As you may have gathered, I have become a bit of a bore on the subject of nature warning us of cold weather ahead and in that vein, I am bracing myself for frost and worse next week. I was working outside for most of the day in preparation for this and while the sky was a clear blue there was a real nip in the air.
Much of the day was spent putting waste material from the barn nearest the river into a skip,hired for waste from the repairs to my study roof. P who helps me out started the work last Wesdnesday but just to show that nobody is indespensible, that I can do manual labour myself, I spent the entire afternoon ferrying wheelbarrow loads of dirt, plaster, wood and all sorts of other stuff to a skip that is now two thirds full. The eventual aim is to turn that barn into a hay loft and tool shed allowing the top barn where tools and sandbags are curretly kept, to be emptied, renovated and prepared to welcome chickens in 2022. That is the aim. The barn certainly looks a lot cleaner now.
But aware that a frost loomed, I also made sure that the five fruit bushes I bought last week, as I build up the 100 fruit bushes under netting part of ther garden, were beeded in and watered. The last of the summer/autumn spinach was harvested for blanching tonight and my five remaining chillie plants were all brought indoors.
I discovered yesterday, that the chillies that were still green and yet to grow red are just as diabolical and hot as the red ones. So I could dry them too and add to my collection of several hundred devilish chillies in storage. If you are on my Christmas list get what you will be getting!
But the plants look so amazing as the chillies turn a fire red, so the Mrs has raised no objections to them coming indoors to dodge the frosts which they cannot handle, to brighten up the hovel and to generate even more red chillies, for drying, potting and gifting in a few weeks time. The first two pots you see are in the farmyard porch, the one below now sits in the kitchen window. I am not so sure how long they will last but it is longer than they’d have lasted outside in the frost. And they do look splendid.
