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
frieslandfarm (flowers) 