Spring into summer
This week: Spring into summer; The shadow of Yugoslavia; Digging in;
The week after Easter is always a little strange.
Easter Monday is a public holiday here, a “no work at all” day with everything closed. So the week has been a little short.
It wasn’t that I did nothing, more that I had an easy Easter Monday.
The weather has been kind, with lots of warm sunshine. So I have enjoyed several morning cups of coffee, sitting on my new kitchen window seat. One morning I was treated to a Nightingale singing from the nearby plum tree.
These shy, elusive and dowdy little birds are very seldom seen.
The warmth has brought on more of the late spring flowers. The largest of my Syringa trees, the Lilac, which has given its name to the English colour lilac, has masses of flowers.
There are a few Swallowtail butterflies visiting, but mainly it is the flying insects, big iridescent blue black Carpenter Bees, Rose Chafers and a lot of Spotted Rose Beetles, with some wasps and hover flies.
The scent has wafted across the East Orchard, but sadly the flowers and scent do not last very long. Syringa are from the Olive family and are native to Mediterranean Europe, but have been transplanted around the world.
As the daytime temperature has passed the 22°C mark, I decided I would remove the shade netting which has surrounded my citrus trees since November.
All the citrus trees are covered in blossom. Only a few of the flowers have opened, so at the moment you have to get close to them to enjoy the scent.
Orange and grapefruit trees have white blossom, whereas lemon trees have a slightly mauve unopened blossom.
After piling up the numbered lengths of netting, I was prevented from putting them away!
I have decided not to put the summer shade netting on top of each tree frame just yet.
It is a different and UV stable netting which last year reduced the amount of dehydration that the trees suffered from. However there is a cold front which will bring some rain next week, so I want to get as much moisture into the soil as I can.
My walks through the Maquis have continued this week. The Violet Birds Nest orchids continue to grow and are about a week away from being in flower.
Having seen someone on a mountain bike on the path this week, I put a couple of stones around the most exposed flower spike as protection. With only three flower spikes this year, I want to try and protect them so they can set seed.
A little further along there were several tiny orchid flowers growing from between the limestone path.
These are the Eastern Yellow Bee Orchid, Ophrys lutea.
I have not seen these in such numbers before. There were also the tiny Vetch flowers and some Wild Sweet Peas.
April really is a perfect time for visitors to come and see the myriad wild flowers of the island.
Spring into summer
Early on Tuesday morning I was down at the garden centre in Jelsa. Even before 08:30, it was busy.
All the red Kangaroo Paw plants had been sold – I’m not surprised because last week they looked spectacular – but I did come home with a yellow and a purple flowered specimen.
I also bought some tomato plants. I have seeds which are growing in my propagator, but these plants are to go in the polytunnel, for an early crop of tomatoes.
The tomatoes have been planted in the side bed where I had some winter collards growing.
Meanwhile, the Kangaroo Paws now have permanent homes in large pots on my patio.
As the temperature increases, so the soil moisture level goes down. This week my soil moisture gauge in the Citrus orchard has dropped to 35%.
This week I started irrigating, but just with a watering can. That way I can get the water exactly where it is needed, onto plants and shrubs I planted out over the winter. Suddenly we have sprung into summer!
The shadow of Yugoslavia
I have sent multiple emails, in Croatian, over the last six months to the Urban Planning Council about my pending planning application.
So far, I have not had a single reply. However in Croatia, responses to emails sent to companies and organisations is extremely spasmodic, to say the least.
On Wednesday I went over to Grad Hvar to the actual office, to try and speak to the lady who is dealing with my application. I failed.
The office is above the island’s police station, in a government building on the edge of the town.
You can just walk in, there is no security, you walk into the building and knock on the door of the person you want to see,
I had gone prepared with copies of my emails, knocked on the door and was invited inside.
The lefthand desk where the lady I have seen on previous visits was empty, with just her colleague on the righthand side. I know they all speak English, but out of politeness asked, “Govorite li engleski, molim?” The lady replied that she did.
So I explained why I was there.
Sadly, my visit went down hill from there. The lady responded with “She’s not here. next week.” Gesturing towards the empty desk.
I explained that with a round trip of more than 50 kilometres, I would have liked to know more today.
With her voice raised, the lady responded that “I’m not her manager, it’s on her computer.” She angrily waved her arm at the empty desk opposite.
I know from previous visits that the planning computers are networked, so I said. “Can you help me today?”
With her voice raised by a few decibels, the reply was ‘unhelpful’, “I’m not here to help you. Next week, next week.”
I realised that I would get no help, so walked out. There was no point in raising my voice back and clearly my entreaties for help were falling on deaf ears, so leaving quietly was my exit strategy. I’ll need to try again “next week”.
I did wonder whether “next week” really means the week commencing 13th April, or was it just a figure of speech, used to describe some time in the future when the event under discussion, might, or might not take place…. I’ll find out soon enough.
What came to mind was the old socialist Yugoslavia un-civil servants. Jobs worth’s, who viewed their role as adversarial at best and obstructive at worst and the public as an inconvenience.
You still come across this attitude of mind here occasionally. However it doesn’t help when you are trying to deal with officialdom!
Digging in
Friends helped this week to remove the trunk of the Nettle Tree.
Even with a seriously powerful petrol chain saw, there was still some 45 minutes work to reduce the bare trunk of the tree into logs.
I have piled the logs up to dry in the sunshine. The wood is extremely dense, so should burn well next winter.
Counting the rings on the cross section of the trunk, there were 31, so I am presuming that the tree emerged as a shoot from the wall, more than 30 years ago.
In due course I will replace it with something nice, but not in the wall…
I have been going round with a bucket and fork this week, pulling the largest weeds out and disposing of them on the compost heap.
My soil moisture sensor has dropped 5% in a week, from 40% to 35%, but to be honest, the soils feel a lot dryer. At least they are not baked hard yet!
In one corner I wanted to plant the Avocado tree which has been over-wintering in my polytunnel.
This is a deliberately sheltered spot, because despite climate breakdown, we still get cold winter Bura winds. So with a high wall and the end of the polytunnel for protection, I think it is the ideal place.
The tree has a lot of flower buds, so I am hoping for some Avocado fruit this year. However I will cut most of the flower shoots off.
Having just been planted into the soil, I would like the tree to put its strength into extending and growing a strong root system. The number of flower buds will seriously deplete the strength of the tree, so the majority need to be removed.
However first I needed to clear the annual weeds and also some perennial bramble briars before planting.
Once this was accomplished I dug a hole in the soil, added fertiliser and planted the tree. I filled in around the root ball with some garden peat and watered it in well.
I will need to make sure that it gets a lot of water as it establishes in the orchard soil. NCG