A Change In The Weather

The weather has changed from rain and floods to frost and ice and back to rain again, but it is much warmer than last Wednesday when my header photograph changed to this ....

The last two roses were frosted,



The seed heads of weeds looked beautiful in the frost

 and just before sunset the sky in the distance  brightened.

I hope we are not going to have too much of this during the winter .....

falling snow.

Quilting

Last year I had the urge to do some sewing through the winter months when I was unable to work on the allotment or in the garden and thought I would try to do some patchwork and quilting.  I have made some cushion covers which taught me a lot about block patterns and the scant quarter of an inch seam, read a lot of books on patchwork and quilting and visited several exhibitions. 

I decided to embark on a quilt, chose the pattern design, which is based on a quilt made by Linda Seward, calculated how much material was required and have sewn the first 144 squares together, only about 2,000 more to go! 

Rather than sew small squares, I have sewn three strips of material together, cut them to size and sewn several of the cut strips together to make the pattern.  I think I will be spending most of my spare time during the winter making this quilt, it may be ready in time for spring and the warmer weather.

No Electricity Today

Today we were without electricity for four hours.  Not long one would think, but without electricity we have no water as it has to be pumped up from a storage tank, no oven, but we can use the hob and no heat except for a propane heater, fortunately it was not really cold.


After the old pole had been taken down

A pole carrying electricity cables had to be changed as it was full of holes where the woodpeckers had attacked it and hollow inside.  The holes were all on the north east side of the pole, why, I don't know.  Birds will miss the holes which they used for their nests in the spring.

There is not much space for turning in at the paddock gate.  The first van came and parked near the house, the second van could not get through the gate to the paddock and decided to park near the house as well, the third vehicle which brought the new pole parked at the bottom of the drive.  The cherry picker tried reversing through the gate into the paddock and eventually drove in forwards after some manoeuvring backwards and forwards to avoid the gate posts. 

The JCB managed to make it through the gate, pulled the cherry picker up a steep section of the paddock and brought up the new pole.

One of the workers went up in the cherry picker to dismantle the electrical cables from the top of the pole and the old pole was removed by pulling it out of the ground with the JCB. 

The new pole was put in place by the JCB and the cables connected by a worker in the cherry picker and another man who had "walked" up the new pole.  I don't think I could hang onto the top of the pole as he did.

Small amounts of damage to the land was repaired, all the workers departed, the electricity supply was restored and I had a water supply again. 

We are now waiting to see how long it takes the woodpeckers to attack the new pole.

We were only without water for a few hours today.  Some years ago we were without a water supply for two weeks which was difficult as we had to bring drinking and washing water to the house in large containers each day, with water in our garden butts being used for flushing the lavatory.  Many people, including children, in Africa and other countries do walk several miles to get water several times a day.  I count my blessings of fresh, clean water supplied to the house.

Windy Weather

The weather has been so very windy and wet recently that it has discouraged me for doing all but the most urgent of jobs outside. 

I recently looked across to a nearby hill to see that a dead tree that had stood for so many years as a reminder of how proud and tall it had once been had finally been blown over in the strong winds.  There is no bark left on the branches which have been weathered by the wind, the sun and the rain over the years since its death.  The remains of the tree will probably continue to provide a home and shelter to many insects for several years to come until it eventually decays into dust.

An old map of the area shows that the hill was once covered in trees, most of which are long gone leaving just a few for the shelter of animals, birds and insects.  I doubt that anyone will now plant any more trees on the hill and any tree seeds that do germinate will be eaten by the sheep that graze on the land.  Trees have been planted on other hills in the area so it will be a pleasure to see them as they grow and mature.  They probably all out live me.



I visited a garden centre recently looking for Michaelmas Daisies for the garden to provide some late food for my honey bees.  The flowers in one very sunny section were covered in bees and butterflies feeding including this red admiral.