It’s going to be short – and hopefully sweet – episode this week as life has been both very busy and rather repetitive. In addition we are experiencing a large number of wifi failures and the occasional power cut so I hope I manage to get this sent! I don’t know what is causing the disruption as the weather has finally improved (that means the rain has stopped for a bit in Ireland) and the high winds have finally passed. Well, timing is everything so I shall get on and travel hopefully.
The busy bit all revolves around the wood, the orchard and the polytunnel. We got down to the newly cleared back of the wood and there is a huge amount of kindling scattered across the area. Some is left over branches from the dead trees felled by Fergus, some large chips from the felling and there’s even the occasional full branch we can cut into logs. Speaking of logs, Fergus and Tom did a wonderful job, cutting and stacking them all in the lean-to. When winter rolls around again we will be snug and secure. We were worried we would come up short this spring as the storms dragged on but had just enough dry fuel left to see us through.
Jacqui was finally able to assemble a new sawhorse and finished cutting the decking for the polytunnel. The gravel base was not very steady and it was hard to keep the shelves level inside. The decking came in 14 foot lengths so had to be cut short to fit the polytunnel but the floor is now level and stable. She has started to sow the first seeds, mainly salad vegetables to start off. Thank you to my cousin who donated some new tomatoes including the intriguingly named “Orange Wellington”. It’s described as a sweet, orange beefsteak tomato so hopefully will do as well as our Marmands from last year, which are also sown this time too.
Spring is evident all around now. There was an early push in February with daffodils and snowdrops but the weather closed in and very little grew apart from weeds. Then the sun appeared and spring leaped forwards again, cramming the bulk of the season into a few short weeks. Now we have primroses, bluebells and dandelions all around as well as blossom and coloured leaves on the “signature trees”. One Maple has been reluctant to do anything for two years apart from send one branch high into the sky. This year it is putting out lovely red foliage and I remember why we chose it.
The new trees are all doing well and the copper beeches show the first signs of buds and leaves. We are still waiting to plant the spruces as we need to do more gleaning on the site first. Sometimes I feel like Ivan Denisovitch as I find it hard to resist gathering small piles of short sticks and branches on my walks. Still, when we come to light the stove on cooler evenings we are rather glad for this mild obsession.
We are hoping the house martens will come back to nest in the lean-to again this year. I’ve spotted a couple swooping around and having a look and today one bird veered away when I was inside and perched on a tree watching me. The birds are actually rarely worried by us and keep singing even when we are crashing and sawing away.
In between all this activity we were suddenly called for health visits and had eye check-ups for Cynthia who is doing well. Jacqui had her visit to the check up vampire – sorry, nurse – and a letter arrived with an appointment for the heart clinic. As it is over a year since the last one we were not expecting it and the short notice meant a bit of rearranging things. In the end that was not much use as the registrar plodded through a script and didn’t answer our questions or listen to what we said. He was determined to put her on statins, the only “help” he offered, though they make her very, very ill.
It took quite a bit of persuading this was not a good idea and he was obviously not happy. I’ve had similar talks with other doctors (not our current GP who is excellent) and suspect statins are currently prescribed like ozempic – a quick fix that works for a lot of people so just try it and see. We are being careful and taking responsibility for some aspects of our health and the fact we can still do so much around the place shows, I think, we are doing okay.
Well, not as short as I expected after all. I’ll finish with a question. We have a field behind our house, which is regularly treated with slurry to improve grass yields. This year there are many dandelions, a delight to the eyes. However only half the field is slurried as otherwise it would be too close to our well. I am surprised to see the unslurried part had many more dandelions than the treated part. Surely it should be the other way around? Does anyone have any idea why this might be? All answers received gratefully!
Hoping you all have a good few weeks with some nice warm weather. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you all in a couple of weeks.
Jennie.