We have hit our ninth day in a row with a severe storm warning!!  Typically the day starts out with pretty humid conditions and fog through the valley.  That transitions into sunshine which burns off the fog and bumps the temperature up into the nineties!  Like clockwork all this energy comes together to produce a whole lot of potential energy which is released as thunderstorms and heavy rain.  I’ve been working outside and in the forest a lot, but generally have to head inside to the cool of air conditioning after lunch.  This has been good for the weaving – I have completed another 12 inches of the scarf.

It’s progressing pretty well and I have the pattern repeat down pat so now the only thing to concentrate on is keeping the beat consistent and the selvedges neat.  Neither are quite perfect, but are getting better and the good news is I haven’t broken any warp/selvedge threads since the two mentioned previously.

My forest work has been fairly focussed in the last 36 hours as we have lost two oaks.  One (in photo’s below) was dead when we moved in so we were not too surprised when it came down.  Luckily it didn’t take out any other larger trees. Unluckily it fell across our main path into the forest!!  Just in the branches alone we will have a nice stack of firewood for the hot tub and the bonus is it is ready to burn straight away.  The other tree was at the front of the property and fell down across the valley access road!  It had been leaning across the road since we moved in.  Unfortunately the daily rain (an inch plus most often) has saturated that lower part of the property and it just gave way.  The council was quick to clear the road and some neighbors who helped clean up, took away some firewood as did we.  We have saved twenty plus feet of trunk that I will have milled and store away to season/age.

The other work has been a daily blackberry pick.  Just from our front yard bushes alone we are getting over a pound a day.  We are freezing them in pound lots until all the picking is done (another week perhaps).  It has been a bumper crop this year, better than any other year and perhaps makes up for the abysmal tomato crops we’ve had.  I was speaking to our neighbor yesterday – he’s a wonderful gardener – and he confirmed that this is the worst year he has had for ‘maters’.  As he has lived here all his life that at least makes us feel a little better.  Oddly, the chillis we have are all doing really well.  From banana peppers right up to ghost peppers.