Monday 4th May 2020: We are still in the depths of the global pandemic, not that anyone needs reminding but it’s good to look back in a few years time and see what was going on lol. We escaped for a few hours today, a few hours we will never get back, queuing 😜 We decided to venture out and get some shopping, a big shop, the first we have done in six weeks! To be fair the queue into the shop was non existent and doing the shopping was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated and we got a lot of shopping. It should keep us going for a few weeks more and most importantly I know have choices when it comes to lunch and dinner which is a real treat. Up to now either the girls have been getting us stuff or we have popped to a small shop to get the odd bits and pieces, but it’s good to get all the odds and ends that you never think of when writing a list for someone else to get. They have their own shopping to get as well and so I don’t like to burden them with a massive list lol, anyway now we have done it once we will probably do it again but not for a few weeks. Then we went to the surgery to pick up my prescription of steroids, another queue and wait times with social distances always at the front of your mind. How we are going to progress through this I don’t know but we have to move forward somehow and probably need to start creeping forwards soon.
We only did the basics for the rest of the day lol, getting a bit lazy now.
Tuesday: We have a busy day ahead of us as the next batch of point of lay hens are coming in. Half are going straight back out but we are keeping half of them as we cannot keep up with demand for the eggs again. We should have kept some back from the second batch but hindsight is a wonderful thing 🙄 Before they arrive John has had to go and fix a leak for someone, those are the only jobs he is going out to do at the moment, he also went to pick up some sawdust and collect an order from our local builders merchant. It’s a long process, you have to e mail them with the order, then wait for them to confirm they have it then call them to arrange a collection time. Gone are the days when you could just nip down because you need some screws etc, one day I am sure it will all be back to normal but for the time being everything takes a few days.
Meanwhile I have been pottering, I am not feeling the best today, last night I broke out in a rash on my legs and was very tired, today my arms hurt and it’s an effort to lift them. I have done a bit of seed sowing in the greenhouse, the hoovering some washing and a wipe round of the bathroom but I am struggling. I had decided not to take any anti inflammatory today but I caved in around 10.30. I had an idea that I would go through my wardrobe and put anything with holes in the rag bin, anything that I don’t wear in the charity shop bag but I didn’t get very far with that. Sometimes, jobs can seem huge when you are not feeling up to it and I think I really need to be in a great frame of mind to sort stuff out otherwise it all goes back in the wardrobe. Johns work clothes I am able to sort though as his get pretty tatty, I have ordered him new jeans, trainers, t-shirts and sweatshirts so he will have a whole new lot and if I can sneak out the old lot without him seeing all will be good lol. He has favourites that he will spend days looking for if they get thrown away 😜
I also ordered a mini greenhouse/grow house that will go out the front to put plants for sale in. Some plants that are ready for sale can’t go out because they are annual and it’s a little too cold especially with the exposed area we have and so in order to move them on I need something for them to go in so that people can still buy them, as sitting in the greenhouse is never going to work 🙄
I picked a big bundle of oregano to dry in the dehydrator, I normally forget to do this as it wants picking well before the flowers appear and I always leave it too late. The plant will recover easily and I can use that fresh through the summer but have dried oregano for Winter use. I would like to make up some jars of herbs de Provence and I will try but it means picking various herbs as the others dry, if you do it all at once you can’t tell what’s what 😂 they are all green bits lol.
I have taken a few photos of plants I am loving in the garden at the minute, the mighty Angelica which has reached well over 5ft this year a beautifully architectural plant that I put in the tortoise run to give some shelter with the huge leaves. The ranunculus, which is the pink one in with the tulips, I adore these romantic flowers, lovely open blossoms perfect for bees and insects. And then there is the red Maple, again another mood lifting colour which goes particularly well with the clematis behind it, my intention was always to plant this tree in the front paddock but at the moment it’s still in the pot lol.
We have been at home for a good few weeks now and although we haven’t argued there are a few things beginning to grate 😜 one is every time the phones rings either house phone or mobile, John turns off the radio, I have told him it’s mobile for a reason, so you can leave the room 🙄 I wouldn’t mind but he never turns it back on again and I hate the silence with tinnitus. The other thing is that he keeps swilling out his cup and then leaving it right under the tap, now if I am wanting to wash my hands this means that soapy water is going into his cup, at first I would completely move it but now I’m like, if it tastes of soapy water, tough luck 😜 There are, as you can imagine, many more little things like this and I’m sure for him too, but we are muddling through as best we can just like everyone else 😂
This evening we were busy selling point of lay hens straight back out but have managed to keep a dozen for extra eggs.
Wednesday: We have been busy today but not really achieved much 😜 Thinking about it I don’t actually know what we have done just seem to have buzzing about sorting lots of little things. Sam came over with the children to poop pick biscuits mini paddock and Mia was able to get her a brush, we all kept a social distance but it’s hard when the twins are crying and Sam is trying to manage by herself 😏 Shelley came over with the children to get some eggs and they sat in the garden for a chat, again at a social distance. We have enough space here that we can easily do that and as they are coming to get essentials we figure that’s ok. I think many people are getting restless now and so hopefully we will be able to start some kind of shifting soon.
We got busier in the evening, I did some weeding and cut and edged the lawn while John made the tops for my cold frames, they are not exactly what I would have liked, I like the ones with old windows lol but that’s not very practical with grandchildren around and also they are pretty heavy so we have some lightweight safe ones. We had just finished up when we heard a commotion in the back paddock, John ran up there and there was a young fox trying to grab a hen so we were on fox patrol for the rest of the evening. By the time we had shut everything away it was 9.30, time to come in and get some supper as we missed dinner 😜
Thursday: Another fine warm day ahead and I had a good night so I feel fine today 😀 We got off to a start with the usual feeding and letting out then John had to get some petrol for the ride on mower as we want to mow the little back paddock later when it’s cooler. I moved all the plants that need hardening off to outside in the cold frames and did a bit of hoeing plus moved the fire pit which for some reason was right in the middle of the lawn. I then had to take up the bricks it was standing on and put some grass seed down, the fire pit is now near a bench which makes much more sense and I am likely to use it more.
It’s VE Day tomorrow and up to now I have only been able to find a tiny Union Jack, I considered printing out paper bunting but I don’t have enough ink to print colour ones or paint to paint plain ones so I raided Johns work t-shirts and made some bunting 😀
The new mini greenhouse arrived so we put that together in between proving and baking bread and rolls 😜 and I will fill it with plants for sale as soon as I think I can get out there I.e I need a passing cloud for cover lol
In the evening I cut the grass in the little paddock while John cleared up the burning patch and was on Fox watch, it appeared but because he was up there with the dogs he soon disappeared again. Even so, John spent the rest of the evening up there keeping guard. We did our claps at 8pm though and I had Mia on FaceTime as she wanted to do it with me 😀
Bank holiday Friday: VE Day 75th anniversary and we all have to celebrate at home 😏 as there wasn’t much point sitting out in our front garden to wave to the occasional passerby, we put up bunting and offered chocolate in the egg shed 😀
The day was spent pottering around, it was pretty hot early on and so that’s me counted out lol, I did manage to get a few bits potted on in the greenhouse and sort out plants to put out for sale. I’m not quite sure what else we did, but we will be busier outside once it cools down, I have some watering to do and John will be on fox watch again 😏
Saturday: Another fine hot day, I am looking forward in a strange way to the cooler weather coming in, at least I will be able to get on the garden. This morning and actually through the night I have had pains in my wrists and ankles and I fell exhausted so not much done today. John did all the morning rounds and then some weeding for me in the brassica cage to get that ready for planting. It should have been done by now but it’s just been too hot for me to do it. Meanwhile I potted on some runner beans, for a strange reason and I have never seen it before the beans started to grow upside down, in trays and in pots, very bizarre, all of them not just a couple, the roots coming up and the leaves under the soil. I have now turned them the right way up and hopefully they will continue to grow normally.
Sunday: We did a good mornings work as expected with the weather much cooler. Yesterday John clears the brassica cage for me and so today I was able to go in and plant 12 cauliflower and 12 broccoli in there. Meanwhile he was busy weeding the next area for planting up which will be the sweet corn and butternut squash areas. I am slowly getting everything in the ground and looking at the longer range forecast I may take the chance to plant these things out and possibly cover with fleece if it looks like frost but there are only 1 or 2 cold nights on the radar until the end of the month so a ch ace worth taking I think. I also planted up a few flowers that have been growing in pots and potted up some phlox that arrived yesterday. The plant sales have been amazing, really amazing and I am chuffed to bits with how much I have sold. The eggs are still in huge demand and we never have enough for the amount of customers but can’t increase the flock as once this is all over half of the people probably won’t come lol. W
We had someone take without paying this morning, as I came out of the garden I just caught a look at the back end of a lorry with motorway maintenance on it, that only means one thing round here as we are pretty far from any motorway 🙄 and we knew exactly what was in there and how much money should be there, luckily it was only a couple of boxes but still it makes you cross.
We had some rain, yippee that will save me watering tonight.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 