Mistaken Identity .Straw Bale Progress.

Earlier in the year we were given some Pumpkin and Squash plants, the squash we were told were the Spaghetti variety, the Pumpkins just Pumpkins. Well the Spaghetti Squash turned out to be

                                       Custard Squash, which have sort of turned into giants,
 normally they are about three to four inches across, the first one we have harvested is just over ten  inches across and weighed in at 5lb 2 oz, it looks lovely,

I will probably be making lots of pies with it, the remaining ones aren't quite so big and they do store well, a good addition for stir fries.

The first Pumpkin weighs 8kg, so lots of Pumpkin pies to be made, the seeds will be fed to the hens as they help to protect against worms and the hens enjoy them. I'm not too sure what the friend who gave us these plants ended up with, I do hope he has ended up with some nice pumpkins or squashes, I will feel guilty if he hasn't.  I do know he has some very nice ornamental gourds, whether these were planted by design or fluke I'm not sure but he will not be eating them, he tried that last year and they were  bitter. Maybe this is  a good reason to label things, something I often failed to do, you can end up with some interesting surprises, now I am more organised , I even label collected seeds, something I never used to do thinking I would remember what was what, I never did.
This month has been on the whole dry and very mild, some days have been hot, so far we have not needed to light the wood burner in the lounge, however we have still managed to find some wild mushrooms,

                                                   only  Inkcaps, but they are still nice.
 I think back to our Spanish days, we were spoilt for choice there even to having Chanterelles growing in the forest just below our farm. We have been told that they also grow here,  in the Dublin area, a bit too far to go foraging.

This is the time of year that we seem to get the best sunsets, most evenings we are treated to a very colourful sky, maybe we just don't notice them earlier in the year as we are inclined to be inside when the sun is setting which is very late during the summer months.
The straw bale project is progressing well now that we have the straw, we had ordered what we required and arranged for it to be delivered, unfortunately, although you might be given a day for delivery it seldom happens when it is expected, after all the years that we have lived in Ireland we should be used to this, but we are not. Two further trips to see the man who sells it, who clearly, although he had written the order down, had forgotten and we got the delivery yesterday, three days later than expected. I just hope the weather holds, as it is the building has to be put to bed each night covering it with silage cover, just in case we get unexpected rain,

about one third of the walls have been erected, so maybe sometime next week the roof can go on. When we get to the plastering stage it will be a learning curve for us,  we used Lime Putty before, this time it is a powdered lime which has to be mixed with quite a lot of sand for at least fifteen minutes, this type of Lime Render will even go off under water, whereas Lime Putty requires temperatures of 50f + to cure, something we are very unlikely to get in Ireland during the Autumn. The glass for the small windows has also been ordered, it should be here on Monday, then I can start the glass painting.