This last winter I didn't once light our kitchen wood-fired cooker (George). In late Autumn last year, I gave him his serious pre-winter cleaning, but his services were never required. I only light him either if it's very cold, or if I'm making bread or long slow-cooked casseroles.
Our sitting room wood-burning stove also had less use than usual this last winter. Not once did I light-up in the morning and keep him going all day. In fact I only lit him a couple of times in early afternoons, preferring to wait until about 4 or 5 pm before lighting. The house managed to retain much of its heat, so just a few hours fire in the early evenings was adequate. Even so, I've managed to burn over 3 cubic metres of Chestnut wood, which will need replacing. I hardly touched our Oak pile.
In general I would say that this past winter was 'bearable'; we had no snow, and very few hard frosts. Not once did I feel really cold, I suffered no illness, and my wood sawing tasks never seemed tedious. It was what I would call a 'good winter'.
Now we are well into spring, and everything is looking good. The fruit trees are already heavy with apples, pears, plums, and peaches, and at Haddock's we're already harvesting a few early vegs. In the woods the Girolles are appearing in droves.
The above two photos made up part of our yesterday's simple lunch.
33 comments:
Fire going all day here today. 12 degrees at 3.30 p.m. with showers and thunder at intervals.
Agree, even in our short lifetime we've seen the weather patterns changing.
I hope your summer is just as agreeable.
We had a very wet winter and an endless spring. Temperatures are going up this weekend for the first of our summer
I'm just back from my morning walk with Billy. It's 15 C, and the skies are darkening. I was hoping to mow everywhere today, but it's now looking unlikely.
It certainly seemed the case this last winter.
Well well. You must have been wearing the right clothes. And they built 'em tough in your day.
I enjoy the variety of our seasons, but I like a bit of reliability too. A long hot summer is imperative.
I hardly got rained on (so no raincoat use), and I don't think my gloves even saw the light of day. My big furry Russian hat certainly didn't get worn.
One year didn't you find but a few mushrooms ? !I might be remembering this wrong )This year it seems better and your lunch looks nice.
parsnip
They are fickle creatures; some years they refuse to grow, in others they are in abundance. This year seems, at the moment, to be just about right (and delicious, of course).
Have you and any of your dogs ever found any truffles ? XXXX
We're not really in a truffle area, but I am hoping to train Billy to find Cepes. He found some Girolles yesterday!
The last winter here was very rainy, this summer started with a lot of forest fires, the days seemed warmer than ever.
Old people of your age don't feel the cold like the younger ones do.
Well done Billie .... you’re training him well ! XXXX
If only that was true. And we become more attractive to women with age too?
This area is very heavily wooded, but luckily we don't get too many wild fires. It would be disastrous if we did.
Cold and damp here all spring, apart from a brief appearance of sunshine at the end of February. More on the way apparently with Storm Miguel heading in from the Atlantic.
Blowing like crazy here at the moment. I was out mushrooming with Billy, and dead branches were falling all around me. We came home!
It was not a bad winter here either. Spring, though, has been rough with storms, tornadoes, and flooding in many parts of the states. I have spent a few night huddled with my pets in our basement as the wind whipped around outside. I looked at my tomatoes yesterday and saw that the leaves on many of the plants had curled up tight. They, too, were protecting themselves against this violent weather. Google tells me that they will unfurl and be OK with good conditions. Fingers crossed, but hurricane season is about to start. Maybe we will be lucky with that.
Our winter was absolutely brutal here in Iowa, USA. Last summer was a heat scorcher. So far, fingers crossed, we're having a normal spring - except for all the flooding! Now out to mow, again.
We had a 'medium' violent storm recently, and I'm pleased to say that Billy didn't panic, or rush upstairs to our bedroom. Our last two dogs were petrified of storms, and always joined us upstairs.
Yes, mowing this year has been a pain. The grass grows so quickly in this weather, and trying to catch a good hot dry day to mow isn't easy. My fingers are crossed for tomorrow!
Those girolles look wonderful.
Your fruits and vegetables always look good, no matter what happens with the weather!
My Mum told of Harvesting Wild Mushrooms with her Siblings. I have insufficient knowledge about Fungi to distinguish between edible and poisonous so I've never ventured to try... tho' I do LOVE Mushrooms!
As you often cause me to do (it's character building), I am off to Google to find out what kind of beast is a girolle and are they are threat to humans.
Last winter was long and bone deep cold here in Ohio. My heating bills have never been higher.
There seems to have been one 'flourish', and now they've disappeared. They'll be back.
Home grown is always best, and the first ones of each crop are even better.
We have two main prized mushrooms here, the Girolle and the Cepe. The more famous Perigord Truffle mostly grows about 50 kms away.
The only threat is people shooting each other when they find strangers gathering them on their land!
Much of the exodus from N Africa to more northerly European countries is a result of climate (as well as warfare). Our main threat now is rising sea levels.
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