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                         a   S T A M M E R  project              

2011 January 15 to 26

With temperatures down to -8ºC in the early mornings, it is quite cold these days. During our absence last weekend the water supply to the garden house (not to the shower in the greenhouse) froze stuck. As temperatures hardly passed 0º during the day, i elt took several days to unfreeze.
The ponds can now be walked on and there are some interesting things happening in and on the ice.

In the image on the right two different patterns can be seen. The round shapes in the ice correspond clearly to the stones below and will have been formed in some way by the higher temperatures of the stone compared with the water. More enigmatic are the 'writings' in the ice, but I suspect that they are the work of the Backswimmers (Notonecta) which I had seen active in previous weeks. Compare the patterns from this image of 14 January 2010.

Usually leaves which fall on the ice capture the sun rays, warm up and slowly melt and sink down into the ice. But I observed a Portuguese oak leaf, in a shady area, which went the opposite direction. It is being lifted up by the growing of numerous tiny icicles, probably during several days of continuous frost.

The macro-alga (Chara) in the upper pond seems to continue producing quite some oxygen in mid-winter.

Devoid of almost any aquatic plant life, the lower pond is an ideal place to observe the dynamics of the ice layer, here about 5 cm thick.
26 Jan 12:25

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The inside climate also gets somewhat severer of course. In the early morning, when the outside temperature gets below -5ºC, inside the temperature is around 15º. We have used about half our fire wood stock and this will probably get us through the winter. In the greenhouse the temperature might drop one or two degrees below zero in the morning and soars to about 15º on a sunny day.

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The food supply from the vegetable garden is almost limited to kale, which is behaving wonderfully. It's a mystery, if not a shame, that this valuable winter vegetable is practically unknown in Spain. Among the seven plants, there are two which are surviving their second winter and are still productive.

We have stopped feeding sunflower seed to the birds: they managed to consume one packet of 'pipas' a day. In stead we make our own mixture of animal fat, seeds and nuts. It lasts a lot longer and attracts tits, chaffinches and the occasional Red robin or Greenfinch.

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We were in a bad need for good outdoor furniture and I decided to pick up an idea from the recommendable English magazine Permaculture  (summer 2010 issue) and make an Adirondack outdoor chair out of salvaged pallets.
Three pallets, many 35mm screws and some wood glue sufficed to put a chair together in less than two days. It is sturdy and elegant, only the arms are perhaps a bit high, but some cushions might compensate for this. The next chair (and probably a bank) will have some lower arms though.

In stead of giving dimensions and design details, I think three photographs will be sufficient to get the idea and make one yourself.

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In the rock corner the leaves of the oak trees have covered the area. Also remarkable is the alteration of the soil by the frost. Typical for recently moved and bare soil is this upheaval and granulation of the upper soil layer by the continuous process of freezing and thawing.

Also some rocks suffer this kind of erosion, when some parts of the stone are more poriferous  and absorb water which freezes up and expands.

Moss keeps green and active in winter and draws attention especially on stone.

Crumbling rock.
21 Jan 9:52

An older part of the rock corner, with Sempervivum tectorum and flowering moss.
Looking north.
21 Jan 9:48

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I thought that cement blocks were very unwilling to form a substrate for mosses or lichens but on the 'monument' I built in honour of LeRoys' Ecocathedral (and to house some expelled bats) moss has started to grow on these blocks, in the permanent shade of the north side.

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The flora in the zone offered two nice surprises, also surprisingly similar in character: I discovered two new spontaneous species, both evergreen, and both species I had tried to introduce before by sowing and planting with poor success. 

They are Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry) and Viburnum tinus. Both species are not too uncommon in the surrounding region.

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Stray cats come and go. Recently we have regular visits of two black cats, the one even more shyer than the other.

introduction
floristic catalogue
faunistic catalogue
contact
index
gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
map
>> 2011 Feb 5
<< 2010 Nov 29