Unbusy Days

 26 - 30 December 2020

Not much to report in the last days of the year.  We ate too much and drank a little at Christmas, and slept it off on Boxing Day.  We had a couple of nice walks along the sea front at Nidri, and waved to a few neighbours in passing.  Mostly it has been drizzling again, and we've been spending time in the studio and music room.

Sitting on the sofa on 30 December, with the stove lit, I realised that the full moon was perfectly framed in the window above, peeking between dark clouds.  

New signs of growth on the mushroom bale in the shed.  We bought it a couple of weeks ago, and it was covered in enormous oyster mushrooms, which fed us at every meal for about four days.  But we suspect it may have been too long in the shop, because there were no more after that.  Very pleased, therefore, to see these little emergences today.

Happy New Year for 2021
and please let it be a little less 'interesting' than 2020!

Christmas Fun

 24 - 25 December 2020

The day before Christmas and nothing was stirring, not even a mouse ...

... until all these people came round and we had a barbecue and some silly games.

One of the silly games was a requirement to wear a small piece of discrete fancy dress spelling out a well known book title.  Mine was worn on the behind and showed London and Paris (*answers below).  Dave wore 'Fare' on one arm and 'Well' on the second arm.  One visitor wore a pregnancy bump and a cheese grater.  Lots of clever ideas and fun guessing.

In the foreground: Rambo (not a book??) with Cruella DeVil and one spotted white dog.  Good party, and everyone went home before dark so we didn't overdo it before the big day.

Our Christmas table centrepiece: chicory flowers and hawthorn with berries

A soppy photo of us to share with the families.

Merry Christmas everyone!

* Tale (tail) of Two Cities

Farewell to (two) Arms

Great Expectations

(I'm sure you got these)

Solstice Fun

 21 December 2020

The best thing was that I finished a painting and hung it in the living room.  Always good to get something finished, especially with the next few days given over to jollification.

My praying mantis painting 'Reflected Glory' gets pride of place over the sofa!

Then we went outside and selected this year's Christmas tree from among the cypress which are growing too close to the path.  It is taller than usual, as we have more room in the house than when we were camping out around tool benches and works-in-progress.  Dave whittled down the trunk to fit the stand properly.

Walking round the garden we spotted this perfect nasturtium growing by one of the hazel trees.  It's nice to see some of them have taken off where seed was scattered.  We had a small ceremony of gratitude to the garden and all the growing things while we were by the pond.  We have lots to be grateful for.

The Christmas tree in all its glory.  Decorating it required a certain amount of port to be drunk, and Christmas carols to be sung.

Then, in a happy place, we adjourned to the front door step to watch the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which has conveniently located itself in a prominent dip between two trees just above the horizon.  Another small thing to be grateful for!

The conjuction is happening in the centre of this photograph in which it is not at all visible - but we had a good view by eye.

Picket Fence

 18 - 20 December 2020

Another little bit of fencing to fix.  This was very quick and easy, compared to how it might have been back in the summer when the ground was solid.  We rattled it up in about an hour, before Greek lessons started at 11am.

We've had these two lengths of picket fence since June, but we couldn't imagine knocking the post holders 50cm into the ground at that time.  We had to do 4 of them for the arch, and it was incredibly difficult.  This time they went in like soft butter.

I left Dave to finish and went off to Greek.

Later that afternoon, taking advantage of the first sunshine in ages, we posed for our Christmas card with our one and only full-grown orange on the tree.

 

A visit to Robbie and Sue on a sunny Saturday

 

 

Another unseasonal development - new toad spawn in the pond.  I'm sure this shouldn't happen in December?

 

And a dead fish - floating in the pond before I removed it and fed it to the banana tree.  It has had a bite taken out of it, but Dave thought that was likely after it died.  Wonder what killed it?

 

Infrastructure Maintenance

 14 - 17 December 2020

The weather has perked up and we are keen to get on with some of the infrastructure repair that we had planned for December.

This is the scene around the side of the shed.  To the right is the battery box that Dave has to check at intervals, and to the left are the brambles and prickly oak that believe the space is theirs.  I had already cut back quite a bit before taking this photo - it is usually impenetrable.

Dave was doing urgent repairs to the track before coming to help me.  So much rain in the past weeks, the track was in danger of washing out.  With barrow, pick and spade, Dave went to work.

The finished result - our concrete was covered in gravel washed down from above before Dave started, and further down he had dug out rain drains to channel water over the side rather than erode great trenches in the track.

 

Then we started on the fence posts

And the panels

Some time later - the brambles cut right back, and fence panels installed, to define our space and give the brambles a boundary.  We'll have to keep an eye on it, and trim regularly, but I'm hoping that the fence will highlight the problems as they start.

The other end of the fence runs into a cleared area under some spreading trees.  It is a very shaded area, and suggests itself as a mushrooming zone.

So it was not too surprising to come across this beauty.  Internet research claimed it to be a Pale Chanterelle - but we are still not brave enough to risk eating it.

But we did eat these - the first mandarins from one of our little trees.  It only made four in total, so this was an important moment.  Very sweet and lovely (the mandarins, as well as the moment!)

 

Drizzle and Errands

 3 - 13 December 2020

 A week of drizzle and errands and very little done in the garden.

Checking out the boat, which is in the boatyard for the winter.  A couple of quick jobs done, and some decisions made for winter work to do

The car was called in for a software update, so we took the opportunity to have a walk around Nikopolis, our local significant Roman ruins.  We spotted loads of nettles and blackberries, but because we had exchanged our car for a courtesy car we didn't have anything to collect them with (gloves for nettles) or in (box for blackberries).  We decided to come back when we collect the car, but two days later it was tipping down and we didn't bother!

On the way back, another impromptu visit to the garden centre for cabbages, and this fabulous plant.  I was very impressed to find out it was turmeric!

Out for a walk down our track - watched with suspicion by the neighbour's sheep - who are dedicated to raiding our kale

The first of the cauliflowers is starting to swell, and looking cute and adorable.  Our friend Amanda describes them as the 'puppies of the vegetable world'

 

And the villains of the piece: all these cabbage whites from one broccoli plant.  I've never seen them in December before.  It must be the unseasonably warm weather encouraging a second breeding season.

 

The log I have balanced over the pond to encourage kingfishers.
Build it and they will come (fingers crossed).

 

 

Chicken-processed Straw

 2 Dec 2020

About two weeks ago we put a straw bale in with the chickens, and split it open for them to 'process'.  This entails a lot of scratching through it to pick out seeds, and adding a little nutrient as they go along.  Now we wanted to get the straw onto the dormant beds to protect them for the winter.

Dave barrowing, while I forked up the scrabbled straw

Straw tipped onto the terraced veg beds

Another un-scrabbled bale was used around the new trees, covering the cardboard, to discourage weed growth and to gradually rot down and add biomass to develop the soil along the Mulberry trench.

The rest of the un-scrabbled bale went the distance and finished off the NE corner: figs, sweet chestnut, avocado, nectarine, robinia and new lemon.  Job done.

Four More Trees

1  December 2020

 Yesterday we were in Lefkada for something and on an impulse, called into the garden centre.  It was one of those impulses, which leaves you with a car full of new plants, including three stuck out through the passenger window!

I had to squash in the back with the shopping

So, bright and early the next morning, we were pickaxing out planting holes for the trees.  We started with the hardest two - the new Mulberries to be planted in the dead ground which has been under the 'Zone' for years - no soil, lots of stones, and in one hole - a big root from a broom plant.

Unfortunately, Dave's wrist clicked early on, and he was relegated to giving me advice while I did the pickaxing.  Eventually, we had both trees in deep holes, staked against wind damage and topped off with half a sack of manure along the terrace trench.  We decided to do the whole trench as it gives us some planting room for beans to help feed the soil.

We used up the last of this useful little package from the RHS which promotes the growth of mycorrhizal fungi in the root zone.  Best to give them all the help we can.

After planting out the other two trees as well: another lemon and another Robinia - planted as a shade tree and nitrogen fixer for our stunted little mandarin trees, we scraped up enough cardboard (having found a long-forgotten stash behind the shed) to cover the manure all round.

Here is the lemon - planted behind one of the Robinias - we decided to get another lemon and try it in a more sheltered location to see if it benefits from less sun.  Our two existing lemon trees suffer terribly from leaf-miners and haven't produced a lemon between them for years.

Our other two plantings were a couple of fruiting shrubs in the new forest garden beds - we couldn't get more than two in the car, and Dave was skeptical as we have failed to keep either of these alive in the past.  But I insisted, we have to keep trying, and we have a planting area ready.