Tidying up

Sunday 23rd November

Rising at 8-30am.
A pleasant sunny start with temperatures in the mid 40's.
Today will be a day of tidying up with general house chores to be faced and completed in the run up to the Thanksgiving break.
I am assigned bathroom and window cleaning duties after which I take out the kitchen waste for the compost heap.
Amongst it I notice these...........................

.....sprouting red potatoes. I have nothing to lose so I plant them in Plot 5.
Although we've had some very low nighttime temperatures and heavy frosts..........

...the Garlic in Plot 1 is still standing.
Here's something that's not been standing since last year.................

....a large tree limb, brought down by the last ice storm. It's unsafe, untidy and annoys me.
I call in.............................

.......the heavy gang!!

..........and transform it into something more useful.
Then add it.................

.....to the pile.
On the way back to the house the sky is filled.........................

......with thousands of migrating Starlings or "Shebbies" as we used to call them back in England.
When they land at the bottom of our property the ground becomes a mass of movement.
I've never seen so many on the move before.
As I enter the house I'm greeted by a delightful aroma wafting from the kitchen.
My wife has also been busy. Baking...................

Cranberry and Walnut Bars and writing.......................


......Christmas cards for mailing to friends and family back in England.

Evening skies.
Enough!!

Oh Deer!

Monday 10th November. 6-30am

On the way to work I hit a deer

Damage to me........... zero

Damage to car...........

.....pretty light (pardon the pun)

I had no chance of avoiding the collision, the deer ran straight out in front of the car and stopped.
We met at 50mph.

Damage to deer.........terminal.

Insurance assessor has been and "assessed"

We await further developments.

Not a good start to the week.
Saturday 15th November

Evening skies of beauty and wonder.
Low temperatures are forecast for Saturday night.

Plot 2.................

........and Plot 5 get covered. Hey, I don't want the caterpillars getting cold, do I?
As the evening draws on it becomes pretty chilly. We think..................................

.....that it's cold enough!
A toasty evening by the fire watching telly is decided upon and enjoyed.

Sunday 16th November
Rising at 8-00am

It's a sunny...................

.........but cool morning.
I suspect that temperatures did not fall as low as was feared.

Wilson enjoys a brisk walk around the house then returns to the warmth.
Tommy takes a stroll down to the creek..................

....and returns with this. One very unamused looking Mr Frog
In this case it's "Catch and Release" and froggie is returned safely to his abode.
I uncover the veggies for the day. My Brussels Sprouts...................

........have been mauled.
The Cauliflower..................

..........aren't much better.
At least the Kohlrabi have survived.

So I pull one. This will be added to tonight's dinner of Beef Stew.
Composting.......................

.........continues.
I must point out that no infected plants are placed on the heap.
That would be asking for trouble.

More winterizing.

Saturday 10th November

Rising at 8-00am to a cool but clear and sunny morning.
Temperatures keep getting very low at times so I want to get a few things bedded down for the winter.

But first..........................

Breakfasting of the egg and toast variety accompanied by..............

.....The Herald Cryptic Crossword.
Following a rather blustery evening............

.......the leaves are here in great numbers and it takes...................

......a whole lot of these to make...............

....one of these. To deal with the remainder on the paths and driveway.................

....I bring in the high tech assistant.
I never rake up the mass of leaves on the grass. They are left in place to encourage insects which in turn make food for the birds during the hard winter months. Notice I said "grass" and not "lawn". I don't have a lawn I have large grass covered tracts.
The saplings in the containers then get a good mulching with straw.

I don't want the containers to freeze solid so I'm hoping that this thick covering will do the trick.
The Winter Onions are doing great.

Even the newly sown bulbs................

....are all through.
But here's something that shouldn't be...................

....my supposedly "hibernating" Garlic. It seems that every clove I planted has sprung up.
What will happen to it when temperatures plummet is anyone's guess so I may have to plant some more.
My Swiss Chard.....

...looks great. And tastes great too.
The Kohlrabi is a new vegetable to our house....

...and I have 3 good sized ones to try. I choose one to go into tonight's dinner.......

....and have a sample bite of the raw veg. It's delicious.
Then it's weeding time and I clear the front garden beds, chop back the dead or dying plants and then cover with Cyprus Mulch.

Things look a little tidier now.
Some cuttings are taken..................

...and placed on the kitchen windowsill to root.
One of the geraniums and the chives are brought inside too.
Enough!!
This is where the Kohlrabi ended up..............................

.......in a Chicken and Vegetable bake.

Long Weekend Day 3

Sunday 2nd November

What, you may ask, happened to Day 2? Here's the abridged version of events....................

Last week one of my cats, Alvin, got sick through either being bitten by an infected animal/insect or eating something he shouldn't have and becomes quite ill. My wife took him to the vet.
Whilst there Alvin bites my wife's arm so she has to go get a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
She then has an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and has to return to the doctor.
So, with trips to the surgery and the vets and nursing a sick wife and cat, the garden took a back seat.
Both patients seem to be slowly on the mend but it's going to take a while.

So here we are at Day 3 and the news doesn't get any better...............................

....caterpillars (cabbage loopers) have got into all the cabbages and had a real feast. They have bored right into bases of the newly forming heads.....

....rendering them unfit to eat. It's heartbreaking to see these veggies which I've grown from seed get ruined this way. There's nothing else to do....................

.....but pull the lot.

How long the Cauliflower and Kohlrabi will last I don't know.
I then clear out the remains of the tomato and basil from Plot 6......

......then weed and thoroughly dig it over.
I'm going to leave it like this for a few days then dig it over again before mulching it for the winter.

Long Weekend. Day 1

Friday 31st October

I'm on a long weekend so hope get some at least some of the garden "winterising" done.
I start on Plot 3 and pull the Yolo Pepper plants.

I then dug the plot over thoroughly and added Iron Phosphate.
I then did the same......................

....to Plot 4
I moved the sapling trees................

.....out of the box and placed 3 of each.........

....in either side.........

....of the walkway between the plots. This will be their home for the winter.
The last of the tomatoes are......................

......sunning themselves on the kitchen windowsill.

Enough for today!!