Rain again yesterday from 10 am to 5pm. But today we have clear blue skies, and a lovely 20/68° - my sweet spot !
It was a long day yesterday for the chickens. Laure didn't come out of the coop at all, in fact she got up only twice and spent the day lying down next to where Léa sits. Both broodies spent the whole day in the nest as I had to leave the coop open for shelter. Today it's much better for them : there are lots of gross bugs coming to the surface with all that rain, to the chicken's delight.
Laure came out, though she spends a lot of time sundosing. Her poops are beginning to be more solid and she is just a bit more mobile. She makes unusual sweet sad cooing sounds, a bit like a pullet, talking to Gaston and sometimes to me, as if she was saying "I don't feel well, what's wrong with me ?"
A look at these past months in the garden.
After three years of drought this was a pretty unusual gardening season. On the down side : a winter that wasn't cold enough to kill bugs, hail and three whole nights freezing at the very end of April, no rain at all during June to the beginning of the last week of August, and then four months worse of rain in ten days with the worse hail and rain storm since we have the garden. On the positive side : a real spring when usually winter jumps into summer, rain in spring, no heat over 30/90 until mid July, rain in September, so no systemic drought, and less violent wind days.
What fared and fares well : cherries, plums, pears and strawberries exceptionally well ; we had lettuces and salads until july so much longer than usual, onions and garlic, tomatoes ( finally had some luck with fancy colored varieties that usually get sick), chards, cucumbers. We haven't harvested yet but red and green kuri squashes and butternut squashes are also very productive this year.
Honey was a good surprise. In spring we had only two hives left and they started working very late because of all the rain. In August, when we first went to prepare the hives for taking honey at the same date as usual, it wasn't capped yet so we waited another ten days. We got 27 kilos out of two hives which is very good for our hives, and it's totally different from usual, much darker and husky, which I love.
What was below average or wasted : courgettes and green beans started late and gave less than usual, favas and peas were mostly destroyed, almonds and grapes almost non-existent. Potatoes would have done well I think but too much damage was done by the boar. All our variety of dry beans (two different white, red and black) were opened by the hail so we lost about a third. Corn wasn't great. And to my partner's distress, the one thing that always work really well and that is our food basis for winter and spring didn't this year : the
local "courges de nice", a variety of long squash that I can't seem to find a translation for.
Also wanted to share two rather long texts for those of you who have time. Food for thought that feels close enough to my way of thinking but still different to raise questions.
Today's speech by Volker Türk, UN's commissioner for human rights.
And this text by Valkyrie on her hope springs journal about death in nature. I already shared one of her text before because I like what she writes and I think she deserves an audience
.
Garden pictures with blue skies at last.
View attachment 3939706View attachment 3939707View attachment 3939708View attachment 3939709
Chicken pictures today. Didn't get a picture of soaked chickens yesterday but Lulu, Annette and Théo were sorry sights !
View attachment 3939698View attachment 3939699View attachment 3939700View attachment 3939701View attachment 3939702View attachment 3939703View attachment 3939704View attachment 3939705View attachment 3939710View attachment 3939711View attachment 3939712View attachment 3939715
.
