to do that. I just can't hunt, not for food, not for fun and apparently not to protect my surroundings. Not yet.

I have tried to use up all rhubarb I have (from my plants and from our neighbours'). I have made (so far)  pie, mead, cordial, cake, jam, pudding. Then I have dehydrated some, and there's quite a lot in the freezer. If I can catch up my tasks in the garden/veg plot/polytunnel etc, I might be able to pick some more.
I have foraged nettles and spruce tips (made seasoning salt) and I have a bunch of oregano drying at kitchen.
I have picked huge bunches of lupins (they are also invasive species) and some lilacs (because my cousin felled some huge lilac bushes and I decided to rescue some flowers).

I have bought two pairs of glasses, a pair of fake crocks and two black tank tops. I bought shirts and jeans for ys and sys and a summer dress for d. I bought new blender but haven't used it yet, old one makes horrible sounds but mixes berries and bananas, and smells of electricity, so it's better to have replacement on hand when needed. I lost my kettle, it doesn't boil water any more, but I haven't found a new one I like yet. I don't want any plastic in it.
Gave our sand toys to my nephew, repaired a zipper for his dad (actually I changed it, old one was plastic, I found a new metallic one from my stash). I'm worming cats and dog, I think I have enough pills for all of them for three days (they need to be given three days in a row).

So after all, it's been a pretty good few weeks.

And tomatoes

Today, after 8 hours work in front of laptop (ok, I made few phone calls which meant I had to walk 150m away from front gate to get reception to my cell phone), baking pizzas (and eating some slices) and 'Suma walk I was ready to go to polytunnel and veg plot - there was rain only in the morning!
I had my peas and beans soaking, so I had to put them in soil.
About (I lost count a couple of times because 'Suma was helping) 450 peas (peas and magne touts) to the veg plot, 80 beans into the polytunnel (I use egg cartons to germinate beans, I have three more weeks until I can plant them outside). I even planted some beets to an empty spot in garlic frame.
And I planted 12 tomato plants.
Funny that. I haven't bought tomato seeds nor germinated them, and I certainly haven't bought any tomato plants.
Tomatoes apparently can germinate if you ended up loosing one or two mature tomatoes in your polytunnel in autunm. Seeds survive winter (snow and frosts) and germinate on spring. Ok, they are tiny, but I wasn't having any tomato plants, so this is a win.

My second batch of sweet corn is doing fine, first one died just like that. Zucchinis and pickling cucumbers are sprouting, as well as nasturtiums. Even sunflowers have some seedlings, never know if they make it or not after I have planted them outside.

Not so well doing is melons (watermelons, cucamelons and than one that looked like cantaloupe), and pumpkins. I don't have any melon seeds left. I took piece of paper towel and put some watermelon seeds, halloween pumpkins and giant pumpkin seeds too to germinate on that wet paper. Now I only hope that when I'm planting them straight in the big pots in the polytunnel, they enjoy themselves and start to grow like triffids.

So much to do, so little time. As always.

Long time no see

So it's past Mother's Day and I'm hardly advanced my veggie plot at all.
Well, I have done several things.


Nature has slowly crawled and boldly leaped towards summer. First there was yellow sea of coltsfoot, and then one of my favourites, liverworts:

Along our walks we saw some almost white ones, normal blue ones, pink ones and dark purple ones. These are very pale blue.

I found again some whole milk reduced, and made cottage cheese. Still some milk left, so I wanted to try making yoghurt. After some googling I made a batch in crock pot, I was very suprised I actually got edible product!

I used turkish yoghurt as starter, final yoghurt wasn't as thick as original, but edible. Maybe it tasted a bit boiled because I had trouble timing everything, but nevertheless I'll make some more when I find whole milk reduced again.

I found strawberry plants that were grown in a big plant nursery I visited earlier, and I know they are excellent quality. I bought 20 plants, 10 early variety and 10 late variety. They have been planted now, I built a new frame for them. I have now 29/30 strawberry plants, maybe we can eat some berries all summer?

Ys helped watering. I ran out of ground cover so I used newspapers.

I bought small plastic greenhouse for the polytunnel, there are my brassica seedlings, some spinach and beets.

Still like chaos, but it's working.

Radish and lettuce in polytunnel

Ugly as hell but working.

 My suprice garlic. After all this work I found yet another one sprouting in one of the cold frames, but I'll plant it in the middle of this monstrosity when I have extra 5 min. Cold frame on foreground has more garlic - they were all supposed to be there, but stuff happens. And that cold frame was frozen when I moved those ones that ended in that brick thing, so I really had no options.

Since last time I wrote post on the blog, my rhubarb and lovage have proven to be alive (as well as horse radish). These, however, are not from my plants, they are from our neighbours garden.

Short but tasty!

 I had two options, soup or pie.

Well, if you ask children, it's pie every time! Rhubarb pie and rhubarbless pie for os who doesn't eat cooked fruits. or maybe this is bake, but whatever, it was yummy!

Spring took some serious setback for two weeks, we had snow and frost and freezing days. Now it
seems cold is finally gone and we can start eating from our garden/yard/field/forest...

First we had nettle pancakes, kids love them. Just ordinary pancake batter, some blanched nettles and stick blender. Can be eaten as savory dish (like ys with ketshup) or as sweet (like os with sugar or like sys with whipped cream).

But maybe even more important to me is fireweed, which I use as asparagus or as any other green veg.

This lot ended up lunch as omelette.

 And while I was cooking another lunch for me, it occured to me that I'm turning in to Ilona!
 

Stuff I found from fridge (leftover rice and corn, some old pepper, some ground elder, grated cheese and and an  egg. And spices.

 If I lived alone I might be able to live on food I forage and grow (well, I would need a root cellar and few freezers). Now it's time for first mushrooms!

Which are deadly poisonous, btw.  Gyromitra esculenta, sometimes known as false morel. Lethal if eaten without proper preparation. A bit like fugu. Nice if done the right way (boil 3x5min at time with plenty of water in place you have good ventilation, rinse between every boil). There might still be some poisonous gyromitrin left, so it is not recommended to eat several false morel meals in a row.

Gyromitra perlata, nor as poisnous as it's cousin, but I wouldn't eat it without the same preparation as false morels. Pictured this morning at 'Sumawalk. Worms are actually birch catkins.

But. Veggie plot is tilled last weekend, if it's dry enough this week I'll start planting and sowing soon. We have been sick, and I did a night sift last week - not my piece of cake and hb is doing them all the time (ok, I had to work first the normal day sift and then back at work at ten and then again working on the next day). Usually I'n doing night sifts at weekends so I have time to recover.
Cukcoos are back, so it really is nearly  summer. Even if it snows occasionally.

Can't be summer yet!

Today it was about +20C, way too hot for April!
I tried to remember how was last spring. Snow didn't melt until late April, now most of it is gone, only some left behind the trampoline and at the end ot the field. Veggie plot is clear!
Cold frames/raised beds are still frozen, there is hard ice about 15cm below the surface. I could sow carrots there already?

I have now 4 frames, I build the latest one late autunm for garlics. And NOW I find garlics in the first one, which is ment for beans this summer... Those garlics are from the imported variety I sow autunm 2017, they vanished during last summer (when my Russian variety went wild), maybe it was too hot and too dry, even if I watered them almost daily. Well, they sprouted again last autunm, and I dug them up - there were no bulbs, just large cloves. Apparently I didn't dug all of them, there is about 10 plants left. I managed to dig uo two of them, but the rest are still below frozen layer of mulch. I started a new bed for them, build from broken bricks I found under some timber. I have also new good bricks, but those are intended to something else. I still need maybe 12 bricks for another layer, after that I think that bed is deep enough and I can fill it with compost (or mulch).
Garlics in their intended cold frame are also sprouting, but that bed is seriously frozen, it lost snow only last weekend.

I took car to garage for repairs and maintenance, just under 700€! I had to spend another 15€ for battery replacement fot the key fob, it's damaged and there is only one mechanic who knows how to tweak it after the battery replacement... Fortunately he was at work today. Now I need to take MOT, but couldn't do it today because of headache.

During repairs I walked to shopping center nearby, I had only my backbag so no big shopping. First I had to heat to the pharmacist, I had serious headache. After two painkillers and two mugs of tea (there is this big cafeteria/pizzeria/lunch buffet/hamburger joint) and 1 hour later I felt human enough to actually try to do some shopping. I found purple potato seedlings, and broad beans I needed.

I didn't found mini greenhouse I needed, I guess I have to head for the town center tomorrow and forgot about fleece covering for polytunnel. But I found decent sale on garden mulch 10€/5 sacks), so I popped back there once I got my car back. I'll be back there tomorrow, I can fit five or six sacks of mulch in the back of my car, no more. I think I'll need at least four trips, and then I have enough for some spare, too. One or two sacks for the new garlic beg, two sacks per each cold frames, and several for polytunnel beds.

Weather is going to be "hot" for the fer next days, and I'll try to take advance of that as much as I can. Veggie plot can't be tilled yet (still frozen below surface), but at least some of the cold frames will be ready for sowing. And I really want to build another bed for strawberries...
I found first small shoots of nettles, but they can't be picked yet, less than two cm height, so I'll have to wait.

Another two pills and my headache is finally eased to the point it doesn't hurt to breath. When I was young this was really bad, this headache is sometimes called shotgun headache, because all you want is a shotgun to get rid of that pain... I can't go to sleep until pain is gone, or it gets worse and worse. I have tried every trick, but only help is to get right painkillers once I feel the first pang of pain. And with the painkillers it might take a week...
There is some irony because sometimes I also have a migraine - painless one!

Bunspiration

Easter break - can't say days off, because I'm working here at home. All the normal spring stuff: firewood, veggie path, greenhouse, polytunnel.
I finally got all branches off the trunks and managed to burn them on bonfire, just on time. Now there is danger of bush fires and I'm not taking risks with that. Our field has still a lot of snow, but as soon as it melts, exposed ground and dead grass starts to dry and in few days it'll be crisp and ready to combust.

This is the beginning. Now they are all gone - most of snow also.

Nearby pond is still frozen, but I do hope it'll be free after this weekend.

 Snow is finally gone around the polytunnel frame, so I pulled up the poly-part of it, I managed to do it on my own, last spring I needed OS's help. Experience I'll say, now I know how to do it so it's relatively easy to pull up. I stacked mulch bags around tunnel's hem, last summer it was a good strategy and prevented wind blowing it away. I do need buy several bags of mulch for raised beds and also for the polytunnel and glass greenhouse.
There's some herbs alive, thyme, sage and perhaps tarragon. Also oregano and majoram, but I can't tell them apart (not even by taste). Parsley seems to be gone, and rosemary is bone dry. No hope there.

Sage is already producing usable leaves, I'm really happily suprised!

Rhubarb is also alive, I was a bit worried because I moved it last spring and summer was so hot and dry, I feared I might had not watered it enough it to survive. Lovage hasn't sprouted yet, but it lost snow only three days ago, so there's still hope. As well as horse radish (which is in same bed as lovage).
Cold frames are also free from snow. I have found some garlic sprouts, but I should take off the leaves I put over them to protect from frost. There was some kale left, but after few really really cold night they are gone (or somebody ate them).

My cousing had her second daughter few weeks ago, and invited us to name revelation party. I was a bit loss what to give as a gift (not required actually), but sister told me to sew a book. But I thought a book is so small gift, so I wanted to make something more. And finally I got bunspiration - because I wanted to make something for the little big sister (she's 2,5), too.

These bunnies are something I have made several over the years, all my kids have their own (they were a bit smaller, because I have become bolder during the years, I don't follow instructions so carefully anymore). I can't find the original pattern anymore, link is broken.

All washed and dried.

I didn't do a big shopping for the easter, I'm trying to get food eaten from freezer, and been quite successful so far. Tomorrow I'll smoke a ham I bought after christmas, it's been in the fridge for three days now. Our smoker is way too big to be practical, we usually eat only one salmon or one leg of lamb smoked, and inside smoker I can fit six big hams! It was there when we bought the place, and I can't see reason to tear it apart just because I think we could do with smaller one.

A bit of this and a bit of that

Hb's new shift schedule is making our lives if not miserable, at least complicated. He works long weeks (6days work and 1day off) or really confusing weeks (2nights and two evenings and then some). There is no rhythm, and being nearly 50 he really can't adapt well. He can't sleep when he should and then sleeps during his day/s off and can't keep doing anything really. So annoying. And of course we had to turn the clocks which caused havoc to my inner clock.

And of course we all should be keeping silent when he tries to sleep...

I have tried to keep 'Suma occupied in the mornings, so we have had some amazing morning walks. We saw more swans moving to north, one couple stayed in our village for a while. Our cranes are back, they are wonderful big animals with very loud voices.
And geese! Neverending stream of geese flying back and forth - I just don't get it why some of them fly to north and some to south - and then there are simultaneously flocks flying to east AND west in the sky. Very confusing to my tired brains.

Mornings sound very summery already with skylarks, blackbirds and lapwings and of course (wood)pigeons. But fear not, there's still almost 30cm snow in our field and lower yard. Herb bed is almost free of snow and ice - i did give it some help with tossing ashes over polytunnel beds. Polytunnel itself is still folded in my greenhouse, I can't put it over the frame until snow has gone around the frame. Aaaaand my sister just made a video call to show they have got 25cm of snow so far and more is coming. Can't wait to have it here. Not.

Hb managed to fell down some trees which were growing on the back end of the field (alders, willows, few aspens) (some=30ish). They grow there because we don't actually farm that field, only small part of it is used as my veg path and polytunnel. The whole field hasn't been plought and harrowed for a very long time. Old man did most of it few years ago, but couldn't get to very edges, and therefore trees. Hb felled them and I lopped them with billhook and dragged trunks into a pile. Or as many of the trunks I managed, some of them overpowered me even after cut them in two. So there's some half a dozen trunks left in the end of the field and a pile of trunks next to my veg path. Saturday was easy, snow was hard and it was easy to walk on, because I didn't sink. By Sunday snow had thawed a little, so it was heavier to walk on. Yesterday (I had a day off) snow was soft and sinking; I felt I was walking on a quick sand.

And now I'm hurting. my back is stiff and my hands are swollen (that's what you get if you're a delicate office worker and keep hitting branches with billhook all day). My legs are so tired I didn't even have restless legs at night!
Now if someone just cuts and splits those to make us some firewood...

But yesterday was a nice day off. I managed to deal all trunks I could (now we have a nice pile of branches to have a bonfire or maybe to chip some of them), made pizzas (I made the dough myself; it's suprisingly hard to knead the dough if your hands are boiled spaghetti), made paneer (next time I will make just "cottage cheese" by adding salt); it was the second time ever I have made any kind of cheese, first time I made egg cheese (basically cottage cheese but with added eggs and then it's baked in the oven), wrote minutes of the last two village comittee meetings (had to send them to old man to print because my printer doesn't work). and attended another meeting. Late in the evening I decided I had had enough and sat in front of telly and watched some mindless reality tv and knitted sock for a while.

Today I'll make something out of the paneer I made ( I don't have spinach so no saag/palak paneer). Kids have some leftover pizza so I can use as much ginger I want.

I finally made through ST Discovery first season (knitted rainbow socks for d, she is finally over that all-black teenage phase) and now I've catched up this new season. So I binge watched Night Flyer and once that was over I started on Firefly (I saw it in 2002/2003 but as with everything else in 2002 and 2003 I can't remember a single thing, even 2004 is a bit hazy). Soon that's done, Serenity (the film) is left and then I might have to return to Star Trek. Seen the original series, the animated series and Enterprise, and all the films. Now I "only" have Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager (which I have seen before)...

Last big expenditure this year?

I just called the vets and made an appointment for 'Suma. 700€.
That's the price I'm willing to pay for not to have puppies in this house - it would be much cheaper with male dog.
I might have had the procedure done cheaper some other place, but I trust this place. We have been using them since 90's when we had Ace, the first Giant Shnautzer. Then it was important that the vet wasn't afraid of him (one vet was so nervous around him he vaccinated me by accident!), we did visit several vets.

But this money has been reserved since January - when we got 'Suma. We knew this coming so no suprices.
The IPCC report on climate change has made me thinking about having pets. I might not be able to justify keeping big dogs just because I like big dogs. I should get smaller dog after 'Suma (well, she is smaller than Blackie was) but I don't actually like small dogs. First world problems at its worst...
Cats I can justify because they eat mice and voles, and in Pretty Boy's case he just decided to live here.
(nobody is questioning about my choices but me)

Need to change winter tyres soon, should be ok with ones we have already, no need to buy new. Or maybe two tyres to hb's car, because it's heavy and eats tyres more than I eat doghnuts.
Polytunnel is nearly empty, only herbs staying. need to take down the poly-part (covering) so last years disaster could be avoided. Need to build frame for garlics (have few days off next week). Need to empty compost bin. No need to buy anything fot the veg plot or polytunnel or greenhouse.

Found wintercoat, paid only 11€. It doesn't have a hood, so i have to knit one myself, if my old scarves won't do. Haven't found wellies yet. Bikers calfs don't fit narrow boots (I had this problem when I was a underweight kid, 10km a day minimum with old bike did it, never had weak legs).

No idea of dinner once again. SYS will bake buns today, a school task. Omelette?

Luckily not a disaster

Yesterday we had our first thunder storm. It stroke only once.

Thunderstrike hit  one of our big spruces behind the garage (and outhouse). It was cut off at about 6m and top fell down breaking my rug rack. BUT it could have hit our garace, hb's car, es's car or outhouse, or even the well, but it missed all of them! Rug rack is twisted around the trunk and is beyond hope, but it is no great loss, nowadays I use our balcony railings to hang out rugs, covers, mattrasses etc.

The very best thing is we had decent amount of rain - not enough to get rid of forest fire warnings but I don't have to water veg plot today.

Polytunnel and greenhouse need watering, but it takes only few minutes. Oh, the polytunnel is ready!

 Doesn't it look neat... Also 'Sumas rear is in the pic.
Sorry,  I had to. It takes only half an hour to tidy all the wood and cardboard and pots and stuff, but I haven't had  time to do it. Well, I had, but it was so hot and I didn't want to get overheated. I was lazy.
It'll be all fine and dandy soon, I'll have some time off from work and weather is going to cool down significantly.

My garlics, raddishes, beets on the front and beans on the further cold frame. Finally got also the third one ready planted - by the way those peas germinated after all, and survived 'Suma.

And it is June

There has been a lot happening. Even a royal wedding, but I was mostly at the veg plot - althought I had conviniently planned the day and just had to come insid to make lunch just in time for the seremony.

Weather has been brilliant and then worrisome. We had three weeks of hot weather (first time in over 30 years) and no rain. Then we had few cooler days and again into the heatwave. No rain. Everything is parched, local plants cope well with heavy rains and frosts but not with heat and drough.
Potatoes have been planted, as well as several rows of peas and broad beans. I got batch of brassicas, (red cabbage, kale and cauliflower) and I planted them as well. I even sowed a row of flowers, which is very unlike me. I also planted cornplants, they overgrew their pots.

And of course we had heavy frosts last week. I covered almost all of veg plot with fleece, but couldn't cover potatoes. Fortunately losses were few, brassicas had only minor damages on their upper/outer leaves. Corns were of course damaged, but only three out of 38 plants seem to be died because of frost. Last night frost was here again, great. I covered everything (excluding spuds) and hope this is the last time. Ok, I might wait until Friday, it's 15th and here has never ( before last summer) been any frost after 15th of June.

There were loads of flowers in my damsons, but I guess drough has dried fruits or there wasn't enough insects to pollinate them because they blossomed so early

In my two original cold beds I have sown beets (yellow and normal ones), carrots and raddishes in one bed and bush beans on the other. Then there is salads, swiss chard and argula. We have been eating thinnings (beet and raddishes), argula is already eatable. I built another cold frame, it's the same size old ones are, 90cmx200cm. I guess they are narrow, but I can't reach far, and if the frames were over one meter wide, I wouldn't be able to tent them in the middle. Custom made to my measuremets, a sheer luxury!

I sow some peas in to the new frame, but they never germinated, so I'm going to use the whole frame for bits and bobs I have as leftovers, like beans, new zealand spenach, marigolds, nasturtiums, pickling cucumbers

'Suma has been busy as ever, she ate at least two of corn plants, dug up one strawberry plant and ate some of my seed potatoes (after digging them from the ground and bags). She has eaten several bean seedlings and courgette plants. And she dug up the new cold frame - luckily there weren't any seeds or plants yet.

I'm knitting new boot socks for es because 'Suma ate at least two pairs of his socks. And I had to buy some black yarn - how come I don't have any black sock yarn, but I do have about 70kg of brightly coloured yarns? My yarn stash officially overweights me now.

I built a frame fot the new polytunnel (with some help from kids) and finally got the covering on last weekend. Now I have been building frames inside the polytunnel, and it's taking forever. With 'Suma helping me everything takes at least trice the time.

I need to get ready soon, tomorrow or day after tomorrow I get tomato and pepper plants from my parents, and I need a place for them. I'm going to keep my small greenhouse just for chilis and maybe for a courgette or two. And i have plenty of other plants that need place to live, like pumpkins (I'm planting at least one inside the polytunnel), brassicas, herbs, marigolds...

Cranes have two chicks, they look like brown furry chickens. Swans have been hanging around unlike previous years. Someone said they might have built a nest, but I haven't seen any possible nests around ponds. They need open water and with this drough our village ponds are too shallow.
Hares have been very fertile this year, again. We have at least one gang of leverets, two years ago gang was about 10 individuals, now we have a smaller bunch. Then there is one small and cute leveret, but she is alone, I guess she's too small to join the big gang? Or he.

I have lost over 10% of my weight. I'm not on a special diet, but I have a puppy which needs a lot of walkies. I have cut the amount of meat I'm eating, and that means I also get less fat in my meals - I have replaced meat with pulses and vegetables in general. I'm really trying to eat my five a day. I don't eat as many snacks as before, but the reason is not to loose weight, I just haven't had time to eat!
If I want to be in range of normal weight, I need to loose half a stone.

I haven't been happy with my weight, but this weight loss is just a by-product. And to be honest, only two people have noticed anything, and neither of them are my family or my friends. I was planning to celebrate my first lost stone by buying new black skinny jeans, but when I realized I'm still losing kilos, I decided to wait until my old jeans are too worn out to be worn at work - and now they are. I still might wait until summer sales begin.