November Rains brings yet more Floods.

Well, hello again my WordPress friends, its that time  again for another monthly update. And oh my what a wet month we have had since I last updated here.. So much rain with the odd dry day thrown in-between..

Back at the end of October the weather broke just long enough for us to to get more of our allotment cleared and while my hubby worked on digging and clearing the top end of the plot, I set too and began to cut back the Autumn Raspberry bushes.. What a harvest we have had, both from the early and the late berries, The bushes were still full of wet soggy fruit when I cut them back.

My hubby had also dug up all the Loganberries and composted them. Because for the past several years they had not been at their best and as they are much more tart and sour than the abundance of raspberries we harvest, so I decided we would concentrate on the raspberries for next year and clear space. He also eventually in stages was able to lift out the Dahlia’s, so clogged were the tubas with sodden earth he had to dry out in the green house first before he could remove the soil from around the tuba.. These are then placed upside down with the  cut dahlia storks of around 6″ to 9″, (I still work in inches even after all these years of being metric.. So that is around 15 cms to 22 cms..)  The storks facing downwards to allow them to drain… When completely dry these are then stored in straw… Our Home Begonias and gladioli are stored in sawdust..   These are kept frost free covered in the shed.

Here is a previous image of stored Dahlia tubas from 2017.

Hubby made a metal grid in the allotment greenhouse, where you place the stalks side down and tuba side up, This helps to drain the moisture out of the stalks .. And here they will stay for a couple of weeks until the soil has completely dried and can be shaken off.
Then they will be stored in the shed

Here below is the Before Photo where I weeded and cut back the autumn raspberry canes. The Red foliage leaves are the blueberries these I leave alone.. Sadly we hardly had any fruit on the blueberries this year due to a late frost which caught the bushes in flower…. But the raspberries made up for them.. You always win some and lose some when gardening and you have to take it all in your stride.. Some years are good, others not so good..  Like our Leeks, this year because of the rain many have rotted and have been composted..

Cutting and clearing Autumn Raspberries

And here is the after photo… I have to say my back was aching when I had finished and I left some of the grass and twitch to be weeded out the following day as my bones had had enough for the day.

Raspberries pruned back and ground partly cleared I went back the following day and cleared the patch you see  left of grass and twitch.

I also collected all the finished sweetpea seeds. My idea for next year it to plant many sweetpeas along the trellis where we dug out the Loganberries  and place a net for them to grow up, The frame work is already there.  You can see the stakes and framework in place on the above photo.

Sweetpea seeds

As the title says November has been almost none stop rain too, and many low lying areas not far from us have been hit by floods.. And I count my blessings daily for living on a hill, and even here outside my window  at the moment the water is around ten centimetres in puddles that are no longer soaking into the ground.

Rivers have overflowed their banks and I feel so sorry for all the residents of FishLake  near Doncaster as their streets and homes have literally been turned into a lake, More on their plight can be found at this  BBC news link. The whole village is under water..

So while nothing outdoors can be done I have been spending more time on my  indoor projects and have completed these items you see below as well as I am midway through another knitting project..

And I have been less and less on technology and on the internet  So I have spent less time in WordPress, though I do hope to try and get back into my WP reader and catch up at some point.. But as the Autumn days get shorter and as  winter approaches I am finding I am hunkering down into my creative space more and more as I try to tune out from the bombardment of negative news and tune into my own creative, harmonic creative space..

Forest Green Cardigan

Hat and Snood.

Cardigan stitch detail

 I hope you are all Keep safe out there..

So many things going off in the world, Fires, Floods, and Elections!…

Keep your own Balance!..  And create your own Bubble of Peace..

Keep safe and hold each other close..

Until Next time..