Flood!

After  a night's (usual) heavy rain, this morning we had about an hour of torrential downpour - complete with hailstones.

The drains on the road, which had been reasonably OK coping with the heavier than average downpours this year  gave up the ghost, and we were inundated, with some never-before-seen-sights in our new garden:

off the fields and on to the road

at our gate - the drain just can't take it

and in!

down into the garden

and on down the yard

in through the front gate....

the side gate ...

and over the front step

down to the garden

we have a lake!

and in the 'vegetable' garden

paddy fields!

here there are newly planted cauliflowers - it said keep them well watered!

a new water feature beside the green beans - there's rhubarb there somewhere

our placid little river

now a raging torrent

 Meanwhile back in the house:

Furby surveys the front garden/river

the kitchen is awash

thank goodness for wellies

the Turnip House Courtyard

still, at least all our new works are nice and dry

a touch of Venice! not that bad!

A Year Ago Today

Another in our occasional series showing how things have moved on at the Turnip house.

October 8th 2011, the 'Gallery' - A roofless shell that had once been a cow byre

10th October 2012 - Our new home - a delight!

only the window opening gives a clue!

October: Sunshine & Colour

It's less than two years since we started on the garden  and yesterday evening  perfect for a stroll around our creation, taking in the vibrant colours

our birch trees - now as tall as us, leaves turning

Gladioli at the gallery door - past their best, but still great

violas - thanks to Julie, container - thanks to Caroline and Paul!

wild sage, a present from Mary & Daniel

the cherry tree

purples

bronze fennel in the Turnip House Courtyard

a glimpse of pink hollyhock

solitary sunflower; last of a great vintage

agyranthemum - still giving a fantastic display

fuchsia on the lawn - and chickens

Tom's Stone

Day Lily - only just flowered

orange crocosmiae

Sweet peas. All summer these have kept us in table decoration for the gallery

brilliant hawthorn berries in the hedge

our first cabbages coming on 

fantastic array of green beans, but alas we fear too late to ripen before the winter

out favourite fuchsia

looking out from the gallery

sunflowers

Weather Statistics for September 2012

I've uploaded September weather data - 

extremes this month:

•  0.6º C on 22nd night,
• 21.1ºC on 3rd day

Not a bad month - as often ,better that much of the summer!

Met Éireann says of the month:

Upload their report here:

Storm Battered

As I sit watching and listening to the wind and the rain outside ( not really wanting to get started out there this morning!) I looked at the blog for this day last year:

This is the picture in large format

September 2011

So I looked at the Nasa site:

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Smallest Extent In Satellite Era

and the latest map:

Sea ice extent maps are derived from data captured by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer aboard NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager on multiple satellites from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

As the US NSICD director said:


“We are now in uncharted territory,” said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze. “While we’ve long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur.”

And today's headlines only seem to bear this out:

Wet weather sweeps across UK

Three die as warnings issued of fiercer winds and the chance of flooding in 88 areas of the south-west, midlands and north-east

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/24/wet-weather-sweeps-across-uk

'Planetary emergency' due to Arctic melt, experts warn

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jKKr0IRUKbR6Se7mFZu_qfcFWZTw

Rescued!

We picked up our six chickens from the nut house last night - we were only going to get five, but on hearing that they had just rescued 210 rather than the 150 they were planning on getting, we (rather feebly) took another one. 

If all works out OK, we'll get some more!

We were genuinely shocked by the state of the poor things, they were supposedly 'free range' hens, but they are in an awful state. 

We've had rescued battery hens before that were in far better condition than these.

Today was there first outing at the Turnip House:

bald and scrawny - not equipped for a brisk windy day

in very poor condition

this one is almost bald

the fan is totally flopped - a tell tale sign of stress and bad condition

meet the Cockerel - look at the difference in size!

Charlie getting acquainted 

 Still, despite their poor condition, and traumatic 24 hours being shifted about, we got 4 eggs form them - better than our own mollycoddled flock! 

We will be posting more pictures in the coming weeks, hopefully showing great improvement

September Frost

Last night was the coldest since last winter, with temperatures dropping to 0.6 degrees C at 05:23 this morning, but rising to the dizzying heights of 13.7 by 9:38, hotter than some of our July days!

Still, it was a great night for viewing the space debris

Temperatures in Benraw, the night of 21/22 September 2012

You can download our monthly weather data as XL files from our website

Clouds

Wild winds and September skies brought some great cloud formations today, along with a distant Red Kite and it's crow tormentors

Fresh From the Turnip House

Bootees

Long Long ago when John was but a wee thing, his Mother knitted him bootees. 

knitted confection  perfection

The pattern had been in the family for ages (and so, amazingly, is even older than John!) 

Elaine has taken up the baton and has for years been making them for new arrivals near and far.

Now you have the chance to get some yourselves

All hand knitted, at The Turnip House, by Elaine

Price £15.00 

Sizes and colours to your specification.

Simply email Elaine to get some! 

good enough to eat

The Peacock

It's almost September and we've seen our first Peacock Butterfly of the Summer!

We've noticed a marked decline in butterfly numbers up here compared to last summer, The Guardian says:

The summer of 2012 may become the worst year for butterflies since records began in 1976. If butterfly sightings are lower than the sodden summer of 2007 it would suggest there are fewer butterflies than ever in the British Isles, as numbers have been in steady decline since the 1970s.

And the BBC:

The British butterfly population is continuing a marked downward trend.

This is according to a national survey  which revealed that numbers of the insects fell by more than 20% between 2010 and 2011.

We had give up hope of seeing this sight this summer, so that at least is a reason to be cheerful this morning: