Hurricane force

An image from Twitter as Franklin approached the coast.

The third storm of the week, #StormFranklin, turned out to pack the biggest punch to us. It blew for a long time and it blew harder than the previous two, Dudley and Eunice. The highest gusts recorded at Mayo Sailing Club were at 2 am at 81 knots - that's 150 kph. But gusts in the 70s lasted for many hours. That's a category 2 cyclone for hours on end. Sustained winds were over 40 knots from 3 in the afternoon to 4 in the morning. 

Is this the new normal?  I was heartbroken today when I saw the damage in the garden. Nothing major - a gorse bush broke, Alex's Inukshuk was dangerously altered losing his midsection so he had to take it down. But every shrub and plant that has started to bud and bloom was devastated. Withered and burned by the salt wind. Every window in the house is coated in heavy salt. 

I walked the vineyard and there appears to be no damage. The ground is VERY wet and I have no idea what the salt will do. The Galicians claim that the salt air adds to the terroir, but this was more than salt air. It was more like a scouring. Thankfully the careful staking and pruning seem to have held. 

I've been adding wood ash to the soil around the vines to condition the pH. I've got 5 rows done and only one left to go. I have a pH testing kit and will give it a go after a few days when it's all done. 

I've also fed the fruit trees and soft fruit shrubs with an organic fruit fertilizer, thinking it may help. Not if this wind continues. 

At least the polytunnel survived and everything inside is thriving, including my peach tree which has flowered for the first time. And strawberries are coming. So exciting. I've been pollinating by hand with a brush. It's been great to have fresh broccoli, lettuce, endive, peas, rocket, and Swiss chard through the winter. Wonderful. Very happy with the results. Everything seems healthy for a change. I think the treatment with fulvic acid really helped. I've also added microbes to the soil in the raised beds. 

Meanwhile, the bees were quite active today as the temperature increased and the wind subsided. Alex has been busy building and thatching his natural beehives out of old monkey puzzle tree sections.

 

Let's hope the worst of the weather has passed. I have started propagating my seeds. We bought so many this year. I've also been a plantaholic this winter, buying up stuff from Lidl and the coop and online. Now I will have to plant it all. 

 

Big storm, bitter cold

Yesterday we had a big storm with high winds and a big chill -- temps hovering around 0C at night.  Today, we had a calm moody day with dramatic skies and warm drizzle. What a contrast. 

I walked up to the vineyard after finishing work in the polytunnel thinking the vines might be dormant. I noticed that the Rondo had dropped all its leaves, the Solaris dropped most of its leaves, but the Chardonnay, Pinto Noir and Albarino were still holding onto the leaves. Strange. I guess the shorter season grapes also have shorter season vines. And whereas the Rondo leaves had turned red first, all the others turned golden yellow, even the Pinto Noir. Not yet time for pruning. 

Well, it's almost the end of the month and we've increased our rainfall total to somewhat normal but are still way high on temperature average even with several days of bitter cold. In a couple of days, I'll report the final numbers. 

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant that was detected in SA has taken off and travel restrictions are being instituted again. Looks like we'll be staying home for the holidays yet again. Glad to have our land. 

Storm damage

Rainbow means rain

Last week's storms dumped a lot of rain and brought gale-force winds. Because the vines are still with leaves, they must have been whipping around because a number of the support posts broke at ground level. So Alex bought small fence posts which he pounded into the ground behind the old supports and secured the supports with attached vines to the posts. The ground is very wet but soft so it was easy to get the posts in. 

View of the vineyard from the East

I went up in the afternoon to tie up any loose vines using strips of nylon stocking. I also cut off the excess of the primary vine so it wouldn't whip around in the wind. They had grown quite a bit. I would have liked to have pruned more but this is not the right time to do that. Luckily the rain held off. 

I spotted a couple of issues that I will need to continue to take care of tomorrow. First, the pink ribbons that Alex tied onto the vines were constricting the vines as they grew fatter, like a girdle, creating indentations like waists. So I have to remove all of those urgently. Second, we had used electrical tape to secure the vines to the poles and that was, unfortunately, damaging the branches at the point of contact or killing them altogether. So I have to replace all of those. 

Autumn in the vineyard is lovely

On the positive side, the 4 yo Solaris vines had more small grape clusters than I thought and they are now very sweet. Interesting that the birds haven't found them. The two small clusters of Chardonnay grapes on one of the 4 yo vines are still hard and not ripe but I have hope. The roses we planted at the end of each row and along the fence are still blooming. Two pink, one climber dark pink, and yellow tinged with red at the entrance. 

Chardonnay grapes

The donkeys are in good shape and the vineyard cat is frolicking but complaining about being ignored. Plus there are signs of a badger digging. They like grubs so it's a natural form of pest control, as long as they don't take an interest in eating the vines. I hear and periodically see pheasants in the field and we have the occasional visit by a fox and a pine marten. Our rewilding and natural approach seems to be working. This time of year we get beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Today, I am feeling blessed. 

Fiery dawn

Morning pastels

Sunrise

Pink rose as an indicator of mildew

Ghost watching the donkeys

The donkeys watching me

Heavy cloud cover coming in

Abysmal Autumn weather

a few leaves still hanging on

The past week has been abysmal weatherwise. We had Hurricane Epsilon on Thursday, Storm Aidan on Saturday, an unnamed low today and another tomorrow. We've had torrential rain, thunder and lightning -- something I've never experienced in Ireland, hail, sleet and wind, lots of wind. The buy off the coast here, M6, recorded a 30-metre (90f)t wave and the surfers were out having a blast. 

We had 227.9 mm rain in October, that's 67 mm more than last year in the same period. All the other variables were pretty average for the month. 

We've picked the apples but waited to pick the remaining pears which were beautiful this year, but they were all gone. Alex thinks the crows stole them. I just don't know. The berries are almost done now, just a few raspberries and strawberries left, mostly rotting in the wet weather or getting freeze-dried by the wind. 

The wine is clarifying. We will soon bottle the two or three bottles and wait for the requisite time period to sample. With our second lockdown underway and unable to travel more than 5 km from home, we're keeping ourselves busy. 

What a year! The American elections are tomorrow, and we voted long ago by email and mail ballot as we are both dual citizens. We can always be hopeful. 

We've been picking the remaining grapes to eat...very tasty

 

Pinot noir on the left
Albarino on the right

Three-year-old vines up the hill

The calm between the storms

So beautiful, but no blue moon

Peachy sunset

Bracing for Storm Ellen

Rondo grapes

The vines have been progressing well and the Rondo grapes, though small, look promising. We've had a wonderful bout of fine weather, even when the southern part of the island has had torrential rains and flooding. But now we sit bracing ourselves for storm Ellen, the result of post-tropical storm Kyle and a new depression that will feed it to create a powerful cyclonic Force 11 storm. It's to hit tonight, with the strongest winds in the south which has a red warning. We have an orange warning and it looks like the eye is going to pass right over us, just as last year Hurricane Lorenzo's eye passed directly overhead. 

It's obviously going to affect our harvest as the amount of rainfall will be high. At least we have a month to go before harvest, so maybe things will even out before that. You can see the wind damage on the leaves from the last storm that hit at the end of spring. Everything was just recovering and now this. It's getting tough.

But at least we have the bees, native black honey bees. A friend brought over a swarm for the hive we have had standing empty after the year that all the bees died from a very wet winter. I hope these guys stick around to help pollinate the orchard and vegetable garden. 

The climate disruption and the Covid complication are wreaking havoc. At least we have the US elections to distract us. 

Two systems merging: TS Kyle plus another low

The blue spot in the middle is passing over Clew Bay -- our house. 

It's already raining ahead of the storm

I hope these don't become before and after shots

Alex checking the hive.

I told the donkeys to seek shelter - they went over to the North side