It’s official now – autumn is upon us. Nights are noticeably drawing in and other than the occasional blip, the temperatures are falling. I don’t know about you but I feel cheated by the lack of summer.
Some areas have had lots of rainfall but for us it has remained resolutely dry and more often than not gloomy.
The pace of activity at the allotment has slowed although there remains lots of tidying and winter preparatory work to occupy us.
Last week we planted our winter onion and garlic sets. The bed was well fertilised and the onions and garlic were planted in drills of multipurpose compost.
Planting onions and garlic video
Also in the same bed we laid some weed control fabric in preparation for planting winter brassicas that are growing on in the garden greenhouse.
Slits have been burned in the fabric using a culinary blow torch. We used to cut slits using scissors but the fabric frayed badly. This way cuts down on any fraying and also means that the fabric lasts longer.
We are hoping that the fabric will give some protection from root fly.
The whole bed has been covered by an enviromesh tunnel.
The Crown Prince squash vines had died back so I detached the fruits and placed them to cure on another part of the plot. Hopefully, they will enjoy a little more sunshine. The bed has now been cleared and is ready for digging over.
We stripped the ears from one bed of sweetcorn. The plants had managed to produce a harvest despite being flattened by the winds. The kernels are now sitting in our freezer.
We harvested a few more things.
The previous week, we had planned on a visit to Calke Abbey but this had to be postponed due to Ruby’s problem with her tail. She is now back to her normal waggy self so we set off for a trip into Derbyshire last week.
Ruby’s wag is now fully operational video here.
As seems the case with many large houses Calke isn’t an abbey any more than Nostell is a priory.
When King Henry VIII dissolved monasteries, many properties were sold to the King’s favourites. The buildings were either converted into private country houses or new houses were built on the land. The suffix of abbey or priory was kept.
Calke Abbey was shrouded in scaffolding when we visited as restoration work is being carried out,
Just click on an image to access an enlarged view.
We never look around the houses as Ruby isn’t allowed inside but she was allowed everywhere else at Calke including a doggy area in the restaurant. The gardens are set apart from the house.
There were two main garden areas, a walled garden and a kitchen garden. The walled garden was really colourful considering the time of year.
There was also a beautiful selection of dahlias. They looked in a much better shape than ours. No doubt the hedges help.
After a walk around the gardens, we set off on one of the marked trails. Ruby was happy to swap to her extendable lead. Short leads are required close to the house and in the gardens but Ruby was itching for more freedom to explore.
Our walk took us along wooded paths and beside the reservoir and smaller ponds.
We also passed the deer park which is home to red and fallow deer. We only saw fallow deer.
Ruby had a shower the day before our visit so she was looking particularly smart and attracting admirers.
She is also now the proud owner of a passport. She will earn a packet of treats if she collects stamps from six different National Trust properties. That shouldn’t be too difficult as we have until February.
Our journey home took longer than expected as an accident had led to the motorway being closed.
Once Ruby became bored of watching slow moving traffic she curled up and snoozed until she sensed that we were nearing home.
A video of our viait to Calke with shortly be posted here.
Finally a couple of last week’s meals.
I made a Thai red chicken curry using our courgette, carrot, onion and red pepper.
I also made turkey cottage pie topped with carrot and potato mash. This used our onion, potato, carrot and frozen peas.
That’s all for this week so as always stay safe and well.
I am joining Dave for Harvest Monday over on his Our Happy Acres blog.
Autumn is indeed well and truly here and like you I feel cheated. Little in the way of sun here and unlike with you so much rain. those ‘Crown Prince’ squashes are beauties. How will you use them up?
I use the Crown Prince in curries and tagines, Debbie but have also made pumpkin pie with them and a few other things.
It’s good your corn survived the winds and produced for you. I’m impressed by your tunnels – the things we have to do to keep the pests away!
Each year we seem to need to strengthen our defences, Dave.
A culinary blowtorch is inspired!
Glad to hear the waggy tail is back
The Crown Prince squash look good!
It’s so dark now in the mornings, I really don’t like it.
I don’t like it either, Debbie and the evenings now seem so long
Calke Abbey gardens look lovely but your plots look even better! And what excellent harvests considering the awful year. Well done and I’m glad to see Ruby is waggy again! Love the way she stops to check on you every few steps
Ruby likes to know that we are on the end of the lead, Belinda. After a game chasing her ball she comes and asks for her lead to be attached. When she is off the lead, other than when playing ball, she sticks close to us but will happily run about when attached to her extendable lead. I think she thinks that we are on the lead not her.