Last week we had some showery rain. It was enough to have us sheltering under trees for a few minutes, but not enough to penetrate the soil, so the watering can hasn’t yet been retired.
My sister, who lives a short distance away, had heavy rain, but once again it didn’t reach us.
There is less and less to water, so this task is becoming less dominant.
The water pressure issue has yet to be addressed; at this rate, the problem will leak into next year. Excuse the pun
I’m sure that if the problem had been sorted out, watering would have been far less time-consuming, and we would have been able to keep up with other tasks.
In my previous post, I reported that we were preparing a bed in which to plant some sweet Williams.
The sweet Williams were planted last week, so now they ‘just’ need to be kept well-watered.
Between watering and general plot maintenance, there is harvesting to be done.
Gathering apples is time-consuming as the trees have been loaded this year. Boxes of eating apples are being stored in the summer house. I’m not sure how long they will keep. The cooking apples have been stewed and are in the freezer.
The green courgettes have just about finished.
As last year, when we grew baby corn for the first time, we left the harvesting too late, I decided to pick one as a test. It was ready.
I picked more baby sweetcorn, which has been frozen, and there are still lots developing on the plants. The baby corn has outdone the adult corn, which has been a failure.
The apples are a variety called Tickled Pink, which has a reddish flesh.
The yellow courgettes have been slower to produce decent-sized fruit, but are now picking up from the green ones.
The blackberries are a thornless variety, and so painless to pick. Having seen the price of blackberries in the local farm shop, maybe we should erect an electric fence around them.
One of the meals that I made last week was a courgette curry. Along with our courgettes, I used our potatoes, red chilli, tomato, and I added the baby corn.
We had planned on an afternoon at Dunham Massey, but as rain was forecast in the west, we decided on a trip to Fountains Abbey instead.
A stream flows past the abbey and into the top lake at Studley Royal. Water from the top lake flows over a weir and into the lower lake. From there, water drains over another weir and into a stream that flows through the deer park.
When we arrived at the abbey, it became apparent just how little water was in the system.
The level of water in the lakes was also low, but when we arrived at the footbridge, it became apparent just how little water there was. It also explained why there was a lot of weed in the lakes.
There was no water to flow over the weir, and both sides of the footbridge were totally dry.
As I walked across the bridge, I had always wondered how deep the water was. Now I know, I won’t feel as vulnerable.
In effect, last week, the footbridge was unnecessary.
Ruby was puzzled as she peered over each side of the footbridge. She’s used to seeing water and seemed to be trying to work out where it had gone.
She’d already had one shock. As she sniffed along the bottom of a hedge, a pheasant noisily erupted from the hedge very close to Ruby’s nose.
I found the roots of the trees growing up the bank beside the path to be very interesting.
Ruby headed purposefully – and hopefully – towards the area where she usually has a game of chase.
She was in luck and was treated to a game just in time as it started to spit with rain, so our walk had to be cut short.
A video of Ruby’s game is posted here
For a short while, we had to shelter under the trees, but the rain soon stopped, and we headed to the car for a coffee before heading home.
Ruby relaxed contentedly after all the excitement. I wonder whether she was still pondering over where the water had gone?
To finish, Ruby wasn’t the only one to have a surprise encounter with wildlife. As Martyn was digging over a bed, he came across an equally surprised toad.
There are lots of moorhens at Temple Newsam, but we hadn’t noticed chicks before. Last week, we spotted four chicks being fed by their parents.
That’s all for this week, so as always, until next time, stay safe and stay well.
Again, I am joining Dave’s Harvest Monday on his Our Happy Acres blog.
I’ve had surprise encounters with toads myself. It’s amazing the baby corn did better than the full sized ones. I’ve never grown the baby kind myself though.
Bizzarely baby corn plants are taller and sturdier plants, Dave