Monday 18th April, Bank Holiday Monday: Taking it fairly easy today , every day is a work day but some are more work than others 😂 John spent a couple of hours burning all the rubbish, that is cardboard rubbish and tree clipping rubbish from a few weeks ago then he spent the rest of the time on and off finishing the coating on the fences in the paddock. I spent most of my time pottering in the garden doing things like weeding, sowing seeds and taking cuttings. My sister and brother in law came over and I went with them over to Dads grave to put some flowers on (he died two years ago today) but that was mostly all we have done. It has been a lovely sunny day again although slightly cooler and a bit more cloud today.
I picked some flowers this morning for the purpose of trying out some photography, I find it difficult to get good shots so I asked online and got a few tips.
Tuesday: The sun has disappeared today and it’s a tad colder but not too bad, no sign of rain yet though and everything is getting a bit dry 🙄 After a week of working outside, a holiday weekend of socialising (and some more work) I thought it was time to get some housework done 😏 I spent the morning hoovering, polishing, washing and wiping down, I have scratched that itch for a while 🤪 I have also spent some time recording a podcast ‘extra’ which is all about my journey into the flower side of things and how that is going, I was contacted by a listener and they asked for it specifically so I was happy to oblige 😁
It is our granddaughter’s birthday today, Mia is the grand old age of six, which feels pretty grown up to a five year old. It never ceases to make me chuckle how children can’t wait to be the next year older and adults are always yearning to be younger 😂
We had a conversation yesterday with my Sister and Brother in law, the topic was, if you could travel back in time, what time would you go to? I found this interesting because both the fellas decided that it would be good to go to the sixties, and the reason, because you could buy up lots of old run down properties come back to now and be rich 🙄 My sister and I on the other hand thought the post war years would be interesting, nothing to do with getting rich though 😂 more to do with observing how people lived and managed after the war, not only do different generations have a different take on things but it would seem different sexes as well 🤔
It’s raining which is great as the garden is dry, not so great is that I hung the washing out about half an hour ago 😬
Wednesday: I spent the morning cleaning out the Guinea pigs, quail, light Sussex and turkeys before going on to plant up mange tout. Ted the Turkey is a bit bothersome for his lady friend at this time of year and so we have had to separate them so she gets a break 🙄 The problem is he then started attacking the light Sussex cockerel through the fence 🙄 so had to beef up the fencing so he couldn’t get near and hope that works, turkeys, nope never again lol. It has been disastrous to be honest, the females get too much attention and can’t handle it, the males (Ted in the case) spends his whole time trying to find something or someone to mate with 😬 Everything else is doing fine and the quail have started laying in abundance which is good.
I thought I would tackle one thing at a time and so peas were on the agenda, I had some more sweet peas to plant up, some in the ground and some in pots with hazel sticks to climb up. Then the mangetout into one of the vegetable beds, they had to be covered with mesh straight away or the cats will get in and dig them up, anyone would think I lay on toilet areas especially for them. It’s not like they don’t have plenty of space to go and do their business elsewhere.
I did a bit of weeding in the front and then looked after the twins while Mia went for her birthday treat at a riding school. After they had gone it was hum drum things like get the dinner and do some shopping.
Thursday: Another lovely day and a tad warmer than the previous couple. After the usual morning jobs I got my bucket and snips and went out to cut some flowers and foliage. I made up three little jam jar posies to go out and also cut a couple of buckets to make some flower bunches up to put out tomorrow. Had a message to see if I could do a bunch of flowers today and luckily as I had just cut everything I can do that no problem.
I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse pricking out seedlings before it got a bit hot in there and then checking on all the plants I have already planted up giving them some water if it looked like they needed it. We have had no April showers so far this year 😏 we really could do with one or two as everything is very dry. I think it has been like this a couple of years in a row now, very dry spring, John thinks we may have a drought this year 🤷♀️
Friday: I spent the morning in the greenhouse, no sun today so it wasn’t too hot to work in there. Plenty of pricking out and potting on plus moving some plants over to the poly tunnel as I am fast running out of space in the greenhouse. Just a couple more weeks and everything will be able to go outside and harden off or get planted up.
Then I spent the afternoon with Sam, Shelley and the kiddies at a local Bluebell Wood called Bradbury Clump, the carpet of Bluebells was amazing and the smell was delicious 😋 It was quite cold mind you but as long as you keep walking and it was ok, the children had a fab time running, climbing and playing.
When I got home I had two deliveries, one was florist buckets, I quickly worked out I needed more than one bucket 😂 so I ordered another five. The other was a plant delivery 🤪 a wholesale order of 84, yes 84 penstemon plug plants!
Saturday: More of the same as every other day lol, plenty to do in the greenhouse and in the garden, I wanted to get the dwarf beans planted up and they are now in situ. I had to get Biscuit in from the paddock and section her a small area off as she is lying down a lot which is a sign she is having too much grass. That means getting the electric fencing out and the tape, John put the tape away at the end of last year 🙄 and if you have ever tried to untangle that stuff you will know why I was 😡 if I get it in I do it properly so that it’s easy to use next time, not John he just gathered it up and dumped it 🙄 Once I had done that I wanted to get the front paddock cut before any rain (chance would be a fine thing) Last year we didn’t cut it and then struggled at the end of the year and had to put the horses on it. This year I want to cut a good inner circle of it and leave the outsides long for the orchids which will mean that we should be able to cut the long grass more easily at the end of the year. The problem is out mower does not like long grass 😂 but if it’s half on short grass then it copes more easily, that’s the plan any way.
Sunday: Busy day today, for me anyway, not so much for John. He has had a painful elbow for a few weeks but though I keep telling him to get it looked at he did nothing about it. This morning he could barely move his arm so he tried to call 111, long waiting time, called the minor injuries they don’t want to know because it’s been so long since it first happened, back on the phone to 111, long phone call and finally get an answer to call the surgery in the morning 😏 I fully support the NHS but talking to other people they say the same and that is, not sure what has happened to the service since covid, people are struggling to get phone appointments let alone face to face ones and don’t even get me started on the chemist in our area 😬 I am sure it will all sort itself out in time 🤷♀️
Anyhow, while John was laying on the sofa 🤪 I spent most of the day outside working on all aspects of the garden. Some watering as it’s bone dry 🙄 some planting up of tomatoes in the big tunnel and some flowers in the veg garden area. I also planted up 6 small shrubs which will eventually be used for cut foliage, they are now where the bed between the tunnels used to be, hopefully they will do well there. They will never get too big for the area because I will constantly be trimming them lol. Did I tell you I had decided to use the small tunnel for flowers 😊 well I have and I planted up some flower plants yesterday, more of the same will go outside it is just so that I can get some earlier blooms of a few things. Planted up a grapevine that I got from the sale area at a garden centre back in late winter, bargain as it has now come into leaf. I picked the first lot of asparagus for dinner tonight along with some spring greens, not sure what else I did but it was plenty up to mid afternoon when we decided to visit my Mum. I took her some flowers because I can 😁 and I made her pose for photos 😂 she tried to hide behind them. Beautiful aren’t they, the flowers and my Mum 🥰 Back home, cook the dinner then out to the greenhouse to water that after a day of sunshine. Another week done, I hope you have a great week and get to do at least one thing you love x
frieslandfarm (flowers) 