Saturday 15 February 2014
Some Greenhouse Repairs
Saturday was another miserable day with rain on and off all day and it was still quite breezy.
During a little break in the weather I headed up to our home greenhouse to measure up for some new polycarbonate sheeting to replaced that damaged in this weeks storm.
This is where one of the sheets had blown out. It measures 1.660m x 0.730m which would be an enormous pane of glass and not easy to deal with. The only sensible replacement is to use another sheet of polycarbonate which is much lighter and safer than glass. I noticed when I first inspected the damage that all the sheeting had blown outwards from the greenhouse and that the wind had lifted it upwards. The problem with the sheeting is that it is very flexible. I have added the two wooden laths across the window opening to support the polycarbonate and stop it flexing downwards and falling into the greenhouse when we have any snowfalls. I obviously need to add some additional strengthening material to stop any upward flexing taking place.
On first inspection, I hadn’t noticed that this large sheet of polycarbonate remained in one piece down the side of the greenhouse. The smaller piece at the far end of the path is broken and will need replacing. By this time it was raining again but I thought it worthwhile to try to replace this undamaged sheet to keep some of the rainfall out of the greenhouse. I could only make a temporary repair as I still need to think up a way of stopping any upward flexing.
It didn’t take too long before the panel was slid back inside its grooves in the old greenhouse timbers and the end batten refixed to stop it sliding back down. The problem is how to fix a new timber batten to the old greenhouse timbers as it’s a long reach. Perhaps an alternative is to actually glue a timber batten to the polycarbonate to stiffen it and to stop it flexing completely. A similar technique seems to have worked on a much smaller pane in our plot greenhouse so this could be a way forward. Whilst I’m refurbishing the polycarbonate sheeting it’s probably a good time to give the remaining glass panels a good clean too.
You may have noticed that the greenhouse guttering is in need of some attention too and that the path at the back of the path leads to what is now “The Coldframe Courtyard ”. Some decent weather is needed before a serious start can be made on either the greenhouse refurbishment or our new “Coldframe Courtyard”.
Sunday 16 February 2014
Not Up to Expectation
Sunday didn’t live up to its forecast of lots of sunshine and clear blue skies. It got off to a poor start with some rain at breakfast time followed by a sky full of dark looking clouds amongst which were some small patches of blue.
Based on the forecast for a lovely sunny dry day, we’d planned for a visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Potteric Carr. The wet start to the day set us umming and ahhing about whether to go or not. We hadn’t had any more rain by lunchtime and although we still had some dark clouds around we decided we’d risk a visit.
When we arrived at Potteric Carr there was just a few spots of rain. We decided to hope for the best that the rain would hold off. We managed our walk around the reserve without getting wet. As far as the wildlife went it was a little disappointing with all the birds seemingly as far away from the hides as possible. We did though manage to spot a couple of ducks that we hadn’t seen before, a shoveler and a pochard. I didn’t manage a decent picture of either as they were just specks on the water.
This was my best effort at the pochard and I didn’t get anything of the shoveler at all.
The weather certainly did improve through the afternoon. This was a the scene from the first hide we visited with not much sign of any sunshine at all. Later in the afternoon the cloud was much more broken with some decent sunny intervals
In the end we were glad we decided to visit as we had an enjoyable wander around the reserve even if the bird life didn’t want to play ball. At least we hadn’t got wet.
Monday 17 February 2014
Mild but Not Mild?
Monday was a dull, dreary and cloudy day. The rain just about held off all day but just couldn’t help itself and we had shower late into the evening amounting to 0.4mm. So we just missed out on a third dry day for the month.
This winter’s certainly hit the headlines with the amount of rainfall there’s been in some parts of the country. Thankfully the worst of that has missed us but along with the wet weather it will go down as a mild winter. So far very few frosts but what about the day time temperatures? Seventeen days into February and we haven’t managed to reach 10°C yet. We’ve been close at 9.6°C on the 08 February but we haven’t managed to hit that double digit temperature yet.
Tuesday 18 February 2014
A Very Convenient “Act of God”
I should have known that by actually writing a blog post saying that the temperature hadn’t reached double figures this month would result in a temperature of 11.4°C on Tuesday. After a nice sunny morning it turned dull and cloudy in the afternoon but the rain held off too to give us our third dry day of the month.
You may remember that after last week’s storm part of our neighbours roof finished up on my car. Mine and my neighbours response was that the cost of repairing the damage to my car would be covered under his house insurance policy. What neither of us appreciated at the time was that this was an “Act of God” and not covered by insurance. Don’t you just love insurance companies they have a get out clause for everything. I’m not entirely clear what constitutes the “Act of God”. Is it the gale force winds alone? Does it mean if the wind blows the roof off your house this isn’t covered by insurance? Is it the pure mischief that the damaged roof was blown onto my car? Why is wind damage an “Act of God” yet apparently “biblical” amounts of rainfall aren't? Any explanations?
Wednesday 19 February 2014
Queuing for a Museum
Wednesday wasn’t a bad day although any sunshine was at a premium. To ram home the point the temperature managed double figures again although we did have a shower mid morning and again late into the evening adding another 0.4mm of rain to our monthly total.
We decided on a visit to the National Railway’s sister museum at Shildon in County Durham. For this week only, the six surviving A4 steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, and sister locomotives to Mallard the world’s fastest ever steam locomotive, are together at the museum. More than likely this is the last time all six locomotives will be seen together as 4496 Dwight D Eisenhower will be heading back to Wisconsin, America and Dominion of Canada back to Montreal. They were repatriated especially for the 75th anniversary of Mallard setting this world record.
Although the six steam locomotives are on display all week that didn’t stop thousands visiting the museum on Wednesday to see them.
It was almost impossible to photograph the locomotives with so many visitors milling around. The picture above shows 4489 Dominion of Canada which has been “cosmetically” restored for the event sandwiched between two locomotives still capable of hauling passenger trains on main line excursions. Indeed 4464 Bittern on the right has recently been hauling charter trains at speeds of up to 90mph. On the left is 60009 Union of South Africa also a regular main line performer.
As nice as it is to see these six famous locomotives together this is how I prefer to see them in steam and working rather than displayed as just a hunk of preserved metal. The picture above shows 60009 Union of South Africa with a main line charter train crossing Dent Head Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway in March 2013.
Thursday 20 February 2014
Spring Like -
Thursday was almost spring like with the warmest day of the year reaching 12.3°C with some sunny spells thrown in. It was spoilt by lots of showers throughout the afternoon.
I’m not sure the frequency of the showers shows up on the chart, they seemed to be every few minutes but very light and very short just enough to wet the ground.
As it wasn’t too bad outside I made a start on tidying the inside of the greenhouse ready for the start of the sowing and planting season. Lurking under pots, were a few guests that needed to be removed before they had chance to do any damage.
At least I managed to remove all last seasons old tomato growing compost and spread it onto the garden as a mulch. Left in the greenhouse, the compost had dried out over winter but I’m assuming, now it’s outside, it will soon be damp enough and that the worms will do a decent job of incorporating it into the border.
In the afternoon sunshine our snowdrops were in full flower.
Friday 21 February 2014
Seed Potatoes Delivered
Friday had some sunny periods and it was mild again with the rain holding off until teatime.
Our seed potatoes arrived on Tuesday from JBA Seed Potatoes. The potatoes were ordered last December and I requested that delivery should be in the last week of February. The seed potatoes arrived in excellent condition and I’m setting them out to chit in the greenhouse protected with some fleece just in case of any overnight frosts.
There much debate on social media web sites about the need to chit potatoes. I’ve always chitted mine as, left in the bags they’re supplied in .the tubers will sprout long, weak, spindly shoots which aren’t any good.
I use seed trays to chit them setting the part of the potato with the most “eyes” pointing upwards. These are Winston a first early variety. The other varieties we are growing this year are Casablanca, Charlotte, Harmony, Marfona, Nadine, Nicola and Rocket. The potatoes will be left covered with fleece until planting time in April. I might start a few first early roots of Rocket and Winston in potato bags to grow initially in the greenhouse before been moved outside to produce a tasty early crop.