Month: August 2022

Posted in Friesland Farm

Tomatoes, flowers & a new Grandson 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd August 2022: A fairly nondescript kind of day as far as the weather went, not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not too rainy. We did have a tiny smattering of rain but nothing worth writing home about, could have done with a bit more to be honest. Once the morning jobs were done and John had gone to work I started cutting flowers for an order today. Where I have been occupied elsewhere for a few days the flowers have been blooming all over the place and so I cut extras. I made up a couple of jam jars and some small bunches to go out for sale in the flower shed. I then spent the morning processing the apples I picked a while back, the tomatoes that have been piling up in the kitchen and some figs that my sister gave me. The apples were stewed and some were frozen, one lot I put in a jar and will keep in the fridge to use up fairly soon. The tomatoes were softened then sieved and I have a nice jar of passata and a pour and store bag of tomato juice that will be frozen for soups. With the figs I made an apple and fig jam, it made about 2 and a half pounds of jam but as I am slightly worried about the setting point not being hot enough I think I will keep those in the fridge too. Once that was all done and washed up I made up the bouquet being collected later and then Sam arrived with the children as the farrier was coming to do the horses and he wanted to come earlier than originally arranged. They all left, the flowers were collected and then John arrived home, he discovered that George and his tap turning on antics had struck again. This time is was the tap by the hard standing, the hose goes into the duck pen and so it would have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for John going out to todo the feed round earlier than he usually does. I think I will have to do a tap round after he has been every time 😝 just to make sure he hasn’t turned any on. got the dinner made, washed up and then john went out to rake up the grass he cut the other day, me, well I was too tired to do much else.

From this…
……to this.

Thursday: Ooops sorry lost a few days 😂 Not even sure I can remember what exactly I have been doing this be honest. Mostly the usual day to day stuff. Yesterday evening I cut a lot of flowers for a big order of bouquets and posies 🥰 and this morning I spent a couple of hours making them up for collection mid morning. After that as I was already in flower mode I did the final bits to the table flowers and the bridesmaid posies for the wedding next week. I am also still drying flower petals for the confetti, hopefully there will be enough, I do like the idea of fresh petals though, they look really pretty when first harvested. I had the twins while Mia went swimming late afternoon and oh yes it rained 😁 Just as I was about to put the washing out this morning I could hear it on the roof so I didn’t bother and then about an hour later we had proper rain, not a downpour but enough to freshen up the garden.

One of two cutting buckets ready for making up into posies.

I can finally let you know where my time and thoughts have been spent this last week, we have a new grandson 🥰 Oscar was born last Friday but it wasn’t straightforward and he was in the HDU until today when he was discharged to come home. Charlotte had a long and difficult labour too and was also a little unwell after. It has been a rollercoaster of a week with emotions up one minute and down the next but luckily we have world class hospitals and staff in Oxford and today they have all come home to begin life as a family together x x

Friday: It’s been really quiet here today so I took the opportunity to pootle about just doing this and that. A bit of flower cutting for drying, sorting out the freezer (discovering forgotten delights) some reading up on various subjects, looking at ideas for flowers both fresh and dried. One thing I came across were corn dollies. Of course I have seen them before and we used to make them when I was in primary school but that was a very long time ago and I was sad to read that the craft is on the endangered list of heritage crafts here in the UK. At one time every rural school probably would have a corn dolly making session for harvest time but not any more it seems. I find it really sad that we are losing our traditions, I know there are groups out there that keep them alive but what about day to day folk, they don’t even know about half of them. Compared to other European countries, which seem to be rich in traditions that they still practice, we have either been diluted or diluted our rich heritage ourselves 😢 If anyone out there still makes them I would love to know and love to see your creations x

Sunday: I have been terribly bad at the blog this week 🙃 Yesterday was a very busy day starting with plenty of gardening, filling up the last couple of raised beds we repositioned. They are now all planted with perennials such as different types of hydrangeas, hibiscus, roses, agastache, aster, should look amazing next year 😀 George and Lucie came for an hour mid morning and so they ‘helped’ Grampy get a few wheelbarrows full of woodchip to put on the new pathway between the beds. Once Sam and Mia came back from riding I went with them round to Charlie and Maccas so they could all meet their new cousin Oscar. Back home for a bit before going round to my nieces at 4pm for her 21st birthday celebrations which went on into the evening, a great time was had by all at the ABBA themed party 🎉

Today we went out after getting the morning jobs sorted, I was determined to find the two plants that I have on my ‘want’ list. Success today at a nursery rather than a garden centre 😀 we did stop in at another garden centre on the way home and had some breakfast. I did some more planting up, John did some garden tidying and the rest of the day was more relaxed, a film, the Grand Prix, nothing too taxing. I completely forgot it is a Bank Holiday tomorrow, an extra day with my labourer at home, bonus 😂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain! It rained 😁 thank you for the rain, I am so happy it finally rained 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th August 2022: I have taken to watching the rain radar, a live website so I can either see some relief or disappointment approaching 🤪 This morning, though I intended to get up early, I didn’t, so I was then playing catch up. I didn’t water, I am hoping that is done for me today 🙏 but I did cut flowers and harvest loads of tomatoes, cucumbers and baby courgettes, if it stays fairly overcast I can get a good bit done today including picking more plums and apples. We have an abundance of cooking apples this year, typical as we have had none for two years and now more than we could ever use or store. I am giving them away as I don’t want to see them going to waste at all. I have, in anticipation of some precipitation, cast some mixed seeds in the grass at the drive entrance to see if I can pretty that up for next year and I have also cast some pelleted chicken manure on the ornamental beds, hopefully the rain 🙄 will wash that in. The one thing that is great about today is that it is noticeably cooler 😁😁 smiles all round today without that relentless heat that you cannot even think straight in let alone work 🤪

I thought I would make a start on changing the beds around in the veg garden, the small raised beds are all north to southish but I want to change them east to westish to give me a long line of two that I can walk in between making it easier to get to things on all sides. Some of the beds are now empty so I can get on with moving them around and replanting them with perennials for cutting. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it, I mean it’s overcast and not as hot as it was and rain is on the way pffft. Not that easy as it turns out, the sun has decided to pee me right off and keep peeping out from the clouds, it is actually bloody hot when you are hefting and shifting and there is no sign of any water droplets let alone some decent rain! I can’t get the bloody box straight no matter how many times I try partly because it’s difficult diving back and forth to the shade, the sweat is running off me and I just want to cry because I just want to get something achieved but can’t, fml. All the while I know John will do it when he comes home but I would have really liked to do it and get the job moving in the right direction, right at this minute I bloody hate having Lupus and I bloody hate getting old and I bloody hate the total lack of rain 🤬 Just for once it would be nice if things went a little more smoothly instead of a constant uphill battle to achieve the smallest of things 😢 First world problems I know but it’s my problem to bleat on about ok 😝 I am not a quitter, never have been, never will be so as soon as I have cooled off a little both physically and mentally, I will be back out there having another go and who knows I may even manage it 🤷‍♀️

I didn’t manage it but luckily I have John 😁 not only did he do that one he did four others as well. I was helping of course as well as getting the dinner and watering at the same time. I now have two of the beds planted up, one with herbs for cutting, English Mace, sage, oregano, Angelica and I have all my different mints, apple, variegated and chocolate, in a very large pot. In the next bed I planted agastache, a short but airy verbena (the name escapes me) a very tall, white aster and some other things that I am too tired to remember right now. The next bed is already planted and staying where it is, it has three rose bushes in there and is now a bit bigger so I will be adding another rose. The next two need filling with soil and I haven’t quite decided what will go where but it is likely to be hydrangeas in one and who knows what in the next one. After that there is a row of honey berry bushes and an apple tree which will all be staying put and then the beds carry on, I have decided that the grasses do really well there so they will be permanent grass bed with all kinds of different grasses for cutting.

It rained! While we were working, well just finishing up, it started raining, lasted about five minutes and then stopped 🙄 not much but it felt really, really good 😊

Tuesday: I was up early and outside to get some flower cutting done, the main reason being the rain forecast today, I didn’t want the tall blooms I need this week to get bashed by any heavy rain. It was already sitting with rain which continued for a good while. Mid morning I went out for coffee with Charlie, back before midday and Sam and the children were here and then rain 🌧 real rain 🌧 a substantial amount of wonderful, wet rain 😂 happy, happy, happy, happy me, happy plants 😁 and tonight I finally get a night off from watering 🥰

Wednesday: I got up early this morning out of habit but I didn’t need to water as the ground was still damp in places 😁 So once all the morning it’s were done I got on with dried flowers instead. I have to say I love, love, love drying flowers and I have begun to construct the flowers for Sam and Luke’s wedding, they look fabulous even if I do say so myself, I definitely want to do more dried flower bouquets. I cleared away mid morning as Shelley and Sam arrived with the children, Charlie popped in too, she went home and then the rest of us went for a walk up to the downs. I got back mid afternoon and John arrived home in time for me to go and deliver a flower bouquet to my weekly customer and some jam jar flowers which I donated for their charity raffle which was happening today along with a cake sale.

Once back home I decided to do more dried flowers so from 3pm to 9pm I spent my time making up table arrangement bouquets x 8 and then sorting all the flowers out into separate bundles so that I can clearly see what I have. I had just picked them randomly and hung them to dry so they were mixed bunches, now they are all in coordinated bunches 😁 I just have two large arrangements to make for the wedding and then the flowers are done. While clearing up I watched an online talk in my flower group, it was all about herbs and the different types that are great for flower arranging, definitely going to be getting some more unusual ones as herbs always smell and look fab in with flowers.

Plenty of dried flower material to work with 😁

Thursday: I didn’t do very much today apart from bimble about 😂 I did make up a bouquet of flowers ready to be delivered in the evening. We went out to deliver the flower bouquet which was an un successful delivery 🙄 and an hour or so later returned home to get the animals done and the dinner on. We were still eating at 7.30pm when Martin arrived to play pool with John for their Thursday night session.

Friday: Awake super early and did a few normal jobs, then picked a few lbs of tomatoes, some cucumbers and some courgettes, fed the torts and plenty of overripe cucumbers to the quail, guineas, rabbit and chickens. Shelley came to pick me up at 9.45 and we went out to get coffee and cake. I went back to Shelley’s and spent an hour or so doing a drawing class with Josh, he was teaching me not the other way round as he is fabulous at it 😁 I came home and did some housework, hoovering polishing etc.

I contacted another customer about the flowers I had cut and arranged that didn’t get delivered and they are going to have them so that’s brilliant, no wasted flowers though a fair bit of my time wasted, I will put it down to experience.

Saturday: Up and about did a few household bits, then some shopping then delivered the flowers, back home and John got the mower out to do a bit more mowing. Went round to my sisters in the evening and she had lots of lovely ripe figs from

Sunday: John was busy today digging up any ragwort in the paddocks and then topping it just taking the very top of any growth off. There is not a lot of growth to be fair and the paddocks are still brown, the ones the horses have eaten off are just left with the odd weed standing proud but dead so that is what has been cut.

Not much from me this week as I have been busy elsewhere, all is well but I will tell you about it when it’s appropriate 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

It’s hot and dry, that is all I have to say 🥵

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 9th August 2022: No idea what I did on Monday apart from cut a whole load of flowers for an order that was cancelled 😏 and went to my brothers in the evening for his birthday. The rest is a blur 😝

Tuesday: After making up a couple of jam jars, sorting flowers for drying and making up a bouquet I went to Shelley’s with Charlie, Sam and the twins also went and we spent most of the day there. Shelley made lunch and the children played indoors some of the time and with the splash mat outside some of the time. It was hot 🥵

When I came home I had half an hour sit down and then spent 4 hours watering, yes 4 bloody hours of my life watering. Watering everything that was necessary, about two thirds of everything, the other third I have had to let take it’s chance 😔 Normally, in a normal year I would only be concentrating on the tunnels, greenhouse and anything in pots but this year it has to include all the beds both ornamental and vegetable. We have had no significant rain since we came back from our holiday in early June and coupled with that we have had ridiculously high temperature consistently and it’s not over yet. This means in order to keep everything alive I have to constantly water, the fact that I didn’t do any last night has a big knock on effect the next day. It’s tiring but I have invested a lot of time and effort into the veg, flowers and ornamental beds and so I can’t just give up, not to mention the money that plants cost. To give up now would cost me dearly, mentally, emotionally and financially, this year has taken gardeners by surprise but I will make sure it doesn’t happen again next year 🙄

Wednesday: It’s sooo bloody hot that evening standing around makes you sweat 😅 uuurgh give me back the traditional English weather if I wanted relentless heat I would go on holiday to a hot country and that is something we don’t do 😂

Busy morning of getting jobs done, cutting flowers for delivery today and then on to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and plums. I also decided that damage limitation was called for and pulled the cabbage and kohl Rabi plus carrots, it’s too hard trying to keep them watered so time to get them in the freezer. The courgettes I am picking when they are small (baby) so that I don’t need to water as much as I would to get them to normal size. From here on in fruit and outside veg will have to take their chances, I will only be watering the necessary plants.

I then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon prepping it all for the freezer. Slicing, chopping, peeling, blanching, bagging, cooling and finally freezing. I also made up three batches of crumble mix, stewed some apples with sugar and some maple syrup and made up four small apple crumbles which went into the freezer along with a bag of crumble mix. I did intend to make some plum jam but in all honestly I was tired by then and still had flowers to make up so I cleared away, washed up and I will do the jam in the next couple of days.

John came home early and went off to deliver the flowers for me, I had a phone call from the neighbouring farm to say they had lost some piglets and could I keep an eye out for them, I haven’t seen them yet but hopefully they will find them soon.

Tonight I will not be able to get any watering done as we are off on a short train journey for an evening trip. It’s going to be a round of watering for me again tomorrow that will take hours 🙄

With the complete lack of rain we have decided to increase the amount of rain we can hold, the amount that comes off our roof is an awful lot so makes sense to hold as much of it as possible and so we have ordered another 12,000 litres of tanks, that will take us up to around 30,000litres of water storage. Sod’s law we won’t even need it next year but ‘be prepared’ is a sensible mantra I reckon and so prepared is what I will be, for that at least.

If you are reading this and living in a hot, dry climate then all tips appreciated 😁 Approx 9th June was the last time we had any significant rain and temps have been at least 25c and mostly in the 30s pushing up just beyond 40c 🥵 According to farmers there is no significant rain in the forecast for at least another 30 days 🙄 crops are suffering as well as wildlife. Last night while watering I noticed around 30 sparrows making a racket in a puddle of water I had made on the driveway, I went into the garden and collected up all the shallow dishes I could find and filled them with water for them. A Robin was also sat in the tree watching me and so I filled up the bird bath (which I do daily) and watched him enjoying a much needed bath lol. I know I am going to hate the winter weather when it comes but seriously this is another level of ridiculousness 😬 If it is climate change, it’s coming a lot faster than predicted, it’s not good news for the planet or anything that lives on it 😔

Thursday: No idea what I did and it’s too hot to care 😝 I did plant up some alstroemeria at around 9pm, it wasn’t much cooler but the light was fading and I wanted to get them into the ground. The moon was beautiful, almost a full moon but not quite, that comes tomorrow evening.

Friday: What can I say except, it’s hot and dry, I am basically just trying to get from day to day until hopefully one of the days the temperature falls or we have rain 🙄 I spent most of the day making up button holes and hair combs with dried flowers plus a small arrangement to fix to a headband. I can’t show you the pictures yet as it is for a wedding that hasn’t happened but when it does I will.

Saturday: I was up early as was John, he went off to get feed for the poultry, I did the usual household bits then outside to get some watering done, We then had to pop out for an hour and get back to hand over some flowers to a customer 🥰 I can’t remember what other jobs we did but there were a fair few before coming indoors for the middle part of the day and watch some films. Back out in the evening once it was cool enough and more watering, I watched the meteor shower for a while, saw three, before going to bed.

Sunday: Still bloody hot 🥵 seriously it’s scorching weather, relentless too. We were up early again and it was nice and cool at that time of the morning so I got some watering done, John said ‘shall we have more tea’ at 7am, ‘nope’ I replied ‘we need to get the small paddock cut before it gets too hot’ so that’s what we spent the next hour doing. It had got long (long but mostly dead) and needed tidying up. John carried on outside for a couple of hours while I came inside and made plum jam. The thing is that the fruit will not wait no matter how hot the temps are the jam still needs making 🙄 We then spent the hottest part of the day inside again and went back out until dark once it had cooled down a touch, though that is not much at the minute.

I am sure you are all feeling it too, hot and bothered, the paddocks are as dead as I have ever seen them, there are huge fissures opening up in the ground, the massive trees that are around 50 years old are beginning to wilt, the berries that the birds would be feeding on to fatten up for winter are shrivelling up and there is not a drop of water to be found anywhere for the wildlife such as bees, butterflies, birds, beetles etc. Each day I am trying to keep plants alive and each evening when I go out they are parched again. I deadheaded some roses earlier and the petals were crispy 😳 I don’t think I have ever sweated so much before even when sitting still, when I was outside I kept thinking something was crawling on my leg but no it’s just beads of sweat running 😂 I am not one for praying but spending most of my time just trying to keep things alive is seriously taking its toll on my sanity so I am praying the rain comes tomorrow. It will fill up the water butts and hopefully give me the day off from running around like an idiot, I may even be able to get something different done for a change. Anyone know any good rain dances 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Time to release Hilda, everywhere is parched & still no significant rain.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st August 2022: Last night Hilda had her first slug supper 🥰 I was glad she dived straight on it and devoured it because it means she knows what she should be eating and will be able to feed herself when she is released. She is also self anointing now which is another sign that she is capable of taking care of herself, I don’t know if they fully understand why hogs do his but they basically regurgitate and cover their spines in it 😝 Thoughts are that they cover their spines with toxins to protect from predators so I would say she is very ready to move on. I weighed her and she weighed 340g 😲 I have been making sure that we have as little interaction with her as possible and that I only feed her at night so that she doesn’t get used to food on tap during the day when she ought to be asleep. Basically I have made sure that the conditions she has been under were as close to her natural routine as possible to give her the best chance when she goes it alone. So it was release time 😁 I took her out in the dark and put her down near the shed and watched her for a while, she spent all the time I was watching, rubbing along the ground and self anointing which I guess is her way of marking territory 🤷‍♀️ I made sure there was water nearby and there are usually cat biscuits out by the door where diesel gets fed so I will also make sure that she can find those if she needs to. Job done ✔️ successfully reared and released and I will keep a look out for her to make sure she is doing ok, go forth and hedgehog Hilda 😂

Busy day today, John was home as my labourer 😂 so I set him to work on the compost area which had got a bit out of control. Meanwhile I did plenty of planting up and mulching, one bed of delphinium and one bed of Veronica and saliva. I also planted up various other plants that I got from the sale section at the garden centre 🥰 I sat down on my root bench mid morning and moved the blanket that had fallen on the floor and guess who was under it 😂 yep, Hilda, so I got my gloves and moved her to under the shed. We worked hard most of the day, even when the sun came out I found some jobs to do in the shade, a sit down late afternoon, cook dinner and then back out in the evening. We spent a couple of hours watering, weeding and then mulching the shrub bed in the front, this bed has suffered more than most for some reason, the two enormous orange ball budhliea probably sap all the moisture from the ground around them. Once that was done I went on to watering some of the beds in the garden area and then fill up the horses water. Just after dinner we were going out to do a bit and guess who came wandering towards us, Hilda 😂 I went and got her some soaked cat biscuits which she readily tucked into though she did eat a few slugs I found in a nearby pot as well. Once I had finished for the evening I sat on the bench outside, picked up the blanket which had fallen again and guess who was underneath 😂 yep you guessed it, Hilda 🤪 I have now made her a little house stuffed with straw which is next to the bench seeing as how that where she seems to want to be. I guess eventually she will be brave enough to wander off but for the time being she is still happy to be around me though she really does need to learn what exactly ‘nocturnal’ means 😝

Tuesday: Busy morning doing the usual then Charlie called in for a coffee and then Sam and the kids arrived. I was pretty tired today and so not a lot else got done to be honest apart from cooking dinner. No sign of Hilda today, she has gone off to hedgehog by herself hopefully 😁

Wednesday: Busy day 🙄 I began at 5.30am (and then I wonder why I am shattered by 2pm 😂) It was lovely and cool this morning, these humid, windy, overcast days are hard work 😓 The best time of the day is very early, quiet and peaceful as well as cool and fresh. This morning has been all about cutting flowers and harvesting veg, loads of both! Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and courgettes, flower of every colour and size and foliage to compliment them. Flowers and grasses for hanging to dry were also on my to do list, loving dried flowers, if you have a go at them then rip up the rule book and try anything. One of my favourite so far is antirrhinum and I wish I had done more but the truth is I just did one to see how it went 🙄 Once everything was gathered it was sorting the veg to go out for sale, tying up the flowers for drying and hanging those up and then onto making up jam jar flowers plus three bouquets and two bunches. I definitely need a separate workshop for this but at the minute because it’s indoors at least I clean up after myself, I can imagine not bothering in a workshop situation as I would think ‘I will do it after the next lot’ 🤪

Jam jar flowers

Gosh it’s Sunday evening 9.30pm and I haven’t written anything since Wednesday 😂 I now have to try and think of what I have been up to. Nothing unusual really, some seed sowing, flower cutting, apple picking, watering, watering, watering, a few bouquets and a couple of jam jars. A morning out with Sam, Mia, George, Lucie and Charlie, a walk round the woods and then coffee and cake, a tip to the garden centre with John to get some specific plants, all the usual household jobs and anything else that needed doing 😁

I haven’t seen Hilda again at all so I guess she has gone on her merry way somewhere although there is always water out for any animal that needs a drink and I think it’s pretty hard to find at the minute so please put water out if you haven’t already. A shallow dish with stones in for the wasps and bees, a dish that is kept topped up for the birds, a bigger dish for anything bigger that comes your way, foxes, deer, cats, hedgehogs etc. Its pretty dire out there, the trees are very stressed and dropping leaves already to conserve moisture, the only things still going are the bloody perennial weeds 🙄 I was just out filling up the horses buckets and looking at the paddocks, I have never seen them so dead and brown 😏 We had to let the horses into the winter paddock the other night as there is nothing left in the ones they were in. That means unless we get some rain in time for the grass to grow again we will be feeding hay for the first time in a couple of years. Up to now the system has worked well, leave the big paddock at the back as standing hay and they fast on that most of the winter, last year we didn’t even have to supplement with any hay at all, this year looks like it will be a different story all together.

I think we had a tiny bit of rain at some point this week, about a five minute burst but then the sun came out again and it was dried up before we knew it. Just imagine if it doesn’t rain ever again, nothing is impossible as the last few years have shown, we will be up s**t creek without a paddle 😬 There is no sign of rain in the forecast for at least another two weeks either, this green and pleasant land is now brown and thirsty 😔

I am now well into the stage of selecting what gets watered and what doesn’t, a couple of areas are very dead, the wild area under the weeping birch tree has been dying back for a while and so I have left it unwatered, just hoping that any seed will be viable enough for next spring. The area where I have the thornless blackberry, some of the rhubarb, and where I planted herbs in the spring has also not been watered for weeks and so most of that is dying back too. The three fruit trees at the bottom of the patch, the cherry, dual pear and apple tree are looking stressed but I have not watered them, that would take gallons and not very responsible but the mulberry bush is still thriving and that is in the same area 🤷‍♀️

John cut the grass in the walkway this evening, it’s not green grass it’s just dead long grass 😂 but might as well tidy it up anyway. One bonus in all this is that all the annual weeds have died so that has saved us a job.

It’s a crazy year in more ways than one and now we are also heading for recession, way back I did say I thought we were in for a bumpy few years and I wasn’t wrong was I!