Storm damage

We spent a few days in England recently, family visit, swapping of Christmas presents, etc.   We took the ferry over on Friday afternoon and the storm arrived the next day.  The ferries were cancelled over the weekend, but the one we booked back was the first one to run once the storm had passed, on the Monday night.   

There was no major damage to anything at home, but one of the Garria that had be trained up the wall of the grange had been flattened, as in horizontal, and another had become disengaged from the wall, and was leaning over the path.   I was surprised; fixings had been pulled from the wall, steel eyes that had been holding wire supports had been bent.   I'm using new fixings, chemical (resin) wall plugs and stronger steel eyes.

I had to hard prune the flattened one (the near one in the picture), in order to get it back against the wall, and so I had to do the same with the other two plants so it doesn't all look lop-sided.  Nearly finished.  Next job - shredding the removed wood.

Nailed it

I got a nailer for Christmas, and a very fine nailer it is too.

Got some extra nails too, they come in packets of a few thousand.   So I'm thinking that that's enough to see me out.   Then I'm thinking that that thought comes a bit more frequently these days;  something to do with age I think.  I'm not sure if I'm being positive or negative.

Figs

A few years ago I managed, after several false starts, to get a fig tree to grow from a cutting given to me by my musical friend Sandrine.  It is beside a South-West-facing wall that backs on to a shed that backs on to the boiler room.  It is probably the warmest spot in the garden in Winter.  I took 8 cuttings from that tree this Autumn when I trimmed it back a bit.

Meanwhile, some cuttings I took last year have grown and I have planted them out.   The warm spot by the wall being occupied, I have had to find somewhere else for them.   I have put them beside a low South-West-facing wall, and made little dry-stone shelters for them that I hope will keep the worst of the cold off while allowing them to get some sun.   They have a hay mulch for extra protection.   Fingers crossed.

I have had good crops from the one mature tree, but it's clear that figs go off very quickly.   So I'm wondering how they preserved figs to make figgy pudding (that we all like) at Christmas.   Did they dry them, or maybe make the pudding in October, or what?   For my part, this year I made fig wine.