Garlic Cleaning Day !!

This year was a splendid garlic growing year. What starts out looking like this:

 

Ends up like this. After about an hour of cleaning this is what you are left with. Forty clean beautiful garlics. Look out family, here they come.

 

 

These are the seed garlic for next year. These are about 3" across. Aren't they perfect.

Cranberry Cotoneaster is now Mature

 

The Cranberry Cotoneaster berries have fully grown and are nice a red now. It has taken years to grow from seed, so this is a real treat. This type of Cotoneaster seems like a very slow growing variety compared to the common type. You can read more about how this treasure came to be.

 

A trip through the crawl space. Treasure number one - Brass Sconces.

So, the other day, my sister Jessica and I were on a mission. We were looking to see if some of her missing treasures were in my crawl space. We couldn't find them. Yet. I did however find a few things that I've wanted to dig out for ages...but it is daunting down there. I shall post pictures as I clean and put out each of the little treasures.

 

These are adorable 14" brass sconces that I used to use all the time. It made dinners very special with the candle light.

Here they are, all washed up and drying.

And here they are hung on the wall. I love a cosy house. This is a good start. Wait until you see the table we brought up.

 

And all lit up. Don't you just love it!! It has been at least two decades since I've had these lit. I love candles. I always light them and let them burn for about twenty minutes when I put out fresh candles. I like the way they look with a bit of wax burned off and with a black wick.

Greenhouse is making great progress. Part 3.

Look, the greenhouse addition has glass and is almost done. There is a strip of metal needed to join the two sections where they meet externally. Then a cross bracing piece must be added near the roof where the framing still exists on the inside where the two greenhouses meet. They have to come out, so the greenhouse needs extra support there.

 

I have started cleaning the old white paint off of three of the glass panes. The whole greenhouse was painted at one point to keep the sun from beating on the orchids. It was a thin layer of paint, but now the very last of it is coming off. I have tennis elbow so it was not an easy job. The other two are behind the guava, so I will need to get the plant out first. I can't do it at that angle.

 

 

The ground is very solid right now, but I would like to see how full of roots the soil is. I don't know whether or not the citrus can go in the ground in there. The suspense is killing me.

 

Honey harvest, rustic style. Thank you Honey Bees.

 

It is honey harvest day. This makes it look quick and easy. Between the squeezing of the bags to wring out every drop of honey and constantly washing honey off hands and, well everywhere, it took all afternoon.

 

 

This is our patented broom handle / Mason Cash bowls / cheese cloth and wood blocks method. This will be our last year doing it this way. While doing the grunt work, we came up with a new method. Not really expensive and MUCH easier. I will share next year.

 

 

The finished product. Isn't it beautiful.