Just another tool

This week: Just another tool; Toy Story; Harvest time;

I always consider Sunday to be the first day of my week, so I plan my week based on Sunday as the first day, and often a planning day.

This week, Sunday was the 21st June, the northern Summer Solstice, our longest day when we have a day length here in Dol of 15 hours and 22 minutes.

Because of the mountains on the mainland and the hills which surround and protect Dol from the worst of the winter winds, it means that the sun does not put in an appearance until 05:50 and the only way to see the sunset is from St Michael’s Church, where you can see the open Adriatic sea.

So on Sunday, I was already up at sunrise and was outside to see the sun appear over the hill to the east of Dol called Hum.

The trees are a little thin following a forest fire a few years ago. But as soon as the sun rose above the trees I could feel the heat in our summer sun.

As so often happens here in Summer, the morning’s are “gin clear”. Then as the day progresses and the solar engine really shifts into overdrive, evaporation really becomes noticeable as Cumulus clouds build.

The humidity, caused by being an island surrounded by the warm Adriatic Sea, makes everything feel “stuffy”.

The study window next to my desk faces north, so I am looking out over the neighbouring island of Brač and beyond, the mainland.

Looking out through the open window as I write this, I can see a towering Cumulonimbus “thunderstorm” cloud building over Split. No doubt it will be raining there while here in Dol, my soils bake under the unrelenting summer sun.

So it was on Sunday, as I was thinking of going up to St. Michael’s to see if I could see the fabled “Green flash” as the sun disappears into the sea, but there was too much cloud.

So having see the sun rise on the longest day, I didn’t bother going to see it set.

As it is now down-hill to the shortest day in six months time, as the sun rise gets later and the sun sets earlier, there are a few more days when I will be able to see the sun disappear into the Adriatic with perhaps a chance of seeing a “Green flash”.

We have been on the very edge of the “heat dome” which ha been centred over Western Europe. However this weekend, as the dome has begun to move east, so we are starting to feel hotter.

The maximum daily temperature has been around 35.5°C, a little below the highest ever temperature (37°C) I recorded on my weather station at this point in the year.

However the high humidity and lack of wind has made it “feel” a lot hotter.  When the temperature at 08:00 is over 30°C, you really do not feel like doing very much outside!

Just going to the supermarket is physically draining. My appetite has gone and I keep two 1½ litre bottles of water in the refrigerator, to make sure I drink enough water every day.

Whilst Western Europe cools (until the next heat dome arrives), here in the Adriatic, we are going to get hotter until the middle of next week. I’ll be continuing to irrigate…

Just another tool

Turning on the irrigation in the Top Orchard, the water pressure was low, so I started looking for the problem.

Eventually I tracked the problem back to the stop-cock where the feed to the workshop and orchard branches off from the rising main.

This was installed in 2018, since which time I haven’t had the need to turn it off.

What I like about these Vargon fittings is that they are easily replaced, in theory! You simply undo a failed stop-cock and replace it.

The easy bit is that I have the replacements. The hard bit is undoing the old stop-cock.

The pipework is buries some 35cm underground with a proper access cap. That was easily removed. But I couldn’t turn the stop-cock wheel by hand.

With a bit of wiggling, I removed the tube which protects the fixture from the surrounding soil. However the problem remained, I couldn’t move the wheel.

Reaching down the hole, I was able to undo the machine bolt holding the wheel in place, and this actually freed the wheel. But even though I opened and closed the valve completely, there was no change in the water flow rate.

The next problem was trying to undo and remove the valve. I have no long-reach sockets and no tool capable of removing the securing nut at depth.

Knowing that there is a specialist plumbers tool called a “basin spanner”, I ordered one from TEMU. It will be here in a week.

I actually need it for another job as well.

While the water was shut off, I did some work in the utility room, fitting a cold water feed to the basin next to the washing machine.

I installed an instant hot water heater some time ago, but it needs adjusting under the sink.

When I remodelled the room, I included a cold water feed, so this time seemed like a good time to install the feed, so I can control hot and cold water at the tap.

When the basin spanner arrives, it will make reassembly so much easier.

There are times when you just need a certain tool to make a job easier. However the times you need the tool are few and far between…

Toy story

What really happens when we are asleep? Night shift workers have an idea, but there is an awful lot which is hidden. Most people know of the toys which come to life after we are asleep…

I do wonder sometimes why things I leave outside are moved!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSkxoPiNG3Y

Bears are attracted to hammocks, which is one reason why I don’t leave mine out when I am not using it….

During this hot weather I am in the habit of taking an almost cold shower before bed. I say “almost cold” because the water in the pipes, as delivered by Vodovod is ‘luke warm’ in summer because the delivery pipes are not especially deep and the sun has superheated the ground.

One evening I decided to hang the wet towel out on the line, so it would dry overnight.

With a torch in hand, I was surprised to find I had a visitor, enjoying a soak in the felines water pan. Two felines were sitting, watching him play.

With very hot temperatures, I have several water containers so felines can rehydrate whenever they wish and this one is on the bridge which links my two main buildings.

This is Bufo viridis, the European Green Toad, a large and widespread species of amphibian and one I regularly find around my home.

Their green and pink skin colour, together with their large size, makes them easy to identify.

They are also active almost year round. I have yet to find where they spawn though. They need shallow water and there is nothing that I have found, anywhere near my home which meets their needs.

It was one of the reasons why I had thought about installing an ornamental pond, until I realised the water evaporation would be a major problem.

These tods are heat tolerant. However it was only when I was reading up on the species, that I discovered that they actually seek out water sources at night, like my felines drinking containers, to soak in and re-hydrate.

After taking some photographs, I left Bufo to soak in his hot tub and in the morning he was gone.

I keep finding new-to-me species. This week, after hanging up the washing, I found a large lace wing insect on one of my tee shirts.

I have still not been able to identify it, but I have not seen any like it before.

At first inspection, it seems like a damsel fly, but when I looked at the head and mouth, it is definitely something else.

I left the tee shirt hanging until when I checked in the late afternoon, the insect had gone.

Harvest time

Growing up, if some one mentioned “harvest time”, one immediately thought of the autumn. Picking fruit in the garden was an October event, when we picked apples and pears.

But now in my orchards, ‘harvest time’ starts with the first apricots in April. This week, it has been my Myrobalan plum’s turn to be picked.

I noticed a few windfalls on the ground so picked a couple from the tree. They were juicy and sweet, so I made the decision to start picking.

This tree is always the second into blossom, in 2026 on the 21st February, following the Almond trees.

This year has been an exceptionally good year for soft fruits from the Prunus family.

I suspect the long, cool, damp and for me, miserable winter, has been to their liking, together with above average precipitation.

This year I have had the best crop of cherries ever, and all the other varieties of plum I have planted have a lot of fruit.

I have deliberately planted different varieties of plum, so that there will be a succession of fruit right up until the Green Gages, the last to ripen, which will be ready in the autumn.

One of my ‘happenchance’ discoveries, has been that trees from the Prunus family, really like the soil conditions I have. Whilst they need regular irrigation until the tree’s establish deep roots, once they have established, they are vigorous fruiters.

My grapes are swelling nicely too. They will be ready for harvest in about six weeks.

Seeds are also a crop, of sorts. This year’s seeds become next year’s produce. I noticed this week that the Honesty seeds are almost ready for picking.

I had a lovely display of flowers at the start of April. These have now taken on the shape of the “moon” seed pods which is where their Latin name comes from, Luna annua.

As soon as the seed pods are completely dry, the out silk like sheath falls away and the seeds can then fall to the ground.

With so many seeds pods, I will harvest some this week, to spread to other areas of my orchards, knowing that there will still be a lot which will self seed in position. NCG