Pruning completed in the vineyard

Alex spent the morning and I the afternoon yesterday pruning. He concentrated on Rondo and Solaris whicle I tackled the young vines -- Albarino, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Rondo and Solaris were pretty straightforward as we had been pruning them already. The younger vines were being allowed to grow long and wide so we could select the primaries to train upward and out. It took a good deal of observation to determine which shoots to cut away and which to train. I made good progress. 

I have a hard time reaching the shoots above the wires so I work with a fish box as an elevation stand. Whenever I step off, Ghostie steps up. I think she likes it because the grass is wet and cold. Yesterday it was bitter cold with a constant wind of about 15-20 knots. Today, it was calm in the morning so it didn't feel as cold but when the clouds arrived, and with them a bit of wind, it brought a numbing cold. We persevered and got the entire vineyard done. Now we will walk through editing as we go, and then we clean up the mess. 

Tomorrow, I plan to resume the pruning of the orchard. We still have three apples to finish, and our plum tree is slightly uprooted so we have to figure out what to do. Fortunately, our fine weather is to continue. 

Solaris before

 

Solaris after

Fire breathing dragon cloud.

Cold sunset

Clouds and wind

Escallonia hedge decimated in Storm Éowyn

Cold sunrise

Frosty mornings

Sunset over the vineyard

Wave height during Storm Éowyn

 

Marine Institute - Foras na Mara -- reported extraordinary wave heights during the storm two weeks ago today. The equivalent of a Cat 2 Hurricane, the sea was so churned up that the wind coated everything with salt water so that we could barely see out the windows of our house or car. Everything had to be washed. And now the sea is flavouring our wine. 

As Storm Éowyn approached Ireland, the Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network—managed by the Marine Institute & Met Éireann—recorded extraordinary ocean conditions.

📍 M3 Buoy (56km off the Cork coast):

🌊 Wave height: 20.15m - almost the length of a tennis court!

📍 M4 Buoy (83km off the Donegal coast):

🌊 Wave height: 18.75m

These data buoys withstood extreme conditions and continued to operate throughout the storm, delivering real-time data essential for weather forecasting, maritime safety, and climate research.

Learn more https://bit.ly/databuoystormeowyn

Storms delayed pruning

 

We are one week into February, and we are just getting into the pruning—we are several weeks late. Storm Éowyn had far-reaching consequences. Our roof has been fixed, and the damage is otherwise minimal. 

Alex started a couple of days ago by replacing some of the supports and tying up vines at the top of the vineyard where he then began to prune. Àlex was working on the older Solaris today. I did a first pass up the length of the Pinot Noir which has hardly been pruned at all to date. 

We are much more confident in our work having just attended a workshop on how to prune grapevines held at Turlough House. Only one ancient vine survived the civil war years when the house was abandoned and left to rot. I'm so glad the Museum of Country Life took it over.

Alex and I had a wonderful experience at the Museum of Country Life in Turlough this weekend. The greenhouse, which originally had about 5 or 6 vines, survived with only one vine intact which had grown wild throughout the greenhouse filling it to the brim. A Sligo-based Scotsman named Andrew was hired to rescue the ancient vine. He's been working at it for years now and started a series of lectures on how to manage a grapevine. We heard about the first session which was booked out but we went there anyway. The subject was pruning -- a very timely discussion for us with pruning of our vineyard delayed by the series of storms. We were allowed to join the session.

It was a small group of people, some of whom had one vine, some had dreams of growing a vine, one had lost her polytunnel in the storm and was trying to save her vine, and, of course, us with 130+ vines and not a clue. We learned a lot and met some very nice people a few of whom we had met before at various events in Westport. We pruned, discussed and learned about each other. We learned that a series of sessions timed throughout the year to coincide with important dates for vines were planned. We intend to attend them all.

The most important thing we learned is that there is no right way and no one way to do these things. Trying a bit of this and a bit of that is just fine. We got to keep the cuttings and can propagate them at will, which was super. 

Then we walked through the temporary exhibit in the museum called The Murmur of Bees. Very interesting and informative. The Museum is such a great asset for rural Ireland. 

Before the storm, we had managed to prune most of our orchard trees that were due. Today I tackled the old apple that had suffered in a storm in our first year but managed to grow back. I love my little chainsaw. Best tool ever. Now we just have to take all the cuttings away. The land is too wet for even a wheelbarrow. But there's a grand stretch in the day and the forecast for the next week is super. Things are looking up. 

Easterlies and no clouds and no rain all week. 

Storm Éowyn packed a serious punch

 

The entire island was under an unprecedented Red Warning. Éowyn hit around 2 am Saturday morning 25/01/25. It had undergone explosive cyclogenesis when it collided with a superpowerful jet stream. A Bomb cyclone. They say it was the worst in recorded history. 

The sound was most eerie. Whistling, howling wind caused the house to heave as though breathing and the floors to creak throughout. It was too dark to see anything so we just tried to sleep through it. At one point I heard a slate sliding down the roof. Little did I know that pieces of slates would be strewn around the house and gardens, and a large gaping wound would lay open in the roof. One of the slates broke the plexiglass in the greenhouse but the polytunnel and shed were all intact. Miraculously, there was no damage to the cars. Next time, we put the cars in the shed. 

The animals were all flustered. Cats were upset, donkeys were prancing nervously, birds were panic eating and raining a cacophony of noise. I managed to feed the donkeys in the morning while the wind was still blowing fiercely, just not as fiercely as through the night. We had power but no internet or mobile signal, and no way to report outages. We had no clue just how bad it was going to be. 

At the height, almost one million entities were without power. Many were also without water, as the pumps used to send the water out lost power. Wells were not working. Curiously, mobile and internet were down in vast swathes of the country. It certainly was an eye-opener. Our power went out during the day. It must have been to prevent surges while workers were working on neighbouring connections. It was back up by evening. We were the lucky ones. Once again, Selkie covered us in between. 

We tried to drive out to Ross House in the afternoon with power saws in hand. Had to cut our way out of our road. There were wires on the ground and we decided to turn back. 

On Sunday, we got to Ross, OK, without much damage in sight. Then the carnage came into view. We had to cut our way through five trees down on the avenue. At least 15 more trees were down in the woods. Some were giant ash trees, but most were Scots pine. Some snapped in two, others were lifted out with their roots. An apple tree is leaning in the walled garden. But thankfully, no damage to the house or other structures, and there were no roof tiles in evidence on the ground. 

I haven't ventured into the vineyard but, from the outside, I could see several support poles down. Otherwise, pretty ok although the land is very wet. The poor donkeys had a mud field outside their shed. 

Several hundred thousand homes are still without power, water, mobile service, or the internet. This is a testament to how dependent we have become on electricity and technology. When it fails, we are lost. Supermarkets were caught without backup generators and lost all their stock. Restaurants remained closed. People couldn't work from home. Schools were closed, and daycare was unavailable. Buses and trains weren't running. People went hungry, cold, bored, and unbathed. 

And how lucky are we today for being stuck in the eye of the next storm, Herminia. Named by the Spanish Met office, its winds are bashing Galicia today while France gets the brunt of the rains.  Alex says Éowyn was the worst he's ever seen in Ireland. Let's hope it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. I am truly grateful for the break we got today. 

Weather Station Reports from Newport Furnace

Date	Rainfall (mm)	Max Temp (°C)	Min Temp (°C)	Grass Min Temp (°C)	Mean Wind Speed (knots)	Max Gust (>= 34 knots)	Sunshine (hours)
24/01/2025	7.3	10.4	1.2	-1.7	n/a	68

 

The maximum gust reported in Newport Furnace during the storm was 68 knots. MSC recorded 81 knots for 7 hours duration. We learned later that the system at MSC maxes out at 81 knots so our wind speed could well have been higher than that. We had 7.3 mm rain and a temperature range from 10.2C to 1.2C exactly as forecast. Minimum pressure was 945 hPa. 

Red Alert

 

I wish we had been able to prune the vines before the storm named Éowyn hits on Friday. The entire country is under red alert. 

Back to mild weather

The last few days have been quite mild. A couple of days of bright sunshine, a day of fog, a day of mist and high around 12-14C. The donkeys have been very happy although the bottom of the field is quite muddy. We'll take it. 

Alex is having cataract surgery on Friday, and he will be out of commission for a couple of weeks. So we started pruning the orchard today. We tackled the two big apple trees and the pear and made good inroads. It was a daunting task, but the new mini chain saw made all the difference. 

If Alex's post-op recovery goes well, we might tackle the vineyard in week two. He can't do any heavy lifting, but he should be able to prune vines, which is very light work in comparison.