Monday 26th June 2023: A new week and a fairly busy one too as far as flowers go. It is British Flowers Week and I have the intention of doing something for it but not sure what yet. I was up early to get a bit more watering done, I did have the irrigation hoses on in the front beds last night and just wanted to get the pots watered properly. Each year I think, it can’t be as hot and dry as last year can it? and the answer is yes, yes it can 😜 After doing the watering I had a shower and breakfast, did the eggs, put on a wash load and then went out to cut some more lavender. I also cut some fairy roses for drying, they dry beautifully and are always worth doing. The lavender I have plans for once that is dry but I have sold a few bunches too. Then it was onto social media updates as you have to keep those going constantly for the algorithms 😂 plus it’s good to update customers or potential customers as to what is going on or what is available. I had the undertaker to ring for the funeral flowers on Friday, I just needed to know what time they could be delivered, then answer a message from my doctors surgery who wanted a blood pressure reading. That was not great, it is on the high side (even though I feel better today than I have for ages lol) and I now have to do morning and evening readings for a week to see what it is doing over time or if it was because I have been up working since 5am 😜 After doing that I planted up two roses that we got for our anniversary, one is called rambling Ruby and the other is called, As Good as it Gets ( a compact floribunda) now both planted and watered in. Next a sit down to do a few modules of my online course, which is mostly just watching at the minute to be honest so it is not taxing my brain. Then onto making up the flowers to be delivered later today and google the address so I know where to deliver to. It is not even noon yet.
We have geese and we have approx 4 acres they can roam in and sit wherever they like in those 4 acres but guess where they have decided is best 🙄 Right outside the door of my flower workshop, yep let’s sit and crap here all day, not even to the left or the right of the door but right smack bang in front 🤦♀️
The ducks have also decided they would rather like to come in the front drive, climb up on the raised beds (flattening everything with their flat feet as they go) and lay eggs there instead of in their hut. John says the ducks are not laying many eggs, I say they are laying them somewhere else, he says no I don’t think so, I find a pile of eggs in my flower beds 🤔 At the minute they are confined to their run, which is a pretty big area but they are not free ranging all over the place and especially not on my flower beds 😜
Tuesday: The whole blood pressure thing is not great, I have to send in readings and they are still up this morning. This is likely to be related to my medication although I will be making adjustments to my diet 😂 On the whole I don’t eat or do things that are bad for my blood pressure, I don’t smoke, I rarely drink and I cook most thing from scratch so salt is limited. What I have been over the last couple of months is sedentary due to the shingles and I do eat more biscuits and chocolate than is necessary 😜 but not big quantities. I was actually feeling pretty good yesterday until I took the first reading 😂
This morning I have been doing lots of different things starting with giving the flower room a clean, tidy, sweep and wash the buckets plus hang any unused flowers up to dry. Then onto some weeding in the garden, the weather is ideal for me today but I am really hoping we get some rain again soon it is very dry.
Wednesday: I planned on doing one thing and then did something entirely different 😜 But first I cut some foliage for a funeral sheaf I am making for Friday, this requires strong foliage such as a tree branch and they need as much conditioning as possible to take up plenty of water and stay looking good. Charlotte came over with Oscar before going to baby group and also to collect some flowers ordered by her friend, she delivered them for me on her rounds. Then I had planned on doing some gardening but instead I did the rest of the online course and then went I to the flower hut to do some practice 😁
We had dinner in the evening and after I went outside to pick a bowlful of strawberries for dessert 🍓 yum. I then spent an hour in the flower hut making a fresh lavender wreath which will now hang to dry as it is.
Thursday: We had a bit of rain early this morning, not much but again it will freshen everything up in a way that watering can’t do. I had some more flowers to cut, the rest of them for the funeral sheaf I will make tonight and then some for other orders.
After that I decided I really ought to do some cleaning. Initially the girls came and do it for me, changing the bed sheets etc as well but eventually I was able to help and now I am able to do it on my own again yay 😜 I did a deep clean of the bathroom the other week and then with Shelley’s help the same in the living room as I was not able to move the sofas by myself but now I need to do the bedrooms. Move everything, dust, clean, hoover and put stuff away that has been sat around for far too long. Same with the spare room where everything gets dumped, everything is now lovely and I will wait for the sun to move round before cleaning the windows which also have not been touched for a good few months lol. I still have the office, boot room and the kitchen to tackle but that can wait for another day as my hand is smarting a little so best not push it too far.
Knowing my luck the minute I hang the sheets out on the line it will rain 😂
It didn’t rain and the sheets dried beautifully 😁 In the evening it was to make up the sheaf of flowers for tomorrows funeral. It is always delightful to do flowers for people to receive but there is something profoundly humbling to be asked to do flowers for someone’s final journey.
Friday: After breakfast the first job of the day was to cut flowers for a wholesale bucket customer this tomorrow and while I was doing that Charlie and Oscar arrived. They had walked over and Oscar had his breakfast here before they walked back home again before it rains. The forecast says rain, the rain radar says rain and it looks like it will rain but as yet nothing has fallen from the sky 🙄 I did the final touches to the sheaf before delivering it to the funeral director in Witney. The flowers I do are as always fully compostable except the little cellophane cover on the message card and that is only there in case it rains so as not to smudge the writing. Natural, sustainable, seasonal, compostable 🥰
Once back home I made a cuppa and sat down, I have just had another order come in and have had to delay until Monday or Tuesday (which is fine with the customer) as I have pretty much used or will have used most of what I have growing this weekend. The flowers are at a switch over stage, the early summer flowers are still blooming but desperately need some rain and the showy summer flowers are in bud but not quite out yet, they need some rain too!
I went back outside and got on with some cutting back and weeding, the lupins and delphinium have had their first flush and I can see new growth at the base, cutting them right back will hopefully produce a second flush in a couple of months time. Cutting back plants that are going over also means that you let more light into those that are yet to bloom or have got overshadowed by the stars of the show. I cut back the nepeta which gets unruly and the campanula which grows tall then flops everywhere, the tall daisy’s are getting a bit unruly too so they got thinned out. I have the biggest patch of echinops growing, once they start to colour up I will be cutting them and that plant will need dividing, I should get some good plant material to pot up from it, grow it on and either plant elsewhere next year or sell some or both.
Early afternoon I had a delivery and not one that I had ordered this time. This was a gift from friends who came to our anniversary party, it was afternoon tea from the Cornish company 🥰 freshly baked scones, Cornish jam and cream, tea grown in Cornwall and Cornish biscuits, delicious so thank you very much Sally and Ian x
As John was 60 this year he knows a lot of 60 year olds 😜 so we are off out to a 60th birthday party tonight , the theme is 1920’s or black and white, we opted for black and white 😂
Early evening and still no sign of the rain they have been forecasting all day 🤷♀️🙄😏 probably pour down just as we step out of the door later 😂
Saturday: Started with cutting this morning for orders tomorrow, put the watering on in the small tunnel for the cucumbers and tomatoes, then the twins came to stay for an hour while Sam took Mia to her riding lesson. Shelley and Flo popped in and Shelley helped with a bit of technology that had me flummoxed 😶 Customers arrived to collect their orders and then I pottered around doing I have no idea what for the afternoon. Meanwhile John has been busy digging up dock and a few bits of ragwort from the bigger paddock, he did the small one the other day, then dragged it and topped it and that is looking good.
Popped out for a few hours early evening to visit my sister and on our return found a card and some strawberries in the shed for the ‘hen humans’ how lovely was that. While getting the washing in I was thinking that the universe/cosmos must listen and for every Ying there is a Yang. Just lately I have felt that some humans have no thought for anyone but themselves 😏 couple that with the loss of hens, we started with 70 when we came back from holiday and are down to 25 and it can feel quite depressing at times and then out of the blue, a lovely gesture which restores my faith in my fellow humans 🥰 thank you 🙏
Sunday: A new day and a better frame of mind today, still no rain mind you 🙄 I had flowers to get ready for customer collection mid morning but then I pottered around doing the usual, watering, weeding and watching lol. Watching to see what is about to come out, I have plenty in bud at the minute they just need a burst of rain or sun or both to chivvy them along. Once the flowers were collected we went to get some food shopping, I keep telling John to go on his own as it is mostly stuff for him, I can mange with the garden and the freezers 😂
We went over to Shelley’s for a bite to eat mid afternoon then once back I got the hose connected to do some more watering. I then wandered round and did some cutting for drying, nice red colours today which will hopefully be nice for winter arrangements. John was going to put a lot more hooks up for me but he has been doing the paddocks and changing the broken pump on the water tanks so I guess they will have to wait.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 