Today, I actually saw the Caspian Sea!
It's warming up nicely then in Wales, for ship spotting... Do you use binoculars or a telescope at the pier? Are there nice beaches near you? Or do you go picking cockles in the shallows? Fresh Welsh Samphire Grass is lovely - a grocer mate of mine used to collect it to sell fresh for big bucks, to fine seafood restaurants in Beaumaris, as well as foraged exotic fungi - I don't think anyone died...Today, I actually saw the Caspian Sea!
Ship CASPIAN SEA (Oil Products Tanker) Registered in Liberia - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9829095, MMSI 636019071, Call Sign D5SU6
Vessel CASPIAN SEA is a Oil Products Tanker, Registered in Liberia. Discover the vessel's particulars, including capacity, machinery, photos and ownership. Get the details of the current Voyage of CASPIAN SEA including Position, Port Calls, Destination, ETA and Distance travelled - IMO 9829095...www.marinetraffic.com
And it can carry more than any aircraft!
Gross Tonnage: 63416
Summer DWT: 114218 t
My avatar is actually one of the nearby beaches! It links up to the next beach south at low tide. The only difficulty with beaches is access - some you can park near, or there is a steep walk, etc. But there are lots of them.
Yes - you often see various kite-pulled devices - whether tricycles, or water-borne. They get up to incredible speeds.
I think you have to be careful composting seaweed because of it's abundance of metals, depending on the type. You grow potatoes? Planted them yet? The frosts might be over, but one never knows - it's been the mildest winter I can remember and the old saying "In with a roar, out with a wimper, or in with a wimper, out with a roar", springs to mind. All bets are off, with todays climate. I'm a bit late planting pumpkins this year, so they won't grow gargantuan like last. I've still got 10 large pumpkins left from last October. Thinking broad bean plug plants, they're hardy and can be planted now.
It's a tradition to plant them on Good Friday. (I think there is something of the resurrection about this.)
Ah yes, the sea regulates the temperature - I recall it being a fine day on Anglesey, and yet deadly cold and snowy when one arrives in Snowdonia just a few miles away. I've planted a lot of wild strawberry plants and "Da von! Troo! Straw! Bereeeee!" Raymond Blanc's favourite strawberry variety the Marshmello, which he's absolutely correct about as they are utterly delicious. Supermarket varieties are selected for shelf-life, not flavour. The Marshmellos change flavour within a couple of hours. The wild spread like wild providing ground cover, so much less weeding, and they continually fruit all summer instead of just once month... but they are tiny (but tasty) fruits.
We have the Preselis just a bit north. You can sometimes see them white-capped while it is pleasant here. And even more often, with mist or fog across the tops.
The most delicious potatoes I ever grew, were planted in soil extremely rich in clay. Those Kind Edward's were tiny but boy! I've never tasted better.
Be careful with seaweed though - removal of problematic minerals by chelation isn't easy. What happened to Jersey Royals anyway? Maybe they need very rich soil for flavour - the difference between King Eds grown in soil and clay was like night and day, in terms of flavour. Never tried Pembrokeshire Earlies - I prefer growing pumpkins because I don't have much spare time, and once they grow to about 1ft tall, they look after themselves by outgrowing all weeds at a rate of 8 inches a day for 15ft in all directions. Frogs love hanging out under the immense canopy of green, humidly hidden from predators. Growing potatoes is quite literally back breaking, but also very rewarding as I recall.
If only I liked pumpkin...
The type I grow "Crown Prince" tastes a lot like particularly flavoursome butternut squash. If you happen by an Afro Caribbean or Eastern/Indian shop, they're currently being sold for £5 a slice... if you fancy a nibble. They're actually from Russia originally, with an unexceptional looking grey/green coloured thick skin. Sweeter, denser and more crumbly than butternut (like Maris Piper is floury as opposed to waxy), and they taste nothing like those horrible big watery horrible orange skinned pumpkins, which people rightly carve up for Halloween rather than eat. The ten I have left I'll juice and reduce and freeze for soup stock, until they new ones grow. Well worth a try.
They're delicious in a lamb curry, or any meat curry... but each to their own. Not sure if I'll have much time this year to grow them. Will deffo have a lot of strawberry plants.
