13th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 9 - allotment and lockdown

 After some early morning rain, today was a very sunny and dry day. Managed to get out for a quick cycle ride (about seven miles) around lunchtime, though bird life was very sparse along what is usually quite a biodiverse country lane. After lunch, a trip to the allotment to pick cabbages to make another batch of kimchi using a recipe which you can read about here. Also picked another parsnip for tea, deep fried as parsnip chips with some home grown potato chips too. There's still apples ready, and some of the last borlotti beans that have been drying on the plants, they have now come inside for further drying on newspaper upstairs. 

The winter onions and garlic have established well in the allotment, they are rooted enough not to be pulled up by inquisitive blackbirds!

Over the past couple of weeks, there's been several people I know that have gone down with Covid-19, makes it more personal when it is people one knows. They all are or have recovered though as far as I know which is a relief though I have heard about two people whom friends/relatives know that have died of it. Whether this present lockdown will work is to be determined, it does really depend on behaviour of individuals both during and more importantly afterwards in the run up to Christmas. 

Whilst I can always find things to do and we are secure in income even with my furlough payments, others aren't as lucky either financially or indeed in having the easy access to countryside we have or space to grow one's own food. 

Whether there's going to be long term positive shifts in behaviour as a result of this pandemic, for instance the continuation of a lot of home working or indeed many continuing to grow food for themselves, is to be determined. Community spirit, people helping each other out, can be more durable. One thing that does really concern me is the shift away from public transport as, quite legitimately, people reduce their risks by using their own cars if possible for journeys, rather than a potentially busy bus or train. We need people to one day get back to using buses and trains for business and leisure, rather than their cars. Hopefully the infrastructure that is being put in by councils, with central Government funding, for improving cycling and walking will help matters and mode shift many people's journeys. We have been over a newly opened cycle path using the route of an old railway line, with a recently rebuilt bridge over the River Wharfe at Newton Kyme. This was very pleasant and away from busy roads, and when we did the journey about a month ago we saw a Grey Wagtail on the path as well as a lot of other bird species in trees alongside. 

12th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 8 - Remembering Spiderlings

 As today was a shopping day with only a brief visit to the allotment for two cabbages for my mum, here's a little flashback to June 2015 and a web of Garden Spider-lings in our back yard!

11th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 7 - Cycle Ride

 Cycle ride today. Still a bit dull outside but at least dry. The trees are halfway to winter shutdown now. I find November the bleakest month to be honest, often characterised around here by a lot of fog and grey skies. 

Out on the flat stubble fields near home there were masses of crows, starlings, gulls and a large flock of redwings. The Black-Headed Gulls took off in a hurry with the arrival of this Herring Gull. A Kestrel hovered by the side of the busy A64, looking for small rodents disturbed by the traffic. 

Whilst not for this blog, I have been taking quite a few photos recently of pubs and churches. With the restrictions these places have spent a lot of time closed, and one wonders how many will be viable after all this is over. 

Further on, I stopped briefly to watch two jays in the tree top canopy, and below them two wrens picking off insects from the branches. A grey squirrel (not red ones in our part of the world unfortunately) pottered around, looking for food. 

This view is typical of the quiet lanes we cycle on around where we live. We are indeed lucky to have such places on our doorstep, it would have been quite a different experience of lockdown in a densely built city suburb. 

10th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 6 - Allotment in the murk

Well, day six of the second lockdown and four of those days have been foggy and dull for much of them. The plans I have had to do more weeding and tidying in the allotment will have to wait until it is drier. Even the local collared doves are sitting it out in the tree. 

This afternoon, although still cloudy, was dry and I took a brief excursion to the allotment (it is only two minutes from the house, in fact the site starts at the end of the street)

The broad beans have germinated so they have got a barrier of brambles to deter the slugs and give them a chance to grow a bit before the cold sets in. That being said, I hear rumours of a very mild spell of weather coming next week. There's half a dozen broad beans in the lean-to greenhouse back at the house just in case these get chomped though!

The purple sprouting broccoli for next Spring is looking good and the plants don't need any protection now from the white butterflies and caterpillars. This end of the allotment needs a good tidy to be honest, the cabbages are almost done and the summer broccoli is now flowers - we do leave these to go to flower once they have finished producing as another opportunity for insects - but they just need to be composted now. The mini sweetcorn have stopped producing now although leaving the stalks in stops weeds. This end of the allotment will be potatoes next year and hopefully the broccoli in the photo wil have finished by the time of planting these. 

The harvest was good today again despite the weather. Yet more apples, a parsnip, some carrots, the last usable leaves of spinach beet and a few very small purple sprouts. With the potatoes for tea in store in the house, and the pie from the butchers just round the corner (the lamb in the pie is from a farm three miles away) our tea will be mostly local, just the peas, a bit of swede and the gravy being otherwise. 

9th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 5 - Dried Apple Rings

Just a quick post today but just time to show the dried apple rings that we made. First time we've tried air drying fruit and it does seem to have turned out alright. The apples were peeled, washed, cored and sliced into rings. Then they were dipped into lemon juice before being hung on a hazelnut stick over the cooker and left for six days or so. Finally, they were put in the oven for about thirty minutes (which might have been a bit too long to be honest) to kill any bacteria. These are now stored in an airtight container. 

8th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 4 - Seeds

It is that time of year when thoughts turn to the crops that are to be grown next year. Already in the allotment we have planted some broad beans and some winter onions and garlic for next year, and indoors there's a planter with salad leaves and some radishes which hopefully will grow in the warm house and provide some salad during winter. 

The onions and garlic have grown a bit since this photo was taken, and there's been a few times I have had to put them back into the ground as I think the local blackbird pulls them up!

We get the bulk of our seeds from D. T. Brown as they are decent value for money although there's a few from Thompson and Morgan and from Nicky's Nursery (the mini sweetcorn from the latter were especially good this year!)

We are going to try Cylindra Beetroot rather than Boltardy next year as the crops over the past couple of years (of Boltardy) haven't been very big, and we found a few years ago that the stripy varieties (Chioggia) don't grow at all to be honest. The Spinach Beet was especially productive this year. We forgot to order turnips last year and they generally grow well although you have to be quick before they go to seed, especially in dry weather. 

Potatoes, more onions and peas will be bought in the new year when stocks become available. One wonders whether there will be a glut of seed potatoes on the UK market early next year due to the problems with exporting them after the cliff edge of the end of the Brexit transition period. I pity the growers who have, over many years, built up good exports only to find that political bluster, misinformation and incompetance have ruined successful businesses for little gain and much harm. Seed and plant imports in general may well be affected due to the new barriers in accreditation and certification that are springing up at the end of the year as well as increased costs which will be passed onto the consumer. 

So, apart from leek seeds, which I forgot to order and will easily be obtained locally, we've almost sorted the seeds for next year!

7th November 2020 - Lockdown 2 - Day 3 - Red Kites

Overnight, the fog has descended and outside is really looking like a grey soup again. Despite the cold we took a cycle ride to York, but even the local rooks were sitting it out in the trees! 

Last Wednesday was however a much better day and a cycle ride up past the Towton Battlefield (War of the Roses 29th March 1461) was in glorous sunshine and relatively warm for the time of year. A field up there had been ploughed and numerous Redwings and a few Fieldfares were taking advantage of the soil life that had been uncovered. I have found these birds to be quite skittish when they see people, and difficult to photograph though I do remember one especially close up view of a Fieldfare one very frosty January morning in a tree by a footpath. 

Just a little further on, on the way down to the Crooked Billet pub, a Kestrel was mobbing a Buzzard and you could hear the kestrel's alarm calls as it dived at the Buzzard. Now, I know that crows attack Buzzards, seeing them as a threat, and indeed a couple of crows were doing just that, but I have never seen a Kestrel do this and one wonders what the perceived threat was to the Kestrel. Maybe it was territorial, although again Buzzards will generally go for larger prey than Kestrels and also often go for carrion rather than live prey.

Just on from this confrontation, two Red Kites were perched in a tree watching the world go by. 

Some years ago now, some of these birds were released as a reintroduction from Harewood House, north of Leeds and over time they have bred and spread out and are now a common sight. They regularly come to check us out at the allotment, gliding over majestically, scanning the ground for any carrion or other food. The speed and agility of these birds, often seen when a pair are displaying or sometimes I think just amusing themselves, is a fantastic sight, and one which twenty years ago you would have had to go to Wales to see. 

They are birds just as comfortable in urban surroundings as in rural areas, and I have seen them frequently over suburbs in east Leeds. One time there were six of them swooping around over the top of a busy roundabout, sometimes quite low over the busy traffic!