Once you have lived on Skye a little while, your body calibrates to a different scale of wind and temperature. Anything above 18 degrees Celsius is “bikini weather” and the wind reaches 40 or 50 mph before we count it as “a bit breezy”. In the last two weeks we have had two spells of “really quite windy” (= gusting to 80mph) with a few chicken houses blown over (more experienced people have them strapped down to the rock) an old tree down over the road, a tile or two blown off and an old shed exploded into bits.
We’ve got away quite lightly here: one or two holly trees rocking a bit, due to the ground being a bit damp and the normal die off of fine roots in winter, a lost tile that had been loose for ages, and few more splits in the polytunnel.
The big split originated from where the Apricot had stuck a branch through, so again it was mainly my fault for not mending the hole sooner. The funny thing was the way it propagated straight down one of the creases from where the plastic had been originally folded. It is interesting how that still acts as a stress concentration feature.
Initially the split extended over one polytunnel bay and after the first winds last week I managed to stitch it together with my polytunnel tape. This time I could reach by standing on a step stool on the outside. Unfortunately I didn’t mend it well enough to prevent it from extending again in a second, slightier gustier wind last Tuesday. That was a little tricky, since the adjacent bay went over the pond in the tunnel which made it a bit more exciting reaching it on the inside. However with more stitching from the outside and fully covering on the inside with the last of my tape, the cover is reasonably ept again.
What I am pretty pleased about, is that the repair I did on the top of the tunnel last autumn does seem to have held well. Although the cover is starting to resemble a patchwork quilt now, I am hopeful that it will be a little while yet before I have to replace it completely again.
Inside the tunnel most things have died back now, so when the weather is poorer I can look to tidy it up, harvest the Yacon (watch this space!), and evict the Kiwi. Astoundingly my asparagus is still growing! I’m not sure what to do about this. Should I harvest the shoots now, or wait till later in the spring? The shoots don’t seem to mature, they just get mildewed and die off….
SkyeEnt 
If the asparagus is thicker than a pencil, pick one of every three – delicious, but don’t leave them too long or they go woody! If they’re babies, let them grow out. Asparagus live for up to 30 years and get thicker stalks each year.
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Thanks for your comment. It’s just odd for me in the northern hemisphere to have asparagus growing in winter. I thought it would need a rest or something….I’ve not dared harvest these at all yet, so maybe I’ll tidy up that bit of the tunnel and have a treat!
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