Precipitation within sight

This week: Hydroponic seeds; Precipitation within sight;

I’ve not had an especially good week this week.

On Tuesday I was in Split again for a hospital appointment. No problem there, just routine but it is a very long day for a 30 minute checkup.

Getting up at 04:00 to catch the early ferry – there are only four daily ferries from now until next April – then not getting back home until 17:00, is tiring. The seats are not very comfortable and the only thing to do to pass the time is to read a book in the warm sunshine.

The fire damage to the island of Brač, from the late August forest fires is apparent. So much damage has been done, it is so sad to see.

Then on Wednesday my GP changed some medication. After taking the second tablet on Wednesday afternoon, I needed to sit down. On Thursday morning I was worse and on Friday I stopped taking them.

Then reading up on the long list of unpleasant side effects, they include dizziness and blurred vision. Once the medication has cleared my system, I’ll be back at the doctors next week for a change…

So between travelling and trying not to stand up too often, my style has been well and truly cramped this week!

It means a shorter than usual blog this week, but I have been able to get some things done.

Early in the week, with rain forecast for the weekend (it is raining as I write this), I put a second coat of sealant around the joint between the bridge linking my buildings and the concrete roof over the workshop.

I had enough left in the tin to give everything a complete second coat. Today has been a good test.

I’m pleased to say there are no more leaks, but it has shown up just how much the roof slopes into the corner. Instead of rain running away from the building, it pools to a depth of over a centimetre. There is little wonder why water was leaking through. What I don’t understand is why I never noticed it before.

I don’t think there is much I can do about the level, a centimetre is too much to correct with self-levelling compound. Probably just keeping the waterproofing in good condition is all I can do.

Another job has been to cut the side and top rails for the window frame I need to build.

I planed the timber up a few weeks ago, so I had PSE wood to work with, then I left it to see if any cracks developed. They did, so I cut the pieces I need around the cracks, and will use the waste wood on the wood stove.

My vertigo problem curtailed further work on the frame, as I need to stand in the workshop to cut the mortice and tenon joints. But I also need undercoat and gloss for the wood and don’t have the paint, so it will be a job for next week.

And as I look outside now, with rain “beating the retreat” on the roof of the houses opposite, I’m in no rush to be away from my desk…

Weather Radar and the surface pressure chart for today shows the complex system which exists in the Adriatic.

Hydroponic seeds

Several years ago I bought some four litre plastic hydroponic tubs. I tried growing tomatoes out of season, with some limited success. However the work involved, the cost of the special liquid food and the crop meant that it wasn’t worth the effort.

This week as temperatures remain high and with the sun still warming the storm porch, I decided to try again, but with lettuce rather than tomatoes.

I was reading up on home hydroponics and discovered that tomatoes are seldom successful, but lettuce is easy and grows well.

Starting by cleaning out the tubs and ordering some new sponge inserts, I had everything ready.

At the same time, I decided to give the storm porch an “Autumn clean” before installing the tubs and filling them with water.

I had a new packet of lettuce seed, so used two seeds in each container slot. That is a lot of lettuce if they grow, so have not added seeds to the second and third container yet.

Callie has taken to sleeping in the storm porch, so I added her Stodt box, with new paper shredding’s, in to the corner as well.

The large tub with the green leaves is Horseradish (HR: Hren). This is a plant I have had for two years. I have tried growing it outside, however it is too hot and dry in the herb bed where my previous attempts have failed. So I am leaving the tub inside.

The system is known as Deep Water Culture, where oxygen is pumped through a stone at the bottom to aerate the water and a growth medium containing all the essential minerals and nutrients is added to the water.

You keep the water topped up and the things should just grow.

I put the tiny seeds into the sponge on Sunday afternoon, so today (Saturday) is day seven. As yet I can see any sprouts, but I keep looking.

Precipitation within sight

The last time that it really rained here was the 2nd week of May, when I recorded 44 mm for the week. Then there was just 17 mm in all of June, 18 mm in July and 1 mm in August.

During September there was 16 mm, but most of this has been in several short duration events.

In between of course, there have been five Mediterranean heat waves which have dried every vestige of moisture that was in the soil.

So when I look at today’s rainfall total of 47 mm, in a single day and the soil moisture gauge in the citrus orchard now reading 49%, I am happy. It is the most rainfall in a single day this year.

Water was cascading of my roofs at the height of the precipitation, when my system recorded an hourly rate of 73 mm. That figure is the total amount of rainfall you would receive in an hour, if it kept falling at that rate for one hour. Here you are talking about a major cyclonic event, to produce a rainfall rate of this size.

Fortunately that fall rate lasted only for less than five minutes.

I used to listen to the BBC Shipping forecast, – you can still listen to it on BBC Radio 4 – with the evocative phrases “Viking, Forties, Dogger, Humber, Gale force 7 increasing Gale force 8…”

The term, “Precipitation within sight” used to come up and I could always imagine the dark veil of rain obscuring everything but the white horses on the top of the breaking waves.

So, when I look out of my window now, with dark clouds scudding across the sky, my desk lamp on because it is too dark to work inside without it, and the island of Brač obscured by falling rain, you know what comes to mind… NCG