Before and after the storm.

Anticipating a spell of bad weather in the form of hurricane Ophelia we decided to take advantage of the calm before the storm and once again headed in the general direction of the coast, however we decided to take a road that we didn't know.

When I say road it was more like a country lane.

Before long we found ourselves climbing, the road was getting steeper and even narrower that it was at the bottom, we weren't  even sure that it would lead anywhere but we were more or less headed in the right direction to the coast and the scenery was spectacular.

Unfortunately it was a bit dull, the sun wasn't playing ball but I still got some nice shots.

One thing I am very good at is spotting plants, this trip was no different, I had spotted a black thing growing on the grass verge, Simon couldn't see it until he nearly stepped on it.

He recognized it as a club fungi. Once we got home I looked it up, it seems that club fungus is a very large family, and without doing a spore count it's hard to tell which one it was, besides we had not picked any. My best guess is that it was a Black Earth Tongue. It's the first time I have seen this particular fungus, so I was happy to add it to my list of spotted plants.
Eventually we found ourselves on the outskirts of a town, although we didn't immediately recognize it. It turned out that we were in Ballina, a place that we thought we knew well, just not the mountain end of it.

Rosserk Abbey. 1460.

Wanting to get a glimpse of the coast we headed out to Rosserk Abbey to eat our picnic, this is a place that we know well and have photographed many times, so I only took a couple of shots of the Abbey. Although our trip to Ballina took twice as long as our normal route it was a detour that was worth while.
We escaped the worst of the storm, no loss of electricity or internet, other people have not been so lucky. Three people were killed and there are still over 100.000 homes without power, there are also many people with no water. Despite the warnings given about the storm there were still some idiots that thought it would be fun to go swimming, luckily they didn't get into difficulties.
Today as the sun was shining we once again headed for the coast, this time to get seaweed, we knew there would be plenty after the storm and we weren't wrong.

It was the easiest harvesting ever.

Twelve bags were filled in ten minutes.

As it was such a nice day we headed further along the coast, expecting to see lots of big waves,

however it was fairly calm,

with just a few larger breakers.

It seemed that we weren't the only ones who enjoy seeing waves,

a cow decided that her field wasn't interesting enough and took herself for a walk along the old lime stone pavement, I hope she got back to her field alright as the lime stone is quite slippery.

Gathering Fertility.

A calm day, just gentle waves.

No excuse needed to take a trip to the coast again, second trip in a week, the change of air is supposed to be good for you, but we were there to get more seaweed.

We can never get enough compost, even though we have two large cu.m. Dutch compost bins we just do not provide enough for the gardens needs, we used to be able to get spent mushroom compost, but the mushroom farm shut down, squeezed out by one of the big boys. We have the poultry, donkeys and  rabbits manure plus all the weeds and what little veg trimmings we have, but it doesn't go far.

Another load of seaweed.

In the last week we have returned from the coast with twenty two sacks of seaweed, times that by five and we might have enough compost for next years vegetables.
Sea weed is one of the best fertilisers there is, with fifty eight trace elements ,and for some reason worms love it, we also used seaweed meal, and liquid seaweed. Most of our nettles  get composted as well as  comfrey . Nettles are great to increase the organic matter and comfrey is high in potassium, also as the leafs are not fibrous it breaks down easily in the compost bins, comfrey and nettles also make great liquid feeds.
All the potatoes have now been lifted and that bed has been 'put to bed' for the winter, potatoes take a lot out of the soil so the bed was covered with compost, including seaweed and then covered with black polythene, the  worms will do the rest for us and come the spring we will have soft friable soil which hopefully will not contain too many weeds. Most of the remaining vegetable garden is raised beds which are so easy to cope with.

The last of the Autumn cauliflower's have now been harvested, some frozen and some used fresh,

the courgettes are still producing, just enough for us not to be sick of them, and the tomatoes are still producing well, although this has been a non summer,

the Physalis is still doing well, we are getting over a quarter of a pound every other day, lovely to just munch on,

and we are still picking sweet peas.
The late sown mange tout peas and French beans are now giving us pods, so summer veg is not off the menu yet.

I'm trying again with Watsonias.

At the market last week I spotted some pots of Watsonia, so I have decided to have another go at growing them, this time they have been planted in a very free draining soil and I will cover them to protect them from frost,

I should have asked what it is. No, it's not a Dahlia.

I have also found another plant which I am totally unfamiliar with, so unfamiliar that I don't know what it is, I should have asked in the garden centre, I do know that it will also need some frost protection, why did I not ask for it's name?

I think they look great together and next to the right colour Berberis.

I have planted it next to one of the Watsonias  so they can share the covering, they look quite stunning next to each other.

Now the nights are longer the cats are practising the art of total relaxation,

Suzy having pleasant dreams. 

they head for the lounge before we do, normally occupying the most comfortable seats,

A relaxed Freddy.

once they are turfed off they still manage to relax as only cats do, stretched out full length they take up a lot of floor space.

They like to stretch out.

The dogs like some comfort as well, Tess and Meg enjoy the fire.

The Autumn colours are slow this year,

Some colour on a Spindle tree.

I love to see the richness of the colours in the trees but I shall have to wait a little longer, I just hope we don't get any strong winds that take the leaves before they have had time to take on their Autumn hues.

There are still plenty of bees around, in fact there seems to be more now than there was earlier in the year, they are certainly enjoying the poached egg flowers.
The year is moving on, but do supermarkets  have to move it on so quickly, Lidl had the first of the Christmas  Luxury food items on sale before Septembers end, totally unnecessary, and most of it is junk in any case. Can't we go back to how it was, Christmas in December? Now there's a thought.

Toad lily, why should it be called that I wonder?