Oct wk 1

Saturday & Sunday, 01/02October 2016

A Very Mild September

For us at any rate September has turned out to be a very mild September and easily the mildest I've recorded over the last six years.

However, the spell of exceptionally mild weather hasn't continued into October. On Monday morning, 03 October, the temperature fell to 2.6°C or 36.7°F which is the lowest temperature I've recorded this early into autumn.

The good weather through September helped our collection of brassica plants to establish quickly and grow well in the mild weather.

Collection of brassica plants planted out on 06 September 2016

Brassica collection on 02 October 2016

I had some doubts about how much growth these plants would put on in the cooler autumn days but so far they've done extremely well. Will they continue to grow this well through October?

Our early cauliflowers didn't do very well at all this year as they were devastated by slugs after they were planted out and although they recovered to some extent and went on to produce some heads these too were eaten away by slugs. We've had a long wait this season for some decent cauliflowers but some planted out in summer are now producing some excellent slug free cauliflowers.

Cauliflower - Clapton

If at first you don't succeed keep trying seems to work most of the time on the plot.

Monday, 03 October 2016

Trains and Boats and Planes

After a very chilly start to the day it warmed up nicely and finished up a lovely October day.

Over the weekend we had a couple of days away visiting Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway at Grosmont

Whitby Harbour and an authentic replica of HMS Endeavour

Photographed at Grosmont

Tuesday & Wednesday, 04/05 October 2016

Laxton's Superb Perhaps?

The decent start to October has continued. The mornings have started off a bit dull and cloudy but generally we've had some sunny periods through the day.

On a quick trip to the plot on Tuesday afternoon I managed to pick another bucket full of apples from our apple hedge.

We inherited our apple hedge over twenty years ago now and we don't know the varieties that were planted. We assume that they will be standard type varieties as searching out unusual apple varieties on the Internet wasn't an option when these trees were planted.

I'm not sure of this variety and I think we've changed our minds several times over the years as to what it might be. It doesn't seem to go rosy red and is rather a tart apple but I'm not totally convinced that it's a baking apple. My best guess at the minute is that it may be a Laxton's Superb.

For the moment the apples have been boxed up and will be stored in our summerhouse for a few weeks. It will be interesting to see how the apples keep over the next few weeks.

Has anybody any other suggestions regarding what variety these apples might be?

Disclaimer

This weather site is operated as an amateur weather station site and should not be used as official data. I make every effort to ensure my data is as accurate as possible but I cannot guarantee that the data meets the requirements of the Meteorological Office or other professional weather monitoring organisations.