Technology problems.

I have to admit, I am with no doubt a Luddite, I like a simple life, plug it in and it works. In the past three weeks a mobile phone, bought just four months ago decided to play silly beggars, charge it up and it lost charge within twelve hours even if it hadn't been used. So we took it back to Car Phone warehouse who informed us that it would have to be sent away.  OK, but we need a mobile phone, it is very seldom that our land line is used for incoming or outgoing calls. Being rather stupid we said OK, if we have to get a new phone we will have the same as before. Mistake, the new phone is even worse than the older one, charge it all night and the chances are it will still be flat in the morning, sometimes it charges, sometimes it doesn't. So back to Car phone Warehouse, this time we saw the manageress, who said she would have to check it out for herself, so we left it with her, expecting a phone call from her the next day. No phone call so tried to  phone her on the land line only to find that that was also not working, even worse, neither was the internet, hence no blog posts. So back to Car Phone again to be told the phone is fine, I don't think so, she had had it for two days, in that time there were three missed calls and one text message, the phone was telling us that the battery was low, so back in we went to be told that was because there were a lot of calls while she had the phone. So we are stuck with a phone which is unreliable /useless. However Vodafone were very good and got the problem sorted on the land line and internet connection, only for our computer to die. We can't complain, we have had it for nine years, and being Luddites we don't do all the clean ups that we should, mainly because we are always afraid that we will do it wrong. We now have the new computer, and so far no problems with it, however, while we were waiting for it to be delivered we bought a lap top but lap tops have very small screens so we connected it to our previous monitor which is in fact a 28 inch TV screen, great when you have poor eyesight like me, however, as the remote hasn't worked for years we were unable to alter screen size to access the side bar, yet another trip to a specialist shop to get a new large screen. Of course, as the old computer was dead I have been unable to find a good photo editing program, the one I was using was magic, but I cant remember the name of it, so it will probably be a bit hit and miss putting photos up on the blog. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Autumn is definitely here, the trees and bushes are all showing their Autumn colours and the hedgerows are full of brightly coloured berries.

Guelder rose berries.

The Guelder Roses have berries that look like rubies,

A favorite of mine, Spindle.

the Spindles have their unusual pink berries with beautiful bronze foliage,

and the wild Arums are now spikes of red berries.

Maple trees look magnificent with their Autumn colour.

Shaggy Ink Caps.

The first of the mushrooms have also appeared, Shaggy ink caps, delicious just gently fried in butter.

Rosa rugosa, second flush.

The garden is still very colourful with a second blooming of Rosa rugosa.

We have tried the first of the Kohl rabi, I doubt we will grow it again, we found it rather bland, runner beans are continuing to produce and we have had a reasonable apple crop, most of these will be dehydrated for winter use. The table birds all did well and are now in the freezer, most have had their thighs and legs removed as they were so big, we did keep one complete bird for Christmas,

it weighed in at ten pounds six ounces, we have had smaller turkeys.

The new bird bath.

Inspired by Allen Titmarch's  'Love your garden' program, Simon has made a beautiful bird bath, using a  Gunnera leaf as a mould and white cement, it has taken up all the veins of the leaves, I am chuffed with it, all it cost was quarter of a bag of cement, (two euros) and some sand which we already had.

A small fishing boat in Kinvara harbour.

We have had a couple of nice days out, one to Kinvara, a delightful small fishing town, and also to Belmullet, a place that we had tried several times to visit. We found it a very dull place and not somewhere that we will go again.

However, we did find an interesting piece of coast line. But it was on the list and now it's done.

Extending the season.

With the weather being so unpredictable we decided that we would put more land under cover, there seems to be little in the way of normal weather nowadays, it can be quite disheartening to plant out seedlings or plants at what should be the correct time and then lose them due to unseasonable weather.

This was this years potato patch, ideal for the new tunnel.

The new tunnel is the same size as the other one, 18X20 ft.

Hoops all in place.

The company who supplied and installed it were very professional,

Up with the cover.

they arrived on time and on the right day, (maybe a first for Ireland) and had the whole job completed in just four hours despite there being quite a wind.

Four hours latter, the finished job.

The tunnel is a tight as a drum.
We had not got  the timbers for the raised beds as we didn't want to litter up the site with unnecessary obstructions, but as soon as they had finished yesterday we were off to get the first ten scaffold boards, today we have picked up the second load. Second-hand scaffold boards are a good way of making raised beds without spending a fortune, under cover they last very well, and even the ones in the veg garden are showing no signs of rotting after five years. The new tunnel will have seven raised beds in total, one will be for permanent planting, such as our fig tree which does not like being outside, we are also getting a second peach tree, they do very well in a tunnel. That will leave us six beds so we can have a good rotation with the first tunnel. It will be good having two uncover areas when it's raining cats and dogs outside.

Another giant cauliflower.

The veg garden is still producing well, for some reason our late cauliflowers are huge, weighing in at at least three pounds after trimming and eight inches across. The Calabrese is also still giving us lots of heads.

A three legged carrot.

Carrots always do well for us but I have no idea why this one should have produced three  forks, the bed has received no manure or compost for at least two years.

 We are getting a few Autumn raspberries but for us they don't do as well as the summer varieties. Physalis is another thing that always does well for us, the vines are now four years old and still producing well.

Red oak.

Blue berry.

My favourite shrub, Spindle, masses of berries this year.

There is now a lot of colour from the trees and bushes,

More blueberry colour.

but the flower gardens are still giving us lots of flowers for the house, so many things have giving us a second blooming.

The overflow bed, for all the herbaceous plants that need splitting. 

The O.H has also created another flower bed for me to take the overflow. I have so many plants crying out to be divided this bed will be full before I know it. I still have masses of bulbs to be planted as well, due to sciatica I haven't been able to do much in the garden, but it is slowly getting better.

Half a free range pig, butchered by Matt who did a great job. 

Having decided to not keep pigs anymore has given us a problem in obtaining good pork. Organic pork is very hard to get and in fact we are on a waiting list with the farmer who supplies us with beautiful beef, but it will be six months or more before he has any. Free range pork just does not exist in the shops, so it is a case of knowing someone who 'does pigs'. Fortunately we do know someone like this, we know the pigs were well looked after and enjoyed their outside life, we meet them a couple of times and they were happy pigs, so we managed to buy half a pig, free range, and very local, they were reared just eight miles away, we will be having local free range pork chops for dinner tonight.

Freddie likes a bird eye view.