2013 Records

2012 Records

2011 Records

2010 Records

2009 Records

Monday 15 September 2014

Mundane but Necessary

Monday turned out a little bit sunnier than forecast with some hazy autumn sunshine from time to time. The forecast for the rest of the week remains much the same.

I must admit I’m not very good at looking after our two small lawns. Apart from getting cut as necessary that’s about all the loving care and attention they get. I thought it was about time I made an effort to improve things a little. It’s not that they look too bad but they could certainly be improved.

I’ve started the process by aerating the lawn. There seems to be a little bit of doubt, depending on which Internet article you read, as to whether the holes made with my aerating machine, a giant fork with hollow tines, should be filled in or not. I’ve chosen the easy option not to fill them in. I think I should have made a few more holes than I did but it doesn’t come natural to me to make lots of holes in the lawn to improve its condition. The process is supposed to let stale carbon dioxide out of the soil and fresh oxygen in.

The next confusion is what to do with all the pieces of lawn that come out of the aerating fork as you work around the lawn. I just tested out my hollow tined fork on one of our small lawns so it was a quick job to pick up the tubes of soil removed. Some suggestions are that these can be left on the surface to dry out then the next time the lawn is cut the dry soil will be broken up and distributed back over the lawn. I think I’ll add our bits of grass and soil to the compost heap.

We did manage a little bit of harvesting with the produce having a bit of an exotic air about it.

A few bit size mini kiwis “Issai” to start with and from the greenhouse, one large orange pepper “Orange Bell”, an aubergine “Jackpot” and some grapes “Himrod”. A couple of large yellow tomatoes, Amish Gold had split but the damage was only skin deep and together with the aubergine and pepper made an excellent pasta sauce.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

In a Knot

After another very dull and murky morning the sun came out early in the afternoon making it a lovely sunny afternoon with the temperature reaching 20.5°C.

I have no idea why I noticed this on the plot today but I did. One of our grapevines on the plot is Boskoop Glory and it’s trained on canes to grow along the side of our shed.

This is how we tie it to the cane to allow the vine to grow horizontally along the shed.

This is how the vine does it with a knot all of its own. Isn’t that a lovely tidy knot.

I was thinking today it was a good job I hadn’t stopped our Sungold tomato or we would have run out of its sweet juicy tomatoes by now. It’s happily continuing to produce tomatoes with its flowers and fruits pressed up against the greenhouse roof. As I was looking at a well known Supermarkets web site for the price of fruit and vegetables I was pretty amazed to find that they were selling a super, extra special sweet variety of tomato. It wasn’t Sungold and in fact it wasn’t one I’ve heard of but it won’t be able to beat Sungold for taste. The price for these super special tomatoes - an amazing £9.72 per kg.

Hidden under a few salad leaves are some Sungold I picked for lunchtime today. These few weighed in at a little over 100gms or valued at £1.00 by this particular supermarket. It values our seasons crop of Sungold at £30.60.

Our photos of our visit to Formby and “Red Squirrel Walk” are finished and can be viewed online here. There’s also a video of the red squirrels here.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 17-19 September 2014

Over the Border

We decided to head over the border into Lancashire for a couple of days. The weather forecast suggested that west might be best. The plan was to visit the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Martin Mere, then spend Thursday night in Lancaster  before heading into Cumbria for a little bit of steam train photography on Friday morning and to spend the rest of the day visiting the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss.

The centre at Martin Mere is very similar to their Slimbridge centre which we had visited in spring. The opportunities for photos of ducks, geese and swans are fantastic.

After a very enjoyable visit to Martin Mere, Friday morning saw us make a short trip up the M6 into Cumbria near Beckfoot to photograph a steam locomotive, Number 61994 The Great Marquess, hauling “The West Highlander” up to the west Coast of Scotland on a four day tour.

I left the photography to Sue while I tried my hand at a little bit of video.

The horses didn’t mind all the other trains on the west coast main line but weren’t too happy about a steam locomotive passing by. It was then back down the M6 to RSPB Leighton Moss.

It was a lovely mild September afternoon as we made our way around the reserve visiting most of the reserve’s hides. Some have views out towards Morecambe Bay.

As we headed back over the Pennines on the M62 motorway it was very misty and murky over the tops and back into West Yorkshire.

Judging from my weather station output I think we probably had better weather than if we’d stayed at home. Was the trip successful? My camera certainly thinks so with 1465 photos downloaded and some video too. I might be some time editing that lot.

Saturday 20 September 2014

Sunshine Please

Saturday was a dull and miserable day. It wasn’t particularly cold for mid to late September with an afternoon temperature of  16.4°C. My weather station has recorded only 36 minutes of sunshine for the whole of the last four days.

Sunday has started much brighter if a little cooler.

White Cloud

I’ve noticed that BBC Autumnwatch will be coming from RSPB Leighton Moss this year. Having quickly looked at the picture taken at the reserve on Friday this cheeky little robin is probably going to be one of the best.

He or she popped out of the hedgerow and perched on a gate we were going through. It wasn’t in a rush to head for cover and I think it expected a few meal worms in return for the pose. Unfortunately it was out of luck. Just in case you were wondering it did have two legs.  

It’s back to the allotment today to see if we can prepare some ground for planting some winter onions. With virtually no rainfall this month our soil is very dry and not easily broken down into a fine tilth for planting. Then a trip to the local garden centre for some onion sets.

Sunday 21 September 2014

Poised for a Dry Calm Month?

Sunday was much brighter than the last few days although it clouded over around lunchtime for a while. A couple of coolish nights with the temperature falling to 6.9°C and 6.1°C are a reminder that autumn’s here.

After a wet, windy and cold August, September has so far turned out dry, calm and mild in comparison.

At the moment September is in line to be one of the driest months of the last five years but of course it will only take one wet day in the remaining week or so to change things around.

There’s also the possibility of September joining June 2011 as the only month in the last 5 years when we haven’t had a gust of wind over 15mph.

After a colder than average August when the average temperature for the month ended up at 15.1°C, the average for September (up to midnight on 21 September) was 14.9°C very little difference to August. September’s temperature is around the expected value but does go to show what a cool month August was.

The forecast for the rest  of the month seems rather similar with high pressure remaining in charge of the weather. The real test for the forecasters is to accurately predict when we can expect a change in the current weather pattern.

Updated weather charts to the 21 September can be found here.