The weather has warmed a little but it’s still only around 3/4c most days, sometimes with a heavy fog, plenty of conspiracy theories online about this 🙄
We have managed to do a bit outside although there comes a point when fingers and toes are protesting a lot and that’s the time for me to come inside and do something else. I try to wait for it to warm up enough in the morning but it’s not really getting anywhere near the nice 12/14c we had between Christmas and new year, can’t expect much else really in mid winter 🥶
The work we have been concentrating on is where we took the old fence down after putting up the new one. Over time there have been hazel and sycamore saplings that have self set and they need to come out plus clear any weeds/debris and get the area clear to start again. We have decided that some new compost bins will be good down there as well as extending all the existing beds down to the old fence line. We are building the compost bins out of old pallets and these will be lined so that the material can heat up well and hopefully destroy and weed seeds. Home made compost is fantastic stuff if you can avoid spreading weed seeds everywhere and you do this by making sure that the material gets enough heat to kill off anything lurking in there and rot everything down really well. Turning the compost is key because not only do you make sure you incorporate everything but it also helps to reignite those warmer temperatures that you need.
There are a couple of things in pots that I have been wanting to get in the ground for a few years. One is a fig that has been in a pot for about 4 years and we actually do have enough space to get it in the ground I just was never sure where I wanted it, now it is in the ground I might get a good crop of figs next year 🥰 The other shrub I have planted is next to the decking and is for floristry, it is a eucalyptus parvifolia. It will give me two things, some dappled shade on the decking area which gets full sun in the late afternoon and evenings and cutting material for bouquets and arrangements. Eucalyptus is a winter foliage and used during the winter months, we stop using it around May and start again in October/November.
We have had a few fox visits this week, I spotted it this morning and it’s a big healthy specimen 😬 John saw it yesterday right outside the back door when he went out there. We have had to start keeping the door closed and not let Mia have free range and I think that because if that Patch is staying in more and so there are no dogs out there to ward it off.
The reason we have had to keep Mia in is because she can no longer see or hear anything so when she goes outside she can’t find her way back on her own. I explained this to John and said if she is out with you then you need to watch her at all times 🙄 This did not happen on Friday and consequently when he went back outside he couldn’t find her. Luckily Sam and Shelley were here and so a search party was sent out and she was found just over our boundary in the field of the farm behind us. But she is also getting pretty infirm especially after walking all that way and they had to get a wheelbarrow to bring her back. She wanders aimlessly but can’t find her way back so she has to be constantly watched.
We are people who when the time is right will have her put to sleep but at the minute she is eating, drinking and isn’t incontinent, she enjoys sleeping most of the day and that’s not a bad life for an old dog, I am hoping she just goes to sleep quietly and gently here, in the meantime we just have to make sure she doesn’t wander off!
I have been organising the greenhouse ready for the big seed sowing race in March. There are only a few things you can sow now, broad beans (not decided if I want to grow these yet or not) Sweet peas (I have the seed soaking and chitting as I type) Onion seeds and I am growing perennial onions this year so as not to take up too much room and I have also sown some verbena seeds for cut flowers. Apart from that I am just waiting and watching the weather, it’s good that we had some freezing weather as that triggers many plants including the tulip bulbs into growth and I have 600 of those planted 😂
I bought a job lot of beer traps to try and tackle the slugs this year, hopefully as we have had the cold they won’t be as prolific but if we have another cool wet spring they will be back. I did a bit of research on which slugs are the good guys this week because not all of them are pests. Some only eat decaying material and some eat other slugs so we want to keep those if possible which is why it’s not a good idea to use slug pellets, killing all of them is counterproductive. Cellar slugs which are the bigger greeny coloured ones are good and leopard slugs are also useful. Neither of these pose a threat to my plants and so they can stay, the rest need to be knocked back in numbers so I will be giving them beer to drink and that’s not a bad way to go is it 🤪
Getting as much preparation done in the garden at this time of year will make the rest of the year much easier to manage but there are jobs that need to wait until the time is right. I don’t cut back any dead foliage until the weather has warmed up a good bit, the beneficial insects need somewhere to overwinter and the birds need the seed heads and the coverage if it’s cold. As much as I would love to start clearing it all I know that the whole garden will reap the rewards if I leave everything alone until those mentioned can survive sufficiently.
September 2024: It has been ages since I last blogged and I am really sorry, I started so many drafts only to get caught up in life in general that they never made to publishing 🤪
It has been a busy few months, on the flower side of things business has been brisk, different to last year but a definite increase in orders. I have still done bunches and bouquets as usual but also DIY buckets, bespoke flower arrangements for customers as well as regular customer orders. Just when I think I will have a quiet week orders come in and I am off again. I have done more funeral flowers and memorial flowers and workshops too.
I had my roadside flower stand pinched, the whole thing which was about 5ft tall by 4ft square and pretty heavy. It would have taken two people to lift it and a lorry or a van to take it away. Thieving b**tards that think it’s ok to rob people. I was totally gutted the morning I went out and found it missing, deflated and despondent is not overstating how I felt. But every cloud has a silver lining they say and this has in a roundabout way done me a favour 😂 I made a reel for Instagram about my stolen flower shed complete with ‘detective’ music and the reel went viral! That kept me busy I can tell you, almost 10,000 views in the first 24hrs and weeks later it is still going and up to 700,000, yup 👍 Why is that a good thing? Well it has raised my Instagram profile and as the reel is being watched by 100’s of people a day, some of them are then following me. What good is that if they are not customers I hear you ask 👂 it’s good because it means all my other reels are getting some traction and potentially being put in front of viewers who are more local, in fact I had a new customer who said ‘oh I saw you on Instagram’ and basically the more views and follows you have the more the algorithms put your reels in front of those with an interest. Besides all that it is fun to watch the numbers though I don’t take it to seriously.
Life has been busy too, school holidays mean grandchildren visits and I have had a few of those, I still have Oscar every Tuesday and we even managed to get away for a weeks holiday to tick some things off my bucket list. It was my 60th birthday at the end of July, we had a spa day and meals out and then we went away on a road trip.
We travelled to Bakewell to have Bakewell tart on our way to our first destination which was York, it has been on my radar for a good few years and I finally got there. We spent two days there doing some fabulous tourist things including a visit to Betty’s and the Jorvik centre (both are an absolute must) before setting off again for Edinburgh, with a detour to see Lindisfarne on the way. The main reason for the trip was in Edinburgh and that was an evening at the Royal Military Tattoo 🥰 We had a pre show hospitality package and did the whisky experience before hand and now I have a new appreciation for whisky 🥃 We met one of the riflemen from the United States Navy Ceremonial Guard who was on his first ever trip outside of the USA, he was only young and what a first trip that must have been 😊 Plenty to do in Edinburgh and we packed as much in as possible before moving on to our next destination. Lake Windamere in Cumbria, we stayed at a very nice hotel on the shores of the lake and had a relaxing first evening before a trip we had booked for the next day. A Beatrix Potter tour, we couldn’t come here without visiting her house and garden and it was a real delight. We had a fabulous tour guide who took us to some real hidden gems in the area as well as imparting so much local knowledge it was mind boggling. Beatrix Potter was a visionary and understood her legacy long before anyone else did I think, incredible lady. Time to head back home with a detour to Stafford castle on the way where just by chance they had a Viking re-enactment day, well that just topped off what had already been an amazing bucket list ticking holiday.
Over the last couple of weeks it has been time to harvest fruit too, apples, plums, blackberries, elderberries it has kept me busy I can tell you. I am trying to rely less on the freezer now and do more drying and preserving. I still have my prepper head on and there a has been a global internet outage over the summer, it affected many things and I honestly don’t think it will be the last one nor the biggest, I think there is the likelihood of more and bigger in the future. So that is just one reason I prefer to be prepared for all eventualities, I just hope more people start to see exactly what could happen and think about how they would cope. If anything affected the logistics systems for deliveries then 3 days and the supermarket will be empty so it’s worth having some back up stores. Buy what you use and use what you buy, rotate it then it’s never wasted.
We have suffered plenty of daytime fox attacks, even Ted the Turkey has become a victim 😔 We are down to less than twenty hens which is not much good because I never have any eggs for cooking and baking. We did say we would not bother getting anymore but we do need eggs for ourselves so we have decided to get a few new ones in to keep ourselves and the customers going. The ducks are not being replaced though so once they stop laying there will be no more duck eggs.
There has been, as always, plenty of work to be done outside on the Smallholding, hedges, paddock, fencing, weeding, mowing, strimming, you name it and it needs doing. Yesterday I sowed a couple of rows of carrots to hopefully have some for Christmas and I have harvested a few runner beans this week but the veg are sadly lacking this year. So I am going to do something about that and one way to have veg but not have to work too hard at it is perennial veg. Welsh onions, perpetual spinach, garlic chives, perennial kale will give me useful veg that just keep appearing (hopefully) along with plenty of herbs that I already have growing that way I can concentrate on a few other things such as carrots and beans etc. I keep hearing there will be shortages this year due to flooding or lack of sunshine so I am not waiting to find out I can’t buy any lol.
The weather: because I always mention the weather 😂 jeez this spring and summer have been all over the place 🤪 Cold wet spring, cold wet summer, occasional sunshine, it has been nothing if not challenging for growing stuff let me tell you. Slugfest arrived and never left, the blighters have been eating everything more especially all the young tender shoots of annuals 🙄 add that to a total lack of sunshine and warmth and it has not been a great year for anything that needs the sun. Still you get dealt the cards and you play with what you have, on the flip side it has been a summer I could tolerate and move around in easily 😬 It just is what it is and you have to go with it, luckily as I always hedge my bets I have had plenty of flowers that have made through and so although there is an impact I can side step it and go forward most weeks.
The flowers will still be blooming for a few weeks although the season is moving to slow down now but I have workshops ahead of me including Christmas ones and I still have plenty of preserving and processing to do so I will still be busy.
Right this minute I have some mango chutney cooking down (a bit of an indulgence that one) But over the past few weeks I have been making jams and chutneys, canning apple and plum sauce, freezing apples, blackberries, elderberries and plums, dehydrating herbs and vegetables, making and freezing crumbles and stews and I have my Christmas mincemeat made already. Apple cider vinegar is on the go and something new this year is honey fermented elderberries, should be great to stave off any winter bugs lurking.
Oh and it will soon be time to start collecting walnuts and hazelnuts, if I can beat the squirrels. This year I am also going to collect conkers and make some washing soap with them, we will see how that turns out 🤷♀️
There you go, that’s pretty much up to date. I will try to blog a bit more regularly but once you get out of the habit it’s difficult to get back in to it 😂
Monday 24th June 2024: It seems like the months are whizzing past lol. Sorry about the lack of blogging I have either been too busy or too tired to keep up with it.
Summer has finally arrived after all the rubbish weather and this week we have wall to wall sunshine which means of course that I cannot get outside for the best part of the day! There never seems to be a good balance but I am getting up very early and getting work done, by 9am I have usually done 4 hours already. It is a beautiful part of the day, cool and quiet, very good for mindfulness.
The flower sales are going well and the flowers are now a little more abundant than they were in the dull, wet spring 🙄 But the slugs, oh my days, they have been rampant and munching on everything and anything 😂 It is quite disheartening at times but try as I might I lose something to those slimy jaws every day.
This weekend coming I have the busiest weekend I have ever had flower wise, I totalled up the stems I will need and it is around 650 which for me is a lot. I have two private workshops, flowers for a private event and orders so I will be busy and I need to get my head in order so that I have everything I need for when I need it and do not miss anything out.
I have more or less finished planting everything out now, the only things left are back up plants for any failures. One big fail I had were the snapdragons, on one side of the tunnel they got rust and all had to come up, strangely though the ones on the other side are fine 🤷♀️ I will definitely look for rust resistant seed next time.
I have spent a lovely hour or so every evening picking raspberries, there are a lot on there this year. There are two reasons for that, the first and the most stupid error I made was thinking that they were autumn raspberries and so cut them down each year as you should for that variety. I didn’t have time last year and so they got left and voila an abundance of raspberries, they were summer fruiting ones all along 🤪 second reason is that we put new netting on the cage so no holes means no birds getting in and stealing them. It is raspberry everything at the minute, crumbles, sponge puddings, yoghurt topping and then some for freezing too. The redcurrants are abundant again and I always use them mixed in with other fruit for puddings, the blackcurrants are just ripening and the gooseberries too. We will have a good amount of fruit this year as the top fruits are also looking good including the apricot tree 🥰 I just need to get back to growing a good amount of veg, we have tomatoes, cucumber and courgettes growing plus a few runner bean plants but that is it this year which is not ideal. There are however some good little farm shops around selling veg and we have a lamb coming for the freezer from a small local farm 😊
I have emptied and defrosted one of the freezers and then started filling it back up so that I can defrost the other freezer. I am trying to either use up what I have or at least know what is in there so that I can plan meals around the contents.
I still prepare for emergencies and as the government suggested a couple of months back (although not many people seem to have heard about it) that everyone should have three days of food, water and supplies for emergencies I wonder what they know that we don’t? Sadly with the state of the world today we have never been closer to disaster in my lifetime than we are now, wars, invasions, climate catastrophes, being prepared is just common sense really, we saw what happened in the pandemic so it pays to be mindful that anything is possible! Personally I like more than a weeks supply and mostly dried or tinned because if the electric goes down then the freezers are fine for a few days but after that everything spoils. Obviously I would use up the perishables first but if the emergency went on longer then we are on to dried and tinned goods lol. If you are interested in the concept then there are some very good you tubers (UK based) doing some excellent round ups of what you would need. The government list is a little basic and not very inspiring or nutritious, you can definitely do better than that with a bit of imagination. Only store what you would use and the key is to use what you store so that you keep it rotating, especially anything with a shorter shelf life.
Tuesday: Oscar day: It will be a long day today as the sun is out and it’s hot meaning I can’t really go outside so everything will be indoor activities. He doesn’t understand why we can’t go out and play in the garden which makes me sad and frustrated at the same time. Actually I do get a little emotional at this time of year when everyone wants to be out doing stuff in the sun and I can’t join in. My nephew is getting married this week, we had an invitation and of course I would love to be there but it is in Greece 😬 I know I would just about die in that kind of heat so won’t be going which makes me sad. It is not just being outside because you could probably organise some shade but just travelling to and from places is difficult, no transport is ever set up with shady areas 😂 even in a car is horrible unless the windows in the back are blacked out and there is air con, two of the things that were a must have when we got our new car.
I tend to just not go to events if I think they are likely to be out in the open, which is most of them, including pub gardens, you can’t really carry an umbrella big enough to stop UVs bouncing around.
We booked a holiday in the med last year in October thinking that would be ok, nope they had a heat wave and I am still suffering the consequences of getting stuck waiting for the tourist bus in Barcelona with not a single piece of shade in sight.
We need more shady areas, I think I need to start a campaign lol. Joking aside though, there are so many problems that do not have a simple solution when it comes to Lupus and the sun.
Wednesday: Up early to get the cutting for the weekend started, 3 hrs of cutting, then watering the tunnels. I do those in the morning to try and limit slug activity but there is still evidence of them having had a party every night. I need to get all the outside jobs done and dusted before it gets too hot for me, that includes any animal feeding, the eggs into the shed, the rubbish out to the bins, the horses water etc etc. Today that took me up to around 11am, then I had a couple of deliveries, one of them was some very tall stem flowers from another grower which then need to be stripped and conditioned. Lunch and a sit down for an hour or so before I get some inside jobs done and then have a sit down before getting dinner and starting the evening work. More watering outside, to be honest this is the first lot I have done outside and the heat has dried the ground a fair bit so everything needs a pick me up. Another delivery mid evening of some locally reared lamb for the freezer, sort that out and then round to Mums to cut some flowers from her garden that she said I could have, I took some lambs liver round for Ken as a barter swap 😊 Mum has the most amazing hydrangea growing in the front garden that has probably around 70/80 heads on it each year. It obviously loves the position it is planted in and you can bet if I wanted to grow one that well it just wouldn’t happen 🤪 Back home to get the flowers into the dark and some good depth of water so that they don’t flop. Outside to turn of the watering and by this time I am literally falling asleep on my feet so it’s a good job it’s nearly time for bed.
The temperature is supposed to drop around 5 degrees tomorrow which will be a welcome relief from the hot and humid few days we have had, as always the weather has jumped from cold and wet straight into blazing hot 🥵
Wednesday/Thursday: I mostly spent my days gardening or cutting flowers ready for the weekend. I am cutting everyday at the moment so I get up pretty early to get started. On Thursday evening I sorted out all the flowers and foliage I had cut into all the different things I needed them for. Bouquet orders, bunch orders, arrangement order which consisted of five large arrangements of flowers, eleven lots of flowers for the workshops also fro me to demo and then flowers for Friday flowers.
Friday: Up early again to get some watering done and wrap the flowers ready to go out on the roadside stand.
Feeling happy that everything was in hand I took the flowers out to the stand only to find it had been stolen! It is not a small stand, it’s 5ft tall and heavy, they took the one bucket that was still in there and discarded the clip board with the QR code on. I actually couldn’t believe someone had nicked it, wtaf.
I was pretty upset because they had not only taken something that was essential to roadside sales but also stolen a fair bit of my enthusiasm for the day. I am just trying to make an honest (and modest) living and some low life thinks it’s perfectly ok to take it away for themselves. I can only think that as it was a converted chicken house, that’s what they wanted it for but do me a favour and buy your own you tight, lazy, good for nothing gits. People like that have no idea of the impact stealing stuff has on the owner, they probably don’t care either and I just hope that Karma really has it in for them one way or another 😡
For an hour or so it really threw me and I couldn’t focus on the work I really needed to get done for the day but I had to get the jobs done because I had customers relying on me. Eventually after so coffee and toast I put that behind me and cracked on with arranging flowers and getting the flower room ready for the weekend workshops. By 9pm I physically could not do any more, my back ached, my feet ached and I figured it was best to stop, get a good nights sleep and start again in the morning.
If you ever wonder why flowers cost what they do then here is a run down to your order.
Sow the seeds or plant the bulbs and plants (that you ordered months ago in preparation)
Nurture those seeds/bulbs with water, feed and protection from the weather
Plant the plants when big enough and continue nurturing
Put staking in place so they grow nice and straight for cutting, continue to nurture, weed and watch the pests eat your precious plants 🤪
Weeks but mostly months later cut the stems at the exact right time of opening.
Strip the stems, condition the flowers so that they are at their best
Arrange the flowers into whatever has been ordered, wrap and wait for collection or deliver.
Sweep, wipe and clean the workspace, deposit the debris on the compost heap.
Wash out the buckets thoroughly ready for the next cutting.
And of course that is only part of the story because in there is a wealth of knowledge that took plenty of studying, lots of planning and lots of heavy, continuous work just to get to the very first point. This is true no matter the size of the patch you are growing in, it is never just cutting some flowers and presenting them, that’s just how easy we make it look 😂
Saturday: Up early to get the room tidied from arranging all the flowers the night before, get the room straight so that people arriving for the workshop have no idea what a muddle it was in just an hour before they arrived. John went off to deliver a regular flower order, I don’t have time to do it today but he is used to delivering for me 😊 An emergency dash to another grower because the delphiniums I had were shedding petals everywhere (that’s a story for another day and I can chalk that up to experience 🙄) Teach the workshop, enjoy chatting all things flowers with some lovely ladies, clear everything up have a quick lunch break then organise exactly how I am going to transport five vases of tall flowers to a customer on a very hot afternoon 🤪 deliver the order successfully and then off round to Shelley and Martins for a BBQ.
A workshop with friends is a fabulous way to celebrate 🥰
Sunday: Up early again to water and organise everything for todays workshop, more chatting with more lovely ladies about flowers 😊 Tidy up and clear away, have some lunch and then deliver a big celebration bouquet in the afternoon. I made this up at some point during Friday or Saturday but I can’t remember when!
At this point I should go in and tidy up the workshop but I have done enough this weekend and it can wait until tomorrow.
Monday 8th April 2024: It is still the Easter holidays for the children and Sam came over with the kids today. The farrier was due out and so she came over to get the horses in. She was worried about Biscuits feet as they didn’t look right and she has had laminitis in a previous life, we did get her penned in a quarter of the paddock on Friday as a precaution but the farrier said her feet are all good which is great news. She will stay restricted though as the grass is growing much quicker now and that’s not good for her. Jack had a bit of a bath but he really needs another he was filthy from the winter weather. Hopefully as the weather warms up they can both have a good wash and scrub up.
Charlie arrived with Oscar at lunchtime, the children played for a couple of hours and they were able to play in the garden for a change as it was dry and not too cold. They decided to pimp the pirate ship with chalks 😂 looks quite good I think 😊
After they left I got on with some work, weeding and gathering up rubbish to put in the skip, tidying stuff away and then dividing some plants up, potting them ready for sale once the roots have settled and begin to anchor.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 He was unwell today so he was very subdued even refusing to eat chocolate which is unheard of 😂
Wednesday: Sam had asked me to go with her to get all the passports renewed but before she came I managed to get a few bits of housework done. When she arrived we went off to the post office to get the passports done, the twins had not had passports before, Mia needed a new one and Sam had to renew hers in her married name. Given that the twins can be a bit of a handful at the best of times and that they were very likely to get bored standing there waiting I had agreed to go with her to help. She got the twins done first and as soon as they had both had their photos taken I took them into the cafe to get them some lunch while they did Mias passport. She then joined us and had lunch while Sam got hers done. They were actually all really well behaved, I confess it surprised even me 😂
Thursday: There is plenty of work to be done outside and it is taking up any available time I have, weeding today. Then unexpectedly Sam arrived with the children late afternoon, she had bought them over for a talking too 😂 their good behaviour did not last long and they had given her the run around. When mine were young I occasionally took them to my Mum for a talking to, Nanas are wise and hopefully grandchildren will listen to them 🤪 I think I got through to them, only time will tell and once they I had finished talking to them they went off to swimming lessons.
Friday: I can’t remember what I did the day but late afternoon my sister picked me up in her Morris 1000 ‘Daisy’ and we went off to a classic car event at a local gin distillery. Wood fired pizzas were available and we had a very pleasant evening with other classic car enthusiasts, the weather was great which made it all the better.
Saturday and Sunday: We had a very busy weekend, the weather was good, sunny, warm enough, no wind and no rain. I spent most of the two days gardening, weeding, seed sowing, dividing, potting on and some watering in the tunnels.
Meanwhile John was busy getting the Parthenon finished lol, it is now ready for soil, he has put damp course all around the bottom and cut the metal grid for the climbing plants. He has also moved all the IBC tanks and levelled off the driveway as parts of it were high. He has cut the lawn, dug out thistles from the front side paddock and dragged it. In-between all we have been doing all the other jobs housework, cooking, washing, shopping, feeding the birds, collecting the eggs, a hundred and one jobs that always need doing.
At some point this week I pulled a lot of rhubarb and took some down to the pub along with fresh flowers. Some of it I used to make some rhubarb and vanilla jam, which is delicious. I had other flowers cut ready for customers, some collected and some delivered but I can’t remember which day that was.
Buckets of flowers being cut at the minute, finally spring has sprung 🥰
Monday 25th March 2024: What a fabulous way to start the week, despite the early morning rain and grey skies, I had notification that I am in print in a magazine 😊 An article in ‘The Country Smallholder’ written by Jack Smellie, is all about the change of direction into flowers here on our Smallholding. I did the interview just after Christmas and had almost forgotten all about it but it is in the Spring edition should you wish to read it 😂 If anyone is a subscriber and comes across the article then do feel free to take a photo of yourselves with the article and tag Friesland Farm Flowers in on social media.
The other pleasures of a Monday morning consisted of cleaning the bathroom, hoovering and polishing the living room, hoovering and mopping down the boot room 🙄 Eventually I was able to escape my domestic chores and go out to the flower room. I had some tidying and clearing to do before getting out some dried flowers and making up some posies.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 It was supposed to be heavy rain mid morning so I decided we could go out for a quick walk down to the village. It always seems to be horrible weather on a Tuesday so it doesn’t happen every week. In the end it didn’t rain until much later in the day. Oscar had a good two hour sleep in the middle of the day and then Ayda came to play in the afternoon.
Wednesday: The rain set in last night and it is not much like Spring at all just at the moment. I had flowers delivered today from another grower because I have a lot of flowers to do at the weekend and not enough out in the flower garden of my own.
Thursday. The weather is atrocious, truly awful, cold, windy with burst of torrential rain in amongst the drizzle 🙄 I have been trying to cut flowers in the morning in these horrible conditions 🤪 I spent the rest of the day making up flowers for an order to be delivered tomorrow and an arrangement for the local church for the Easter Sunday service.
Good Friday: A quick trip to get some bits of shopping first thing before returning to load up with flowers and get them delivered to the customer. Then it was onto the next lot of flowers to be made up ready for Saturday. I had lefty of other things to get sorted because although she does not know it yet my Mum will be having a surprise 80th Vintage tea party birthday celebration. We have been planning and plotting for weeks and hopefully she has no idea. There was a bit of a spanner in the works last night when my stepdad ended up in hospital but luckily he came out today and so hopefully we are still on course.
Plenty of tidying up had to be done in the flower room as you can imagine which takes longer than you think it is going to especially when you constantly have to wash buckets out.
Saturday: Up early, John went off to get feed and then when he came back we delivered the flowers to the church. Today is party day and so I have spent the morning finalising all the flowers I am taking, the tablecloths needed ironing, and anything else I was responsible for on the list.
After days and days of rain we finally have some lovely sunshine this morning so let’s hope it lasts all day, we definitely need it for the garden and also for our sanity after a full winter.
We had a fabulous afternoon, team work makes the dream work and we certainly pulled off something a bit special today. Over the weeks, vintage china has been accumulated, cake plates made, tablecloths washed and pressed, hall and entertainment booked, arrangements finalised. Then it was cooking, baking, sandwich which making and flower arranging before we got to the hall and put everything together. Mum did not have a clue, Sue picked her up in her vintage morris and told her she was taking her out for afternoon tea with a quick pop in to a local vintage sale on the way there. We all waited in the hall and chorus of ‘surprise’ went up as she came in. We had a great afternoon, with a great vibe and some great food and entertainment, excellent job everyone 🥰
By the time I got home I could hardly walk but still had the car to unload, my feet and legs hurt from being on the, all day and my hips were killing after all the dancing we did. The clocks were going forward so it was a good excuse to go to bed early and get some well earned sleep.
Sunday: Easter Day, we don’t really celebrate Easter, well no further than chocolate eggs anyway 🤪 We are not religious and I have never put on Easter dinner or tea because when the kids were little we were usually on a family day out. We did a bit of work around the place before popping over to take chocolate to Mia, Lucie and George, back home before going out in the afternoon to take chocolate to Josh, Flo and Oscar (who was at Shelley’s for the day) Shelley had invite us for some dinner later in the afternoon so we stayed for that before returning home for the evening.
Monday: I have a week of social events ahead of me which makes a change from being here all week and working.
Today was the first event which was a regional meet up of Flowers from the Farm members from the South East. We met at Chippy Flower Farm which is about half an hour away and had a lovely morning talking about all things flower growing. The rain did try but the sun beat it off and so most of the morning the weather was pleasant. The last meet I went to was two years ago and so it was lovely to catch up with other growers from the area and discuss what everyone is growing, how they are growing it and what they are avoiding.
I got back home early afternoon and feeling inspired I had a quick lunch then went out to work on the garden finishing around 5pm, a very satisfying day.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 He loves the tale of the Gingerbread Man that CBeebies do with some of the Orchestra so I thought this week I would give him a Gingerbread man to eat while he watched the Gingerbread man get eaten 😂
Wednesday: Another trip out this afternoon but first I had some cutting to do for funeral flowers to be delivered on Thursday. I went to get some pussy willow from further up the Smallholding and when I turned around I saw the most gorgeous hawthorn covered in blossom. It was so beautiful I had to cut it but of course it is covered in thorns so I painstakingly snipped the end off each thorn just so I could use it 😊
Sam came armed with black sacks of washing as her washing machine broke down and won’t be fixed for a few days. With three children in the house the wash pile builds up quickly so I told her to come over and use my machine.
Then it was time to go and pick up Mum and set off for my second trip out this week. I had booked tickets as a Mothers Day treat to take Mum and visit Highgrove Gardens, it’s not every day you get to see the King of Englands gardens but today we did. As it is a private residence there are strict security checks and protocols including no photography in the gardens themselves. I can imagine that some people would think the gardens are manicured with shinning terraces, nothing could be further from that than these beautifully crafted, unassuming, natural and calming gardens 🥰 We had a cream tea in the tea rooms (where you were allowed to take photos) delicious warm scones and a pot of English tea rounded the visit off nicely.
Thursday: I did a few of the usual household jobs in the morning and then spent a couple of hours working on a seasonal, natural and biodegradable sheaf for a funeral. It is always lovely when someone understands what it is I am doing and the reasons I do what I do, even better when it is exactly what they are looking for. We need to move away from floral foam with great haste because it is perfectly possible to provide flowers in all forms without it. I think those that do not want to give it up are possibly just afraid that the arrangements won’t be as good. It is a different way of doing flowers but in my opinion so much more natural than the regimental arrangements that have been forced upon us for many years 🤷♀️ For those that have the same vision for the world and nature that I do there is an alternative you just have to look for it, green funeral flowers, natural funeral flowers, sustainable funeral flowers are out there so if that is what you want make sure you tell your nearest and dearest 😊
Seasonal, natural, sustainable, 100% compostable, British grown funeral sheaf.
Friday: Another day, another outing 😂 like buses my days out all come along at once and this was the last one on the last day of the week. Afternoon tea with Charlie and my Mum, Charlie had booked it for my Mother’s Day present and for my Mums birthday which is next weekend. We went to Aston Pottery and I can highly recommend it, the food was delicious, the service was fabulous and you get to have a mooch around at all the beautiful goods they have for sale too.
My amazing Mum who will be 80 years young next weekend 🥰
Saturday: The wind has changed direction and it’s flipping cold today despite the sun trying it’s best to shine. I had a few bits to get done early before Sam came over with the twins, they were staying with me while Mia went for her riding lesson as it was too cold for them to be standing around. John went out early to get some sleepers, more about that in a mo. Once he came back we went to get a couple of bags of multipurpose compost for potting up plants for sale. We can’t use our own compost as it has animal manures mixed in and that is prohibited for selling. After that we had a delivery of flowers to make before grabbing a takeaway coffee and returning home. John then got on with digging out the concrete area that we are going to put a bed with a pergola over (where the dog kennels used to be) this will be for climbing plants such as jasmine, roses, chocolate vine and clematis, all are useful in flower arrangements and bouquets. While he worked on that I got some seed sowing done before everyone arrived.
Later in the afternoon I was able to get on with a bit more potting up now that I had some compost to do it with.
Sunday: A cold wind again but the sun seemed a little stronger today and so it was more bearable. We went out as early as possible just to get a few groceries before returning home to carry on with much the same as yesterday. Digging out MOD concrete is a task and a half, the kango gave out towards the end so John had to finish with a pick axe and lump hammer 🙄 We have had the kango for well over 20 years so it has exceeded its life expectancy 😂 Luckily there was not much left to do although I dare say it was much harder work with hand tools 🤪 Once I had finished pricking out seedlings or potting on plants I did a good bit of weeding on the front beds and took a few basal cuttings of dicentra because you can never have enough of that fabulous early flowering plant.
This week coming I will be trying to work off those cream teas before Easter cakes are on the menu.
Monday 26th February 2024: Not frosty this morning but we have a cold wind instead 🙄 It’s lunchtime and I am just sitting down writing this up while I wait for my beef broth to defrost and heat up in the pan. Apart from the usual jobs one of the first things I did this morning was go out and pot up some more rhubarb plants. I dug up a huge root last year and divided it, potting some of them up and the rest just got left. I put the potted pants up for sale and had such a response I thought I better pot up the rest. Luckily rhubarb root weathers the winter well and then spring into life again which is exactly what all these have done so I might as well sell them on rather than compost them.
Next I decided to clean the kitchen, I had to wait for a few people coming to collect things so I figured I could do that and keep an eye out for anyone arriving. It really needed doing, there were cobwebs and everything in the corners 😂 Once upon a time I would have done a full clean weekly but not any more, life is too short for that, instead I tend to tackle one room intensely and skim the rest. That way everything gets a good clean every now and then and I get to do other more pleasurable tasks 😊
Tuesday: Oscar day, we did venture out for a little walk in the afternoon as it was not raining and the sun was trying, the wind was cold though so it was a short round trip of the village lol.
Wednesday: Have I ever said that February is my least favourite month of the year, I probably have 😂 It’s just that you seem to be waiting an age for things to warm up a little, even though this winter has been fairly mild so far. It is the dull, grey that is depressing and this year has been one of the dullest with only 36hrs of sunshine recorded apparently, I mean come on that’s bloody stingy isn’t it Mother Nature 🙄
Meanwhile I occupy myself with preparations for Mothers Day and Easter and hopefully the not too far away spring temperatures. It is the time of year when I try to do a good bit of learning and I often discover things I want to have a go at doing.
It is Shelley’s birthday today and she booked herself the day off, we are pretty much a family of self employed so she is her own boss and gave herself permission to enjoy her birthday 😂 We went out for a lovely lunch and a wander round the local upmarket garden company. When John comes home we will pop round to hers for some birthday cake 🎂
When I returned home I found a lovely delivery of plants, always a great cheer up moment on a dull, wet, cold day. These are eryngium, two different types to the ones I already have, a lovely white one which will be amazing dried hopefully and a blue one with more star like qualities than the blue one I have already.
Thursday: You know some days you just want to scream lol, no wonder mental health and stress levels are off the scale these days. A morning of trying to get things sorted or waiting for updates is crucial but so much time wasted 🙄 Trying to track a shipment that the tracking app wants to link to an email address I don’t use and didn’t use when I purchased the goods. So now I can’t find out the tracking number and have no idea when it will be delivered or even if it will. I tried several ways of rectifying the problem to no avail so I have to just wait and see what happens, if anything, not great.
Next was trying to ring and get a prescription 😣 Every day I think the NHS systems are broken just a little bit more and it just borders on ridiculous at the minute. Once you actually get where you need to be the service is great but ffs getting there is painful. I have been with the same practice since I was 5 yrs old, in all those years I knew who my doctors was and what they looked like, every one of them. Covid comes along and everything changes (fair enough) but things have never gone back to how they were and are so much worse now. You can barely even speak to a human being, go round in circles and just get left in limbo. First they put up plastic shields to talk through and now they won’t even talk to you, you are at the mercy of an answer machine or an online system that does not function fully 😡 Even worse for those who are not digitally adept or the elderly. To add insult to injury they then send you a ‘rate your appointment’ message well I rate my appointment, great but I would rate the system to get there in the first place defunct! 0, nil, shite to be perfectly honest. They are pushing people towards private health care which is all well and good but the elderly or someone like me with a long term chronic illness has no hope of that so we are just hung out to die I reckon, and that is how I feel today, I just want to cry.
I had Oscar for a couple of hours while Charlie went to get something sorted out (another system that has gone awry 🙄) I waited for my deliveries, one said delivered ( the most important one) but it wasn’t and I was just about to message the sender when the van turned up with it, so the delivery driver obviously pre programmed delivery which is fine but stressed me out. The other deliveries turned up at various points in the day.
Once Charlie had collected Oscar I made some lunch and then went out to the flower room to have a couple of hours doing flowery things. When I am doing that I am not thinking of anything else which is nice and relaxing. I have orders coming in thick and fast for Mothers Day as well as other orders, it’s nice to be working with flowers again.
British grown, on the bulb, muscari, a first for us 🥰
Friday: It rained a lot last night and looks like it will be the wettest February on record as well as the dullest 😂 I have been busy doing flower things today, I have had a lot of work come in this week and that’s on top of Mothers Day orders lol, I am not complaining though as I love doing it. I will have to balance it a bit more carefully once I am working outside more too or there won’t be enough hours in the day I am sure of that 🤪
Saturday: More flipping rain and quite a bit of it, the temperature is cold, wind chill even colder. I want to get in the greenhouse but I need ungloved hands for the work I want to do and they just keep going blue 🙄 pretty please can we have some sunshine soon 🙏 The spring flowers I have growing need a bit of warmth to spur them along, I was hoping to have lots of tulips ready for Mothers Day but I think they will probably make an appearance the week after 🤪 This flower farming lark is unpredictable at the best of times especially if you are not using heat and purely relying on Mother Nature which is more sustainable. There is not a decent solar heater on the market yet so that is not even an option, if you use bubble wrap you run the risk of mildew with all this wet damp weather, it is a no win situation at the minute so we just keep holding on and hoping.
I spent a quick half an hour making sure I have enough stems ordered for Mothers Day, I will have some flowers I can cut but I need to supplement with flowers from other British growers at this time of year and that is a bit of a balancing act 😬
Sunday: We had some sunshine and it was most welcome 😊 It started of foggy and frosty but the sun was trying hard to break through and eventually did so we made the most of the day. John spent the day cleaning out chickens, cleaning the car and mowing the grass. I spent the day potting up dahlias that had started to grow, some peony plants, strawberry plant plus some eryngium that need to go in the ground but we have another frost forecast so I potted them for now. Sam arrived for a visit with the children and they had bought some seeds they wanted to grow, strawberries and tomatoes. So we went into the greenhouse and they had a lesson on seed sowing, if they make it home still in the compost in one piece I will be surprised 🤪 but it’s good they have an interest and they can watch them daily to see how they are doing. Once they had gone a barrowed some woodchip put on the paths in the garden then cut some fresh greens from the greenhouse for our dinner later.
All the dahlias are now in separate pots and languishing in the kitchen for the next few weeks until it is warm enough to put the into the tunnels.
I had someone coming to collect some flowers, some rhubarb roots to drop to a neighbour, cook the dinner then I am done for the day, but it was a good, productive and fairly warm day.
Dahlias in the kitchen for a few weeks, it is a steady 16c in there so perfect conditions for them 😊
Monday 19th February 2024: Decent enough weather today even if it is a little colder than the weekend. I was up early as I needed to deliver pedestal flowers to the church for a funeral today, John dropped me off and it was a brisk walk back. The traffic is still awful due to another local road being closed and our village turned into a rat run instead 🙄 I spent the rest of the morning in the flower room mostly washing out jam jars I had been given, also had a fair amount of tidying up to do and while I was there I did do a bit of flower faffing because, well why not 😊 In the afternoon I went to the funeral that I had done the flowers for, it was the funeral of a local lady that was well known, full of character and well respected. The turn out was good and all the cars parked probably added to the chaos in the village, especially after someone made an error of judgement and drove into the Ford 🙄 too deep especially after all that rain we had, needless to say they were stranded and then apparently three fire engines arrived to try and get the vehicle out which further clogged up the through road 🤪 The police have now closed the Ford off so that no one else attempts to go through.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 we did venture out on to the farm for a little walk but for toddlers (who mainly stumble and fall over) it is not ideal with chicken and goose poop all over the place 😂
Wednesday: The weather is vile today, could hear heavy rain again in the night and this morning it has continued along with some windy weather as well.
One of the jobs high on my to do list is to empty out the greenhouse and give it a good clean and wash before putting everything back in. Obviously this needs a dry (and for comfort a fairly mild day) in order to complete it successfully, it looks like I will be waiting a while as rain is forecast forever 🤪
As I am in cleaning mode and as I can’t do the greenhouse I thought I might as well do the bathroom instead so that has had a descale, the walls wiped down everything cleaned. Then a quick hoover and polish around the rest of the rooms.
John informed me that the horses had got out over night, no surprise there as the fences are going over left right and centre. The amount of rain we have had has either rotted the posts or the ground movement has loosened them. We have the new fencing ready but are waiting for someone to come and knock them in with the tractor, it’s too wet for them to do it at the moment so we are in a catch 22 situation 🙄 At the end of this month lambing will begin in earnest all over the country and so farm workers will be busy doing that and we still may not get the fencing done due to the contractor we use having those other commitments. We might have to commit to a weekend and hire a hydraulic rammer and do it ourselves and just pray that the weather holds while we do it.
I did nip out to the greenhouse but it was not very nice out there so I came back inside. I needed to find a job to do, I have many but what do I want to do rather than what I should be doing feels right today 🤪 I had some bits of veg to use up from the fridge and so I made a veg stew in the slow cooker. I make plenty of soups, I had chicken and veg soup yesterday and then mushroom soup today both made from scratch, I wanted a side dish that could be frozen and then used with something like a lamb chop or even a piece of chicken. A veg stew seemed the perfect thing so I chopped up celery, carrot, leek, broccoli stalks, garlic and added spinach, broad beans and courgettes from the freezer some thyme I have hanging in the kitchen, veg stock and black pepper, put it all in the slow cooker and I will thicken it when is has cooked down a little. You could make this with pretty much anything you have and eat it like that or add dumplings or use it as a side dish like I intend to.
Thursday: I was determined to get the greenhouse cleaned this week but the weather this morning was atrocious nevertheless if a girl is on a mission, she is on a mission. I decided first up to wash down the outside because the rain would then rinse of the soap suds so I picked a dry moment dashed out and washed all the glass down. Then it hammered down which is fine because that’s what I wanted. Next I thought I may as well get in there and move everything from one end to the other and clean that end then move it all back and do the other end. Sounds easy but there was a lot of squeezing round or stepping over things to be done before I could put one end back again. I have swept it all down and cleaned all the windows, moved all the plants that are in there and checked for slugs while I was going, I found three big fat ones and slung them outside. I just started moving everything from the other end when the septic tank lorry turned up so I made the driver a coffee, had a little chat and then he was on his way again. He was telling me how his company has a scientist on board and she is making great strides setting up separate stations for them to take the sewage to and it is being processed in such a way that it is able to go back onto fields. It is all being vigorously tested and the fields are monitored and tested but it looks like it is a process that will work well. They are having difficulty taking it to the main sewage works because of the flooding at the minute and because the plants are not up to taking the amount that is produced, hence it has to go into the rivers. It is all very well moaning about it polluting the rivers but unless we all stop pooping then it will continue. The smaller stations dotted around would make much more sense and would be more able to cope by the sounds of things.
I went back into the greenhouse once he had left and continued with the other end and the areas under the benches. I had thought that I didn’t have any mice in there this year but as soon as I moved some stuff out shot a mouse. It was scared, I was surprised and I am not sure who moved fastest 😂 well actually it was the mouse 🤪 I carried on moving bits and another leapt out and promptly ran out of the door, still one little sod in there somewhere. They had been nesting in some soak mats that are used in the summer and there were holes in them plus they stank of mouse wee and now so do I. Eventually I had worked my way round the whole greenhouse and found some whopping great spiders while I was at it, shame they don’t eat slugs and mice really.
All the plants have had a good move round and the light levels are now better because the glass is clean and apart from the resident mouse everything is good and I can start some more seed sowing.
Friday: Much colder today and more rain overnight 🙄 I wanted to get some of the seedlings pricked out but I was not going to do it in the greenhouse. It was too cold in there and these seedlings have been growing on the windowsill indoors so the shock of temperature difference might have killed them off even if they were just there for a while. So I filled up the trays with compost and bought them into the kitchen to do the job, I just about found enough windowsill space to put them all. I did go out and do some support netting on the front beds but my feet got cold so I only did a small area. The sun came out so I thought I will go into the polytunnel and plant up some plants from the greenhouse, it was pleasant enough in there. I forgot the weed membrane on the floor lets the water through and ended up wet, dirty knees 🤪 Not much else I can do out there today really as the temps are plummeting to freezing tonight so best not to disturb anything too much. I came in and sat down to write the blog before having some lunch and the minute I sat down the doorbell went, It was delivery of canes which I was waiting for so I wasn’t too annoyed lol.
I have tried outside today but it’s too cold and wet so I thought I would be better off in the warm doing a bit more learning instead.
Saturday: A frosty start to the day and one of the first jobs was to get the horses back in their right paddock as they had escaped again 🙄 One of the problems is that we have had to shut them out of the biggest paddock at the back, we have a big problem with the fences this year. Due to the amount of rain and the rubbish fencing that was churned out a few years back they are now rotting and leaning or falling practically everywhere. We spent a chunk of money on new posts and are waiting for the chap to come and bang them in but the ground is so wet he can’t get his tractor on the ground without churning it up massively so we have to wait. Meanwhile the horses (or more specifically Jack) takes any opportunity to push through to other paddocks. The situation is such that we can’t get one lot of fencing up before another lot is going over, the high winds haven’t helped as some of the fence line has had hefty branches come down and take the fence with it.
John went to work first thing while I sorted out some flowers for Monday morning, burnt some rubbish and practiced making a dried flower, flower crown for an upcoming workshop. Then once John came home we went off to our grandnephews 4th birthday party where we caught up with extended family. Once back home we donned work clothes and went up the back to try and sort out (fix) some of the fencing that has gone over in the big paddock. Once we have cobbled it back together we can let the horses back in and they will be happier as they have more area to graze over. We worked out there until it got almost dark and we just have a bit more to do tomorrow.
Sunday: It was another frosty start but it thawed fairy quickly in the early sunshine. I cut some foliage for birthday flowers going out tomorrow then a few household bits while I waited for John to bring in the eggs. When he didn’t appear I went to look for him and he was down in the far corner fixing the fence already. Once that was done we were able to let the horses back in and they now have a new bit to graze on which was a sectioned off walkway. We don’t really need it now and the fence was falling down so we altered it for them to graze, it will save us mowing it.
I was doing some bits in the greenhouse and garden while John was trying to sort out a water butt on the end of the greenhouse. We have one each side but one keeps going over and so out came the sand and cement plus a few slabs and hopefully that will make it more stable.
By mid afternoon the sun had disappeared and it was cold on the fingers and toes so we called it a day, went in and lit the fire then spent the afternoon relaxing.
Early evening, I got the dinner, John did the animals then I had to make up the bouquets of flowers for tomorrow and finally we can sit down and not do anything at all 🤪
Monday 12th February 2023: Wowzers I logged on to see a message from WordPress wishing me happy anniversary, 13 years I have been blogging, that’s some dedication isn’t it 😂
The sun has shone beautifully today and my first job was to walk up to the church and meet the lady in charge as I have a customer who wants pedestal flowers for a funeral next week. It was nippy on the fingers but a lovely walk there and back, even with the volume of traffic that has increased due to another local road being closed from today for repairs. I say repairs I am not sure they actually do very much 🙄 the pot holes are ridiculous around the area, some could be regarded as craters rather than holes and some are very dangerous indeed especially on the unlit roads. The council seem to be able to wriggle out of paying any compensation from what I have seen on social media so it is costing car owners a fortune.
Once I was back I set about the business of selling flowers, well gearing up for it anyway. I got my roadside sign out and cleaned it up ready for the year ahead and made some extra signs that can be added to it to say when I have flowers available. Then I made a notice for the egg shed so that people know exactly how to pay for their flowers and finally make sure the doorbell was working, it wasn’t 🤪 So here is where working by yourself gets annoying, once I prised the bell off the gatepost and took it in to find a new battery (turns out I didn’t need one as the bell works and just needed the battery clamped a little tighter) I took it back outside and re fitted it. So far so good but I needed to see if it works and I am too far from the house to hear the internal end of the bell. So I set my phone on voice memo, pressed record and went outside to ring the bell, came back in to listen to the recording to find out if it actually works. I am glad to say it does and so that saves me a lot more faffing around.
I made soup for lunch today and we have left over roast chicken for dinner tonight, there is enough for bubble and squeak for John and I will have mine with some mushrooms and pasta or rice, haven’t decided which yet.
In the afternoon I was in the flower room creating a heart memorial with flowers for a customer tomorrow. I love doing these, they are different and I usually know who they are for so each one is a little sad to make but an honour to be asked and made with love and respect.
I also made up a small bunch of flowers for someone having a tough time at the minute, they are purely from me to them to say, chin up, you will get through this. That’s the thing about flowers, they can say so many things, I love you, I’m sorry, I’m here for you, Happy birthday, Happy anniversary and so much more, only one other thing can do the same, Chocolate 🥰
I will have flowers for Valentine’s Day but I have not taken orders I mean how many significant others are that well organised 😂 This year at least I will be relying on those that are driving past, see the sign and think ‘you have saved my day’ and with the diverted traffic increase it might work well!
I did a small amount outside, just moving Ranuculas from the greenhouse to the poly tunnel, where the air flow will be better for them, before coming in for a sit down.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 We had a fun filled afternoon it being pancake day. It’s one of those traditions that everyone loves, my Mum always made us pancakes, I made our girls pancakes and now they make their children pancakes. This year it fell in the half term and so they all came over here for pancakes with Oscar which is lovely. It was carnage 😂 all kinds of goodies went on top of each pancake and Oscar although he is only 16 months put away three of three and wanted more! Once they were done the adults had a chance to have a more civilised feast of pancakes, fruits, crème fraise and a drizzle of melted chocolate 😊
Although I had already been busy all day long there was no time to rest as I had flowers to get sorted for tomorrow. Finally sat down around 9pm so that was a long day.
Wednesday: It is of course Valentines day ❤️ so I was up early getting the sign out and putting out some flowers I had made up last evening.
I spent a good chunk of time sorting out what was going to be for lunch and dinner tonight before going out into the greenhouse for a more gentle couple of hours. I have sown seeds, pricked out seedlings and divided up a large pot of chrysanthemums. I have a lot more chrysanthemums to divide yet and no idea where I will put them all. Some I will be selling as small plants but I will be keeping a lot for flowers later in the year. I have two reasons to try and sell a lot of plants this year, one is because I have a lot of material to divide and can’t possibly use it all and the other is because I have an awful lot of plant pots 🤪 Seriously I can’t believe how many there are out there, so if I can use a good lot to sell plants in then I will free up some space. I don’t think I have ever bought a new plant pot in my life, not empty ones anyway, there is always someone who asks if I want any and I never say no lol.
Thursday: I got a bit done first thing and then Mia, George and Lucie for a few hours while Sam was busy and Charlie came over with Oscar. After everyone had lunched we went out for a walk, it was a lovely afternoon, the sun was out and it felt pleasant. The ground in still a bit soggy underfoot in places and so directing George away from mud was a full time job 😂
Friday: Another nice enough day in the end, the sun came out again and so working outside was ok. I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse first, dividing more chrysanthemums, I will have lot of good sized plants at this rate. Yesterday one of those cheap tunnels arrived because that’s where I want to put the chrysanthemums once they start to flower. At the minute they are in the small tunnel, they come out over summer and then go back in as the weather changes, mostly to save the flowers from the rain and cold. But it means I can’t use the tunnel for anything else and it is difficult to manoeuvre in there when I am cutting the stems and so I ordered this one. I put it together in the afternoon once I had put membrane down in the place I want it to go, turns out it was bigger than I had imagined, because of course I didn’t take much notice of the dimensions when I ordered it only that it was big enough 😂 It is actually really good value for money and fairly robust once everything is tightened up, though I am not sure it will stand up to high winds 🙄 so I may need to remove the cover once the flowers are done each winter 🤷♀️
Saturday: We did a few jobs around the place before going off to collect some very lovely flower buckets that someone was selling online. A florist that was retiring and moving away, she was lovely and full of support for British flowers, gave me lots of extras as well as lots of great flower arranging tips.
We just got back when Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and the Charlie, Macca and Oscar arrived too. Shelley and family had been in London for the past few days having a lovely time being tourists and we heard all about their adventures. Meanwhile Charlie had come to fill up some bags with woodchip to take home and put on her garden.
After everyone had gone I spent some time doing the greenery for a pedestal arrangement that will be going on Monday, the flowers I will put in on Sunday ready to be delivered first the Monday morning.
In the evening My brother and his wife popped for a visit and a cuppa.
Sunday: It rained all night long, heavy at times, we had 4 inches of water in a bucket that was empty last evening. The paddocks were flooded, the hay barn was flooded, the lane was flooded, it was a terrific amount of water overnight. We went out to the lane first thing to see just how deep it was and if cars could pass, just about was the conclusion we came to along with our neighbour.
John and I then spent quite a few hours working on the front fence line, it was in a state of disrepair and falling over so we began taking it down, cutting back and raking out debris. By mid afternoon we had got it sorted and now all that is left to do is burn all the branches and rotten fencing. We then need to plant some saplings into any gaps, we left the stock fencing up as there are so many bits of tree and shrubs growing through it that it stays there by itself and looks ok as it is.
All the time we were working we were watching cars come down the lane towards the flooded area, some, especially smaller cars, turned around, some drove through cautiously and some absolute t**ts sped through with some speed (yep that is you in the DPD van too) Great fun for them not so much for us with land each side and definitely not so much for the poor jogger who got soaked by one idiot going through 😡 and got called, quite rightly, some choice names. I was secretly hoping that at least one that went through like an idiot would break down the other side so we could have a good laugh, wicked I know but would have been very satisfying 🤣
Even though we had all that rain, the weather was actually really nice during the day, spring is definitely on the way thank goodness. Blossom is beginning to burst out, daffodils, iris, crocus, snowdrops, hellebore are all adding to the pops of colour and all very welcome after the greyness of Winter.
Monday 29th January 2024: First month of the year almost done we just need to get through February 😂
I started the day with a cook up, I am getting into a good routine with this and I have great freezer choices to show for it. We had roast chicken yesterday and so I wanted to make good use of the leftovers this morning. In the slow cookers are a chicken stew mix which could also be used for chicken pie. The other one has the carcass in with onion, carrot, bay and thyme, that will be stock, useful for gravy or soup. The last lot is in a pan and is chicken curry, I like a mild curry and use whatever spices I have available, a bit of this and a bit of that, as long as it tastes good too me that’s fine as John does not eat curry.
Shelley popped in for a cuppa but as soon as she left I went outside as the weather is pretty good again today.
I have been tidying the area around the greenhouse, the winds we have had blew things everywhere and knocked over overwintering plants. I swept up all the leaves and righted the pots, picked up pots and rubbish that had been blown around and that is a great time to check on the health of plants that have gone through the winter. I only found a couple that didn’t make it so that’s great news, the others are all beginning to put small amounts of growth on, they will be left now to continue growing in until I can plant them up or sell them on.
I found a frog! This is fabulous news because I haven’t seen any since we had the snake a couple of years ago, funnily enough I was only talking to Mum about it yesterday and then today ta da 😊
Indoors for a quick lunch and a cuppa before going back outside where I decided to tidy up the plant pot section 😬 oh my days I have a ridiculous number of pots 😂 I found a clutch of eggs too but decided to throw them rather than test them but they didn’t pop or smell so we’re probably recently laid there. Normally I would test them and then we would use them ourselves or give them to the dogs and cats but I was feeling sure they would be no good, wrong 🤪 never mind. The hens are confined to their outdoor run at the minute because they scratch everything up and I want some of the plant growth to get stronger before they come back out. If they see newly mulched beds they think it is for their pleasure!
Tuesday: Oscar day, he was on fine form today lol.
Wednesday: I couldn’t really get stuck into much because I had a hospital appointment in the afternoon in Oxford 🙄 While I am grateful, getting to the other side of Oxford for 4pm is a mission. You need to avoid the school traffic and then avoid the work traffic on the way out. The first we managed by leaving here early, the second, nope, two hours to get back home 🤪 The appointment was a Lupus one and we had a good discussion about various symptoms, I had lots of blood tests for any vitamin deficiencies as well as monitoring vital organ health. Remember that blood test I had that means I am HLA-B27 positive? Well it turns out that it is a useful blood test as it elevates me to another level of medications should I ever need them, Biologics 🤷♀️ Useful to know, another thing I found out is that when I had blood tests for my eyes they tested my heart enzymes as well, along with a chest X-ray I think these are pre checks for the Biologics in case I need to have them at some point.
I did play with some flowers in the morning though so not a totally wasted day, I also cut some flowers for a test run. Hellebore can be tricky and I want to use some at the weekend so I tried different methods of conditioning for them to see which holds up best.
In the evening I had a zoom meeting to attend although by 8pm I was quite tired and by the time it finished at 9.30pm I was definitely knackered 😂
Thursday: Sunny but colder today and I mostly spent all morning trying to do an information reel that in the end was not how I wanted it to be 🤪 If at first you don’t succeed try, try, try again but it does take up a lot of time which is fine in the winter months, I won’t be doing it during the spring and summer 😬
I then tried to set up a new email with my Google domain, sign in, wrong password, really I only changed it two weeks ago 🤷♀️ hit the forgot password button, chose the text message option for a code, no signal, none, nada, so try again with an email option……we will send it in 5 days, 5 days wtaf! This is the age of instant information what in the heck could take five days? I could probably get snail mail quicker than that. So here I am stuck between a rock and a hard place at the minute unable to update my business page 🙄
Friday: I had some flowers to cut this morning then some flowery stuff to do, it’s nice to have that amazing smell again, everyone always comments about how lovely the flower room smells.
My tooth or more precisely the socket where to tooth was is still giving me a bit of gip but nothing like it was, I think everything around it is moving and settling now now it’s more of an irritating nag than pain.
The farrier came late afternoon and Sam had already called in and got the horses into the stable with some hay so I only had to get them out and tie them up. Once their pedicure was complete I took them back out to the field where they had more hay. I was hoping John was going to be around to help me (and he was) because the gateway fences are really bad and almost going over, I can just see the scenario if they went over while I was trying to get two great galahs through 😂 We had a delivery of new gates and fence posts the other day ready to re new everything and hopefully we can get that done soon. The price of timber has gone up massively since we last bought any and it was a bit of a shock at how much one fence post is these days let alone 50 of them! Needless to say we will be reusing every bit of rail that is remotely good enough 🤪
We went food shopping straight after the horses were turned back out and I am finding it hard to believe the cost of food these days too 🙄 John and I talked about how expensive it must be with a growing family, we don’t even need to buy much but it still adds up. John insists on giving the cats and dogs treats on top of what they already eat, personally I wouldn’t as I am not keen on cereal based food for animals that wouldn’t normally eat it, but no matter how much I say about it he still buys them, you will kill them with kindness I tell him 🤷♀️
Food has been high on my thought chart this week despite the cost of it, I have been watching or reading different things about what is in a lot of it and how to make better swaps. It amazes me that people understand so little about what they are eating and what is healthy and what is not. The industry has managed to convince shoppers that low sugar or low fat are better products, they are not, they are just lower in sugar or fat, something else has been included to counter that and in low fat it is usually sugar and in low sugar it’s usually fat! You are not getting away from either ingredient lol, and don’t even get me started on how harmful sweetness are 😳 Eat full fat just don’t eat much of it, eat sugar instead of sweetener just don’t eat much of it, better still cut sugar out altogether. I confess I am no Angel 😇 I do not cut out sugar, I should but I don’t, I might try for a while but it never lasts. Watching or reading these things makes me realise that we do well with our food really, yes we eat sugar and fats but I cook from scratch (and scratch is not a jar of sauce and some mince btw) and I know exactly what is in most of our meals right down to how much salt because I have put it in myself.
My next lot of cooking or baking is going to be breakfast bars and maybe breakfast muffins. I normally have a banana for breakfast, sometimes with oats and Greek yoghurt but often I would like something I can grab and get on or have it with a cuppa mid morning. Oats, yoghurt, banana can all be turned into bars or muffins with a couple of extra ingredients so it is basically the same in a different form.
Saturday & Sunday: Bust couple of days as the weather is holding and for Winter it was fairly pleasant so we worked outside. John has been taking down collapsing fencing and gateways and replacing with new posts, reusing old rail and hung a new gate. He also helped me to put in some stakes on the perennial beds after I had top dressed them and mulched. I then put in place some netting to help the stems grow up through and keep them upright. Last year I lost too many stems to the wind or that just fell over, this will help them grow straight, stay in situ and so be more useful as cut flowers. I also spent a good deal of time at the bottom end of the garden cutting back shrubs and pruning the apple tree. The blackcurrant bushes there have died (swamped by nettles) and I cut the gooseberry bushes right down, there is still a lot of work to be done there but I made a good start.
I had some flowers to do for a customer who was having a Ruby wedding anniversary party and I was able to use some beautiful dark red Hellebore. They are notoriously divarish and can just flop without warning so I hope they behaved themselves, I did do a test run a few days before and all seemed well and then I cut them the day before and they were still ok the next day when I delivered them.With Hellebore they respond well to balancing in hot water for a minute or two, you can see all the air bubbles coming out and that’s what you want, to displace the air so the stem can take up water.
The fragrance from these jam jar flowers was amazing.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 