When will the rain ever stop and we can get out for a good long walk? Over the last several days we must have had many centimeters of rain and we are now starting to get bored of it.
Running around and sulking is all we seem to be doing recently and it is also very dark…. Actually we are just miserable.
Dad has just suggested a big pot of stew and dumplings for dinner, so he must also be feeling the weather in his old bones also… 🙂
Outside the garden is struggling as the tomato’s are failing to ripen and the shrubs, once full of flower and wildlife, are rotting in the damp conditions.
Mum has even gone as far as to suggest not growing tomato plants next year and is consulting the books as to what to do with the greenhouse growing season which seems to be only 3 months long, May, June and July.
We are hearing a lot of discussions about chutney this week. Maybe it will be an excuse for the cooker to be on and at least one room in the house to be warmed up.
Earlier in the year you may have read about the canopy thing in the garden mum put up so she could do some of the web work outside.
Well this is now being put to great use by us to avoid us getting wet when we go outside to play.
All the rain however has started to make it look a little black so we don’t think it will be long before it is washed and packed away for the winter.
Apples and soft fruit seem to have had a great growing season this year.
To the left is the apple tree, Lustre Elstar, at our grandad’s in Lancaster. He says that he came about this tree after saving tokens from one of the national newspapers.
The label on it says that is is a heavy cropper, however the weight of the fruit is starting to bend the branches and may even snap one or two of them if some supports are not rigged soon.
Soft fruit also seems to have done very well despite the horrible weather and mum has been busy over the last few days sorting out some damsons and plums given to them from a friend. Keep an eye over on Food on a budget for harvest updates.
Other news.
Mum and dad continue to add stuff to Spirit-of-orkney. Highlights this week include some desktop wallpapers and some graphic banners to help people link to the site.
Mum has also contributed by writing an article about the wild fuchsia seen in many places on the mainland.
You may have noticed a few tweaks also on this site. You can now Twitter articles direct from the page using the new green buttons at the top of every article. Go on – follow what we do on the social microblogging site. Our username is ablogfrommydog.
Did you know you can now print out any of our expeditions or web posts? Thanks to a new bit of software dad has installed on this web thingy a print button has now appeared at the top left of every post. Clicking here formats the page so it prints out ok on most printers.
Darker nights mean early chews.
Finally for this update we should make you aware of the change in the clocks.
Usually we get a chew at 8pm human time, after we have been on night time garden patrol. However, recently we are asking for our chews a little bit too early, at around 7.30pm human time.
So either our internal clocks are a little out or something else is going on. Can anyone explain?
That is all for now
Buster and Charlie.