Wednesday 27th July: Oooo it’s Wednesday before I even get anything written down 🙄 now I have to try and remember what I have been doing this week 🤔 On Monday I did a mornings work cleaning the house, boring but necessary for my own sense of peace and wellbeing. Just before lunchtime Sam came over with the children and we went for a walk up the lane, a couple of hours later and approx two + miles of walking we arrived back, the twins did very well but did start sitting down in protest on the last leg, they certainly earned their lunch that day. We took a bag with us in the hopes we would find something to forage but nothing was quite ready. Once they had left to go home I carried on with the rest of the housework and cleaning. In the evening I tried to get a bit done in the garden but I had developed a pain that was almost stopping me from walking. It’s funny but not funny, earlier in the day one of my feet slipped and went in a different direction to the rest of me. I didn’t fall and recovered quickly and thought no more of it until about an hour later when I had a dull ache at the front of my pelvis, I must have pulled a muscle or stretched a tendon/ligament or something and by mid evening I had to sit and rest. After a nights rest it was better when I first got up and then gravity kicked in 😂 it has gradually got better since then.
On Tuesday I did outside work, potting plants on, digging up self setting seedlings and potting those up, giving them all a good feed at the same time. I have also been collecting seeds from various plants, so far I have poppy seeds, calendula, cerinthe, nigella and sweet william, I am constantly watching to see what is ready to collect or transplant. I also cut a couple of big buckets of flowers ready for bouquets tomorrow. Then Shelley arrived with Flo and Josh and we went out for lunch at the garden centre where some plants fell into my basket 🤷♀️😂🤪 I spent some time in the evening weeding the pathways of the veg garden. One good thing about no significant rain is that the weeds elsewhere (front driveway)have mostly died off but where we heavily mulched the pathways in the garden with woodchip the moisture is retained (proves mulching works well) and so weeds (healthy ones at that) are popping up all over.
Wednesday: I was up early this morning and straight outside to get some watering done, still no rain and the rumblings of a hosepipe ban are getting louder, it’s a dry year. The last time it was this dry was in the 1970’s according to the statistics. In between watering I wired some dried flowers and had a go at making a hair comb with them, I have some tweaking to do but it was not bad for a first effort. Charlie arrived and stopped for a coffee before going off for a walk and a picnic with Sam, Shelley and all the children. I thought I had better not go out again today 😂 need to get some work done.
Thursday: A busy morning getting a few bits and bins done indoors and then outside to pick produce, quite a haul today which means one thing, inside to process it all in various ways. Prep for the freezer or for dinner this evening, put out for sale and put by anything that the girls want. That took me to 1pm and I think I earned a sit down which is exactly what I am doing now, although after writing up this and I shall be looking for recipe inspiration online 😁
Friday: I think I am officially done trying to bust a gut to keep everything alive, some things are dead already because I just can’t get round to water them as other things are more important and come first. It’s a pretty serious situation when you look at the bigger trees which are now starting to drop their leaves to save moisture 😔 the elderflower bushes are looking very sorry for themselves too, top fruit is going to be less than great when it was looking like a bumper crop year but now the fruitlets are dropping on the floor. I swear every year it gets more and more difficult when it should get easier 🤷♀️ Each year I start off with a great deal of enthusiasm which slowly gets eroded by one thing or another and they usually come in succession, I feel like I try really hard and the result is always not quite good enough. If we don’t get some rain soon it is going to be a hosepipe ban for sure and that is only the tip of the problems and failures ahead, not just for me but on a bigger food producing scale nationally. I know there is nothing I can do about it but still it is very irksome.
Saturday: It’s my birthday 🥳 still have jobs that have got to be done mind you so I was up to get on with it. Sam messaged to see if I wanted to go and watch Mia on her riding lesson and as it was overcast I said yes. Lovely watching her learning to ride and I was very impressed with her sitting trot, no reins 🥰 she has a good seat and great balance, last time I tried that I fell off and broke my collar bone and I have only ridden once or twice since then which was about 10 years ago. I did make me think I wouldn’t actually mind riding again but not sure I would manage to get my leg over the saddle without getting terrible cramp these days 😂 We came back to ours and then Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and Charlie and Macca arrived. They bought a delicious spread of cheese, meats, fruits with them and Charlie made a lovely cake, very spoilt 🥰 At various times of the day other family members arrived to wish me happy birthday, have tea and cake and some chit chat and then in the evening it rained, oh happy day 😁 We need a bit more rain but anything is better than nothing at this point.
Sunday: It rained a bit more overnight, a gentle constant drizzle which is great, much better than a downpour, downpours though good to fill water tanks, run off very quickly whereas gentle drizzle has time to soak into the ground. Because we had rain I didn’t have to be outside checking to see what was flagging and watering so we went out for breakfast. We met my brother and his wife and afterwards went to the local garden centre, I know I have a bad plant buying habit 😂 and so do they 😝 He had told me of the great plant sale they had on there and he wasn’t wrong, I picked up some bargains for a couple of quid a plant and jammed them into every area of the car that was available 🤪 Once home I gave them all a good watering, they will also have a feed before going into their planting positions. We had more short showers this afternoon and hopefully we will have more overnight, we just need enough to keep them going for a few weeks with minimum watering from the refilled tanks.
Just having a sit down now in time to watch England Ladies play Germany in the Euro 22 final, Sweet Caroline I hope we win this but even if we don’t the team are incredible and are changing the future of womens football here in the UK, it’s history in the making from this team 🏴 COME ON ENGLAND 🏴
Have a fabulous week and enjoy the little things as well as the bigger events x
Monday 18th July 2022: Today could possibly be a record breaking day here in the UK as the temperature is set to climb up near 40c and possibly 41c 🙄🥵 That is insane for this country and possibly a warning of what is yet to come 😏 I was up early as you can imagine, I have done all I can to prepare the garden for todays heat, I have no idea if it is enough I am just keeping my fingers crossed. No doubt I will lose one or two plants and some of the the bigger well established shrubs are already suffering from lack of water. This will have a knock on effect for the top fruit because lack of rain means the fruit is not getting any moisture and it won’t swell, indeed if we continue to have no rain they will shrivel and die altogether. These are the things we need to be mindful of when thinking about climate change and how it will affect us and future generations because it is going to have a big impact. I really feel that we are entering some kind of Armageddon, without being too dramatic we have war, drought, flooding, fires and disease, I mean was there ever a clearer message to mankind 🤷♀️
On a lighter note 🤪 this mornings jobs were cutting flowers, some for bouquets, some for drying and some for trying out a different drying technique. Once the flowers were all cut I made sure the hedgehog was fed, I have had to give her a bigger bowl to eat from now she is consuming much more food. I made sure there were bowls of water out for birds, cats, other hedgehogs, bees, in fact anything that needs a drink can hopefully find a source they can use somewhere out there in the garden (in the shade of course). By 9am it was already hot, John had done all the farm animals early this morning before he went off to work (he is working in an old cottage with thick walls so it will be nice and cool in there) I fed the torts, they will eat a lot in this weather and they are very speedy too lol. Then I sorted out all the dried flowers that have been drying in the kitchen, they have all moved to the pantry now and I have the next lot hanging in the kitchen to dry. Plus I have put some flower heads in silica (like the little sachets that come with shoes etc, it can be reused many, many times) to see how well that works, you can do that then microwave it but I am going for the longer method of putting them in an airtight container and extracting the moisture slowly, hopefully this will retain more of the colour. After that was all done and I quickly hoovered up I sorted out dinner for later. I don’t want to put the oven on today and so I am using the slow cooker which I would normally only use in the cooler months. I went round and closed all the windows and shut the curtains and blinds putting up extra cover on some of them. Our front three windows which are south facing filter out UVs luckily 😁 on a colder day it’s a bit of a pain that they don’t allow the sun to warm the room but on days like this, yippee 😁 I have even put a cover up on the little window on the stable door, I pinned a doubled over tea towel up there 😝 anything to keep the heat out and the cool in.
Early morning flower cutting to beat the heat. Pretty flowers with short stems are not wasted, silica is another way to dry flowers so I am giving it a go.
This all might seem dramatic to those who live in warmer climates but we are just not used to it and we are also not geared up for it. We tend to have large windows to let maximum light in during the darker months, more glass area means the house heats up, useful for winter sun, not for extraordinary summer sun. Most of us don’t have air conditioning, nor on the whole, do our shops, offices or public buildings, we just about have it in our vehicles (though ours doesn’t work 😬) We don’t have cellars or cold storage other than a domestic fridge or freezer and although my pantry is cooler than anywhere else, it’s not insulated well enough for abnormal heat spikes like this. So you can see we are ill prepared for 40c, add to that the fact that most workplaces will still expect staff to turn up for a days work and you can see we are going to run into problems. Some places are closing for the day, the majority won’t and I feel sorry for those who don’t have a choice. We have rules for working in minimum temperatures in the UK (rules, not laws) but we have nothing similar for maximum temperatures because on the whole the matter never arises. Schools are normally constructed to look like giant greenhouses, big windows for maximum light so stop the kids nodding off 🤭 We just never considered that heat like this might become the norm but if it does we need to sit up and pay attention and get our act together pdq!
I spent the evening from 8pm (that was when it was finally comfortable enough to go out) until after dark, checking things over, making sure everything had enough water and was doing ok. One or two of the plants had suffered badly, one of the squash plants was at the point of collapse, the other 9 were fine so no idea why that one, I gave it a good long drink. Also some foxglove plants in pots that I had been growing on until I can plant them collapsed, all the other plants around them were fine. Again I gave those a good long drink, moved them to heavy shade, recovered them with shade netting and hope for the best. The hedgehog has been moved to a cooler room as the heat was building too much in the pool room, the horses water has been moved to a more shaded area closer to where they are choosing to stand in the daytime heat, they don’t have to go far to rehydrate then. I did as much as I could do in order of priority, just hope it is enough.
Tuesday: The night was not quite as bad as I expected, though it was warm I did manage to sleep most of the night. Up early this morning when it was nice and cool, I flung open all the windows to make use of the cool air and closed them about two hours later to keep out the rising heat. The two lots plants that I had to rescue have revived but they have searing heat again today so who knows what will happen to them. I did water in the poly tunnels but that is all, it’s a case of just keeping everything ticking along until the temperature drops again which hopefully will be tomorrow 🤞 still no sign of rain though 🙄 A good thunderstorm would be a bonus right now. It is already 24c indoors and I can’t get it any cooler than that, we definitely need to think about how we go forward because I don’t think this is going to be the one and only time we hit these temperatures so we need to gear up for them really.
I am going out early this morning with Charlie, we are going for breakfast, it’s my birthday treat from her. My birthday is a couple of weeks away yet but her due date is not far behind so we are going now while we can. We didn’t bank on it being the hottest day ever mind you 😝 thank goodness for air con in cars these days, when I was young air con was an open window 😂
Well what a treat that was The Yurt at Nicholsons (Bicester) if you have never been then I urge you to try it out 🥰 The breakfast, and I had Turkish eggs, was so delicious, seriously good food. The yurt is awesome and even in this heat it was ok to sit in without feelingtoo hot. One of the best bits, though it was all totally fabulous, was that I received a birthday card on arrival and the yurt supports Women in the Wild in the Maasai Mara who grow and plant indigenous trees to help with things like soil erosion, shade and climate change. To celebrate my birthday (and anyone else who goes along for their birthday) the yurt supports the growing of a tree in my name 🥰🥰🥰 I just absolutely love this, it’s amazing, the world needs more trees, I am always saying it and right now an extra one can be grown in the Maasai just because it’s my birthday and I ate there, big fat ✔️ from me 😁
This was seriously good tucker people 🥰 Turkish eggs and most of the ingredients they use are locally sourced 🥰 All I did was eat breakfast for my birthday but look how far reaching that can be 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Not much done for the whole afternoon but once the early evening arrived and there was cloud cover it was out to water and check on how things had managed. There are a couple of losses that I do t think will recover but on the whole not too bad, I say that glibly because that’s just the things I have been watering. The plants I haven’t done because they are low down on the priority list have all but collapsed, under the apricot tree for instance were herbs I planted, feverfew en masse, a couple of rhubarb plants, a thornless blackberry and some asparagus. I just couldn’t do those as well so they have gone by the by, they may recover they may not and only time will tell. It tried to rain, we had a few spots, I kept on watering regardless as that was never going to make much difference. I spent most of the evening moving the sprinkler around and giving some of the beds a really good soak, the rest I will do in the morning. I also spent some time picking purple French beans, carrots, kohlrabi and hunting for the hidden cucumbers. There are tomatoes that are ready but I want to leave them to see if this year I can get a whole vine ripened, never managed it before maybe this is the year 🙄 I am totally done in now, the temps seem to have dropped slightly, I am hoping they drop some more overnight, I will be very happy to get up early if it is much cooler than the last couple of days.
Wednesday: Oh soo much cooler plus we have had a splash of rain, not much but we will take anything at the minute. I had bouquets to make up for later on in the day plus I did a couple of jam jars and got all the veg out for sale in the shed. I got the dinner prepped ready for later, it’s a full home grown/locally grown dinner tonight 🥰 At lunchtime Sam came with the children and then Shelley came with hers, schools out for summer 🥳 well the kids will be happy anyway, the parents not soo much 🤪 After delivering two lots of flowers late afternoon it was get the dinner on slow to cook, have a cuppa and a sit down, not rush out to water because we had a drop of rain. Great really because I feel really tired and my finger joints are playing up, must be something going on with my system so it’s good to have a restful evening.
Thursday: A quiet day on the whole, I did plenty of the usual jobs plus a fair bit of weeding and some cutting back some seed collecting and cutting for dried flowers and grasses. Shelley came over with the children at lunchtime for a couple of hours, after they had gone Sam came with the twins for their Thursday session while Mia was swimming. Today I introduced the twins to fresh tomatoes from the plant and showed them how cucumbers grow. The taste test was approved by George in both cases but not by Lucie 😂
I discovered why it was quiet when Sam came and she said the road is closed, is it that was news to me 🙄 Apparently there was a water leak and Thames Water was fixing it so they closed the road. John and I went and had a look in the hole they had dug and it seemed like they had taped it up and were coming back hopefully tomorrow to fix it properly and reopen the road. By the evening cars were ignoring the road closed sign and squeezing past the mound of rubble they had dug out and left in the road surrounded by plastic fencing. It was pretty annoying as our egg customers could get through from that end and I felt that if they had put the rubble they dug out to the side a bit more they could have left the road open 🤷♀️ Bearing in mind that they might turn the water off tomorrow to fix it I made sure everything had water or was well watered.
Friday: I was up early and getting on with tidying up the front area where I have lots of plants in pots, I potted up a couple of other things to put out there, fed it and watered it all and weeded all the pavement cracks and it’s looking much better. I want to go and get some bedding plants which is not something I normally do but all the grass and paddocks are looking brown and dead so I thought that might cheer things up a bit No sign of any workmen by 9am and by this point a huge lorry had decided he wasn’t going round and moved everything to the side so it could get through and plenty of cars were still going through as well.
I went to Witney with Charlie who was having a blood test, we stopped and had coffee beforehand then a mooch around the shops and some lunch afterwards. When I got back about 1.30pm there was still no sign of any workmen 😏 but people seem to be ignoring the road closed sign which is just as well really, don’t close the bloody road and then not bother to come back and fix it, I doubt they work weekends either so when will the hole get filled in?
John came home early and we went to get some singing colour plants for the front area, I should have got them earlier in the year really as there was not much zing left 😁 But I managed to find some plants to buy 😂
I got in touch with Thames Water and they apparently have a permit to close the road until the end of Monday 😏 No need to close the whole road off, people are still moving the signs and barriers to get round or they are driving on the verge and quite frankly I don’t blame them 🙄 Meanwhile I am very depressed about the whole egg sales situation 😢 I am doing all I can as it is trying to get people to buy eggs, for some reason it has become very difficult to shift them and now a road closure is the icing on the bloody cake. I am not in a happy place regarding that topic today, seriously I just feel like shutting the gate and saying nope, not doing this anymore, I’m done. What will happen is that we will carry on but definitely won’t be replacing any chickens that die or get taken by the fox. It’s not just the road closure, there just doesn’t seem to be any interest in eggs or veg anymore 🤷♀️ and it’s depressing to keep flogging a dead horse so I’m not going to bother. Meanwhile though the eggs are piling up and even more depressing is that you know if you put them up for free there would be loads of people willing to come and get them then 😫 Oh woe is me today 😔
To add to my misery the bloody crows keep landing in my cooking apple tree and raiding it, with the amount of crows we have around here they will strip it in no time at all, they stripped the cherry trees, they strip everything, it’s a bad day folks.
Saturday: I am altogether in a better mood today 😝 I know they are first world problems but sometimes they weigh you down and it’s ok to acknowledge that, sleep on it and move on 😊 I was up early today no for any other reason than the dog was barking, obviously something about outside so I got up and let them out and then carried on with the day. I did a bit more hoeing, weeding and sweeping in the front drive and although the grass is dead it’s looking tidy. Still no significant rain despite it looking like something will happen at any minute 🙄 I am sure eventually we will get a downpour that doesn’t stop for days 😂
It’s a busy time of year for flowers and plants and I have been collecting seed, cutting for dried flowers, dividing some plants, potting some plants on, feeding plants in pots and generally making sure everything is growing away healthily. Anything that isn’t is either fed to see if I can revive it or discarded if it gone past the point of no return. The ‘big guns’ are flowering, dahlias, cosmos, zinnia, gladioli, all delightful pops of colour and exquisite form 🥰
Today is George and Lucie’s 3rd birthday, where has that time gone lol. They are at the most delightful age, an age I love because they come out with the funniest things and you can hold a conversation with them and you never know how it will develop 😂 At three they are always happy to see Nana and readily give hugs and kisses, by school age that’s not very cool so I take what I can now. It has been fascinating watching them grow together, they always have each other, sometimes to bounce off of, sometimes to fight with, sometimes to share with but the one thing they always do is look out for each other, one will always ask where the other is if they can’t see them, definitely a bond there that will never be broken 🥰🥰
Sunday: Still no rain, things are looking grim, the verges are brown, the fields are brown, even big trees are beginning to drop their leaves 😢 I am battling every day to just keep things alive and feeling like I am losing the battle. I am exhausted trying and it’s getting me down, I feel that nothing is ever good enough, no matter how hard I try there comes a point in the year when everything is hard work. It can be all kinds of reasons, too much rain, not enough rain, too much sun, not enough sun, too windy, pests, disease, or usually multiples of them all at once. I have seen one flower farmer further North who has lost a massive amount of her flowers due to the high temperatures, they are just scorched 😔 At least it’s not that bad here but still it feels pretty rubbish today.
I have had some good things though, the tomatoes are doing really well as are the cucumbers and this year I have had great success with peppers. I have got way too many though as nobody seems to want to buy veg this year 😂 that’s fine, next year I will just be growing enough for us, that will give me more time for other things. It feels like everything is going uphill, a general state of flux is what I thought today.
That’s it for this week, Hilda is doing fine, eating loads and escaping out of her run every now and then, it should be another couple of weeks and I will be able to release her. I will keep on feeding her if she stays around, at least that way I will know she is well enough to survive the winter.
Monday 11th July: Oooo it’s set to be a scorcher this week 🥵 Obviously I was up early and outside when it was just light and still cool, but by 8am stood in the sun it was already hot! In these circumstances my day goes something like this: Up with the sunrise and straight out in my PJs to cut flowers, water, observe and do any actual gardening work that I can before it gets too hot, that is usually a 5/6 hr shift before 10am 🤪 Meanwhile inside I have had the windows open all night to let the cool in and then at 10 they get closed and the curtains drawn to attempt to keep the house cool. I spend the day inside only going outside if I really have to and then in the evening once it’s cool enough I am watering until the sun goes down. If I am tired I get a nap in sometime in the afternoon and I am always exhausted when I go to bed 😂 With the temps going up to potential record breaking figures next weekend I am not relishing the week ahead and beyond that apparently. For all you sun worshipers, your ship has come in 🥰 for me and even for gardeners who like the sun the next couple of weeks will be a challenge. Just keeping everything alive let alone flourishing will be a full time job 😝 I have just seen a post about walking dogs in this weather and here are my thoughts, our dogs have the full freedom to come and go from inside to outside, in this weather they chose inside, they will be inside most of the day and evening. I think dog owners are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t so if you have room in your garden for them to walk around and toilet then that’s enough in his heat don’t be worried that the neighbours think you haven’t walked the dog today, it’s kinder not to, or do a midnight stroll instead 🌙
I had a pretty hectic week last week but this week is more sedate thank goodness, I do have a flower order for today but I am not going to cut much else, jam jars can wait a few days. Last night I got John to bring in all the plants I normally have out for sale, it has just got too much to keep them well watered in the sun. They have come in for some tlc, repotting and feeding and are under the shade of a large tree lol.
I have been growing veg etc though I realise I haven’t done much talking about it 🙄 I picked our first cucumber the other day and there are more on the way, the first lot of tomatoes have gone red and the courgettes are coming in thick and fast. Carrots are big enough to pull when needed and the French beans are almost big enough to harvest a good few. The kohlrabi is ready, I just need to harvest that when needed and the onions and garlic are still drying in the greenhouse (actually I ought to move them or they might shrivel up this week. I have peppers on the plants, apples and pears on the trees and raspberries on the bushes to harvest (I haven’t checked the plum trees this year yet) I do have cooking apples this year 😀 After two years without very much at all I think it looks like a bumper crop. I have tayberries, cultivated blackberries and chokeberries to pick once they are fully ripe (we have have a good berry season so far, except blueberries 😏) Oh and I have red cabbage, so although not as much as previous years I don’t think it’s too bad at all. I am planning on rearranging the next lot of beds in the autumn so hopefully they will be easier to manage than they are now. I still have one bd that is incredibly difficult to control (weeds) mostly because we rotavated it yearly way back and made the whole situation worse. Now I use no dig much better for the soil structure and controlling weeds but this patch is on another level, bind weed, stingers, docks, thistles you name it, however the birds are loving it so I guess that is a win as well 🤷♀️😝
Tuesday: A great day weatherwise for me lol. Hot but heavy cloud, that meant I could work outside in my shorts and t-shirt in the heat 😁 because the sun ray couldn’t get through I was fine. Even just walking around in it felt amazingly good, more days like that please rather than blue skies 😂 I spent the morning working outside, from around 5am as I didn’t know if the sun would come out or not, watering and weeding mostly and some cutting back. At lunchtime I went with Shelley to help her buy plants for a new vertical growing wall she is putting up, lots of plants are reduced now as it’s halfway through the season so there were some bargains to be had 🥰 Back home and a little rest before John arrived home, afternoon rounds done, out to collect some shade netting that my brother had picked up for me, an online flower photography workshop and finally off to bed.
Wednesday: Up early again but again the cloud cover was dense for most of the morning and so I got on with plenty of work. Planting up some things in pots that really needed to get in the ground. I am re developing the beds in autumn and was holding off to plant them in situ them but with the impending heatwave I thought it would be better to get them in and move them later in the year. In pots they will dry very quickly in high temps but in the ground they will stand a better chance. That’s where the shade netting is coming in, I also spent the morning cutting lengths and covering various beds plus getting lengths of it up high in the tunnels. Anything I think will struggle I have covered and it’s as much to conserve moisture in the soil as it is to stop the plants wilting. Finally the sun came out but not before I had wandered round to have a look at the top fruit trees to see how they are doing. Plenty of apples this year and again plenty of plums, the pear tree are doing well considering they are only a few years old, I think it will be a bumper crop for fruit this year.
Hilda the hedgehog is doing really well, I have cut back on the amount of milk and upped the amount of cat food, I also gave her some dried mealworms. I need to weigh her sometime this week to make sure she is putting on weight, the amount she eats she really ought to have 😂
It is time to start ordering bulbs for spring flowers and my order has already gone in for most just waiting on the tulip supplier to produce a list. The biennial seeds I sowed have started to come through already, stocks, sweet Williams, honesty and phlox plus I sowed some extra zinnia as the they love the heat and they have come through already too. Seed saving has begun now that some plants are going to seed, poppies, calendula and love in a mist, I am planning on casting them at the very front of the driveway and hope they grow 🤷♀️ if they do it will be very pretty, if they don’t they didn’t cost me anything so nothing lost really. I have also been constantly looking at the flower beds in the front to see where there are gaps and thinking about what needs to be moved. The soil is way to dry to plant anything new at the moment, I did plant some a couple of weeks ago and I have had to water them constantly and shade net them to stop them collapsing in this heat.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday 😂 busy week obviously no time to update the blog page 🤪 Mostly I have been busy in the garden, same as usual, up early getting what I can done before having to retreat inside when the sun comes out. Cutting flowers for bouquets, picking fruit and veg that is ready, watering, watering, watering. Checking out the best way to increase our rain water storage, this week has shown how important it is going forward to try and store as much as possible for when it’s needed most. We have been caught out by that this week as the main water pipe feeding a massive area around us burst and we were left without water from midday Saturday to 7.30 am Sunday morning. You would think that’s not very long and that bottled water would be fine, well yes it is for us in the house for domestic use but for all the animals it suddenly became a threat. The fact that we have had such a hot and dry spell means we have got near to the bottom of our water storage, around 22,000 litres in all 😲 and it has no chance of being topped up by rain. Luckily the duck tank still has some left but the inc tanks are empty and the main storage tanks are still giving me water but not for much longer. So with no indication or updates overnight about the water supply, come 5am in the morning I was beginning to wonder what we do next if it doesn’t come on. Luckily it came back on at 7.30 and hopefully it will stay on but with the heat we are experiencing and the dryness of the ground the pipes are going to contract and possibly it could happen again. Strangely enough on Thursday evening we went shopping and I said to John I think we should stock up on bottled water so we bought 16 litres, I have no idea why I decided to do that but I am glad I did and I think I will stock up on some more 😝 It’s never going to help water the animals all the garden but at least we will have some. The electric also went off sometime over night and that’s the second time this week, I am beginning to think the world has gone to the dogs and we haven’t yet realised it fully.
I have been busy covering the garden beds with shade netting to try and help with the heat that is coming this week, I am hoping that the worst of it misses us or that the forecast is wrong and it’s not as hot as they are saying but they are now saying 41c 🥵 and worse it will be around 33c at night. This is one of the times I am glad it is at least three degrees lower than it is in town.
Hilda the hedgehog is doing really well, very lively now and she weighs 101g so is putting on good weight. I think she would much rather be out in her natural habitat but given the temperatures at the minute it’s probably better that she isn’t. I have been regularly filling up all kinds of bowls and dishes for the birds and other animals including the other hedgehogs we have here making sure everything has access to water.
Monday 4th July 2022: Happy 4th of July to any Americans reading 🥳 Meanwhile back in Blighty I have been as busy as a bee. I have plenty of jobs on the list and was hoping to sear through a good few of them today but I got to lunchtime and my feet hurt, my back hurt and I was tired, hungry and thirsty so I sat down for an hour or so. If I do t sit down and rest I am not very productive for the rest of the day and evening so I may as well sit, rest and refuel. I started off this morning watering because although it rained where we were on Saturday it didn’t rain much here 😏 It keeps looking like it is going to rain but we are not getting anything and the ground is drying up very quickly when we do get something. It’s weird at the minute because it July for goodness sake but it’s like the weather doesn’t know that and it was even chilly in the late evening, almost frost weather I would go as far as to say 🙄 It’s not going to last though as temps will be climbing again by the weekend, to ridiculous degrees 😝 all or nothing that’s the UK weather these days. Next I went on to do some weeding and then some harvesting of various crops, potatoes, carrots, broad beans, peas, elephant garlic (just the one) artichoke, courgettes, kohlrabi, then strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and gooseberries. I then spent an hour harvesting all the blackcurrants that are growing on one bush, a big haul. I have two bushes (two that I use, the others I leave for the birds) so I cut the branches off on one bush and harvest the blackcurrants that way, the other does not have any on because I did the same to that one last year and the currants grow on two year old wood. Now I have a pile of goodies sitting in the kitchen that I need to process lol. I wanted to get the rest of the red currants harvested and the gooseberries but I needed a rest first. I also have plants I want to get planted up, cuttings to take, seeds to sow and I have no idea how I thought I would get all that done in one day 😂
Todays haul, roasted veg for dinner tonight I think 🥰
We have had issue with the fox as you know, John dragged out the trap and we caught it and had it dealt with. Less than an hour later I was working in the garden when I heard a hen doing a ‘I am being chased noise’ I went to the fence and by then patch was tearing across the field after, yep, another bloody fox 🤬 I got a bucket of corn, went to the front and got all the hens inside the safety of the outside run, I had only just let them out because I thought it would be safe for the day, bloody relentless! They are clearly urban because it’s rare to see a country fox out in the broad daylight, they know better than that, these are not scared of people being around and they are not scared when you get up close which indicates they are used to people. I am thinking they have been ‘relocated’ which is a pretty cruel practice if you ask me. If pest control are called out to deal with foxes in someone’s garden, they should be dealt with there and then, but what happens is the householder asks for it to be trapped and released 😏 This is not good for a fox who is used to being able to find leftover McChicken in bins, they are hungry, they don’t understand the pitfalls of the countryside, they get injured and maimed and catch mange, there is no kindness in this at all. The numbers are so great they are competing for what little food there is available and so they go for an easy target, our hens, in the middle of the day no less, it’s never going to end well 😞 This is only my opinion of course, but it is based on fact because I live and work in the countryside and I don’t mean in a posh house with an office at the end of the garden!
Finally sit down at 9.30pm, oh my days every time I turn round there is another job to do and another and another and none of them can really wait. I spent the evening in the garden, planting up and watering and then I thought I will sort out the plants in the cold frame that are potted up. I get plenty of failures and so I went through them and threw out the ones that were dead or dying or I couldn’t be bothered to keep anymore, I discovered leather jackets! No wonder things are not growing very well 🤬 if it isn’t one thing it’s something else but at least I now know it’s not my incompetence 🙄 The nematodes I got for the vine weevil in the front beds worked really well and everything is now growing as it should so I have ordered nematodes for the leather jackets and hope that works just as well. Leather jackets are crane fly larvae (daddy long legs) the adults don’t do any harm but the larvae munch on plant roots, normally you would find them in the lawn but for some reason I have an infestation in my pots 🤷♀️ Next spring I will arm myself with nematodes before growing begins 😝 I still haven’t got round to doing the cuttings yet but I will get there eventually. Tomorrow I have a big bouquet to cut for and some really nice flowers are now coming on, there are a few cosmos for pops of colour as well as zinnia and even a few dahlias. One thing I have discovered is that I much prefer the spring flowers to the summer ones even if the summer ones are the showstoppers 🥰
Tuesday: Up early as I have a fair few flowers to cut this morning 😁 then onto cutting for drying 😝 then picking soft fruits, gooseberry’s and redcurrants today. Just about got all that done when Sam arrived with the twins for the afternoon. After dinner was done I did an hour or so outside but to be honest I am knackered today so finished at 9pm 😝
Wednesday: I had planned on a relaxed day today, I made up the bouquets that were going out today, let the ducks out, did the eggs and pootled around. Midday and a customer was coming to collect a bouquet, I had a phone call initially and she wanted 3 x bouquets and wanted some pictures sent so she knew what they were like. I sent the pictures and said I can do anywhere from £10 upwards and so she wrote back and said £30 please. I had got her £30 flowers ready and when she collected she was delighted and then asked where the other two bouquets were 😣 We apologised for both miss communicating and I was very professional and said ‘it’s no problem, I can get them cut, conditioned and delivered by this evening’ All the while I was thinking s**t what have I got left in the garden to cut that hasn’t already be allocated to another bouquet 😂 Luckily it was overcast as well because cutting flowers in the midday sun is not ideal, not for the flowers nor for me 🙄 Plus once cut they had a good four hours conditioning, not ideal again but the minimum amount at least. I went round (amazingly enough, not in a panic) and cut anything and everything I could see that I could use including two beautiful gladioli that had been hiding in a bush! All is well and I learnt a very good lesson in precise wording lol. I am very definitely going to be expanding this side of things going forward, I am loving it and so are the customers, I just need to identify a stable for conversion to a workshop now 😝
With all flowers delivered, dinner cooked and eaten it was more work in the garden for the evening.
Thursday: Up and about, flowers to cut for another bouquet plus I cut a lot of shorted stems for jam jars, might as well cut them that encourages another flush of some of the plants but also they don’t just go over and get wasted. Once that was done and a bit of watering plus all the usual morning jobs including letting the ducks out it was time for the farrier to arrive. Sam and the twin arrived just beforehand and while I got the twins to feed the tortoises, Sam got the horses in to have their pedicures 😁 Sam left before they were done as the twins had an afternoon session at nursery so I turned the horses back out. I cleaned out the water buckets and left one to fill up while I took the head collars back to the stables, I picked up a broom and started sweeping down the hard standing where all their hoof clipping were and yep you guessed totally forgot that I had left the water on 😝 Luckily while sweeping I suddenly realised and although it was overflowing it had only been about ten minutes. Once that was done I did a bit in the garden until around 1.30 then went in for some lunch and a sit down. I had just finished making up some jam jar flowers when Sam and the children arrived again this time for Mia’s swimming lesson, the twins stayed here and had their dinner, they were then collected and off they all went. I then had to make up a bouquet for collection this evening and someone was also coming for a jam jar. Dinner then John played pool with the lads while I watered the garden and then watched an online summer flower festival with our flower group. Charlie had come over with Macca and so she did some watering for me and stayed outside doing that while I watched the flower festival which was fab of her, it freed me up to do something I wanted to do but also meant that an important job was still getting done.
Friday: Boy was I up early today 😂 4.45am, well I woke up and thought I might as well get up and get on so I did exactly that in my pyjamas 😝 Mostly watering, some cutting back and some seed sowing, there is still time to sow annual flowers so I did cornflowers, I also sowed stocks which are biennials. They will get big enough to transplant by September into a permanent bed and then they will flower next year. I was just picking courgettes when John called me, it was about 7.30am, there is a tiny baby hedgehog right in the middle of the path by the hay bar he said. So off I went with him to have a look, yep it’s tiny all right, we have a great hedgehog population here and I am used to seeing them about, I am even used to seeing them nearly as small as that but they are usually very near the nest site or their mother, neither of these were nearby. I left it for a few hours just in case mum came back or it made its way home but it was still there when I went back so I gathered it up and took it back with me. First observation was that it had a tick so I removed that, second that it’s eyes were tightly shut so I think it’s around two weeks old, third it only weighed 89g so way to young to be out on its own and probably (almost definitely) still suckling. How it got there I don’t know, I looked around for other siblings but couldn’t see anything and I have no idea where the nest would be at the back. If it was in the side paddock then it will be under the decking as that’s where I regularly see hogs, I have seen them at the back but the hedge row is so long and the nest site could be anywhere along there 🤷♀️ I tried phoning the British hedgehog society but the phone was constantly busy so I emailed them and they got back to me quickly and gave me a number for the local wildlife rescue lady. She has covid and can’t come out but between reading the rearing pamphlet, the lady’s reply’s to my questions and the fact that we have all the equipment needed here I felt I was pretty well prepared to look after it. First it needed rehydrating with a sugar and salt preparation (carefully weighed out in the correct quantities) not a problem I have made that kind of solution before. Then it needed heat, not a problem we have heat lamps, I found a box, put in some straw and put it in a quiet dark room. Then we needed goats milk, quick phone all to John who arrived with said goats milk. We have tiny syringes so that fine, I sterilised everything before using and gave it some fluid, you will have to use a little force to get it in its mouth the lady had told me (but not too much) yep well I have had fed plenty of baby animals so that was all ok. Once it was time for the milk I warmed it to blood temp filled the syringe with 4ml of the milk and went to feed it. I seriously don’t think I have ever seen anything cuter than a baby hog feeding from and tiny syringe 😍 It drank the first 4ml so I offered it another 2ml and after the first one it even put its little paw on the syringe to move it away, it was full up 🥰 little happy dance done I then had to do the next part. It’s face has to be cleaned after eating or drinking, wipe a cotton bud dipped in a mix of olive oil and water to clean it and keep the skin from drying out and then you have to stimulate it to wee and poop lol just like it’s mother would, luckily I have also done this before with kittens and puppies. Again that is done using a cotton bud dipped in the oil and water. Job done I put it back in the box with an old tea towel for a comfort blanket and left it to sleep. Everything then sterilised again until the next time in around three hours 😂 I seriously hope it makes it and if it does I will be a very happy hog mummy 😁
Oh yes before all of that I went off to get my fifth vaccination and so I had planned on having a restful day 😂
Saturday: Hilda the hedgehog is doing well I am pleased to say, she has opened her eyes and is more mobile though shaky on her legs still, eating well and pooping and weeing so hopefully this will end well. Just a few more weeks of feeding her up and then she can be released.
My vaccination has floored me 😏 totally exhausted, headache, unable to do anything for more than ten minutes before I need a sit down, lie down or indeed a sleep. All the others did not affect me at all but with this one I have a thick head and am on the paracetamol 😝 Not what I needed this weekend, I was supposed to go to my friends 60th birthday party tonight but I was just too tired to function, even eating tired me out, and I feel quite teary 🤷♀️ There is definitely an immune response as I can feel it in my hands and joints so hopefully it’s doing good at least. Tomorrow we have Charlie’s baby shower and I hope I feel better in the morning as I have an awful lot of things to do beforehand. It’s afternoon tea in the garden but still there is furniture to move about, sandwiches to make, crockery to wash, etc, etc and right at this minute I have not got very far at all 🙄 It is also bloody hot today and going to get hotter which means I have no hope of getting anything done outside past 10.30am, so it’s indoors in the dark, cool for me for the foreseeable future. So many events happening this weekend out and about and I won’t be attending any of them for fear of frying and shrivelling and setting off a flare, fml sometimes, I tell myself there are worse situations to be in but that doesn’t really help knowing that I am constantly missing out on life in the sun 😢
Sunday: Luckily I woke up feeling fine this morning, just as well as I had a long list of things to get sorted for the Charlie’s baby shower. We had a traditional English afternoon tea with triangle sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, a selection of delicious cakes and a few other goodies for good measure 😁 We had a busy morning setting it all up then a very relaxing time sitting and enjoying it and then…..a water fight 😂 well it was very hot and the kids had the paddling pool out and one thing led to another 💦
It is set to get seriously hot over the next week, I am having to constantly work to keep some things alive, even well established bushes are beginning to show signs of lack of water and I imagine the grass will be dead before the week is out 🙄 but I will be getting up super early and doing my best to keep it all going lol.
Little Hilda is doing great, she is now on cat food mixed with goats milk and it’s ad lib so she can please herself. I gave her a bigger pen so that she can have a mooch about and stretch her legs. Have you heard the screech they make, it’s like a warning screeching think, she also has sharp teeth and she is already pretty strong, moving the bowl with her snout or forefeet.
Monday 27th June 2022: Blimey where is the year going, shooting by fast 😝 We have a lot of family social events coming up over the next couple of months and so the time will probably shoot by faster than I would like it too, it won’t be a relaxed summer more a full on charge.
It was lovely and sunny when I first woke up this morning and that’s when I should have got up, but I didn’t, I fell asleep again and then when I woke up next time it was raining 🌧 I am happy to see a bit of rain but I also needed to cut flowers and I got soaked doing that, my own fault I should have got up earlier 🤪 I have plenty of flowers to do this week coming and am waiting patiently for the the summer blooms to appear, they are coming I can see the flower heads they are just not opening yet. I have plenty of veg and soft fruit to get out and pick too but I will wait until later in the day and hopefully I will have dried out a little by then. The rain is a double edged sword, desperately needed to get things growing but it hinders the harvesting, treading on wet soil will damage the structure of it and make a mess to boot if I try planting anything, damp soil is ideal. No matter I have plenty of other jobs to keep me busy 😂 Soft wood cuttings can be done at this time of year as well as things like carnations and pinks. It’s time for sowing biennial seeds though I am wondering if I should bother or not, jury’s out on sweet Williams, not sure if they are worth the bother and wall flowers well, not really my favourite. Rocket and honesty though, they are delightful additions and of course the honesty seed heads are a favourite for drying. My flower drying space is rapidly being filled up and I am already looking at other areas to use, I also need to do a bit of reading up about storing large amounts of dried flowers and grasses which I may do today as it is raining.
The fox got in to my neighbours hens and had the lot 😤 it’s pretty soul destroying when that happens, we are constantly on the lookout and it’s pretty tiring I can tell you. The fox we are seeing looks like a youngster probably last years cub, it is around at all times of the day and evening and raiding our compost bins over night. It is constantly around which means it is probably living close by somewhere, I can definitely smell it when it’s about.
The weather is changeable today, one minute sunshine the next rain, I am doing the hokey, Cokey 🤪 Actually I spent a bit of time in the greenhouse, I had collected some cuttings from dianthus, hydrangea and gaura so I potted those up and also sowed some honesty and sweet william as well as some more zinnia. There is soo much to do at this time of year that I don’t know if I am coming or going at times, just keep moving forward, that’s the key.
After a pit stop lunch I got on with doing the first lot of flowers that were being collected this afternoon. A new customer that wants regular flowers which is fabulous and has a client that may also want regular flowers (little happy dance here) I also just confirmed another order for early July 😁 With the orders coming in really well it’s time to think about next years flowers already and I have just put in an order for some beautiful Italian ranunculus in various colours. The problem is where will I put them 😂 Don’t worry I will find somewhere to squeeze them in, I was a bit late for these this year but oooo they are going to be stunning next year 🥰
Busy afternoon and busy evening it never stops 🙄 Late afternoon I was cutting flowers for drying then decided I needed more drying space so I found an unused welly rack and got John to put that up, even now it won’t be enough space and I am trying to work out where else I can get some hanging 😂 The problem is the boot room gets dusty as does the back area so they are no good really, I am using space in the pantry as well but I could really do with a nice garage with high eaves 😝 Then after dinner I went out to cut some dead stuff back, feed a few things that are struggling, plant a few bits to fill gaps, water the plants in the cold frame area and then pick some strawberries, raspberries and red currants before they go over. Finally sitting down at 10pm! It will be bedtime in ten minutes I reckon.
Tuesday: Up and about, jump in the shower, get the washing on, hang it out, pray it doesn’t rain 😝 Windy enough to dry it quickly today, mixed bag, some sun, plenty of wind, colder when there is cloud cover. Have a hair cut, crack on with the mornings work. The work was planting up anything I have in pots to fill gaps in the front beds. But first each pot needed a thorough watering as did the soil I was digging into, it is as dry as a bone despite rain last Saturday, I definitely need to dig in a good amount of well rotted manure, the soil is great looking but lacking somewhat in substance. I still have gaps, I think last year I filled them with lots of bedding dahlias some of which have returned this year I am happy to say. I may even take the chance of leaving my bigger dahlia tubers in the ground and cover them, it will save an awful lot of work and storing over winter. That took me up lunchtime when I came in for a good sit down, cue John coming home and ‘have you been sat down all morning’ 😤 It is always a working lunch unless I am really tired then it’s a nap 😝 but today I was reading up about dried flowers and storing them, mostly reading Bex Partridge’s blog, her dried flowers are awesome, the colours are amazing and she will have a go at drying anything, nothing ventured, nothing gained 😁 With the inspiration fresh in my mind I set out after lunch to cut flowers for drying.
Before I knew where I was it was 3pm and I had not only read a lot on dried flowers but also ordered a hydropod cuttings propagator, oops. Well as I am notoriously rubbish at cuttings I thought I may as well give myself a helping hand and the reviews are fabulous, I even know someone in person who has one and says it’s brilliant.
Greenhouse Sensations Hydropod cuttings propagator, I will give it a whirl and see how I get on.
A bit of cutting back, weeding and watering the small raised bed at the other side of the house while the dinner was cooking, then dinner, then deliver some flowers, then pop to the shop to get some meat for a bbq at my brothers tomorrow, pop to Mums for a cuppa and say hello to my Aussie family, back home, cut some flowers for tomorrow’s bouquet (because it is supposed to rain overnight and early morning) and finally cut some shade netting and tie in sausage shapes around the cherry tree branches so that I actually get some this year, and that’s another day done.
The Aussie family have been to Sardinia for a week to meet up with Monique’s Dad who is from Czechoslovakia and they flew back to the UK today. They are here until Friday when they will be going home and so tomorrow we are having a bbq at my other brothers house hence the shopping.
I am determined to get some cherries this year, normally the bloody birds strip the tree clean before I even get one. Josh said to me the other day ‘ are you doing cherry pie this year Nana, we have cherry pie every year don’t we’ 🥰 Well the fact is that we only ever had it once, the one year I was able to get some but if my Grandson wants cherry pie and thinks we have it every year then I am doing my utmost to make sure that is the case 😂 hence the sausage wrapped branches on the tree, I will get cherries for that pie 🥧
Wednesday: A busy day as always with an even busier afternoon/evening. I had multiple phone conversations about the ride on mower that went to be fixed, basically it’s so old they cannot get the parts anymore. We have had our moneys worth from it and so we are getting another second hand one. Flowers to do for the weekly delivery, once they were made up we went off to deliver them, then onto look at the mower we are going to buy and then straight from there to my brothers for a bbq evening with the family to say goodbye to my brother and his family who will be flying home tomorrow.
Thursday: A busy morning again trying to get everything done before 10am when someone was coming to collect some plants and then a friend arriving for a DIY bucket of flowers for a wedding she is doing for her friend on Saturday. We have not seen each other in person for about 8 years I think but it’s one of those friendships that just picks up where it left off. We met at college on an Organic Gardening course and so have a lot in common, she owns a very successful green roof company, Oxford Green Roofs, and we had plenty to catch up on and stories to tell. A good few hours of uplifting chatter and positive vibes, plus flower talk, brilliant. After she left I had just enough time to grab a cup of tea before the twins arrived for their Thursday afternoon visit while Mia goes swimming.
Friday: Up early again to get jobs done before going out for the day, such a busy social life at the minute 😂 all or nothing just like growing produce. I got the bouquet made up and some jam jar flowers to go out, did the eggs, plus numerous jobs that I can’t even remember. Then off to get some routine blood tests done, return home, eat some breakfast and hand over a bouquet to a customer. Whizz round and do any last minute things before Shelley arrives and we go off for the day strawberry picking with the three youngest grandchildren. As the twins are always eyeing up my strawberries I thought it would be great to take them where there are thousands of them to pick 🥰 They had a great time and Lucies very primal cry when she saw all the lovely juicy red berries was hilarious.
Back home mid afternoon and time for a sit down and maybe a power nap, if I didn’t then I was never going to function well for the rest of the day.
Once recovered I sorted out dinner, put that on to cook and did various jobs like soft fruit picking plus cherries as well, cut a lot of flowers that are too short for bouquets but will do beautifully in jam jars, got the eggs sorted and ready for the morning, watered the tunnels, watched a live online weekly round up with the flower growing group I am with and then gardeners world, day done. Both of the things I was watching reminded me that I still have a lot of jobs to do in the coming week 🙄
Saturday: Up early getting the jam jar flowers made up (still in my pyjamas) getting the egg shed loaded ready for the day ahead, sorting out household bits and then getting ready for the day ahead because I am out again today as well 😝 Hen party today, fancy dress 🤪 And it’s not like me to say this but I rather hope the weather warms up a tad as it’s rather cloudy and breezy today 😏
Just for fun, a little hand held for Sam to carry on her hen do today x
It rained most of the day but that was fine we had a fabulous day on the river 😁 Great fun was had by all, plenty of drink, food and silly games 😂
Unfortunately we lost 7 hens to the fox 🤬 John was one of those giving us all a lift and we left around 11am, he was gone for an hour and a bit and when he drove back in the drive he could see dead chickens all over the front paddock. We lost 3 yesterday as well, all from the front so all our young hens that we haven’t even had our moneys worth out of yet 😏 Totally exasperating, night time raids or even evening ones is one thing but in the middle of the bloody daytime is quite another, what a waste of time, energy and money, feeling deflated 😞
Sunday: I went to bed early last night, it was a tiring day lol, consequently though I woke early this morning 🙄 So at 4.30 I made a cup of tea and took it back to drink in bed while reading. I got up about 5.30 and cracked on with some jobs, might as well get an early start. We went out around 9.30 (kept the hens in the safety of their outdoor pens today) we had some breakfast out, bought some plants, bought an old book on growing flowers for cutting and then made our way home. That was harder than it sounds, first we encountered an accident that had not long happened and the traffic was backed up, once we got past that we headed home on the bypass. Got to the end of it to join the A40 and that was closed for resurfacing, now I am all in favour of them resurfacing the roads but the least they could do was put a sign at the previous exit to say you can’t get off further down 😂 There is a roundabout so everyone was going either all the way round and back on the bypass or off the first exit. We chose the first exit, thought we will cut through left to the nearest village and along the back roads and get back home the other way. Nope every Tom, dick and Harry was thinking the same thing and from the other direction too which caused a blockage in the narrow roads through. We headed back from the direction we came and took the next right through a different village to try and get back across towards home, well the traffic was heavy, every back lane we were driving along so was everyone else, blimey 😧 we didn’t expect that today.
We haven’t really done anything else today apart from attempt to watch the Grand Prix which has had troubles of its own, luckily everyone is ok. What is funny is that we were sat watching the warm up programme and the Red Arrows went over our house and then 10mins or so later there they were on the telly at Silverstone 😝
I have spent a fair amount of time reading about sowing biennials, taking cuttings and Autumn sowing, plus updating my profile on the Flowers from the Farm page. I had a call from my sister to say that she was talking to a florist about 15miles away from us and telling her about me and my flowers and she asked where I was and then said oh yes I have heard about her flowers 😁 (I assume it was in a good way 😂) I am not really planning on doing much today to be honest, I think it’s ok to take a break every now and then isn’t it (even if there are tons of jobs to be done)
Have a great week, either enjoy what you do or do what you enjoy 😊
These poppies are absolutely gorgeous but even with the correct conditioning they will only last around 3 days in a vase. The way to get good value from these is to cut some of the stems in ‘cracked bud’ form so that one the first ones have gone over the next lot are flowering 😁
frieslandfarm (flowers) 