Outdoor things

18 - 20 November 2017

We've not had any time for the garden recently, as we are trying to push on with the work in the house, but a few things demanded our attention.

 First off, Dave decided our self-seeded pumpkin (it just appeared, on the big Hugel bed, presumably from seeds in the compost) and butternut squash (likewise) were not likely to ripen any more, so they should come indoors.  Here they are posing on the stove plinth, together with our last remaining unfitted windows, in need of a bit of filler and paint to be ready for fitting.

 In close-up 

(the pumpkin did get quite a bit yellower, and we had lots of pumpkin soup later in the month)

 Then, out of the blue, I had a call from Rosa, saying did we still want some well-rotted goat manure?  What can one say but 'Yes please!'  A day later and 30 sacks turn up.  That's going to be quite a distribution process when we get round to it.

 Meanwhile, we had to put off the stove installation yet again.  We were forecast to take the brunt of a rare 'Mediterranean Hurricane' gathering steam in the Adriatic.  So we battened everything down, using the new bags of manure to weight the dinghy and woodpile cover.

 While huddling indoors from the storm, we spent time developing this 'Acute Angle Jig' for the drop-saw, so that we will be able to cut the required sharp angles for the batons needed for the ceiling boards - which is the next job, once the deliveries have arrived.

 It's not much of a harvest, but I was very proud of our two Goji berries, that survived to adulthood on the bush.  We'll try harder next year.

The sweet potatoes have done much better.  This is the crop from the first plant that Dave decided to harvest.  Not bad.  There are quite a few still in the ground, hopefully growing bigger.