A week of snow

We've had snow for over a week now. The wild birds are getting very hungry, so I've been leaving out food for them (and letting them help themselves to the food for our domestic birds too).

The snow is very beautiful, but the small roads are still quite icy .. and it feels very cold.

This picture is taken on the first snow day, as the sun started to shine through the trees.

Here it is on the same day, by the hen house.

Here's my aunts house. It's an old farmhouse and the insulation is poor, especially in the roof (which is hard to access from the inside), so the heat escapes very quickly and it can easily feel cold inside. To the other side of the picture, the kitchen extension gets VERY cold, especially as the windows are single glazed. I need my hat on before trying to start cooking!

I'm sure that if Ireland had a generally colder climate (like Germany or Sweden - they have GREAT houses) that the standard of insulation in houses would be much better, but because winters are fairly mild, we just seem to put up with the draughts and the cold.

I remember when growing up there was no central heating and in winter it could be cold getting in and out of bed etc. Even as a student I remember icicles on the inside of the windows. People were made of harder stuff in days gone by.

Of course building standards are improving, but people often miss out on insulation (better insulation means less fuel and heating costs). I keep reminding myself that soon we'll be in our own super insulated, warm and cosy home, where all the rooms are an even temperature .. and until then I'll put on extra layers when needed!

If I think we have it bad indoors, I feel for the birds outside!

Here's one of the friendly Robin's (they're all called Bob to me).

A bit of evergreen colour (Laurel?) with a smattering of snow looks very seasonal.

Here's one of the views from the top of the Drumlin.

Here's another.

The trees up top look great against the snow and the sky.

Here the ducks brave the weather.

They even go exploring (Bennie, our last chicken, takes a while longer to be convinced).

More snow falling.

I must admit that the cold and the increasing dark nights have led me to crave greenery, life and flowers. I'm not generally a fan of unseasonal produce, especially in plants, but I just had to have some colour, some growth, some bling ... so I succumbed to a bright and cheery chrysanthemum.

I've also still been sprouting seeds to eat (and putting them in the airing cupboard at night to keep them warm!), they make a welcome bit of freshness.

My need for greenery to look at has been so severe that I've taken a few microgreens and put them on my writing desk .. just so I can see something grow.

Ditto with some alfalfa sprouts.

I've never been one for putting seasonal decorations up early, I think that the pizazz would wear off too quickly, so I usually wait until winter solstice, but, this year I feel I understand the need for brightness and colour in a new way and I understand better how people want to brighten the place up earlier.

I am loving the open fire at night in the sitting room. It's makes the room very cosy (the room has a low celling and holds the heat well.) During 'snow' week, I've enjoyed spending time in the evening just playing tunes on the whistle and watching the flames dance. I imagine I'm not the first .. and I hope I'm not the last to enjoy such simple pleasures.

Sam has been joining in with the tunes when he can (he's had an ear infection and is only just able to play again) and it's a relief to see him starting to feel a bit better .. and to have him playing music again.

I don't know how long the snow will last, but I know we'll have enough tunes to see us through.

This is on my mind .. snow and leaves

Snow and leaves

Snow has come really early this year, while the last of the leaves have just fallen from the trees.

I've spent a lot of time outdoors tending to the birds, our ducks and chicken .. and the wild birds who also appreciate some extra food in the cold weather.

It's rare for us to get much snow, especially snow that lasts, and it's very rare to get it so early in winter.

I like the crispness and sparkles of the snow, but I'm less keen on the icy road conditions.

If I could just find a BIG pile of leaves , I'd be very tempted to hibernate until Spring ;-)

Thanks Rhonda for suggesting this Friday photo thread.

No Dig Gardening, books and Winter Colour

The light at this time of year is really beautiful, the colours have a real vibrancy.

As well as the autumnal colours and foliage, I'm cheered to see a few flowers adding their brightness too.

With the days shortening and nights getting longer I've been catching up on some reading and finally got myself a copy of Charles Dowding's 'Organic Gardening: The Natural No Dig Way'.

I highly recommend it - I haven't quite finished it yet, but I love the idea of leaving the soil structure as intact as possible and minimizing disturbance.

I had already come across the idea of 'no dig' gardening in permaculture literature and I'm enjoying looking into it further and using it, hopefully exclusively, on my plot.

I already learnt this year how silly it is to weed and leave bare soil (and what a waste of resources / nutrients that can be) as nature is very quick to recover it. From now on I'm a complete mulch convert.

I tend to grow my plants in modules anyway and that suits a mulch system, as the plants have germinated and strengthened before being transplanted through the mulch.

I love what Charles says about how healthy plants generally suffer less from pests and diseases.

I also love his ideas for successional sowing - similar to Joy Larkcom - she has great ideas for creative vegetable gardening too.

There are a few things in Charle's book that I've had different experiences with e.g. rocket - luckily nobody told me not to sow it until after midsummer, so last year I had a great crop all summer - with no problems from flea beetle. Maybe the leaves did bolt slightly early - the the flowers are so pretty that I don't mind much.

Another great book that I got to read recently was Masanobu Fukuoka's 'The One-Straw Revolution' which looks at one mans journey of discovering natural farming techniques in Japan. It has a great feel to it - feels very wholesome to me.

So, thats my inspiration sorted for a while. Now all I need is my garden. It is challenging being over two hours away from 'my' garden, although I am lucky to have my aunts garden here, which is very natural and lush, and a few pots of things to keep my green fingers happy.

I must admit to getting itchy fingers and also longing to have my garden properly up and running. I want to see the seasons go by on my own plot, watching the successions of planting and harvests etc Patience must be a virtue I'm still cultivating!

Anyway, there is distraction here, for example a few experimental winter salads in pots in my aunts barn. They won't feed an army, but I like to see things grow .. and to see how much they WILL grow over winter.

Here are some late sown lettuces (sown end Sept / early Oct) which are coming along just fine.

My calendula was still blooming earlier this week (although now sulking after a couple of nights of hard frost).

I love these violas, which have self seeded in cracks at the edge of the bed near the front door.

Surprisingly, the tall shrubby Escallonia is still happily flowering away and has been for months now.

Of course, there are still a few roses too. They don't have much scent when picked, but when I dry the petals on the radiator the room is filled with a delicious lingering scent.

My aunt's ornamental pyracantha also gives great colour this time of year.

I love how it has crept over the wall, so we can see it from the house now.

The girls are doing fine also - and add bucket loads to winter cheer.

Here's Benny, patrolling the drive.

Here Anna and Esmie are having a great time rummaging through the leaves and undergrowth.

Here they are again, setting off from the doorstep out into a hard frosty morning.

Wonder if the frost will turn to snow soon?

It's trying to snow as I type.

Until next time ...

Mulch, oca and cows

I haven't been posting much recently - as there just hasn't been much going on.

We're in the process of meeting the new planning regulations - so have to sort an Environmental Screening Report for the planners and further adapt our reedbed plan to meet new specifications. Once they're in the planners should be able to make their decision.

With the weather turning colder and the days shortening, we haven't been down to site as much lately. However, at the end of last month and early this month I decided to cover some of the vegetable beds for winter.

I had weeded them earlier .. and left the earth bare. Silly move. They just got weedy again. So, this time, partly with the help of a friend, we covered the beds with the weeds (pulled them and laid them on top) and then covered the bed with an old tarpaulin and some cardboard.

This way, the nutrients stay in the soil. It doesn't look pretty - but then again, I'm not there much to see it right now. Next year, if I have any 'bare' patches, I'll try using a green manure over winter instead.

In the foreground of the above picture, I've used some spare weed suppressing membrane to cover a long bed. Rain will get through, but it should warm the soil .. and loosen the grip of the unwanted grasses etc.

I've also covered the other long bed (to the left in the picture below) which is really overgrown (no picture yet - sorry) and I'll be interested to see if it suppresses the weeds and grass at all.

Nature was kind enough to provide me with some oca from the plot this year - guess I left a few tubers in the ground last year. I picked them on our last visit, when the foliage had completely been frosted. The tubers aren't very big - but they are tasty - even raw.

Funny thing with the oca is, I'd planted pink and white tubers in 2009 but only got white ones this year.

I also got a nice surprise crop of mizuna - where I'd weeded the month before, which has been sheltered from the frost by brassica seedlings that have also sprung up.

Back up at my aunts I started off a few salads in late Sept / early October. The most sluggish of these is the rocket, pictured below.

The peppers and tomatoes did really well this year (in the glass roofed barn) and we're only coming to the end of them now.

The red curly kale is still looking .. and tasting .. great. It really brightens up the garden at this time of year .. and looks great with dew drops on the leaves.

I also have some baby leaf salads on the go. These are outside in one of those 4 tier 'plastic' greenhouses.

Here are some that lettuce and orientals that I'm raising in modules. Not sure how fast they'll grow at this time of year, but I'm curious to find out.

I even have a couple of cabbages too...

.. and we've just got through the last of the container potatoes.

Back down in Leitrim we've had a mini disaster. Cows got in and have been over the lawns and the veg beds etc. We'd never got round to putting up a fence before we had to stop building and we hadn't had a problem before. They've made quite a mess really, poaching up the ground, so we'll have to go back down and put up some temporary fencing for security.

In the meantime, we're down to our last two long red sweet peppers .. might have to try stuffing them. They're delicious. Will have to grow more of them next year.

Surprises

We managed a couple of trips down to site this month, mainly to keep tidying up the 'garden'. We made some fun and tasty surprise discoveries while we were down. The yellowstone carrots had been planted last September, in some pipe, and although they had split a bit, they were really, really, tasty.

The beetroot (also planted September 2009) were really making the most of their time in the ground. Could they be a world record? Not quite a record for the tastiest veg, especially not the big ones, but some of the little ones were pretty good.

Here I am on discovering some of my beetroot surprise.

A close up ...

and here's the rest of them .. (with the glove for scale)

Some of the kale had sprouted under the old foliage, and as I'm partial to the joy of sprouted seeds, I was delighted to get a free and unexpected snack.

The kale nero was still going strong.

and the goji berry (in the middle of the picture) is really growing strongly .. no fruits yet though

The lemon balm is delightful

and nasturtiums are still flowering well

as are the calendula

We started to 'rescue' the two beds that were at the side of the tunnel, near the house. They had sunflowers, peas, brassicas and flowers last year .. and the ducks and chickens loved to hide away under the brussel sprouts to nest :-)

As the picture shows, they've been completely covered in grass (and nettles etc). Here, Sam has been strimming and I've been clearing.

Here they are a little later. The bed on the left is going to take more work to sort out, as the grass was strong there. The one on the left fared much better .. and I'm already itching to get planting... well, I could put onion sets and garlic in now).

There have also been surprises of a less desirable nature. The planning permission was set to come through yesterday, but instead we received a letter asking for further information about our sewerage (which they passed initially). We sent them a professional survey and report, agreeing to their suggestions, with the last application and nothing more was said, but now they aren't satisfied with it. We're now officially a year trying to sort this thing out.

It would try the patience of a saint. Were it not for the beauty of the place, the loveliness of the local people and friends we have made there and my determination to be positive ... we'd be demented by now.

I'm not completely zen about it - I've cried, shouted, sulked, been terribly upset, worried, fretted etc, but, it doesn't do any good (and it is surprisingly difficult to snap out of such negativity and feeling that things are out of our control).

I have to keep reminding myself that in a few years, these troubles will just be a distant memory and we'll be well settled and well productive!