Best in the West

 

I always love when Met Eireann, our weather forecaster, ends the forecast with 'Best in the West'.  We used to never hear that phrase. Now it's quite common. We're having a week of sunny warm and calm weather. Warmest in the west -- 20C by day, down to about 5C overnight. Everything has come alive. The fruit orchard is in full bloom except for the apples. The vines are leafing in the vineyard and Alex mowed yesterday. The trees have leafed. It's delightful. 

I took a chance and started planting a few things out -- broccoli, courgettes. bush beans. I have many extra plants so I didn't feel that it threatened my supply. My beetroot has germinated, the radishes are already ready to eat and the spinach has really come on strong in the cold frames. The peas have not come up yet but I expect they'll pop out shortly. The Swiss chard is sown. Having poor germination of lettuce this year. Will try a different variety. 

I fed the roses and ericaceous loving shrubs. Washed the car. Pulled weeds. Watered the greenhouse and the vegetable gardens. The new polytunnel arrives Saturday. I generally enjoyed the day. Looking forward to the week. Have almost forgotten about the coronavirus pandemic. 

Tidy up

Rondo leafing

Crabapple

Cherry

Pear

Apple

Strawberry

Blueberry

Happy Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere was at 09:37 on Saturday, 20 March - today. And right on cue, everything started bursting at the seams. Every fruit tree except one hatched. The vines are getting ready but no bud break just yet. 

The weather has been fine and chores are getting done. Yesterday, it was hot and sunny. I spent the afternoon painting the wrought iron table legs and the temperature on the porch read 33.7C degrees in the sun. I was in a T-shirt, sandals and rolled-up trousers. Bring on the summer. 

Pruning the orchard

Ghost assisting with pruning in the orchard

This week, we finally got a break in the weather. So I undertook the pruning of the orchard this year whereas Alex had done it last year. The new feral kitty that adopted us this winter was very helpful. She loves climbing trees and mimics everything I do. She chewed the ends off branches and caught falling branches to stack in a pile. 

I have one more tree to prune. The daffodils are up, the native honey bees and bumbles are awake and loving the heather, the skies have been amazing. No complaints. 

The orchard below the vineyard

The orchard is doing well, too. For the first time this year, we have fruit on every tree. We missed the cherries and gooseberries, but we have apples, crabapples, pears, and plums. The peach tree died last year.

Where have the bees gone?

It appears that our bees have died. There is collapse of hives being reported all over Ireland this winter. The beekeepers remove the box and find dead bees clustered and the honey untouched. They are thinking that it was the wet summer and cool wet winter that caused disease to kill them off. Up to 50% loss and more being reported. Tragic!

But that spells disaster for our orchard and vineyard.  There are plenty of bumblebees. I saw one wasp and quite a few flies, but the fruit trees are laden with flowers that, for the first time since planting, have not been blown off by hurricane force winds. So I went out with an artist's brush this afternoon and pretended to be a bee.

I had seen an article about the Chinese pollinating their crops by hand because of the collapse of their bees and other insects. So I decided to try the same. I don't know if what I am doing will have any effect but I have to try.

 Meanwhile the grapes have not yet unfurled their leaves as it has been cold. But signs of life continue and hope remains eternal. We'll see what this foray into food production will yield this year.

We had one good year with a bumper crop of apples (2014). One bad year with nothing of note, no apples, one mini-pear, and a few cherries eaten by the birds just as they ripened. Growing food is not easy. I wouldn't want to have to depend on it.