November 2017 October
Wednesday 1st
6 to 13 to 6°C. 1.72kWh 300W max. A cloudy day feeling milder because there was very little wind. Cleared in the evening with a nearly full moon and stars, clear enough to see the Milky Way.
Moved more of the tulips, hyacinths and narcissus into new potting soil.
Thursday 2nd
4 to 12 to 7°C. 1.27kWh 500W max. Very similar to yesterday, clear during the night and cloudy during the day.
Ordered the seed potatoes and onion sets for next year. They will arrive towards the end of January; something to look forward to.
Friday 3rd
8 to 12 to 10°C. 1.12kWh 250W max. Another grey day. Started raining in the evening.
Finished moving the bulbs into fresh pots so back to repotting the rest of the onions.
Saturday 4th
9 to 10 to 4°C. 1.99kWh 600W max. Intermittent rain showers most of the night and morning, clearing in the afternoon to a cold evening lit by a full moon.
Painted the two long walls of the front bedroom with two coats of pale pink silk emulsion.
Sunday 5th
2 to 8 to 3°C. 876Wh 1.3kW max. Dark clouds and wet apart from a short sunny period just before noon.
Monday 6th
-1 to 9 to 8°C. 4.86kWh 1.4kW max. Cold sunny start, clouding over in the afternoon.
A good day to split some logs.
Tuesday 7th
10 to 7 to 1°C. A very dull and rainy day. Cleared in the evening so it could be slippery by the morning.
Painted the skirting boards and other woodwork in the front bedroom.
Wednesday 8th
0 to 9 to 4°C. 4.52kWh 1.4kW max. Cloudy frosty start but soon cleared to a mainly sunny day with very little wind so feeling warmer than of late.
Filled up the bird feeders with sunflower seed and peanuts. No birds have turned up yet so they either haven't noticed or they are still finding lots of food elsewhere.
Used the chainsaw to cut up some of the thicker logs.
Thursday 9th
8 to 13 to 4°C. 1.75kWh 1.2kW max. Promising start with some sunshine in the morning but clouded over and became colder and windier by lunchtime.
Moved some more of the onions into larger pots.
Friday 10th
9 to 10 to 6°C. 3.67kWh 1.3kW max. A mainly sunny day but with a very cold wind.
I needed my padded jacket to work even in the polytunnel as I finished potting on the overwintering onions. Then we started to clear out the polytunnel, starting with the squashes.
Saturday 11th
6 to 9 to 4°C. 1.13kWh 200W max. Some rain overnight and into the morning. Cleared by the afternoon but still with cold and damp.
Spent most of the day moving the carpet, furniture and their contents back from the back bedroom to the front bedroom and then the contents of the back bedroom into the front bedroom. We managed to move the bed but the two larger pieces of furniture were too big so they will have to stay there and I will have to work round them when I decorate. Hopefully we will be able to move the carpet from under them.
Sunday 12th
3 to 7 to 1°C. 3.25kWh 1.3kW max. Rained overnight, clearing mid-morning to mainly sunny with a few short showers. Feeling cold in the strong wind. A very clear night means it will probably be frosty by the morning.
Decided it was time to move the pots of begonias, dahlias and freesias into the polytunnel to die back without exposure to a hard frost. The temperature in the polytunnel even with the sun shining in was still only 9°C.
Monday 13th
-1 to 4 to 6°C. 990Wh 150W max. Cold frosty start slowly warming up as the day progressed.
Painted the ceiling of the back bedroom. Pat made some squash and cayenne pepper soup as an experiment, using the whole of the cayenne fruit, including the seeds; it was very spicy and delicious!
Tuesday 14th
7 to 13 to 10°C. 2kWh 900W max. A mainly cloudy and warmer day with a few occasional spots of drizzle.
Despite the better weather I continued to paint the back bedroom. There isn't anything urgent to do outside and the sooner we get everything back in place upstairs the better.
Wednesday 15th
8 to 10 to 8°C. 858Wh 150W max. Cloudy,mild and damp.
Pat went shopping. I continued painting.
Thursday 16th
7 to 13 to 1°C. 898Wh 400W max. Damp windy morning followed by a sunny quiet afternoon and clear skies in the evening.
Spotted a fieldfare this afternoon, probably a scout for a large flock looking for fallen apples of which we have a large number this year even though we picked 4 crates of Bramleys and a similar amount of eating apples. They don't usually turn up till late December; maybe the weather in Scandinavia is colder than usual? The local blackbirds and thrushes will not be happy when these immigrants turn up eating their food.
Friday 17th
-2 to 7 to 3°C. 2.2kWh 1.2kW max. Cold frosty start with some sunshine in the morning. Clouded over by midday but then cleared again in the evening.
Saturday 18th
2 to 8 to 6°C. 999Wh 120W max. A cloudy day with very little breeze.
Moved the chrysanthemum pots back into the nursery from the beds in front of the house and started replacing them with winter|spring bedding of wallflowers and sweet william. The chrysanthemums have not been a success this year. I was late starting them because of my hernia operation and most of the plants are more than two years old; usually most of them are new cuttings from either the current or the previous year. Even so they looked OK when they started to bud in late September but then came the dull damp weather in October and damp days and frosty nights in November finished them off with no undamaged flowers on any of the plants. They have got a lot of new growth on them because of this mild damp weather so when this dies back over winter and reappears in Spring I will be able to take lots of cuttings and get rid of all the older plants.
I have finished painting the back bedroom. So now we have to move all the furniture back into the two rooms, taking the opportunity to get rid of a lot of stuff in the cupboards and drawers which we no longer need, including lots of old school text and work books, obsolete electronic and computing equipment.
Sunday 19th
3 to 7 to 6°C. 1.54kWh 600W max. A mainly cloudy day with a few brighter, though not sunny, intervals in the afternoon, as it became slightly warmer.
Since it was still and dry I took the opportunity to try and fix the leaky porch roof. This is part of the conservatory we had built around 10 years ago and the polycarbonate roof panel had slipped letting in the wind and rain. I started to take it apart to see if it could be fixed and discovered that at the time it was first built that the panel didn't fit properly and had been sealed and stuck together using polyurethane foam; a good example of bodging? You couldn't see this because of covering plastic trim. This foam had finally broken down allowing the panel to slide. I managed to push it back into place and drilled some holes in the trim so I could firmly screw it together; in my view a much better solution. We will need to wait for some heavy rain to see if I was successful.
I still had some time left to turn the 4th compost heap into the 5th and start on turning the 3rd into the 4th.
Monday 20th
7 to 14 to 12°C. 1.25kWh 300W max. Much milder but still cloudy.
Started pulling up the remains of the summer bedding and cutting down the herbaceous perennials down the drive. We have bought a small electric shredder to deal with the debris straight away rather than stacking it up to go through the big petrol driven chipper and shredder. The problem with doing it this way is it gets soaking wet as it is piled up and then can't be shred till the spring. Putting it through this smaller shredder, which can be moved round the garden, we hope will solve this, leaving the big machine for chipping larger tree and hedge debris. It works reasonably well producing a well chopped up mulch but clogs up with the more leafy plants. However it can be rapidly cleared in a couple of minutes rather than the 15-20 minutes if the large shredder becomes blocked.
Tuesday 21st
13 to 14 to 13°C. 208Wh 30W max. A very dull wet but mild day.
Started moving the furniture and contents back into the two bedrooms I have now finished decorating.
Wednesday 22nd
13 to 15 to 12°C. 285Wh 100W max. Another dull showery day with a very strong warm southerly wind.
Thursday 23rd
4 to 8 to 2°C. 2.28kWh 1.1kW max. Some long sunny intervals but with a very cold wind which eased by the evening to a cold starry night.
Cleared the rest of the herbaceous plant stalks from the the beds on each side of the drive apart from a few rudbeckias at the far end which are still flowering.
Friday 24th
-1 to 6 to 1°C. 3.84kWh 1.2kW max. A very sunny day. feeling warmer than yesterday because the wind was lighter.
A good day for cutting up firewood. Pat also tried out the new shredder for chipping the twigs taken off the logs and branches before I cut them up.
Saturday 25th
-1 to 5 to 1°C. 2.44kWh 1.1kW max. Cold Sunny morning followed by a cloudy afternoon and some showers in the evening.
Finished restoring the furniture and other contents to the two bedrooms I have decorated. There is still some woodwork to finish painting near the doorways
Sunday 26th
1 to 6 to 3 to 7°C. 1.98kWh 600W max. Cold bright start but clouded over in the late afternoon and started to warm up as the evening progressed.
Moved the remaining wallflower pots and the sweet william into the beds at the top of the drive. Depending on the weather these may flower soon or it could be March or even April. At the moment the primulas and pansies I moved earlier have some flowers but not as many as some early winters in the past.
Monday 27th
8 to 5 to 2°C. 822Wh 150W max. Dull and damp with a northerly wind and the temperature falling as the day progressed. Winter seems to have arrived.
Moved the rest of the wildflower mats onto the verge south of the drive. A large vehicle had already chewed up the front of the verge. This happens quite often; the road is not wide enough for a lorry or bus and a tractor and trailer to pass in opposite directions without one of them gettting close to or even off the edge. One of the reasons we bought this house was because it was on a quiet road but the main road between the two nearest towns is now so busy much of the traffic has moved on this road instead.
Tuesday 28th
0 to 4 to -1. 2.66kWh 900W max. Cold frosty start with a northerly wind, sunny morning and cloudy afternoon before clearing to a clear frosty night.
Wednesday 29th
-1 to 4 to -1. 2.66kWh 800W max. Another sunny but windy cold day.
Woke up with asthma during the night and have been unwell all day. Cause unknown.
Thursday 30th
-2 to 3 to 0°C 3.21kWh 900kW max. Cold and sunny with a very cold wind making it feel more like -2 in the afternoon. The chickens were feeling the cold, fluffing up their feathers and alternately standing on one leg and then the other.
Feeling better so started the winter job of digging over the vegetable garden before it freezes, starting with the bed next to the chicken house.
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