Saturday, June 16, 2018

Dust storms

We have not had it as bad as the people of Rajasthan, who are seriously affected by the dust storms this week. And I am humbled by what they are facing.
Despite the fact that Uttarakhand is across the country from the state, we are seeing the results of those storms. I find this incredible. And that is why the weather tops my Six on Saturday list this week. Take a look
1. Haze. This is what we have been seeing for the last couple of days.

 And this is what the rainwater looks like:
Also, the rain does not really help matters. It does settle the dust for a bit. but then the winds rise again, and we get a layer of mud on everything.

2. Let's all go and kiss our long suffering non-gardener partners and other family members. The only thing that Mian really cares for in household stuff is a clean kitchen platform. And this is what he gets.
But I have a good excuse. The lavender was looking poorly, as lavender cuttings are wont to look. In this spot, right by the kitchen sink and under a skylight, I can keep an eye on them. The sage is doing well, the rosemary is ready to be planted out, and in the small steel katori  is a bulb of Garud Buti which I had given up on and surprised me by sending out a shoot this week.

3. Kiwi! For the first time, I  have fruits on my Kiwi plants! Eight fruits this year. And maybe, eight kilos the next? I do hope so!

4. Plums. The harvesting, slicing, freezing.

5. And worryingly, the mould. I am not sure what this is..it is only on one tree and the first time I have seen it. We had some hail damage last week, I hope it is just a combination of injured fruit in warm humid weather and not a fungal disease. In the meantime, I am collecting and burning the fruits..as well as fruits burn in 70% humidity. 
6. The promise of beans. The garden is dotted with sticks, twine and tepees like this one. They all support beans..A harvest of about 7 kilos feeds us for just less than a year. Right now, our kitchen ism out of beans and has been for a month, but I am strangely resisting buying some.

Please do go on over to The Propagator's blog and read the rest of the Six on Saturday!

4 comments:

Jane said...

How difficult it must be to deal with dust storms, although we sometimes have them here too. The kiwi fruit are very good-exciting to get a crop. And lovely plums!

JohnK said...

We sometimes get a bit of dust washed down with rain (this induces a spate of neighbourhood car cleaning) but nothing like your pink bucket. Tell Mian that sharing a house with a gardener involves tolerating plants all over the place and he should be grateful that you're trying to deal with scorpions on the kitchen platform. If he doesn't like that, he can always go and wash outside in a pink bucket!

Fred said...

I do the same for my beans but the tipi is 4m high. So glad to see you are going to eat your own kiwis ..; I'm waiting for mine for 8 years, always male flowers without female ones... This year I'm going to pick some kiwai berries (smaller than kiwis, hairless, more resistant and self-fertile: you have to know this species)

@cavershamjj said...

Wow that dust storm looks like it belongs on Mars!It looks like you will have lots of fruit this year. My plum tree looks like it will produce nothing, again. I might replace it with an apple espalier.

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