frieslandfarm (flowers)

Monday 5th February 2024: February 😊😬😣🥶 the month that for some reason we expect to warm up but it never does 😂

I had intended to work outside today but it’s pretty blowy out there and it has a chill,with it so I abandoned that thought 🤪 I spent a quick half an hour in the flower room pressing some flowers and hanging others to dry. My take is this, if you don’t try, you will never know, so I will try some of everything because what have I go to lose, nothing.

Next I had a quick look at the seedlings I have growing indoors to see how they are doing and if they need any more moisture and then out to the green house and poly tunnels just to check on everything growing out there but that was the extent of ‘outside work’.

On my to do list this morning was making healthy breakfast bars. I don’t know about you but I go through phases of what I want for breakfast, oats, yoghurt & fruit, toast, banana or a breakfast bar for quickness. I found a lovely recipe from ‘the minimalist baker’ for a quick and easy bar that just needs refrigeration. Back at Christmas I indulged myself with some medjool dates, I don’t know why but they say Christmas to me and I love them. However I only ate a few and so I needed to get them used up (I will be honest I forgot they were in the cupboard 🙄) and dates are a wonderful sticky glue for breakfast bars. So I pulsed the dates and added them to oats, cashews, some warmed maple syrup and almond butter and then mixed it all up together and popped it in the fridge to firm up. I made a second batch with peanut butter and dried banana chips (which I dried last year) and I found a few squares of dark cooking chocolate so I melted that and spread on top for a different taste. These can then be left in the fridge for a few days or can be frozen for future use (just remember to defrost well). Why bother when you can buy them at the shop, well as you can see the ingredients are all goodness and no hidden sugars, salts or anything else. I do buy them now and again but these are so much healthier and so why wouldn’t you?

I have been able to do the washing up today without that deep ache, hooray, don’t tell John though 😂 he has been epic on washing up duties for almost 10 months, he hasn’t even suggested getting a dishwasher lol. I also found what has been aggravating the healing of my tooth socket, a shard of bone was still in there and giving me grief but it came to the surface yesterday and is now gone which means the healing might move faster now.

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰

Wednesday: Up to the eye hospital for a check up 👀 some good news and some different news. The good news is that the inflammation has practically gone 😊 the different news is that I have high pressure in one eye 🙄 so swap out the steroid drops for some beta blocker drops just for that eye and the general consensus was to up my lupus meds to see if that can keep things on a more even keel. I am not joking when I say we were there for over three hours this time which is less than before but still a fairly long time 🤪 By the time we got back home there was no point trying to get stuck in to anything major and so ‘pottering’ commenced instead lol.

Thursday: It is raining heavily and has been overnight, we have a flooded paddock again already, it didn’t take much this time even though we have not had rain for a couple of weeks. The high winds we had have clearly dislodged something on the roof because rain is dripping in near the flue of the wood burner. This has not happened before, John will need to investigate once the rain eases off and fingers crossed it won’t get worse before then 😣

This year February 16th is the day when we have, at last, 10 hrs of daylight. Why is that important? Well seedlings and plants need at least that amount of daylight to be able to photosynthesise and grow strongly so it’s a day growers look forward to with anticipation and it’s fair to say, probably get carried away with seed sowing 😂

Some of the electric went out around 3pm but not all of is, some water is getting into something. Normally I would have a pretty good idea what but this time it’s a little bit random, some sockets in one room but not all, some lights in another room but not the sockets 🤷‍♀️ it seems to be two different circuits affected which is a bit bizarre, I waited for John to come home and try to work it out.

The rain is insane, as I said the paddocks filled up really quickly and it is notable that today is the day they announced the planet has reached the 1.5c warming for 12 consecutive months in a row 😢 Its dramatic I know but it seems to me that we are heading for Armageddon without paying much attention, volcanic eruptions, floods, fire, huge storms, earthquakes, war, disease, famine, massive declines in some insect, bird and mammal populations, it’s not just me that thinks this surely?

We revel in an ever expanding online world that is not even real half the time and ignore the real world falling apart around us, ‘laughs hysterically’ 😢

So the problem with the electric is in the hay barn apparently, no problem because we can isolate that until the rain stops (still going at the minute 😣)

Friday: It’s still raining and has been all night long, twice I think it woke me up with the intensity of it. The lower paddocks are getting more and more like a huge lake 🙄 I reckon you actually could float a boat or a canoe for a good stretch 🤪

Saturday: I cant actually remember what we did today (writing this on Sunday) but it wasn’t anything much I am inclined to think. Oh I did sow some pre sprouted sweet peas (3rd lot) and pricked out seedlings and potted on some other plants.

Sunday: A more productive day today 😊 I wanted to get the egg shed area sorted out so it looks a bit tidier and things are more cohesive. The small flower shed has gone and we have moved the table that I put plants for sale out on, then we removed one of the pull out baskets that I usually put veg for sale in. This freed up the side that has a basket where customers usually return empty egg boxes, it is a tallish space and this is where the buckets of flowers will now be. Everything will be in the one shed or next to it instead of bits here and there. Then we went off to the garden centre because I wanted to get a hanging basket on the side of the egg shed to pretty it up a little. I don’t really like the usual type of hanging basket, it is just not me, I like something a little different and so I decided to make my own basket in my own way. I bought plants that you would not normally associate with a basket of that type, snakes head fritillary, pinks, one token primrose and some foliage plants that I have no idea what they are called but they are a lovely silver grey colour. I took an old rusty, square cone shape basket (I don’t know how else to describe it 😂) cut it in half with wire cutters, put it back together bending the bottom point up into a base and wired it back together. Then I needed to disguise it so I used some plastic mesh I had and wired that on then wired on moss all the way round (that was pretty tricky) and voila had a half basket type planter that I could attach to the side of the egg shed. I am pleased with the result and it was only the cost of the plants because I had everything else.

Cooked a roast later on in the day for Charlie, Macca and Oscar this week so I have had everyone over in turn now 😊

John has been busy doing lots of small jobs outside, the ones that always get left because the bigger jobs are usually more urgent, raking, tidying, clearing, picking up debris from the windy, wet weather we have had lately.

Monday 22nd January 2024: The wind is still blowing this morning and it was fierce last night but luckily we managed to escape any major damage. Just a couple of small branches down and the quail house collapsed but it no longer has quail in there thankfully.

I got started on a batch cook this morning, following on from yesterdays beef joint I made batches of shepherds pie and bolognaise for the freezer. This was mince I bought especially not some I was using up, this is just for a time saving option when we are very busy. As winter moves into spring we spend longer and longer outside working and if I can grab a meal from the freezer it means I can more work done 😊

Midday I had a meeting with our business insurers, the farm has changed a lot since we last had a review and I wanted to make sure I am covered for the flower side of things now as well.

A quick lunch then out to the greenhouse with some pre sprouted sweet pea seeds. These were sprouted on damp tissue and the reason for that is to weedle out the seeds that are not viable, no point sowing seeds that won’t grow and this way you only sow the ones that have. Those have now been sown into modules in seed compost and I have more seeds sat on damp tissue to go again.

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰

Wednesday: I spent a whole day outside in the garden as the weather was great. First it was in the greenhouse sowing some seeds that are now on the windowsill indoors and the sweet peas that have sprouted, they are in the greenhouse as it is pretty mild at the minute. Next I moved onto the small tunnel and I cleared away dead nettles stems and live roots from down the side and then gave it a wash. The anemone and Runuculas are growing well in there but leaning towards the light, cleaning it down will help massively. The rest of the day I spent clearing the area between the two tunnels, I have a few shrubs growing there and some lemon balm. It is woodchip on the ground but the nettles have been growing through the fence from the other side and so I needed to clear all the roots I could before putting down more woodchip. I went in for a cuppa around 3 and just as I was going out again John came home so he helped barrow lots of woodchip while I started cutting back dead stuff on the perennial beds.

I have a lot of work to do I realise 🤣 but if the weather is this good some days then I will be able to get on well.

Thursday: I went for blood tests first thing, I realised I had not been since last September oops they are supposed be done every 8-10 weeks at least 🤪

Then I went for coffee with Shelley, Charlie and Oscar and once I got back it was nice enough to go out into the garden again so that’s what I did. I am trying my best to make everything run smoothly this year 🙄 I have a few things to concentrate on. Staking is a priority and to be able to do that with ease I need to cut dead foliage from everything that is about to start growing again. I can then put in wooden stakes all the way along and attach netting to those so everything holds up well. Sounds simple but I also really need to have similar plants all together, by that I mean perennials so that I can put some chicken manure pellets on the beds, mulch with woodchip and then put the staking in place. Once that is done they should not need much maintenance at all one problem is that one of the beds was annuals and I need to plant perennials after the cold weather but before everything starts to grow so timming is key. The other problems to overcome are chickens and cats, bare soil is an open invitation to the cats and woodchip is an open invitation to chickens (they would scratch it all off as fast as I was putting it on) When the woodchip goes on the netting will need to go into place straight away or I am doomed. The other problem are weeds, thousands of them always 😂 Because the pathways are a problem (and we didn’t make them wide enough to mow between) I am putting down membrane, not ideal but needs must. I am hoping that with the feed and the mulch the plants will have all they need to get through most of the growing season without too many problems. With the stakes in place I can also use them to put shade netting over if needed this summer.

All of this means I need to reorganise a few of the beds but not to much of a faff hopefully. When spring gets under way I will be dividing some plants and creating a whole lot more and filling the beds up to capacity. The other end of the garden will have all the annuals growing and any veg that I decided to grow this year. Actually the more I write the more I realise there is to do 😬

So today I have been cutting dead stuff back, weeding, clearing debris and putting down membrane before the weeds begin to take hold. I always know when it’s time to stop as my legs begin to shake 😆 time for a sit down and a cup of tea

Friday: Colder but sunny today, I will wait to see if it warms up comfortably enough to work outside. I do have a bit of muscle ache today having not used my gardening muscles for a while 😂 My tooth is still giving me a bit of jip as it is still healing and will take longer than usual but hopefully it will get there without too many problems 🙄

First thing this morning I turned on the slow cooker and have a ‘use it all up’ soup on the go, plenty of remnants in the fridge to be used so waste not want not.

My next batch of business cards arrived yesterday and I had made a couple of alterations so they are looking good. I changed the colour of the font as you could barely read the telephone number which is not ideal and I have instructions for fresh flowers printed on the back, I am very happy with how they look now.

I spent the afternoon doing some practice work on various things, candelabra flowers, buttonholes and a wire and moss bunny shape. It wasn’t quite how I wanted it to look but it’s not bad and I enjoyed doing it and learning the method, no idea what I will do with it but hey.

Saturday: We need to replace some fencing and gateways here, a lot of them are falling over, the clay soil does not help and together with much weaker wood preservation these days means the fences only last around five years! There are some that have been up nearly forty years treated the old way with used engine oil, not great for the environment but gives a very long life to the wood. The price of wood has gone up hugely since we last ordered and we need new gates as well so can kiss goodbye to a good chunk of earnings 😬 It goes without saying that anything we can salvage and reuse we will but it still hurts the pocket 🤪

After discussing what we needed and ordering everything John went off to get feed, more expense lol.

The temperatures went down more than I had expected last night, I even checked the forecast early evening to make sure my plants would be ok and then woke to a hard frost 🙄 I took some hay to the horses as the ground was frozen and checked the greenhouse. The thermometer went down to a minimum of -1 inside so not too bad and the plants should be fine but I would have covered them if I had known, roll on spring.

I have a lot of jobs to do, the more I think about it the more there are on my radar, pruning the roses is one that I need to do sooner rather than later but there are also a few flowering shrubs that need doing too. The general rule is if they flower before midsummer you prune in autumn and if they flower after midsummer you prune late winter, I am always missing the deadlines lol. Buddliea need doing in the next couple of weeks but I missed the lilac deadline, I often miss the spring flowering because I am so busy at the other end of the year, maybe I need a reminder system.

We spent a good few hours out the front and decided to bite the bullet and cut the hazel trees, normally we just cut back all the top growth whips but they have got so thick that we decided to cut them below this time. Each tree has six trunks (like arms) and on the top of each trunk a knuckle and then all the whips grow from that. You can imagine over time how condensed that all gets as there are 8 trees all with six trunks, 48 trunks in a relatively small space with hundred of whips growing from them. Now there are just the six clean trunks for each tree and they will start all over again. It means more light will be available for the front beds although the birds no longer have a playground there but plenty elsewhere.

Sunday: Ooooosh we have worked flipping hard today, the hazel debris all needed clearing away and there was a lot of it. I did a lot of cutting back dead stuff now new growth can be seen and I mulched all the beds before the bulbs start to grow too big. We started at 8.30 this morning and stopped at 2.30 with a tea break or two inbetween. Then we went off to get some more blood fish and bone as I have used all mine up top dressing the beds before the mulch went on. I ache, not gonna lie, muscles that have not been used all winter have been woken up and are protesting 🤪 The good thing is that the front will now take care of itself for a good few weeks, months even and all I will be doing is looking for gaps that need filling or dividing anything that is getting too big but that won’t be until spring really begins.

Sunday 31st December 2023: Out with old and in with the new, I guess we are lucky if we can think that, as it stands there are still terrible things going on in the world and the year date doesn’t make much difference to those who are suffering so much.

Firstly an apology for the complete and total lack of a blog, partly it was because I was very busy with the flowers and workshops in the run up to Christmas and partly because I was just too tired to think let alone write anything 😂

I had a very busy and successful run of Christmas wreath workshops and there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes on before, during and after the sessions, I absolutely love doing them though so they will always be in the calendar. I have pencilled in dates for the coming year of all the workshops I am hoping to run and I have a few more that I am wanting to slot in-between those so it will be busy on that front. Growing flowers for seasonal cutting is an ongoing cycle so I never really stop but I am at a lull in the year just at the minute which gives me time to look back on what worked well and look forward to what I want to change. I am always investing in my own learning too and have been taking notes at every zoom lesson/session or meeting I have with the group I am in. AI has been an exciting discovery and it blows your mind when you start using it for specific tasks, I can see how this is going to revolutionise everything and at a very fast pace too. Most of it will be good but I guess there are always those using it for under hand means too 😒 We are going to be lucky enough to witness a new era where AI streamlines businesses with incredible effect I think. I have also been learning a lot about Instagram lol, I definitely struggled with it before but I am beginning to understand it much better I just need to refine my end of things 😝 Learning to use it is important as it reaches a different demographic to Facebook and therefore I reach different potential customers.

Back to real life and it has been a fabulous Christmas, we had all the family over for Christmas day and then Mum and Ken for Boxing Day and Kev and Ali joined us too. One fly in the ointment was that our car broke 😣 I mean really broke, the sub frame collapsed 🙄 It is a manufacturing defect that the company was aware of and we had the part on back order ready to be done when it came in but it broke before that could be done. Luckily the company (Mercedes) is fixing it free of charge but as we would be without a car for quite a while and given that it is getting on in age we decided to get a new one. Not brand new, a few years old but a lot of years newer than the broken one. John was always reluctant to part with that one, he loved it a lot but he loves his new one just as much (if not more 🤪)

The weather has been awful, in the run up to the festivities it was very windy, fierce at times, Christmas day and Boxing Day were better, mild and dry and then the wind and rain came back. The rain has come back with a vengeance, yesterday evening, all night and this morning it has not stopped and has been very heavy at times. The result is a lake in the paddock with a river that runs all the way through the other side paddocks. The lane is flooded which hasn’t happened for a while and we are still forecast lots of rain, I hope we get enough gaps inbetween for some of it to flow away before it starts again 😒

We have eaten out and about quite a lot this holiday, coffee and cake here, breakfast or lunch there and we haven’t finished yet as we have dinner with Shelley and family tonight (NYE) and dinner with Charlie, Macca and Oscar tomorrow on New Years Day. Once all the goodies are finished up it will be time to cut out all the rubbish food, I really need to take my diet back to a very basic lean meat, veg, fruit, nuts, eggs to get a handle on the inflammatory goings on in my body. I have been back to the eye hospital with a flare up and I have a result from a blood test that confirms I am HLA-B27 positive. That means I have a protein on the white blood cells which is an indicator for a higher than average chance of autoimmune (ya think 😂) Good to know though and sugar, high fat and sweeteners are some of the foods that can trigger inflammation so I want to switch back to some clean eating, always tricky when all those Christmas goodies you were given are sitting in the cupboards.

I have ordered myself a new years present 😊 a large wormery. At one time all our veg peelings went to the rabbits and Guinea pigs but they are no longer with us and so I will feed them to worms instead. They should produce excellent worm casting which will be great for the garden and a liquid run off which will be great as a liquid feed, it’s a win win situation as well as a symbiotic one.

The elephant in the room has to be addressed at some point for me and that is Gaza, it can be dressed up how any government wants but the cloth is see through and it is genocide as far as I am concerned. The attack on Israel was really horrific but the retaliation has been 100x more horrific. There have been of course many shameful episodes in history and what I cannot get my head around is how a nationality that was so badly and horrifically persecuted can turn around and do this to another 🤷‍♀️ I despair of the human race I really do, the innocent on both sides suffer in a mad man’s world, maybe AI will make a better job of it, certainly more intelligent thinking is required.

NEW YEARS DAY 2024: We made it 😊 In actual fact we were in bed before midnight 😂 we had been to Shelley’s and along with Martin, his Mum and Dad and the children we ate and played games and then did the countdown and auld lang syne early so the children could go to bed. We all enjoyed it, the children loved it and Flo was none the wiser that it wasn’t officially midnight 🥰 and anyway it was midnight somewhere in the world 🤪

Todays weather is pretty good for the beginning of January, sunny and dry so far. John has washed his car 🙄 we will see how long that goes on for, I have cleared the house of Christmas decorations and taken out the tree remembering to say thank you it on the way. I can’t see the point of keeping it all up it feels wrong to me, new year, new start, clear out the old from last year 😝 job done, move on. We have dinner later this afternoon at a Charlie and Macca’s so the rest of the day will be relaxed and do the odd bit of tidying or sorting if I feel inclined.

I had a jam jar of flowers to get delivered to the residential home down the road, I get a list of dates and I provide flowers on those dates for birthdays. The fact that some have been on bank holidays, Boxing Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, makes no difference we still get them delivered because that’s what a small local business will do for their customers.

Tuesday: I think it’s Tuesday anyway 😂 it’s that time when no one really knows what day it is anymore. It’s raining quite heavily again and we have a weather warning for most of today for high winds and heavy rain. We really need some cold weather, I hate the cold but it helps with so many things in the garden, reducing pests and disease, breaking dormancy of plants and besides it is much nicer to walk around on frozen ground than soaking wet which is what it is at the minute. I guess that is global warming 🤷‍♀️ and it is changing very fast.

I had Oscar today but while he was sleeping I managed to get a few jobs done, some more washing (though there is no hope of drying it naturally) cleaning out one or two drawers and using up all the bits in the fridge to make soup. For Christmas I was given one of those daily to do charts so I started to fill that in for the days ahead, I want to make sure I am using up all the bits of food and not have any waste hence the soup today. I also have some chestnuts that I bought but didn’t use so I will be boiling those up and freezing them, they are a very versatile ingredient because they lend themselves to sweet recipes or to earthy savoury ones. They can be added to soups and stews or made into stuffing or even cake, one day my trees might produce enough to be self sufficient in them but not yet. We had a young tree a few years back and something ate the top of, I think it was the horse but could have been deer 🙄 I also bought some foil pie trays because I still have a lot of frozen fruit to use up, my thinking is that if I spend a day making and freezing pies then at least I will be able to grab one for pudding, when it’s just frozen fruit the effort seems great to make it from scratch on a whim. I also need to process the nuts I gathered in autumn so that they are in a useable state rather than having to think about shelling them whenever I want to use them. If they are preshelled I can throw them in to all sorts of things to add some goodness.

Omg that wind today was roaring across our place this afternoon, I hate high winds, we are fairly exposed and so everything bangs and creaks 🙄 I watch the trees with the expectation that one will come down any minute 🤪 luckily Oscar was fast asleep and didn’t notice. He even slept through the phone ringing, it is in the office where his cot is and no one phones all week long then Sod’s Law at the very time he is asleep, ring ring. He must have been pretty tired because that didn’t wake him either.

I had a use it up dinner this evening which was very tasty, some cooked chicken from the freezer stir fried with some veg, some noodles and the special ingredient a teaspoon of peanut butter, yum.

Nipped out to get a few bits of shopping that I needed and drove back through the village, the water is beginning to spread out of the ford which is not surprising as the amount of rain we have had is ridiculous in a short amount of time.

Wednesday: I always have the urge to use up everything in January, not just any Christmas food but all the bits in the freezer that I have either half used or processed in the growing season. I was supposed to get everything out to do a big batch today but forgot, normally I would think to myself do it another day but not this year. I went and got it all out this morning which means I won’t be able to start until this afternoon once it has defrosted but that’s fine it is the intention that is needed lol. So I have lots of fruit defrosting and I intend to make pies, crumbles and turnovers with that, I also have both slow cookers on the go with soup. Beef bones, small amounts of veg that were hanging around and some split peas have gone into those along with garlic, turmeric, pepper and herbs. I bought sweet chestnuts and have some left which I could still roast on the fire but I am boiling them up and I will either use them today or freeze them depends on what time I have.

Actually I may be at this a couple of days 😂I just found a recipe for the chestnuts in an Azerbaijan style lamb recipe which uses a shoulder of lamb which I knew I had in the freezer and needs using. Sounds like a great recipe and can be made and frozen again ready for using in the future. I won’t be using it all on that so I can do a few make ahead stews for John too and freeze those, win win.

There is an unstable polar vortex mashing about and at the minute it is unclear how it will affect us but if a very cold snap comes I will be well prepared and I love that, comfort food for the cold days 🥰

Thursday: A busy couple of hours this morning sorting out the next phase of batch cooking before going off mid morning with the girls and children to soft play for a few hours. The cooking this morning was a lamb shoulder that has been at the bottom of the freezer long enough and really needed cooking. I got it out yesterday to defrost and this morning I took off all the meat from the bones and then all the fat from the meat. I ended up with a good lot of meat that could then be cut into chunks and turned into multiple meals. So in one slow cooker went leeks, onions, carrots and lamb and in the other went onions, plum tomatoes, dried apricots, the cooked sweet chestnuts and the lamb, then it was seasoned with cinnamon and allspice. The onions and lamb was fried off quickly first beforehand oh and also some lamb stock in both. We will have it for dinner tonight, John will have the lamb stew with potatoes and I will have the other lamb with rice, I will then leave it all to cool before portioning them up for the freezer. I still haven’t got round to doing the blackcurrants but I will and I now have a lamb bone in the oven to roast off and a bowl full of lamb fat that I will render down, the jobs never end 😂 I sent John out first thing to get some bits I needed for cooking and on the list was leeks x 2, he came back with 8 🙄 x 2 packs 🤪 so now I will need to use those up and I think some big batches of leek and potato soup will be a good start.

The wormery had wandering worms last night, apparently this can happen in the first few days until they settle but luckily I noticed when I went to put stuff in the freezer. We had a laugh trying to round them all up and put them back and the remedy was to cover them with a bin bag (to catch any escapees) and to leave the light on all night because they dislike the light 🤦‍♀️ Life is anything but dull around here 🤣

Made the blackcurrant syrup which will keep in the fridge and be used for all kinds of things.

I had a lesson in AI on zoom this evening, more mind blowing stuff and it really can help to organise your life in so many ways 😂 plus a million more things.

Friday: I am on fire today! I have been so efficient getting plenty of jobs done and ticked off. I started with potting up the lamb dishes that had been left to cool over night and getting those in the freezer. Next job was to clean the slow cookers out and put the roasted lamb bones in one with celery and carrots etc and turn that on to make some stock. Next slow cooker had all the chopped up fat put in with some water and turned on, that will render down into tallow and some will be in the fridge and some in the freezer.

Next stop was to go out to the dahlias in the greenhouse, clean them, trim them up and bring them indoors to dry off completely. Luckily we have not had any cold weather yet or I probably would have lost them by now. A quick social media post or two and plan for tomorrows post, I am on a flowerfarmerrama challenge though how long I will keep it up for is anyone guess 🤪

I have also tided the office and put everything that came out for Christmas back in its place, plus some filing and sorting. Next onto paperwork, pay some bills, put some dates on the calendar and into my diary and called the insurance office to review our commercial insurance as it needs some changes.

Inbetween that I had a customer for some dried flowers so a quick chat with them before getting back on with things. I told you on was in fire today and it’s not even lunchtime yet 🤪 Lucikly for lunch we still have some beef and veg broth so that will do nicely.

Saturday: I didn’t get quite so much done today, Charlie and Macca came over with Oscar and Charlie, who now has her independent travel agent certificate, booked a trip I have been wanting to do for years. We had planned it for 2020 and then wallop the world stopped so now as it is a big birthday year for me I am making the most of it and doing what I want to be doing. What is this trip I hear you ask, something exotic? Something adrenaline pumping? Nope lol, I have wanted to go to two places for years, one is York and York Minster and the other is the Royal Military Tattoo in Edinburgh so we are combining the two in one trip with a stop at Windermere on the way back whoop whoop 🙌 We have another lil trip that the girls bought us for Christmas too which is to Hereford and both John and I will be blacksmithing for a day 😂 I can’t wait for that it will be awesome.

Once that was all sorted and I had a quick sit down I went out to the greenhouse to check on everything in there. We have had relatively mild weather so far this winter and so everything is fine but I think we are in for a cold snap soon and you never know just how cold it is going to get. I have bought a few plants indoors so that I don’t lose them like I did last year (although that was an intensely cold snap) and some to hedge my bets and hopefully one lot or the other will make it through. I have covered what is left in fleece for damage limitation. Most of what is in there should be fine as long as the inside of the greenhouse doesn’t go down past -5, and I don’t really want to heat it unless absolutely necessary 🙄 I also fleeced the anemone and ranunculus in the small tunnel, there are actually flowers on some of the anemone which means I may get an early cutting of those which would be fabulous.

Everything always grows well until that unexpected deep cold arrives, today for example the weather app says it won’t go down past 1c overnight but it feels as though it will be colder than that to me plus there is not a lot of cloud cover either so best to be prepared. I have looked at solar heaters for the greenhouse but there are not many, gas or oil produces too much condensation and electric is fine but I don’t have a power point in there so I would have to run an extension lead across the garden. I should have had a cable put under ground but at the time I didn’t really need it. The other option is passive solar (black tanks filled with water) and that is great if you actually get some sun (like today) to heat the water but not so great otherwise. I could not bother growing anything at all which would be the solution but it is nice to get ahead a bit and have some early flowers. Maybe in a few years with global warming it will be possible 🤷‍♀️ in the mean time I muddle on wondering what the best course of action is lol.

Sunday: I spent most of the morning in the workshop tidying everything up from Christmas and sorting out all the dried flowers. It is now looking nice and tidy ready for the year ahead and I know where everything is as it has all been put back in its correct place.

We went out for lunch at the local pub which was delicious and then back home to light the fire and watch a film. I also watched a you tube video of the most amazing pantry 🤩 admittedly they live around three hours from the next town and so probably need it but it was very impressive and only a pantry geek like me would watch for 40 mins 😂🤪

Have a great week.