20111219

Only four days left before Christmas break. The weather has suddenly turned very warm today after some mornings of frosts (ish).

クリスマス休暇まであと４日。ここ何日か冷え込んでいたのに打って変わって今日は暖かい日でした。

All of us have been busy with leaves, herbaceous, (ever growing) weeds, leaves and more leaves. At the same time, we are building new polytunnels which we received the materials for the other day.

落ち葉、落ち葉、落ち葉。雑草はまだ育ち続けます。あと新しいポリトンネルの資材が届いているのでその建設も同時進行。

More rain. It's been so wet and the way to get to one of the compost areas turned extremely muddy and we cannot drive the tractor in there at the moment.

そして雨！雨が降りすぎて、コンポストエリアに行く道が泥だらけでトラクターが入れません。植物の根っこも腐りそうなほど水浸しです。（この地域ではこれが普通なので乾燥に強い植物、たとえばラベンダーなどはあまりよく育ちません。）

Plant ID test for December is scheduled on Wednesday. This time we will have to identify woody plants with just twigs. It is very difficult but now I am more careful when I look at bare branches.

IDテストは水曜日です。今回は裸の枝のみで何の木か当てるという、かなり難しい課題・・・

I made a flower arrangement with nice looking things in the garden. With little flowers around, interesting foliage and stem colours come handy!

クリスマス？フラワーアレンジメント。クリスマスというより、庭であるものを集めただけな感じですが・・・

Camellia japonica 'Bokuhan'

20111215

I saw something green on supposedly herbaceous plant, Eryngium. I went over to have a closer look….

Something is growing on the seed head…

They are the seed from the very plant, germinating in situ!!! That is wrong but fascinating. Did it think it fell onto the ground? Did it think it was spring? Here in Devon, quite often the seed heads become unable to disperse seed because it is very wet in autumn. One of my colleagues told me that she has seen Alliums do the same thing, but I have never seen either do anything like this.

So I cut two of these heads off and inserted into gritty compost as it was, to see what happens. Hopefully we will have a few more Eryngium next year.

This is a picture from some days ago. I probably saw about five rainbows in a week last week.

20111212

Really strong wind and rain is forecasted overnight. Hope the house will survive through…

Work has been delightful (I really enjoy having no visitors even though I shouldn’t, for more flexibility in work such as leaving a huge pile of prunings in front of the main gate is acceptable!) and progress is seen by beds becoming empty. Still more leaves to be cleared, winter pruning can be done now onwards and still a few more beds with herbaceous plants in them.

I’ve been collecting mushrooms to eat these days.

It is called honey mushroom when you eat it and it is called honey fungus when you hate it. It is a fruiting body of fungus called honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) and the name makes us gardeners jump as this could infect and kill trees.

Anyway, here is pasta with honey mushroom and basil pesto. (The mushroom is very mild but with nice texture)

I have (but currently missing and I am seriously considering buying another copy) a book called Food for Free. It is a fantastic tiny book that lists all the wild things you can collect and eat.

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/30667/food-for-free-richard-mabey-9780007183036

I was feeding doves today and found that one of them laid eggs on the floor, in spite of all very good nesting areas up towards the roof!

So these are the eggs.

And here is the omelette I made….

(No I didn’t.)