Saturday 01 November 2014
Up In Flames
Don’t know whether or not Saturday set any high temperature records for the first day of November but for us the spell of mild weather continued with the temperature reaching a very unseasonably mild 17.6°C.
On the plot we had one area which had become a storage area for tree prunings. Lots of these had been there for a good 12 months after part of a laurel and an elder bush were cut back. Some of the prunings were used as supports for sweet peas and pea sticks but many had been left in a very large heap waiting to be burnt.
This is how the area, where all the dead wood and prunings had been piled up. looked back at the beginning of May this year. The pile of branches and twigs became even larger with lots of fruit bush prunings added in autumn. This is how it looked after a couple of hours of dragging out large pieces of laurel and elder branches from amongst the thistles and nettles.
Everything was cut into more manageable sizes for burning. My plan was to burn everything one evening next week. The council have introduced some new rules about bonfires stating that they shouldn’t be lit until one hour before dusk. Some plotters took no notice of this with the result that some say bonfires are supposed to be banned altogether. This hasn’t been confirmed in writing by the council I’ve only heard this by word of mouth.
My plan was to burn all our rubbish in one big bonfire one evening around 05 November, Bonfire Night. Everything had been stacked in sorted piles of twiggy material, larger branches and finally any green material such as brambles and weeds.
With heaps of dead wood all over one plot near where I planned to have my bonfire I thought it was a job well done and with any luck it would all stay dry enough to burn next week. Sue thought it was a pity that we couldn’t set light to it there and then, rather than risk it all getting wet and soggy, but I hadn’t taken any matches or newspaper to the plot to do any fire starting. Our plot neighbour rectified that little problem with some matches, paper and a cardboard box. As you can see the bonfire went well and everything was burnt. By the time we left only a large pile of hot ashes remained.
Sunday 02 November 2014
Where’s All My Wood Ash Gone?
Sunday was another fine November day and once again on the mild side with a high of 14.3°C. It’s going to be a real shock to the system when the cooler weather arrives.
We had an afternoon trip to the plot to do a little more tidying up. My first task was going to be to spread out the wood ash from yesterday’s bonfire. That didn’t take me long at all.
To my surprise there wasn’t anything left at all. I was expecting a nice heap of wood ash but the bonfire had burnt away to virtually nothing with just a dusting of ash left on the surface.
With that job done very quickly I decided to make a start on preparing our new strawberry bed for next year. As the plants will be in the ground for a few years I want to make sure the ground is well dug and prepared before planting. The roots of last year’s sweet corn plants were dug out and the edges of the bed cut back, before the ground was dug over.
I didn’t make much effort to break the soil down into a fine tilth as the winter’s rain and frost will do that for me. Some old compost used to grow this year’s tomatoes was spread on the soil after it had been dug. The other half of our new strawberry bed still has some beetroot growing in it and it may well be next spring before I get round to digging this patch over once the beetroot has been removed.
We now need to decide on our favoured strawberry varieties and get them ordered.
Monday 03 November 2014
My Mildest October But Only On a Recount
Monday was certainly much cooler with temperature more like we might expect for early November with the thermometer only managing to reach 11.4°C. Colder days are forecast for the rest of the week. Autumn has arrived.
November, however can already boast one record and that’s the warmest November day in the five years I’ve had my weather station. On Saturday we managed 17.6°C beating my previous record of 17.3° set on 04 November 2010. I hope that’s not an omen as 2010 turned out to be a particularly cold winter.
I added this chart to my web site on 01 November 2014 except that it showed 2013 and 2014 tied as equal mildest with 12.1°C. I noticed a slight discrepancy between two different pieces of software that each calculate the average temperature for the month. I’ve adjusted my figures and October 2014 becomes the mildest by the merest of margins 0.1°C. We’ve now had three out of five Octobers with very similar averages of 11.9°C, 12.0°C and 12.1°C.
Following on from a very dry September we’ve had the driest October of the last five years too although with 41.0mm of rainfall it’s been enough to make soil conditions good for autumn digging.
The forecast colder conditions have arrived as the early morning temperature on Tuesday was down to 1.4°C giving us our first frost of autumn.
Tuesday & Wednesday 04/05 November 2014
A Bonfire Night Scare
That cold snap is certainly here now with the temperature not even managing to reach double figures with a daytime high of around 9°Cish on both days.
As it runs all my weather data my PC runs 24/7 otherwise I would have to sort out all sorts of times when data was and wasn’t downloaded from my weather station or uploaded onto the Internet. In short it’s easier to leave it running. However, like all PC’s is does sometimes cry enough and demand a reboot. Bonfire night morning was one such occasion when it decided enough was enough and just ground to a halt. Even the dreaded little blue circle froze in its motion signalling nothing else was going to be processed. Then the panic as it didn’t want to reboot. Windows opened and little desktop shortcuts started to form and then everything went into suspended animation. I waited and waited but nothing progressed. After several switching on and offs, well lots of on offs, as well as disk scanning taking place it eventually sprung back into some form of life. Steadily things started to return to some semblance of normality. I really was regretting not having a recent backup.
Last week we moved some chrysanthemums from the allotment back into the home greenhouse for protection against the worst of the weather and hoping for a few late cut flowers into late autumn at least.
These two spent spring in the house bought as pot mums from the local supermarket. As you will know we, especially Sue, don’t like to throw plants away so after a spell inside they spent summer planted out on the plot.
Our clematis which climbs over an arch is still trying to flower despite a couple of cold days and even colder nights.
The early hours of Thursday gave us our coldest temperature of autumn so far as the temperature fell to -
Thursday & Friday 06/07 November 2014
A Brief Cold Snap
Thursday brought us a brief cold snap with our first real frost of the season compared with Friday which brought us our first wet day of the month.
Temperature and Rainfall starting 06 Nov 2014 to 08 Nov 2014
If you look carefully at the rainfall you’ll see there was a dry spell between 09:00 and midday on Friday. We decided to go shopping just before lunchtime on Friday timing our outing to coincide perfectly with the heaviest downpour of the day around midday.
In the garden our medlar tree is in it its autumn colours.
I suppose it’s a reminder that this is the tree that gives us our final fruits of the season if only we could work out exactly when they are ready to pick and eat.
Like the leaves, the fruits take on a lovely autumnal tinge but I tested this particular fruit and it’s still hard and there’s no sign of it bletting. Bletting involves the fruit going beyond its ripening stage but not rotting. It’s a fine line between bletting and rotting and one I haven’t mastered yet.
Even though we don’t make much use of the fruit the tree is well worth its place in the garden as not only does it produce excellent autumn foliage and fruits that hang on the tree into late autumn but also lovely spring flowers too.
Now if only we could sort out how to use the fruit!
