marie-helene kutek

It s been a long day picking raspberries with all those pesky cleaver plants.
Did you say a drink ma de with those very tiny seeds
I m up for it

Coffee is a not to interrupt ritual, an entire French press, large family size all for me.
I don t go for alternatives that could just remind me of whatever.
Coffee, should a situation arise, could become a holiday or xmas treat to be enjoyed on special occasions.
Total agreement with the hot drink requirement at certain times.
Currently, as it s warmer with lots of physical activity, there is a jug of water with sprigs of melissa and liquorice mint.

There is a stash of raw coffee beans somewhere which might be sown at some point.
My loving attitude is either you grow or you don t.

A useful tip
when people are panic buying toilet paper, I calmly stroll down to a coffee supplier to acquire a modest addition to my coffee hawl.

To our extremely good health
Blessings
MH  

Salut Folks,

An out of the box idea
A wild apple tree sprouted in one of the wild veg patches, oh ok, I ll  let you get on with it.
Then it decided to lie down, like in hedge laying and a new upright trunk is also growing.
There was blossom on the upright, don t know what it going on under the alpine strawberries and melissa, the hail storms have done some damage here and there.
Another apple tree that I dearly loved was eventually seen to by sheep friends who appreciated the jaunty angle of the tree bringing fruit and leaves   down close to their appreciation

On the peach trees recumbent due to the weight of fruit in spite of thinning out, a bit, I have placed forked branches as suggested above.
Thought the tree was going to meet our maker, but no, new growth has appeared growing upwards.
Photographs remain beyond my abilities.

Blessings and thanks

helloooo and thank you for the initiative.
I read a few substack threads when having a break.

Weeds. yum.

And of course the old chestnut, I weed in my garden..........

Lovely sundays and sundaes to all with sprinkled blessings
MH

Helloooo
Hope all are doing as well as .....
The woodstove was on the go a couple of days ago, it was truly nippy and damp plus the drop in temperature accentuates the contrast.
the heat from the woodstove dried the washing decoratively hung from the ceiling.
The monsoon type rain which I mention all too regularly and I do love the rain, makes drying very tricky.
However, it does a great job of washing.
My disgustingly filthy work trousers were left out during one of these dramatic storms. Even the grease stains have come out.
Whenever I hear the rain, I quickly drape trees, bushes and the occasional fence with the contents of the laundry pile.
This option is obviously not available to all.

As a kid, I did loads of handwashing with my mother who had known challenging conditions, so there was a lot of soaking, using small amounts of either washing soda or bicarbs, if available. hanging over the bathtub, that was us.
Drying was more difficult. We used the wringing out in a towel technique mentioned above. Thank you Ra, you brought the memory back.
We cheered when the top loading with wringer machine arrived.

Thank you for all the valuable suggestions
Coffee, sun then raspberries.
The blackbirds have already feasted on most of the cherries so i need to get busy
Blessings
MH

Sorry, me again,
Forgot to mention that I get organic beer for the slugs, beer slops from our community cafe.
I supply the containers and I also get their used coffee grounds.

AND in support of the slugs valiant contribution, they clean up the inappropriately positioned cat and and dog poo.

That s all folks
Blessings
MH

Hello Fellow Gastropod Hosts,
 
https://agriculture-de-conservation.com/Gestion-holistique-des-limaces.html
Really worth watching.

Yes, I know, the link is to a talk on slug containment given by a French Franciscan monk, Herve Coves, mycologist, scientist in agriculture, in French.
He refers to slug assassins with a smile.
Taking a slug down doesn t address the issue.
Just as Elaine Ingham, RIP, referred to an imbalance in soil, bacteria v. fungi, so Herve Coves refers to soil and its inhabitants, as a huge digestive system, more or less. Slugs ingest and digest and so do Fungi.
It s rather interesting. Lots of slugs indicates an imbalance, amongst possible reasons and everything has a reason for its existence.

He cites a slug research example involving truffles, black gold.
Slugs are partial to truffles and in this experiment they had a control truffle patch and the researchers created a slug free truffle patch.
in the 1st year, the difference in truffle volume was large.
The slug free area produced large, whole fungi.
However, the following year, the slug free area was truffle free, something to do with truffle spores going through the slug digestive system, then some earth worm involvement, without which, no more truffles.

If I understand the system correctly, an imbalance in the large digestive system favours the proliferation of one particular group.
No surprise to a permie perspective.

I feel so much better knowing that the slugs are chomping on already weakened salads, clearing infection.
In spring, the critters are hungry having spent the cold period fasting underground.
Lush new growth of brassicas, a favourite, is irresistable, obviously.

So what can I do, as I am the intruder with my plantings etc, to help redress the balance at least a bit,
introduce well rotted fungi infused woodchip,
be counter intuitive,
interfere less to let a greater diversity flourish.....
How often I thank local market gardeners for having available veg as my garden has been eaten, without mayo.

Your thoughts and comments most welcome and yes I have been down the egg shell, hair, ash, DE etc route and am prepared to trust, one day.
Hedgehogs have largely disappeared and this tragedy has been mentioned on other fora.

We had some vicious hail last week. The potato plantings look very sad indeed so I am expecting a slug platoon to arrive to clean up and while they are in the area ....... I am not supplying more fodder for them

One last thing, many exchanges suggest that direct sowing is less attractive than transplanted seedlings, what say you

Thank you all, a bientot, with slimey blessings
MH

H  ello dear readers,
Shortly going off to a plant fair to socialize, learn, be surprised and to get leek plants,
   
Before planting the baby leeks, they get a soak in rhubarb leaf maceration, it seems to avoid the pin like worms that chomp on the roots,

Some leaves go on the privet or box to deter the beautiful moths that have been decimating hedges etc in recent times,

the rhubarb stalks, chopped before prep, are given a bicarb bath to lower acidity and so need less sweetening.

And I will see if I can get more rhubarb following our good advice, whilst picking wild strawberries that proliferate around the rhubarb.

We ve had hail, more monsoon like rainstorms and drought is still being mentioned.

Right, coffee and then off wishing us good Sundays all round

Fruity blessings
MH

Hellooooo

After a verrry good yawn, my hearing is rather precise, no swishing or whirring or whistling.
Recently was talked into, and heard, check your hearing and ended up with the mind bogglingly expensive hearing aids.
At home, I can hear pretty well, birds, insects etc.

In a crowd, I turn to aim an ear at a speaker. Is it me or .....
I find a lot of people mumble, speak with a hand on their face often shielding their mouth, speak very quickly swallowing much of what is said.

Do the hearing aids help
The rustle my clothing makes is horribly audible but not always the speaker at the other end of the table.
I am told that one has to adapt. Not sure about that.

I have found yoga and qigong moves that help with re activating hearing. Not able to confirm this yet.
I can t recommend anyone in particular.

On a parallel note, I have joined a small informal and very friendly team of failing eyesight folk.
We practice the Bates method.
Aldous Huxley of Brave New World Fame, was born nearly blind, I believe.
He followed the Bates method of exercises and was eventually able to read.
It s helpful to meet up once a week to remember to do the eye excercises.
One of them is quite permy as it involves looking and seeing, noticing one particular colour during the day and doing a recap at the end of the day.
Who knew there are just so many shades of green

For the ears I do the massaging of the ear lobe, all around, when I remember.
It helps a bit maybe.

ps I m writing on a foreign t me keyboard so punctuation will follow one day

Blessings, can you hear me, to us all
MH

Saluti

Wonderful, thank you.

A mate has gold fish in his water barrels. They have survived harsher winters than we now experience.
The fish certainly control the larval incursions.

Frogs moved in before the pond was finished, from where and of course amorous dragonflies.

A plant that has been suggested to add to the list is basil.

Bat boxes are on stand-by.

A fly swat provides good exercise for the eyes and arms, motor something reactions and tennis practice, heyho.
A bientot  
Blessings
M-H

Hellooooo
Sun out again after several days of seriously nippy weather.
I had vegetable chips for supper last night, true.

Chips in in garden get generous and regular portions of premium quality nitrogen or at least a precursor or something like that.
To explain the wood chip piles get regular dowsing with urine, cheap, freely available and obviously a quality addition.
I have noticed that the piles which have had the befenit or even the benefit of urine, start showing white strands of mycelium quite quickly.

several years ago, I loaded the veg area with wood chip mulch. The rats moved into this wonderful protected pantry and have basically not moved out far.
They enjoy the cleaner environment provided on the land I steward.
Some of my neighbours are generous with their toxic treatments so here is better than there.
I rued rodents and slugs too.
A field expert explained the presence of slugs, how they improve soil structure. Hmmmmm, ok not, my veg and flowers.
Back to rats and woodchip, a dynamic duo - rats and other tunnelling critters aerate compacted soil and woodchip does its work above ground.
To each  their raison d etre as they say in these parts.

Moments of philosophical reflection and I nearly accept this type of gentle outlook.
At other times I feel like a banshee.
Well there s balance for you.

Moral of the story the mulch with mycelium provides a richer and quieter life, here at least.
Thank you all for valuable contributions
Blessings
M-H