A quiet Sunday

Even though it is overcast today, and it's only around 13 degrees outside, still I am sitting in the garden at the little teak dining table, and writing this blog.  We have had great weather since my last post on Wednesday, and for the first time in a month we had quite a good accumulation of rain yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, extending into the early afternoon.

I took advantage of the dry weather on Friday to get my six "Three Sisters" hills cultivated, and planted five pockets of three corn seeds each in each hill.  The seed packet suggests that after the plants sprout I should thin them out, keeping only the strongest of the three seeds in each pocket.  Once the corn plants are established and about 10-15 cm tall, then I can plant the second and third "sisters": the climbing beans and a few butternut squash plants.

garden inspector Clyde (with the six "three sisters" hills at left)

In case you haven't heard of the three sisters method, it was developed prior to the arrival of the Europeans by various indigenous peoples, including those of the Iroquois Confederacy, or as they describe themselves, the Haudenosaunee: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora peoples.  The science behind planting in this way is pretty clever: the corn needs a lot of nitrogen from the soil; the beans fix nitrogen from the air, and need a climbing trellis, which the corn stalks provide.  The squash spreads rapidly over the soil, and the large leaves retain humidity in the roots of the corn and beans while preventing the growth of weeds.  I might plant a fourth sister: some sunflowers, which also provide a trellis for the beans, and also some nice colour in the garden.  As a "transplanted" Canadian from the Great Lakes basin where the Haudenosaunee used to farm, it is an attractive experiment for me to see if this little homegrown technique will work out.

snowpeas / mangetout with rhubarb behind

On the other side of the garden my snow peas are all sprouting like mad, as are the beets, and some of the onions, and the marigolds.  The carrots are a little slow to sprout, but there are some signs that they are coming up.  We have started cucumber and zucchini seeds that will need to be transplanted soon, and given that they have a tendency to spread out over large areas I will have to build some trellises so that they grow vertically instead, to save some space.  The good news is that I have some material here to build trellises, but if I need more, the DIY and garden centres have just reopened yesterday, and so I will be able to get more supplies.

The chickens are doing pretty well, and after our first egg on Easter Monday we've had one almost every day since.  So far we think it's just the one brown chicken who is laying: the white Sussex chickens produce an egg with a lovely pale beige shell, so I know it's not one of them.  Certainly they are getting lots of grain to eat, and they are spending all day outside of the coop in the main part of the garden, scratching for worms and bugs.  Based on last year's experience, having lots of worms and woodlice to eat encourages the hens to make more and larger eggs.  They are loving the fact that we've been cultivating the soil near the fences to try to keep the weeds down, so they are spending lots of time taking dust baths and sleeping on the warm earth.

The Belgian government made some recommendations on Wednesday afternoon that the basic conditions of confinement will be extended, so that we should continue to avoid unnecessary travel and stay home instead, leaving the house only for essential supplies, unavoidable travel for work, and for exercise.  The confinement rules will be reviewed again on May 3rd, and there is some small chance that school might resume the 4th, 11th, or 18th of May; the same dates are being considered for reopening cafes, shops and other businesses.  Meanwhile, in situations where maintaining social distance is not possible they are recommending that people wear masks, so Maggie and Duncan finally broke down and decided to sew some simple fabric masks for us to wear if necessary.  Here we are doing a little fashion show... Duncan's mask is made from some fabric left-over from the wedding quilt that Maggie sewed, so it was probably purchased from 1997 or so.  Mine is a piece of fabric that Maggie bought at a quilting fair here in Europe, and is maybe five years old, lined with the offcuts from a NYE party dress that she made a couple of years ago.  Very comfortable.

Usually I am the one in the family who goes out to do the food shopping, and I've noticed that maybe 60% of the shoppers at the grocery are masked, although the security guards and the checkout tellers and shelf restockers aren't.  I haven't heard anyone sneeze or cough while in the grocery, and people are pretty good about maintaining a safe distance, so I'm not too worried.

They wipe down the shopping cart handles with disinfectant after each customer, but I am a little concerned about the fact that they don't do the same with the PIN-pad of the card readers at the cash, but I've taken to keeping my customer loyalty and bank card loose in one pocket so I can get at them with one hand, and the moment that I get home from shopping (it's only 70 metres away from our house) I wash my hands, the keys, and the bank card immediately.  Soap and water and keeping a good distance are still the best ways to slow down the spread of this bug, and these measure are having a positive effect.

Here are some more photos of the plants that are flowering in the garden...

lilacs

more lilacs

apple tree

currants already forming

blueberry bushes

We have rebuilt the chicken coop, built two composters, cultivated around 30 square metres of garden plot, pruned the apple tree, and staked out the fruit bushes...  With all the digging and planting, and with the chickens, two cats, and dog running around, I am sure that the neighbours think that they are living next to a farm.

Chacun sont gout... 

The bread-making adventures continue; I have experimented with adding sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese and oregano to my sourdough loaves most recently, and it's working out very well.  The Moulin de Bierges store where I buy the chicken feed, brewing supplies, seeds, and garden tools, and freshly ground flour has those little french proofing baskets so I think I will buy a couple of those on Monday, just to see if I can get a higher rise to the dough during the last rise before baking.  As well I want to buy some rye flour and maybe some other varieties to change it up a bit.  I have acquired a rye starter as well, so want to try sourdough rye... but then I will need to find a good brisket recipe, because Reuben sandwiches can't be far behind.

Malcolm sent me some photographs of the Gibson L5... it's really coming along now and he's ready to close up the "box" of the body.  Here are some photos:

unshaped x-braces applied to the inside of the guitar top

  

spool clamps used to fix the top to the walnut sides

spool clamping completed

shaving down the x-bracing

signing the inside of the "Z5"

Maggie returns to school tomorrow with meetings and a planning/preparation day, and then starts her classes with students on Tuesday.  She's been a bit blue about the necessity of having to continue teaching remotely but she's figuring it out.  And for my part I expect that I will have a return of some more of my singing students... I have perhaps four whom I expect will be interested in having a lesson this week, and I am looking forward to teaching them again...

I hope that everyone is keeping safe and healthy; Happy Sunday to you all!