Well Storm Claudia (named by the Spanish Met Office, so pronounced cloudier, which I found amusing) has departed after depositing the best part of a couple of inches of rain on us, though one regular at the market yesterday was bragging about measuring 65mm in her gauge, but she does tell fishermen’s tales sometimes, so I remain a little sceptical. She reads this, so I am expecting a backlash, she’s a diminutive and fiery customer, supports the Welsh rugby team passionately even though she’s English. Need I say more? Whatever, it was a good old soaking, and a day of the kind we have not seen for a very long time.

In the coming week the north wind is going to blow and temperatures are set to plummet, giving us the first taste of winter, because thus far it has been a very mild autumn. On Thursday, just before Claudia arrived it was a lovely warm sunny day – very much the calm before the storm, but by nightfall it got cloudier as Claudia (pronounced cloudier) made her presence felt. Well from tomorrow it’s single digit daytime values, and freezing overnight, and by midweek only around 5º, and with the wind chill it will feel like -2º, quite a shock to the system. So I advise you to protect any tender plants that you may have. I will be putting my Agapanthus under the staging in the greenhouse to overwinter, and tomorrow I will be taking the lemons, orange, olive and Loquat trees into the big greenhouse to shelter them from the worst of what is to come. The good news is that I will be able to save some money on electricity, because the potting shed will be freezing cold, so I won’t need to have all of the fridges on – every cloud and all that, but to counter that I will be dressed like Scott of the Antarctic as I prepare the veg boxes.

Before the cloudier (pronounced Claudia) weather arrived I did some field work with my spring tined cultivator, mainly to provide aeration and prevent compaction of the soil. it also helps to deal with some of the perennial weeds that plague me. On my heavy clay land timing is all important, and with the deluge that was forecast I figured that if I didn’t do it then I might not get another opportunity before spring. I will keep off the soil as much as possible, aside from harvesting, for the winter. All of the greenhouse beds are cleared now, the last 2 were sorted last week and will have spinach planted in them. The rocket that I sowed the previous week has already germinated in distinct lines, and in the polytunnel I have been hoeing off a fuzz of self sown dill seedlings that has appeared amongst the rows of chard and kale plants. I allowed the dill to flower so that I could save some seed, but clearly there were tens of thousands of seeds that I didn’t gather that fell to the ground and have germinated in the relatively warm moist soil.

In the shop this week you will find cauliflowers, red curly kale, Brussels sprouts and Savoy cabbages. There are regular and multi-coloured carrots, beetroot, swede, various squash, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions and sweet potatoes. There are mushrooms, and what could be the last week of the Isle of Wight baby plum tomatoes. Potatoes are the good for boiling waxy Acoustic, and good old floury Cara that make good roast or baked spuds, and mash of course. Apples this week are Spartan. The oranges and lemons will be coming from Gospa Citrus, a family farm run by Amadora Gahona and her son José, the 3rd and 4th generations of the family to grow citrus in groves located just outside Seville in Spain. There will also be Avocados.

I dashed back from the market yesterday, unloaded the van, did a few necessary chores and then hightailed it to the pub to watch England beat the All Blacks at Twickenham, and very enjoyable it was too. Later in the week, Thursday to be precise, is the start of The Ashes in Australia which will keep me within earshot of a radio during the hours of play. However, because of the time difference it will not distract me from my labours for very long, with play probably finishing by 10am. I just hope that the England team doesn’t get a drubbing like they have on recent tours down under.

I expect that they have been back for a while, but today was the first tie that I saw Fieldfares in large numbers. Dozens of them flew over this morning, always a welcome sight.

Right I’m away to light the fire so I will bid you farewell. Keep warm in the week ahead. Next week remind me to tell you about Christmas arrangements.

All the best

Phil