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Not to be balked at

This week: Not to be balked at; Construction next week; Weather update;


Saturday 1st February in Dol
Saturday 1st February in Dol

I hope you remembered to say “White Rabbits” as soon as you awoke this morning? Today is the first of February and folk law states saying that as your first words, brings good luck for the month.

And speaking of rabbits, this morning as I was on the hill behind my home, I set up a very large Hare (Zecu) which was hiding in the long grass. It bounded away with huge leaps until it disappeared into the tall grass.

I have seen Hares down on the Plain, especially at the grass airport, but it is the first time I have seen one here in Dol. I had better watch my nice, tender young beans!

The Hyacinth are in full bloom at the moment and their scent fills the air on sunny days.

Spring Hyacinths in full bloom
Spring Hyacinths in full bloom

Next to flower will be the Daffodils. You may remember my blog from the end of November https://link.hvar-digital.com/2448, when I potted up two bowls of Daffodils.

The Daffodil planter
The Daffodil planter

The one on the left has been outside all winter, with the Cyclamen making a lovely show. The one on the right I forced inside a black bin liner, in the dining room, then on a windowsill.

The bowls of Daffodils
The bowls of Daffodils

In the outside pot, the Daffodils are 13 cm tall. The inside pot are 23 cm tall and all the flower buds are well advanced.

Every bulb has flower bud
Every bulb has flower bud

So being inside, they are further advanced, but not by a huge amount.

Outside, buds are swelling everywhere. I have yet to see the first blossom, but it is not far away as spring arrives.

Swelling plum blossom buds
Swelling plum blossom buds

The strange winter plums on my Myrobalan tree are still growing too. I had expected them to have fallen off by now.

Winter plums?!
Winter plums?!

And everywhere the weeds are in flower, like this pretty specimen which was up near the Hare this morning.

Another pretty weed
Another pretty blue weed

That is of course how weeds succeed. They flower and set seed before everything else to get a march on the less invasive plants!


Not to be balked at

I have had another “wood butchery” week this week.

When I was at Volat last week to buy wood, it was on sale for a discount, with 10% off. I have a couple of projects in mind for this spring, so went back on Monday to buy more.

Another load of timber
Another load of timber

Back home, I had to find space under cover for the 4 metre lengths. They were damp and in some places wet where rain had got under the cover that had protected them in the builders merchants yard.

Tuesday and Wednesday being really windy, I left the lengths where the airflow would dry them, which it did.

This is very rough pine, but will be fine for what I need it for.

On Thursday, I started cutting the lengths to size for a motorcycle platform I want to build.

Preparing to make the first incision
Preparing to make the first incision

As usual I had drawn a sketch of what I want the finished platform to look like, with all the measurements.

The support timbers are being cut from 12.5 x 12.5 cm timber baulks.

Cutting 12 x 12 timber balks
Cutting 12 x 12 timber balks

I always try and work to close tollerances of around 1mm, however my power tools are not up to cutting 12.5 cm in a single pass.

I could have used a chain saw, but they lack accuracy. Ideally a Sliding Mitre Saw would have been the tool of choice, but mine needs a new blade and it is right at the back of my workshop.

Using my table saw and making four passes cut almost completely through the balks, then all I had to do was finish off with a hand saw.

Four passes to make the cut
Four passes to make the cut

It took most of Friday to accurately mark and then slowly cut each length of timber, but by the end of the day, I had six cut. So only another four to do!


Construction next week

To get a completely flat surface, I finished off each end with a power plane.

Finishing with a power plane
Finishing with a power plane

This created nice flat surfaces for the legs to stand on.

It stand on its own!
It stand on its own!

Because there is a mix of old and new timber, everything is being treated with an insecticide.

Treating with insecticide
Treating with insecticide

Even though I treated the beams and timber in the Konoba, I have discovered I have some active insects in the old beams. So while everything is in pieces, I have been treating the timber with Kemocid.

This is a particularly noxious, flammable and smelly chemical which prevents anything boring into treated wood. Even outside the vapours are strong, so after treatment, I left everything outside to ‘air off’.

Next week I will start construction of the platform.

As soon as the warm weather is here and I can open all the doors, I will have to treat the exposed beams in the Konoba. It is not a job I am looking forward to!


Weather update

The first of the month is usually an “admin” day for me, just like the last day is always a “bill paying” day!

As we are now a month into 2025, I updated the charts on my weather station software, to see where we are.

The good news is that the days are getting warmer as they lengthen, (but we have a cold Bura coming next week) and although this past winter has felt cold, damp and miserable, we have actually been around 3°C above the recent average.

2024 / 2025 Winter high and low temperatures
2024 / 2025 Winter high and low temperatures

What is of concern is that the winter has in fact been much drier than the recent average.

2024 / 2025 Winter precipitation
2024 / 2025 Winter precipitation

We are around 250 mm or 250 litres per m² down on the average winter precipitation at this point. I have recorded only ⅔ of the rainfall we usually have received by February. I fear the irrigation season will start early and be a long one this year.

November to March is our Mediterranean “Winter cool and wet” season, only this year it has been ‘winter cool and dry” instead. November was particularly cold and dry.

That said, my soils being clay loam are still wet and sticky. Just a little too wet to do much work on them! However the 11 day average temperature is now in double figures…  NCG

11 day running average temperature
11 day running average temperature