April 2021 - Progress!
The first buds on the vines have just burst open! The little buds have just one chance to develop, if they get frosted at this stage, they won’t grow and any subsequent 'secondary' buds won't have time to develop, flower and fruit in our climate. You can get slightly obsessed looking at these little buds, but keeping a record of bud burst year on year gives us a good idea if we are earlier or later than other years and helpfully gives us an indication of when to expect the flowers to form.
We were patiently awaiting the arrival of the concrete for the slab on which the Winery will sit... and with a ‘hot off the press’ moment we can confirm that it went down today! Fingers crossed that the local wildlife don't walk over it tonight…
March 2021 - Running water AND a digger!
After the excitement of finding the water there was the small issue of getting up to ground level. We have installed a pipe into the bore hole that will allow us to pump water up to the Winery. We've sent some of this off for testing and this will confirm what sort of filtering is required and that the water is safe to drink!
The digger arrived much to the enjoyment of the 'Vineyard Supervisor'! The builder has been digging down to make the foundations of the Winery. It's amazing / shocking to see how thin the layer of top soil is before reaching the shale layer underneath, a reminder of how fragile our planet is. However, it seems to be perfect for the vines!
February 2021 - Project 'Winery' Begins!
We are thrilled that our planning conditions have been fully discharged and we can get on with the important job of building our Winery on the Vineyard. The first job was drill down deep and find water! Can you believe it, we have never had running water on site, only the stuff that comes out of the sky! So we needed a bore hole, not sure why, after all we are going to have plenty of wine to drink... The water was found using the art of divining. Not only could they tell where there was water, they knew how far down it was and how fast it was flowing, impressive. Many thanks Trevor and Co. at Cox Plant Water Borehole Drilling from Barnstaple.
Divining rods can be made of many things but are traditionally hazel twigs, these are held in a certain way by the diviner while walking over the site. The presence of water is indicated by the spontaneous movement of the rods.
Water divining is a fascinating and extremely useful art!
December 2020 - Festive Wreath Making!
We all had a great time making a festive wreath and appreciating the wonderful foliage that is abundant at this time of year! Same time next year? Hopefully without face masks...
