Gardens matter

This week: Garden matters; Computing; Woodworking;

We have had another sunny week again, with no rain. However both the daytime and night time temperatures are dropping noticeably now.

The last scarlet leaves of my Parthenocissus have fallen this week. The old stable wall, complete with donkey shoes is now visible again.

I lit the fire for the first time this winter, on Friday night. Earlier in the week, the inside temperature had dipped below 17°C.

My comfort threshold is 18°C. I have to say that it is nice sitting here with the temperature just touching 20°C.

I had laid the fire in the spring, so all that was required was a match to light the fire.

During the week, I had checked the UPS which protects the electric central heating circulating pump. It was working as it should, so everything was ready.

What really surprised me was how quickly the central heating was up to temperature and how much “draw” there was in the newly insulated flue.

The central heating water remained hotter that last year. Even with the wood stove just on “tick-over” and with the extractor fan off.

I don’t remember it ever being so easy!

But what is the reason? Just on one single lighting, I am loathe to say that it is because I have insulated the flue. However I would like to think that my work to fully insulate the flue has had an effect.

It will be a week or two before I know for sure whether this is a one off, or part of a trend. But I am very happy so far.

I think we are at the end of our stable autumn weather. The Jet Stream is wobbling at the moment and this is bringing cold Arctic air to much of northern Europe.

Here in the Mediterranean, warm, moist air is being dragged up the Adriatic and this means that next week we will have some much needed rain.

Garden matters

I have been doing odd jobs this week. Tasks like planting bulbs in the Top Orchard raised border, moving stones and picking up another couple of fallen Pecan nuts.

The tree now has few leaves left and just four Pecan nuts. I tried them to see if they were ready to fall, but they are still firmly attached to their branches.

In the citrus orchard I began spreading well rotted compost around the trees. This is so I am ready for the winter rains, if and when they arrive.

What I noticed was that once again, every citrus tree, oranges, lemons, grapefruit and mandarin, have their leaves folded. This is a sign of the trees suffering from water stress.

There is rain forecast for next week, so although I have been irrigating my winter collards, I have not given the trees any more.

It is just crazy that in the middle of November, which is usually our wettest month of the year, I am still irrigating crops and so far we have had zero precipitation.

When I was weeding the kitchen window flower bed, I was surprised to see that the Narcissi which I replanted during the first week of August now have flower buds.

They usually flower around Christmas, but this year they will be earlier.

Even more surprising was that the spring Hyacinth shoots are poking through.

I suspect it is a combination of this bed being sheltered and getting lots of warm morning sunshine. Even so, the bulbs are very early and ahead of my other spring bulbs.

In a corner of the same flower bed, a Cyclamen is in flower at the moment.

I also have a pot of brilliant yellow Button Chrysanthemum in flower.

It had been my intention to plant them out in one of my flower beds, but with a display like this, I’m keeping them near the patio, so I can enjoy them.

Computing

The final parts for the new computer arrived late on Friday afternoon – better late than never!

It is rather an insignificant but key piece of technology I need to transfer the operating system from the old to the new system.

Although I am tempted to start assembly of my new system, I am resisting until next week, because it looks as though there will be at least two days of rain.

Rain means that outside work is curtailed, so I have left everything in its box ready for the appropriate moment to start building.

Woodworking

Earlier in the week I had opened my existing computer to see if there was anything useable inside, to transfer to the new system.

I am transferring the data hard disc drives, but I also found there are a couple of case fans which I can move.

The name “desktop” system is a misnomer, because the heart of the computer is a tower system, on the floor, under my desk.

Inside there was quite a lot of dust and I realised it is being drawn in, from the wooden floor. So I decided that I would make a wooden plinth, so the tower is lifted above the floor. This will stop dust being drawn in by the ventilation fans.

I have some old wood in the courtyard, so decided that I would make the wooden plinth outside, while the weather is still fine.

Cutting the two 30mm boards to size was easy using my table saw, but while the saw was out, I cut up a couple of wooden pallets. This is a job I have been going to do for some time.

There were also some other odd bits of wood that I decided were of such poor quality, that they were only fit for the wood stove. So I had a good session and was left with a large pile.

This was all moved up to the store, ready for burning.

My next job was to use the Makita thicknesser machine to plane the two boards for the plinth.

I discovered that there has been woodworm in part of the board, which I hadn’t noticed when I cut the board.

This will need treating before I install it under my desk. However, I think that it is old woodworm, rather than a recent attack.

I took the opportunity to also cut some timber ready for another project I have in mind for over the winter – an outdoor seat under the kitchen window.

So as usual, as I get to Saturday, I have a list of things which will have to be addressed next week. NCG