Tag: flowers

Posted in Friesland Farm

Plenty of hearts and flowers this week 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th February 2023: The temps dipped to below freezing again last night but the sun is out so that makes you chirpy. I jumped in the shower after breakfast and when I came back to the kitchen John told me the horse had got into the front paddock. They are only allowed in there when it is electrified so that they don’t eat my fruit trees that have been growing for five years. I dried my hair in quick fashion and went out to get hay and get the horse back where it belonged, I needed to find a spare rail as it had been broken during the escape to pastures new, not greener as it was all frozen just like the rest of the paddocks. When I got back inside after getting that done I felt my hair, some of it was frozen where it hadn’t quite dried 😂 I was only out there for a maximum of 15 minutes.

Tuesday: Another frosty frozen morning but I was up early to get some tribute flowers done for a customer first thing then once I had done that and then the eggs plus feed the cats and dogs I sat down with tea and toast 😁

I got some hoovering and polish done and then the girls arrived along with Oscar and we went out for a walk. The sun was shining though it was still on the cold side but nice enough. We saw a small herd of around 10 deer in one of the fields, they all stood watching us from afar but you could still make out the stag with his antlers standing proud above all their heads. I think they were red deer, they looked dark in colour rather than pale like fallow deer but we were quite far away so couldn’t be certain. They were definitely big unlike the muntjac that we always see plenty of when we are driving around the lanes.

Natural, heart shaped, 100% compostable, sustainable, tribute flowers.
Natural and 100% compostable tribute flowers for a customer today.

I have another natural heart to make but this time it is for valentines to hang on the front door ❤️

Wednesday: It is like a Winter wonderland out there this morning, very cold but very beautiful. The fog is heavy and white and everything is frozen in time, beautiful frozen spider webs hanging everywhere 😍 The horses were vocal when I took their hay out to them, it was only 7.30 but I am sure they were saying ‘about time too’.

Not sure what I am going to do today, I am hoping the sun will come out and burn off the fog but it’s pretty heavy so I don’t know if that will happen. It is very cold out there so I am not planning on any outside jobs at the minute 🙄

Almost midday and the fog is worse I think 😂 and it is still freezing out there so I have spent the morning working on business posts and ideas for the flowers. I have a few orders coming in which is fabulous but it’s always a good idea to generate future work 😁 My head is buzzing with ideas and I often think about going on a floristry course but I also think that I love having the unrestrained free flowing ability to create things how I want to and not how it’s taught, the jury is still out on that one 🤪

The sun broke through mid afternoon ☀️ better late than never.

I have had some ranunculus corms soaking on the windowsill, I planted some in autumn outside in the tunnels but I kept some back just in case. The mice love to eat the corms and the weather reeks havoc with the foliage so I hedged my bets and saved some for spring planting. I planted them up yesterday into a shallow tray of soil and covered them, they are in the kitchen and hopefully I can pre sprout them before planting out in a few weeks time. That’s the plan anyway, ranunculus are the most beautiful flowers and it would be nice to get a really good crop this year so I am trying everything. I dug up a couple of stinging nettles that had taken hold on one of the raised beds. I couldn’t dig it out when everything was growing madly but I also had a job to cut the flowers near the stingers 🤪 so I have waited until all the foliage has died back and then dug them out. It’s surprising how quickly they become a strong plant very often growing away nicely through winter when everything else has died back. Nettles are of course a good indicator of fertile soil so that’s a bonus but even so I don’t want them there.

Thursday: Not frozen this morning yay 😀 I had looked at the weather and the sun will be out and so I got three loads of washing done so that I could get it on the line a d dry as much as possible outside. I also made two heart bases for flowers that have been ordered for this weekend, working with natural materials mean you never get exactly the same thing twice, that’s what makes them natural and bespoke.

These are the bases that the flowers are then attached to, same material, but two slightly different shapes emerge.

Friday: Up early to get the Friday flowers all arranged, wrapped and then out for sale. Once I finished that then tidied away and got all the other jobs done I just had time for a cuppa before Oscar arrived. I looked after him today while Charlie and Macca had some r&r which was Maccas birthday present.

Saturday: Not frosty this morning 😁 and some average temperatures for the time of year forecast today. Once again after getting all the morning jobs done and putting flowers out for sale I got on with an order for a year that is being collected later. I also did one yesterday that will be going on a door for valentines ❤️

I spent a very happy few hours in the greenhouse 😁 first of all cleaning down the shelving, sweeping away cobwebs and dust, sorting any rubbish and putting things away neatly. Then onto potting up some plants that had arrived at the end of last year and I hadn’t got round to doing. Luckily they are fine and there are actually signs of growth on them all, they are all perennials that will be part of the flowers for cutting. Flower farming is a combination of annual flowers which tend to be quick growing, bright and showy but short lived, perennials which are slower growing but flower over a longer period and of course come back each year. Then there is foliage which is generally perennial (evergreen & deciduous) but takes an age to get to any size which is where herbs come in, quicker growing, perennial and they smell amazing 🥰 Many gardeners grow a combination of all these the trick when you are ‘farming’ them is to make sure you have successional sowings and blooms, easier said than done 🤪

Sunday: Another decent day weather wise though we didn’t get much done outside. A quick food shop first thing followed by coffee and breakfast out, back home to unpack the shopping and get a few things done (I can’t even remember what) John tided up some bits in the front driveway and then once finished we went to the garden centre as there were some seeds I wanted to get (and I also got some I didn’t even know I needed 😂) I could not believe the price of seeds, mostly I save seed from what I grew before but there were a couple of annuals that I couldn’t get seed from because I left it too late. I do have a good selection of collected seed though and I think I might package some to put out for sale. Once back home we sat down for a cuppa just as Shelley, Martin and the children arrived followed not long after by Charlie, Macca and Oscar. Charlie had come to collect a heart that I had made for her for Valentine’s Day, this one will hang on her front door. Shelley and Martin had been over to Diddly Squat Farm, we have been binge watching the second series. Sadly I am not shocked at the way the planners and some of the locals have treated the whole situation. They need to look beyond the fact that he is a celebrity and wether you like him or not he is doing a fantastic job sticking up for British farming. Planning have thwarted him at every turn and the ridiculous situations and procedures that farmers have to follow regarding TB, bird flu, moving dirt from one area of the farm to another borders on hysterical except we know that it’s not funny because farmers are going under. We need to take a good long look at farming in the UK, remember back during the war when the country really needed them and their skills to keep everyone alive well it’s not beyond the realms of reality that the same could happen again 🙄

A heart for Valentines, for the front door this time 🥰
Posted in Friesland Farm

Getting some work done, Friday Flowers & a small disaster or two 🤪

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th January 2023: I decided today was the day to start getting on outside well in the tunnels actually. The weather is fair for the time of year and it’s not raining so it seemed like a good idea. I did all the bits that needed doing inside before venturing out to cut back all the chrysanthemums in the small tunnel, they will go back outside once the weather is a little better and I will feed and water them then. In the big tunnel the anemone and ranunculus are coming through slowly, it’s still a bit too cold for them to be doing much but they are making an effort and the anemone have even started to flower although the stems are short. I did some weeding in there as well but in all honesty there was not much to get my teeth into. Onto the greenhouse and that’s when the deflation set in as a mouse has eaten pretty much everything that I had growing 😏 try as I might I cannot keep the mice out of there and I even put things up on racks to try and stop them but with no success. Some tulip bulbs and elephant garlic has been eaten along with seeds and seedlings. I reason with myself that there is plenty that has survived the winter but still it is a pain in the proverbial and a set back. I have decided that I will not do autumn sowings again though as it just isn’t worth the hassle better to concentrate on spring sowings and hope for better success. It is a constant battle against nature and better to pick the battles you might actually win I suppose. It is too early to tell what exactly has survived in the garden yet but I suspect most things are ok, those that didn’t make it will perhaps need some rethinking, do I try again or not bother and find an alternative that will, I think I know the answer to that one 😁

A quick look round the garden areas and I can see plenty of spring bulbs pushing their way upwards, there is a lot of cutting back to do but I am reluctant to start that just yet. Insects are still hibernating and all that dead stuff is providing cover not just for them but for the roots of plants as well, the temptation is strong though 🤪

Yep it was too strong 😂 so I went out and did a good few hours of cutting back dead stuff, I chop a lot of it up and leave it on the ground and I did find overwintering insects, some good, some not so good, for my plants anyway. I had to really force myself to stop, it’s like going to the gym after you haven’t been for months (or years) I am using muscles that have not been used all winter and they were feeling it.

I did go back out and mulch a few pots with some wood chip, I have a peach tree in a pot that has never produced a peach, a couple of small leaved lime trees and a winter flowering clematis which is just about to flower. If I mulch a few things a day they will all be ready to face whatever the weather throws our way 🙄

Tuesday: Another good session outside and I was able to get more washing dry on the line, winning 😁 I spent a good amount of time cutting back, tidying areas and mulching with woodchip. I got the slow cooker on the go first thing with some left over chicken and vegetables so I didn’t have to worry about stopping to sort the dinner later in the afternoon. The temperatures are pleasant for the time of year and I even have to take my coat off now and again when I get too hot. A few more days like these will mean I will be on course to meet spring 🥰

Wednesday 1st February: The weather is looking good for today again, dry and reasonable enough temperatures so I am planning to be outside a fair bit. I need to cut some foliage and anything else I can find as I have flowers arriving tomorrow ready for week end sales. These are grown by a family run business here in the south so although they are not mine they are still supporting the UK economy and hopefully my tulips, narcissi and hellebores will not take too long to appear.

Thursday: A sweet and sour morning lol, we had good wins on the premium binds, sweet 😁 news that the bird flu has jumped species into foxes and otters, sour 😏 the bad news keeps coming, interest rates going up again and water costs going up by 7.5% 🙄 the cost of living is getting higher and higher. The mass strikes are doing nothing but add to the problems, I have no doubt that each strike is for the right reasons but surely anyone can see that there is no way on Earth that all of these demands could ever be met across the board even if the government wanted to (I am not denying that they don’t) It boils down to the fact that the unions are wanting to bring the government down, fair enough but is the alternative going to be any better 🤷‍♀️ I seriously doubt it and somehow, someday the next generation will be paying for it. I guess it is like cooking dinner for a big family, you can please some of them some of the time but not all of them all of them time 🙄

Friday: I was awake early so figured I may as well get up and get on. I woke up and everything I needed to get done first thing was going round in my head so there was no way I would get back to sleep for another hour. I had flowers to organise for the Friday flower launch, four bunches composed, one hand tied for a regular customer sorted, three lots of jam jar flowers arranged. Then it was on to getting everything out to the farm gate and the sign at the end of the driveway, I got cramp in my hands when I was trying to jump it down there 🙄 Once that as done and all the tidying up done I had time for half a cup of tea before shooting off to get blood tests done. Six vials today 😂 as the hospital wanted to test and see why I am getting cramp all the time. I am pretty sure they will come back with no apparent reason and that I am just getting old 🤪 but you never know. The infection I had finally cleared up so there will be no need to drop my immune suppressants, yay. Back home for a cup of hot sweet tea to compensate for all that blood gone and then back on with the day.

It was all going so well and then not 🙄 I had decided to give some flowers away on the Facebook page, a simple question to answer and then names go into a draw, easy you would think. Then hackers started messaging everyone who had commented that they had won, I literally could not keep up with the notifications that kept rolling in from the hackers 😢 I had a mad half an hour or more of trying to delete it all and then change my password, put a message out so that nobody followed the fake links. I hate these people or more likely bots, not only do they damage a business reputation but make the business owner feel like crap. I thought I would do a good thing but it ended up shite so I won’t be doing that again sadly, I found it all rather deflating not to mention stressful.

At dusk John was putting the birds away and I was getting the flowers in when our dog started barking furiously at the roadside. We had a look and a car had stopped because there was a dog on the road, I didn’t recognise it but took it back with me into the yard to keep it safe from the traffic. It actually lives over the road but I had never taken any notice (note to self be more aware lol) We could hear our neighbour calling for it and reunited them, another strange dog episode as she said the dog never gets out, first ours then theirs, strange goings on.

Bunches of British grown flowers and foliage ready for sale for ‘Friday Flowers’ Flowers at Friesland Farm Shilton Oxon
Friday flowers 🥰
Jam jars filled and ready for sale for ‘Friday Flowers’
Jam jar flowers

Saturday: A busy morning first thing with customers coming for flowers, I am so chuffed that the first week has gone so well and excited for the rest of the flower year to see what that brings (no more competitions though 😂) John did the feed run after he had to go and fix a burst pipe that is. In between customers I sorted out the ranunculus corms to soak, some I planted in Autumn and they are coming up nicely in the tunnel along with the anemones. Then I sorted the pots of hyacinths which are just breaking the surface and will be some lovely first flowers for using in various ways. The temps are set to dip low again in the first part of the week, it is still winter I suppose 😏 but hopefully after that they will steadily climb upwards and everything will start to spring into life.

Sunday: A frosty start but the sun soon melted that away and it was a lovely day. I spent the morning in the garden, tidying, weeding, cutting back plenty of dead stuff. I can see new growth coming through on plenty of plants which is fabulous. I checked over the bulbs I had planted especially for cutting and most of them are breaking the surface nicely, one bed is suspiciously devoid of any growth and the bulbs have probably been eaten. Ranunculus are particularly tasty to mice and although I do have some coming up I suspect a lot of them have been snacked on. However I did keep some back and they are currently on the windowsill soaking in water to rehydrate them, they will then go on a shallow tray of soil and be pre sprouted before being planted up. I hope to guarantee a crop that way but you never know. It always seems that the loveliest of flowers is also lovely to every other living thing around 🤪 John has been cleaning out the birds and also working on the workshop area, someone has already asked about using it to teach a bee keeping course so I am thinking it was a good decision though I have yet to work out how everything will proceed.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A disappearing dog and a trip away.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday January 23rd 2023: It’s still bloody cold outside 🥶 I can’t wait for it to warm up a bit, the areas in the shade are not even thawing out during the daytime at the minute. Mentally I am ready to get on with the work outside but physically I know my hands and feet will suffer so I am holding off.

Apparently between 5 & 6pm tonight there will be a big demand on energy due to the cold weather, if you are signed up (and you need a smart meter) you can get paid to reduce your consumption considerably during this hour. Even if you are not signed up perhaps it would be a good idea to help reduce the load anyway, going forward I think we will be seeing a lot more of this kind of request. We are quite careful with our energy consumption but there is always more we could and should be doing. One problem I find is that the damn plugs for everything are always behind the appliances meaning it is difficult if not impossible to get to some of them and switch them off at the wall.

Tuesday: Still cold 🥶 around -8 last night and I am officially sick of the freezing temps now lol. Luckily there is nice bright blue sky and sunshine today but it still feels very cold indeed.

I had a phone call mid afternoon from a vet to say that someone had picked up Mia on the road near the Cotswold wildlife park and taken her to them. This is so weird, Mia never goes anywhere as a general rule. The only time she has run off before is when I used the staple gun and we soon realised that she didn’t like that noise and so were always careful to shut her in if anything like that was ever going to be used. So for her to have not only run off but to have gone so far down the way is odd. I imagine she has gone across the fields which eventually ends up on the A361, luckily she was just sat there, a man watched for a while to see if anyone was with her and decided they weren’t so put her in his car and took her to the nearest vets. The horses were also a bit frisky in the paddock so I am wondering if there was something or someone out there 🤷‍♀️ but I couldn’t see anything at all. I will have to watch her all the time now for a while just to make sure she doesn’t do it again. It could have been that she heard me talking to John about giving her a bath last night 😂 she really needs one but it’s a bit cold at the minute.

Thursday: It’s definitely a little warmer than of late but not much, the sun made a splendid appearance though which was a welcome sight. I have been keeping a very close eye on the dog and I have had to call her for quite a while a least once. Goodness knows what she is up too but is obviously in the furthest part of the farm 🤷‍♀️ Charlie and Oscar visited today, they are looking after the place tomorrow through to Saturday while we go away over night. Sam also came over and we popped to town for a mooch and a coffee. Once back home I sorted out the Guinea pig who is on his lonesome now his friend has died and sorted the horses water as well as plenty of other general jobs before the twins arrived for their Thursday sesh. Last night I had a zoom meeting for an hour and a half and I have another one tonight on growing flowers in the polytunnel. There is plenty of info out there about growing veg in a tunnel but very little on extending the flower season in a tunnel, something something that the group I am with is trying to change 😁

Friday: We went away overnight, not very far but it was nice to do something different. We went to Chipping Cambden which is only about 40 minutes away, never been there before but it is a delightful Cotswold town full of lovely old buildings, boutique shops and places to eat. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in the area and I can recommend the Eight Bells for great food, great service and great atmosphere.

Chipping Cambden

Saturday: We retuned home just before lunchtime, Charlie and Macca had been looking after the place and done a great job. We had the afternoon to sort ourselves out before Josh and Florence came over at tea time for a sleep over.

Sunday: I haven’t done much today apart from a few rounds of breakfast

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, lots of learning & and holibob booked.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 10th January 2023: I am feeling a lot better now but the weather leaves a lot to be desired doesn’t it? I am of an age now though when I am totally at peace with ‘what doesn’t get done today will eventually get done at some point’ so don’t stress over it life is too short for that. There is plenty that I could be doing outside but it’s too wet and so it can wait until it is pleasant enough to go out and do it which will be far more enjoyable. I can find lots to do inside and I can find lots to research, read up on or plan which is exactly what I have been doing. I have done some costings for the workshops and roughly planned the times of the year when I will do them, I have made a note of significant flower dates through the year so I know when they are and I have brushed up on some skills so you see I have not been idle at all. Yesterday morning I spent the time sorting out all of the dried flowers I had hung at the end of the season, they are now all nicely stored and ready to do something with when the time comes and the dried flower area is clear ready for hanging the next lot though that won’t be for a while yet. I invested a tiny amount of my profit in a lighting ring to take better photos, I did one practice photo this morning and it is going to make such a difference. All I did was take a snap of clutter on the side but the with and without shots are so different that I can see it was a worthwhile purchase. I also bought a ground auger which attaches to a drill to plant bulbs, again a game changer as you can plant soo many more in less time plus the auger is doing all the hard work for you (especially on this ground which is very difficult to dig in places) I have a lot of bulbs left over and want to put them all down the driveway but having planted some before I know that it is hard work, hopefully this will be a much easier way 🤷‍♀️ I do keep looking at the garden thinking I need to do some cutting back and some weeding but I am also aware that plenty of insects will be hibernating or overwintering in all that dead stuff so I don’t want to disturb them too early, I need to get the balance right. The insect population is in massive decline 😞 we need to be doing all we can to increase diversity in our garden areas. We all know about what plants butterfly’s and bees like but there are thousands more insects that need our support, ground dwellers need healthy soil and plenty of cover or decaying debris, pollinators need a wide range of different types of flowers and foliage. I believe it is up to us to provide a rich diverse garden area to increase the different species of insects and their volume, this is regeneration.

Friday 13th: The weather is shocking lol, rain and lots of it, plenty of water sitting in our paddocks and the Ford in the village is about to spill over I think 🙄 especially if we get as much as is forecast tomorrow. What have I been up to over the past couple of days, well I would like to say I had been outside working on the garden but I haven’t. I figure that it will all wait until the weather is a little more settled and nicer, I have become a fair weather gardener over the last few years. I no longer want to get soaked or end up with chilblains on my feet or have hands that are so numb they take an age to get the feeling back, nope I am definitely moving into my wiser years 😂 Instead I have been finding plenty of jobs indoors including clearing through my entire wardrobe and finally getting rid of stuff I either don’t like or doesn’t fit (and I hang on to it in case one day it miraculously does 🤪) all gone and it feels great. I will be continuing to move through the house with the same determination to declutter everywhere.

I was unaware it was Friday 13th until I typed the date ☝️ up there but it seems fitting somehow that today was the day I chose to begin an online course in funeral flowers 🤷‍♀️ I have no idea what really prompted me to do it but I figured it was another string to my bow. The course is all about sustainable, compostable methods and is geared towards, but not exclusively for, natural or green burials, it seemed fitting somehow and I figured any skills and tips were transferable to other areas so it was a no brainer really 😁

Saturday: More rain, high winds urrrggh I am so done with winter already 🤪 It does offer me the opportunity to stay in the warm and do something useful though. So plenty of learning on the online course which I have to say is very comprehensive and informative I am so glad I decided to do it and as I suspected there are skill transfer opportunities all the way through so great value for money in my opinion. I have also spent some time researching various plants and flowers as well as looking through lots of social media (flower related naturally) watching you tube sessions and listening to podcasts of various types. Yes that is what winters are for I think but still I eagerly await the warmer days. I have also ordered some British grown flowers so that I can have a play and a practise doing a few things 🥰 that will feed my flower habit for a bit. To be honest I have to do some homework/task for the online course using what is available at this time of year, I do have some bits in the garden but I don’t have any narcissi out yet and I want to have a go at using those as well so I ordered some in. I was really saddened to see that one of the cottages in the village was having some landscaping done and had all the mature shrubs ripped out 😢 omg I used to walk past and think ‘look at those lovely specimens, I would love to be able to cut some of those’ I wish I had been there when they started ripping them out, I would have told them I will come and get them, a piece with a root would have been enough. I don’t know what they are replacing the lovely old walls and shrubs with but I can hazard a guess that it will be pretty sterile now 😔 There should be laws against it lol or at least proper consultation with someone who has half an idea about nature 😭

Sunday: Not a bad day weather wise, no rain at least 🤪 I did a quick online workshop for making reels 🙄 this has become more important as time has gone on as the algorithms favour these kind of posts over stills. To be honest I just like to keep up (as best as possible) with technology and it’s avenues, it is surprising how quickly you get left behind otherwise. I put some beef in the slow cooker and we went to my sisters for a mid morning coffee where we got waylaid and booked a holiday while we were there 😁 John is very happy now we have one on the calendar and we will be booking another for later in the year. It is a big year for us, John will be 60 😳 in June and we will have been married for 40 years (how the heck did that happen 🤷‍♀️) I have secured myself some rubies to mark the occasion 😉 and I feel we deserve a few nice holidays and day trips this year of all years 🥰 Shelley, Martin and the children walked over to visit in the afternoon (I did invite them for dinner but they were already going to Martins Mums) and once they had gone we had a lovely roast dinner with a crumble for after. The temperatures are set to plummet tonight, a lot lower than they have been anyway but with that should come sunshine tomorrow ☀️ so I will look forward to that.

No photos this week as I haven’t taken any but I will try and remedy that, in the meantime:

Posted in Friesland Farm

2023 🥳 Happy New Year

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Friday 6th January 2023: We are already the first week into the new year, a time for new beginnings, hopes, dreams and plans. I will briefly recap what happened since I last blogged.

The day after returning from Lapland I came down with a bug, nothing surprising there really but it went on for days and days, nausea, cold, shivering, extreme tiredness, not really what you want in the run up to Christmas as I could barely function. Couple that with the minus temperatures all week long and the difficulties of getting water to the animals every day and life was a tad difficult for a while. I had Christmas table decorations to get made for orders but I could hardly function normally let alone creatively. I had also agreed to make something for the church pulpit from dried flowers.

Thursday 15th December: The temp on the van was registering -10 at 7.30am this morning so what it went down to overnight is anyones guess. This year has definitely been extremes in temperature, I think that might be the coldest we have had here. Hopefully today it is going to get above 0 which will be a massive help because trying to get water to all the animals is bloody difficult I can tell you.

At one point I did think I would have to cancel the Christmas orders or at least put them off but by the designated date I was able to get them all made and off to customers so that was good. It made me realise that I probably would strike weddings off my possibility list because if the Lupus flared I would not be able to fulfil the order and I wouldn’t want that.

I just about felt well enough by the 20th to go out and get the last of the Christmas shopping bits and I never normally leave it that late. By the 23rd I was feeling normal and looking forward the the festivities, we had Christmas carols that evening round the pond which has a Christmas tree in the middle which was a lovely start to Christmas. A lovely relaxed Christmas Eve, Charlie, Macca and Oscar for Christmas Day and then everyone for Boxing Day breakfast and round to Shelley’s for supper in the evening. I was feeling very content, happy and lucky, we went round to my sisters the day after Boxing Day and by now I had developed a tiny irritating cough but nothing too much. Well the cough got worse, much worse, to the point where I was having to hold my side during coughing fits as I was afraid it would herniate, I couldn’t sit down or lie down without spasmodic coughing fits that became continuous. Along with this came sinusitis, a fuzzy head, loss of hearing and I went though a whole pack of toilet rolls just getting rid of the mucus. I felt pretty sorry for myself and was mostly confined to the sofa for what seemed like an eternity. It’s a good job we didn’t have NYE plans and we were supposed to go to Charlie for New Year’s Day dinner but she was ill and so we didn’t go until the following day. All in all Christmas has been about illness and not just for me as I know lots of people who have had similar experiences and are struggling to shrug the bugs off.

I am still not well, better but not well and as luck would have it I had a telephone appointment with the rheumatology dept on the 4th. That was actually pretty constructive and thorough, the upshot is that because I am on the immune suppressants my body can’t fight off the bugs successfully. I have also had an ongoing UTI which at this point I have had three lots of antibiotics for but I can’t shift it. No wonder I feel so poorly, there will be a meeting to discuss how to treat me, it will be a tightrope walk 🙄 Basically in order for my body to fight these infections I will probably need to come off the immune suppressants in order for the antibiotics to work but that in turn could then trigger a Lupus flare, I am stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Obviously I need my body to repair and I don’t think it is going to do that while I am on the medication, the gamble will be how long to I stop it for before it becomes too long 🤷‍♀️

What else happened over Christmas, well we had a weird thing happen when I couldn’t find Diesel’s bowl one morning. He gets fed by the back door and has a stainless steel bowl, this particular morning it was gone and despite searching for it I could not find it. So I found another bowl and used that for his morning and the night feed, the next morning that bowl was gone as well 🤪 I imagine it was a fox that carried them off but where too that is the question. We did find one right at he back in one of the paddocks but never found the other yet. One of those nights I woke up at 1.30 with a coughing fit and could hear something up on the roof, I went into the boot room and the dogs and cats were fast asleep so it wasn’t any of them, also not human otherwise the dogs would have been barking. It was definitely heavier than squirrels or birds so again I am thinking the fox was up there maybe eating the last of the apples that were on the roof still. I told John in the morning and he said ‘didn’t you go out and have a look’ no I bloody didn’t lol, I have watched too many horror films to be that stupid 😂

John has been busy, while I was incapacitated, taking down the partitions in the stable area in order to rebuild it into a work shop for the flowers. He also had to do everything else bless him as I literally could not do anything. Normally I would have spent the time planning the year ahead and working out what I want to get done, what needs planting/sowing and this year what workshops I want to offer but I have not been able to do any of that at all. I have bulbs that arrived that are just sat outside, I have not checked on any of the seeds or bulbs I had already sown for at least a month now but none of that can be helped and I am sure I will catch up at some point. The weather apart from that very cold snap has been mild, mild means plenty of rain, plenty of rain means the front paddock has a lake in it, standard stuff for winter.

That in a nutshell is how the last month has gone for me, illness, Christmas, more illness and not a lot else getting done at all. But as always I am not one to be defeated and so I will keep doing what I can in bite size pieces until I get to where I need to be 😁 I want to be offering various flower workshops this year coming, I want to increase the amount of flowers I sell and I want to make sure I have flowers available on a regular basis so that customers know when they can come and get them. I am looking forward to this next year and seeing what it brings plus I will be getting back on track with the home grown veg which went a little by the by last year, those are my plans at least, we will see how they go.

Today I am going to be clearing and tidying the office/craft room which has become clogged with all manner of things. Dried flowers, craft stuff, Christmas stuff, it all needs sorting and putting away so that I can see what is what in there again. I was going to go out with the girls today but I have decided that I need to limit the possibility of picking up any more bugs. Firstly I don’t think my body can handle much more and secondly I would worry about my chances if I had to end up in hospital with the state of things at the minute 😔 I don’t think the outlook would be good to be honest. The state of the NHS has been a hotly talked about topic as you can imagine, my take on it is that undoubtedly there has been a lack of funding but I also think there is far more to it than that. Purely from a laypersons point of view the system is broken in so many areas it would be difficult to know where to start. It needs looking at from a fresh point of view instead of trying to patch up the holes, easier said than done but maybe that is what happens with anything, a system reaches capacity, collapses and a new system is born.

We have had the first goose egg of the year, that is ridiculously early but as it is so mild not unexpected to be honest.

We are well into the New Year and so as I publish this today I have some exciting plans to look forward to and implement, I already have enquiries coming in which is both fabulous and daunting at the same time 😂 but ‘go big or go home’ Charlie has told me so here I am jumping in both feet first 🤪

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, wreath evenings & wet feet.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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 😔

That’s it this week, have a good one 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Mince pies, flower stand and a rainbow 🌈

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 14th November 2022: Time seems to be whizzing by 🙄 A dank and foggy morning this morning but we are due heavy rain at some point over the next couple of days and so I needed to cut flowers for a few bouquets mid week. There are still some beautiful flowers growing, the foliage is a little more of a struggle now but a bit of creative thinking does not go amiss. I also cleared the rest of the flowers from the big tunnel and the pepper plants. The peppers did so well this year with all that heat and we don’t even eat them 😂 I do free some just in case I want to use them but they are one of the foods that is not so good for my condition. It’s funny because I am not really keen on them anyway almost a natural instinct I reckon 🤷‍♀️ I then cleared out any flowers from the small tunnel that are not going to produce much from here on in, I tied in the chrysanthemums and cut a few small heads for drying. I am drying with Mother’s Day next year in mind as well as Christmas 😂 I need a site meeting with John to discuss the flower workshop, we will convert one of the stables and then at least everything will be in one place and my kitchen won’t end up in such a mess all the time 🤪 I popped in to make a coffee, opened the fridge to get some milk and the pears that I poached in a vanilla sugar syrup fell out and the syrup went all over the floor and hit every shelf in the fridge 😬 the day was going so well until then!

I spent the afternoon making dried flower wreaths, I wanted to use up what I already have to make way for the next lot that is drying. I am still having difficulty taking photos that do them any justice, wherever I try to take them either the light is bad or there is a shadow 🤷‍♀️

I have lost track of the days 🤪 it’s Wednesday today so what did I do yesterday 🤔 no idea 😂 must have done something though! Today I can remember 😁 I started off shovelling and raking some type one on the driveway. John has now finished the new path and we need to bring the levels up to match and so 6 ton of type one was deposited and John raked some if it. I made an effort and did do a bit before thinking enough was enough and went off to do something else. I cut some contorted hazel ready for the wreath evenings and I collected some eucalyptus bark to use as well. Eucalyptus naturally sheds its bark and is cinnamon in colour, as it dries it rolls and so is perfect for using on wreaths no air miles needed 😁 The farrier came today for the horses pedicures and I got the dinner early before going to have my covid booster and then rest for the evening.

Thursday: It has just rained and rained and now we have a little pond in the paddock, it’s not as bad as it has been in other years mind you as we have had a giant lake before now. Today is supposed to be dry so hopefully we get a bit of respite from getting a soaking all the time. I am going out for a coffee with Shelley so I don’t have much else planned, we may mooch around the shops as well 😬 mooching is pretty much all I will do as I am not a bigger shopper unless I need it I won’t be buying anything but it is nice to have a look round now and again.

The topic occupying my mind this morning is the limiting of eggs to customers in the supermarkets. Firstly the reports that it is down to bird flu is not entirely the whole story but as per usual the media only report the bit that they want to. Remember a good while back I said that feed costs were going up so much that businesses were struggling. Many of the smaller producers have given up and the bigger producers are losing money so it won’t be long before a lot of them give up too and I have seen big housing set ups for sale on the farming sites so it is already beginning 🙄 The next problem is that although the farmers costs have shot up, the price they are being paid by supermarkets has not (and this is not being reported but I can tell you it is very much talked about on social media) and they refuse to pay because eggs are a loss leader in the chains 😔 How sad that someone’s livelihood is a loss leader for others to start with. This is why it is so important to support your local small producers all the time and not just when there is a shortage in the supermarket. I can’t tell you how cross it makes me, back in the summer I was trying to push egg sales like crazy and I struggled to shift them but you can guarantee that I will see people who I haven’t seen before trying to buy eggs from us here now that there is a supply problem 😡 My thoughts then go to our regular, loyal customers and how do I best protect them and make sure there are plenty for them to buy 🤷‍♀️

Friday: Made six batches of shortcrust pastry ready for mince pie making. Sam came over with the twins at lunchtime.

Saturday: I spent the morning making mince pies, I had made batches of pastry late afternoon yesterday and put them in the fridge for today. 48 mince pies now rolled, filled and frozen ready for baking as necessary, I also have plenty of pastry in the freezer for maki g more at a later date. Lunchtime we went round to see Mum who was doing a craft sale of all the things she makes, the money was going to buy winter wear and energy bars for Ukrainian fighters 🥰

Sunday: We had such a good morning 😁 John has continually been raking a levelling type one and shingle and now that was done normal service could resume and so he cleaned out the chickens and the ducks lol. Meanwhile I burnt some rubbish and put some rubbish in the skip plus tidy up the back area. The we went out for breakfast, there was method in madness with that suggestion as I wanted to collect some bracken growing on the side of the road near the place we went to. We got a boot full of bracken and the. Spent the next couple of hours driving g around country lanes foraging for greenery for the wreaths. It was a lovely morning, the sun was out and it was a pleasant enough temperature. I found plenty of fabulous foliage to go with anything I will be cutting here on the farm, very happy with my haul. Came home and sorted it all into buckets of water and then no time to rest we went off to get some shopping as we were out of cat food and a few other bits. Back home and a well earned rest for a couple of hours before going round to Shelley’s for a roast 😁 and that’s the week over already.

At some point in the week my flower stand arrived and I put it together, it holds six buckets and is easily taken a part to transport. The uses I have in mind are for ‘pop up flowers’ if asked to, or for activities such as hand tied bouquet workshops for parties, hen dos or get togethers 🤷‍♀️ I will work on the wording for that 😂

A versatile addition to the flower farm 😁
Lovely rainbow today, driving up the lane we were hoping it was right on our place and the pot of gold would be waiting for us 🤪
Posted in Friesland Farm

Wreaths, a new path and delphiniums in November!

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 7th November 2022: A new week, lockdown begins for the poultry 🫤 they have no idea why they are not allowed out but so far so good on day one 🙄 Apart from the rain at the exact point I had just got my outdoor attire on to go out and feed and collect eggs 😂

First thing this morning I went and cut plenty of willow and spent a few hours weaving 10 wreath bases 🤪 nearly there now just a few more to do and who knows I may carry on making them for other projects or even get a head start on next years 😂 I also spent a chunk of the afternoon doing social media stuff, it’s a large part of trying to get the word out there and getting any products sold, so if you follow the flower page please give it a share every now and then it would make a small business very happy 🥰

Tuesday: I spent some time in the greenhouse pricking out seedlings of snap dragons and cornflowers. I had one of those very crappy moments that most will have had when growing from seed, when the tray tips over 😭 and all the seedlings just become a jumbled mess 🤦‍♀️ I watered the bulbs in the big tunnel, the anemone and ranunculus are coming through nicely. I watered the chrysanthemums in the small tunnel, they are blooming fabulously and I definitely want to keep those going next year. I spent an hour on the phone to my brother in Australia, mostly with a black screen as he was trying to show me the Luna eclipse which kept going behind a cloud 😂 Our initial conversation was about solar power, which he installs over there and we have been looking into getting here. We had a quote which seemed pretty high and I was chewing over the finer details of the for and against with him and getting a better understanding of what we actually need if anything or if there are different ways to do things 🤷‍♀️

We have had some pretty torrential downpours today, Charlie got caught in one on her way over to me, she was picking me up to drop me off to have my hair cut I felt bad that she got wet on my account.

Nobody can have failed to notice the different weather patterns this year in the UK, it’s November and still no sign of frost in fact even the night time temps are above the average day time ones 🙄 The rain is usually torrential when it arrives in bursts and then the sun comes back out. It is COP27 this week and quite frankly they have not done enough in the last 27 years, I tried to find out exactly what had been achieved but it is hard to find concrete evidence. Putting it bluntly the foot needs to be slammed on the brake and none seem willing to do that. We are definitely rowing up sh*t creek with no paddle now and it’s only going to get worse 😔 My worry is not for myself but the generations that come after me, all we can do is try to prepare for what is ahead, they will need to work out how to survive in an ever increasing warming climate. What we are doing here is taking measures to make sure that the house does not get flooded by constant heavy rain, making sure we have enough water tanks for the drought part of the year and that the house stays cool enough to be bearable in the summer heat. Growing food so that we have something to eat just in case, it is definitely a shift from self sufficiency to being self reliant and self preservation. My brother said ‘try to be optimistic’ I try but I am failing, so my advice is to live on a hill, learn to grow food and provide for yourself 🤪

Well I started off well at the beginning of the week 😂 and then laspsed. The hard thing is trying to think back to what I did 🤷‍♀️ Ummmm 🤨 no idea 🤪 On Wednesday I did go for a walk with Sam and Shelley, a long walk for about an hour and a half, we were on the look out for anything to forage and found some tiny fir cones but not much else. I have spent some time in the greenhouse potting things on and pricking out seedlings. I have also spent some time cutting flowers and foliage for drying and then on Friday we went out for a few hours in the middle of the day but I have no idea what else apart from the usual I have done.

Saturday: A fairly busy day and I have to say a lovely warm day in November 🙄 John has been busy doing more of the path, the dog has been busy walking all over it when he wasn’t looking 😂 I could hear expletives 😬 I have put clean bedding in for the ducks, cleaned out some nesting boxes, got the scythe out and cut down some tall weeds and made some wreaths from ground weeds 😁 It was quite nice to get the scythe out, I didn’t do much but it is so much nicer and quieter than a strimmer. The wreaths I made are from what I think is hoary mustard but I need to wait for it to grow again next year to double check. It is a weed that sends out long growth, it is tough and so ideal for drying and making into wreaths. You can use a whole lot of different types of vine like stems, grape, hop, clematis and weeds, they make lovely wreaths and all with different character. Oh yes I also wove the last few willow wreaths that I need for the workshops, they are all done now and so anymore I do will be spare or to make wreaths to sell. You will be pleased to know that two of the unproductive hens have had a reprieve and gone to a new retirement home 🥰 If anyone else wants a retired hen or two let me know, I’d rather that than the alternative.

Wreath rings made from hoary mustard (I think)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dawnepears0

You can now buy me a coffee (aka wine 🤪) I actually just thought I would have a look and see what it is all about but had to go through the joining process and so here is the link 😂 You can buy me a coffee if you are enjoying the blog but don’t feel like you should, you can always pop in for real coffee if you are in the area 😁

Delphiniums in November 🤷‍♀️ unseasonably warm weather we are having 🙄

Sunday: I spent the first part of the morning hoovering and polishing and then cutting some flowers for drying. I am running out of hanging space again 🤪 John was busy getting the last bit of the pathway concreted, it is now a lovely level, smooth path rather than the broken wonky one that was there before 😁 I also got everything ready for a roast dinner later before popping out to the garden centre to look for something specific. We called into see my brother and sister in law for a cuppa on the way home and then once back it was time to get the dinner going including a self saucing gluten free chocolate pudding. I wasn’t sure this was actually going to come out as it should so I also poached some pears in a vanilla syrup as a back up plan 😂 It did work out fine and so I sent some of the pears home with Charlie and kept a couple for myself for tomorrow 🥰

That is another week gone 🙄 Have a great week ahead x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Halloween, a lost (and found phone) and poultry lockdown 😔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 31st October 2022: I feel better this week and thank you for all the kind words 😁 I think I must have had a virus that but not really presenting itself as anything major in particular just lots of little things that were pulling me down. Weirdest of all was the sensitive scalp 🤷‍♀️ really annoying but not painful, not Lupus I don’t think (not showing anything on the blood tests) I do wonder what my body is doing with all these vaccinations mind you 🙄 I am tempted to think that the big pharmaceuticals want to keep prolonging it, I weigh this up against the clear statistics of illness and death at the beginning of the pandemic and remain sat on the fence. I also need to remember I am getting on a bit 😂 no longer a sprightly 30 or 40 something and perhaps at times I do too much but somehow feel like I don’t do enough either 🤪

It Samhain, you would be forgiven for thinking it is the end of the year but actually it is the beginning. Time to clear out the old and make way for the new, in my life I would apply this to the garden. Lots of things have done their thing and are now spent, clearing up and clearing away begins, preparations are made to reinvigorate the soil ready for fresh panting next year 😁 The majority of the year is behind us but there are new adventures waiting ahead 🥰

Today we were up early, the physical clocks went back but the body clocks are still on old time and so before the alarm went off at 6.30 I had already had breakfast, got the first load of washing done, sorted the eggs and put them out for sale and done the washing up! I picked quite a lot of peppers yesterday, this will be the last of them now and so I thought I would make some tomato and pepper soup in the slow cooker. Peppers, tomato, onion, chop it all up, chuck it all in, add pepper and stock and wait for lunchtime 😁 Next job (which was not even on the list) was to prepare for flower club competition evening this week. The title is ‘Fireworks’ very appropriate, I did make a dried flower arrangement but the starburst chrysanthemums are amazing and zingy so I think I will be using those in a fresh arrangement instead. Arranging flowers without the aid of floral foam is a challenge but challenges are there to be accepted and besides foam does not fit with my ethos. There are plenty of high profile florists that are not using it so I am sure little old me will manage too.

Omg it’s Sunday before I write any more 🤪 that’s because it’s been a busy week. Every evening I have had something on, either birthdays, flower club or other stuff, I was also busy getting all things ready for the sale yesterday. Topped off by the fact that on Thursday John lost his phone with his bank card and driving license in the phone case 🙄 Cue hours of trying to recall his exact steps, constantly phoning the phone, driving round to see if he dropped it anywhere, calling into all the places he had been. Then hours of trying to figure out how to trace it without the find my phone being turned on 😬 We decided by late Friday that it was lost somewhere and not been picked up as it was still on and ringing and there was no attempt to use the card. Friday morning John was going to a funeral so that made things more chaotic and difficult. I spent 45 minutes on the wait list trying to get to talk to someone and by the time I did he had been into the bank and cancelled his card. I mean what is the world coming to when he drives approx 7 miles, parks in a busy town and gets to talk to someone and cancel his card before the customer service even answers the phone call I am trying to make at home before he even left 🤷‍♀️ Next I tried to cancel or report his driving license 🙄 what a rigmarole, I get through all the questions with the relevant details of NI number, driving license number only to be asked for passport number which he had with him because it was his only form of identification 😂 The next step was to try and get his phone number up and running but the shop would not do anything without his bank card (which was lost with the phone) so I order a pre paid SIM card for an old phone. That needs activating with an email but the email is just queued and won’t budge 🤪 By now I am losing the will to live. I go off to the sale for which I have been busy trying to pack everything up ready to take. I was nervous about doing it, it’s not anything I have done before, Shelley came to help and give moral support but in actual fact I had a lovely morning and I sold a few things as well, win, win. I was also able to talk to everyone about fresh, locally grown flowers and let them know I am here and what I do so that was a bonus. I get home and there is a message on the house phone, Johns phone has been found, big smiles and relief all round 😁😁 It was actually in a the suppliers where he had been back to and they had looked but couldn’t see it. We don’t know where they found it yet as it’s the weekend and so he hasn’t been able to go back and get it.

That brings up up to speed and it is now Sunday, the morning was spent getting everything ready for the housing of the poultry due to avian flu. We have cleaned everything out, made arrangements for the ducks to go into a stable, the geese will go back up to the small paddock at the back, that all needed getting ready. We putting scaffold netting over the top of the front run to stop and wild bird poop getting anywhere near them, putting wood clippings down in the pens to try and stop the ground going to mush when it rains. Oh yes and yesterday we finally sold the tractor too so that has now gone, I told you it has been a busy week.

Mid morning I went off with Charlie and Shelley to my nieces baby shower, plenty of babies being born into the family at the minute lol. The weather has been mixed today, torrential downpour one minute, sun out the next but still it is pretty mild for November. Back home mid afternoon, a cup of tea and a sit down and then the fun begins with the birds. Well I say fun, that is of course irony, what a bloody sh*t show (excuse my language) When we went out it was daylight and not raining, we herded the ducks from their outdoor pen into the stable block towards the open stable. You kind of have to know how stupid ducks can be to get this but one got stuck behind the duck pen gate (it ran the wrong way) never mind we carry on herding the rest and will come back for that one, they then all got behind the wrong side of the open door and two by two I gently herded them along the door and round into the stable. One of them shot off in a different direction. The thing with ducks is once they are separated from the flock they tend to panic (fair enough) but they also go into hide and seek mode 🙄 except they are like children who close their eyes and think you can’t see them 😂 they find a corner (always just out of arms reach) and bury their head in as deep as they can. We manage to scrabble through the fir trees and retrieve one, the other we couldn’t see and so left it to home in on the duck chatter in the stable and hope it made its way there. At this point it is still dry and the daylight is fading but still plenty of light to be able to see. We go over to the front hens and for some reason, well actually the reason is because we put the green scaffold netting on the roof of the run (how very dare we) the hens decided that they were not going anywhere near that tonight! They congregated in the corner of the paddock and when we tried to herd them they scattered into the tree line behind the stock fencing. They are now in fractured groups not willing to go anywhere near the run or the hut and yes you guessed it cue a bloody downpour 🤬 We are scrabbling around in the p**sing down rain, in the hedge, over the fence trying to round up chickens and by this time it is getting dark. Every time we thought they had gone into the run they turned round and came back out, we quickly sorted that out buy closing all the doors but that meant that each time we managed to herd a couple more one of us had to run ahead and open the door before they reached it. Finally we got all those in and we just needed to catch the light Sussex one by one and put those in there too. This is new to them but it the only way we could keep them under the restrictions so in they went. Of course we are not finished yet (mentally I was 🤪) then it was back to the stable block to see if the duck had returned, she had 🙏 We get her in, wait for the other hens to go to their preferred stable, shut those in, shut the back lot in and job finally done. The soaking wet, dragged through a hedge backwards look is not my best look, it also does not put me in the best of moods 🫤 The hens in the stables are going into the back pen but not before we work out which are actually laying, the ones that are not, well their time has come shall we say 😔 We would never cull normally, usually they are allowed to freeload off us and live out their barren days free ranging in the paddocks. The cost of feed and bedding coupled with the lockdown means we will have to be harsh this time and I know we are not the only smallholders facing these horrible decisions this year. There are plenty that are giving up altogether, I don’t blame them, last year the lockdown was a month longer than the year before, this year it’s a month earlier than before and so if things go the same way that is 7 months in lockdown and what the hell is the point of that 😡 Avian flu is serious, I get that, there is a serious risk it could transfer to a human who unknowingly has covid, I get how serious that would be for mankind. What I don’t get is why when there are dead wild birds on the rivers no one is clearing them up if they are such a hazardous risk. Why are the bird sanctuaries and the nature reserves still open to the public, are they vetting the public to see if they keep poultry and stopping them coming because if they are not then what is the point? These measures are purely there to protect the big Turkey, goose and poultry farms up to Christmas so they can still make their huge amounts of money and so the supermarkets can cash in on the festivities. Don’t get me wrong if I was one of those producers I would be glad of it I am sure, but I’m not, I am little old me with my few poultry that are going to be locked up for more than half a year and it feels all so wrong 😔

Tomorrow is another day and a new week, a slower paced week hopefully 😁 have a good one whatever you are doing, be grateful it is poultry in lockdown and not us again 😬

Posted in Friesland Farm

Pumpkin flowers, wreaths & the clock change 🫤

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th October 2022: Ok I have been a little tardy with the blog posts apologies for that. I am feeling very ‘meh’ about everything at certain points in the day, generally late afternoon and evening when I would usually do the write up. I am more tired than usual, it’s starts off ok in the morning but slowly goes downhill through the day. So what has been happening, well not much really, all the usual day to day stuff that goes on in anyones life, all the usual day to day stuff that goes on in Smallholding life and none of it is very interesting 😂

I have decided I need to streamline my social media pages, I have one for the farm and one for the flowers but I think I will amalgamate them in the New Year. That will give me less of a fractured approach to posting provided the amalgamation goes smoothly that is. We have some small changes afoot here, nothing major and I will write about those when the times comes. I am awaiting the inevitable instruction to fully house the poultry at some point, a surveillance zone is already in force across the UK so it’s only a matter of time.

To be honest it feels like the whole world is caving in, the bird flu is affecting thousands of species of birds across Europe and maybe further I haven’t really looked it up. This could mean extinction for some species and that’s not an over exaggeration. Watching the Frozen Planet series about the ice melt all over the world and the accelerated rate it is happening is frightening. At the rate it is going now in 200 years time the sea level will be seven metres higher 😔 They say we could still slow this down if we all lived sustainably but that is not about to happen is it? There are individuals out there doing what they can and there are bigger organisations doing what they can but when a big majority don’t think it is going to affect them and carry on regardless then things will not change. Add to that the world governments obsessed with economic growth, which is basically consumer spending and investment, fine as long as they are mindful investments and expenditures it a big proportion won’t be, and you can see we are basically screwed. Then there are those demented power crazy lunatics in charge of some of the countries, we all know who they are they don’t need clarifying with names 🙄 All in all I feel we are on a road to disaster and I can’t shake the feeling, it’s a worry to be sure.

On a lighter note the flowers are still coming, the weather has been mild which is great for the dahlias. I have been making more pumpkin arrangements and I have a farewell wreath to make this week too.

Wednesday: Oops tardy again 🙄 I have been busy though especially today, pumpkin flower arrangement made first thing this morning then out to cut lots of lovely flowers for a farewell wreath for tomorrow and then hours and hours of paperwork 🤪 Each year I make myself a promise to keep on top of it, I always used to but these days work and life take over and I don’t have the time. Not quite true of course, I could make time, the truth is it’s not a job I want to be doing but then we get to that time of year when it becomes imperative that I get it sorted. That time is now, before life gets busy with festive preparations and so that is what I have been doing, all day long. I have at least another days work to do and then John can take it all to the accountant and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Thursday: First things first this morning, the wreath of flowers for a farewell today. This was personal as it was for Sue’s ashes internment and I was nervous about doing it but very much wanted to do it justice. I was delighted with the outcome, a beautiful and bright tribute to a life now passed. Once I had done that it was time to cut flowers for pumpkin arrangements and then more paperwork. I only had a few hours but I was determined to break the back of the income and expenditures and get things all in order. I didn’t quite make it but only have a couple more hours to do and then the books will be finished and can go to the accountant. A quick shower mid afternoon and then off to the churchyard for the internment, the sun shine beautifully and it was a lovely autumn afternoon, very mild for the time of year too. We had some refreshments afterwards at a local pub and it was great to be able to put some names to faces. Many people I had heard about over the years but never actually met, some I had spoken on the phone to but never actually met and today we were able to get to know and understand who was who and where we all slotted in to the lives of Dad and Sue.

Friday: I spent the first half of the morning doing pumpkin flowers and then finished the last few bits of the bookkeeping to go to the accountant next week ✔️ Typing this up on Sunday I actually have no idea what else I did 🤷‍♀️

Saturday: I spent most of the day sorting out dried flowers, going through them all and throwing those that had broken, bent or just didn’t look good. Once I had done that I made another dried flower wreath and then sorted out all the things I had made that I will be taking to the table top sale next week. I just about hoovered and tided when the whole tribe descended upon us, Shelley and the kids, Sam and the kids and then Charlie, Macca and Oscar 😁 The kids had been to a party and so were full of sugar 🤪 Nice to have them all at once but the volume gets a bit loud 😂

Sunday: I watered the tunnels and greenhouse this morning as I still have flowers growing in those. Then onto cutting and weaving willow wreaths ready for the workshops. I actually managed to do a time lapse video of the process. John cleaned out the ducks and then concrete the next part of the path and then we went out get some lunch. Popped into Mums on the way home for a cuppa. Have to be home earlier today as the clocks went back last night and so it will be dark around 5ish today 🫤 bye bye summer.

Weaving willow wreath bases from willow grown here on the Smallholding 🥰