Monday August 7th 2023: I was rather annoyed with myself yesterday evening because I could have got a good amount done but I didn’t bother lol. So this morning I was determined to make a bit of a dent on the front driveway mess. Circumstances meant I couldn’t do any of it for months and now it is getting on my nerves, the constant rain hasn’t helped and I probably couldn’t have got much of it done anyway but still. I have hoed, weeded, mown, raked, cut, shovelled and still only half finished at lunchtime. In my head I thought it would only take a couple of hours 😂 Because I couldn’t do much with my hand and arm for the last three months I am very out of shape, I should have done a lot of walking but in the beginning even that was painful so now I am paying the price. The sun is out, I started at 8am to get the cooler part of the day but it has got too hot unless it clouds over a good bit I will leave it until later. Once I have stopped sweating I will find something else to do a little less energetic.
I think I spent too long in the sun and felt a bit ill for a short while 😏 so had to have a sit down, fml sometimes 😜 Fed up with the limitations my body seems to want to put on me because my mind is having none of it and wants to get on 😂
I had flowers to make up for collection mid afternoon, I am also watching my flowers closely as I have two lots of jam jar collections to do at the weekend. Normally I say that I can’t guarantee colour choices but will accommodate them where possible and one lot is for pink and white (baby shower) and the other lot is purple/lilac, sage green and white (wedding) so I am going round identifying what I think will be looking good enough to use at the time of cutting.
My goodness that was an epic workout 😜 5pm finish and John helped me from 3pm, looks better but still can’t make a silk purse from a sows ear 😂 The driveway will be 80 years old next year so it has seen a lot of comings and goings, it was laid by the MOD though so lasted longer than a council one 😬 The whole place was built specifically for D Day so I know roughly how old the drive is and there are some boot prints in it and I often wonder whose boots they were. The tree roots have moved and cracked it in many places so the weeds take hold easily, some of the edges are breaking up so the weeds take hold easily and we no longer weedkiller so the weeds take hold easily 🤣 But as I said to John, at least it looks as though someone lives here now rather than a derelict entrance, just have to work hard on the rest of the place (once the mower is back) and get some fencing done. The trouble with fencing is that it comes way down on the list for the farm contractor, lambing, ploughing, harvesting, hay making, flailing all come first it seems and so they get round to it eventually 🙄
The apple tree is out of control and the problem with that is it’s getting to the wrong time of year to cut it for size control. There are hundreds of apples on it this year, last years apples were huge but this year a lot smaller and a gazillion tiny ones. The crows keep raiding it but the trouble with that is once they peck at an apple and it falls on the floor they just move to the next one rather than go down to the ground and finish the one they started. So before I could even cut the grass under the tree I had to rake up apples and the grass is long so you can see what a pig of a job it has been. I put some windfalls by the egg shed for people to help themselves, I have picked a bucketful for myself to store and asked people to come pick some if they want some so if you are reading this and you want any just pop up with a bucket and get some 😁
Tuesday: I had Oscar today so mostly what my time was spent doing was playing, singing, feeding lol. But while he was sleeping I looked up lots of recipes for Aronia berries or chokeberries, I have three bushes in the garden and this year they are loaded with berries. Too tart to eat raw but these berries are one of the best kept secrets when it comes to antioxidants (more than any other fruit) they pack a big vit c punch and are great for circulation, urinary tract health (5-10 times more effective than cranberries) they are very definitely a superfood. So why don’t we see them in the shops 🤷♀️ no idea, not as saleable as blueberries I suppose, maybe something you would find in a specialist shop or a health food store (dried). I will be making a syrup with them and freezing it in ice cube sizes, then they can easily be added to all kinds of things for that superfood extra. They freeze well whole and apparently are sweeter once frozen, you can use them exactly the same way you would with any other berry and they have the added bonus for wildlife in that they stay on the bush well into autumn.
Wednesday: The sun came out whoop whoop, I have got wet cutting flowers that many times over the last few days I was getting pretty bored of it 😂 Still I have had the opposite problem where it got too hot at times to be outside, can’t win. I got the washing on first thing and out into the line but someone somewhere decided a bonfire was a great idea on the first sunny (washing drying) day for a while 🙄 I had flowers to cut and going round it was evident that the rain had affected some of them but hopefully once deadheaded they will flush with more blooms. I read that if you think you have deadheaded enough you probably have more you can do 😂 deadheading is vital to keep those flowers coming, disbudding is another one and of course cutting back.
Sam popped in with George and Lucie while Mia was off playing with a friend, they like to go looking for berries, cucumbers and eggs. The eggs we found had been eaten by the hens already 🙄 we couldn’t find many berries but we found a cucumber which I cut into lengths and they eat with gusto lol.
Thursday: Another nice day thankfully, I cut lots of flowers and foliage for orders yesterday and today I needed to get them made up but first I had to get some washing done and household bits and pieces. I did make some Aronia syrup to keep in the fridge too.
I went into the flower hut to make up 22 jam jars which take a lot longer and more flowers than you think. The customer had said that although I don’t do specific colours this was the colour scheme so said I will do my best to accommodate. However after putting them all together I wasn’t happy with how they looked and spent a while trying to sort them out. I came to the conclusion that limiting colour is ok if you have an abundance of that particular colour which I don’t at the minute. As it stands it is mid afternoon and I am planning on cutting some different colours this evening when it’s cooler to add to them. One of the problems is that anything I do have in that colour has thin stems so the posies are look as though they are lacking (to me at any rate) You leave and learn I guess.
We went to watch George and Lucie at their very first swimming lesson, Sam (and me ) was worried that George wouldn’t listen and just mess about but actually he was really good and did as he was asked. Interesting to watch and see how confident Lucie was compared to George considering generally in life it’s the other way round. We watched the end of Mia’s lesson and she was awarded her green hat so she was very proud and rightly so. I love the traffic light system of the swimming hats, red (can’t swim) orange and then green (swimmer) ideal for the lifeguards I imagine.
Once back home I got the dinner and then cut some flowers for orders before going back to the jam jars and tweaking them until I was happy with them. A little bit of deadheading, watering g and weeding before deciding that was enough for today.
Friday: I got the washing on the line first thing as the forecast showed 0% chance of rain and an hour later guess what, it bloody rained 🙄
I had more flowers to cut for orders today and then pack the jam jar order up ready for collection. It is tricky transporting these but each time I do it I learn a little more. I only fill the jars half full with water they can then be topped up when they reached the destination, I pack them in low sided boxes or veg crates and use paper to stop them jangling around or clanging against each other and then we drive slowly 😂 I have seen a great method of holes cut in squares of flattish polystyrene but have yet to try it out.
Saturday: I had an order for flowers this morning, I cut them yesterday evening so I needed to get them ready for collection mid morning. Once collected we popped to a local plant sale and then a quick trip to the garden centre for cake and coffee. At teatime Charlie came to pick me up as I was going with her to babysit for Sam and Luke, a great chance to get a take away curry which I never do as John doesn’t eat curry 🙄
Sunday: John has been busy strimming and mowing when the weather allows. The rain was on and off today and so I spent the morning creating dried flower things 😊 At lunchtime Charlie dropped Oscar off, she was going to a baby shower and Macca was on his way back from a cycling trip and was picking him up when he got home. When he arrived Oscar was fast asleep and slept for at least another 45 minutes 😂 Once they went home I went back to the dried flowers for a while. We popped round to see my sister and happily stayed for something to eat when it was offered.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 