Monday 3rd October 2022: What a beautiful morning, it started off with a pink sky which bathed everything in a glow at dawn this morning and then the sun came out in glorious autumn fashion. I decided a creative morning was in order and so I gathered up plenty of foliage to make an autumn wreath to hang on the door and then made a jam jar arrangement with what was left. There is so much vibrant colour at this time of year, tones and shades of red, orange, yellow and brown, just glorious. 🍂 I then cut some asters and chrysanthemums for drying, not sure what I will do with all this dried wonderfulness but I am hooked on the process. I then decided that as it was such a beautiful day I would go for a walk around the village. At this time of year the sun is lovely but it is not strong enough to do much harm and so off I went. I get out of the house and off the farm for a bit, I get a very pleasant wander round and I fulfil my target on my activity monitor as well as boosting my step count. The hedges were audibly buzzing with bees and insects all enjoying the Ivy, I didn’t see anyone else apart from some workmen and it was so peaceful it was good for the soul.
Did a bit more playing with flowers 😂 and then some bulb planting, allium this time. They will be for cutting next year but I did plant some in the ornamental beds 😉 I think I am becoming obsessed with all things flowery 😂
I have had a thoroughly enjoyable day today 😁 I would quite like to spend my whole time doing nothing but flowers 😂 This week I have flower club again and we are doing flower arrangements in a pumpkin. At first I was like ‘hmm not my sort of thing’ but I now I am looking forward to giving it a go and besides it’s all good practice.
Tuesday: Not such a nice day today as far as the weather goes. I was waiting for a delivery today and then got an email at lunchtime to say it is not co ing until tomorrow now. I hate it when that happens, I plan the day around something and it doesn’t happen 🙄 in this case it was a big job because it was whole fresh farm reared chickens being delivered and I had planned to portion them all before freezing. One of them was going to be roasted for dinner and at the same time I would have been cooking a batch bake of cakes for the freezer so you can see why my plans were messed up lol. Now I will be doing all that tomorrow instead. I decided to sow some vegetable seeds for winter and I have ordered onion sets and garlic bulbs to plant. I have come to the conclusion that things are going to get worse rather than better so let’s make sure we can at least eat even if it means cooking on the fire pit outside 🤪 I cut flowers today as well and while I was doing that I spotted a deer sat in the paddock, it’s a bit unusual for it to be sat in broad daylight in an open field. My thought was that it was injured so I shut the dogs away and went to have a look, it let me get quite close before getting up and running off, not injured thank goodness, it was obviously just basking in the sun that happened to be out at that time.
It let me get fairly close and didn’t seem too fazed 😍
Wednesday: I did a bouquet up in the morning ready for delivery later, popped out for an hour with Sam and just after I got back my meat delivery arrived. It took me a good couple of hours to portion out four fresh, free to roam chickens. I now have plenty of different portion types of chicken in the freezer, breast, thigh, drumsticks, wings plus the carcasses and the giblets. I roasted one of them whole for dinner in the evening and I also left another whole for a different day. The carcasses went into the slow cookers along with some thyme, onion, celery and carrot to make stock for soups, gravy, stews and broth. I also bought large packs of sausages and bacon and split those into portions for ease, everything was vacpacked and that will last months in the freezer. I do it like this because it’s more cost effective, I have the freezer space and I like higher welfare products, these were from Field & Flower as they guaranteed that the meat would be sent out fresh not frozen which meant I could portion it all out.
My Mum called in for a cuppa in the afternoon and to pick up some bulbs that I had dug up, gladioli and liatris plus I gave her some new bulbs of narcissi, I have way too many😂 Most of the rest of the day was taken up with cooking the dinner and tidying up before going to flower club in the evening. We made flower arrangements in a pumpkin, I have to say they all looked really colourful all together at the end of the evening 😁
Thursday: This morning I am wondering what the heck is happening to the country at the minute, it is almost as if gremlins are causing turbulence 😂 It’s like a pile of pick up sticks, a jumbled intertwined mess that seems impossible to unpick 🙄 More unions talking of strike action, at this rate it will only be the self employed that are working. We work without the safety of sick pay, holiday pay, maternity/paternity pay or pension contributions from elsewhere, we work long hours and work hard to keep businesses going. We have no direct representative, we do all our own bookkeeping and pay tax and national insurance just like everyone else. It is more difficult to get a mortgage when you are self employed and you jump through hoops to provide the proof and paperwork they want to make sure you can make the payments. There is no one to work in your place if you are off for whatever reason so a holiday is a double whammy, no wages, no holiday pay. We are not moaning, we are a tough breed and yes we chose to be self employed and face the difficulties. We do have freedom though, we are not bound by the rules, regulations, work hours or the etiquette of the workplace. Maybe that is why we are happy 🤷♀️
Friday: I went out for a couple of hours with Sam and the twins, we called in to see Charlie and Oscar and I bought some pumpkins to do some arrangements in as they seem pretty popular 😁
Saturday: A lovely day, warm for October and so I did a fair amount of work outside. Pulling some stuff up that has no more to give or that will collapse at the first frost, planting up plants in the beds and some in the big tunnel which will now be a flower tunnel. Clearing, weeding, tidying are the jobs that need doing at this time of year but not too tidy, the wildlife still need a lot of it left so they can get through winter.
I have been asked to sell my wares at a local Christmas table top sale. Never having done one before I thought, oh I don’t think I can do that 😂 then I had a word with myself and thought, of course I can 🙄 I am not sure what it is, I mean I am quite happy to sell them from the sanctuary of the Smallholding but actually getting out there and doing it seems a scary thought which is ridiculous I know but there you have it 🤷♀️
I am babysitting Oscar tonight 🥰 that in itself will be lovely but also means I get the remote control all to myself 🤪
Sunday: Another lovely autumn day and so I spent most of the day in the garden. Plenty of tidying up and cutting back but always leaving enough cover for the wildlife overwinter in. Some planting up, some seed collecting, some seed sowing and some cutting of flowers for drying. A very pleasant days work indeed followed by a delicious roast cooked by Charlie and Macca x
Monday 26th September 2022: Arrghh where is the year disappearing too 🙄 I will try to be a bit more efficient with writing the blog this week 😂 Today the weather is squally, windy, rainy at times with the sun occasionally appearing and definitely a tad cooler. I did think though that today would be a good day to get some washing dry and apart from one dash to retrieve it from the line I managed to get two lots dry 😁 I also planted up a few plants, three to be precise before the rain started, and I have sown some sweet pea seeds (long stem) The dinner was in the slow cookers early on, chicken stew with dumplings for John and Parmesan chicken for me. I do love this time of year, it’s when you get to reap the rewards for all the veg growing and foraging. I also made a sponge pudding which will be cooked in the microwave, I cooked down some blackberries with sugar, they went into the bottom of the pudding basin and then a basic sponge mix with added diced apple mixed in went on the top. That will take only a few minutes to cook and voila, dessert, it’s not corden bleu I know but it will be tasty and filling and that’s all that it needs to be 🥰
I checked the bulbs I planted in the big tunnel, the last time I looked a mouse or something had dug up an anemone bulbs and chewed on it 😡 but luckily it does not look as though any more have been got at. I did leave the door open so that the cats could patrol it and help out a little. It is kind of coming to the end of the cut flower season, having said that I had prepared in advance for flowers to take me up into December, chrysanthemums are ideal for this and I have them planted in tubs so that I can move them under cover if I need to. I have early spring bulbs in pots that can be forced in stages for the new year and I am much more aware of what needs to be done than I was this time last year 😂 I would say my first cut flower season has been a success, I have sold flowers and plenty of them, next year I plan to build on that by reviewing what I have learnt, honing my skills and learning more over the winter months. I have a new planner for 2023, one that means I can keep all the information in one place, what, where, when, how, who and I am looking forward to using it fully. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and my only regret is that I didn’t start years ago 🙄 It was a pretty rough introduction with the weather we have had this summer but as with veg growing, no two years are ever the same and so next year it will be different obstacles to overcome, bring on the challenge 🤪
Tuesday: Dmard bloods first thing this morning, it will be interesting to see if they show anything, been feeling quite fatigued, stiff finger joints, cramp everywhere, sore feet. I could of course just be getting old and falling apart 🤪 Once I got back I started on my project for the day, an indoor one today. Operation thermal lined curtains 😂 I will say first off that I can sew and I have in the past sewn all my curtains and fitted bedcovers. I spent a good few years sewing coats in a local factory when I left school so am well practised but I didn’t want to sew these. I wanted to do a no sew project and see how it came out and so I bought some thermal curtain lining and some stick on Velcro, it’s pretty successful! The lining does not fray so needs no seam sowing and the Velcro sticks well, so I cut it to the size I wanted, put the Velcro on and then the opposite on the back of the curtain and ta da, thermal lined curtains the easy way. The curtains are already lined and it was a toss up between buying new thermal curtains or using the curtains I have already and putting another lining on, I went for the latter. It is almost impossible to detect that I have done it, you wouldn’t know unless I showed you really. You may wonder why bother, well because every little helps as they say, plus in the summer they will work in reverse (keeping the heat out) win, win I reckon 🥰 We already had thermal door curtains for the back door and the door between the kitchen and the boot room. I got those a couple of years ago because we did have draughty spots around those doors, they don’t stay up all year but today I got them out and put them up for the winter 🥶 I rather like making sure that we are as cosy and toasty as possible for as little money as possible and as I have said before, I like to challenge myself to do better.
Wednesday: Mid afternoon sit down 😁 This morning I got the dinner ready to go in the slow cooker, the last bit of hogget from the freezer. It was a breast and I have rolled it and put in plenty of rosemary and garlic. I also made some flatbreads for my soup at lunchtime, Greek yoghurt and self raising flour, mix it up, pat it out and dry fry, easy peasy. Then I had a hair cut and after that I was able to get out side and get some work done. I have planted plants, sown seeds, dug up self seeded plantlets and potted those, dug up the scented pelargoniums (they will not survive outside) and potted those up. I have taken some cuttings of those in case the plants don’t make it through. They don’t even like being in an unheated greenhouse and so they are going to Mums as she has a conservatory 😂 There is a ton of work to do still 🤪 but I am getting there slowly, I need to write this down every day just so I know where I am at 😁 The bed that had the pelargonium has been cleared and now has direct sown seed of pink love in a mist, some daucus and something else that I have completely forgotten already. I covered the bed and hopefully they will sprout over autumn and winter and I won’t need to tend to those until next spring. There are plenty of flowers still growing but you always have to be thinking six months ahead otherwise you miss the timings. For instance I already have my dahlia tubers ordered and paid for but they won’t be delivered until next year.
Thursday: Quick sit down mid afternoon before a customer comes for their flowers. I have made lamb and sweet potato soup today in the slow cooker, left over lamb from yesterday plus anything else that needed using up, courgettes, mushrooms etc. I left the juices form the lamb last night to cool down and have taken off the solidified fat which I will freeze for roasting potatoes another day and the delicious jelly that is left behind is incorporated into the soup mix. I have sown some Ammi seeds today, picked courgettes and around 160, yes 160 eating apples from a dwarf tree that is growing in the veg garden. Wowsers, it cropped heavily this year 😁 Approx two thirds are storable so they will be wiped and dried and then wrapped individually in newspaper and stored in the apple rack in the pantry. They are delicious 😋 I had one with a chunk of Stilton for lunch.
All the apples are now sorted and those that will store are wrapped and safe in the apple rack. It’s this time of year I get my ‘squirrel’ head on 😂 I don’t know what it is but I like to start stocking up, it’s not like we live in the back of beyond or anything so I guess it is a primal trait 🤪 A well stocked pantry is a thing of beauty especially when a lot of it is home grown, it feels like a great accomplishment, bring on six foot of snow I am ready for it 🥰
Sunday: Ooops missed a couple of days lol. Friday we went out with George and Lucie to show them the fish at the garden centre and have cake of course 😁 Saturday I spent the morning doing a dried flower wreath and the afternoon dividing and potting up achillea plants ready for next spring. Today was another lovely sunny day, Charlie, Macca and Oscar came over in the morning and in the afternoon John carried on with boarding out the back area, all the gaps where the wind blows in are nearly filled now. I spent some time in the greenhouse potting up self sown rock soapwort or tumbling Ted and planting a couple of plants in the beds. I had a customer come for flowers, I have done quite a few bunches and bouquets this week and I don’t really want the season to change, the leaves are beginning to die back of lots of things 😢 I guess that is what it is all about though, the changing seasons and so we will move into the next season and who knows I may even love it.
Monday 12th September 2022: After last week who knows what this week will bring but one thing it’s already brought is rain! Seriously 😐 months of drought and high temperatures and then wham rain, rain, rain, when is a girl supposed to get the washing dry 🤷♀️ We had a dry day yesterday, that’s the first day for over a week that the washing hasn’t gone out, come in and gone out again 🤪 I was hoping to get some of the bigger stuff washed and dried before winter but at this rate I won’t succeed.
Mid morning and I am sitting down for a coffee, I already have the dinner on, two batches in the slow cookers 😁 One is chicken stew and one is chicken korma, if I am making dinner for this evening I might as well make bigger batches and then freeze some portions for another day, all part of my cost saving drive. I read an interesting article this morning, it appears that Mr Putin (and I don’t know him so I can’t confirm lol) was hoping to freeze Europe into submission over Ukraine this winter by turning off the gas. His thinking, I guess, is that we are so reliant on it that we would have no choice but to let him have his way. It has had the opposite effect and apparently European businesses have shaved a whopping 22% off their energy needs 👏 If that can be achieved collectively for the domestic consumption as well then it would definitely be a two fingered salute in his direction. So as well as helping your bank balance you can also help in the effort of standing up to a bully by tweaking your own energy consumption wherever possible 🥰
The next two jobs on my list, we’ll they were not on the list but they needed doing, were to clean and tidy the boot room and the pantry. They have both become dumping grounds over the summer and it was time to sort them out, put things away, hoover, clean and tidy. I needed the pantry floor area cleared so that I could get into the apple rack to store apples for the winter 😁 I have some lovely apples and still more to pick as they become ripe and I want to store them for as long as possible. Each one will be individually wrapped in paper and stored in the racks, they will be checked over each week and any that are spoiling will get used quickly. The carrots will also be stored in there, I have tried storing them in sand but they end up rubbery so some will get chopped and frozen and then the ones in the pantry will get used up first over the next couple of months.
I have a very long list of jobs to get through but I feel I have made a great start this morning, let’s hope I can keep it going 😂
Onto cleaning hoovering and cleaning the kitchen, smashing a milk bottle while I was in the process 🙄 then hoovering the sitting room. While I was doing that I had the top half of the stable door open and when I went back into the kitchen I had been invaded, by flies. Urgh there were approx 30/40 of them buzzing round so I closed all the blinds and curtains and opened the windows, by now they were in the sitting room too. They head for the light but once behind the fabric can’t find their way out again, that was the idea anyway, eventually after about an hour and a half I had managed to get rid of all but two or three persistent little buggers. I had a flurry of enquiries about flower bouquets so I will be quite busy with those over the next two days, I am hoping the rain holds off although I have done the washing Hokey Cokey again today 🤪
The weather tomorrow looks shockingly wet across the country and so I cut flowers tonight for two lots going out tomorrow. After eating our dinner we went out to the yearly local fair, Witney Feast, we have been going every year for over 40 years and only missed a couple for various reasons. We no longer go on the rides 😂 but love walking round and soaking up the atmosphere of a big fair. This one goes back over 700 years ‘Witney Feast started in 1243 when King Henry III granted two deer from the Royal Forest of Wychwood to celebrate the rededication of the church’ Over those hundreds of years it has changed from feasting to selling livestock and wares and these days it is adrenaline pumping rides, flashing lights and traditional hook a duck stalls as well as food stands which used to be just fish and chips or sweets and now includes all types of fast food. It is the point in the year that John always says ‘that’s it, Witney Feast is here and so is Winter’ 😂 The fair moves onto Chipping Norton after it’s two days at Witney and becomes the ‘Chippy Mop’ which was a hiring fair in origin also dating back hundreds of years. I love that these events like so many others have been happening for that long, all part of the rich history and traditions of our country 🥰 The rain didn’t come.
Tuesday: No sign of the rain yet but I don’t doubt it will arrive at some point today 🤪 After getting the eggs sorted and out I cut some more flowers and foliage, I did some dead heading and I cut a few bits for drying as well. Next job was to batch up and freeze the food I made yesterday and then think about todays food 🙄 While I was in the freezer I found a lamb bone from a past roast so that went into the slow cooker along with various veg, it will make a nourishing soup for today. I also decided to give a pudding a go in the other slow cooker, I found a recipe and loosely followed it 😬 It was a basic sponge mix (but without egg, interesting to see how that works out) milk was added as per the recipe to create a batter. Grease the slow cooker dish pour in the batter (thickish) put chopped apple all over the top of the sponge, drizzle a couple of teaspoons of honey over those and sprinkle cinnamon (I used nutmeg instead) I also sprinkled a dash of lime juice for added flavour. No idea how it will turn out 🤷♀️ I will let you know but it does mean I am free to get on with the rest of my day 🥰
Wednesday: I spent the morning costing up and ordering for the wreath making evenings, finalising all the details of dates and time plus terms and conditions and points to note. It looks like I will have to put a third night on as there is interest which is great. I now have to chivvy John up to get the ceiling sorted and make a cover for the pool table, I have ordered an oil cloth to go over the top of it all. The. I will need to get myself into gear to make up all the willow rings at some point but I made one up yesterday and covered it with moss and it looks great and certainly will make a good base for a wreath. I also went out and picked rose hips, stripped the thorns and placed them in a glycerine solution to keep them supple and hold the colour if possible. There will be quite a lot more to get done and organised but I am happy that it’s all going in the right direction. Mostly in the afternoon I had a sit down, as always I am usually researching or looking things up, you can never know enough 😂
Thursday: I took a chance and hung out some washing, I checked the rain radar and nothing of any great amount is showing up even though it looks like it might rain at any minute. I spent an hour or more cutting flowers, these are for jam jars going out tomorrow, mostly stems that are too short or flowers that need cutting to let others come on. I also cut a fair amount of cosmos which I had made up into a bunch to go out for sale.
Friday: Busy morning, busy afternoon, then lost me mojo 🙄 I can’t remember what I did first thing but sometime in the morning I cleared two raised beds and planted a lot of bulbs. There were 80 bridal crown narcissi, 25 gladioli, approx 30 fritillary and 25 allium, I have a lot more to plant but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Some of them will go into pots to sell in flower next spring and some will go into the ornamental beds as well. Oh I remember what it was I did first of all, fetching the willow whips I cut down at the beginning of the year, I tidied them up by cutting off any branching bits (putting them to one side) and then sorted them into sizes. I need to soak them in order to make willow wreaths with them, some of the smaller branches I cut off were supple enough to have a go at making mini willow wreaths so I made a couple of those as well as a fresh willow one to see how well that worked. In the afternoon I did a fair bit of dried flower work, I have been making dried flower broomsticks in various sizes as I thought they would be nice for October. Then I revamped my two dried flower wreaths, I always keep the Christmas wreath bases and dry them out, they can then be used in a number of ways including dried flower wreaths. I have used the flowers that were for Sam’s wedding so that’s a nice keepsake 🥰 I tidied up and then lost my mojo, no idea where it went but it’s definitely gone 🤪
Saturday: Busy morning, I started off in the big tunnel clearing away dead stuff, the cucumbers are struggling and I think I have enough tomatoes to last me a year 😂 so they got cleared but it was sunny and became a bit hot in there. I then went onto planting up loads of plants into the front shrub bed, I also planted lots of bulbs. Meanwhile John was putting up the ceiling in the pool room, it was insulated when he did it but needed boarding over the top and as that is where I will be doing the wreath evening, I wanted him to get on and finish it in plenty of time. I cut flowers this morning for a birthday tomorrow and made up a bunch of dried flowers for a birthday. Talking of birthdays it is Sam’s today, they have taken the caravan away for the weekend but not too far so I went with Shelley, Josh and Flo plus a cake and we met them at the campsite. We had a lovely couple of hours, the kids went out on their little boat on the river and then we got a lift back to the car via the river. It was lovely and serene on the water and a great way to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon. John stayed home to get on with the ceiling, he also cut the lawn and did the chickens, I should go out more often he gets more done when I am not here 😂
It’s definitely chillier in the mornings and evenings but the sun in the daytime is still pretty warm.
The wreath evenings are booking up and I am certainly looking forward to doing them, I collected some gorgeous red Virginia creeper today and have put it in glycerine to see if it holds its colour, I also collected ash keys to see if they will too.
Sunday: Not a terribly productive day today, food shopping, round to Mums for a coffee on the way back. Then a trip to the garden centre to find they didn’t have what I wanted so we went to a different garden centre, still couldn’t find it so came home empty handed (I know 🤪) Sat down and ordered it online instead 🙄 Had an easy afternoon watching a very old film 😂 cooked and ate dinner, John washed up while I got some flowers ready. That’s it! Some days you just have to slow down a little 😁
Still no rain.
Have a lovely week, I am sure we will all be watching the state funeral, big occasion. I hope they have excellent security in place, nothing like having all the major heads of countries in one place for someone to try for a new world order 😬
Tuesday 6th September 2022: I didn’t blog yesterday as I was still at Sam and Luke’s looking after the children until around 6pm, I called in to see Charlie, Macca and Oscar on the way home. We eventually got back in time to get some dinner on, John did the birds and the egg collecting and then an evening of sitting down. It is getting dark much earlier now but I quite like that, it means you actually get some time off rather than continually working. We have one heck of a storm last night, thunder so loud and plenty of lightening to go with it plus very heavy rain, I am not complying I love a good storm plus I am loving the rain 🥰 I was watching the live lightening strike map as it was going on and it covered a huge area of Europe as well as the UK, thousands of strikes, incredible.
This morning we got up and down the usual jobs, John went off to work and I went out into the greenhouse to plant up some plants and sow some seeds. The plants are from the rudbeckia I have already growing, they send out runners under ground and then little plantlets appear, I dug those up the other day put them in some water and this morning potted them up, they will probably go out for sale once established. Then it was onto sowing some ‘snaps’ snapdragon or antirrhinum in various colours, also some white marigolds and a few cornflowers. All in seed trays to bring on over winter, I have still got plenty to direct sow as well. I tidied up the greenhouse a little while I was in there and then inside to do a bit of paperwork. The rain has started again lol same old thing, once it starts…..
The looming energy crisis is a hot topic at the minute and I am trying to look at all angles to see how well we will do. Financially we will manage but that doesn’t mean to say that we shouldn’t be doing all we can to keep the costs down. I read that many people are batch cooking now before the costs go up so that they can just reheat food which makes a lot of sense. I have thought a lot about how I will be doing g the cooking as the oven uses a lot of electric to heat up so slow cooker, microwave and induction hob will be used as much as possible instead. Potentially two slow cookers, one for dinner, one for pudding 😁 they use only as much energy as a light bulb so it makes sense to cook that way. Tiered steamer pans are also a great saver as are microwave steam bags, they work brilliantly. One of the problems that has caught my attention is the possibility of blackouts, this might seems very 1970’s (to anyone old enough to remember the strikes) but the UK producers approx 40% of its energy needs, 30% is bought from Norway. That leaves a shortfall of 30% that we will have to buy from other sources, the problem is that because of the Russian pipelines being closed, all other countries that need it will also be trying to buy it from elsewhere. Two potential problems arise, a price bidding war and a shortage. Europe has already warned of potential blackouts, our government has not but the energy sector is talking about it and so it makes sense to prepare. If the preparations are not needed it doesn’t matter but if they are then I am ready for it. To be fair when we switched over to all electric I prepared then because we do have at least 5 power cuts every winter 🙄 so I bought a small camping gas stove and canisters so that we could still boil a kettle and cook something warming. I do have battery powered lights we can use indoors and we have always have powerful torches for use outside if needed. I just need to make sure we have our thermals to hand and some big blankets 😂 you never know when you will need them 🤪 We have thermal door curtains already which come out in the colder months but I am thinking of getting thermal curtain linings or some material to make some for the the bedroom windows, I figure every little will help this year but in all honesty it’s probably something we should have already been doing before.
I sat down for a couple of hours at lunchtime and got a few things done that made me feel productive, it’s raining outside so might as well get on inside. I looked up thermal curtains etc but in the end I decided to order the material and make the linings myself 🤪 as if I don’t have enough jobs on the to do list already. I did a few bits of paperwork, I say paperwork it’s mostly digital these days but they are done ✔️ I ordered a rug for the spare room, the floor really needs doing in there but I doubt we will get it done before winter so a rug will help with any draughts hopefully. I also ordered a second slow cooker, I a, definitely going down this route lol. I need to write John a list of winter ready jobs, mostly just small ones but they will make a difference
Wednesday: A sunny start so I got the morning jobs done and then out into the garden. First job was to cut flowers for my weekly customers flowers and then into the small tunnel to do plenty of cutting back. Some of the cosmos was beginning to get powdery mildew so I cut them right back and removed the foliage, the flowers went into my collecting bucket and will be used for jam jar flowers. Then onto the big tunnel where I did much the same, though there is no mildew in there the plants were getting big and flopping over onto other plants. I watered the cucumbers and peppers plus fed and watered the flowers and then picked lbs and lbs of tomatoes 😂 plus courgettes, peppers and cucumbers. Inside then to sort all the produce out, weigh it and put some of it out for sale. Then whizz up the tomato sauce I made in the slow cooker yesterday and bag it ready to go in the freezer. Sit down at 1pm for a rest, the heavens opened and right at this minute there is a heavy downpour. It hasn’t really stopped since the drought was broken by the first lot of rain 😂 it is a doubled edged sword because we really need the rain but it would be good to have a dry day inbetween so I can get stuff done. I did also put 200, yes 200 ranunculus tubers to soak, what was I thinking, 200 🤪 I have to find somewhere to plant all of those 😝
Thursday: Last night I went to flower club, totally got my weeks mixed up, not surprising really, I thought it was last week but no it was this week. It was competition week and at 6pm I did think is there anything I can do in the next hour to submit, in the end I thought nope just leave it this time 🤪 John dropped me off as he always does, he went round to Shelley’s to drop off some tomatoes and stopped for a cuppa. He made his way back to ours at dusk, he turned into the downs road which is the lane that connects to ours (about 2 1/2 miles long) he had only driven a short distance along the lane when he thought, oh my god! A little way ahead of him he saw an animal come out of the hedge on one side of the lane, take two bounds and disappear into the hedge on the other side. This is not unusual as we regularly see deer, foxes, badgers, owls, rabbits etc but this appeared to be a big cat 😯 Sadly we don’t have a dash cam but he said it was as tall as an Alsatian, long in the body, black and had the unmistakable rear end of a cat. There have been several sightings in the area over the past couple of months and I have heard first hand from someone else who has seen it in their paddock a few miles from us 🙄 He drove down the lane on the way to collect me later and then we both drove down together on the way home but no more sightings. Internet chatter suggests that because of the drought there have been far more sightings than usual throughout the country, I guess they were looking for water just like all the other wild animals, I may put the wildlife camera up and see what we get.
This morning I have been busy in the kitchen and doing the washing line Hokey Cokey, each time I put it out it rains so I get it back in, at the minute I have given up 😂 I have done a fair bit of batch cooking, I bought a second slow cooker so that I can have two lots going at the same time. Today I have mince,veg and potato in one and I have a spag Bol sauce in the other, that was bulked out with mushrooms, peppers and a tin of salad beans and I used the sauce I made yesterday. Johns was bulked out with plenty of veg including spinach and half a tin of baked beans I opened last night for dinner. Each batch had half a portion of mince in and I think I will get around 5/6 portions from the mince meal and 4/5 portions from the spag Bol meal. Apart from what we eat tonight the rest will be batched and labelled and into the freezer for another day. I then peeled and chopped a load of cooking apples and stewed those down with some blackberries and sugar and I made up a batch of crumble topping. The topping I pre cooked spread out on oven trays and then once the apple mix was cooled and batched up I sprinkled the crumble mix on top. My thinking behind this is that I will be able to get those out of the freezer and because it’s precooked it will only need reheating, saving me time, energy and money. While I did have the oven on to toast the topping I also made a cake and cooked that as well which will also be frozen until needed. I made a batch of chutney with the tomatoes and apples as I have plenty of those, a couple of courgettes some wrinkly grapes, brown sugar, malt vinegar, chopped ginger, onions and some mixed spice went into the mix as well 😁 The cake was a bit of a use it up cake, I had some caramel sauce to use up so I made up a general mix without sugar, added the sauce and some apples and it appears to have baked well, hopefully it will taste ok too. We are not really in the position where we will be worrying about the energy bill too much (I may spit feathers when I see the next bill mind you) but I love a challenge and we should all be more energy conscious no matter what the price of it is shouldn’t we? So I am aiming to trim the costs however I can and batch cooking and baking is definitely one way of doing it. Having two slow cookers is something I should have done years ago I think 😂 because John and I eat totally different things it is much easier to do big batches for each of us at the same time. The above is one example but I am also thinking that while John loves a good stew I prefer a curry or korma so I can do both now plus once it’s all prepped and in I have the rest of the day to get on with other things 🥰
Tomato and apple chutney 🥰
As I sit down to type this up, our Queen has been taken ill and they are concerned for her health, the family is travelling to Balmoral to see her so it’s not looking good. I think even people who are not royalists nevertheless have a deep respect for Her Majesty, for her total dedication to a position she didn’t expect to inherit and one that she has unfalteringly carried out through thick and thin all these years.
Early evening we had the news that we hoped wasn’t coming but in reality we knew it was 😢 HRH Queen Elizabeth II has died peacefully at Balmoral Castle. That is the end of an era, the 2nd Elizabethan Era, it’s pretty profound, we have a new King, King Charles III. The devotion and dedication that The Queen gave to the position that she held was unfaltering and that alone deserves huge respect, what an incredible woman, dignified and constant, a great example to us all. RIP Your Majesty, you will be deeply missed not only by your family but by millions of people around the world. Long Live The King 🇬🇧
Friday: I still feel pretty emotional this morning, it is just sinking in, the magnitude of the event on our historic timeline. When I started blogging it was to diarise the events of our life in a new adventure on a Smallholding, the good things that happened and the bad. Over the years it has included major world events and so it really has become a snapshot of life in the 21st century.
This morning I cut some flowers for jam jars later today, it was drizzling, the rain hasn’t really stopped since last Thursdays break in the drought conditions 😂 The poor flower heads are hoping for a dry day tomorrow as we are forecast sharp showers today and more often than not this week they have come with thunder and lightening. You couldn’t write this stuff, months of no rain, burning temperatures and then straight into torrential downpours and storms 🤷♀️
I batched up and got everything in the freezer, I also made a bath of dumplings yesterday which I open froze and they have now gone into a bag to use whenever we have a good stew. Stews and soups are a staple over the winter for us, they are wholesome and warming plus cooking in the slow cooker means I can get on with other things.
Saturday: I spent a lot of the day with my apple picker getting cooking apples from the tree, there are so many 😂 I have been giving plenty of them away. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and we picked some blackberries and then after they left I went and picked a whole load more. There are loads down in the back paddock and it was so peaceful and quiet, I just have to do something with them all now. I also want to get some elderberries picked and some rose hips to make the syrups which are great for winter, rose hip for coughs and sore throats, elderberries for colds and boosting energy.
Sunday: More picking today, eating apples and pears today as well as digging up some carrots and collecting a few more mulberries. Mum and Ken came over with bags to pick elderberries, I sent them in the direction of the blackberries as well, they also went home with windfall pears, cooking apples and some carrots. Charlie and Macca called in with Oscar, they had been out blackberry picking so I also sent them down to the paddock to get more blackberries and elderberries. To add to their haul were carrots and beetroot that Charlotte had sown back in the summer and they also had some pears and cooking apples. It’s a fabulous time of year and there is plenty to go round, I have been giving away loads of cooking apples but I still have more than I really know what to do with or indeed have time to process. Tomorrow I have pears, cooking apples and carrots to either process for freezing or wrapping for storing, I also want to get some batch cooking done in the slow cookers, chicken this time. John meanwhile has been digging up the ground 🙄 the IBC tanks won’t fit how we would have liked them to so we have had to rethink. While he was exploring his options he decided to re-route the drainage pipe that runs a cross the back of the hard standing. It makes sense because it collects run off rain water and goes off at a 45 degree angle, when it gets blocked this makes it difficult to rod so he decided to straighten it which meant digging out the concrete. For someone who complains about the amount of jobs there are to do he has done a great job of making himself more work 😂
It’s the end of another week but not just any old week, in just one week we have had a wedding, a new Prime Minister, a big cat sighting, the death of The Queen and a new King on the Throne. The mood of the country is double edged. Sorrow for the loss of a very much loved Sovereign who did her duty with total dedication for 70 years and was working right up to the end of her 96 years. Relief and happiness that King Charles III has taken up his rightful position. I don’t know about anyone else but that time in between the announcement of the Queens passing and the address to the nation from King Charles seemed very strange, almost as if I needed to see him to know all would be well and that someone was at the helm of the realm. It would take a whole blog on its own for me to explain how I feel about having a Monarchy, I know not everyone is as enthusiastic but for me it’s a rich tapestry of intricately woven threads forming a scene over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. The traditions, protocol and ceremonies are so old they seem archaic but I like that, it’s some of those rich threads forming a links with the past. I think there are a few Royals at the forefront that are fantastic ambassadors for our country and do far more good than harm. And then there are those who are either completely stupid or self obsessed and don’t have the grace and dignity it takes 🙄 I feel that generally the country is behind King Charles and wishing him the best at such a time of loss, I know I certainly am 🥰 As we leave the second Elizabethan age and move into the Carolean age we can look back with fondness and look forward with hope and what could be better than that?
Thursday 18th November: Yes it’s Thursday before I get to write anything down and that’s not just because I have forgotten. It’s is because Monday, Tuesday and four hours Wednesday morning I have mainly been doing paperwork ready for it to go to the accountant before the self assessment deadline 🙄 Our end of year is April but that and the following months are pretty hectic times on the Smallholding and so it gets pushed to the back of the to do pile. Then of course we had the hen do and the wedding and so I couldn’t really focus on anything other than those events. Well now the time had finally arrived when I could take a couple of days to plough through it all and get it sorted which is exactly what I did. I look forward to not having that nagging voice at the back of my head and being able to focus on what is ahead of me 😁
The rest of Wednesday I spent getting Christmas card orders done, in all honesty I never expected to have two big orders, I was just making them as and when and putting them out for sale in the little shed. On top of that I have had a request for some for a Christmas craft fair and so I need to make quite a few up for that 😜 I am not complaining as I love doing them but all the while I a thinking about the bulbs that need planting, the wood chip that needs moving as well as the daily jobs that need doing around the house and on the Smallholding itself.
The egg numbers have dropped off drastically and we are at the point where we have to decide how we want to move forward. Do we buy in more laying hens, we have been doing this for years and we have also had fox attacks for years on and off that wipe the flock out. Or do we move in a different direction entirely, I have tentatively started with the fresh flowers and it is a direction I would like to go in but I need to do a bit of research first and I also need to either commit fully and use some of the paddock space or not commit and tickle along until I need to expand 🤷♀️ decisions, decisions 🤔
The weather has still remained mild and really I should have been outside getting the veg garden bedded down for winter but in my head I am thinking, it will wait until spring if necessary but then spring will be a frantic affair 😂
This morning I spent a bit of time doing some more cards while FaceTiming with Shelley, the children have chickenpox and so she is holed up at home with them, after the lockdowns we have already had that can’t be any fun. Sam has messaged to see if she can come visit with the twins, of course you can, time has to always be made for grandchildren especially while they are young, other things can wait they are not that important on the scale of things.
Well it’s Monday 22nd and I have been poor at doing this again lol. What have I been up to? Mostly making cards and tags whenever I have time, I needed to get some made for the Christmas Fayre at the farm next door next week and so I have spent a lot of time doing that inbetween mundane every day jobs. I did get the Christmas cake done and that will need a feed this week. I also got the Christmas pudding mixed yesterday on stir up Sunday 😁 though I am waiting for a pudding basin to arrive so that I can steam it for a few hours. I usually use a Pyrex glass bowl but it is very difficult to tie the grease proof and tin foil top onto the bowl so I finally gave in and ordered a proper pudding bowl.
Stir up Sunday, the Christmas pud for the Mid Winter feast 🥰
I went to Oxford on Saturday to the Victorian Christmas market, slightly disappointed with the Victorian side of it but the stalls were mostly artisan goods so that was brilliant. I hate the markets where the stalls are full of things you can buy in the shop or cheap stuff from the internet 😏 While I was out shopping, John was busy screeding my pantry floor which is now ready to fit out. I am getting a second hand door that Martin has taken out on one of his jobs and all the fixtures and fittings will be upcycled or recycled things. I am having my sister give me a hand with this as she has a much better eye for styling than I do but it also needs to be practical as well.
The temps are set to fall quite a bit this week, to nearer normal for the time of year, we have had it too good for too long 😂 but it was very nice while it lasted and hopefully it will make the winter seem a little bit shorter 😝
Have a great week and once again apologies for the lack of dedication to writing things down 🙄
It is Wednesday and I realise I have not written a single thing for the blog! The main reason for that is that I have had other things on my mind and plenty to do that is not Smallholding related.
Tomorrow is Charlotte and Maccas wedding day 🥰 and so as you can imagine I have had lots of things to get ready and sort out for that. Couple that with half term and going out with the grandchildren and there is not much time for writing or anything else really. On Monday afternoon we went on a pumpkin trail that a local farm/cafe/campsite had put on for free in their woodland area, the kiddies really enjoyed finding the pumpkins and the treat at the end of the trail.
On Tuesday morning I went with Sam, Mia, George and Lucie for a photo shoot, part of a competition Sam won on social media. That was a fun morning until the twins got tired and fractious. Back home for lunch and then Sam and Mia went out into the front paddock to move the fencing for the horses again as they had eaten off the little bit extra I had given them on Sunday.
This morning I have mostly been organising my bag for staying away overnight ready for the big day tomorrow. I also had to nip round and make sure the rabbits, Guineas and the birds in the orchard were all topped up with feed and water, make sure the horses water was full up and that all slip rails and gates were closed just in case 🤪
Thursday: Charlie’s wedding day 🥰🥰
Friday: It’s going to be a short blog this week 😂 Wednesday afternoon, Sam, Shelley, Charlie and I left for the The Wheatsheaf hotel in Northleach where we spent the night before the wedding. Lovely hotel and the food was superb, the staff were friendly and very accommodating. The next morning we were up early and had breakfast before the hairdressers, make up lady and photographer arrived. We spent a wonderful and surprisingly relaxed morning getting ready before John and the cars arrived and we were off to the venue. Stone Barn near Bibury, again another fantastic venue, the staff were amazing and know their job well, the food was outstanding and the day was filled with love and laughter, an absolutely delightful day celebrating the marriage of two wonderful people who make an awesome couple. An amazing day full of so many thoughtful little touches, a day of many amazing moments for my memory bank, just perfect 🥰
My very beautiful youngest daughter Charlie and her new husband Sam aka Macca
Saturday: After doing all the usual jobs we spent the rest of the day taking down old bits of the back area and putting up new stud work for the pantry. A very exciting project as far as I am concerned because it’s were I get to store everything I grow or make and hang flowers and herbs to dry 😁 That literally took us all day to get that sorted.
Sunday: Oh my days, rain, torrential rain, non stop torrential rain! Then flooding in the back area because the outside drain was blocked, John normally keeps it clear but because of everything else he has been doing it got left. We had water coming in everywhere out the back 😏 Then the electric tripped, we went round trying to find out what had tripped it, it took six goes of turning it back on only for it to go again before we found the culprit which was an extension lead to one of the freezers, it was getting wet and electrics do not like that 😂 Eventually after spending time in the pouring rain, John managed to get the water to run away. We then got on with the job we had originally gone out there to do which was take down some more of the old stuff at the other end of the building where Johns pool table will be going. It’s like playing rubics cube at the minute because we have to keep moving everything from one place to another in order to get any further forward, eventually it will all fall into place.
We went out with Sam, Luke and the kiddies for a Sunday roast, it’s Luke’s birthday tomorrow so it was nice to have a bit of time out with them to mark the occasion.
The clocks went back last night and it’s Halloween or Samhain today. Samhain marks the end of the natural year really, everything is now harvested including nuts and berries and growth naturally dies back ready for the winter sleep. Having something hearty to eat is appropriate, it is a season to celebrate feasting now, not too much though or else or your stores will be gone before the next growing season gets underway 😂 I will miss the summer days and temperatures but I also enjoy the darker nights and frosty mornings, hunkering down and staying cosy as much as possible. I still have plenty to do outside in the garden but at this time of year if it doesn’t get done it can wait until spring, I can find plenty to occupy me inside if needs be.
Have a good week and find lots of things to do that give you that cosy feeling, Winter has arrived 😬
Monday 18th October: I had fully intended to get a fair amount done today but in the end I didn’t. The one thing I did do was to get the tortoises inside ready for the winter sleep. I found Voldy pretty easily he was still out and about, when I started searching for big billy though he was nowhere to be found. I spent about 15 minutes searching the compound, searching again, moving the hut, looking in the foliage etc etc. I was just about to give up, convinced he had been taken as he can’t get out of there (unless he was Houdini) I noticed some loose soil near a big tuft of grass, when I lifted it up I could just see the top of his shell. He had dug himself so far into the ground that he was hardly noticeable, definitely time for him to go away indoors 😜
I came indoors once I had discovered his whereabouts and picked up my phone to record the story for the podcast, I could see I had many messages and once I opened them I realised that we had received some devastating news this morning. My cousin who was double vaccinated but had contracted Covid around three weeks ago had died. We had been getting daily updates on his condition since he was admitted to hospital and things had not looked good but we were all hoping that he would pull through, he didn’t and it was quite a shock really. Covid is still out there, two vaccinations mean that the risk is less but there is still a risk, it doesn’t make you immune. That’s the reason I have done nothing else today, I just couldn’t find the energy or the concentration to do anything. As I have said before I have a big family, a close family, we all keep in touch with each other as much as possible and so it feels close to home and has hit hard. My heart goes out to his family, he was a big character with a big heart and he will missed so much by all of us but especially by them 💔
Tuesday: I have mostly been sorting stuff out in the back area, goodness knows how we accumulated so much stuff 🙄 but it all needs sorting out. Lots of it just needs to find a new home, some of it needs to be thrown away, some of it will stay in the back but we need new shelves to keep it on, some of it will go to the scrap man and some of it we have no idea where it will be going yet. I moved a fair few things today but when John came home we went through the stuff I had no idea about, was it any good? did John need it for something? 🤷♀️ Hopefully a few more sessions of that and we should be all sorted 😜
Wednesday: We are getting to the time of the year when I start doing the animals rather than John. The mornings are dark and only get light just as John needs to go to work and the evenings are drawing in every day which does not give John much time once he gets home. So it becomes my job to do it instead as the garden is not demanding so much of my time anymore. This morning was my first morning, it was thundering and hammering down at 7.30 🙄 I left it another hour, had a shower and got the eggs from yesterday sorted and by 8.30 the sun was shining 😁 I got all the feeding and letting out sorted and then I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the light Sussex pen. I cleaned out their hut, sprayed it for red mite, put in clean straw and then I barrowed umpteen loads of woodchip to put on the floor in there to stop it getting too muddy over winter. I did want to get a tarpaulin over the top but it was very windy so there was no way I was going to be able to do that on my own, best wait for a calm day when there are two of us around. Shelley called round with Flo at lunchtime for a couple of hours and then John came home early so he did the afternoon rounds.
I had my third vaccination this evening, initially there was some confusion with this vaccine, we were informed by Lupus Uk and NHS vaccine that this was a third primary. When I rang the surgery they said nope it’s a booster but eventually the catch up of information happened, when I got the appointment and when I arrived for the vaccine I was told it is a third primary and I will be due a booster in six months time. Either way I am glad I have had it, the efficacy of the vaccine seems to wane according to some sources so I would rather keep topped up just in case 🤔
I keep thinking I need to do more for winter veg but having watched a you tube video that someone else has done I realise I am pretty prepared. Leeks, kale (of various types) cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, they are all growing well out in the garden. Winter lettuce in the greenhouse, and carrots and beetroot are still in the ground doing well, the only other veg they had growing that I didn’t were chard and turnips both of those I won’t miss if I don’t have any 😜
I still have a fair bit of preparation to do on some of the veg beds to get them ready for winter, mostly because they have been left to their own devices all summer and need some control measures, some of the weeds are taking over. The brassica cage has not been used since I finished harvesting the sprouting broccoli back in spring. I didn’t have time to go in and clear it and now the weeds are pretty rampant including a wild blackberry. My plan in there is to pull or dig any perennial weeds and then smother the annual weeds with cardboard, that should hopefully knock it back a bit and give me a chance to sort it when I have more time.
Thursday: I spent a couple of hours first thing recording a podcast and then I spent the rest of the morning sorting out draughts around the two doors in the kitchen. The wind has changed direction NE and it’s quite cold, I can feel it blowing in through gaps. I have ordered some draught excluder for the door frames and I ordered some thermal curtains for when it gets very cold. I have saved some wool insulation that comes with fresh food deliveries sometimes and have used them for the floor in front of the doors to stop any cold coming underneath. First and foremost I don’t want to be cold and secondly we need to save energy wherever possible, it’s the right thing to do for our pocket and the planet. John came home just after lunch so we sat down with a cuppa for an hour before he went and got on with some more of the side cladding. Meanwhile I prepped dinner for later and also prepped some tomatoes, onion and garlic for roasting later when the oven was on. That will make a nice passata once I have put it through a sieve and I will be having that for spag Bol tomorrow. The twins arrived with Sam and Mia who went off to swimming lessons leaving the twins here to have their tea. Our electrician arrived to do the bits of electric work we needed to get done, lol everyone arrives at the same time, chaos, actually it wasn’t too bad. I did think the twins would get all upset with a stranger in the house but they were fine mostly because I was feeding them by then so they were more interested in the food 😜 After everyone left we were able to get our dinner sorted, I also made some toffee sauce to go with some sautéed apple for dessert, very easy and very delicious on an October evening 🥰 John went out to put the animals to bed and that’s another day done. My arm is fine, I did think it might hurt but only slightly where the actual vaccination site is nothing more.
I have been collecting a few flowers to dry and the combination of these drying is really pleasing at the moment, hopefully I can do them justice when I try using them in some sort of arrangement.
Friday: It was much colder this morning than it has been for months but the sun came out and there is still some warmth there when it does so I got some washing on the line. John was up early and so he did the animals before going to work, he will be home early today and will be working on the side of the building, trying to get it all done before it really gets too cold. It is a different winter for us this time, no Rayburn, no wood chopping, no cleaning out of the ashes, not cold in the mornings before we get to re light it. The electric radiators give us constant gentle heat that we are not used to yet lol, I said to John this morning ‘it’s a bit warm in here’ 😂
I got this evenings dinner sorted, the tomatoes, garlic and onions I roasted yesterday have been pushed through a sieve and I have a delicious passata for my spag Bol later. John has mince, I may make it into a shepherds pie or I may just do mince and potatoes separately with veg not decided yet. I have got a pan of soup on the go and I have used the carrot tops in the soup as well, I looked it up to see if you could eat them because I wasn’t sure and turns out you can. They have 6x the amount of Vit c in them than the actual carrot plus calcium and potassium, nutrient packed so not going to waste them. Both lunch and dinner tonight will be entirely from produce either grown by me and reared by a local smallholder plus the bread is made from flour at the local mill, food miles approximately 7 🙄 a good day I reckon, I also know exactly what has gone in to each meal, no added extras or unnecessary ingredients unless I choose to add them 😁
Late morning I spent some time in the big tunnel clearing down, weeding etc but the sun came out and it got a bit warm in there 😂
Saturday: This started off with John coming to shout me for some help, I had my dressing gown and slippers on still so quickly changed and went out to see what the problem was. The dog had disturbed and chased a muntjac deer in the small paddock at the back, the terrified deer had tried to jump the wall but got his antlers stuck in the stock fencing. It was thrashing about and making a heck of a racket for something so small, John quickly got the wire cutters and we were able to release it successfully. It ran off back down the paddock, along the walkway, through the other paddock and then through the hedge along the side. We had no chance of making sure it was ok as it was gone like lightning 🙄
I went back in got a shower and went off to get my hair done, John stayed at home doing some more to the side of the building, it is almost finished but not quite. I think he will be happy when it’s done as it means he can start on his pool room 😁 Once home again I spent the time sorting out a few bits for the wedding and also some thermal curtains for our two doors in the kitchen. The aim is to reduce our energy consumption as much as possible both for our pocket and the environment and the doors are a bit draughty, we need to get them sorted next year I think.
I picked a few more dahlias for the kitchen, the plants just keep on giving, they certainly are the best value for money of all the flowers I have ever grown I think, I just hope I can keep them alive for next year.
Sunday: I spent until mid afternoon working, firstly I helped John do the animals as he is not feeling well then I spent a very pleasant few hours in the front cutting back dead foliage on the flower beds. I pulled up quite few aster plants that seem to have grown where I hadn’t intended, I feel like a achieved a good amount out there and it’s still looking good even in late October. After that I went into the front paddock to extended the grazing area for the horses, that took me a lot longer than I had expected as I didn’t think the area I added was big enough to last very long and so I gathered up more fence stakes and electric tape and made it even bigger. The reason being that the horses are looking longingly over the other fence on the side paddocks and I don’t want them to break into there anytime soon 🙄
Back inside for a sit down and to check on John who by this point had gone back to bed, we did a Covid test, it’s negative, hopefully it’s just a passing bug and he will be well after a good sleep. I made some beef broth, I would have made chicken except I don’t appear to have any saved chicken carcasses so beef will have to do. I chopped up and onion added some garlic plus some of the bouillon powder and a bag of frozen beef broth I made a few weeks ago. It is one of the best things to use as a pick me up when you feel unwell, it’s light on the stomach but highly nutritious and helps to rehydrate, what could be better 😁
I will be feeding the animals and egg collecting this afternoon and then I will be putting them to bed as well I think. Then I have an evening of getting my eyebrows threaded and tinted plus an eyelash lift ready for the wedding this week 🥰
Monday 4th October 2021: A nice day for the best part, a little rain in the afternoon but only quick showers really. I had decided how my day was going to go and got on with things only to get a phone call from John at around 9am. The job he was starting this week and had gone to was cut short because the customer had received a phone call from the hospital to say they had tested positive with covid. John put his tools back in the van and came back home, that put paid to my peaceful day 🤪 he decided to stay home and so I got him working, not going to waste an unexpected opportunity like that 🤣 He burnt all the paper and cardboard rubbish that had mounted up and then did some tidying up of various areas. He did pop out again in the afternoon to a couple of small jobs.
Meanwhile I spent the whole day outside working on the veg garden. Firstly I did some picking, the tomatoes are still giving me plenty of lovely fruits, I had considered pulling them all up a few weeks back but I am glad I left them now. I picked a few of the last cucumbers, the plants have pretty much finished and the cues I picked were really only any good for the animals. While I was in the tunnel I decided to give it a bit of a tidy up, the weeds had grown again and mint has managed to find its way in too so I cleared all that. I will keep the mint, dry it and it will be used for the Guineas and rabbit over winter. I cleared one of the makeshift beds that had strawberry plants in, got some huge pots, filled them with compost and replanted some of the strawberry runners. Plenty of work left to do in there yet but the sun came out and it was quite warm in there so I left that and moved on to something else. I kind of floundered around a little doing bits of this and that before knuckling down to digging up the herbs from the herb bed. I am relocating that bed and it will be flatted and laid to lawn, more grass for the children to play on, less area that I have to work on. The herbs have been there for nearly ten years and the roots on some of them are huge, I have dug up what I can, divided and potted at lot of it up ready for when I decide where it will go. Some of the p,ants will be kept to go out for sale next year. That all took me up to around 5pm and I didn’t really stop except for a few tea breaks so a good days work there. Luckily it was bubble and squeak for Johns tea and I had cold lamb so not much preparation to be done for that.
Tuesday: Oooosh that was a lot of rain over night but not as much as other parts of the country have had and I just saw the forecast for the end of the week the temps are going up again to an unseasonable 20c 🙄🤷♀️ crazy days.
I had a good productive morning, I spent the first couple of hours clearing the small tunnel, all the tomato plants are now down, those plants were mostly finished, they were flowering again but I don’t think we will have temps that would help them to fruit successfully at this time of year. I planted the garlic chives in one of the beds instead of leaving it in the pot, hopefully they will continue to grow all through winter. Next it was the turn of the tomatoes in the big tunnel, there were still plenty of tomatoes on these. Some were ripe and some still green but I have got all of them off and have left them to ripen in the greenhouse. The tigerello tomatoes are definitely a type I would grown again next year, they are nice and fleshy and ideal for cooking with, produce well and have few problems with disease as far as I can tell.
The farrier was arriving at 11 and I worked right up to 10.45 when Sam arrived with the twins, I twinsat while she went and got the horses in, gave their tails and bit of a trim and waited while the farrier did his job then she put them back out in the paddock. They stayed until mid afternoon. The weather was on and off in the afternoon, rainy, sunny, rainy sunny so I did some inside bits and pieces. The lamb we had Sunday was a big joint and so there was plenty left even after John had bubble and squeak yesterday. Today I sliced it all up, put two lots in the freezer and saved a third lot to reheat with gravy for dinner tonight. The bone has gone into the slow cooker along with carrots, celery leaves, baby leeks and a bay leaf, also a bit of lemon juice. The lemon juice is the acidity needed to pull all the goodness from the bone to make broth, a delicious, nutritious way to use every last bit of the joint.
When John came home we organised getting the side of the building reclad, I say organised, what that consisted of is me taking control because John hasn’t done anything about it and then John interfering with what I was doing! Anyhow we now have the ball rolling, I just got to keep pushing it 😜
Wednesday: I spent a very pleasant morning in the garden, working mind you, but it was lovely and sunny and not too hot so I got on with things. At first I couldn’t decide what exactly I was going to get done but once I made decision I cracked on and didn’t stop until early afternoon. The bed that the herbs are coming out of is a very long bed and at the other end is where the rhubarb grows, before that is the asparagus bed and where all the strawberries have run riot, there is a pear tree and a chokeberry as well and somewhere in the middle are the courgettes I planted this year. I pulled off all the dying rhubarb leaves and weeded round them, then I weeded round the courgettes, cut down the asparagus fern (normally I leave them but want to get sorted this year so they have been cut down) after that it was the humongous task of taking out literally hundreds of strawberry plants and runners. They have really taken over and so I needed to thin them right out, buckets and buckets of plants went onto the compost heaps. I still want a fair few of them left to grow again next year, not for the strawberries particularly but because they grow well with asparagus and they make excellent ground cover, they also provide food and shelter for wildlife and I seem to get a great crop of pears each year with them growing underneath the tree. I worked on that until I found myself self resting more and more often, time for a break and some lunch. It may seem like such a waste with the plants going into the compost but honestly there are too many of them to do anything with, I have already planted up plenty of runners for next year both to plant elsewhere and to sell, you have to know when to stop lol.
Shelley called round with Flo before going to pick up Josh from school and then I hoovered through and cleaned the kitchen floor which I have been looking at for ages thinking I really must do that, well now it’s done 😁
Tonight I have my flower arranging group so I made sure I had everything ready to take, not really sure if I have enough or if I have the right things but I guess I will find out later. I am looking forward to it although a bit nervous about what I am supposed to produce 😂
Not a bad effort if I do say so myself 😁
Thursday: A perfect day for working in the garden all day which is exactly what I did. I spent the whole day weeding the veg beds, digging up what I didn’t need anymore, a whole lot more time on my hands and knees carefully picking out couch grass. I actually love weeding couch grass 🤣 I find it very therapeutic trying to get all the roots untangled from the soil. I feel like the beds are coming back into some sort of order now although there is still a lot of work to get through before I am finished. It helps that this year I have not been plagued with any Lupus flares 🤷♀️ no idea why but I am not complaining as it means I have been able to achieve a lot more than previous years. We had a couple of loads of type one delivered for the side driveway first thing this morning and I could have spent the day levelling it but nah I would rather garden instead. Twin sitting late afternoon means chaos and fun and then dinner and the day is over already.
Oooo I have been proper slack at writing this up this week, it’s Monday morning and I haven’t done it since Thursday! Mostly it’s because I have been pretty busy with one thing and another, I have done a fair bit of clearing in the garden, tidied out both my sheds so I can get in them and store stuff away for winter. I have also sorted out all the bird feeders and boxes ready for winter feeding and roosting for the wild birds, cut the grass, helped John with recladding the side of the building, been out twice for cake with both lots of grandchildren, cooked a Sunday roast for one of the families to join us in, moved the fencing for the horses so they can start to eat off the grass in a different paddock as they were getting a bit hungry, planted garlic, transplanted winter lettuce, been foraging for apples in the lanes around here, no wonder I haven’t had time to write anything 🤣
Must do better next week 🤪 Have a good one wherever you are x
Monday 27th September 2021: Autumn made itself known this morning, we have had sunshine and warm temperatures for a few weeks now but this morning we woke to windy, rainy weather and the temps are a tad lower than they have been. The sun did break through though and most of the day was nice apart from a sudden shower just after I put the washing out 😜
I have been busy today trying to catch up with jobs that I couldn’t do Friday and Saturday. Firstly though I had promised John a roast dinner so I got that all sorted, veg, potatoes all from the garden and beef from Emma, apples for an apple crumble from the garden as well. I had promised John apple pie but discovered I had no flour left, lucky I made some crumble mix for the freezer last week. Then I made some elderberry syrup with a batch I picked and put in the fridge last week, knocked it over as I was bottling it, swore, then mopped it all up, lucky I didn’t lose too much of it but it was a messy clear up job.
Once that was done I set about sizing up and ordering the last electric radiator we need, John took the last old one out of the living room and I need to get the new ordered and in before the cold weather sets in. After some lunch I went out to the greenhouse and potted up all the herbs I dug up yesterday, some will be for the relocation of the herb bed and some will be for sale next Spring. Back indoors and I had an hour sit down before making a couple of loaves of bread. I want to try and utilise the energy I am using as well as possible and so the bread making was timed to bake them while I am cooking the roast dinner and the crumble. I need to be more aware this winter, not having the Rayburn anymore is going to change how I have to do the cooking and drying the washing (yep the rain shower wasn’t helping today on that score) I don’t actually have to be energy efficient in terms of paying for it but I chose to do it for the sake of the planet, hopefully I am doing the right thing, it won’t always work but at least I am trying.
I put in an order at our local flour mill for different types of flour, plain, self raising and bread flour, that should arrive tomorrow and I also have a delivery of chicken, in various forms plus sausages and bacon from a farm arriving tomorrow as well. With all the problems around CO2 and now fuel John said ‘I think we should go shopping and stock up’ no we don’t need to do that I told him, we have enough here in one form or another to keep us going. I prefer to make sure we can manage with what we have rather than rely on the supply chains as they seem dodgy at the moment lol.
With that in mind I have been thinking ahead to Christmas, we are already being told there will be shortages, think laterally then, eat something different, it doesn’t have to be the same as every other year just because that’s what we usually do. I shall be checking over my stores etc and see what I can use as replacement ingredients for things like the Christmas pudding and mincemeat just in case we can’t find the usual ingredients, in fact I may not even look for the usual ingredients and use what I have which is the whole idea of a life of self sufficiency really.
Tuesday: Today I wanted to get the new project area planted up but I felt I needed to get the ‘must do’ jobs done first, that way I could enjoy the time doing what I wanted to get done. Mainly it was all the usual stuff and then some bill paying etc before finally getting outside to plant up. The area is in front of the dog kennels, they are no longer used and the plan was to take them down and build an arbour but as that is not an urgent job I can’t see it getting done anytime soon so I started growing things up the kennel instead 😜 The hop looked so lovely that I thought I would add some more bits to it and that’s when the plan formed. I had a big wooden box that my brother was getting rid of one day when we were visiting, I will have that please 😁 It’s been sat there a while but today I lined it all filled it with some well rotted manure and a few bags of compost and planted it up with a hydrangea I bought in the summer. Everything I used was something I already had, plants, box, manure, just the compost I bought to do the job. It looks good, the hydrangea is a bit lost at the minute but next year it should look brilliant if I do say so myself. I now have a wisteria, hop, climbing rose and a jasmine which will grow up and over the kennels, the hydrangea in the box along with some huechera and bronze grass, various pots with small trees in to give shade to the hydrangea in the afternoon and a pot of tulip bulbs which will add a lovely splash of colour come spring, I planted some small dahlias in the pot on top of the bulbs for now. I think I will move some pots of daffodils out there to at some point.
Next Spring this should all look lovely and colourful and a lot more full. A nice way to hide the dilapidated kennels 😁
Once I had finished that I had a quick sit down and then got on with other jobs. The beef we had yesterday was quite a good sized joint and I don’t want to waste any of it. I have used half of what is left, chopped it up and along with onion, swede, turnip, carrots and potatoes, added some beef stock, mustard powder, flour, black pepper, tomato purée, Pontack sauce, rosemary sprigs and a bay leaf and piled it into the slow cooker. Once it is cooked I will freeze it in portions for another day. I had a delivery of fresh, free to roam chicken in various forms, a couple of whole ones and then breast, thighs and diced plus some marinated strips as well as some pork chops, sausages and bacon. That all came from Blackwall Farm in Dorset, I sorted out what we would have for dinner later and got the rest sorted for the freezer. I am pretty much stocked for the next few months with everything really, I have flour coming form the local mill and I have 5kg of sugar delivered lol. Every time we go to the shop there is no sugar so I ordered some and will have to find a space to keep such a big bag.
I am not sure what I will do with the chicken thighs yet, I would have liked to make a korma with some but also don’t want to waste energy cooking two different meals as John won’t eat curry, maybe if I cook a big enough batch I can freeze some for another day 🤔
I did intend to go out and pick runner beans in the afternoon but the rain came in and didn’t really stop long enough to get out there, it is definitely turning towards autumn now, hopefully John will get the wall plastered tonight where he took the old radiator off and we can get the new electric one on, we might need it soon.
In the end I did decide to make a batch of curry, some for dinner tonight and some for freezing for another day. With Johns chicken I made a spring chicken pot lol, in autumn 🙄 It’s just basically chicken, potatoes and runner beans in veg gravy, I fried off onions and garlic then browned his chicken before taking it out with a few onions and then I added mine chopped along with tikka spices and a tin of tomatoes, smells good hopefully it will taste good. I think I have a garlic naan lurking in the freezer somewhere so I will have that instead of doing rice.
I do love the Autumn not just for the amazing colours but also because as the weather changes I love being in the kitchen cooking up lots of delicious dinners and treats, I was thinking I may even make a harvest loaf just because I can 🥰
And the rain has well and truly set in today 🌧 When that happens and I can’t go outside to get stuff done I generally browse online for ideas on many different things. Today’s ‘ooo I think I might have a go at that’ is homemade bouillon cubes, I have most of the ingredients already as I have made powered onion, garlic and mushroom, I have herbs I can dry and powder and I have paprika in the cupboard, the only thing I would need to buy is nutritional yeast flakes and voila I would have my own bouillon cubes which could be used in soups and stews etc or can be added to hot water for a tasty warm up drink in the winter, watch this space 😜 I am definitely a prepped at heart I think 😂 I was also looking to see if could make hazelnut flour, turns out you can 🤷♀️
Wednesday: A better day today, I did some picking, it’s getting fewer and further between now but there are still things to pick.
Thursday: Blood tests this morning so I got up and got on then out early to the docs, had my flu jab at the same time so that’s ticked off the list. John dropped me at the docs then went off to do a small job so I had a look round the charity shops and then had a coffee before he returned to pick me up. He is at home today and so has been plastering the wall that the old radiator came off, then drilling through the wall in order to get electric cable to where the new one will go, hopefully the electrician won’t take too long to come round 🙄 he then had to make good the floor and skirting and we will think about decorating in the new year, until then it will stay as it is . Meanwhile I pottered about tidying bits up and sorting the office area out but all the while being on hand as the labourer 😂 When he went off to get some more supplies I set about making some bouillon powder. I had all the dried herbs so thought I would give it a go, I just needed nutritional yeast flakes which arrived yesterday. Blended it all up and it’s now stored in a jar on the side for use whenever I need it. I tasted the powder and it tastes delicious so I think I will be drying more herbs and making bigger batches of that 🥰
Friday: Not a bad day, the sun was out but it was slightly colder than of late. I spent the morning in the greenhouse sorting out the chilli and pepper plants. A lot of them have all but finished now, still a few that are producing but in all honesty I don’t need any more than I have got stored and I only sell a tiny amount of them. Half of them I removed from the greenhouse, some have succumbed to whitefly and greenfly, half of them I have left in to finish off the fruits that are still growing. I moved all the trays and are moved the capillary matting as they don’t need constant damp now and besides I found an army of slugs and their eggs hiding under it 😜 I bought one of the ginger plants indoors to see if I can keep it going over winter so it has a good head start next year. The other one I will put in the poly tunnel and see what happens, it will depend on how cold the winter gets as to its survival. I have some seedlings growing in there which I need to pot on next week, some herbs, parsley, coriander and basil and also some winter lettuce which I need to plant up in the tunnel once it’s cleared of cucumbers and tomatoes. I also have some annuals already growing for next spring. Sam came over with the twins, Charlie popped in and then Shelley came with Flo, John was home as well so we had a houseful in the afternoon. 🥰
Saturday: Oh such a different day today lol, we knew it was coming 🙄 Before the rain broke through John cleaned out the ducks and geese and I did the quail, rabbit, light Sussex and turkeys, topping up all the pens and huts with fresh straw. Two reasons, one because as their minder you want them to be warm and comfy 😜 two because it will make the eggs less muddy in all this rain. I put a load of straw in the tortoise hut and placed them inside, they have been digging into the ground so are definitely getting ready to hibernate. Then I got the hop up and the apple picker and went out to pick the remaining apples from the cooking apple tree. To be honest I didn’t think there were many but in the end I got two bucketfuls so I am happy with that this year. Into the kitchen then where I chopped up a butternut squash and made some soup for lunch and I made a big batch of mincemeat ready to jar up and store for December when I will begin making mince pies 😁 John grouted the tiles in the living room, the electric radiator is now in place and the area round it made good just need an electrician to put a socket in. Apart from the necessary jobs of afternoon feeding and egg collecting I doubt very much we will do anything for the rest of the afternoon, just sit and relax I think.
Sunday: Not too shabby today although it feels colder, still some sunshine in the showers though. John was up early enough, surprising really as he went out last night for a pre wedding drink with the lads and had much more than one too many sherberts 🤣 While he was doing that I made bread, an apple pie and prepped for a roast later. That seemed to take me a lot of the morning as I can’t think I did much else other than peeling and mixing 🤪 Mid afternoon a chap called in to drop some honey off, the honey we had been selling has now finished but he is just down the road and had supplies and so we struck up a deal and now have more honey in the egg shed to sell 🥰
Home made mincemeat batch, 8lb and most of it will be gone by new year 😂
Sunday afternoon: thought I would just add this in as I did do a bit in the afternoon, I hadn’t intended to but John said it was going to rain and be really windy 🙄 I thought, in that case I had better do a bit of picking while it was sunny and dry and then anything spoilable will be saved. I picked butternut squash as all the foliage has now died back, some are very small but they will still feed us and so I won’t waste them. I picked the rest of the sweetcorn, some dwarf beans, swede, courgettes, tomatoes and then I dug up a bed of potatoes as that foliage has died back to. I then had a look on my weather app to see exactly when the rain was coming, no sign of it at all on my app, I said to John it doesn’t say anything about rain, oh I thought I heard it he said, note to self, check facts don’t just rely on Johns say so 😂 I had been very relaxed and for a change my hands were nice and clean until then!
Monday 20th September 2021: So I have been very busy sorting out everything I picked yesterday 😂 I have sorted out the squash for storing and out some out for sale, put the potatoes in a sack for storing but we will probably start using them soon as the last lot have nearly run out. I have made up soup bags, one general mixed bag and one specific squash soup bag, a bag of veg for for stews with the turnips, swede, potato and carrots. Cooked the sweetcorn and vacuum packed that (had some for my lunch as well) cooked beetroot and poached some pears in honey and vanilla extract, they will be for dessert tonight. I have sorted out courgettes, cucumbers, runner beans and tomatoes to go out for sale and bagged some up for the girls.
Late afternoon I started watering the front beds as they are looking very dry and the plants are a little stressed, John came home and made a cuppa then went out to feed the birds and that’s when we got a bit of a surprise 😲 About three weeks ago the light Sussex hen that was out with the front lot disappeared, well she reappeared today with three little chicks 😂 I have never had that happen before, it’s late in the year and we have no chick crumb for them, I am just going to leave them to it and hope they survive, they should do with her to forage for them.
Tuesday: First thing this morning I got my apple catcher and picked a bucketful of cooking apples. They are not the best this year but last year we had none so I am not complaining. I spent most of the rest of the day weeding the front beds, deadheading dahlias and clearing bits of dead foliage so that the beds keep looking good for as long as possible. After a rest in the afternoon (feeling tired at the minute) I then went out and watered the front beds, I had a bit of a situation when I couldn’t turn the tap off 🙄 It had happened before and John says I turn it on too far but I only use it the same as all the other taps, for some reason this one gets stuck. I was afraid to use too much force in case it snapped off 😂 eventually I managed to move it and get it shut off but I will have to be careful I future, don’t want that happening too often. I got the dinner cooked and then once we had eaten and had a cuppa we went out to round up the mother hen and her chicks. Yesterday she let us pick her up and move her but today she just flew straight at me, we mated to get her herded towards the hut but had to pick up one with a dodgy leg as it couldn’t keep up. John went off to put the rest of the birds to bed and I picked the rest of the pears from the tree, a couple more apples and some sweetcorn I had missed on Monday. That’s today done and I am looking forward to a restful evening.
Wednesday: Autumn Equinox, Mabon, the part of the year when the wheel moves towards the Winter Solstice, harvesting, reflecting, giving thanks for the last year and giving hope for the year ahead.
I had a plan for today, I was going to pot up various plants but plans often change which is exactly what happened today. I had about 1kg of runner beans I had picked the other day and sales are slow at the gate. In order not to waste them I decided to make runner bean chutney, it’s always quite popular with family. I chopped everything and then mixed it all up and got it on the go, while I am in the kitchen I might as well do other things so I made batches of crumble mix for the freezer, an apple crumble for dessert tonight and some tomato, garlic, onion and basil sauce which I will use for spag Bol etc. Then I made a fruit cake as I had some open flour that really needed using up, it doesn’t sound like a lot but it took all the morning to make it and clear up afterwards lol. In the afternoon Shelley and Flo came round and we went up to the back paddocks to pick blackberries, lovely to be able to pick them from our own land. I had a sit down in the afternoon before hoovering round and getting the dinner sorted and a plethora of other little jobs including feeding and watering the Guineas and rabbit. The torts are still out because it’s still warm enough, they are active and feeding, no sign of them winding down yet. When they do they will go into the greenhouse for a few weeks before taking themselves off to bed for the winter, initially they will eat but it will be less and less as time goes on, they can’t go to sleep with food inside them, that would kill them.
I am having a go at making some cider vinegar with the apple peelings from the crumble, takes a couple of months but if it works I will have around 2L of it 😁
The moon tonight is amazing, I tried taking photos but they were rubbish 😂 it is a massive orange ball in the dark sky, just beautiful and very fitting for the equinox 🥰
Thursday: It’s been a long and busy day today, mostly I have been potting up plants, plants that have self seeded, plants that are not doing well where they are and plants that have needed potting on for a while. It’s a good time of year to move things, not too cold yet and still a bit of growing time to get established. I dug up a lot of the strawberry plants which have been put out for free, someone came to pick up the mint I dug up, I had the twins while Mia went for swimming lessons, then picked some more elderberries for someone, had our dinner, picked up some live plants (delphiniums for cut flowers) that had been delivered wrongly, unpacked them and watered them, sorted out produce I had picked to go in the shed, did the eggs, fed the cats, did a bit of star gazing before finally sitting down at 8pm. Pooped but had a good day and tomorrow we are off to Malvern Autumn show, the tickets were transferred after the Good Life show was cancelled back in summer so I am looking forward to a day out with plants 🥰 Pretty sure I did a lot more but can’t for the life of me think what and there always seems like soo much more to do 🙄
Friday: Road trip 😁 We went to Malvern Autumn show, the weather was lovely (a bit too hot really but I factor 50’d everywhere) plenty to see, do and admire plus lots of plants and bulbs to be purchased, I obliged naturally 😂 When we arrived home we had a cuppa and then I got on with planting some of my purchases. I watered the front beds again, I think it’s a few weeks since we had any decent rainfall 🙄 I then got started on another little planting project I have in mind in the front. The dog kennels are looking old and tired, we don’t use them for dogs anymore but they will make an excellent framework for climbing plants. At the moment I have a hop, and climbing rose and the wisteria slowly covering it, the hop looks lovely there, but I have a jasmine I want to use as well and a hydrangea that needs to be a statement piece, so I have been trying to put it all together this evening before it got dark. It is just sat in situ until I can get it all planted up but I think it will look good 😊 John did the animals and collected the eggs, the little chick that had a dodgy leg didn’t make it 😕 To be honest I didn’t think it would but there is always hope.
Giant veg 🙄
It’s 10pm and John has gone to get fuel if he can, he needs some in the van for work but the panic buying has been ridiculous, queues everywhere and garages selling out. It would be rough justice if someone who had panic bought rang up Monday because they needed him but he couldn’t get there because he had no fuel lol.
Ooops it’s Monday and I totally forgot to publish this yesterday 🤪 Saturday morning I had to get a few things done including moving the electric fencing for the horses and then over to Sams to look after the kiddies, I was then away until Sunday afternoon. Later after a bit of a nap I dug up potatoes, these were from the straw method I was trying out. I didn’t have a big haul but it was ok and it was easy to pick them, considering I didn’t think it would work at all I would notch it up as a success 😁 I also dug up quite a few herbs, before it got dark, from the section I am moving, I will aim to pot them up tomorrow.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 