Last blog was all about looking back, today is more about looking forward as the days start to lengthen and we stop thinking about how to celebrate midwinter and concentrate more on what the new year has to offer.
On the last day of the old year, it was unseasonably warm. Now it is always hard for a gardener to hold back on sowing things and planting things, because that is what it is all about, making things grow. That challenge is even harder when it is mild and you see buds developing and catkins shedding pollen everywhere (and so the start of the new season allergies). However I felt justified in doing a bit of sowing, as I hadn't got around to the second patch of broad beans, and I like to do autumn sowing to avoid the worst ravages of blackfly. So I uncovered a nicely clean bed, raked it over to remove any foolhardy weeds and a bit more of the underlying builders' rubble, made about 88 dents and sowed broad bean Aquadulce Claudia. I then raked soil back over and added a nice long piece of netting to avoid the worst ravages of cat bottom. I guess it will be another 3 weeks or so before the shoots show.
Another major winter occupation is firewood - now is a good time to fell as the trees are quiet, not too much sap around or leaves to encumber the fall, we aren't worried about missing mushrooms and we aren't being attacked by mosquitos. We've brought down two trees so far this winter and want to bring down another couple to ensure continuity. We had clearly grown soft this summer as moving the dead/dry pieces up to the top of the One Acre Wood is proving harder work than in previous years and neither of us have really felt that our elbows are in a suitable condition for doing a lot of splitting with an axe, however satisfying it can be. We borrowed a log splitter which made short work of the existing stash of big logs, which are now ready for use.
We are still eating the fruits of last year's gardening, and the Brussel Sprouts seem to be nearly ready for John to crunch his way through. I won't touch them. Next weekend we will have our first red cabbage, but I fear that the cauliflower plants, that grew so large and lush, won't have the reserves to make good curds in February/March. I mentioned that it was unseasonably warm? Today I found them covered once again by caterpillars!
It is good at this time of year to look around and appreciate what we take for granted. Two examples of this. Firstly I was in a neighbouring village for a work appointment, and rather than park at the client's house, I parked by the church. Once the work was done, as I put my stuff back in the car, and changed sweatshirt to one that the cats could and would dribble on, I took a moment to marvel at the magnificent St Médard church in Cheviré le Rouge. It's not the largest village by any means, but perhaps 800 or 900 years ago it was way more important, and deserved this large and impressive church.
Looking down, once at the Orchard and having a bit of a walk, I marvelled at the intricate patterns of cyclamen leaves and was perhaps a bit concerned at the number and size of orchid rosettes under the big walnut tree. The cyclamen flowers in the autumn were magnificent. The orchids are most likely to be lizard orchids - impressive, particularly when there are a lot of them, but not pretty.
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