Monday 21st November 2023: What a soggy miserable day it was today, rain from dawn to dusk and beyond. I was not about to go outside and do anything in that sort of weather so I busied myself indoors for the morning, finding any little job that needed doing. Charlotte came over at lunchtime, we had some soup and then I went with her while she did her weekly shop, me pushing Oscar and Charlie pushing the trolley. I did get a diary and a calendar for next year while I was there, it has got to that time of year when dates need writing down.
Tuesday: A better day today, dry, sunny but cold. I spent most of the day cutting various foliage including rose hips which all had to be de thorned 😂 I am hoping that there will be enough diversity to appeal to everyone and that individual personality will shine through in each wreath made 🥰
Wednesday: Another filthy day 😂 honestly torrential downpours, hail, wind, yuk. Consequently I did not do much outside 🤪 sod that for a game of soldiers, I spent my time indoors cleaning and finding indoor jobs to get on with. I am aware that the year is passing buy so quickly and I have got plenty to do outdoors but I also reason with myself that a lot of it can wait until spring. There is nothing wrong with leaving all the dead stuff standing in situ in fact it is more beneficial to the wildlife that way. There will be plenty of insects overwintering in dead foliage and they are best left undisturbed. It is also better for the soil structure if it has partial covering, cleared ground gets pounded, compacts and then you get run off and leaching of nutrients all the more reason to wait. Besides I have plenty of other jobs to get sorted now we are fast approaching December with all the usual festive food to think about plus gift shopping.
Thursday: First thing this morning I spent an hour talking to myself 🤪 there was a good reason and I am not going mad. It was time to get sorted and ready to teach the wreath workshops tomorrow so I spent an hour talking to myself as a result 😂 I missed up and mad up one wreath just to practise what I was going to say, then I spent the next hour cleaning up the pool room and sorting out as John would be using the table tonight. I had the twins after school and then dashed off for some Bowen therapy early evening. It was a good session with plenty worked on and it tired me out so I spent the evening on the sofa relaxing.
One thing I have been doing is looking up as much as I can about operation Grapple. These were nuclear tests done out in Christmas Islands during the latter half of the 1950’s, the reason I am interested is because my Dad was there serving in the Royal Navy at the time. The powers that be have now decided to recognise these veterans with a medal (Dads will be posthumous) I have applied for his service records and hopefully they will be found, they will be an interesting read. It’s is pretty shocking stuff to be honest, Dad went into national service and would have been 17/18 going on an adventure of a lifetime. It was an adventure and he loved it but I can’t help thinking that they were inadequately dressed and exposed to massive amounts of radiation 😔 Dad was one of the lucky ones and never had any illness resulting from his time there but thousands of servicemen did and many of their offspring too. It is also sad that it has taken this long to recognise their service at that time and that many of them are no longer here to personally receive that recognition. Does not matter if you agree with Nuclear testing or not those service personal had no choice but to do as they were ordered. They were allowed to take personal photos and I have seen the ones Dad took though he always told us that because he had signed the official secrets act they were to remain unseen by others. There are some there where the only clothes they have on are shirts and t shirts 😳 and the protective clothing would be laughed out of the storeroom these days. It is what it is and they did what they did and I am glad they are finally recognising it but did it have to take so long?
Friday: The sun is shining thank goodness, we have had some horrendous downpours, that’s all we get these days, torrential or nothing 🤪 I have been busy this morning preparing everything for the first wreath workshop tonight 🥰 I am looking forward to it, the mince pies are cooked, the mulled wine is ready to go, the foliage is all waiting to be used, the Christmas song playlist is good to go, bring on the fun and creativity.
One thing I have been mulling over was a post on social media whereby someone was looking for a ‘ reasonably priced’ wreath workshop. These things always start me thinking about how detached people are from the real cost of things, we are so used to cheap goods that we fail to see the value in anything worthy. Behind each workshop there is a lot of work that goes on, a lot of organising and there are costs. Most people doing workshops have already invested in learning how to make a wreath many years before then there are costs like insurance, heating, lighting, renting a space if you don’t have one. The cost of sundry materials such as wire, frames, fir cones, ribbon, feathers, dried oranges, moss and foliage or the time it takes to gather moss and foliage and in my case to cut and weave the willow frames. Then there is the setting up, the teaching and the clearing away. I am not sure that people fully understand what is involved but it’s not just a bit of greenery on a frame 😬 And besides once you have done a workshop you have the skill for life 🥰
In the evening I had the first of three wreath evening workshops and I can honestly say I really enjoyed it, I was a bit nervous at first but once into my stride I loved it. It was great to see people having never done one before produce something very worthy of hanging on the door during advent 😁
Saturday: I had round two of workshops in the evening but I mostly spent the day making wreaths and tidying up, collecting more greenery etc, it’s surprising how much it uses 😂 Saturday nights participants also went away with fabulous wreaths.
Sunday: Slightly tired today but once we had done all the morning jobs it was time to go and get my eyes tested. New glasses for me as my eyesight has deteriorated a little in two years which I was aware of. Then we called into my brothers for coffee, they happened to have breakfast on the go so we had a bacon roll as well😁 I had called in to cut some foliage from their garden and once we had cut that it was back home. My feet were soaking wet, I should have taken my wellies but didn’t think about it so although there were plenty of Christmas fayres on today I couldn’t go anywhere else really as I wanted to get back and get dry feet again. I had a restful afternoon as I was feeling pretty tired, I need to conserve energy for the rest of the week.
John has been busy over the weekend cleaning out the birds in various stages, we are only a couple of weeks in and already it feels like it has been going on for ages, poor birds 😔
Monday 22nd November: The temperatures have dropped to normal levels now and so I think our run of mild weather is gone for good. I don’t mind a cold dry winter it is much better than a mild wet one 🙄 Even though it is colder the sun was out shining away and eventually it warmed the ground up enough to get rid of the frost, I had already decided I was going to be doing a bit outside and the sun was an added bonus. Bearing in mind it has got colder I filled up a tonne bag with straw and took it to the orchard where I used it for the Guineas, rabbit, quail, lovely gut Sussex and the turkeys. All the pens and huts are now filled with a good amount of straw for them to burrow into if they need it. I also filled up all the wild birds feeders so that they have plenty to keep them going on a frosty morning.
After that it was on to the big job of the day, planting all the tulip bulbs as well as some giant alliums. I think there were about 450 tulips bulbs if my memory serves me correctly, they have all now been planted in various places and should look splendid come the spring. Some of them I used to plant up some pots that will go out for sale next spring, most of them went into the raised flower bed in front of the house, a sprinkling of them went into various other pots and then a good amount went into one of the raised beds in the veg garden. Those ones will be specifically for cut flowers and once they have been cut the bulbs will be discarded. This is what happens in the industry, once the flower is cut it can’t send goodness back to the bulb, normally you would allow the foliage to die back so that the bulb can get a good recovery ready for the next year, but picking or cutting the flower means that doesn’t happen and so the bulbs are discarded. This means that once all the tulips have been picked I can clear the bed out and use it for veg later. The pots of tulips I have had to put under a metal run that we use for chickens sometimes, this is to protect the, from all and sundry, chickens from digging in the pots, squirrels from hiding nuts in the pots and this disturbing the bulbs, I know foxes will dig up bulbs, not sure if they eat them or just dig to see what else is under there. Best to try and protect them as much as possible otherwise all the work ends up being for nothing. I still have a small box of gladioli bulbs to plant as well, I need to decide where they will go. I had to books I ordered arrive today, ‘the flower farmers year’ and a flower arranging book, plenty to read and I will probably find I have already done something wrong but I had to put the bulbs in before the book arrived and certainly before I had chance to read it through.
I did notice that although the garlic I planted is coming up but that the same cannot be said for the onions, something has been pulling them out so I have now covered them with environmesh to give any remaining ones a bit of a chance. I also can’t see any sign of the broad beans I sowed, I am thinking that the mice may have got them, I really should have sown them in pots first and then planted them out 🙄
We had a rich beef stew in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and an apple and blackberry crumble, definitely getting into comfort food season now. The Christmas pudding has been boiling away on the hob for two hours, it has another two hours to go before allowing it to cool and then store it ready for its main event on Christmas Day. I also got a soup veg bag out of the freezer this morning and made a batch of soup, should be enough for the next couple of days and a welcome warm lunch on cold days. I think soup is the best thing during the winter months, full of goodness and it warms you right through to the core 🥰
Tuesday: Early morning appointment for blood tests this morning so I was up and at it as soon as the alarm went off. I had I intended to come back home and get on with some things but Shelley suggested a trip into town and so that’s where we went. We had a lovely morning mooching around and getting a few Christmas presents sorted, plus a coffee stop which is always a pleasure. We stopped to collect Flo from nursery on our way back and I spotted some amazing looking ginkgo biloba leaves, when I started gathering them up they made the most beautiful and natural pompom 🥰 The leaf collecter lorry arrived shortly after so we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time 😁
Nature is a wonderful thing 😍
Once back home I got on with sorting out dinner for the evening and then a bit of card making u til it was time to do the afternoon rounds. The day finishes early at this time out year (outside at any rate) by around 4.30 it is starting to get dark. I decided the dark evenings are a blessing and they give me time to make things and so this evening I made a dried flower wreath. The wreath is from last Christmas, I leave it to dry all year and you end up with a lovely dried moss ring perfect for adding dried flowers that I picked in the summer months and hung to dry.
I seem to have lost a couple of days in between lol, suffice to say that I didn’t do much outside stuff mainly inside. I have been filling any gaps in the walls of the pantry and my sister came over with a drawing she has done of how it will look when it’s done. I need to give the walls a miss coat of paint, just enough to take the blockiness out of the ply walls and make it look rustic.
I think it was Wednesday that the APHA announced that poultry must all be housed and bio security measures put in place from Monday, here we go again. To be fair we were expecting it as we do nearly every year now, one of the reasons it hardly seems worth continuing with poultry 🙄 Hardly good for them when they have to spend months locked away, let’s hope it’s only them this year and not us again.
Thursday: My plan was to paint the pantry but first I wanted to get some cleaning done, the low sun at this time of year drives me nuts as it shows up all the dust 😂 After lunch Shelley, Flo, Sam, Lucie and George called in after their morning at soft play. Later that afternoon Sam was back with all the kiddies including Mia and the twins stayed here while Mia went for her swimming lesson.
Jack (horse) is lame 😒 no apparent cause at the minute, no cuts or heat in his leg, it’s possible he has knocked it or kicked it himself. He will be monitored for a couple of days to see how he goes, no point bringing him in as he will just kick the stable door and that won’t do his leg any good as it is one of his front ones. He is bearing some weight on it but clearly has an issue, I cut him some fresh willow to see if that helps at all, he is better off to continue moving at this stage we think.
Friday: I still haven’t got the pantry painted and I had no intention of doing it today either, it’s blooming cold out there so I would rather be inside doing something else 😜 Mostly that consists of making Christmas cards etc, trying out new ideas, making bread and cooking. The weather took a dive at lunchtime, windy, rainy, cold, not nice today at all, I was not looking forward to going out and doing the rounds late afternoon. In a couple more days that will not be an issue as they will all be penned up in the stable block so I will only have to nip across the hard standing.
John has just phoned to say he is in the queue for a booster vaccination at a walk in clinic, that means I will probably have to go outside again to shut everything away for the night 🥶
Josh and Flo are coming to tea tonight and staying over, it’s been a long time since they have stayed at Nanas, before the pandemic they would regularly come and stay and then everything went sideways and we have never really quite got back on track with sleepovers 😏 Spaghetti Bolognese and a jam sponge pudding for dessert is on the menu.
You may wonder (or you may not) how I am getting on without the Rayburn, well I have a lot more time to do the things I like doing and I thought I would miss the heat but I don’t. The only thing I really miss is being able to dry the washing each night but it’s a small price to pay compared to the amount of work it took all year to run and maintain it.
Saturday: Oh my days what a night 🙄 gale force winds were roaring and kept me and plenty of other people awake half the night,seriously strong gusts at times, scary stuff but no damage though as I write this Saturday evening the winds have not actually stopped all day and are still pretty fierce. Add to that snow, yes bloody snow and it was not at all nice out there, the wind was bitingly cold. I had to go out and top up the horses water and also give them some hay, on the way back I made up the stables in case the snow didn’t clear and I had to bring them in. John went off to get feed once he had done the morning rounds and then in the afternoon he reluctantly went out to fasten down some of the roof that had come loose from constant buffering. At 4pm shelley came over with Martin and the kids and we walked up to the farm next door where they were having the Christmas craft Fayre ooosh the wind was strong and cold but it all added to the adventure, we met Mum up there, had hot chocolates and mulled wine, bought some raffle tickets and then walked home again. I will be glad when I don’t have to go outside anymore tonight 🥶
This is my pantry which at the moment is a blank canvass but it will look super and be a great place to store all my produce and things. Beautiful but could do without it lol
Sunday: It started off as a normal enough day, we did the animals, Sam and Mia came over to check the horses and rug up Jack. We had a discussion about where and when we will move them next but at the minute they are staying as they are. We went to the farm shop to get some bales of sawdust ready to shut the birds away and then we went out. Basically I dragged John round a couple of garden centres and a Christmas craft Fayre. I am doing well buying locally made gifts for the girls, I can’t really do it for the grandchildren but whenever I can I try and buy local. We bumped into Charlie and Macca at one of the centres so we stopped and had coffee and cake with them. Up to that point things were grand 🤪 We got home, unloaded and then the power went 🙄 I spent too much bloody time trying to get through to the power company, they are very busy due to the storm we had and so basically send you round and round in circles trying to report the outage and find out any info about when it would be back on. We had the big job of moving all the birds to do so we got togged up and went out to get that started. We put in clean bedding, blocked up any escape holes, put in water, feed, dust baths, perches and grit bowls as well as making nice little nest box areas. We also moved the ducks this time, they have gone into the point of lay pen, obviously they don’t roost so I made a little sleeping/egg laying area out of hay bales and straw for them. By this time it is starting to get dark and we have no lights 😂 we got the geese back up into the back paddock where they will stay for the duration and we herded the ducks from their current abode to their new des res. Then it was time to move all the hens, some of them had already been living in the stable block so they were easy enough. A few stragglers in the side paddock had gone to their usual hit and so we gathered those up a d put them in with the others. Then onto the big hut in the front paddock, we filled the first two poultry crates and took them to the stable, when we came out the lights were back on in the house yippee 🙌 We collected the last two poultry crates of birds and put those in the stable and finally we were done. It’s a pain having to shut the birds away for what is likely to be a few months but it’s what we have to do. On the flip side it makes them all easier to look after and of course they won’t get eaten by the fox plus we shall be able to find all the eggs. I have given them some extra treats, sunflower seeds and dried seaweed and I have used diatomaceous Earth in their feed as a wormer and in their bedding and dust bath, it’s like a five star poultry hotel 😂 Once that was done it was time to come in and get that cup of tea we had been looking forward to when we came home earlier in the day.
Monday 14th December 2020: Good morning everyone, did you spot my error on last weeks blog? I forgot to finish the title off and just left it hanging so apologies for that 😝
Not a bad start to the day early on, John was off today (kind of) and we had one particular job to get done and that was the office. So I did the morning rounds while he went off with his cutting list to the local merchant, when he got back we set about altering the desk we had already (a big heavy double ended desk) to fit the nook we intended it to go in. Then got all the panels in place, they had to all come back out because something wasn’t square 🙄 I left him to it while I went with Samantha to help her do her weekly shop, this is harder than you think and had both the checkout lady and I in fits of laughter. Firstly going shopping with one toddler is enough but with two in a trolley the isles become obstacle courses, you have to stay in the middle of the isle otherwise arms from each side grab at goods on the shelf. Once the trolley begins to fill up their interest turns from the shelves to the trolley and what they can reach, my job was to try and keep them entertained (distracted basically) by the time Sam is packing the shopping away and trying to pay they have turned around just enough to start pulling things out of the bags, crisps, bag of peppers etc and throwing on the floor, by the time I had picked up one lot the other had grabbed something and thrown that on the floor, you wouldn’t believe that the seemingly quick job of paying at the checkout is long enough for mayhem to ensue, still, Sam said, at least this week there were no little nibble marks on the courgettes 🤣🤣
New desk area which will be much tidier and give more space in the rest of the room for activities, either mine or the grandchildren’s 😂
Sam dropped me back home and John had got the panels in and the desk fitted and levelled up, he had also lit the Rayburn. He measured up for the shelves, wrote down his second cutting list and went off and that was the last I saw of him until 4pm, oh I just had to do a little job for Martin while I was out he said but the good news is I have the shelves in the van. Bloody good job as I don’t want this dragging on over days with the contents of the office still in the living room.
Once he got back I put the dinner on and fed the cats and dogs, he shut the birds away and we got on with fitting the shelves, I must say I am very pleased with how it has turned out. What is done at the minute is for the interim and we will get to doing it properly after Christmas, for the time being we have a room that two travel cots will now fit in plus any other equipment that they need 😀
Tuesday: It’s 9.30 I have already done over 5000 steps and had a busy morning. The weather is sunny and feels mild, wet under foot I heard torrential rain a couple of times overnight consequently the mud is getting muddier 😏 The farrier came first thing this morning and so before I did any of the the usual rounds I got the horses in and hosed off their legs and feet, fed them and gave them some hay to keep them occupied. They are a bit like having twins, one won’t come in making life harder, then while they are tied up ready they poop in succession one after the other multiple times so I am constantly going backwards and forwards with a poop scoop clearing up. The farrier was going to be ten minutes late so I started on the birds, feeding, cleaning water buckets etc, once the farrier was there I carried on and did the rest of the jobs. Once he had finished it was time to turn the horses back out and clear up the debris from a hoof trim and hay spread everywhere. Then to clean the duck eggs, take out the rubbish, take some stuff from the office to the skip and finally get a cup of coffee. Now my aim is to get the rest of the stuff in the office sorted and that will be the end of that until after Christmas. John has gone to work today (supposed to have finished work for Christmas 🙄) Actually I think I will have a bowl of porridge before starting the next job 😀
So I spent a large part of the middle of the day sorting stuff out in the office, bear in mind that we don’t have a loft and so the usual loft occupants are stored in the office. I have tried to be ruthless and throw stuff out really I have but you can’t throw away old photos and bits of memories can you? I got sidetracked looking through one box of old stuff that I had forgotten was there, I started to look through it piece by piece then thought ooops I had better box it for looking at another day and get on. Then there are the toys, well all Nanas have toys for the grandchildren, and books, many of which were the girls when they were little. I need to work out where and how to put them, books and small part toys up out of the reach of the twiglets 🙄 toddler toys within their reach so they can play, it’s not as easy as it sounds accommodating everything in a 12 x 12ft room 😏 Then it is also the room we keep the hoover and the steam mop, I considered buying a cordless job that hangs on the wall but after getting opinions from family it seems they are not strong on suction. I am sure I will get it all sorted eventually and some of it is fairly temporary, the kids will eventually grow out of the toys and prefer to watch the tv 😂
I did some hoovering once I finally got everything out of the living room then sat down for lunch, when I moved the remote control the telly came on by accident and a film was just starting so I watched that 😜 Then time to light the Rayburn and feed the animals, collect the eggs, John came home, measured up for some timber for the ceiling went off to get that, I shut the animals away as it got dark and bam that’s another day over but this evening we are not doing any work just going to relax, after I have fed the cats, dogs, got the dinner then washed up of course 🙄
Wednesday: Today’s plan was to go Christmas shopping in Witney but first thing Johns phone rang and someone had water all over the bathroom floor and so he puts on his magic plumber cape and went off to the rescue. Marvellous that leaves me doing the rounds stomping round slightly pissed off, never a good start to the day 😜 He returned about 45 mins later and we set off shopping, it was a grey, drizzly morning that got slowly worse, a tad cold to boot. We walked round and noted how many of the shops had closed their doors for good and then at lunchtime stopped at a pub for something to eat. Fearing that we may have had to book in advance and that there may not be any spaces we tentatively went in to find out. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather as the place was practically empty, this is a big pub that is normally very busy and it was practically dead, it really hit home then how bad things are for local shops and hospitality businesses it was a very sad realisation 😢 We have not been to town since before the first lockdown and in fact we hardly go anywhere when I think about it, the upside was a couple of new boutique shops have opened and the food at the pub was excellent and the staff upbeat, John had his first pint for more than six months and he commented that it tastes just how he remembered, what times we live in 😏
Back home and we lit the Rayburn sat down and John promptly fell asleep, that’s what having a pint at lunchtime does 😂
To be honest it does not feel very much like Christmas is approaching 🙄 I guess it is up to us to get into the spirit, a Christmas film or two or three is in order I think and then of course I need to get my tree up and now I have the space I can get on with it.
Thursday: It’s a Misty morning but still mild and it supposed to stay dry so that’s good. I am on my own again today as John has to work (he was supposed to have finished now 🙄) I know it’s paid the bills all these years but at times I hate being the plumbers wife as you always come at the bottom of the list! Not that I really need him at home I have plenty to do that he will only get in the way of 😂 I am sat writing this little bit first thing as I have a bad lower back and waiting for the painkillers to kick in before I go and start the rounds, it started at the weekend and has got slowly worse but there is no chance of resting it today and hopefully moving around will help it get better, we shall see 🤷♀️
I am getting nowhere fast, I have plenty to do but as I decide what to do next there is always something else that needs doing first before I can commence 😜 I want to get the decorations up but John has the timber for the ceiling joists and I know that if I put stuff up and he then carries them through the house something is going to get broken or knocked over so I will wait. I have stuff to wrap but again I am waiting for the office to be cleared of diy debris to put stuff in there 🙄 hopefully tomorrow the ceiling timbers will go in and then I can start to get sorted in earnest. I like to time Christmas, I don’t like it to peak too early but I also don’t like to be rushing around at the last minute, maybe I will make some lists as at the minute as per usual it’s all tumbling around in my head. I have some linen napkins but for the life of me I have no idea where they are, all I know is that they are here somewhere and I will find them eventually, I need to figure out how the Christmas table will look this year, I have ordered something to make a different centrepiece but at the minute that’s as far as I have got, I am sure it will all come together in the end.
I did write lists, Christmas dinner lists, Boxing Day food lists, to do lists and then I managed to get a click and collect slot for food shopping so I have done that and now feeling a little less panicked the only other things I will need to get are those with a short shelf life such as fresh fruit for the trifle 😀 oh and I found the napkins so I can think about the table layout, always an important feature in our house, if you are going to have a mid winter feast you want to make it special rather than just a Sunday roast with crackers 😂
Unbelievably I was looking for a reference to something in my old blogs and more precisely this time last year, reading through it the similarities are uncanny, it appears that this time last year I had the entire contents of the boot room in my kitchen while John was laying the floor AND I was having more frequent blood tests because my white cells had dropped, I didn’t find the thing I was looking for but it was weird 😝
Friday: John is off again today and the plane is to get the ceiling timbers in and then the numerous wires for all the technological paraphernalia up over the timbers out of the way of small people 😜 He got on with that while I went out and did the morning feeding rounds, I also cleaned out the light Sussex pen and put new bedding in for the ducks and some of the hens in the stable. I noticed that something had been trying to dig I round the back of the stable and made quite a big hole, big enough for a hen to get through. I went round the back and could smell fox and they have tried to dig in there before, we had covered the ground with wire and heavy stones but for some reason this bit was not done so I spent my time doing that, as always your defences are only as good as the weakest part of them and they soon get exposed. Did that came I had coffee fed the dogs and the cats and helped John to get one of the cables through the wall to the tv area, I was hoping he would not touch any cable until I came back in but nope there were some of them unplugged which is all very well but John does not do technology and has no idea where they all plug back into! Quickly tidy up and hoover the room, put things away again and off to get my blood tests done. My house is like a Rubic cube I was thinking, you have to move one bit before another can be put in p,ace and there is a lot of fiddling around to get it right 😜 At least now I can get the tree up tonight and start wrapping presents etc.
And finally I can get the tree up and the Christmas decorations out 😀
Saturday: Another busy day moving bits of the rubic cube around 😂 but first we did the morning rounds and then John got on with tidying up the back area, putting stuff away, burning rubbish as well as popping out to get some dog food and a few shopping essentials, his not mine as it included chocolate biscuits 🙄 Meanwhile I got the office into a little bit more order so that I could do some last bits of paperwork before Christmas and then I could sort the spare room and the kitchen table and finally I am all sorted for the time being.
I did a little furniture hack that I am pretty pleased with, I wanted a small side table next to a chair in the office but it needed to be pretty stable as the kids will use it as a playroom. So I bought a waste paper basket and a small round tray, turned the basket upside down and stuck the tray on, now I have a lovely little table that looks high end, I think it’s a winner and it will certainly do the job.
Corona Virus, it hasn’t gone away in fact it has mutated and the new variant is spreading faster than ever 😏 We are waiting for an update form the Prime Minister to see what tougher measures will be put in place. As it stands at the minute we can have three households together for Christmas and most people have made their plans around that criteria including us. Breaking news: The update means that we can now only spend Christmas Day with the other people 😏 when will this shit be over 😢 Luckily John had already decided not to work in January so he will be off which is just as well I think, I can see more lockdowns on the horizon.
Sunday: Started off pretty well, we did the morning rounds and then decided to go to the garden centre where they have 50% off the Christmas decorations and I had seen a few that I wanted to get. We mooched about and then John decided that he fancied breakfast, they had almost finished serving it but we got in just in time. Did a few other bits and returned home, I checked the egg shed as usual, delivery from Amazon in there but the rest of it looked bare, the bloody honesty box was gone! Some low life scum had nicked it, ripped it clean off the base it was screwed to, gone, box, padlock and the money inside 🤬 luckily it was only this mornings egg money so amounted to just over a tenner but that’s not the point, we now have no box for anyone to put the money into until we get something sorted again. I sincerely hope Karma pays them a visit, puts you on edge as it is rare that both John and I are not here at the same time, I’d like to think it was just a chancer and not someone watching the place 😏
On that note I am going to sign out for this week and indeed for the rest of this year, so I will wish you all a very merry Christmas, hope you all stay safe and I will be back in 2021. I will leave you with a picture of something nice I found in the egg shed this week, we do have lovely customers.
Monday 16th December 2019: I feel that this blog deserves a full date as it will be the last one for this year. I was going to do a round of pictures and I will if I can but the upload times are probably going to be very long so I may abandon it 😜
Yesterday I made the cranberry sauce and today I did a quick blog post with because I figured if I left it until next Sunday it might be a bit late if anyone wanted to give it a go.
Friday was supposed to be Johns last day but obviously there were things to organise which ate into the working week so he has had to go today and then hopefully that’s it until early January. Meanwhile after having the weekend off from doing the daily outside routine it was back to me doing it today. The turkeys have been confined to quarters after they were out on the lane yesterday when we came back from a bit of shopping 🙄 I am worried that they might ‘disappear’ at this time of year, rural crimes of this sort have sharply increased over the last couple of years and I don’t want them to be a statistic, besides, one of them will be our Christmas dinner, though I admit I have had difficulty thinking about that particular deed!
Do you believe in coincidence or fate 🙄 I just had the most timely encounter with a chap who knocked on my door looking for something that I didn’t happen to have BUT he had something that I need at this particular time, knowledge. It turns out that he is visiting from New Zealand and back there he had been a butcher for 40 years so not wishing to pass up an opportunity I asked him about doing the Turkey. I had been in discussions online about when to do it because it seems that you hang turkeys like you do for game or red meat and I was really dubious about the process, anyway he gave me the answers I had been looking for and some great tips for other birds including surplus male quail. I know it may sound mad but I can’t help smiling from ear to ear thinking ‘oh my days how timely was that’ 😀
Tuesday: A mixed bag of a day starting with the rounds, then a hour or so with the Chaplin discussing the arrangements for the funeral, then into Witney to get a few bits of Christmas shopping, back home get the Rayburn lit, I made a batch of mince pies and I just had a discussion with John and neither of us can remember what else we did!
Wednesday: Another mixed day but most of it on the farm. Straight after breakfast I gave the quail cage a proper clean out and checked the horses. Then we had Florence for an hour after that we went out and John dug the holes for the two apple trees while I collected up the stakes and ties plus some mycorrhizal granules and some well rotted manure to put in the hole and give the trees a good start. We decided in the end to plant the trees in the small back paddock, the front paddock would ah e been nice but the ground there is not very good as it is where the MOD buildings used to be and the top soil is non existent and there are foundations all over the place. The small back paddock already has a plum tree and beam let apple tree and a chestnut so now with two more apple trees we have the beginnings of a mini food farm 😀 Trees planted and back filled I left John to put wood chip around the base to mulch and put up pallets around them so that nothing has a nibble of them. Fingers crossed they will take and do well, while he was doing that I went inside and got the Rayburn lit. Once it was going and bedded down it was time to do the deed of the year, now I’m not gonna lie I was not looking forward to doing this and all it would have taken was for John to waiver as well and we would be eating beef or lamb on Christmas Day. John reminded me though that this is what we had got them for and so it was off to the turkey pen to select the roast 🙄 I pulled up my big girl pants and we got on and did the job in hand, it went very well, it was a very quick, clean dispatch and I was happy with that. Then I spent the next hour plucking it before it will be left to hang overnight, I think I made an error in cutting the head off to let it bleed out, it should have been left on to hang for a week and now I’m thinking I will have to dress it and put it in the fridge rather than hanging as it is open to bacteria, you live and learn.
Sam, Mia and the twiglets popped by late afternoon then it was time to get the dinner, go for some Bowen therapy and get my eyebrows done at Shelleys.
My job load is obviously halved when John is at home as he tends to do the rounds but it’s still a busy day.
Thursday: One of the jobs on Johns holiday list was the boot room floor, I have been stepping over the soil pipe for five years now and rather think that’s enough, it’s right smack bang in the middle so there is no escaping it. The plan was that Martin would be booked in for two days to build a more suitable cupboard and seating with a lid to store the hats, gloves etc plus some hanging for the coats. In order to do that the floor needed doing, I was under the impression that it would be done between the Christmas and New Year but no John has decided that today is a good day 🙄 So my kitchen currently has the entire contents of the boot room in it, not exactly how I had planned the run up to Christmas as I haven’t even got the tree up yet. The contents of the store cupboard are what is bothering me most, we have that much alcohol in there it’s ridiculous, you can tell we don’t drink much as it just all gets put in there, and that’s not all of it, there are two fridges full of various bottles of cider, wine etc as well. At this point I have a battle with John as he is the epitome of Scrooge when it comes to giving stuff away, we don’t need it or use it but he doesn’t like giving it to someone who will, go figure, anyhow I have won the battle and various bottles of spirits will be given to people leaving us with a more reasonable amount (that still won’t get drunk) but at least we can offer it 😂 Then there are the preserves and chutneys to sort out, some with a well past best date have gone into the bin, some with acceptable dates will be kept and hopefully once I can get into a cupboard I can see in I will start to use some of it up. There are jars of jam in there and John keeps buying it at the shop, we will be using those up in future, they just are not his favourite flavour 😏 which is strawberry but I think he can manage blackcurrant and raspberry flavours if he tries hard enough 😬 Meanwhile, I am cleaning dust off the jars and bottles and wondering what to keep and what to bin, and allocating those precious bottles of alcohol to various people 😜
The floor is half down which was the plan as the other half involves moving the washing machine and fridge out which would push into another day and that can wait until after Christmas.
Friday: I haven’t mentioned the rain lately, it has been raining constantly for days, I have never known such a wet start to the Winter, the fields were already saturated after the last stretch of wet weather and this will just compound the problem. Luckily apart from the water sitting in the fields it hasn’t really affected us massively although I am now thinking that getting the horses in might be a good idea, they won’t like it but we probably need to get their feet dry for a short while. There is not a cold snap in sight but as John pointed out, it’s better than being surrounded by everything burning, such a contrast going on in the world at the minute.
I had bloods first thing and it looks like my white cells have come up so that’s good news. Back home to clean the living room and bathroom, I still haven’t got the tree up yet but I have other stuff to do first like the horses and sort the turkey, I still need to get a couple of presents, I was hoping I would be done by now but plans change. John has gone to Witney to do a few errands and a bit of present shopping, and it’s still raining 🌧 🌧 🌧 so I need an absolute plan for the horses.
I went out and got the stables ready for them to come in, at least they will be able to get dry feet for a couple of days and not look so forlorn stood under the hedge like they are at the minute 🙄 Biscuit will probably like coming in, Jack will hate it and will kick the door every time he sees anyone passing but it will just be for a day or two then I will turn them back out for the Christmas days and if it’s still raining get them back in after that, this may be the new routine for a while 😜
I hadn’t planned on having to deal with the horses in such a way as it’s usually frozen some of the time around now but this year is different, this has a knock on effect to my ‘to do’ list as I have to prioritise obviously and anything living and incapable of looking after themselves (animals) have to come first, living and capable (husband, children, family) come next and non living at the bottom, by that I’m talking about garden, fencing, hedging, trees etc etc.
Saturday: ‘Twas the day to get stuff done, that was the plan and it was fairly well executed lol. John did the animals and the only problem of the day was when Jack got out of the stable as I was trying to skip it out, there he was charging round the place in his stable rug (basically his pyjamas), I managed to catch him eventually and get on with the rest of the day. This mostly involved finally getting the tree and the decorations up and wrapping the last of the presents.
The egg sales have gone berserk today, in fact all week it has been brisk and I think we will probably sell out early tomorrow but that’s good, better than them hanging around.
Tonight we have a Christmas get together with a neighbour to go to, looking forward to that, it will kick start the festivities 🥳
Sunday: Solstice 😀 the turn in the year back towards the Spring, very happy about that lol.
We did the animals that included turning the horses back out which they were very happy about and spent 5 minutes running around like they had been locked up for weeks 😜 Then we went off to get the last bits of shopping done and called in to see Josh for his 4th birthday today.
All that is left for this year is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, enjoy every moment, have a great New Year and I will be with you on the other side when it will be 2020! It sounds like a sci fi date doesn’t it!
Sunday evening: We moved 74 hens in the dark lol, each crate takes 12 hens and we have two crates, the last crate we squeezed the extra in as it’s not very easy pushing the loaded wheelbarrow through the wet mud 😜 They are now in the back pen which is fox proof, just as well as the little sod was out there at 3pm this afternoon, we also moved the garden ducks to the stable just until the weather changes again. Most birds are now on dry ground for the nighttime, after a couple of days they will be allowed out to roam, they will know where they belong by then hopefully.
Monday 10th December: Up early and got everything done ready for my trip out 😀 It was a beautiful sunny morning driving through Gloucestershire to Stroud for my morning of wreath making with The Cotswold Flower Company at Miserden Nursery, a gorgeous little nursery, we were welcomed with coffee and cake, I had a cappuccino with chocolate and cinnamon just to add to the festive feel, beautifully presented cakes, with gluten free and vegan options and two lovely ladies running the morning. One grows the flowers and the other is the florist, a perfect combination and add to that the provenance of being Prince Charles florist for ten years and you know it’s going to be good 😀 Learning something from an expert is always going to be fun, informative and educational, I was pretty pleased with the end result and it smells divine so I have hung it indoors where I can relish the fragrance. The girls were all here so put the tree and decorations up 🎄
Tuesday: Noticeably colder this morning, a low fog hanging about, the sun was very bright today mind you.
I had Mia as usual and Shelley came over with Josh and Flo but poor Josh was sick on the drive before he got in then sick again so they didn’t stay very long.
I had a tub of double cream in the fridge that I bought back from the family feast, as we won’t use it as cream I sat and shook it into buttermilk and butter which we will use. John is a bit disappointed as I just have not had time to make mince pies yet! Normally I start making them the first week of December.
Wednesday: Today we went to do a bit of Christmas shopping in Swindon, it was gloriously quiet lol and we had a nice few hours wandering around with ease.
Thursday: A colder morning today, John did the animals first thing then went to work, he is not supposed to, he finished Tuesday, then I get, I just have to do a few small jobs 😏 I need to clean out the quail and rabbits so that is on my agenda and lighting the fire a bit earlier today, yesterday because we were out it never seemed to get warm enough in here by lighting it later on.
Looking out of the stable door this morning I could see that the long tailed tits have made a re appearance which made me smile, of all the little birds we have, those and the wrens are my favourite although the long tailed usually only return when bad/cold weather is on the cards so we shall see. I had a phone call yesterday from the chap who is coming to do some rabbiting, weather permitting he will be here first thing Sunday morning to keep the rabbit numbers in check as they are a bit out of control at the moment.
I had to come back in and get a second pair of gloves on this morning the nip in the air was noticeable though the sun came out later. It’s a good feeling to get cages/runs completely cleaned out and all fresh new cosy bedding down, the rabbits/Guineas also had a good handful of chard and big pile of hay and some twigs to chew on, they should be happy bunnies today 😀
I think I need to start looking for a new farm cat, Mollys eyesight is not so good now and she is quite an old lady approx 15 this year, Diesel keeps going awol I think he has found someone to feed and fuss him lol. The problem is that a farm cat needs to have been raised semi feral by that I mean only had the minimum of interaction from a human, born to a farm mother would be ideal. I have had recuse cats in the past that are labeled as feral but they usually tend to be just very frightened, kittens that are born and raised in a household are not ideal either as they have usually had lots of cuddles etc and want to come inside. Don’t get me wrong the cats have somewhere warm to sleep, in fact I just found Diesel deep inside the hay pile, they get fed once a day, they are wormed and fleaed but they don’t come inside and they don’t have lots of lap time lol, they have to earn their keep, finding a cat like this is quite difficult.
The peas plants finally arrived so I planted them straight away in the small tunnel along with the broad beans, roll on next spring when I can harvest them. I could probably do with about 3 or 4 times as many really especially peas they must be the no 1 favourite vegetable and so good for you. I find growing them overwinter avoids the pea moth getting at them then I usually follow them with mange-tout which also avoid the moth as they are picked before they swell and attract any insects.
Friday: Very cold this morning brrr, John did the outside jobs while I did a few bits inside, then Shelley Josh and Florence came over and we had pancakes with berries, Florence had to go to hospital last night as she has been unwell since last Saturday but after checking her over and giving her some fluids they let her back home again.
I have been in contact with a group re homing cats and we are going to see a six month old with the right criteria (semi feral) tomorrow morning, then they will come and give us a home visit and hopefully we will have a new cat for the farm.
The frost has not lifted much today.
I finally made a batch of mince pies.
We went to Mia’s Christmas play and then to visit Johns Mum who has now moved to a nursing home.
I had a go at needle felting and made a hare, I did buy a kit because I have some wool that came as packaging and I wanted to see how easy or difficult it was to do. It is a very forgiving medium to work with and my hare is not bad, now I just need to use the other wool and see what I can make with it.
Saturday: Cold again this morning the hoses are frozen and there is a forecast of snow later 😜 I lit the fire early as we are going out to have a look at and potentially bring home a new farm cat, she is semi feral so I may be able to get a photo of her or maybe not 😝 I think the timing is good as Molly is behaving oddly especially the last few days and today she has come into the boot room and taken up residence on patch’s cushion which he is none to happy about. In my experience cats either run off to die or seek you out more which is what Molly is doing, she is very thin and as I said her eyesight seems to be going either that or she has just decided ‘sod the stable block, I’m off indoors’.
We went to see the new cat and bought her home with us, she is absolutely semi feral in that gloves are needed to handle her 😝 they called her Cruella and I am giving her the full title of Cruella de Vil as I feel she fully deserves a grand name. She is not a cat that can be rehomed to a family so a place like ours is ideal for her, she can have as much or as little contact with people as she chooses and hopefully will ‘work’ for us as well.
We built the fire up in the Rayburn and hunkered down for a couple of hours in the afternoon, it’s perishing out there, even the geese had their heads tucked away under their wings today.
Normally at this time of year I would be knee deep in cooking preparations for the big Winter feast but this year we are not hosting so it’s over to others lol, I already had some jars of mincemeat in the cupboard which I made last year, I have plenty of chutney and pickles etc and even got pudding that I made for the family feast. The only things I will buy extra is a ham, various cheeses, crackers a few other bits but not much at all, we have all we need 😀
It has been and continues to be a vile day, it’s cold and wet and disgusting lol, half the hens we moved the other day keep going back to the old hut so we decided we would move them and put them in a stable where they will stay shut in for at least a week this time so that was the plan for the evening. I took some hay up the back to Jack but I could see that as he came across the paddock he was lame so I needed to get him in, I grabbed his head collar and one of the hay nets and just as I was about to go in the field and get him I spotted the fox! Shouting fox as loud as I could I dropped everything and ran down the yard, the dogs were in the back but came out when they heard me, John was sat indoors, get your coat on the fox is out here 🦊. Eventually we got the horse in got the hens captured and in and we were done, cold and wet time to go back in to the warm for the evening 😀
Sunday: Up late and totally forgot the chap was coming to do some rabbiting today 😝 As I opened the blind he had just arrived with two colleagues plus a Harris Hawk called Ethel, a ferret and a dog. By this point we would normally have been up and let all the dogs and birds out but we hadn’t done any of that, so quickly let our dogs out for a wee and a stretch then got them back in. They flew the Hawk but she didn’t catch anything and then they used the dog and the ferret, they got six, quite fat rabbits so they were happy with that and will be back in the New Year. They were off home to make rabbit curry, excellent, that’s how it should be, hunt and eat what you hunt, and only as much as you need to keep you going. By sheer coincidence Missi the Hawk was being worked by her owners on the farm over the back, fantastic, I love it, I wish I had come to this life a lot earlier and maybe it would have been me with the Hawk and the ferrets but at least there are people around who still do it.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 