68...Two Stormy Weeks

A dark and stormy day

After the longest, mildest autumn I can remember, winter finally arrived here with a flurry of storms. Actually, flurry is a mild word for the winds that raged through here on and off for two weeks. This photo was taken from my studio at lunchtime one day..it didn't get light. Branches have been falling daily and finally on thursday night we had the biggest storm of all before it all calmed down. The thursday night storm had me up at 4am...closing shutters and checking windows...but we still lost a few panes of glass and some tiles from the roof. I think it sounds worse here because of the large trees all around the house, twigs and branches clatter down onto the roof, and the trees seem to bend down so far you imagine they are going to fall.

Out in the garden the workawayers have continued on despite the rain and here Laila has dug up all the weeds around my veg beds. They are now covered with liner and later we will put a thick layer of wood mulch on top. This will save me loads of work next year...not having to cut the grass around the beds, and less transference of weeks into the beds.

Simon from Sweden has been cutting down small trees and logging them up into large piles which look like lovely wooden installations around the garden. These will season for the next 2-3 years before coming in to feed the Rayburn.
Someone who read a previous blog asked me about the Workawayers....so this is how it works. If you have a project....of any sort, or if you want to go somewhere..anywhere....you write a profile on the Workaway site. You need to be quite specific about the work you want done, or the work you can do, but it can be anything from gardening, building, looking after kids etc etc. If you are a host, you post some photo's too. Then you wait for people to contact you. The deal is they give you 5 hours work a day, 5 days a week, and you give them somewhere to sleep and provide for 3 meals a day. Normally people come for 2-3 weeks..sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the work. So far I have had 3 people here and it has worked out really well. I can't keep on top of the garden by myself and so far the people that have been here have used their own initiative and just got on with things. The great thing is you get time with people to talk about their culture and see the way they do things. We have had Swedish meatballs twice since Simon has been here....and they are lovely.   Laila has also been cooking dinner once a week which is such a treat.  I've already had several requests for next year...so perhaps my jungle will turn into a lovely garden soon!