The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: kevkev57 on September 19, 2009, 10:21:03 am
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I was just looking through one of my favourite books for foraging , ' wild food ' by Roger Phillips, and I looked at the section for hazelnuts and hawthorns.
We have a huge amount of hawthorn berries this year, big and bright. Apparently an old saying foretells a severe winter to follow, when they are bountiful....oh dear.
I then turned to hazelnuts to cheer myself up. That didnt work either.
" Many nuts, many pits "( graves ) apparently a big crop of hazelnuts meant a dangerous disease was likely to spread the next winter.
oh dear oh dear.
Kevin
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I knew we were in for a rotten winter because of the amount of berries on the rowan trees (mountain ash) - the saying my granny used was "many haughs (spelling?) means many snows" - it's proved sooooo right every year !
I didn't know about the nuts - but c'mon be optimistic ;D It'll keep the squirrels stocked up and when the human race is wiped out with disease, they'll take over and rule the world ! ;)
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While out an about recently was talking to an old man who keep a climate diary and say that we will get a winter like 67? apparently people where walking on the hedges as the snow was that high
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Rubbish - all of it. We're going to have RAIN, RAIN, RAIN and yet more bliddy RAIN!!!!!!!
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Don't say that - I can't work another winter in the pouring rain, but working in snow and beautiful frosty days would be perfect!
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Living near Buxton in Derbyshire, we are renowned for having a lot of snow, and being snowed in ....well, over the past few years we have had nothing like the weather we used to have in the Winter. I can remember the 1967 bad snow, and 1978 stands out in my memory and a couple of winters in the 80's.
I would prefer it to be cold and frosty, at least the ground is dry, and fields not churned up. The last few wet winters have been horrible in my eyes!!
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In the mid eighties I was sent to buxton by work, and boy did it snow. I was in fear of being snowed in and had to follow a snowplough over the top. the snow was way higher than the car. The snow plough then stopped and the driver got out. He told me he couldn't go any further, and i was on my own from then on. Luckly a landrover came by and I followed in his tracks untill the roads became passable. I was young and fearless then, but looking back it could have been deadly. I don't mind a sprinkle of snow but not 6 foot drifts. but please not the rain we have been getting.
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Those conditions sound familiar Carl!! Many a night we have struggled home even in a 4x4. I like snow, but it can be quite frightening when its really blizzarding. Snowdrifts outside our house have been amazing. Will have to find a pic and post it on here. We have moved 8 miles from Buxton now, in a valley, so a little more sheltered. Our old house was 11OOft above sea level and right on top of a hill.
The local quarry send out the big machines to clear the road, and sometimes abandoned cars are in the snow, and get scooped to one side when the drivers do not see them .....oops.
Maybe a wet winter is preferable to being snowed in
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I am going to get moaned at but here in Norfolk it has been horribly dry for the last 6-9 months. So any period of wet weather would be greatly appreciated. We last saw heavy rain at the beginning of June when the area was flooded. But after that there has been very little rain apart from a brief heavy shower in August. Norwich had 5mm in August instead of 50mm. Last winter was drier than normal (40%? of normal rain?) and the early Spring was warm and dry.
The soil under my lawn is currently full of cracks from the dry weather. My field is too hard to work with my small equipment again due to the dry weather.
Locally the horse chestnut trees are suffering from a bug which eats the leaves and turns them brown. We need a cold winter to kill these bugs (that's official!) or the conker trees are going to disappear.
I don't envy anyone with animals to look after through a cold Winter but provided you have a good stock of fuel (logs?) to keep your house warm and the roof doesn't leak, you should be OK. Make sure you have a good raincoat or waterproof jacket that can stand up to work outside. Then you can put on enough warm layers underneath and cope.
The only long term forecast I have found (recently) suggests that October and November will be cold, wet and windy. That means plenty of rain rather than snow in this area. It might be snow where you are but probably rain for most. However, I have lost my confidence in weather forecasts recently. They keep suggesting rain and most of it slides round the North and West of the UK leaving us with nothing!
NN
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I suppose we all get a bit selfish with weather. I would not like extremes of any weather, thanks. I am used to wet and windy up in the pennines. Rarely does it dry out too much. i also have clay soil which gets really sticky and drains badly. if it was dry like east anglia it would be rock hard and impossible. My problem is down to the geology, beds of rock covered in clay. so during winter the water table rises and flows overground like a torrent.
it can also freeze, creating new problems. Frost is a good thing, killing bugs and breaking down matter in the soil.
a little snow is fine, untill it all melts.
I think it's the long nights that get me down most, as I have to trudge round, wrapped up like an eskimo, with a torch.
The good side is that you have time to read books etc, to help plan for next year.
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I have been watching the rowans and the hawthorns for the last few years and expecting severe winters which never happened.
It would be lovely if this winter was clear and crispy with a foot or so of snow for the christmas week. My girls could do with one more sledging winter while they are still girls.
But really couldn't cope with a 67 winter. While we are still depending on a portaloo half way down the field, the results could be disasterous.
I can see the headline now
'Perthshire family die in snow drift while looking for the bathroom'
Sometimes I wish we had a house
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'Perthshire family die in snow drift while looking for the bathroom'
Sometimes I wish we had a house
Why don't you have a house? Are you building one?
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We were building a house until the credit crunch crunched, our mortgage was a casualty. We're living in the shed that Simon built just now. But the whole thing might just be a silver lining as we are now thinking of reworking the plans and building the house ourselves instead of borrowing more money and getting someone else to build it.
Anyway we are so bad at making decisions so this situation will certainly continue for the winter without resolution. good job we like our shed. :) :) :)