Goodbye August

 This evening's sunset over the ancient burial mound on Goonhilly .

Ricardo's Undercover Autumn Dwarf French Bean Experiment

 On the 21 August my husband decided to try an experiment of growing Dwarf French Beans in the shed over Autumn and he did actually sow them himself  !

He sowed half a tray and they came up very quickly and I then sowed the other half of the tray and added more compost over his ones that didn't have enough compost over them .

           29 August -  all popping up !

They have all germinated and it was time to prick them out and pot them on .

I put them into 3 1/2 " pots .

Multi-purpose compost with some perlite mixed in .

I pricked them out very carefully , even the beans that were just beginning to germinate , because even those , already had quite long roots .

........ I watered them all in and ......put back my husband's little label  🙄 .

I them immediately pricked out and potted up my lettuce seedlings into the now empty module tray that the beans had grown in . 

The Dwarf French Beans will be going into the greenhouse so they can have more warmth and light .

The lettuces prefer to be cold so will be grown on in the shed .

 I pulled down the foil sheet to give them more light .

By the way , there was no romantic sun-rising through the morning mist this morning .Very overcast .

It is warm but cooler thank goodness . 

Not needing a jumper or jacket on though and still wearing my sandals .

This is not a tutorial and I have no idea if growing Dwarf French  Beans over Autumn is  a good idea .

I just wanted to record the experiment here .

So meanwhile , I have also cleared out all the exhausted and fading Tomato plants . leaving just a few Sweet Peppers and a couple of struggling but still producing Cucumber plants .

The last bunch of tomatoes !

I'm not mad about Peppers ....

Peppers are not mad about me ! Husband wants me to pick these just as they are beginning to turn red and then slice them up and get them into the freezer .

One struggling Cucumber with two small fruits on..not sure if they are going to make it ? 

These extra tough black plastic growing pot bags worked well for me and I can keep re-using them .

I am going to let them dry out a bit before I go to lift them out . The spent compost will be spread over the African key-hole bed after I have harvested the Butternut squashes . 

So now I can see all my cactus and succulent friends once more !

I think next year I will move all the cacti up to the other end of the greenhouse so that I can reach to tend to the Tomato plants more easily .

It will be interesting to see how the Dwarf French Beans do in the greenhouse over Autumn / Fall .

 

First Autumnal Morning

Sun-rising through the warm morning mist . 6.29 am this morning .

For the first time this year , it feels quite Autumnal .

Heavy dew on the grass . . . which is fast reviving it after the heat-wave .

Spidery-bidery whispety silky woven webs sparkling in the dew .

Courgette's still producing , but slowing down now .

Mist in the meadow bringing me ......

               ...magical misty Sun-rises . 

                                          I love , love , love early Autumn best of all !

Today I think I will clear away all the remaining tomato and cucumber plants in the greenhouse .

I'll just leave the Sweet Peppers to ripen up .

      I'm thinking ...maybe .... apple pie , apple crumble , chutney , relish ..... apple cake ! 

So where am I taking you today ?

 

I am so excited ! I packed up a picnic and we are going over to Stithians Reservoir to see the Neolithic / Early Bronze Age Cup Marked Boulders . 

I also wanted to share with you and show you the effect of the recent severe heat-wave and drought . 

    Stithians Reservoir this morning .

 There is water at the far end , and we saw some small boats setting sail .

At this end it has almost completely dried up .

A tragedy for the wildlife and the reason we must respect the hose-pipe bans and be mindful in the use of water .

Now lets go on and take the opportunity to see the remains of medieval buildings,Cornish hedges , pathways, possibly bridges and tracks .  There is a huge circle made of stones ,you can see some of it in this picture and more of it in the picture above . I don't  know this circle's story and I am not sure if it is an ancient circle or one that modern hands  have made . It must have taken a lot of work though , anyway .  I love it .

It is so beautiful here and the weather this morning perfect for our walk .

We had no idea where the boulders with the Cup marks were and I had a feeling that they would be up the other end of the reservoir , knowing my luck !

We continued on and I am so glad I remembered to bring my camera .

Then I spotted them ! 

I have no words to describe how I'm feeling here ,  reaching back into the past and touching the hands of our ancestors . 

Ritual , map , star constellations , sharpening tools , a  divination method for predicting the future or asking questions  , a game , egg cups , little oil lamps . What do you think ?

Could this be a stylized stag's head with antlers ?  A snake coiling around ? Are we looking at it upside down ? 

Oh ! I think I know what this might be !  

I am putting these photos on so that people who can't get here can enjoy , study , wonder and theorize about them .

I'd love to hear your ideas .

       Look , there's another faint cup in the middle .

I found some mint growing in the shade of a large boulder  . 

Remains of ancient Cornish Hedges .

Old track way and a little stone bridge .

We saw Kestrel , Buzzards , Cormorants and Sea Gulls . Couldn't get any closer . Didn't want to risk sinking into that deep slippery mud and I believe someone had to be rescued from the mud just the other day ! 

Then we enjoyed our picnic .

                   ....and then we drove the wrong way home  .....the longer route !

......but that's okay as we got to see a bit more of Cornwall's history ....

 .......but we'll go explore the Cornish tin mine engine house another day . ( might be Copper )

Hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday Weekend and hope the weather is being kind .