What is going on with the weather? We started the week pouring with rain, the clouds were so heavy and black that I had the lights on and finally it was 9 degrees out there. A fairly typical winter’s day but this is July!
Now I know we have more extreme weather where we are, being 213 metres high according to my neighbour’s GPS toy, and we’re exposed to the western coast so the wind howls in, but even so it’s well below what you’d expect. And I know from the weather forecasts it’s been yuck across the country.
Being stuck indoors, only madmen and farmers go out in this weather, I’ve been busy topping up the loft insulation. There’s a few videos online showing how to do it but they miss out the bits where you have to crawl under the eaves, bang your head on the rafters and get covered in spider’s webs.
The rolls aren’t too heavy but they’re awkward to manoeuvre. As I’ve discovered to my cost before, lifting things – even lightweight things – from funny angles is not good for your back. I awoke the other day and thought at first I’d sprained my ankle. How you can sprain your ankle in bed is beyond me but that’s how it felt. As the morning wore on, the pain crept up my leg to my backside so I knew it was sciatica again.
A day of ibuprofen and forcing myself to keep moving wasn’t doing much good but weirdly lifting yet more rolls of insulation worked. I felt something shift in my back and the pain drained away. Perhaps I should find one of those manipulators to sort my spine out!
Saturday the weather was something like, actual blue skies and sunshine although not exactly boiling. I’d have liked to have been gardening but instead was wearing my decorating clothes. The render on the end of the house had had to be re-done and needed painting.
We’d also had some cracks repaired and the old paint is peeling in places so it’s basically the whole outside of the house to do. A quick tip if you find yourself in the same boat, a jet washer. It strips the loose paint off whilst cleaning any moulds or lichens off at the same time.
I did get a little time on the veg plot though. More an inspection tour than actually doing anything. As you know, I’m far behind with things this year but my very late broad beans seem to be doing really well.
The runner beans are looking a bit spindly and feeble, but they often do until established so hopeful for them. The dwarf beans have been a bit of a disaster though, don’t know quite why but they’ve turned up their toes.
We’ve salad crops in pots which are coming on well as are the carrots in the barrel sections. The tomato plants are looking fine, lots of small fruits so we’re expecting a small crop there but the peppers don’t seem to appreciate the cold weather. Fingers crossed, they’ll produce something.
Peppers outside in North Wales for me are a no go, we’re about 200 metres up too, and on a hillside facing the sea. Winds from just about everywhere put paid to almost every crop over 3 feet tall unless given a proper support structure, and things like chilies, tomatoes, peppers and marrows don’t work outside the greenhouse – even the hardy varieties!
I’m fast learning, Duncan!