Wow, time flies ! And lots have changed here so here we go, no time to loose now ;)
We started the gabion wall in the summer of 2019 when Monique and Guido came to visit us from the Netherlands. In May this year, Mike decided to put a concrete cap on it to solidify it. The platform will be dressed up with a short wooden wall. The posts are already in, and as soon as it is ready, we will share a picture. This wall will make a nice feature entering our village.
Quick visit from the Netherlands
Beginning of May I received a message from Inge which said "we are leaving the Netherlands heading south with our camper but depending of the weather we will stay in France or move forward south towards Spain, will let you know". Couple of days later "can we come for coffee?". It was a nice surprise and we invited Inge and Berni for supper. They parked their camper across the road and stayed overnight. Unfortunately, I had to work the next morning but on their way to Spain they stopped at my BIOCOOP to great me one last time. Thank you for this short but really enjoyable visit!
Green roof on the container: this was also finalized in June of this year. Mike finished the supporting structure for the green roof. We used a liner to seal it good and Mike used as substrate a mixed puzolane (some kind of volcanic rock) and light compost.
When Mike renovated the roof of our house, he kept the old tiles that were filled with local Sedum species. He used all those plants to start our green roof, what a planner that guy ;)
Since then , we had to weed the roof once and we will have to maintain it the first years, weeding and adding nice varieties to fill the space and add colors.
In the last blog, I talked about the grouting of our terrasse tiles. In July, during my vacation, I pointed the stones. The final effect is marvelous. Daily, I enjoy that extra space which beautifully ties our living room to the outside.
Honey / Bees: In the spring, I harvested about 20 kg of colza honey (the white one on the picture) and the summer harvest (end August) turned out to be around 26 kg. I have ordered "professional" stickers, which I designed myself and nice printed lids. Those little investments make the product interesting for selling for tourism. Back on this topic (tourism) next spring I hope.
Garden: some successes and lots of losses ....
I will start with the potatoes which I think is my biggest loss. The plants were sooooo healthy looking and then, in no time, all plants were lying on the ground with black spots. The spring and summer have been quite wet this year and that planting bed is mostly lying in the shadow, not getting enough sunlight and warmth to counter balance all the humidity. Fungus got in at a crucial time, when the tubers were growing. As a result, I have not lost everything, I just harvested smaller potatoes which will not keep as well as healthy ones.
The wet weather also caused the onions to rot. Only the garlic was nice but smaller then usual. For the tomatoes, it is mostly my fault if our harvest has failed. I have not watered enough inside the greenhouse and in combination with the humidity in the air, the fungus also attacked them. I was a bit discouraged and left the green house for what it was. Today, we are eating our last tomatoes/basilicum salad but the canning tomatoes have been produced with tomatoes that I bought at the Biocoop. I canned 3O kg of tomatoes in 7 hours.... that was a full day work.
I have had losses de to wet weather but all that water was good for some other crops like the green beans, the spinach, the Swiss chard, the rhubarb, the cucumbers, the raspberries and those 2 new crops of the year: the chayote and cyclanthera. Both of them are belonging to the cucumber family and have the same crispy and juicy texture but a bit bland in flavor. I add them to all stir fry meals and stews. The cyclantheras can be cut in half in order to remove the seeds and stuff them with rice or meat. This still needs to be tried!
Both plants are vines like plants which require climbing structures. These 2 new crops will be keepers for sure.
Early apples have been put in jars because they are not a variety that keep for long time. These apples are great to eat fresh and we enjoy them as long as we can. Unfortunately, I have no idea what variety they are.... I should ask one day.
Our new project: Mike has worked hard with the architect to create our dream house. I will dedicate a full blog on this project as soon as we can celebrate the arrival of our building permit. As for today, we have been applying for the permit, waiting for any questions they might have before agreeing to it. It is a matter of weeks / months. By the end of the year, we should know more about it. But today, a small sample of what our subterranean house will look like, covered with a full green roof and accompanied by a roomy garage (Mike's work space).
Farewell Pauline xxxx
In May, I had visited my mom for 10 days knowing that her state had changed the last months. I wanted to see for myself how she was and enjoy some nice "clear" moments with her. We continued to call each other at least 2-3 times / week. On July 22th, she left us. I am grateful that her main caregiver was working that morning. She directly called me when she seen that my mom's condition was turning bad. I was able to be there with them, on the video.
In September, I went back to Montreal for the Life Celebration. It was a warm moment shared with the closest people. I thank everyone that was present, for Pauline and for me.
LOVE YOU MOM XXXX
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