Under normal circumstances I would probably have posted this blog on Friday. This in line with my new policy of only writing one main blog on a Tuesday. This one under the new normal would not have qualified for a Tuesday. But then these are not normal times. As I suggested in my last blog,…
Category: Vineyard
Vineyard 52 : And more about the netting
Right now I’m not sure which is the most annoying, the birds eating our grapes or the problems we’ve had trying to get the bloody netting over the crop to keep them off. I confess there have been times these last two weeks when I’ve been tempted to say go ahead, eat the bloody grapes…
Vineyard 51 : Netting or no netting?
So much has happened since my last vineyard blog it’s hard to know where to begin this one. I think I will start with one of my 70th birthday presents. It is a lovely little book bought by number one son. He bought it on-line from OZ, him not the book. The book itself was…
Vineyard 50 : some cause for celebration?
My fiftieth vineyard blog, now that’s something to celebrate and the weather seems to agree. I can’t quite remember a protracted period of hot weather like this at this time of year since we started with the vineyard. The vines, pruned or otherwise, look incredibly healthy and now, just over the last week, the buds…
Vineyard 49: Maybe things aren’t so bad
I read in this weekend’s papers that it has been the warmest / sunniest May since records began. Precisely the kind of ‘improving’ (a matter of some opinion I guess) weather pattern (the one before the world comes to an end with over-heating) we had been expecting when we decided we would, as one of…
Vineyard 48 : A very slow start to the year
This may be the longest gap between blogs in the four or five years I’ve been writing about our vineyard. The last one was posted in November. Gosh how time flies. There are two main reasons for this gap. The first, and most obvious, one is that these have been the winter months and for…
Vineyard 47 : A few loose ends
It’s about the time to provide fans of all things viticultural with an update on our Trapping Hill vineyard. A month ago I was bemoaning the lack of grapes courtesy of our feathered ‘friends’. Well I took what we had and made our wine. Too soon to judge the results of course. Shortly after picking…
Retirement and Rondo
Don’t be puzzled by the title, it’s not some form of dance specifically for retired people. It’s Mrs Summerhouse polychromos pencil on paper version of the red Rondo leaf that I wrote about in our last vineyard blog. Whatever conclusions might be arrived at about the health of the vine, there’s no denying it makes for a…
Vineyard 46 : So much happening
Yep, so much going off, some bad and some not so good, that it’s hard to know where to start. I will start at the local level, get the not so good news out of the way. There’s good and bad news in the not so good news department. The bad news is that the…
Vineyard 45 : A welcome visitor, I think
It’s fame Jim, but not as we know it. As an owner of a vineyard, the most Northerly, non-commercial vineyard in England, we think, there are a number of possible routes to fame. We have taken one but before we go any further let me tell you that it isn’t for making an award-winning wine, sadly….