A Spring In My Step

It is amazing what sunshine can do. Suddenly we are having warm sunny days getting to 20 degrees C and every plant is bursting into leaf or flower.

Birds are singing, bees are buzzing and I saw my first butterfly this morning. I haven't managed to finish the winter work yet and suddenly I am joining the frantic rush to sow seeds and prepare the ground. Pruning did get finished but brush cutting the brambles is not finished and I have only mulched a few of the trees and shrubs. We seemed to be under snow or suffering torrential rain and then suddenly it stopped with far too much work still to be done.

The stalls at the local market are full of home grown seedlings and I succumbed to their lure yesterday buying lettuces, onions and various brassicas. The onion seedlings are tied using the local 'string' plant so everything is biodegradable, no plastic bags in sight. I hope to get them all planted this afternoon. We have finally saved enough for a poly-tunnel and it is on order to be delivered in mid April. This will allow me to raise more of my own seedlings. I have a propagator to start off my chillis, peppers and tomatoes but I have always lacked a warm light area to bring them on but the tunnel will enable me to be much more self sufficient in seedlings, nurturing the plants from seed to fruit/flower and back to seed saving again.

The calendulas have overwintered as usual and are in flower already, an ideal nectar snack for early flying insects.

Although there is plenty of work still to do I make sure that sitting on the patio and enjoying the warmth, scents, views and sounds around me is still high on my list.

Entroido Again

It is that time of year when madness hits the streets of Friol and everyone dresses up and bar crawl around Friol playing music and enjoying themselves. Yes it is Entroido or Carnival, an ancient celebration,  traditionally frowned up on by the Catholic Church where tricks are played upon people and masks are worn.

As ever the evening turns to merry making and feasting with traditional food. Pigs heads, stuffed pigs stomachs, turnip greens, potatoes and chickpeas. For desert we had pancakes, a sweet biscuit called pigs ears and all was washed down with wine. This is one of my favourite fiestas of the year and a wonderful tonic when the weather is at it's worst.

First Snow 2015

We have got away with a mild winter so far but yesterday the first proper storm of the year hit called Hermann with heavy rain and very strong winds, followed last night with snow which continued into this morning. It is as ever, very beautiful and proved to be very exciting for the dogs.

It is now sleety so I expect the snow will be gone fairly soon.

Tim is still here and we have had a wonderful six weeks together, four of which he has spent working but just having him here is great. We both hope he can spend more time here in the coming year. A new sowing year has arrived and I am busily planning what I will grow. It will include some unusual tubers this year, yacon and oca, a first for me. We didn't exchange Xmas presents this year but we did order some old style perfumed bare root roses from the UK and another small order from Martin Crawford's Agroforestry Research Trust. This includes sea buckthorns, juneberries, a damson a dogwood etc. which will add to our more unusual plants and trees in the steadily growing forest garden. We also spent time over Christmas brush-cutting the brambles which have been engulfing the land.

We both follow various blogs such as the Archdruid Report and this combined with economic and environmental news makes for depressing reading. We have also been watching some videos by John Pilger, which has opened my eyes further to the activities of the CIA  and backed up my rather poor opinion of them gained from reading the book by Naomi Klein called The Shock Doctrine.

In summary, the current world order is continuing to fail, and it will get worse for most of us unless you are one of the super rich. Buying As Petas and trying to decouple from the current system has been the best thing we ever did and whatever the future holds, we hope that our family can continue to eat well, keep warm and sleep safely at night.