Fall maintenance

Until I moved to this house, fall maintenance was not something I spent a lot of time on. If I remembered, I serviced the boiler, if not I just hoped it kept running through the winter. I move a sleeping bag, a paperback and some cereal bars into the car, because the first snows of the winter always cause crazy traffic jams.

Here in North Holland, we've found so much more to do and with winter closing in, W has been super busy. All the gutters around the roof have to be declogged every few weeks to make sure they don't block up and flood the house.He's been shifting garden furniture into winter storage, and making sure that the thatch looks in top condition. The spiders have been crazy busy all autumn and the windows are covered with cobwebs - so, cleaning time, to make sure we get the most possible light into house during the dark winter days.  The olive trees and other tender plants need to be brought in to avoid frost damage, and the stables need closing up now that the swallows have left.

What are your autumn rituals? How do you prepare for winter?

Autumn's gold

Some of these posts may seem a little bit out of sequence because I am playing catch-up on a summer's worth of work in my blog. But the autumn weather has been beautiful - grey clouds shooting across the sky, winds whipping around corners, catching leaves and scattering them across the garden like stolen treasures. It's a constant battle to keep the concrete clear of leaves so that the cars have grip and grass disappears overnight in a golden blanket. 

I just had to share a few pictures of my 2 favourite men playing in the leaves. Luca's been having a complete blast and is burning up so much energy kicking up the leave piles, that he's curled up asleep from about 6 in the evening onwards. As you can see, it's not just Luca having fun!

Quick tool update - the  Stihl kombisystem has come into play again. We were super excited to find that it has a leaf blower attachment. It's cheaper than buying a standalone leaf blower - and because the base engine has to be capable of cutting brush, it's much more powerful than most blowers on the market. I'm also grateful for the ear defenders - it doesn't get any quieter!

We've been using an old silo bin as storage for our compost and garden waste - it drops about 2 feet down below ground level and is well contained to stop leaves from blowing out. With every run to the silo, I feel more and more like Smaug the dragon building my own personal gold mountain.