Monday 28th August 2023: Bank Holiday Monday, we spent the morning working, John was cutting down stingers and mowing, always plenty of mowing to do. I did plenty of propagating either diving up plants or digging up plants that have got too big for where they are and dividing and potting them up. If done now they will hopefully put down enough roots to take them through the winter months. I staked the chrysanthemums as they are getting tall now too and it won’t be long before they are moved back inside the tunnel to save them from cold, wet or windy weather.
At lunchtime we downed tools and went to visit Mum, we made a detour to pick up some milk and that meant we didn’t see Mum who had driven to ours 😂 we waited for her to return to hers which she did about 10 minutes later.
In the evening after dinner we got working again, John mowing 😂 and me collecting plums, walnuts, hazelnuts and blackberries. This is a time of abundance and even if you don’t grow your own there is plenty of free food to be found if you know where to look and what to look for. Hazels are best found if you stand under the tree and look up, walnuts are beginning to fall to the ground and you can just pick those up. Hazels are easy to keep and use, even if they have the greenery still attached, that soon falls off as the nuts dry and ripen. Walnuts are more difficult so I would t blame anyone who would rather get them ready packed from the shop 😜 I have tried various methods over the years and there is no definite process that I can find on the internet but if you leave them in the green husk that shrinks and you can’t get it off, so the best thing is too put them outside (but not where the squirrel can find them) and wait for the husks to start splitting and then you can get them out. Once they are out they need cleaning and curing so that they can be kept without going mouldy, bit of a process as you can see but worth it for me at any rate. I know that nothing has been contaminated with any chemicals of any kind, with that in mind I am considering buying and oil press and pressing some for walnut oil. The abundance does not stop with the nut trees this year, everything seems to be prolifically fruiting, berries, soft fruit, some top fruit especially our plums and cooking apples but not our eating apples and pears although we have got some. That abundance may signal a tough winter ahead 🤷♀️ or it may just be all the rain we have had 😂 There is wild horseradish if you know where to look but we have some in the garden that can be harvested now, elderberries, wild blackberries, wild plums and plenty more. One thing I wish planning would insist on is incorporating food trees and shrubs at every opportunity.
Of course all the picking and gathering means a whole lot of processing ready for freezing because you can’t eat it all at once 😜 We will certainly have enough to keep us going and feed the family when they come for dinner in the winter months. We had Oscars party and bbq and the meat was what was not used at Johns birthday bbq in June, there were quite few sausages and some burgers left but they had been defrosted and so could not be frozen again. About thirty sausages and ten quarter pounder prime beef burgers, there was no way we could eat them all between the two of us and no way I was going to throw them away. I cooked all the sausages in the oven while the dinner was cooking and the burgers well they are just ground beef squished into shape so I broke them all up and cooked a big batch of mince and onions to freeze. These were quality burgers so perfectly good enough for turning into something else, waste not want not as always.
We have plenty of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers at the moment but not a lot else in the way of salad or veg this year sadly but next year I will hopefullybe well enough to sow seed.
Tuesday: Oscar day, playing, feeding, changing, singing, sleeping (for Oscar not for me sadly) and we went out for a walk in the paddock to pick some blackberries. My sister came over again with her granddaughter, I wouldn’t say they play together but at least this week Oscar acknowledged them 😂
In the evening my brother and his wife came over to collect a plant I had dug up for him and some plums for my great nephew who is their grandson and loved eating the plums at Oscars party on Saturday last.
Wednesday: I have Oscar again today for half a day, so more feeding, playing, changing, sleeping but he was a tad grizzly before his sleep and still grizzly when he woke up. So I decided we would go for a walk down into the village and have a look at the pond, it is actually a ford with a pond to the side but most people just call it the pond. I gathered a few bits of grass, yarrow and old man’s beard plus some honesty that was growing on the side of the road, I thought I might make a foraged dried wreath at some point.
When we got back Sam arrived with Mia, George and Lucie and the job on the agenda was to confine the horses to the small paddock as Jack has got a bit fat. Normally over summer we would have sun and no rain which means the grass would be parched but not this year and it is as green as it is in spring 🙄 although we are moving towards winter Jack still needs to be a bit more restricted than he has been. Once the school term starts again all three children will be at school full time and so Sam will have time to come and do some work with Jack (which will be a bit of a shock for him 😂) and get some time back into his muscles.
Charlie arrived had a quick coffee and collected Oscar to take him home and a short while after Sam and the children left. By now I am exhausted lol but I only have a day and a half to recover before having Sam’s three for the weekend while they go away to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. You may find me rocking in a corner by Sunday evening 😜 We have some jobs planned to get them involved in but it will be weather dependant so who knows how that will go, hope
Thursday: I keep thinking it’s Wednesday 🙄 anyhow I started early and by 9.30 I had done my first shift. It was not raining when I went out but by the time I came in I was soaking. I had been in the fruit cage which suffered this year because I wasn’t able to keep on top of it, Mum did come earlier in the year and weeded it but they soon took over again especially the bindweed. Normally I would tie in the autumn raspberry canes and cut back the currant bushes when harvesting but I couldn’t do either this year and so it’s a jungle. The kiwi has gone mad as has the logan berry, but I have cut everything back as much as possible and will have another go in a week or so. I could have come in once it started to rain but I was on a roll 😂 and I hate stopping when I am halfway through something besides it’s a good excuse to come in for tea and toast (and a change of clothes) once I was done.
Sort out flowers for orders today and then a quick walk down to the pub to deliver theirs. Not such a quick walk on the way back as it is a killer hill, no idea what the gradient is but it’s pretty steep 😂 that last 10ft is the worst. I wore my raincoat but luckily the rain held off.
I was talking to a customer the other day who mentioned a website called ‘weather without technology’ since 1958 the chap has been using nature to predict the likely weather outcomes in the months ahead. The thing that was particularly interesting was that nature prepares around 3 to 6 months ahead which when you think about it is obvious but we hardly notice it. Given that I have noticed a fair amount this year I thought I would read the articles on the site and they coincide with my thoughts. There are so many berries and nuts this year that even the less observant can’t have failed to notice can they? The ivy is smothered in ivy berries, the hawthorn and rose hips are abundant and one thing that hadn’t occurred to me before is the height of things like teasels, very tall this year indicating the ground may not be accessible and the food source needs to be up higher, all pointing to cold frozen ground? Who knows but it certainly looks that way if you ask me.
One of my favourite sayings is: If acorns abound in September, snow will be deep in December. They are as it seems to be a mast year, this then makes me wonder if the weather is all part of a cycle or rotation that we just don’t see (mini cycles even) and if we are so fixed on technology telling us what is ahead or what causes it that we no longer see what is obvious 🤷♀️ answers on a postcard please.
I am contemplating putting an extra layer on 😆 the colder months are knocking on the door 🥶
I made some chicken soup for dinner tonight along with an apple crumble, the wheel is definitely turning. I quite like autumn though and winter (although it seems to go on for ages) they are slower seasons, a time that I can do other things instead of dawn till dusk gardening.
I did cut flowers this morning for tonight’s and tomorrows customers, one lot was collected the other will be delivered.
I did a bit of dried flower work in the evening but I wasn’t really feeling it so decided to watch tv instead.
Friday: Busy morning first thing, I had flowers that were going to a customer, flowers to cut for customers later today and for the weekend which took a couple of hours to cut, sort and prep for conditioning. Then inside to whizz round with the hoover and duster before sitting down with a cup of tea and some toast. That was the calm before the storm as I have Mia, George & Lucie coming this morning and staying until Sunday while Sam and Luke go away for the weekend to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
The children arrived and the parents departed and we had a full on day, apple picking, lunch, then blackberry picking in the paddock, watering the garden and plenty of other things inbetween. Grampy arrived home at around 4 which meant my ears could have a rest while they battered his 😂 after their dinner Josh, Flo and Shelley came over for a short while and they played outside until bedtime at 7.30pm. That was not sleep time though, no that was not until 10pm finally 😝
Saturday: I had turned off the alarm set at 6.30 because I didn’t want it to wake the children, needn’t have bothered they were awake by 6am 🤪 a bit of tv watching in bed before breakfast at 7 then washed, dressed and off out to do the animals with Grampy once he had finished his breakfast. I managed to get a shower without the bathroom being invaded which was a surprise 😂 and we are all set for the day ahead. Josh and Flo are coming over to play later with Shelley, fish and chips are on the menu for tonight. They want a bath because for some reason that is great fun at Nanas lol and they were playing too late last night to have one and so I have been constantly reminded this morning that they want one later.
I was indoors while they were out with Grampy and suddenly I hear Lucie shouting Nanny, nanny, nanny at the top of her voice, thinking there was an emergency I ran out only to hear Lucie say ‘we found lots of eggs’ lol. I am glad they find everything exciting even egg collecting 🥰
Sunday: Another early start at 6.30 this time, from the time they get up they don’t stop talking 😂 I had to juggle things a bit because I had flowers to get ready, I did most of it last night once they were settled in bed but I needed to do some finishing touches this morning so I left them watching a film with Grampy keeping an eye on them. After that we went out into the front paddock to help John, George is always especially desperate to help Grampy, I just hope he is always that keen. In for lunch and then some quieter play time until Mummy and Daddy arrived at around 2.30. Lucie couldn’t wait to go home, she was standing ready at the gate while we were collecting all their stuff together 😂 At 3 we popped down to the village dog show to support it, I had sponsored a class (fastest sausage gobbler) and given a prize of flowers plus some for the judges. Shelley, Josh and Flo came with us and we bought raffle tickets, ate ice cream, had a go at tombola and guess the weight of the cake. Then back home for a well earned rest and watch a film, I went out to water early evening but it was really hot out and so abandoned that till later, besides I am pretty pooped.
The weather is looking hot for next week, unbelievable, we have had no summer and now we get a week of it when the children go back to school. It will be early mornings for me for a while.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 