A nutty problem

Now what do I do? I have almost three kilos of walnuts in various stages of undress (some with skins still on, some naked and nutlike, some a mystery package indeed). But what next? Just dry them? Pick off the outer skins? Eat them? Must contact Uncle Bill and ask.

It was my dusk task yesterday. I must have harvesting withdrawal symptoms now that it’s October. No beans to pick, few cabbage leaves to try and salvage. Tomatoes long gone. It’s a strange time of year. The light is so low that the photographs were hard to take without my shadow intervening in each shot. And those I have look odd.

But the big news this week was the rainfall. Andrew had five inches, and we had somewhere over three and beyond. My rain gauge only goes that far and I have never expected such a wonderful soaking. First trot around the property was to inspect any possible damage from so much rain. And amazingly, there is very little. The banks are in place; the bulbs don’t seem to be floating in any of their planters. And best of all, the lily ponds are full to the brim. That’s one chore to tick off my list.

Sorry about the fishnet stocking look. But any day now the mulberry tree in the courtyard is going to drop about a cubic metre of leaves and if I’m not careful half will blow into the nearby water lily ponds and everything will go slimy.

Everything looks moist and dark brown and well watered. Very happy; especially as it took place while I was away.

And it has made planting things easier. In went ten Pennisetum Hamelin plants that I hauled over. The first few inches of soil on this bank are fine, but bone dry further down. Would you believe after all that rain? That’s drainage on a slope for you. These poor plants are never going to flourish here. So I must try and get more compost onto them whenever I can.

Another tick off the list was to get the planters covered in a gritty composty top. I scavenged the little gritty stones from the roadworks before I left. Just a few buckets worth of the gravel that has been pushed to the side of the road after the surfacing. I needed to soak them in water for a bit to make sure there was no tar left on.   And the rain did that for me.   The little gritty bits are the perfect size as I hope the tulips will be able to push their heads above and around them.

And then came the big dig. I was going to post this separately, but need to get on while it’s still daylight. It’s clouding over and getting gloom and it’s only mid afternoon.