Monday 22nd February 2021: Just like that in a blink of an eye it’s Monday again. Another drizzly, grey morning, still quite mild for the time of year though. I do wish the weather would turn a little drier though, and if the sun could make an appearance that would be great. It seems like I am always wishing for different weather and generally I am, my ideal would be a dry sunny day of around 18c with rain overnight just in case anyone is listening and can do that for me 😜
John is working again this week and he did the rounds before he left. I sorted out the eggs, the hens are laying like crazy and we have plenty of them to try and shift. I did a few routine household bits and also phoned the septic tank company to get ours emptied, it did not get done last year due to covid so I really need it done this year to prevent any problems.
After chatting with our youngest daughter, Charlotte, I might have more of a go at growing micro greens. She is having a go at doing them for herself and she asked me what kind of seeds she needed to do it, I have plenty of spare seeds so I gave her a selection to get her going. It started me thinking that this would be a fairly easy way to grow a crop of tasty nutritious food, I just need to see if I can find a bulk seed company, buying the small packets is fine if you are doing it for yourself but on a bigger scale I need bigger quantities of seed to make it worthwhile. I have got pea shoots and garlic chives on the go for myself as mini salad leaves but the choice is huge really and so I think I am missing a trick here.
I take back what I said about it being mild, I went out to the greenhouse to do a couple of bits and to check on plants and it is colder than yesterday I think. I did organise a punnet of micro salad greens which are now on the kitchen window sill along with some peas that are just sat in the punnet, no compost, I have wetted the both of them and we will see how they get on. The peas I did in the greenhouse (which were in compost) have already started to rot, it’s just too cold for them at the minute, if at first you don’t succeed try something else 😆 The broad beans are coming up though and funnily enough the peas in the root trainers are too just not the ones in a seed tray 🤷♀️ too much moisture and too cold I think.
John came home just after lunch, I never know if I am coming or going theses days, I thought he was out for the day so was just hoovering the floors ready to give them a wash but that scuppered my plans. The reason becomes obvious when he is eating and drops some of it on the floor, why bother 😜
Boris set out the journey we are to take to come out of this long lockdown, it’s not quick but by 21st June we should be totally restriction free providing all goes well. On the downside it means that Charlotte and Maccas wedding will not go ahead on May 7th and restrictions will still be in place 😞 We will see if they are able to move it to later in the the year.
Tuesday: Not a bad day, slight frost to begin with but it soon warmed up a bit, grey and overcast mostly and windy but no rain 😀 John did the animals then went off to do a job, I got on with a bit of weeding and then moving some pots to clear the area where the next bed is going out the front. John came back and we carried on clearing the area, there were bags of compost, empty pots, pots with plants in, bit of debris etc etc and a pile of slabs. We cleared everything but the slabs and then set about giving the hazel trees a good prune, we didn’t do them last year and they have got a bit big and unruly. Now they are all cut nice and neatly, the branches all shredded and put back under the trees to put goodness back into the ground and give the mini beasts some cover. That pretty much took us well into the afternoon, the some lunch, a sit down, light the Rayburn, do the afternoon rounds and that’s another day over.
It will be March next week and that’s when many more seeds can be sown, I need to start in earnest making sure the beds are ready. I still have some flowers growing in some of them, once I can work out exactly what they are I will start transplanting them. We start the final bed out in the front area tomorrow, a smaller bed in a triangle shape, I am thinking this will be roses and romantic flowers like bleeding hearts, creeping phlox and agapanthus but I need to plan it properly first.
Wednesday: Blowy, grey, overcast, but not raining and fairly mild. John did the animals then went off to do a job and also pick up some sleepers for this last bed in the front area. It will be nice to get that done and I may have to have a trip to the garden centre to find some nice things to put in there.
This morning I have been preoccupied with a chance discovery, the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place as it were. I can’t prove a thing but it all makes sense to me, I am talking about the theft of the honesty box and money before Christmas. This is what I think, we had a delivery two weeks or so previous to the theft, the delivery driver and his appearance and van rang alarm bells (your intuition is high when you live rurally on a farm, you recognise certain traits 🙄) When I went to the gate and realised it was a delivery I felt a little better, however I thought I recognised the driver from way, way back, I had said to John at the time, I reckon that was ….. but I couldn’t be sure. The person in question didn’t always lead a static life shall we say, except when incarcerated at her majesty’s pleasure. Two weeks later when we were out for about three hours we returned home to find the honesty box and contents ripped from the shed, there was also a delivery in the shed. At the time John said I reckon it was the delivery person but we had no cctv evidence and no way to prove anything. Then this morning a post on Facebook which made me look at the profile more closely and there is the delivery driver that came here! It was who I thought it was, as I say I can’t prove a thing but it’s all a bit coincidental in my eyes.
It’s mid afternoon and we have spent till now working out on the front area, I did a lot of weeding in the first bed and I have a couch grass problem there that I need to bring under control. John and I have moved slabs, positioned sleepers and started building the bed. Shelley came to get her food from the freezer now hers has been fixed and Sam came with the kids so they all played in the front paddock to run off some steam and get some fresh air. Indoors at 2 for lunch and to light the Rayburn, we’d to be on target this afternoon with jobs and dinner as I have my vaccination early evening 😀
The first bed is looking good, I mean it’s still a bit dead due to the time of year but I can see things beginning to bud and grow, the bulbs I planted have all come up, crocus, snowdrops and tête-à-tête, only a few this year but year on year they will multiply and it will look amazing. I need to wait and see how well the areas are filled with what I have already planted, the temptation is to cram a lot in but I really want space for plants/shrubs to look their very best. Each bed will have a different character and the first one is full of flowering shrubs and bulbs, fragrant, berries and plenty of nectar for the bees.
Thursday: Well it’s 2pm and so far I have had no side effects from my vaccine last night, hopefully it will stay that way. John did the animals this morning and then went to do a little job but was back by 10am. We got started out the front again, I added an extra job to Johns list of beds 😜 About two years ago or whenever it was he put up the new front fence, I made a temporary bed in front of the fence. By temporary I mean pots of flowers all stood behind a piece of wood 😂 This morning I asked nicely if we could perhaps make it into a permanent one, it didn’t actually take long, we had the materials, plants and top soil to do the job. Around an hour or so later it was ready for me to take the plants out of the pots and plant them in the bed, hopefully it will look lovely in a few weeks time. The beds will save me a lot of time watering, when things are in pots they dry out very quickly, with the beds a good soaking once a week should be adequate.
Oh and the weather was beautiful 🤩 sunny, mild, dry practically perfect.
It is so nice to have flowers I have waited a long time to have proper flower beds again and the reward today was watching the bees feeding on the crocus 🐝 and he cat trying to catch the bees in mid air 😂
We have moved down from alert level 5 to alert level 4 today, a good sign that things are going in the right direction and the pressure on the NHS has eased somewhat, it hasn’t gone but it’s good news.
Friday: Gorgeous morning, frosty start then lovely sunshine ☀️ I had planned to get out on the veg garden but I woke up with a rash this morning, arms and chest, not sure if this is the vaccine or being in the sun yesterday so I figured I better avoid it today. That leaves housework, oh joy 😜 Gave the bedroom a good clean, pull out the bed and dust everything within an inch of its life, then wash the floors in the living room and kitchen. I did think about doing more than that but the momentum left me 😆
Watching the birds at the seed feeder this morning I spotted one I haven’t seen before, a coal tit, it’s quick and I barely managed to get a pic of it but I am chuffed we have another new type of garden bird around 😀
John was back and forth between jobs today and I mainly pottered around not achieving very much, bit tired today and I have learned that when tired don’t do too much, I have the luxury of being able to do that I know but I still think it’s sound advice I give myself 😜
I don’t think the bee colony in the tree has made it through the winter 😞 I had a good look and there are no signs of life at the minute.
A full moon tonight (snow moon)
Saturday: woowee we have had a good day working our backsides off today. John on the front beds and me in the veg garden. I have cut back, tided, burnt, disposed of and weeded way into the afternoon. I am beginning to get an idea of what has gone wrong with the beds and what to do to put it right. Half the problem was that I had no where to grow flowers and flowers bring in the pollinators so I definitely needed them. To that end I planted them in the the middle of the veg beds but that became a bit of a muddle, I couldn’t ever find a starting point. Now I have a clearer idea of where to move the flowers etc in order to get some order back as it were. One of the beds is not very good soil wise and difficult to manage, clay seam I think, the other problem is my apricot keeps sending up suckers where the soil has washed away. I don’t want to take it down because even though I don’t get good apricots the blossom is magnificent and more importantly it’s early blossom so useful when there is not much else for the bees. Anyhow I am going to plant things like fennel and chard there, something that will grow regardless of the poor soil, both are useful and permanent and can go crazy if they want to 😜 The plans are afoot and that’s the main thing otherwise I wander round wondering what to do next, I like a plan. I have also done a couple of other jobs such as clean bedding for the ducks and geese and water for the horses and now I am having a well earns sit down and a cuppa.
Glorious weather again today, raises the spirits immensely ☀️
BT has been again 🙄 but finally after three visits to figure it out and a good days work by the chap that came today, the line is no longer crackling which I am told is why the internet kept dropping out, hopefully that’s sorted once and for all.
I really want to be getting onto sowing seeds but it’s a tad early yet and if I can get the garden sorted I will be good to go when the time is right. We bought all these pallet collars, 30 in total, I did say to John I wanted about 10 but he said might as well get 30, now I am wondering what the heck I am going to do with them all. I think I may stack at least three of them for potatoes, gives me more room to grow other things then.
The arches I put in last year turned out to be crap (they were cheap but I thought they might last more than a year 😂) and have rusted and snapped 😕 so now I have to find something else to replace them as I have things growing up them already including a mini kiwi.
Just had an incident that turned out to be a non incident 😝 I was just emptying the ash pan outside, the dogs barked and I looked towards the egg shed to see three lads. We had emptied the money about an hour before and no one else had been. Take into account that it is unusual for a group of lads to come and get eggs and that raises suspicion, they waved and left with eggs in their hand and I said to John go check and see if they paid. He checked and there was no money in there, so he jumped in the car and caught up with them, seeing they did indeed have a dozen eggs he wound down the window and asked if they forgot to pay for them? At this point I should say that ever since the beginning of covid and the lack of loose change, we have had people who pay with a note and so are in credit, turns out his dad pays in advance ( John realised who his dad was once he said) oooops embarrassment all round I think. So if you or dad are reading this, profound apologies but you can’t be too careful 🙄
Four new quail arrived around 5pm, we sold our others a few weeks back and I was thinking that I wouldn’t have any more but then someone had some for sale and did I want them so I said yes. These are last years hatch, ours were getting on for three years old so laying had slowed right down. I realise I quite missed the quail, they are funny little birds, I might hatch some out later in the spring so that we have plenty of eggs rather than one or two a day, they make good picnic eggs for children. The geese are laying really well now and we are selling them readily from the gate, normally it takes a while to get them sold but I have put out plenty of notices to say they are here and for a short season only so get them while you can, seems to have done the trick.
The tortoises have not woken up yet but they will soon enough. I have had to ordered some ivermectin for one of the guinea pigs, he has what I thought was a scratch but it is turning into a bald patch and I can see another forming so will treat him and the others and hopefully that will sort it out. Mia the dog I have put on arnica as she is starting to get a bit stiff especially when she gets up from her bed, to see her charging about the farm you would think she is fine but like us as we get older getting out of the chair becomes hard work lol.
Sunday: Another fine day, frosty start but blue skies and sunshine. We got the morning jobs done, then a bit of work in the front area before getting to the supermarket early to get some shopping. It’s amazing how you can fill the trolley when you didn’t think you needed much and even then I still forgot a couple of things 😂
Back home and John went up to the village to get some sawdust bales, cleaned out the hens and put in new sawdust and then on with some gardening. Mostly weeding and clearing is what I am doing at the minute, you don’t realise how much dead stuff there is to clear until you start doing it. John mostly worked in the front, he is raking back shingle to get it level 🙄 it’s a driveway, when we put more shingle down it is going to spread in different areas as it’s walked or driven on anyway but there was no telling him 🤷♀️
Popped over to drop off Shelley’s birthday present later in the afternoon then back home to do the animals and get the Rayburn lit. We are down to lighting it late afternoon now as the day is so warm we really only need a fire to take the evening chill away.
And that as they say is a wrap 😜 Another week done and dusted a new one to look forward too 😀 On the job list is plenty of weeding and tidying and then once that is all done it should be just the right time for seed sowing, one of my favourite times of the year 😃 Ta ta for now, have a great week.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 