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.

Summer surprise

℃Surprise! Summer is here.
First there was neverending winter, then there were few days of spring and BAM! Summer is here.
In three weeks we have gone from wintery spring to complete mid summer, and nature hasn't coped very well. Birches have large leaves and they are blossoming at the same time. Liverworts, wood anemones and coltsfoot bursted simultaneously and now we have fields full of dandelions. Bird cherries are blossoming. Air is heavy with scent of birch leaves (I love it).
Only thin missing is lily of the valleys, they usually bloom early june so maybe next week we'll have them as well.

Birds are practically screaming! On strange thing though, they have been quiet in the mornings. It is very odd to wake up in silence.

'Suma has been busy. Three four pair of slippers/sandals. Two pairs of heavy duty working boots. Two pairs of sneakers. A watering can. A toy car. Countless numbers of odds and ends like pencils, sharpeners, rulers, boot socks, big comes of sewing threads... Once she had a lighter in her mouth, but fortunately it was empty!

I just can't turn my back to her for a second! I have been chasing her because she has had a large knife in her mouth, some aluminium piping, electrical wires, bras, socks.
Heat makes her restless. It's too hot for a black dog to go for a walk (+29℃!!! In MAY!!! Last summer there weren't that hot not once during the whole summer and now we have had six days of heat). Even in the woods there is too hot, so she can get to walkies only in the morning and in the evening, and that is so not enough for a puppy. The first week of may was lovely, mild and nice and I was able to take 'Suma for long walks and she was so nice little puppy. But now she's a toothmonster!
She might have been bored duirng the cold spell in february, but it was nothing.

I got a new polytunnel, it's not up yet (read above why). I thought it was identicalt to the remains I already had, but they had altered the desing. So I had to dismantle the whole old frame, and it took two days (Where's my wrench? No, don't take the screwdriver! Let go of my cloves!!!)
Then I chased her around to get all the new nuts and bolts back.
Then it took a day to find enough of solid wood for foundations ( had to cut it to measure). So how did I spent my Mother's Day???

Then I had to go to work.

At least veg plot has been tilled. Hb did it a week ago, but I haven't had a chance to sow anything. Potatoes are still chitting inside, but at least I have them chitting.
Glass greenhouse is once more inhabited bu small seedlings. For the first time I have precultivated broad beans, I hope I'll get some harvester earlier.
I haven't sown any other beans, I should I know, but... There is sweet corn (just germinated), pumpkins and courgettes, chilies and a pepper, sunflowers, marigolds and nasturtiums.
Some salady stuff like arugula, chard and spinach.

And my garlics! I planted all cloves of six bulbs I had, and most of them seem to survived the winter. Some of them however didn't survive 'Suma.
My strawberries are ok, there was even a flower. I'm not expecting any berries this summer, I just got them planted in autunm. Anyway, nine plants won't produce much.

Then there is the never-ending fight against giant hogweed in our neighbours garden. He is in his 90's, widowed and had a heart attack some time ago, so he can't do it himself. So in exchange on currants and rhubarb I'll fight this fight for him.
I use glyphosate, as instructed by local enviromental authorities. There is far too many plants for me to dig them up. First two years I tried just to cutting flowering heads, but because these plants are perennials, it didn't do much damage to the growth. So I started to cut off flowering heads and then spraying the rest of leaves with weedkiller. It did help, but not enough - aim is to have it all gone, not just under control.
So now I'm spraying all plants with glyphosate at least twice every summer.
Unfortunately we had our electrical wires digged underground two years ago, so now there is hundreds of seedlings because of the endless seedbank in the soil. Individual big plants are easy to spot, but these little seedlings are horrible - the don't even resemble hogweed, they have leaves like maple, a bit rounder. Seed remain viable at least 8 years, so I guess if I play safe, there is no longer viable seeds after ten years...
I had a giant hogweed plant- but because my unbelieveable gardening skills (green thumb? never seen one) it died. Lucky me😎

Exotic fruits.

Pretty Boy's owners went to a week-long vacation to warmer place, and Pretty Boy wasn't happy for not to get on that trip. So he choose to do what he thinks is the second best option - he travelled three miles of wet fields and forests. In the early hours he was waiting outside our house, hb fed him ("I gave him two pouches and he's still howlig for more!"). Housesitter had let him out.
I think he might as well stay here as long as he likes, because anyway he'll be back as soon as he can get out of the door. The owner very much agreed with me. So Pretty Boy in here to stay, for now. If he wants to go home, he is free to go. At the moment he is happily sleeping in our porch.

We might not have much edibles to forage at the moment, but there is still some strange fruits growing in trees.

 

 And on the ground.

The balloon I get - it has got away, it happens. But furniture - you can take them for free to recycling center without driving 5 miles of muddy pothole filled gravel road and they help you to unload!

 If you really want to drive offroad... Don't leave the road!

Preparing for the winter

On friday evening old man told us he'll come at eleven am to fell our last remaining silver willow. We had five or six of them here, but they grow so fast to huge monsters which produce tremendous amounts of dried branches and sticks and even pieces of bark, and of course there is the impenetrable layer of dead leaves every autunm. Others were felled when we started to build the extension.

This one was planted as a twig about 40 years ago, it's diameter was now over 50cm. Annual rings were over 1cm thick - not very usual aroud here. It is not the most valuable fire wood, it produces masses of ashes, but it will provide us warmth on next winter.

So, old man came driving his tractor at 9:30, first he took down one big branch (which narrowly missed my precious damson bush). Then the whole tree (which also didn't hit my damson). After that it was only matter of chopping off branches and cutting the trunk... Yeah.
Now we have sunlight in downstairs much earlier in spring. So much light!

By noon we had dragged and lugged all the logs and thicker branches to the pile. Most of rest of branches were dragged to two huge heaps, and most of dry sticks and branches were burning. And when there is fire burning, there are wieners to roast...

I'm an office worker, so I was exhausted by three o'clock. I cleaned my glass greenhouse to be ready for plants (not much needed, because I had made most of it in autunm when I was hoping i could start my growing season in the polytunnel). I had heated the sauna already, so we just took 'Suma for a walk (which she really didn't need because she had been running around the whole day) and then we took the most rewarding sauna bath, ate some cheese on toast and coleslaw, tried to play few rounds of Scrabble and went to bed.
A nice productive day.

Today I was so sick (not because of yesterday) I hardly could make the first 'Sumawalk. By the afternoon I had found the right pills, but it was too late to do anything outside. So instead I observed four cranes right next to our field (they are really big birds). Oh yes, my ankle is sore because I hit it with a small log i was dragging with log tongs - I was wearing my boots but momentum was too much... But if I wear right kind of footwear it doesn't hurt. I can't currently wear my safety boots, but I hopefully don't need them until friday.

I'm thinking I need to plant another silver willow somewhere in our plot, haven't found the right place yet. Silver willows have been growing here more than a century, there is still left some of the originals around the old fish ponds. I have ten acres of land and can't find a place for a one lousy tree.

I have still a big mess to clean on the yard, maybe we might even have a decent lawn now. I wanted to sow some seed today, but it must wait another day.
Logs must be cut and split, but it cannot be done before yard is clean of snow and dried a little bit.

Swans and cranes. And a skeleton

At sunday I finally saw our cranes. We have had a pair of cranes in our village for the last decade, maybe longer. Sometimes they are able to have one or two chicks. Sadly chicks rarely make to autunm alive, I think foxes eat them.

In our last walk on sunday evening (me and 'Suma) I heard loud trumpets behind the forest and waited to see if our swans will be coming. Yes! This is fourth spring they are here, they graze in the fields (sometimes right next to cranes) and sleep the night on a tiny island in the nearest pond we have right beside our property. Sometime around early June or late May they leave, the are not nesting here.

Now they are on the fields every morning when we walk to the taxi stop. This makes me feel summer is coming.

Skeleton was found yesterday. Poor deer had been killed sometime around Christmas/New Year and now there is only clean skeleton left. Some parts (mostly limbs) are missing, but it is almost complete. I made notification about it, but I think there isn't any suspicious about it, it is most likely been killed by lynx. Haven't seen any wolf tracks (and I don't think skeleton would have been so intact after wolves), and foxes can't hunt adult deers.

Haven't seen it before, because it has been covered in snow. Now more than a half meter of snow has already melted, so there might be some interesting discoveries to come still.

But founding the skeleton with 'Suma made me realize how different from our previous dogs she is. I wouldn't have dreamed to be able to call them away from the carcass just by asking nicely, they would've dragged at least a leg with them to home. But 'Suma, she just sniffed and nibbled the bones few times, wagged her tail and ran to me cheery as ever "Look what I found mom!"

Whenever the spring arrives...

Yesterday was officially the day I decided spring is coming. No, not because of sunshine or warm winds, but loads of rain. And rain melts snow, and rinses all dirt to the surface. And dirty snow melts faster. In the morning there was officially -13℃, in the evening +5℃.

Of course that also means roads are ice rinks, d fell this morning on our way to taxi stop. Luckily she had her outdoor trousers on, so no harm done (I had to take the trousers back home to hung dry). Me and 'Suma walk with kids every morning to the taxi stop (and back), a little short of a mile walk and puppy gets done with her morning routines like sniffing all hare and deer and fox trails. Most mornings we are joined by cats.

Car is now through MOT (I don't even know the final bill because my customer server at the garage is still on Easter holiday and others dont dare to give the invoice to me).  Some repairs were needed  such as spring at the back was broken; and other lesser problems. Soon I have to change tyres, but that can wait for few weeks. After all worries I have had with my car I really hope this was it for the time.

Veg plot is still covered in snow, only a foot left, I think.  Once this rain has stopped, I'll dust the plot with ash. After cold winter I have plety of ash to throw to the field. Maybe on sunday, or monday next week ( Ichecked the weather forecast; saturday is supposed to be sunny and dry). Light is no more an issue, day is today 13hrs 49mins (that is to sunrise to sunset), but snow.

Sad (background is our neighbours "birchfield"). Raised beds are

 five planks high,

 

 only 2 are above snow...

Last summer I had high hopes I would be able to start my growing season early this spring. As you can see, no fat chance.  I have few peppers and chilis, I have to pot them to bigger pots.

Actually, there is as much snow as there were in February!