January weather conditions

We had a lot less rain than normal and warmer temperatures than the mean expected, but equivalent to 2020. A lot of plants were confused and we had many things blooming and leafing way ahead of schedule. We've already mowed the lawn and the vineyard once. 

It's raining today, but thankfully we missed the worst of it which tracked south toward Galway. We are expecting a short-lived cold snap after the rain, but then it's promised to return to balmy at the weekend.  

What a long strange January it's been. But there is a grand stretch in the day. And we finished pruning in the vineyard before St Vincent's feast day. We broke out a supposedly very good bottle of wine (not ours) to celebrate but found it unpalatable. What, pray tell, could be the meaning of this?

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 02-FEB-2022

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2022	98.8	1.5											100.3
2021	225.6	147.6	141.1	45.6	113.5	64.1	59.7	155.6	137.0	265.7	183.3	186.6	1725.4
2020	139.5	342.8	178.2	25.5	54.7	164.5	187.9	137.9	153.4	228.0	206.6	232.7	2051.7
2019	146.8	115.0	228.5	100.7	112.5	76.6	82.7	228.9	175.5	160.7	148.1	220.6	1796.6
LTA	166.7	126.5	141.2	96.8	94.7	89.7	100.9	132.5	131.5	176.0	170.4	180.2	1607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2022	7.2	10.4											7.4
2021	5.0	6.7	7.9	9.0	10.4	13.3	17.5	16.4	15.2	11.9	9.3	7.6	10.9
2020	7.2	6.0	6.6	11.0	12.8	13.8	14.4	16.0	13.8	10.5	9.1	6.1	10.6
2019	6.9	8.4	7.9	10.2	11.7	13.1	16.3	15.5	13.7	10.3	7.1	7.1	10.7
LTA	6.1	6.1	7.3	9.0	11.5	13.8	15.4	15.4	13.5	10.8	8.3	6.5	10.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2022	6.2	n/a											6.2
2021	3.6	5.0	6.8	8.2	10.9	14.3	17.9	16.3	15.2	11.3	8.6	6.6	10.4
2020	5.7	4.7	5.4	9.7	13.0	14.8	14.9	16.3	13.7	9.5	8.0	5.1	10.1
2019	6.1	6.1	6.8	8.9	12.2	13.8	16.7	15.7	13.5	9.4	6.2	5.6	10.1
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Imbolc, St Brigid's Day, and the arrival of spring

The first daffodil of the season bloomed this morning

Imbolc (1 February) is a Gaelic traditional festival. It marks the beginning of spring and is held on 1 February, which is about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Historically, its traditions were widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. #folklore 

It is one of four seasonal festivals in Gaelic Ireland along with Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August) and Samhain (1 November). One of the focal points of the agricultural year in Ireland, Imbolc represents the starting point of preparations for the spring sowing. Technically, it's not the 1 Feb, but rather from dusk on 1 Feb to dusk on the 2 Feb. Naturally, the Christians took it over and adopted the Celtic Goddess Brigid as well, when Imbolc became Saint Brigid's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Bríde; Scottish Gaelic: Là Fhèill Brìghde; Manx: Laa'l Breeshey). 

The traditions from Celtic pagan times are not that well preserved. On St Brigid's Eve, Brigid was said to visit virtuous households and bless the inhabitants. They would make crosses out of reeds and prepare a bed for her. Last night was St Brigid's eve so I left a  scarf outside to be blessed by the saint (or pagan) as she passed. Known as a 'Bratog Bride' in Irish folklore, this blessed garment can be used as a cure for headaches or sore throats. Let's hope I don't need it but my sister-in-law has Covid and so I might just need its medicinal properties.

In Ireland, a spring cleaning was also customary around the time of St Brigid's Day and Holy wells were visited. I think I'll skip that part for now. It's a miserable day, with drizzle on and off. Oh well. 

Happy Imbolc! 

The first cut of the season

 

Lawn mowing

Today, the last day of January, Alex mowed the vineyard while I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. It really needed it. It's been such a mild winter that the grass has been growing rather steadily. As tomorrow is Imbolc or St Brigit's Day, it was fitting to prepare for the new season today. 

I have not finished pruning the orchard but I made significant progress. Last summer, we had a terrible problem with leaf curl in the orchard, which included the peach in the greenhouse. And as I noted that the peach tree in the polytunnel is beginning to leaf, I made up a batch of Winter Tree Wash and sprayed the affected trees in the orchard and the polytunnel peach. I coated the cherry trees, the peach, and the crabapple but not the apples or pears. I should probably have done the plum. I can get that after I prune it some more. It's not easy to spray all the bark when there are a lot of branches. 

Polytunnel Peach (PP)

It was the perfect day for this. It was dry, cloudy and relatively still. I used the 2-litre sprayer that I use for applying fulvic acid. It delivers a narrow stream that worked reasonably well on the thinner branches. Leaf curl can usually be controlled satisfactorily by a spray of a suitable registered fungicide at any stage of dormancy. Most effective control is achieved by spraying when the buds are swelling but before they have opened. It's not possible to control the fungus once it's entered the leaf. I hope I was not too late for the PP. 

Winter Tree Wash is a blend of natural plant and fish oils for the control of insect and aphid eggs on fruit trees and bushes during the dormant season. Suitable for organic gardening, it can be used on both edible and ornamental crops. Apparently, this tree wash seals the bark so the fungus can't get in and insects cannot lay their eggs. I hope it works. I'm really hopeful that between the fulvic acid, which strengthens cell structure and the winter wash, I will be successful in controlling the fungal invasion. The fulvic acid seems to be working in the polytunnel. 

Slowly, the chores are getting done. Next, I will be starting my seeds. So many to plant. 

Orchard and vineyard beyond

Daybreak this morning

Orchard pruning has begun

The weather has been so spectacular that it's made gardening a joy in January. We've also noticed that much stuff is well ahead of schedule as a result. I hope we don't have a repeat of last year when we had a frost after so many things were already blooming. At least it spurred me to get cracking on pruning in the orchard. It really needs it. Too bad it's too wet to mow the lawn. 

 

The patron saints of wine

St Vincent, patron saint of winemakers

Throughout mankind’s early history various civilizations sought to personify the world around them and the food and drink it provided. Wine, beer, grapes and grain, as fruits of the land, were usually represented as deities connected to fertility or pleasure – the ancient gods of lore. 

But with the rise of Christianity, those gods were replaced with reverence for the men that took up the roles of transforming those fruits of the land into riches of the church. That gave rise to an extraordinary number of patron saints of all aspects of wine production from growing the grapes to making the barrels. Moreover, it reveals that the church’s attachment to the drinks industry is deeper than just Dom Pérignon’s “invention” of Champagne. After all, Communion involves both bread and wine. It also attests to the longevity and importance of the trade as part of Europe’s cultural and religious history.

Perhaps the single most important feast day is January 22 -- Saint Vincent's Day. The Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, the official patron saint of winemakers, is celebrated every year on January 22nd the mid-point in the vine’s growing cycle in the northern hemisphere. This dormant period is situated in between pruning and when the vines begin to bud break and flower. Vin, of course, is the word for wine in French. Saint Vincent died a martyr in 304 AD. 

Not surprisingly, there are many other saints of wine. 

• St. Trifon Zarezan, or St. Trifon the Pruner is the Bulgarian patron saint of vine growers and winemakers.  His day is February 14th. He is known as the pruner because after his donkey nibbled some vines, they were found to be more productive. And so pruning the vines was introduced. 
• Saint Morand is revered particularly throughout the Alsace, Burgundy and Champagne regions of France, and also the Rhine region of Germany. His day is celebrated on June 3rd.
• St. Armand of Maastricht is the patron saint of vine growers and vintners, as well as of brewers, innkeepers and bartenders. For some reason, he’s also the Patron of the Boy Scouts! His feast is on February 6th. 
• Saint Urban of Langres (327 – c. 390) is the patron saint of Dijon (in the Northern Burgundy wine region of France) and also of vine-growers, vine-dressers, gardeners, vintners, and coopers. He is also particularly popular with German winemakers. He was active in the fight against alcoholism. His feast day is 23 January in Langres but 2 April elsewhere. There is a German proverb that says “Ist Sonnenschein am Urbanstag / gedeiht der Wein nach alter Sag” which translates to “If there is sunshine on St. Urban’s Day/ the wine thrives afterwards they say.”

Ireland was a centre of monastic settlement and education. Monks were schooled in farming and cultivation alongside reading, writing, scripture and penmanship. Some of them travelled to Europe and established vineyards. Some of the most successful even ended up as saints! 

• St Fiachra, the patron saint of gardeners, honed his skills in the vineyards of France. He was born in Connaught in the 7th C. Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of the commune of Saint-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne, France. He is the patron of growers of vegetables and medicinal plants, and gardeners in general, including ploughboys. He died c 670 AD. 
• St Kilian (c 640- c 689) planted vineyards in the Main Valley in Germany where he is the patron saint of winegrowers. There is an annual festival in Würzburg, the capital of Franconia, the northernmost corner of Bavaria, which celebrates German-Irish connections in July. 
• Fridolin of Säckingen is the patron saint of Alsace and established the wine industry in Switzerland. His feast day is March 6.

Here's how they celebrate in Champagne. Very civilised.