Monday 3rd October 2022: What a beautiful morning, it started off with a pink sky which bathed everything in a glow at dawn this morning and then the sun came out in glorious autumn fashion. I decided a creative morning was in order and so I gathered up plenty of foliage to make an autumn wreath to hang on the door and then made a jam jar arrangement with what was left. There is so much vibrant colour at this time of year, tones and shades of red, orange, yellow and brown, just glorious. 🍂 I then cut some asters and chrysanthemums for drying, not sure what I will do with all this dried wonderfulness but I am hooked on the process. I then decided that as it was such a beautiful day I would go for a walk around the village. At this time of year the sun is lovely but it is not strong enough to do much harm and so off I went. I get out of the house and off the farm for a bit, I get a very pleasant wander round and I fulfil my target on my activity monitor as well as boosting my step count. The hedges were audibly buzzing with bees and insects all enjoying the Ivy, I didn’t see anyone else apart from some workmen and it was so peaceful it was good for the soul.
Did a bit more playing with flowers 😂 and then some bulb planting, allium this time. They will be for cutting next year but I did plant some in the ornamental beds 😉 I think I am becoming obsessed with all things flowery 😂
I have had a thoroughly enjoyable day today 😁 I would quite like to spend my whole time doing nothing but flowers 😂 This week I have flower club again and we are doing flower arrangements in a pumpkin. At first I was like ‘hmm not my sort of thing’ but I now I am looking forward to giving it a go and besides it’s all good practice.
Tuesday: Not such a nice day today as far as the weather goes. I was waiting for a delivery today and then got an email at lunchtime to say it is not co ing until tomorrow now. I hate it when that happens, I plan the day around something and it doesn’t happen 🙄 in this case it was a big job because it was whole fresh farm reared chickens being delivered and I had planned to portion them all before freezing. One of them was going to be roasted for dinner and at the same time I would have been cooking a batch bake of cakes for the freezer so you can see why my plans were messed up lol. Now I will be doing all that tomorrow instead. I decided to sow some vegetable seeds for winter and I have ordered onion sets and garlic bulbs to plant. I have come to the conclusion that things are going to get worse rather than better so let’s make sure we can at least eat even if it means cooking on the fire pit outside 🤪 I cut flowers today as well and while I was doing that I spotted a deer sat in the paddock, it’s a bit unusual for it to be sat in broad daylight in an open field. My thought was that it was injured so I shut the dogs away and went to have a look, it let me get quite close before getting up and running off, not injured thank goodness, it was obviously just basking in the sun that happened to be out at that time.
Wednesday: I did a bouquet up in the morning ready for delivery later, popped out for an hour with Sam and just after I got back my meat delivery arrived. It took me a good couple of hours to portion out four fresh, free to roam chickens. I now have plenty of different portion types of chicken in the freezer, breast, thigh, drumsticks, wings plus the carcasses and the giblets. I roasted one of them whole for dinner in the evening and I also left another whole for a different day. The carcasses went into the slow cookers along with some thyme, onion, celery and carrot to make stock for soups, gravy, stews and broth. I also bought large packs of sausages and bacon and split those into portions for ease, everything was vacpacked and that will last months in the freezer. I do it like this because it’s more cost effective, I have the freezer space and I like higher welfare products, these were from Field & Flower as they guaranteed that the meat would be sent out fresh not frozen which meant I could portion it all out.
My Mum called in for a cuppa in the afternoon and to pick up some bulbs that I had dug up, gladioli and liatris plus I gave her some new bulbs of narcissi, I have way too many😂 Most of the rest of the day was taken up with cooking the dinner and tidying up before going to flower club in the evening. We made flower arrangements in a pumpkin, I have to say they all looked really colourful all together at the end of the evening 😁
Thursday: This morning I am wondering what the heck is happening to the country at the minute, it is almost as if gremlins are causing turbulence 😂 It’s like a pile of pick up sticks, a jumbled intertwined mess that seems impossible to unpick 🙄 More unions talking of strike action, at this rate it will only be the self employed that are working. We work without the safety of sick pay, holiday pay, maternity/paternity pay or pension contributions from elsewhere, we work long hours and work hard to keep businesses going. We have no direct representative, we do all our own bookkeeping and pay tax and national insurance just like everyone else. It is more difficult to get a mortgage when you are self employed and you jump through hoops to provide the proof and paperwork they want to make sure you can make the payments. There is no one to work in your place if you are off for whatever reason so a holiday is a double whammy, no wages, no holiday pay. We are not moaning, we are a tough breed and yes we chose to be self employed and face the difficulties. We do have freedom though, we are not bound by the rules, regulations, work hours or the etiquette of the workplace. Maybe that is why we are happy 🤷♀️
Friday: I went out for a couple of hours with Sam and the twins, we called in to see Charlie and Oscar and I bought some pumpkins to do some arrangements in as they seem pretty popular 😁
Saturday: A lovely day, warm for October and so I did a fair amount of work outside. Pulling some stuff up that has no more to give or that will collapse at the first frost, planting up plants in the beds and some in the big tunnel which will now be a flower tunnel. Clearing, weeding, tidying are the jobs that need doing at this time of year but not too tidy, the wildlife still need a lot of it left so they can get through winter.
I have been asked to sell my wares at a local Christmas table top sale. Never having done one before I thought, oh I don’t think I can do that 😂 then I had a word with myself and thought, of course I can 🙄 I am not sure what it is, I mean I am quite happy to sell them from the sanctuary of the Smallholding but actually getting out there and doing it seems a scary thought which is ridiculous I know but there you have it 🤷♀️
I am babysitting Oscar tonight 🥰 that in itself will be lovely but also means I get the remote control all to myself 🤪
Sunday: Another lovely autumn day and so I spent most of the day in the garden. Plenty of tidying up and cutting back but always leaving enough cover for the wildlife overwinter in. Some planting up, some seed collecting, some seed sowing and some cutting of flowers for drying. A very pleasant days work indeed followed by a delicious roast cooked by Charlie and Macca x
Have a great week everyone x
frieslandfarm (flowers) 