The weather has turned cold here in Asturias with snow on the mountains, rain on the lowlands and winds making their presence known as they travel east from the Atlantic through the Bay of Biscay. It has been a bit too wet to do very much at all in the garden but today the sun is shining bright and out of the shadows, the warmth is welcome. One bonus of the cooler weather is that the Acers are in full glorious colour and look wonderful.
We have been collecting leaves and composting them to make valuable leaf mould for next year. The green oats we have sown for green manure are sprouting and the vegetable garden is still producing a healthy crop of leeks, flower sprouts, endive, beetroot, celeriac, chard, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot and fennel. The early sprouting broccoli suffered early on with rot at the tips but has recovered a little.
The cats Wentworth and Gawber are spending increasing amounts of time indoors and it does not take them long to suss out if the fires are lit or not. This little clip shows them play fighting in the garden, taking the opportunity to enjoy the brief spell of sunny weather.
There is still plenty of wildlife activity in the garden with visits from the pine marten, many birds and insects. You can following the visiting creatures on our other supplementary blog Smaller tales from Toriello.
Luis is back from Ravenna and in full scale mosaic production. Needless to say he is full of new ideas and energy and is currently finishing fish and water-lily mosaics for the terrace and a sculptural mosaic he started a few months ago. He is currently writing an article about his Ravenna trip for an online mosaic site which I will publish the link to when it is up and visible.
We have seen several formations of geese/cranes flying overhead but as is always the case, I never have the camera or right lens to hand when we spot them. I did manage to get one not too clear photo and hope to spot them again soon...
footnote: a friend from France says these could be Gru (cranes) I think she might be right. What do you think?
We have been collecting leaves and composting them to make valuable leaf mould for next year. The green oats we have sown for green manure are sprouting and the vegetable garden is still producing a healthy crop of leeks, flower sprouts, endive, beetroot, celeriac, chard, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot and fennel. The early sprouting broccoli suffered early on with rot at the tips but has recovered a little.
The cats Wentworth and Gawber are spending increasing amounts of time indoors and it does not take them long to suss out if the fires are lit or not. This little clip shows them play fighting in the garden, taking the opportunity to enjoy the brief spell of sunny weather.
There is still plenty of wildlife activity in the garden with visits from the pine marten, many birds and insects. You can following the visiting creatures on our other supplementary blog Smaller tales from Toriello.
Luis is back from Ravenna and in full scale mosaic production. Needless to say he is full of new ideas and energy and is currently finishing fish and water-lily mosaics for the terrace and a sculptural mosaic he started a few months ago. He is currently writing an article about his Ravenna trip for an online mosaic site which I will publish the link to when it is up and visible.
We have seen several formations of geese/cranes flying overhead but as is always the case, I never have the camera or right lens to hand when we spot them. I did manage to get one not too clear photo and hope to spot them again soon...
footnote: a friend from France says these could be Gru (cranes) I think she might be right. What do you think?
Spectacular acers Ian! Truly tremendous colour. Our autumn leaves are all on the ground now, but we've also been collecting them up. Ours go via the animal shed, where they're broken up and mixed with other compostables.
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrea - the leaves are valuable nutrition for the garden but envy your animal manure.
DeleteLove the film of the cats playing, we call our cats the time wasters they are so entertaining. Do you not have a problem with the deer eating your veg or trees?
ReplyDeleteHi Anne - up to now no problem at all. We do occasionally get damage on the wild areas from Wild Boar who root out bulbs and such but no damage from the deer - I think they are too nervous to stick around for long.
DeleteThose don't look like regular geese formations that I'm used to, so maybe she's right about the cranes. No deer damage where we live, but lots of squirrels, which I've managed to keep away so far with a yankee flipper feeder.
ReplyDelete