Author: frieslandfarm

Posted in Friesland Farm

Getting better slowly, working more but not enough for my liking 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Saturday 6th May 2023: I know I said I wasn’t going to blog but that’s what this blog is about, recording the day to day stuff. I am now convinced that this is definitely shingles and my god it is not nice at all 🙄 I started with an ache in my wrist that I couldn’t work out how or why it was like that, then my whole arm was aching over the next couple of days. I had a red patch appear on my upper arm but at no point did I feel unwell in the slightest. My shoulder then began to ache, like toothache or when the cold gets into an old broken bone. The red patch began to develop into pimples and in the crease of my right hand a red patch appeared that was ‘stingy’ that’s the only way I can describe that. Next the skin down my forearm started to feel as though someone had quickly waved a flame over it and I began to get shooting pains in the arm. The red patch on my hand developed into a blister and another tiny patch of blisters came up on my shoulder blade. At this point I was beginning to wonder if it was shingles, on the Thursday the pain was intense and a rash appeared all down the area from the elbow to the wrist and I was taking paracetamol and ibrufen alternately which took the edge off but not away. I called the doctor who wanted photos, I sent those and then she issued anti viral and stronger painkillers. By now I had blisters all down the off side of my right arm and breaking out in the palm of my hand and up my fingers. If you have had shingles you will know how painful it is and all different types of pain, some shooting, some long deep aches, some like you brushed against stinging nettles, I have a good pain threshold but seriously these rank up near a 10 😬

So I am very frustrated as I cannot get on with anything at all, if it was confined to the arm and shoulder I would just put up with the discomfort but being on the palm of the hand makes things very difficult indeed. I can’t make a fist as that is painful, I can’t hold anything, basically I can’t do much at all 🙄 I really wanted to crack on with flowers and planting and promoting the flowers more once our holiday was over but instead I am sitting around fretting about what needs doing. I am hoping that things will have peaked either today or tomorrow and begin to get better though it can take weeks.

Tuesday: Ooooo I have had some days of pain and discomfort but I am hoping it’s turned a corner and starting to get better. I can now touch my arm and skin without pain so that is progress, the blisters are flattening out and although more patches broke out they have not turned to blisters (I guess the anti viral is doing its job) I am also able to use the finger tips of my right hand to do some things which is useful. We have had dinners cooked and bought to us or gone to theirs for dinner and Shelley has been over to do some domestic jobs that help John out a little. Here is where I say hoorah to ready meals 😂 not highly processed but the veg that is already chopped and bagged, I can put that in a steamer bag to microwave, ready made mash also lol. John could peel and chop but he will also be doing the animals as well as going to work and doing all the jobs I would normally do so better give him a bit of a break 😜

I have flowers being collected today, I managed to go round and slowly cut enough for them on Sunday then Shelley made them up into a bouquet and wrapped them yesterday when she came. I am still hoping to do Friday flowers this week and have asked Charlie to help, I will walk round with her and tell her what to cut and once stripped they will condition and I will get someone to help wrap them 🤞

Thursday: Yesterday I felt better than I do today and consequently I feel a little depressed 🙄 I keep trying to chivvy myself up but I am worried that when I get to the end of the anti virals it will flare up again. The pain is much much less but still there, the blisters are healing but very slowly and I just keep thinking that I don’t have time for this lol. The weeds are going mad in the garden because of the rain and then the sun, I have seedlings that need pricking out, plants that need planting out, flowers that I should be cutting by the bucket full and selling to do. Instead I feel dormant and I know that resting will help heal quicker but it’s very frustrating. The thing is that if I don’t get the planting done I won’t have anything when I am better 😏 I have had some fairies helping out when they can 😁 the girls have been brilliant cooking meals, coming to do housework and cutting flowers for orders and Friday flowers. Today Shelley will be over to wrap flowers ready for tomorrow as I want to keep up continuity and I asked Mum to come over and pull some of the weeds or do some pricking out whichever she feels able to do. This is a first for me as I usually wouldn’t ask anything of anyone, that is stubborn pride for you which I have been guilty of all my life 😂 If I could just get my hand better then I think I could cope with the rest of it but being unable to do much with it is extremely frustrating ☹️

Friday: I am able to almost make a fist now and have much more grip which means I can at least do some work though I still have blisters on the hand so I need to be careful. Mum came up again this morning to do lots of weeding which is fabulous. Yesterday Shelley made up the flowers and I put those out first thing this morning, I have a couple of deliveries to make later today. I was able to go out and weed some of the smaller raised beds as the soil is quite loose and I also planted into those beds as again the digging was easy even with my left hand. I planted up tomatoes and cucumbers in the small tunnel, they might as well be in there as in the greenhouse. I still have plenty to plant out and plenty of annuals to sow but I am not so panicked now that I know I can do a bit myself.

I finished the course of anti viral today so I will wait to see if it keeps going in the right direction or if there is a set back at all 🙄 Hopefully not as I have some important orders coming up for various occasions and a workshop to teach lol.

Sat & Sun: I am still only functioning at around 60% but I keep trying, the overall pain is much less but the deep aches at night or when sitting down are intense and very very annoying. The whole rash and blisters are slowly drying up though it is slow progress 🙄 Meanwhile I have been able to do a bit of planting and weeding (in a fashion) so at least I feel that I am achieving something and moving things along a bit. I still have direct sowing to do but hopefully they will catch up quickly once established. John has been busy doing everything else really so no wonder he is complaining he is tired. He even managed a semi roast with pre cut veg and pre peeled potatoes plus a cook in the bag chicken, it didn’t look terribly appetising but it was good and it tasted ok lol.

I have some big occasion orders to get done this week so I have been looking at ways to make this easier, late evening I got John to cut a branch I need as I would not be able to apply enough pressure on the secateurs to do that and I will cut the rest of the flowers into a small container that is easy to carry and transfer to the larger buckets that are already filled with water, so it will be a lot of backwards and forwards with loads but I will get there 😁 As John said this time last week I was lying on the sofa in a lot of pain and sleeping so things have definitely improved, just not quick enough for my liking 😂

Have a good week 🥰

Posted in Friesland Farm

Work, holiday, illness 🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th April 2023: A gloomy start to the week but it’s not raining…..yet 😝 It very much looks like it will at any minute. I have plenty to do indoors though as we get ready to go away for the week. Shelley will move in and take over with her family but still there is plenty to prepare beforehand and todays task will be washing and ironing and making sure I have everything ready to pack and paperwork all in order. That will leave the rest of the week to get the house cleaned and keep an eye on seedlings, potting them on if necessary, constant weeding at the minute so they don’t get out of hand while I am away and honing the instruction list for Shelley to be able to follow 😁

This morning I have already got the first lot of washing on, taken out the rubbish, fed the cats and dogs, had a shower, got something out for dinner later and handed over an ordered bunch of flowers to a customer and all before 8.15.

I think I have lost my asparagus in the cold winter ☹️ to be honest I should have bought new crowns a couple of years ago in preparation. The crowns I have are around 8/10 years old I think and you can tell as the growth gets further and further away from the centre point each year. The problem is that after you have planted them you can’t harvest them fully for a couple of years (until they are well established) This rule applies to three things that I can think of, rhubarb, asparagus and peonies if you want to use them as cut flowers. I am sure there are probably many more but as yet I have not needed to know about those lol. Lots of people love asparagus and I do but I prefer to eat it raw as I am working in the garden, garden snacks are the best and I often eat my fruit and veg this way 🥰

Apart from an hour or so interlude when Charlie arrived with Oscar I spent the day sorting out packing lol, what to pack if it’s hot, what to pack if it’s not, daytime clothes, nighttime clothes and everything else in between. John came home early and I popped down to the chemist to see if there was anything I could use in my eye. It is pink and watering and been going on for a week now, 3 days of optrex has not improved it at all. Through my powers of deduction, also known as common sense and intelligent thinking, I think it is viral, def not bacterial because it’s not gunking just watering, it is possible its hayfever though I have never had hayfever before so nothing to compare it too. The chemist was not much help, wipe it with a warm wet cotton pad 🙄 I guess if it is viral then it will eventually clear up but it is annoying, just to make sure it’s not hayfever I took a antihistamine to see if that helps at all 🤷‍♀️

Tuesday: I phoned the doctor this morning and am waiting for a mec appointment for my eye, it is always worse in the morning and I wanted to check and see what they thought, they think it wants looking at so now I am waiting for the optician to call back 👀

Meanwhile I have been getting all the little things sorted for going away, so many bits to sort out to take and so many bits to sort so that Shelley knows where everything is. I will have definitely earned a rest by the time I go 😂

Wednesday: I am a day ahead of myself mentally, yesterday I thought tomorrow was Thursday 😝 I was quite pleased when John said it wasn’t as I still have plenty to do. Yesterday and this morning I have been sorting out things that although I know what they are and what to do with them Shelley might not. Mostly that is flowers and foliage that are in buckets or jam jars, I have taken petals off of some flowers to dry and I have hung up some flowers to dry and I have put anything that is a few days old on the compost heap to give Shelley a clean start. The thing with foliage especially is that it will last well in water for a couple of weeks although I tend to either use it up or tie it up for drying after a week and if I leave it then it might accidentally get used in the bunches which I don’t want to happen hence sorting it out.

I have a mecs appointment with the optician at 12 noon today so I am trying not to get involved with a job that I can’t just leave.

Well it’s a good job I trusted my instincts and not the pharmacist lol, I had the appointment at the opticians who sent me up to the emergency eye dept and I was there for six hours! I have anterior scerlitis apparently which once I goggled it I realise is lupus related. Basically inflammation in the eye which if left untreated could cause loss of eyesight. The inflammation causes the iris to become sticky which then folds on itself causing blurred vision and eventually loss of vision. So after four hours both eyes had been dilated and looked at numerous times for a full diagnosis, I now have steroid drops for 6 weeks and I have to dilate the eyes three times a day to stop the iris sticking. Luckily the left eye is almost unaffected and so I am allowed to stop dilating that one when I go on holiday which is a bloody good job because it blurs the vision and so I wouldn’t be able to see much 😂 At least with one eye clear I will be able to see something. At the end of the appointment a senior doctor came in with a student and asked if I would consider donating tear fluid for research. Probably a schoolboy error to say yes just before I go away but someone has to do these things right? So I had my eye numbed, cleaned, clamped and a needle stuck in it to extract fluid, now I also have antibiotic drops to take for 10 days too 😝 The research is specifically for diseases that cause chronic inflammation such as Lupus so I could hardly decline could I. I have to go back up to the eye hospital on the day I return from holiday to see how things are going. Not viral, not bacterial, not hayfever and not conjunctivitis so trust your instincts if you think it is something but not sure what and especially if you have a chronic inflammation disease 😁

Thursday: Up with the alarm this morning mostly to get the medications done 😜 Then outside to cut flowers for tomorrow, it was pretty cold out there I can tell you. Almost May and we have not had much warmth at all this year, I think we had a drier than usual Feb a wetter than usual March and now a colder than usual April, who knows what May will bring 🤷‍♀️ Shelley picked me up early morning, first I had to go and get a prescription for the antibiotic drops as they didn’t have any at the hospital and then back to hers for a manicure, I was going to het my eyebrows done but probably not the best idea at the minute. When I returned home I needed to sort out the timings for taking these three lots of eye drops 😂 it was not easy but I think I have now found a regime that will work plus I have put each individual one in the reminder app and on repeat daily so that should keep me in-line🤞 I have to take one lot of drops every four hours, one lot every six hours and one lot every eight hours 😝 thank goodness for technology at my fingertips or I would end up totally confused. Meanwhile John has been cleaning out the ducks and chickens and also putting up some of the boarding on the outside of the flower hut.

Oh my days, so it comes to early afternoon reminder time for the antibiotic drops, the reminder came up so that was not a problem, I had managed to collect them this morning so that was not a problem. Trying to get them in my eye when my hand went into a serious cramping event was a problem 😂 The tubes are not very giving and so squeezing hard is required, cue cramp on an epic scale that lasted for around five minutes, tried again, cramp again 🤦‍♀️ At this point I said to John that he would have to do them for me, now if you know John at all you will know that he HATES anything to do with eyes, he will walk out of the room if anything is even mentioned about going near an eye 👀 When he stood up and said give them here I realised that after 40 years of marriage he really does have my back 🥰 In the end it wasn’t necessary as the cramp eased and I was able to do it myself but that would have been quite some dedication if he had done it for me.

I did a bit in the greenhouse making sure the watering was done and going to be easy for Shelley to manage, I don’t think I need to worry about outdoors as it started pouring with rain mid afternoon and I do t think we are quite going into a heatwave just yet somehow.

Had the twins as usual then dinner then get flowers ready for the morning when shortly after we will be leaving for our holiday 😁 Leaving everything is the capable hands of Shelley who will be living here and Sam and Charlie who will be coming over to help out. Without them we would never be able to go away so we are extremely grateful for that, many smallholders never get away.

Saturday 6th May: The King and Queens Coronation Day 🇬🇧 I left the farm in Shelley’s capable hands and she did a fantastic job as always 🥰

I went away with one problem in my eyes which is responding to treatment thank fully because I came back with another problem! Suspected shingles, suspect because apparently it is on two different neuro trajectories 🙄 which is unusual and it is down my arm and into my hand. The one thing I can tell you is it’s extremely painful, luckily the doctor was on it quickly, I sent photos, infection control had a look also, I have anti viral but they needed to see if I needed any further treatment. I now have to wait and see what it does, if it gets worse I call 111 who call infection control, if it doesn’t get better but doesn’t get worse I need to get swabs done of the blisters to see if it is something else entirely 🤦‍♀️ I am wondering if it is related to the cramping episode 🤷‍♀️ maybe it just weakened the nerves enough let the virus take hold, who knows.

Because the blisters are on the palm of my right hand I am finding it difficult to do anything without pain which is a pain in itself as you can imagine. I was going to come home and get full steam ahead with planting up and flower arranging etc and now I will be waiting every day to see what I can actually get done. At the minute John is doing everything, quite a lot of it under instruction 😜 as you can imagine that is already getting slightly fractious 😂 I will not be keeping a blog this week for obvious reasons so I hope you enjoy the festivities, the pomp and pageantry and parties and I will be back when I can function better.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Weather – variable, Flower sales – great, to do list – getting there 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday17th April 2023: I had one of those mornings where all the things that were bugging me just had to be done and there was no putting it off any longer. It’s not that I put them off just that other jobs jump the queue 😂 So this morning I hoovered the boot room and washed down all the side areas, it gets dusty and dirty with the cats and dogs in there but when it’s constantly raining there is no point even trying to clean it because it won’t stay like that for more than ten minutes. It probably still won’t stay very clean but I couldn’t put up with it any longer, then there was the fridge to clean out, things lurking in the back and half used things sitting on the shelves, all clean and tidy again. I managed to smash my favourite tea mug while I was wiping down the side ☹️ so I then had to hoover the kitchen floor which also needs a wash but as the wet just gets walked right in I only want to do it when we have a dry period 😜 I cleaned the bathroom and emptied the wash basket, I also need to wash a few extra things for our holiday, my hat for instance. There were things to put away in their right place things that just get put down somewhere and left for a few weeks 😬 I feel less stressed when these jobs have left my head because they are done ✔️

The weather is cloudy and not at all spring like but that suits me fine as long as it’s not raining though the air is damp with no sun shining through. I have a few flowers to do for customers this week, some today but mostly at the end of the week and then there are Friday flowers of course, they sell quickly most of the time and as the growth season gets under way there will be many more flowers and so many more to put out which will be fabulous.

John bought home a second hand commercial freestanding sink and drainer which we had found locally, we got it all cleaned up (it wasn’t too bad just some grease on a couple of the legs) and go that in the flower hut. They have a deeper sink so much better for getting the buckets in, it is difficult in a shallow sink to get the taller buckets in and get the tap over the top. It will only be used to fill the buckets and give them a swill so didn’t need to be anything too fancy. Flowers being picked up this evening and then I have an online meeting later tonight.

Tuesday: I keep thinking it’s Wednesday 🤷‍♀️ I have flowers to do for Thursday and thought I better get cutting ready for conditioning then realised it’s only Tuesday 🙄 The morning started badly with me waking up with pink eye and then later dropping a box of eggs as I was taking them out to the shed 😝 Maybe I should just sit quietly today 😂 I know I won’t though as the sun is trying to make an appearance, it still feels a tad cold out but it’s only 9am so if it stays out it will warm up to a beautiful spring day hopefully.

It is three years today that Dad passed away, where does the time go and how come it goes by faster the older you get 🤔

I spent a large part of the day weeding, Shelley called in and also got stuck in helping me with the never ending weed harvest 😂 I know you can eat a lot of them and I have made food from them before now but mostly they feed other animals or get composted. I also took some cuttings from a sedum and dug up some campanula seedlings and potted those up, getting free plants for another day is money saving and satisfying.

Wednesday: It is Mia’s birthday today, a whole seven years old, oh to be seven again lol. We will be popping over to see her later after she finishes school.

I am hoping it will be dry enough to get the towels washed and on the line today 🤞🙄 They are just finishing the cycle as I type, I have a hearty beef stew in the slow cooker along with a multitude of yummy veg so once the towels are out I am free to get on with the rest of my day. I will be lifting and cutting flowers today ready for Friday flowers plus a few other orders I have tomorrow and Friday. Once the season is underway I hopefully will have flowers available all week long but at this time of year I concentrate them to the end of the week. This way I don’t end up with flowers I haven’t sold and therefore money wasted.

I got another brew on the go yesterday, comfrey tea 😁 comfrey grows like mad here and so best to make good use of it by steeping it in water for a few weeks. It makes a stinking tea but it is great plant food so worth the effort, sustainable, natural plant food 🥰 Fill a bucket with the leaves, cover with water, cover the bucket (because of the smell) and leave for three weeks then use it at a 10:1 ratio the 10 being water. It has a high nutrient content due to the deep tap root being able to access deeper soils, high in potassium and nitrogen, it can be used as a spray (foliar) feed or watered onto the soil promoting good strong growth and good fruiting/flowering.

Having sung Biscuits praises saying she doesn’t try and get out (famous last words) she has got out three days running the little s**t 😂 The electric tape is up and clicking away so I know it’s on, I think she is literally climbing through the post and rail fencing 🙄 So plan b is put into action 😝 She is fenced off inside the smallest paddock we have so I lure Jack across with the showing of tasty hay and shut the gates at either side of the paddock. I undo the electric fenced off area and let them both roam the small paddock, the hopeful outcome will be that Jack helps to graze it right off and then he will go into the paddock next door while Biscuit stays in the eaten off one. Every now and then we will have to put Jack in there to help keep the grass down as it is growing well now. This is the plan, plans do not always go how they should, watch this space 👀 by the time I finish sorting this out it is lunchtime.

Over to see Mia after school to celebrate her birthday with her. I left the water on in the tunnel while I was away and this year I and using the timer on my watch to remind me to turn the water off again, so far that is working well though I did have to re set it twice while we were out as I had only set it for an hour.

Thursday: A sunny day with a stiff breeze making it feel cooler. I had a busy morning doing flowers, I have some orders going to customers today, some tomorrow and then the Friday flowers and jam jars. It is surprising how long it takes to do them all, it’s after 1pm and I have only just finished having been doing them all morning. Normally I would do them this evening but I have some deliveries to make after the twins have gone home and then it’s pool night for John so I have to squeeze it in-between the two 😝

Friday: Up before the alarm this morning to get things done, flowers needed to go out early for customers coming first thing, the bunches needed wrapping and the jam jar flower needed tying loosely. I was hoping to get it done before the alarm went off and John got up but he decided to get up early too 😝 He had to stand and eat his toast as I had commandeered the kitchen table, once the flower hut is ready this will no longer be a problem. I had early customers coming for eggs and honey to so I had to make sure all those were ready and out in the shed. My day is going to be like that today, I have an appointment at 9 Shelley is coming over around 10.30 to walk through things that she will be looking after while we are away, I have customers coming to collect flowers at other times of the day and I have someone coming to collect lambing equipment I sold online.

The weather was lovely yesterday and today it’s not! Colder and wet again urrgghh there is just no consistency to the weather patterns at the minute. On the sunny days you think ‘ooo Spring has sprung’ and then back to ‘oh it’s winter again’ 😂 it does not make life easy for growing things either, the fluctuation in temperatures in the greenhouse and poly tunnels confuse the plants and seedlings and things growing outside are trying but progress is slooooow. Hey Ho no two years are ever the same so at least we are used to ‘winging it’ 😜 All we can do is try our best.

Locally grown cut flowers, British grown cut flowers, flowers from the farm, Shilton, Oxon

Saturday: Foggy and cold start to the day, it took a good few hours for the sun to burn it off but when it finally did it was not a bad day though it ended with rain and was cold again. First thing this morning we went to town as I needed a good rain coat for our holiday ✔️ then stop to get some shopping ✔️ once home I needed to pick rhubarb and then take that along with flowers down to the pub ✔️ once back I spent an hour or so in the greenhouse potting on plants and then I had the twins for a few hours while Sam and Luke took Mia out for her birthday treat. They were very good and I had them picking all the dandelion heads off the lawn and feeding them to the torts. Then George helped me to dig up dandelions in the pathways, I think he thoroughly enjoyed that especially the great big ones. I seem to have an awful lot of them this year they were growing everywhere and in order to knock them back a bit I needed to dig them up. Not all of them obviously, I have left some smaller ones and I didn’t dig any out of the lawn they can stay and just be mown every now and then. They got hungry and we went inside for lunch and stayed in for the next hour as the sun went in and it got cold outside again. Once they had been collected I was straight back out on the dandelion mission while John cut the lawn. As I said in the beginning the temps dropped and the rain came 🙄 Joping for a half decent day tomorrow 😬

Sunday: It was, for the most part, a decent day 😁 the weather conditions were just about right for me and so I spent most of the time in the greenhouse potting on or pricking out seedlings. John was busy having a bonfire at the back and tidying up. Sam came over with the children, a friend and the friends daughter who goes to riding lessons with Mia. They spent some time grooming the horses then saddled them up for rides around the paddock, everyone, horses and children were very well behaved except Lucie who by all accounts played in the horses water bucket 😂 and then had to strip off because she was soaking wet, you gotta love a spirited carefree child 🥰

We went round to Mums later in the afternoon and we were there when the national test alarm sounded on our phones. Mums went off and then around 30 seconds later mine went off, apparently lots of people didn’t get it at all so it’s lucky it was a test signal and not the real thing 😝 We had a discussion about what exactly the alarm might sound for, we don’t have tsunami, we have fires but nowhere near the scale of some countries, I suppose flash flooding might trigger it but I am guessing the flood would be quicker than the alarm 🤷‍♀️ chemical leaks or explosions might well be on the list but they would be localised as would many threat to life situations such as a gunman on the loose. We concluded that a meteor strike or nuclear attack were what it is intended for 🤔 Which begs the questions, do they know something?

Posted in Friesland Farm

Is Spring ever going to arrive 🤷‍♀️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th April 2023: Bank holiday Monday and it’s raining what a surprise 😂 can’t really complain though we have had some nice weather and at least the tanks are collecting rainwater for the animals and the garden.

A comment has made me think a lot about the British flower revival and availability. Let me say first that I initially spent six months researching British grown flowers how/what/when and have learnt a lot more during the last year as well. I am also aware that some in the floristry industry might feel threatened by the success of British flowers but there is no need. Firstly there is room for everyone and secondly the British flowers revival is not driven by a ‘them and us’ attitude, from everything I read and people I interact with it is driven by caring for the planet and a love of flowers and yes there is also a business to be made but everyone has to earn a living somehow. So if you are a florist reading this hello 👋 it’s good to have you here and working together great things can be achieved to lessen the impact on our planet. There is a fabulous independent florist called Winnie & Olive who only sell British flowers and foliage, 100% all year round so it is doable 🥰 The British flower wholesalers have reported a huge increase in sales this year already, a sure sign that more and more florists are getting onboard. I’d agree that it is difficult for someone who has always done things one particular way to change but give yourself the freedom to do so and see where it takes you. It is just about relearning and there are plenty of people out there willing to give advice, social media is awash with information, oh and if you want to go floral foam free there is plenty of information in that department too, including a growing army of church flower arrangers 🥰

We got plenty done today and made good progress with the flower room. I spent some time in the greenhouse and John some time doing something, not sure what 😂 but just before midday he said we were ready to go and get flooring so off we went to the DIY shop and bought flooring whoop. Quick pit stop for a bite to eat and coffee before returning home and laying the flooring. We were three quarters of a way through and late into the day when we ran out of underlay 😜 A quick ask round and my brother had some in his garage so we went over there to collect it along with a large table base that we will be using for the main work area. Obviously we stopped for a cuppa and a natter and returned home and unloaded by which time it was 9pm and time for a sit down before bed. Oh yes it was very flipping windy today, gusts of up to 40mph 🙄

Tuesday: The weather started off ok this morning a touch cold maybe but dry, I got some washing on the line and then a second lot in the machine, did some hoovering and tidying bits away and put the second lot of washing on the line. Then I spent some time making up an arrangement I had seen online, I wanted to see how well it worked in reality, I changed it a little but the mechanics work well. Lunchtime and I sat down with a cuppa and some toast and then the heavens opened full pelt 🙄 I ran outside and collected the washing as quickly as I could but I still got pretty wet ☹️ and it was cold to boot 🥶 Shelley called in with Josh and Flo for a cuppa and a catch up and then John arrived home just as they were about to go, seems like the day went really quickly.

Wednesday: It’s 8am and I am annoyed already 😂 I got up, the sun was out though it’s cold, I looked at the weather app 0% chance of rain until 10am then rain and high winds. So I get everything done, rubbish out, feed the animals, breakfast, sort out flower buckets, put the eggs out not necessarily in that order but you get my drift. I am ready by 7.55 to go out and cut flowers, I go for a wee quickly and I can hear rain on the roof! 😡 that was not supposed to arrive for another couple of hours 😝 I know it April and it’s shower month but seriously the rain yesterday was awful, the high winds the day before were awful and we have at least today and tomorrow with the same wall to wall forecast 🙄 After that John tells me it is going up to 21 degrees, give me a break, I would like some normal settle weather please if the universe is listening ☺️ The plan was to cut tulips, narcissi and anything else that looks ready, if I cut it this morning then the weather can do it’s worst because I will be doing jobs inside while the storm is raging outside.

Well it’s 10am and the sun is shining 😂 bloody weather apps! When there was a break (or what I thought would be a break) in the rain I dashed out and cut tulips, dicentra and narcissi plus some foliage ready for the flowers on Friday. They will have a good 24 hours conditioning and time to dry out slowly, if I left it until tomorrow and it rains all day that would be more difficult so it is a case do it when you feel it is right. I have also spent some time on the phone (waiting 🙄) to finalise some details of our up coming holiday 🥰

The wind picked up a bit 🙄 blowing a hoolie lol. I sorted out some lamb feeding bits that we will no longer be using and put those up for sale, I had to give them a wash down first as they have been stored for a good few years. Next job was to put back together a bookcase my sister was getting rid of, it is for the workshop and I haven’t decided yet if it will have books on it or baskets for keeping things in.

Thursday: The weather is good enough for me today, dry and intermittent cloud 😁 it was a busy morning. After all the usual jobs the next thing was to sort out the flowers I cut yesterday, also sort some I still had waiting to hang for drying. Once that was done it was outside to cut rhubarb and take that down to the pub, it was a pleasant walk down and back again. When I got back Dave arrived with some more honey and we had a chat about a few things that we will probably be doing in a couple of months time. Introduction to bee keeping workshops and as time goes on maybe even full courses plus we talked about charcoal making and possible workshops for that as well, ooo it’s all going on 🥰 In-between all that it was answering messages about flower bunches and bouquets, looks like it will be a good week. The flowers here are really getting going now, the tulips are coming up beautifully as are the narcissus, following closely behind are the allium and everything is beginning to burst into leaf (still a couple of things I am waiting to see if they survived) I did sow some seeds on a trial basis, the trial being to see if they actually come up before sowing more 🙄

I also ordered some spring bulbs today! Yep I have got my order in already otherwise if you leave it too late you can’t get what you actually want. I couldn’t get my head around using bulbs in cut flowers because the bulbs get discarded, the reason for that is because once the flower is cut there is no way to make energy to send back down to the bulb so it won’t flower the following year. You can cut the stem and leave some foliage behind and although it might flower the following year it will be a smaller flower with shorter stem. My plan though is not to compost all the bulbs but to leave them somewhere for a couple of years and see what they do. I have an area in the garden that is suitable under a sycamore tree and have already begun to ‘dump’ bulbs there. One of two things will happen, firstly absolutely nothing and they will either rot away or get eaten or secondly I might end up with an area full of flowers 🤷‍♀️ While I was online and as John came home we discussed what we needed to make the top of the table and the work surfaces (unbanded, new scaffold boards) and ordered that as well. I feel like to today has been a productive day and I still have flowers to make up this evening 🥰

Friday: Fridays are always a bit frantic lol, lots of messages back and forth, flower collections and social media to keep an eye on. Then there is the record keeping of what, when, where, who for, I had deliveries arriving today mostly for farm activities and kitting out the flower hut (that’s what I am going to call it) I also tend to spend Fridays working out any future workshops, planting, and doing relevant posts, it can be quite exhausting and sometimes I don’t know if I am coming or going 😂 but it is all enjoyable.

John has mostly been home today doing the last few bits to the inside of the flower hut, I can then move everything in there and start using the space to create, once the wood arrives for the table top that is 🥰

Saturday: It is Charlottes birthday today and also one of my sisters, we worked all day up to the point where it was time to go out and visit birthday people. Most of the work was on the flower hut, we had put some doors in and then decided that they were not a great fit and so took them out and put some different ones in. Both lots were bought second hand from the same person so apart from time the cost was nothing. We popped into my sisters then went up to Charlottes for paella and cake plus watch the grand national while we were there. It’s a shame about the protestors, I would always say that if you have ever worked with horses then half a ton of horse cannot be made to move if it doesn’t want to let alone run. The horses are bred for running and looked after far better than a lot of people are, holding up the race is not good for the horses themselves as they are full of adrenaline at that point and waiting to get going.

Sunday: Another day another birthday so we will be out again later today. Meanwhile we are busy getting as much done as we can, me in the garden, potting up plants, taking cuttings, planting plants into the ground and John working on the outside of the flower hut. There was metal profile sheeting on the outside but the powder coating had deteriorated over the years so it has been taken off and will be replaced with rough feather edge boarding which should look nice.

While we were out late afternoon John asked if I’d let the pony out today, no why, oh it was out in the field earlier, um maybe you should have told me when we were there 🙄 On our return I went out to the field to find her chomping away on the nice grass, somehow the electric clip had come off the fence. It was probably during the windy weather as a bucket that I used to cover the extension lead had rolled off catching the clip I imagine. She is pretty good so it would have taken her a couple of days to pluck up courage to get out and she was definitely still in there this morning lol.

That is another week done, I have done a lot but I have a lot to do, this time of year the job list gets very long and I need to get ready for our holiday to. By the time we get on holiday we will definitely need it and we physically have to go away, we can’t have a week off and stay at home otherwise we never rest 😂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flower arrangements, Easter weekend & some rather nice weather 🌞

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd April 2023: It’s early and there was a frost but it feels like a typical spring day today, the sun is shining and melting off the frost pretty quickly. I am not sure it will be very warm but it’s not raining 😁 we have now had a couple of days without rain thank goodness as it was getting beyond funny. So it looks like I will be able to get outside and do something useful in the garden, no idea what yet as I haven’t gathered my thoughts entirely. It is also the Easter holidays for the children and a short week as we head towards the Easter weekend 🐰

I quickly whizzed round with the hoover and polish, cleaning is one of the tricky to find moments here 😂 When it’s raining there is no point because animals and humans just track muddy wet feet in and all efforts then become a waste of time. When it’s a fine day I just want to get outside and get on, but I do it for my own sanity, it is nice to have somewhere clean and fresh to come into when you have been busy outside all day. I am waiting for the days when I can get the windows thrown open and blankets and cushion covers out on the line to dry but there is no enough heat in the sun to do the job just yet.

It’s 3pm and I have spent most of the day outside in the garden, weeding and digging up perennial weeds especially stingers. I know they are great for wildlife but for the children not so much, you can guarantee if they trip over it’s always into stingers. I also spent a bit of time putting down weed membrane on the tricky area, I was unable to decide what to do for the best because there are things growing that that I want to keep but other things are failing and the weeds are rampant. So I dug up the bits I am keeping, cut back all the suckers from the apricot tree and covered over with weed membrane. It will probably stay for the rest of the year even though there is asparagus under there, it was usually a bit spindly anyway. Then Charlie and Oscar came so I stopped for a cuppa with them before sweeping off winter debris from the decking and sweeping out cobwebs from the pirate ship. I tried to start the lawn mower but it’s the new one and I haven’t used it before John usually does it so I have no idea how it starts 😂 The grandchildren are having an Easter egg hunt on Friday so I thought I would tidy up the areas that they will probably be looking around plus the jobs needed doing anyway. Inside for a quick sit down before going back out to get more work done.

At 3.30 I looked after Josh and Flo for a couple of hours then while John was feeding the animals and the dinner was cooking I cut the lawn. A good full day today I reckon, its nearly 7pm so dinner, wash up and sit down for what will be left of the evening, pooped.

Tuesday: I went to bed earlier than usual last night as I was so tired lol. This morning it’s a frosty start again but the sun is shining so hopefully another lovely day ahead and I can get a fair bit done outside. I have been holding off planting some things up but I think now is a good time to get them into the ground the trouble is there is always so many other things to do as well.

This morning I signed up to be part of a study group for Cambridge university, it’s a trial being funded by Lupus UK. The study is focused on mental health in long term illness and there are four groups and each will be doing something different, the forth is a control group that won’t be doing anything. I won’t know which group I am in until May but it will be interesting to take part and to see the results at the end. I think that most of the time you are just trying to get by and so are not aware of your mental health it’s just part and parcel of your life and your illness (even if you are stable) it’s not until you fill in a questionnaire and you analyse thoughts that you realise that things could be better 🤷‍♀️ On the whole I think I have a positive mental attitude but there are times and areas when that dips and during a flare it can dip pretty low but luckily I have not had one for a couple of years now (touch wood 🪵)

I spent the morning sorting out plants that had been potted up over winter, some went out for sale, some that never made it went to the compost heap and the rest I tidied up and are nicely stored in the cold frames. That meant plenty of empty pots and trays to be tidied away and sweeping up to do. I just finished when Shelley came with Josh and Flo quickly followed by Sam, Mia, George and Lucie, Charlie and Oscar arrived a little later. The weather was lovely enough to sit outside in the garden and the children had picnic lunch on a blanket. While the children were busy playing Shelley and I got the netting onto the top of the fruit cage and secured that in place, that’s another job done. I am hoping to keep the birds out entirely this year, I can never see where they get in but hopefully this year they can’t and I will have a good haul of raspberries, blackcurrants and strawberries 😋 Lucie was asking me where the strawberries and tomatoes are, I explained that I had to grow them first and it was too early yet 😂 I do love it that their memories will be of eating tomatoes and soft fruit from Nanas garden 🥰 We also saw a herd of large deer in the field next door, they are getting quite frequent as they were there yesterday as well.

Wednesday: I have showered, breakfasted, hung out the washing, put the eggs out, done the washing up, fed the dogs and cats and watered in the greenhouse all before 9am. I am now waiting for it to warm up just a little before going out to pick rhubarb and cut flowers now that there are some ready to cut 😁

I have been thinking about the subtle changes in the flowers and foliage as we move from week to week. I used to think only in seasons, seed sowing season, growing season, harvesting season and resting season which of course all roughly follow Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Since closely watching flowers on a daily basis though I came to realise that there are micro seasons too, they are very subtle changes but they are definitely there. I think I have mentioned it causally before but the more I watch the more I learn, there is a slow decline of early spring bulbs but at the same time slowly growing late spring bulbs and flowers are getting under way, the same can be said for early flowering foliage. I have recently read a book that confirms my observations and the lady that wrote it notes that she can identify three sections within each season. The ancient Japanese apparently identified 72 micro seasons in a year so I really must up my game and watch more lol.

I had a busy morning cutting flowers, prepping them for conditioning and then picking rhubarb, doesn’t sound a lot but it was a good couple of hours in all. Then Charlie arrived at lunchtime with Oscar and I looked after him for a few hours while Charlie went for an appointment. Nursery rhymes, naps (for Oscar not me) and feeding time all went smoothly, once Charlie had picked Oscar back up it was time to sort out the flowers. Making up bouquets and market bunches plus jam jar flowers also takes longer than it sounds but it is never boring 🥰 the smells are amazing and the result of what I have put together at the end are beautiful 🤩 A quick sit down and something to eat before going off to this months flower club meeting.

Flower club was fab, I had no idea what we were going to make the title was ‘tripods and test tubes’ 🤷‍♀️ It was somewhat laborious winding string around canes and test tubes but I think the outcome was great and in my head I was already up scaling it 😂 big rustic branches and tubular vases would would a treat for an occasion I think.

Thursday: Friday flowers are going out a day early this week so I was up early with plenty of jobs to do before getting the flowers out at 8am. I was on a multitasking mission which included getting something out for dinner, using the chop saw to cut wood for arrangement orders, drilling a piece of wood for the Easter tree and getting that set up, making up more jam jar flowers as they sold out quickly, cutting foliage for the arrangements I need to make, nailing the hazel whips to the wood and sorting out the dishes to be filled with moss for the arrangement, meeting customers and handing over their flower orders as well as all the usual jobs. Never a dull moment round here and no two days are ever the same.

I spent a couple off hours in the afternoon putting the foliage in the arrangements that are being collected on Saturday, I can’t do it tomorrow as we have a busy day. The twins arrived for their Thursday session while Mia went swimming, I get them their tea while they are here but George is a bit under the weather and not eating much unless it’s custard or yoghurt 😂

Good Friday: It’s a bank holiday today and we had a day of family fun. After getting the morning jobs done the grandchildren arrived for an Easter egg hunt in the garden which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The weather was beautiful, blue skies and sunshine, I doubt it would have been as much fun in the rain! We sat in the garden for a good couple of hours eating hot cross buns and Easter cakes that Charlie made. After everyone left I added the flowers to the arrangements that had been ordered for tomorrow, a quick sit down before getting the afternoon jobs done and the off out for another family party. A farm outbuilding had been transformed into an exceptionally great pub called The Jolly Welshman for my niece’s partner it is his 30th birthday this week, bbq, beer on tap, bar snacks, optics and great furnishing they pulled off an epic feat there. We didn’t stay too late and we’re home by 10pm as the dogs needed letting out but we had a brilliant day.

Oscars first Easter 🐣
Inside The Jolly Welshman which was a farm building transformed!
A rare picture of John 😂
The Jolly Welshman himself, happy 30th birthday Alex 🎂

Saturday: Up and about quite early, it was frosty but again the sun is shining, oh and last night the moon was amazing, full, low and yellowy/orange and it could still be seen first thing this morning too. John did the animals and went off to get feed, I got the eggs sorted and did the last bits to the arrangements that were being picked up this morning. These gave me sleepless nights thinking about how best to do them and I don’t think I will be doing any more 😂 but I enjoyed the challenge and learnt along the way so that’s a win.

The various stages of the arrangements for collection today.

Once collected we went out to a local landscaping centre to look for some plants, didn’t have much luck and only found one that I wanted so we then drove to a garden centre. I found a couple more of the specifics I was looking for but still not all of them, I lost a few over winter and am trying to replace them but it’s proving difficult so maybe I will have to do without them for now. My runner beans were old seed and they are not amounting to anything, I considered buying plants but when I looked at the state of them for the price I decided to buy new seed instead 😜 Half of the plant trays had damping off problems so it didn’t look good for the rest of them in the tray 🙄 I looked at grafted tomato plants too but figured I will wait to see if my seeds sprout and if not there are usually plenty for sale locally. I just feel that germination is really slow this year, not sure why, maybe I say that every year then end up with too many plants 😂

I spent a bit of time in the garden, John fix the cracked fitting on the outside water pipe, we had to turn it back off in the week when we discovered it was leaking but we are all good now. I watered the ranunculus and anemone in the poly tunnel, the anemone are producing well and the ranunculus should start soon. I have plenty of tulips coming to the fore now lol probably too many but that’s better than not enough. Other plants are just starting to put on tiny growth and I am still waiting to see if some have made it or not. One or two of the dahlias are sprouting, they will stay in the greenhouse until the risk of frost has passed and then go out. Some are still in the ground and I won’t know if they have made it for a few weeks yet.

Sunday: Busy, busy, busy day, I have spent most of the day in the garden planting up everything that can be planted, some in the poly tunnel and some in the garden. If we are going to have rain I might as well make the most of the dry day today and the watering in by Mother Nature tomorrow. It was supposed to be sunny and blue skies but that didn’t appear luckily for me 😁 it meant it was a perfect day to be dong whatever needed doing and that included lots of weeding. I did spend an hour or so helping John, he was setting up the water tanks ready to catch the rain that is coming and needed me to help get the tanks up on the stands (easier said than done 😜) I also hoovered out the boot and the back seat of the car to remove the hay from last week 😝 I sowed some runner bean seeds, the ones that I had saved from a couple of years ago failed miserably so fresh seed was needed. I will try harder to save seed this year and make sure I use it the following year instead of leaving it. A few of the seeds I sowed last week are starting g to appear, the dwarf bean, broad bean and peas have tiny shoots in the greenhouse. Indoors the courgettes are beginning to sprout but no sign of the tomatoes yet 🙄 We are away for a week at the end of the month and I need to make sure that everything is under control before I go which is another reason to get as much in the ground as possible. Shelley is very capable at maintaining it all but not so confident with growing and transplanting not on this scale anyhow. Most veg plants won’t go in until I get back and I certainly won’t direct sow anything until I return. After 30 odd years of gardening I can tell the difference between a weed seed and a useful seed but it’s not fair to put that pressure on someone else!

John cut the front paddock with the ride on mower, too short of course 🙄 I did tell him to set the blades high but there is none so deaf as those that don’t want to hear 😬

Posted in Friesland Farm

A lot of rain this week, rhubarb picking begins & birthdays galore this month 🎂

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th March 2023: Gosh the month is rattling along isn’t it 🙄 This morning the weather looks promising 🙄 dry and I can see the sun though it is a tad cold at 8am mind you the clocks went forward so it will feel like 7am until we adjust and so will the temps lol. Hopefully it will stay dry we could do with a break from the dank outlook so it feels a bit more like spring.

I picked rhubarb this morning to put out for sale, I love rhubarb season it the first of the home grown crops to become available in any quantity. I then thought the best place to be working this morning in on the front beds as the sun has come out. So I spent some time weeding and also sorting out the supports for the taller plants such as delphiniums, lupin and chrysanthemums. I soon realised I am going to need to start wearing a hat and sunscreen 🙄 that would be way too early for most people but I can already feel the effects of the sun on my head 😒 I have two small problem areas as it is at the minute and if I don’t cover up chances are I will lose the hair and have even more bald spots than I already have. All winter long I mostly forget that I have an issue with the sun 😂 I eagerly await some real sunshine and then can’t spend very long in it without cover 😂 such is life, there are worse things but it’s a real pain sometimes (well a lot of the time really) I retreated indoors to dig out hats have a cuppa and skim through my new reading material before heading back outside suited and booted.

It’s a fine day and it’s best to make the most of it so I have been outside the whole time until mid afternoon. I have weeded, planted up raspberry canes, cut down the pussy willow next to the house and bundled that up for later use, weeded some more (quite a lot more 😝) and cut back suckers from trees. The area with the apricot and cherry tree is a tricky area, the apricot tree sends suckers out all over the place, the comfrey has taken hold as have the stingers and every other weed mentionable. I have the thornless blackberry growing there and some asparagus but I think I have decided to dig up what I want to keep and try to suppress everything else under membrane for the remainder of the year and see if I can regain some control. I have no idea what else I can do with it otherwise, nature is reclaiming it 😂

The temptation is strong to just keep going but I am of an age when I recognise that I need to stop and rest, if I kept going it would be half hearted so better to re charge and do the job properly and besides I need a Nana nap 😂

Tuesday: A totally different day today, raining, grey, dank. I whizzed round and did some polishing, hoovering and tidying away before Charlie came and we went to Witney with Oscar for a quick look round and a coffee. I needed some black shoes for my upcoming holiday, I have to admit defeat to high heels 😂 and go for lower shoes with comfort these days. The problem is the choice is awful, I am pretty sure shoe manufacturers could do a whole lot better than either shoes that feel like planks of wood to wear or glorified slippers 😝 it seems not. Charlie stayed for a while to feed Oscar when we got back and then went home. I had been fighting off a headache all morning but it got worse in the afternoon so I had a lay down and fell asleep, that still didn’t cure it even with paracetamol although it was a little better. I didn’t get anything else done other than make the dinner.

Wednesday: Grey and dank again today, good job I made the most of Mondays weather. My headache has gone thank goodness, it means I can focus on the day ahead. The farrier is coming this morning and so is a delivery of flowers. I had a quick look round the garden this morning the bridal crown are almost ready to start cutting and the tulips just need to put some stem length on and then they should be good to cut. I have a couple of ranunculus flowers emerging 😁 and the snakehead are doing daintily well, I am hoping to get time to practise some vase arrangements this week at some point. On Monday while I was weeding I took a quite a few rooted pieces of Nepeta and popped those into a jar of water. Nepeta (cat mint) was one of the surprises in the cutting garden, it’s abundant once it gets going, cut and come again, it has lovely textured foliage and a glaucous leaf plus it can get quite tall making it one of the best fillers for bouquets and bunches in my opinion, there is the tiny pretty blue flower of course which add to its usefulness and on the nature side of things the bees absolutely love it, win, win.

The farrier came and Biscuit has laminitis ☹️ she has not had it since we have had her though she has had it in a previous life. Gutted that we have blotted our score card, she seems ok with it though, the way she ran around the paddock you would never know 😂 That then meant a scort round to dig out all the fencing stakes, tape and electric and rig up an electrified pen which she will probably remain in for the whole spring and summer 🙄 As we had finished the last of the big hay bales during the cold snap we had to get some more in. Sam took Johns car and went to get a couple of small bales, we now have a car covered in hay 😝

I had a few deliveries due today which all came at various times, I then went out to do a bit of tidying up and burn some rubbish before coming in to make a cup of tea, just about to sit down when another delivery arrived. Shelley called in and so did Charlie with Oscar.

It’s 7.30pm and the rain is ridiculous, it has been raining on and off all day and now belting it down. We lose signal on the tv when it’s really bad, I think the satellite has been there so long it is breaking down. The only reason we have a freesat box is so that John can record programmes as he refuses to pay 😝 it is becoming obsolete technology and I would get rid and pay but 🤷‍♀️

I have a zoom meeting tonight on pruning 😁 always up for learning whatever I don’t already know.

Thursday: Another dull, grey day with the threat of rain 🙄 Getting bored of it now, fat or famine as always! I have a funeral to attend later this afternoon but the rest of the day is mine to decide what to do, governed by the weather of course. We just need some drier, warmer days to pick up our spirits here which are ebbing to be honest.

I managed to miss the showers walking to and from the church but it did rain a fair amount in between. Does anyone else feel that everything is on hold? I just can’t move things forward with the garden at all and there does not look like much let up over the next few days in fact tomorrow looks horrendous 😝

Friday: No change in the awful weather and it’s playing havoc with growing seedlings. I have some in the greenhouse that came through lovey and then pfft, one colder night and they keeled over. This morning after doing Friday flowers I went into the greenhouse to see how things are going. Some successes, some failures but all very slow. I sowed a tray of cucumber, peppers and tomato but I have bought the tray indoors to get going, I am tempted to plug the propagators in just to get it all going but as I have no idea how the weather is going to go long term I am not sure if that is a good idea or not. The problem is with heat I can get good plants under way but when they get to a size that they should be transplanted it could still be cold and then where do I move them to 🤷‍♀️ I have a feeling with all this rain that the outdoor flowers are just all going to come at once so I end up with a glut rather than a slow succession, it seems like a no win situation at the minute.

Tulips are just beginning to flower outside and next year I think I will try growing some in the tunnel, the risk there is mice eating the bulbs, it’s a never ending guessing game 😂

I cut my contorted hazel branch ready for the Easter tree, it needs to dry out a little before I decorate it and get it on display, it has some wonderful lichen on it though which adds to its charm.

Just gone 1pm and ffs it’s hammering down 🙄 I need to walk down to the pub to take some flowers and told them I am waiting for a dry spot 😂 might be a while. I shut the door on the flower shed initially because of the rain then I re opened it and now the rain is blowing in that direction I imagine they will be soaked. Oh our green and pleasant land is green for a reason I know but seriously we have not had much let up for four days now.

Saturday: Well that was a different start to the day, it’s 1st April so All fools day but this was no joke. The whole (pretty much) of the next town along woke up to no water (the irony is not lost on me after all this rain) the messages started first with Charlie asking if we had water, we did and I told her to come over and get some if she needed it. Next I messaged on the family page to say the same as many have young children and babies plus everyone needs their morning brew right 😂 Then the phone calls and messages started for John, being a plumber he was the first port of call for some but there was nothing he could do 🤷‍♀️ It is Mums birthday 🥳 today but she was over at 7.30 to fill up some containers 😂 The social media is going mad with all the questions to which the reply from any utility as always is ‘we are investigating’ 😝 Normally it’s us with either no water, no electric or no internet so it’s nice to offer help to others for a change. What worries me is that people have no idea how to cope in these situations 🤷‍♀️ I have a back up plan for most things here, battery powered lights, a store of bottle water (enough to get us through a couple of days) and solar powered battery charging pack 🙄 though the lack of sun might be the downfall there. I also have water cleansing tablets just in case the water is off for a long time (admittedly that would be some kind of disaster situation) and stores of food that is rotated for an emergency situation. If needs be we could dig a compost loo and rig up an outdoor shower (warmer months only 😝) As I type at 9 am it is apparently all kicking off down at the supermarket over the bottled water! It pays to be a bit of a prepper I can tell you, who knows what is around the next corner.

On the upside it’s nearly 4pm and we have had no rain today yet, dare not speak too soon mind you as the sky looks iffy. We have had a rare day off today, still the usual jobs have to be done of course, feeding, egg collecting but other than that nothing else here on the farm. We have been to town as I needed to get some new black trousers for my holiday, coffee and cake out and then round to Mums to say happy birthday and have more cake 😁 There were plenty of family coming and going so we stayed a longer than planned but it’s nice to have time off.

Sunday: Another dry but cold day though the sun came out in the afternoon there was still a chill in the air. Plenty of jobs done in the morning including some seed sowing and rhubarb picking, John cleaned out the birds and his van 🙄 Then we went out for lunch at our local pub, delicious food at the Rose and Crown, after that it was round to Shelley and Martins to wish him happy birthday and have tea and cake 😁 Back home in time to do the animals and clock off for the day.

Posted in Friesland Farm

1st day of Spring but not much warmth

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th March Officially the first day of Spring but still not much sign of any significant warmth during the day, we have the odd few hours but it is really putting things behind a bit. Having said that I have been busy so all is not lost, this morning I have got three more lots of soaker hose in place. I am determined that this is the year I nail the watering 😂 I rang John as I needed some stop ends for the hose and he couldn’t really get on with his day for various reasons so he came home and connected it all up for me. We tried out one lot which was fine, John went off to do some other jobs and I tried the one in the big tunnel, I got wet 😝 the connectors are all different and one of them just pinged off giving me a soaking 🙄 I have also been sorting out the fruit cage yesterday and today, the top netting has rotted so I got all off, measured up and ordered new. I cut back all the canes from the autumn raspberries as it is now time to do that and checked the summer raspberries. I have lost most of those 😏 the cold weather has killed off a lot and they are one thing that has succumbed also my fig tree and the cherry bush I think. The latter two I will leave for now and see what happens but I don’t hold out much hope. I ordered new summer raspberry canes both the red and yellow varieties oh yes I am not sure my olive has made it either. I have been weeding in the fruit cage and there are a lot of bindweed roots lurking under pots and so everything that comes out of there will be burnt and not go onto the compost heap. I now need to empty all the pots with dead raspberry canes but I want to save the compost providing there is no sign of bindweed 👀 The autumn raspberries are in the ground but the summer ones are all in pots as there is no room to put them into the ground. Hopefully I can get that all sorted before the new canes arrive, I might put some in the ground elsewhere just so that I can hedge my bets each year. This is the time of year to make sure everything is cleared, tidied, weeded, mulched and ready to go because once the growing season starts it gets very busy! More dahlias arrived today, these are a better colour than the others (growers choice) orange and white 🤪 They will probably turn out to be ones I absolutely love but I need a broader colour palette.

It has rained on and off for a large part of the day but only gentle rain in short bursts so not too bad and not cold either so I have worked through it.

It’s just gone 2pm and I am having a quick sit down as Sam will be picking me up in around 45 mins to look after the children while they go to the theatre tonight. At the minute the bus fairs are £2 single to help with living expenses and so they are taking the bus which turns a half hour journey into around 2hrs 😂 Still every little helps as they say 😁 I will be having dinner over at Sam’s so I have got John something from the freezer for him to reheat.

Tuesday: Another grey start to the day with the threat of rain, I guess at least you can call the weather settled 😂

It started of raining but soon cleared up although there were a couple of showers now and then. Shelley came over and we got a relatively big job done in the fruit cage. I have lost most of the summer raspberries (but have some on order) so I needed to empty out all the large pots clean up the compost and refill them ready for the new bare root plants. One of the problems I have in that area is bindweed and it had wrapped itself around the bottom of the tubs so that all needed carefully removing and taking for burning. I think there are around 12 tubs in total, I also disposed of the dead fig and the cherry bush. We had to dash into the big tunnel during one of the showers but we got the job done and finished which is fab. Later on in the day I tested all the soaker hoses I have set up and I have partially set one up in the fruit cage though it needs sorting out and pegging down properly. I also ordered 100m more soaker hose and connectors for the front beds as this (I am hoping) is going to be a big time saving addition to the large areas of garden that take hours to water with a hand held hose. One of the problems is that the beds do not run in straight lines, if they did it would be much simpler 😂

Wednesday: We had a bit of sunshine today 😁 though it was coupled with a ‘stiff breeze’ and when the sun went behind the clouds the breeze was quite cold. Shelley came over again today for a couple of hours to help in the garden, it makes such a difference when you have someone to work with, chivvys you along a bit 😝 We worked on the runner bean area this time and now it is all cleared and ready for planting but that will not be until May. It is also an area heavily infested with bindweed so again everything went to the burning pile and weed membrane re secured. Charlie also walked over with Oscar for a visit and I introduced him to the horses, he took that introduction like he takes everything, unperturbed 😂

I really need to get on with a bit (lot) of seed sowing now, this year I am using coir mixed with vermiculite as a substrate. I have found that the compost quality has deteriorated quite a bit over the last few years and am only using that for potting on. The coir is lighter and the added vermiculite gives more aeration for the roots. Seeds do not need any nutrients until they have produced the first true leaves, they have all they need packed into that little seed case to reach the surface and sprout cotyledon (embryonic leaves) the next two leaves produced are then the true leaves of the plant. Likewise a bulb does not need any nutrients, everything it needs to get to a certain point and only then will need feeding. Coir is a low nutrient substance and so it’s ideal for seed sowing.

Rain in the evening on and off.

Thursday: A tremendous amount of rain in the evening and through the night but a dry start to the day although very windy! I started off early by cutting some pussy willow for this weeks flowers, unfortunately I managed to snip the top of my ring finger while I was at it. Luckily not bad enough to have to get it seen to, our extensive first aid kit had all I needed 😝 After repairing myself I went into the greenhouse to sow broad beans and a few more sweet peas. I had deliveries arriving this morning so was waiting for those when BT turned up to do an annual check on our telegraph pole. They dig round the bottom of it, drill a tiny hole into it, tap it all the way up to the top to check for any rot. It has a good bill of health apart from some minor woodpecker damage 😂 Just as he left the first delivery arrived and I had just dealt with that when the second one arrived. The second one was a bit of a mission, I had bought some old wooden marquee doors from and local company for the workshop. They are the ideal size and perfect for what I want, what I didn’t realise is that I had purchased two sets 🤣 value for money or what but now I have a spare set of marquee doors if anyone wants any. They would make an ideal front to a garden room 😀

A sit down at lunchtime was in order after a frantic hour or so, I have some bouquets to make up this week and also a spring wreath so I will sit and think about those for a while.

I went back outside and cut some foliage and some daffodils, I have flower orders before they even go out tomorrow for Friday Flowers so not sure what if anything will be left to go out 🙄 I need to pop some flowers down to the pub and be back in time for looking after the twinnies. They are growing up fast and are at that fabulous age when conversations are hilarious and entertaining.

In the evening I made up two big bouquets and a couple of Market bunches.

It rained heavily most of the evening and into the night.

Friday: A bright and dry start but I won’t hold my breath as the rain does not look far away. This morning the first job was to make a spring wreath for collection later today and wrap the bouquets for collection as well. I put out the two bunches I had but they were sold by 9.30! The flower side of things has really taken off and at times it can be manic but it’s also fabulous to have that kind of reaction and support from customers. It is only 10.30 but I need a sit down and a coffee, collect my thoughts about the next couple of weeks ahead regarding flowers.

Spring wreath, Friesland Farm Flowers, Shilton, Oxfordshire, Xut flowers, British grown flowers

I did a bit in the greenhouse as the weather is changeable 🙄 one minute sunshine, next it’s windy and raining. I pricked out some scabious and purple tansy seedlings, potted on some gypsophila, cornflower and lavender and sowed some craspedia and snow princess marigolds. Most of the orders have been collected this morning, just one left for this evening, and have plenty to do as Mia, Josh and Flo are coming to stay tonight. I need to fling the hoover round, give the spare room a once over and get some shopping at some point but for now I am having a sit down. I seem to be struggling with fatigue again at the minute, there is always something 🙄 I am ok for the morning then take a bit of a dive, rest and then can get back at it in the afternoon.

I managed to get shopping done just after lunch, John came home and we went to get some goodies for the kids later. I was hoping to cook sausages outside but I am not sure that is going to be possible, I think Mother Nature it is convinced it’s already April with the amount of showers we are having at the minute.

Some of the raspberry canes arrived, I have put them in water and will plant up over the weekend. The soaker hose arrived, I said to the postman, I got this in case we get a drought this year, with the weather as it is at the minute the irony was not lost on either of us 😂

The children arrived and the weather didn’t improve so we had to cook indoors which is a shame but maybe another day. I think they enjoyed themselves, eating, bathing, watching a movie and finally sleeping 😝

Saturday: Josh and Mia were up first shortly followed by myself, then John and finally Flo around an hour later. On the breakfast menu was cereal, fresh fruit, pancakes (with every topping) apple juice and chocolate milk 🥰 Once the parents had collected them I went outside to get a bit done, the three beds in the front now all have soaker hose in place. We bought a y shape hose connector and the hose goes round in a loop, I tested it and it’s going to work really well it will be Sod’s Law that we don’t have any dry periods all year now! I also sowed some seeds in the greenhouse, cosmos, celosia for flowers but also runner beans and peas. I planted up most of the sprouted onion sets, around 36 I think which def won’t last us all year so I may plant up a lot more yet I just need to find somewhere for them to go.

Sunday: More rain 🙄 I know we need it to fill the reservoirs after later summer but seriously 😒 what’s more it’s colder with it today which makes it even more unpleasant. My first job in the greenhouse was to start potting up the dahlia tubers to wake them up. The ones in the front beds do not get lifted and I won’t know until they start to sprout or not if they made it through the winter. The others in the back beds did not get lifted in time and so most of those are lost, it has been a bad winter even for stored dahlias with many people losing tubers. The ones I potted up are new tubers in various colours, pink, red, orange and some white, I think there are 20 in total fingers crossed they are all viable. once that was done and as it’s not sunny I decided to tackle the soaker hose in the big tunnel, one side works fine the other side just keeps leaking at the connection point. I have tried various different connectors and this is the third time I have tried to sort it getting soaked each time I try. The rain and cold outside and getting wet inside just about naffed me off to the limit and so I have given up for now, John tried as well but although he achieved less leakage than me it still leaks. Hosepipe connecters and fittings are the pits they never seem to work well for long even when you replace the washers or if you buy the more expensive ones, I imagine the shares are pretty good for investors as the turnover must be huge keep replacing them all the time 😂 It’s Sod’s Law that every other line I have put in and tested works fine but not the one I want to use right now! I will try again tomorrow and see if I can get it working any better 🤷‍♀️

I spent almost 2 hrs sorting out my plant labels and either putting them into alphabetical order or group order. The flowers shrubs etc are all in alphabetical and the fruit/veg/herbs are all in groups. They are then stored in bags inside a plastic tub. Some of the labels I have had for a good number of years (up to 10) some have become too brittle and I have put those in the bin. I have tried wooden ones but the ink runs in the rain or the pencil disappears and you can’t read them so I use plastic. At the end of the year they are all gathered up if they are no longer being used and thrown into a small plant trough, I then have the task of sorting them all out at this time of year. Some of them can be cleaned off so that I have new blanks but most are written with a sharpie and that does not come off lol. They are used year after year for many years so that is the trade off, when I find something better I will definitely make the change ( I did then order wooden ones as I couldn’t bring myself to order plastic 😝)

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, a bit of work in between & more flowers 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th March: Eeeek it’s a big week this week with Mothers Day on Sunday, by the time I publish this I will have worked with 4/500 stems of various flowers and foliage 😲 and who knew I would absolutely love every single minute of it 🥰 My own flowers are slowly emerging so I still can’t use those but what I will be using are 100% British grown flowers and foliage and not a single stem imported. This is massively important to me, there are lists with wonderfully tempting flowers of all kinds on them, am I tempted, of course I am, would I do it, not a chance. I have been happily connected with British growers and sellers for a year now and each and every one of them is passionate about British grown flowers, sustainability, nature friendly gardening/farming and packaging materials, I have found my tribe 🙌

Why is it so important to me? Well just like food production I think it’s important to know what you are eating, where it comes from and how it was grown/reared and the more I learn the more I know it’s the right way for me. If I can convince a few others along the way then that is a great thing, the more of us on the same road the better off the planet will be.

It is a windy morning this morning, have I ever told you I hate the wind 😂 (many times) it is just that everything clanks and groans around here when it is so windy. My ultimate fear is the roof blowing off, sheets of tin flying around is not something I want to see, they are secure but Mother Nature is fierce as we all know and she can do whatever she wants if she sets her mind to it. It’s not that bad out there but a fear is a fear and not easily shrugged off 🙄 I have a plethora of jobs to chose from this morning, the cleaning needs doing, the bed needs stripping which means plenty of washing (too windy to get it on the line though) the hens at the back need cleaning out and so do the ducks. All the while the week ahead is buzzing round in my head, jobs to do in the flower garden, Mother’s Day flower payment links to go out, Friday flowers, Flos birthday, flower seeds to order, veg seeds I haven’t got yet that I need to order, what to get for dinner later. Another cup of tea before I begin I think lol.

I cleaned, hoovered, polished most of the rooms, changed the bed sheets and put the washing on and by early afternoon sat down for lunch. Charlie came over with Oscar and I looked after him while Charlie went and did her weekly shop. It didn’t go too well, he went to sleep but woke up 10/15 minutes later and I could not pacify him at all 😂 luckily Charlie was not away too long. You think as a seasoned parent you will be able to deal with most things as a grandparent but if you don’t have the milk on tap you are onto a loser 😝

Tuesday: A better day weatherwise though still not that warm and intermittent rain so unless it warms up as the day goes on I am not planning on going outside much. I did check the seedlings and plants in the greenhouse though and things are coming on nicely although we have temps dropping to around -5 again tonight 😏 hopefully that will be it for a while. We need some sunshine/warmth after the rain to get everything growing and the tree leaves sprouting, the buds are there but they are holding off for the time being.

The sun came out and there was a job I needed to do that was in the small tunnel so I figured today was a good day to do that and besides I wanted to get it done so that the tunnel was good to go when the time came. I could have waited for John to do it but to be honest he has a lot of projects on the go already plus the day job so I put my entry level carpentry skills into action. We have wood lying around so I measured what needed, gathered up the wood, got it all sawn to length and put it altogether 😁 I am suitably impressed with myself I can tell you.

Find some suitable wood, screws, saw, tape measure and cordless screwdriver……..
…….and build this 😁 the extra box I needed to finish down one side of the small tunnel 🥰

I just need to line it and fill it with compost, the seep has been cut to size and in the first photo you can see the piece of hose that links the two seep hoses together. I will now be able to attach a water hose to the end and leave it to water itself for an hour or two while I get on with other jobs 😁 ✔️

One of my main aims this year is to get the seep hoses in place beforehand, usually I am trying to lay them when everything has started to grow 😝

Wednesday: We had a frost this morning so it was quite cold over night but not the -5 they predicted I don’t think, the reason I say that is because the puddles were not frozen at 7.30 this morning so it can’t have gone down that low 🤷‍♀️ The temperatures are already up and I think it will be quite a nice day all in all. It is Florence’s 5th birthday today, oh to be five again 🥰 When I was five I was living in Swinbrook and being put on the school bus each morning to go to school in Burford, I can’t imagine that happens much these days 😬

Preparations begin for the Mothers Day flowers, first thing this morning was bucket washing. Buckets for conditioning the flowers need to be scrupulously clean, bacteria in the water is the main cause of premature decay in cut flowers, they are scrubbed with washing up liquid and warm water then thoroughly rinsed and dried ready to go. There will be wrapping to prepare and sundries such as string, raffia and tape to check (just in case I don’t have enough) All the wrapping I use is compostable, even the cellophane is plant based and the sellotape is plastic free 😁

John is at home today working on the flower workshop, I am not really sure what else to call it, I already have the small flower shed in the driveway and studio seems a bit presumptuous so if anyone has an idea please put it in the comments.

I spent most of the first half of the morning sorting out wrapping for the flowers, if I can pre do as much as possible it will save time when I start making up the bouquets. I also had vases to wrap and they are also done and ready to go. Next it was time to go outside and start cutting foliage, the pussy willow is amazing and it has sprouted up everywhere in the ménage 😂 I am thinking I might use this space for growing foliage, seems like a good use as it no longer gets used for the horses. I also cut some of the remaining stems from the willow trees, the stems have now turned a lovely orange colour, I already had some vibrant green stems of a dog wood and I added to that some lilac stems that are still in bud. Then it started to rain and it was quite cold with it so I abandoned that for the time being, tomorrow I will cut some more of anything useful I can find 😁

Went round to see Florence for her birthday 🥳 and eat cake 🎂🥰

Thursday: Drizzle first thing this morning but it feels warmer than of late, we could do with some sunshine though, it would help all the growth along now we have had some rain. It is flower delivery day today and boy have I got a lot of British grown flowers coming 😂 I have also been cutting whatever I have here that is ready. This morning I have cut hellebore and a few anemone, some honey berry that is just beginning to flower and some trailing ivy. I have got lots of flowers to make up in various forms for Mothers Day, bouquets, bunches and grave flowers and can’t wait until the flowers arrive, I have gone over and over the number I will need but as it is the first year I am panicking that I haven’t ordered enough 🙄 Once they are here and I can see exactly what I have I can then allocate some to Friday flowers and for other orders I have that are not Mothers Day related. I will have help tomorrow afternoon and evening, Charlie has offered to give me a hand which is great otherwise I think I would be working into the small hours 😂 I am loving it though and already thinking about things I can do for Mothers Day next year!

Once the flowers arrive they will all need sorting and conditioning, some need different kinds of treatment but basically they all need to sit in water in a cool dark place to take up as much moisture as the stems can hold. The hellebore I cut this morning all have a tiny 1mm line scored right down the stems and are immersed up to the flowers so that they can uptake as much as possible, the anemone just stand in water so you can see that some are more high maintenance than others.

As it often does, everything happened at once, I had a phonecall from Johns business insurance that I was in the middle of payingwhen the first delivery of flowers arrived quickly followed by the second delivery. I needed to get them all in water asap, they smelt amazing and the colours of the tulips were fabulous.

This gorgeous lot will all be turned into Mothers Day bouquets and bunches 🥰

Sam arrived straight from school with the children ready for Mia’s swimming lesson. They came bursting in and were all excited about having a bath a Nana’s, the reason Sam had said they would be having a bath is because they had been playing in the mud at Nursery and were mud splattered everywhere 😂 Time is tight on a Thursday for Sam so factoring in a bath when they get home from swimming is pushing it a bit, a bath at Nana’s was the solution. The question I asked them first is ‘did you have fun playing in the mud’ happy faces and shouts of yes was all the confirmation needed 🥰 I have never known children so happy to be having a bath, Mia on the other hand was mighty upset because she had to go swimming and would have preferred to stay and have a bath with them lol. I bathed them, washed their muddy hair and faces, and got their dinner, at least once they got home they would be ready to go to bed.

Friday: It’s Friday 😁 not any old Friday and definitely Friday flowers day but this time it’s all mothers day flowers. It will be a busy day and I am nervously excited about doing them all 🥰

Blimey 5pm and just finished, that was back breaking work lol, to be fair I did look after Oscar for a couple of hours while Charlie did the wrapping 😝 but still it was a full day of prepping, bunching, wrapping and tidying up. I think I need a nap!

I did manage to get Friday flowers out too which was a bonus. I made up five bunches and they would t all fit in one buckets and touch the water so I put them into two buckets. When I went out later someone had bought a bunch but then put the other bunch into the second bucket and took the bucket as well! I wouldn’t mind but I was really stretched for buckets with all the bunches and bouquets I had made up, I can only assume they used it so the car didn’t get wet and are planning on returning it 🙏

Saturday: I was awake early so got up made a cuppa and went back to bed to listen to a podcast. The electric went off at around 6am but luckily came back on five minutes later, I decided I may as well get up and have breakfast. I have a busy day of flower collections today but I do want to get other jobs done as well. I have asked John to reconnect the mains outside now that we have a mild period of weather coming up, it is so mild this morning I stood outside in my pjs and drank my tea 😁 First though he has gone to the builders merchant to get so bits for the workshop, I asked him ‘while you are there can you buy me some more buckets please’ 😂 builders buckets will have to do for now.

I had a delivery of dahlia tubers arrive yesterday, I have lost most of mine this year because of the cold weather, hopefully the ones in the front beds will have survived.

Oooosh it’s nearly 4.30pm I am on nearly 12,000 steps and my back is aching but Mothers Day flowers are done, collected and I am pooped. I spent half the time weeding in the garden and the other half with customers collecting flowers, it’s been amazing and I have loved every minute of it. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo mid afternoon and we dug up carrots, the kids washed them and then they took them home ready for roast dinner tomorrow, luckily we are invited 🥰 I also sold all the Friday flower bunches from the shed as well as a jam jar, there still some narcissi and daffs left but that is it 😁

On a sadder note the female Turkey, Tedalena, died yesterday ☹️ and now Ted is alone again, to be honest she wasn’t in the greatest shape when she came to us and that was more to do with her breeding than anything so I am surprised she lasted this long, the avian lockdown has not helped matters either.

Sunday: We spent the first part of the morning working outside, I have been weeding and moving pots of plants around, monitoring the seeds I have growing in the greenhouse, watering if necessary. Big Billy the tort has woken up and is moving around, he is still in the greenhouse until he acclimatises and then will go out, Voldertort is not mobile yet. It’s Mothers Day and Charlie and Macca came over with Oscar mid morning for a while, then we nipped off to the garden centre and when we got back Sam, Luke and the children arrived. Once they left we went round to see my Mum and then onto Shelley’s for a roast dinner 😁 Busy day but really lovely.

Lots of plants and trees are just beginning to spring into life which is fabulous, a bit behind this year I think but they will catch up easily enough. I spend a lot of my time looking and wondering exactly where I am going to be planting all the seedlings once they are big enough and trying to weed and tidy areas ready for when that time comes, but there is always so much to do 😝

Well that was the week that was all about Mothers Day flowers, it has been an epic week, I have loved it even though it was pretty full on, I will now spam the blog with pictures 😂

Friesland Farm Flowers Shilton, farm grown or British grown flowers and foliage, bunches, bouquets, wreaths, Shilton, Oxon

And the good thing is I am already getting repeat business 🥰 so something is right x

Posted in Friesland Farm

A new month, a sonic boom 😲 and of course, flowers 💐

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th February 2023: Not sure where February went it usually feels longer than that. After getting the eggs sorted and the cats and dogs fed I got on with some cleaning 😝 All the joys of cleaning, hoovering, polishing, dusting, cleaning hair out of the shower trap 😂 You would not believe how many times John tells me that people don’t realise they have to do this, he will get a call because the water is not running away in the shower cubicle and first thing he asks is do you clean the trap 🙄

I have procrastinated a little this afternoon, is it really procrastination if you are listening to a podcast or reading up about something interesting? Or is it an elected, find something gentle but educational to do because I can’t be bothered to exert myself today, exercise 🤷‍♀️ Knowledge is key is all areas and I am one of those who is constantly googling something I have seen or heard but didn’t know about. We are watching the series ‘Gold’ at the minute, as soon as we started watching it I was googling the Brinks-Mat robbery to find out who, what, why, when, I like to know all the details. That’s not a bad thing and it certainly helps when you are watching quiz programs 😂

I did actually sow some veg seeds at the weekend, we are limited to what can be sown now but if you take you hints from your flower garden you will know that lupins are beginning to sprout greenery so peas/beans which are from the same family should be ok to start sprouting in a cold greenhouse, just don’t over soak them or they will rot. The timings of sowings will be restricted to what space you have to move them onto once they get bigger. I think pre sprouting is a fab option at this time of year, just soak the peas or beans in water (drain of any excess) rinse them a couple of days in a row until they begin to sprout (a root will appear first so you know which is the bottom) then pop them into compost to grow on, those that don’t sprout are duds so you can throw them on the compost heap. Also beginning to grow now are alliums, the green leaves are about 5inches high in my garden so I can plant up my onion sets into trays to bring those on, again making sure they are not too wet. Ruby Chard is another I have sown, this is a multifunctional vegetable and so it’s worth doing, not only can we eat it but the torts/Guinea/poultry eat it too (we only have one Guinea left now) so if there is a glut then somebody is happy somewhere. I also have been looking at those who use it in flower arrangements, there is a movement called ‘abstract flower arranging’ that is gaining momentum and uses all kinds of things including fruit and veg. The stalks are a beautiful red colour but if you don’t like the slightly bitter taste then strip the greenery from the stalks and just use that, feed the stalks to the wildlife/pets.

Tuesday: It’s Shelley’s birthday today we will pop round later to celebrate her special day, born in a leap year she was lucky to get the 28th, the Gregorian calendar plays a cruel trick to those born on the 29th 😂 Birthdays are days I stop and reflect and look at the amazing Women our girls are, generally speaking things continually improve for girls and women in terms of equality but it is always a battle. We have three daughters and they were encouraged and nurtured to be strong, capable and independent if necessary and they are. The next generation (granddaughters) will grow up in a different time where things are changing even more but that doesn’t stop me from telling them that they can be anything they want to be, they can achieve whatever it is they want to achieve if they work for it. There is one song that I played and sang with Mia which is a Katy Perry song ‘Roar’ it was a time when she was feeling a little uncertain about the big world she was in especially school and all the emotions that brings with it. We sang the song together and I told her that is Nanas song for her, it doesn’t mean you need to be fierce but that you can be who you want to be with confidence and if you set your mind to it you can achieve whatever it is you want to achieve whether that is a big or a small thing.

I put washing on last night in the hopes that I could dry it today but looks like I miss calculated that as it is fairly damp out 😏

I did a good morning’s work outside doing various things, I potted up some of the ranunculus that have been pre sprouting in the kitchen they are now inside a propagator (unheated) in the greenhouse. I finished off cutting some dead stuff back on one of the bigger beds and then moved into the big tunnel as I was getting a bit cold. In there I planted up some phlox (sherbet 😁) watered the ranunculus and anemone that are growing, the anemone are actually flowering but on fairly short stems. I then had to shut the dogs away so that I could staple gun some bubble wrap around the doors in the tunnel, I could feel a cold draught and anything growing might appreciate an extra bit of warmth instead. I sowed a second lot of sweet pea seed that had pre sprouted, I will keep sowing these in succession every couple of weeks. The sweet peas last year had fairly short stems but I have since then seen the whole plant stem used with great effect so I will give them another go. Seeds I have on the windowsill indoors include antirrhinum, clary sage and sweet peas, we are getting there slowly 😁 Meanwhile John went out to do a small job this morning before returning and getting on with some concreting and we have also had a delivery of materials, the flower workshop will soon be taking shape.

I have flowers to deliver to a customer today and I will also be taking some round to Shelley when we go to see her later for cake 🎂😁

Inbetween doing things I have also done a bit of reading up, don’t ask me why but this question popped into my head ‘will gold be any use after an apocalypse’ I like to know these things 🤪 The answer in case you haven’t worked it out is no, fairly obvious really but I needed to have the definitive answer 🤷‍♀️ Skills, food, building materials etc will all be of value rather than gold. It didn’t end there though because it took me on to an article about billionaire preppers 😲 did you even know there was such a thing. Interesting that they would think that their money would still be of use to employ security etc, when it was pointed out that it wouldn’t they resorted to tactics such as having a combination lock to large food supplies thereby making people do what they are told or those perimeter electric shock dog collars to stop them leaving, sounds like a fabulous work opportunity doesn’t it 😂 There are apparently large self sufficient farms that have bunkers for the wealthy to run to in their time of need (not in the UK as far as I am aware) who is going to do the hard graft I would like to know. It is all very well having the money to buy a place to hide but you need skills to survive and if your money is worthless then…🤔

Wednesday: Is it only midweek 🙄 John went off to work this morning despite having said he will be working at home this week! I have flower club tonight and it’s the first meeting this year, there is a competition as well as a demonstration so I have thrown myself into the task. Safe to say that flower arranging in the conventional sense is not really my forte, I prefer free form or natural rather than triangles and fans 😝 but it does mean that I have to push myself and come up with something I am happy with. So I have spent an hour or more arranging, I made the mechanics last week just to see if it would work and tweaked it the other day so it’s all set to go and enter the competition lol. The title is spring in a basket and I hope I have achieved the brief and even if I haven’t I have done something different and learnt along the way so it’s all good.

Yay I got first prize 😁

It is St David’s day today and all about the daffodils, leeks and being Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The other day that is creeping up is Mothers Day and this year I am ready to offer flowers. One thing I know is that it is frantic on the flower wholesale market, who knew that behind the scenes there are order dates and lists and then cut off dates for your orders too. I feel I may have slightly overreached on my cut off date which is the 12th but something I have already learnt for next year 😁

Thursday: John was at home all day today working on the workshop while I pottered about doing anything that needed doing. I didn’t have the twins today as Mia was not well so not going swimming. I spent the evening making up the bunches of flowers and a bouquet order for tomorrow.

Friday: Up early to get up and get on, get the eggs sorted and out along with the flowers. Mum called over for a visit and a cup of tea and in the afternoon I went out for tea and cake with Sam and the twins and Charlie and Oscar.

Saturday: One of the reasons John has been home is because he is having to work today, he doesn’t normally do weekends but this is in a building that can’t be worked on during the week.

Around 12.30 the whole place shook, I have felt this once before and was pretty sure it was a sonic boom. I messaged the girls, they hadn’t felt it but five minutes later social media was awash with it so at least I know I am not going mad. Normally it means that jets have been scrambled due to an anomaly in our air space but I guess we will find out in time.

I have been checking on the greenhouse growing and so far so good, some seedlings are beginning to emerge others not yet.

Went down to the local pub for a meal last night, it was lovely, we haven’t been down since the new owners took over so we thought it was about time. I love what they have done with the ladies loo it right up my street, Thomas crapper China and recycled boards on the wall, love it. The food was great too, the fish was beautifully fresh and the batter deliciously light and then there was sticky toffee pudding, always a winner and this one was no exception. Nice atmosphere we will definitely be going more often 😁

Sunday: Colder today and I think it tried to snow a few flakes this morning 🙄 hopefully after this cold snap we will be getting something a bit warmer. Just in case it’s really cold I have fleeced up the trays of tulips, daffodils and allium that are coming up nicely and I also did the same for the anemone and ranunculus in the poly tunnel, I don’t want to lose them at this stage. I cut some hellebore, miniature daffodils and some of the anemone this morning along with foliage for a memorial wreath I have to make today. I also hoovered the boot room, it gets unbelievably dusty with the dogs and cats in there.

Mid morning Samantha arrived with the children and it turned into a busy afternoon. We needed to get a big round bale of hay out to the paddock for the horses so that if it snows they will have plenty of hay to feed on. Even if it doesn’t it is going to be cold and there is not much grass left for them to munch on now until it starts growing again, now they will be very happy. Then as it has been unseasonably dry Sam decided to drag the paddocks, good call really because once it rains the grass will begin to grow and it will be harder to do. Once they had all gone home I had to get started on a memorial wreath that is being picked up this evening, a lovely, natural, seasonal 100% compostable wreath 🥰

A natural, seasonal, 100% compostable wreath by flowers at Friesland Farm, Shilton, Oxon
Seasonal and 100% compostable wreath.
Posted in Friesland Farm

Colder weather, batch cooking & local honey 🍯

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th February 2023: The weather is holding so I took the opportunity to do a good mornings graft this morning. I went backwards and forwards collecting and depositing woodchip to mulch the smallest of the raised beds although that still took six full barrow fulls. Next I cut back the two buddliea that are in the shrubbery bed, they are huge and they make an arch where they meet, in order to see down the driveway I need the archway clear so I cut them back to achieve this. The other reason for cutting them back is that they attack me at every opportunity when I am trying to work under them weeding or planting 😂 After that was done I needed to tidy the cuttings so I got the shredder out only that had seized over winter so I had to WD40 it and keep trying it until it freed up which it did eventually. A pile of shredding later and it was past lunchtime so that was my cue to go inside for a cuppa some toast and a sit down, I feel like I have accomplished something this morning 😁 I did a bit more in the greenhouse in the afternoon and then John came home early so I sorted out an early dinner. We went round to Mums for a cuppa in the evening.

Tuesday: Yesterday I delved into the freezers and pulled out items to do some batch cooking today. After getting some washing on and all the usual morning jobs I got two big batches of Bolognaise and mice and potatoes into the slow cookers. They will get boxed up and go into the freezer for another time but I wanted to use up some veg and mushrooms before they went over. Tonight we have some lovely chicken breast but I haven’t decided how we are having it yet. The next project on my mind was something I need to do for flower club next week. My imagination sometimes makes big demands on me and often I fail to deliver but this time I am pretty pleased with the result. I had an idea in mind and apart from a few restarts and some trouble with the hammer I managed to succeed and produce exactly what I was after 😁 No pictures until after the event but I think you will be impressed lol. I was surprised that by the time I had finished it was mid afternoon so I sat down with a cuppa for a quick rest.

I have had a discussion with Shelley about growing as much veg as possible this year as I neglected it last year due to the fact I was busy with the flowers. I then had a message from a friend highlighting the fact that there will be shortages on imports this year due to the bad weather in Europe and Africa especially tomatoes, great that I am good at growing those then 😁 I still find it crazy that we have the ability in this country to grow so many edibles and yet they are imported in huge quantities 🤷‍♀️ maybe once there are shortages people will realise that they don’t need Italian tomatoes or Spanish cucumbers and eat British grown in season 🙄 On that note I am off to check my seed stash and make sure I have enough of everything to sow.

Wednesday: We didn’t eat the chicken in the end as we went to my great nephews to celebrate his third birthday where plenty of food was on offer including pancakes 😁 After the lockdowns you really appreciate being able to get together and the children can all play with their cousins and second cousins keeping family ties alive 🥰

That meant I needed to do something with the chicken this morning and so I have some more batch cooking going on already. A hearty chicken stew in one slow cooker with frozen veg that I grew last year. In the other one there are blueberries and apple cooking down with some honey ready to make a batch of crumbles for the freezer. The apples are the last of the stored cooking apples, all but one of them was any good and so they have done really well to last this long. Going back to potential veg/salad shortages, we don’t eat a lot of fresh produce through the winter, most of what we do eat was grown, processed and frozen back in the growing season. It makes the menu slightly more limited because some produce does not hold its structure but it does mean that we are still eating great produce all the way through to the next lot of harvesting. Rhubarb will be the first to come through and there is always plenty of it so some will be used fresh and some will be frozen for next winter, some of it gets sold and some gets given to family members. If you are venturing into growing your own then rhubarb has to be right at the top of your list, it will be three years before you can fully harvest from a new plant but in the first year you can still harvest a few stalks, the second year even more and the third every single stalk 😁

It is raining today and we really do need some rain, we haven’t had any since around 11th Jan I think when we had days and days of it lol. As it is not a very nice day to be working outside I may even batch bake some cakes. I did bake cakes 3 x date and walnut loaves as healthy as I could make them, I used unrefined brown sugar and sunflower oil but I only had white flour so I had to use that 😏

I felt really tired early evening but I also had a Zoom meeting to attend so I couldn’t really have a nap 😏 Yet again, even though I have been gardening for a lot of years, I learnt something 😁 The speaker was amply qualified having written a book for the RHS on propagation and as I have said before cuttings are a hit and miss area for me. I now feel that I have all the information I need to have good success in this area so watch this space 👀 🤞

Thursday: It was colder overnight than it has been of late and there was a slight frost this morning. I had planned to get a bit done but I had visitors and deliveries and then the twins so in the end not much got sorted. I did spend the evening making up the flower bunches to go out tomorrow though.

Friday: It’s Friday flowers today and I had an early appointment so I had to get everything organise before going for that. Eggs done and out into the shed and then the flowers plus the social media side of it to let everyone know they were available. I quickly sold all the daffodils and narcissi so I had to get those back in ready to drop off locally later. It has been over thirty years since I was employed on the cards in any sense and so one thing I am noticing is that the activity is higher on payday week which I hadn’t given much thought to before now 🙄

British grown flowers and foliage available at Friesland Farm Shilton
Gorgeous tulips in this weeks bunches 🥰

Dave the beekeeper bought some supplies of local honey which will go out into the shed in the morning, it’s nice to be able to offer that produce again.

Saturday: Ooosh that wind is cold, only a week or so ago we were walking up the lane in beautiful sunshine and it almost felt like spring. I just hung out the washing as it is breezy so it should dry but it is cold too. Shelley, Martin and the kids came over just before lunch and spent the afternoon here.

Sunday: I got a good bit done in the garden, I attempted to wash down the outside of the greenhouse and poly tunnel but really I need to wait until we can connect the hose again (once the threat of freezing passes) and then I can hose it off afterwards so I’ll try again in a week or two. Lots of cutting back and clearing up in the torts area oh and I also washed Johns van so that you can tell it’s actually white 😝 Sam and the children came at lunchtime and were here for a couple of hours and then Charlie, Macca and Oscar visited so we have had the full compliment this weekend 🥰

That’s about it for this week, if the weather is ok I will mostly be tidying up and cutting back dead stuff and getting the beds ready for planting up or I can be found in the greenhouse on chiller days mostly just mooching 🤪