May Is Passing Quickly

May is passing quickly. Rain storms, rainbows and now the heat. Soon all the green grass will dry up and the hiss of summer will be upon us.The fields around us have been cut and turned into silage in those white plastic balls. One field is even being ploughed again!

My lovely friend, and father to two of my children, died. He was very ill and it was surely a relief for him to go, but it was so sad to say good bye. We picked lots of flowers from the hedgerows for his journey.

I finally have chickens! I ordered them from the builder's merchant, of course. Four little chooks. They are probably about a month old or less. They are timid. Bonnie is very curious and goes to look through the netted door every now and then. I have bought some 1'5m netting for the fence which I will put round the hen house. They are fine staying inside for a few days. It's very comfy with wood shavings on the floor and straw in the nesting box, which they nest in.

The garden is doing what they do in May... go berserk. I have peas, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, leeks, beans, beetroot, onions, broccoli, strawberries (not enough of them). The fruit trees are coming along nicely, too. It looks like there will be lots of apples and pears.

The earthen floor up by the windmill is drying VERY slowly. It has cracked but that's alright. I have started to rub it and burnish it and if the cracks persist I will fill them with a different coloured clay just for fun.

Here is a bunch of lentil bushes drying. Nearly ready to thresh them. (Good word 'thresh'.)

 I have waited seven years for this strelitzia to flower! Bird of Paradise flower. Isn't nature amazing?

The guinea pigs have gone wild. They have moved into the huge rose bush and love to hang out under the bench to eat tit-bits that I give them. I am thinking I may get a male one and see what nature does.... I love having them around.

And so life goes on for some of us.

Cool Calm Spring

From a boiling hot and dry end of winter to a cool damp spring, strange times indeed. I am glad for the rain we have had, and the cool days, but the seedlings in the green house feel a bit shocked! Slugs and snails are happy. I try to keep the numbers down by slinging them far over the fence...
Mammoth cauliflowers which I thought were cabbages until I peered inside one.

We are eating the onions straight from the ground. It's not worth letting them dry. They will not store. They are fine and tasty but not the onion crop I was hoping for. Still, I have put some more seeds in a pot. Always the optimist!
The lentils and chickpeas are doing fine. Small seed pods are forming. I am wondering how and when to harvest the lentils as I remember growing one plant years ago and found that all the little lentils has just fallen to the ground! No doubt I will find a way.
The favas are nearly done. We had lots of them.
Peas are flowering, strawberries are ripening, beans everywhere are coming up, climbing and low ones. I've got some called red noodle beans which grow up to half a meter long (the beans!) which are coming up on some canes. Maybe the canes aren't long enough...
Courgettes are beginning to flower. I have put gala melon seeds in an old compost heap and they are sprouting and leafing...
I am eating mostly all my food from the garden.
I have poured the earthen floor in the wine house. It looks lush. Now I have to wait for it to set,then I will go over it to smooth it out.

I had a go at making some clay from the soil near my house. I soaked the earth then strained out all the stones, etc. I made a few things which I haven't fired yet as I am just learning. It's not as easy as it looks to make a pot!

I finished a tapestry weaving of rocks and sea. It felt good to do. It reminded me of the lovely time I had in the Western Isles last year.

The Little Red House On The Hill

I am very happy with how this building has turned out.
Still to finish the floor inside, but the rest is more or less done.
It fits into the landscape beautifully and its shape is like an echo of the windmill just above it.

Strange Times

Strange times indeed.

I have been busy finishing the chicken house. A building I started two years ago but then I got sidetracked. It has worked out quite well and looks quite cute. Now I just need some chickens. I asked my neighbour but now we are all in lockdown because of the virus I think I will have to wait.

The flowers of spring are gorgeous as usual, and the cuckoo has returned along with the swallows. It is such a joyous time in nature. I was walking past this field of lupins with the sun shining on them and a soft breeze blowing towards me. I was enveloped in their sweet, almost soapy smell.
It's just a bit grim for humans at the moment.

The garden is producing food. Brocolli and cabbage and Swiss chard. All the onion sets I planted are not doing their thing because I stuck them too deep in the ground! Darn. I spent today scraping away the earth from around them and hope they will bulb-up. I have carrots in pots because all the ones in the ground got nibbled by a carrot fly worm. I also have lots of tomato and pepper seed, some cotton plants (well, I am a spinner), basil, sweet corn, more cabbage, cucumber and courgette. Let's hope I can keep them all watered. Lots of mulch this year.

 The guinea pigs are doing fine. They've discovered they can get out under the cage. The cats are fascinated and try to scare them but these little piggies lived with a dog and a cat that liked to cuddle up with them so they aren't scared. When they move towards the predatory cat, the cat jumps and runs off! Long may it be so... I love to watch them and they are keeping the grass down.

This is a rather bad photo of the Hunza apricot tree I grew from a stone. It is over 3 meters high. It has lots of flowers tangled in its branches. So exciting. Maybe it will produce Tibetan apricots!

I have been trying to do some artistic weaving, using hand spun wool, based on the colours of the west coast.
I miss spending time with my lovely girls but we are being sensible. Let's hope this will all blow over soon.
Stay safe everyone.

A Quick Word About No-Dig Gardening

It was with great enthusiasm and conviction that I dove into the no-dig gardening technique. Now, a few months down the line I have some thoughts on it.

First, it seems that the mulch is meant to be wood chips, fresh from some chipper, and as I didn't have any I used straw, which duly sprouted all the seed heads in it.

Second, and the worst thing, was that the slugs and snails loved it! They ate every little cabbage into lace. I went out at night and caught tons of the slimy buggers. During the day they would hide in the mulch of cardboard and straw. They got enormous!

Third, in winter the mulch keeps the ground very cold.

Fourth, unless you have managed to smother and kill off the weeds like couch grass, they will keep popping up.

So I think that I will start mulching more now that the weather is warming up and there's no sign of the much-needed rain, but until the ground has no more weeds like couch grass, no-dig is heaven for gardeners' enemies. I am much more vigilant in searching for the slugs and snails.

Update from the Hill.

A rosy dawn with mist.

I have been neglecting my blog. I am still trying to figure out how to get photos from the phone to the computer! (Aha! I've found a way!)
Meanwhile, the 'Wine House' has got nearer to completion

and the vegetable garden is bulging with cabbages.

I have two temporary residents in the vegetable garden. My granddaughters' Guinea pigs have come for a holiday. They are eating the grass and fertilizing the ground and I think they are so cute! The cats find them fascinating.... I am glad they are in a cage!
I have spun and woven a tweed scarf. It's very soft. The rigid heddle loom can be a bit boring but it's lovely to make fabric.

The ground is very dry. We have had no rain for weeks and none in sight. I have been watering the onions and garlic and broccoli. The weather is mild, warm in fact. Hot at midday. Cool at night. Hardly need a fire. Let's hope we get some real rain before the summer comes.

My funny greenhouse. But it works. The seeds germinate in the warm atmosphere.

The lentils I sowed a couple of months ago are coming up well and so is the garlic, on the big terrace. I also sowed some chickpeas which have also come up. These are the things that traditionally one can grow without watering. They are meant to have some rain! Still, they get the dew and the mist sometimes. That will have to do. The broad beans are in full flower. I chopped some down and covered them in straw, using them as a green manure. I am not sure what I will plant in the terrace, but it will have to be something that doesn't need watering. Perhaps corn or potatoes.

It feels that we have left winter behind even though the swallows haven't arrived on the hill. They are already making nests closer to the sea.
So that's the news.

A Wee Video, And Some Progress on the Wine House

Come in! My house is so cozy. The big storm that attacked Portugal was scary but we survived. Now we have a few days of sunshine to celebrate Christmas.  OOPS! Technical hitch. I will investigate.

A roof is beginning to happen!

I spotted this strange looking fungus mushroom thing. It's called a red cage. When I saw it I thought it was a bit of red lace that someone had dropped. It's about the size of my thumb.

I hope that we all survive Christmas and have a brilliant New Year.