Rural Life

Day 42 of lockdown - a change in the weather

Lockdown has been reasonably tolerable because of the lovely weather this spring (although I guess we will pay for it later in the year).  There have been few days with rain or mist, and while we had the cold east wind (the Bises), it was tempered by the strong sunshine.  The lovely light and the warmth have meant that sitting in the garden or strolling around the garden admiring new growth have been good ways to shake off itchy feet and feelings of doom.  But all good things come to an end and a depression (meteorological) is coming through bringing storms.  Just after lunch we could see them lining up further south in this screen grab from the lightningmaps.org website.

Then they got closer and I could look at the map and see where the lightning struck as I heard the thunder outside (that really is quite fun to do, if you are a sad Herbert like me!).

We've had 5mm of rain during the afternoon and the air is now humid and rather cooler.  Being outside is less of a distraction, which is a shame as I have now finished my report, and don't know where the next work is coming from!

I have had another welcome distraction this afternoon, as I was approached by an academic researcher who is looking at British Art and the Spanish Civil War as to whether we had anything in my Dad's archives that might add interest to his thesis.  While I found nothing of interest to him, I did enjoy going back through the stuff I have written up to date, and thought I perhaps ought to go through my "To Do When There Is Nothing That Will Pay Bills" box of stuff and move that project on a bit.  Surely lockdown is the time to get that sort of thing done, and I should be grateful for the chance to crack on with it?

Looking back over little projects in this run of blogs, I think I posted photos earlier this month of a tray of modules sown with butternut squash seeds.  Half of the seeds had been stored in the fridge and half in a paper bag in the seed box that lives in the living room.  I think it is now time to reveal the result of the experiment - 6/12 of the fridge stored seeds sprouted, compared to 12/12 of those in the bad in the living room.  Now I have to decide what to do with 18 butternut squash seedlings.

 

Day 34 of lockdown - a rainy Sunday afternoon

They've been promising rain for days, if not a couple of weeks, but today it has finally happened - we've got rain.  At last!  It seems odd to be saying that after it rained seemingly nonstop between mid-October and the end of February, with floods and mud, and the ephemeral ponds filling up.  But it hasn't really rained since I started this blog 34 days ago and the soil is getting very dry, so it is welcome for once.

John managed to mow the lawn this morning in the two hour window when using power tools is not frowned on, while I sowed a hanging basket with a random packet of mixed flower seeds, and thinned out some sempervivums into a pot designed to fit on a downpipe.  I also sowed some radishes and thinned out the tomato seedlings - it felt profligate but we still have at least 19 tomato plants to find space for, as well as the 17 butternut squashes, 6 courgettes, and 19 (and counting) sweetcorn.  Since lunch we really have been locked down, and in my office all I can hear is the clicking of keyboards (mine and John's) and the blatter of rain on our roof and Velux.  I should probably be listening to Oxygène - that is ideal rain music! 

OK, that is now playing; that feels better!

For the photo montage today, I thought I would go through the photos I've taken during the week and then not used.  First off, here are some bluebells as a couple of chums have been taunting me with pictures of bluebell woods in the UK.

Then there is the wisteria I go past in the morning on my way to the boulangerie - I once worked with a chap near Peterborough who thought it was essential I was in the UK in May to see the wisteria.  I didn't like to say it grows just as well here!

When I was a child, I used to love honesty, less for the flowers and more for the seed pods that were such fun to play with.  The honesty is doing rather well this year - perhaps I will remember what it was I actually used to do with/to the pods back in the day.

Finally, after all the angst about the orchid bud and whether it would ever open or not, the other orchid has chosen to have two buds in a stage of imminentness, plus the first one has another bud that looks like it could open any time.  Plus both are finding new places to send out flower stems.  A daily bout of torture for me, to distract me from the copy of Private Eye in the bathroom.