Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Seasonal wind

It's been howling a gale here today.  I had intended to go to Breydon for high tide but thought better of it.  The last time I went there in the wind the tide was all messed up because of it.  Plus the hide was swaying like a palm tree.  Not that I am a coward you understand, usually with things like that I tell myself its perfectly safe but lets face it how do I know that anyone has checked the safety of that hide in the last hundred years.  It's planted there on stilts in the mud wobbling away in the wind.  It could be a death trap.  The whole thing could collapse into the mud at any moment, with me inside it.  Even worse with my scope inside it, and that does not bounce and does not heal.  OK, I admit it I am a coward!

The wind did cause me other problems too today.  It blew over my feeding station.  It's only the second time that has happened.  Luckily the big ugly squirrel baffle survived again, lord knows how, but one of my seed feeders broke.  Well actually the crash finished off what Butterfly the Squirrel had started when he was raging his terror campaign on my feeders.  So that's more money I have to find for the birds.  Honestly they are eating me out of house and home.  I hope they show their appreciation soon and invite one of their rarer cousins for tea!  At least I was able to get everything put to rights before Butterfly spotted it and thought it was Christmas come early.  I think he had a lovely time with all the spilt seed on the lawn though, I hope it does not give him ideas.

Mostly I rather like the weather now I live here.  By that I don't mean its always pleasant because its not but somehow you feel more part of it than you do in a town.  When it's windy the trees in the wood rage with it.  When it rains it lashes with venom.  When it's hot its just great!  There seems to be more power behind it, you can really feel the force of mother nature and what she is doing.

I am also noticing the seasons more.  Not that I haven't always taken an interest but again you feel more part of the changes, more connected.  I am watching crops being harvested that I remember as tiny shoots out of bare soil.   On Sunday I went Onion picking in a field I watched grow all summer.  There are fruits everywhere you look.  As you drive down the road there are various coloured plums dropped all over the road and pavement.  One stretch was striped purple then yellow then red.  The garden opposite us has trees dripping with pears.  What a waste, they live in The States and are rarely in residence, oh the temptation to scrump them!  When I go birding along the dunes I feast on blackberries, the sweetest I have tasted in years and no I am not being over romantic, it's true!

We are even eating the seasons more than ever before thanks to our local farm shops.  They only stock things which are in season for obvious reasons and when they have things they are so fresh I just have to feast on them.  The latest addition is sweetcorn fresh from the fields and speedily onto my barbecue!  Through the year I have picked my own Strawberries, Raspberries, Gooseberries, Plums, Runner Beans and Onions.  According to the notice at the onion field it's spuds next month. 

Until this week I have been buying home made jam from the local farmer too but now I have my own massive pan which was delivered this morning I can at last make my own jams and preserves.  I made Beetroot and Orange Chutney today with Beetroot and onions from the local farm of course.  The whole house stinks of vinegar now but I am sure it will be worth it in a couple of months when we taste it.  Tomorrow it will be Plum jam made with the Plums I picked today.  I like picking plums, you don't have to bend over for them.  I am a slacker as well as a coward!  At this rate I will be joining the Women's Institute and learning how to crochet those horrible tacky pretty little dolls you put over toilet rolls!


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