Well, here we are sitting at home on another rainy day...waiting for a camping lamp to arrive from a camping webwinkel. We need one for inside the garden shed, so I do not have to remove the incredibly heavy internal blockade each time we go there. It is so good as winter now and so it is quite dark in that little house especially with all the foliage of the wisteria, clematis and lonicera which grows over the sides and top of the pergola in front. When my Bride took this foto and showed me we both thought that the hous and pergola resembled an iron age sod dwelling. The gobbeldy-goop on the foreground is a the mulch over one of the beds. It is meant to be there. In fact, let me bore you with foto’s of the four veggie quadrants—SW & NW: SE: NE: The first of the quadrants featured shows two quadrants, never mind that you cannot see the NW quad properly, you can see so good as all four of them. I forgot that NW quadrant diddn’t I. You can see that there is still Phacelia and Borage blooming, and so those beds or bed portions have not yet been put into the winter mode, but as you can guess, they are so good as winterized...just as soon as the bees stop flying, I shall pull those plants and lie them on the soil. Say goodnight, Gracie. Now then mates, I had spoken about the bee frame “rack” that my Bride came up with to store some frames throughout the winter. Here are a couple of foto’s showing how the set up works : Then a close-up: It is going to work just fine. These will be the first to go into the melter, come spring. We made our melter ourselves out of an old beer cooler, bricks, a silicone receptical and a discarded glass plate. Yeah, it isn’t pretty but it works as good as a proper one and cost a great deal less. Every day we do a little bit more in the garden, taking advantage of little stints of decent weather. Well, when we got home we got a scare when we saw this giant chicken’s foot under the little bridge outside our east window. All I saw was its foot and that was enough for me ! Being a chook eater, I hid under the bed until it was gone—I of course thought that it had come to wreak revenge for taking all those eggs and having the occasional drumstick. It felt like Jurassic Park where someone took dino eggs and mamma came to recover them. Well, you know what I mean...it is so good as an accurate comparison, right? Things have calmed down now and I can’t even find a feather from big bird’s visit. Just as well, his feathers would probably as good as cover our whole apartment building.
Ha ! Heaven forbid if you admitted to the occasional breast ! But I want to know what is growing on the roof of your shed ? I love it ! Reminds me of the Flintstones even if theirs was made of stone !
Mart, I think that Heaven would indeed forbid, unless the chook part in question came out of our own coop, so to speak. Well the massa on top of the shed and pergola is wisteria, clematis and lonicera vines. The wisteria comes from the side and there is a lonicera on one front post and a yellow clematis on the other. The result is a mass of green and at different times in the season, different coloured blooms. I am well chuffed with the result. It took several years and quite a bit of thoughtful pruning.
Wisteria here is pretty invasive but I love it ! Just do not have the inclination for the pruning ! Clematis just doesn`t get that thick here ! I just love the look of the shed !
I love your garden shed! It looks like something out of The Lord of the Rings. I expect to see a hobbit popping out of there! Re your garden beds, I get so many ideas from you. I am growing peas as a cover crop. So instead of just letting them grow & die as winter comes on, I can pull them and lay them flat on top to protect the soil? And okay, I don't get it. Just WHAT is that orange thing? It looks like a mutant carrot.
Thanks so much MART—- You know, I hadn’t really stopped to notice how the shed looked from this angle before. You just work and quickly stroll by this aspect whilst orking. When I had a closer look, I liked what I saw. I can tell you it is nice sitting in that green and shady “cavern” during the heat spells. Burns and Allen—you gottit! Well done, you. CAYU—I am so pleased that you liked the looks of the shed. We’ve put a lot of work into developing that wild look, but the main focus was the blooms and shade. Re your pea ground cover: you could indeed just leave them, but just consider why farmers use that ground cover. It is because peas, clover, beans etc take nitrogen from the air and fixate it as nodules on the roots. Do you remember my pics earlier in the year? If you leave the roots with the nodules in the ground the nitrogen will already in place for what you will grow in that plot next year. I would clip the peas off and lay the foliage on the plot rather than pull the plant, root and all out of the ground. An appropriate candidate veg would be a crop that likes nitrogen like swiss chard or spinach say. We rotate calabrese into our old bean patch. I have spoken on here about our ABC rotation method before on here, so I shan’t bore you with that again. Now then, that great orange thing. Yes, it did also look like a carrot gone dreadfully wild. That was also what I thought, but it was easier to make up a foolish story about a huge chicken. Oh dear...too much free time here. But to answer your question, it is the reflection of a tree trunk and branches upon the calm water’s surface under a foot bridge. It was a late afternoon sun through orangy-red sky shining on the trunk. Obviously the image appeared to be inverted. The whole idea of posting that pic was to make folks think what it could possibly be, not the silly story.
The Great Rooster claw is easily identified. Now, your amazing lottie shed, what a marvelous place to flee to should anything terrible happen. Take food such as dried fruit, nuts, as you and your bride pull the door shut, make sure there vines attached well to assure the hideout is camouflaged. The enemy would be none the wiser. (My next novel will be in stores soon. )
I would promise you the first copy, but do not hold your breath as my fiction is only in brief spurts.
