Monday 12th September 2022: After last week who knows what this week will bring but one thing it’s already brought is rain! Seriously 😐 months of drought and high temperatures and then wham rain, rain, rain, when is a girl supposed to get the washing dry 🤷♀️ We had a dry day yesterday, that’s the first day for over a week that the washing hasn’t gone out, come in and gone out again 🤪 I was hoping to get some of the bigger stuff washed and dried before winter but at this rate I won’t succeed.
Mid morning and I am sitting down for a coffee, I already have the dinner on, two batches in the slow cookers 😁 One is chicken stew and one is chicken korma, if I am making dinner for this evening I might as well make bigger batches and then freeze some portions for another day, all part of my cost saving drive. I read an interesting article this morning, it appears that Mr Putin (and I don’t know him so I can’t confirm lol) was hoping to freeze Europe into submission over Ukraine this winter by turning off the gas. His thinking, I guess, is that we are so reliant on it that we would have no choice but to let him have his way. It has had the opposite effect and apparently European businesses have shaved a whopping 22% off their energy needs 👏 If that can be achieved collectively for the domestic consumption as well then it would definitely be a two fingered salute in his direction. So as well as helping your bank balance you can also help in the effort of standing up to a bully by tweaking your own energy consumption wherever possible 🥰
The next two jobs on my list, we’ll they were not on the list but they needed doing, were to clean and tidy the boot room and the pantry. They have both become dumping grounds over the summer and it was time to sort them out, put things away, hoover, clean and tidy. I needed the pantry floor area cleared so that I could get into the apple rack to store apples for the winter 😁 I have some lovely apples and still more to pick as they become ripe and I want to store them for as long as possible. Each one will be individually wrapped in paper and stored in the racks, they will be checked over each week and any that are spoiling will get used quickly. The carrots will also be stored in there, I have tried storing them in sand but they end up rubbery so some will get chopped and frozen and then the ones in the pantry will get used up first over the next couple of months.
I have a very long list of jobs to get through but I feel I have made a great start this morning, let’s hope I can keep it going 😂
Onto cleaning hoovering and cleaning the kitchen, smashing a milk bottle while I was in the process 🙄 then hoovering the sitting room. While I was doing that I had the top half of the stable door open and when I went back into the kitchen I had been invaded, by flies. Urgh there were approx 30/40 of them buzzing round so I closed all the blinds and curtains and opened the windows, by now they were in the sitting room too. They head for the light but once behind the fabric can’t find their way out again, that was the idea anyway, eventually after about an hour and a half I had managed to get rid of all but two or three persistent little buggers. I had a flurry of enquiries about flower bouquets so I will be quite busy with those over the next two days, I am hoping the rain holds off although I have done the washing Hokey Cokey again today 🤪
The weather tomorrow looks shockingly wet across the country and so I cut flowers tonight for two lots going out tomorrow. After eating our dinner we went out to the yearly local fair, Witney Feast, we have been going every year for over 40 years and only missed a couple for various reasons. We no longer go on the rides 😂 but love walking round and soaking up the atmosphere of a big fair. This one goes back over 700 years ‘Witney Feast started in 1243 when King Henry III granted two deer from the Royal Forest of Wychwood to celebrate the rededication of the church’ Over those hundreds of years it has changed from feasting to selling livestock and wares and these days it is adrenaline pumping rides, flashing lights and traditional hook a duck stalls as well as food stands which used to be just fish and chips or sweets and now includes all types of fast food. It is the point in the year that John always says ‘that’s it, Witney Feast is here and so is Winter’ 😂 The fair moves onto Chipping Norton after it’s two days at Witney and becomes the ‘Chippy Mop’ which was a hiring fair in origin also dating back hundreds of years. I love that these events like so many others have been happening for that long, all part of the rich history and traditions of our country 🥰 The rain didn’t come.
Tuesday: No sign of the rain yet but I don’t doubt it will arrive at some point today 🤪 After getting the eggs sorted and out I cut some more flowers and foliage, I did some dead heading and I cut a few bits for drying as well. Next job was to batch up and freeze the food I made yesterday and then think about todays food 🙄 While I was in the freezer I found a lamb bone from a past roast so that went into the slow cooker along with various veg, it will make a nourishing soup for today. I also decided to give a pudding a go in the other slow cooker, I found a recipe and loosely followed it 😬 It was a basic sponge mix (but without egg, interesting to see how that works out) milk was added as per the recipe to create a batter. Grease the slow cooker dish pour in the batter (thickish) put chopped apple all over the top of the sponge, drizzle a couple of teaspoons of honey over those and sprinkle cinnamon (I used nutmeg instead) I also sprinkled a dash of lime juice for added flavour. No idea how it will turn out 🤷♀️ I will let you know but it does mean I am free to get on with the rest of my day 🥰
Wednesday: I spent the morning costing up and ordering for the wreath making evenings, finalising all the details of dates and time plus terms and conditions and points to note. It looks like I will have to put a third night on as there is interest which is great. I now have to chivvy John up to get the ceiling sorted and make a cover for the pool table, I have ordered an oil cloth to go over the top of it all. The. I will need to get myself into gear to make up all the willow rings at some point but I made one up yesterday and covered it with moss and it looks great and certainly will make a good base for a wreath. I also went out and picked rose hips, stripped the thorns and placed them in a glycerine solution to keep them supple and hold the colour if possible. There will be quite a lot more to get done and organised but I am happy that it’s all going in the right direction. Mostly in the afternoon I had a sit down, as always I am usually researching or looking things up, you can never know enough 😂
Thursday: I took a chance and hung out some washing, I checked the rain radar and nothing of any great amount is showing up even though it looks like it might rain at any minute. I spent an hour or more cutting flowers, these are for jam jars going out tomorrow, mostly stems that are too short or flowers that need cutting to let others come on. I also cut a fair amount of cosmos which I had made up into a bunch to go out for sale.
Friday: Busy morning, busy afternoon, then lost me mojo 🙄 I can’t remember what I did first thing but sometime in the morning I cleared two raised beds and planted a lot of bulbs. There were 80 bridal crown narcissi, 25 gladioli, approx 30 fritillary and 25 allium, I have a lot more to plant but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Some of them will go into pots to sell in flower next spring and some will go into the ornamental beds as well. Oh I remember what it was I did first of all, fetching the willow whips I cut down at the beginning of the year, I tidied them up by cutting off any branching bits (putting them to one side) and then sorted them into sizes. I need to soak them in order to make willow wreaths with them, some of the smaller branches I cut off were supple enough to have a go at making mini willow wreaths so I made a couple of those as well as a fresh willow one to see how well that worked. In the afternoon I did a fair bit of dried flower work, I have been making dried flower broomsticks in various sizes as I thought they would be nice for October. Then I revamped my two dried flower wreaths, I always keep the Christmas wreath bases and dry them out, they can then be used in a number of ways including dried flower wreaths. I have used the flowers that were for Sam’s wedding so that’s a nice keepsake 🥰 I tidied up and then lost my mojo, no idea where it went but it’s definitely gone 🤪
Saturday: Busy morning, I started off in the big tunnel clearing away dead stuff, the cucumbers are struggling and I think I have enough tomatoes to last me a year 😂 so they got cleared but it was sunny and became a bit hot in there. I then went onto planting up loads of plants into the front shrub bed, I also planted lots of bulbs. Meanwhile John was putting up the ceiling in the pool room, it was insulated when he did it but needed boarding over the top and as that is where I will be doing the wreath evening, I wanted him to get on and finish it in plenty of time. I cut flowers this morning for a birthday tomorrow and made up a bunch of dried flowers for a birthday. Talking of birthdays it is Sam’s today, they have taken the caravan away for the weekend but not too far so I went with Shelley, Josh and Flo plus a cake and we met them at the campsite. We had a lovely couple of hours, the kids went out on their little boat on the river and then we got a lift back to the car via the river. It was lovely and serene on the water and a great way to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon. John stayed home to get on with the ceiling, he also cut the lawn and did the chickens, I should go out more often he gets more done when I am not here 😂
It’s definitely chillier in the mornings and evenings but the sun in the daytime is still pretty warm.
The wreath evenings are booking up and I am certainly looking forward to doing them, I collected some gorgeous red Virginia creeper today and have put it in glycerine to see if it holds its colour, I also collected ash keys to see if they will too.
Sunday: Not a terribly productive day today, food shopping, round to Mums for a coffee on the way back. Then a trip to the garden centre to find they didn’t have what I wanted so we went to a different garden centre, still couldn’t find it so came home empty handed (I know 🤪) Sat down and ordered it online instead 🙄 Had an easy afternoon watching a very old film 😂 cooked and ate dinner, John washed up while I got some flowers ready. That’s it! Some days you just have to slow down a little 😁
Still no rain.
Have a lovely week, I am sure we will all be watching the state funeral, big occasion. I hope they have excellent security in place, nothing like having all the major heads of countries in one place for someone to try for a new world order 😬
Tuesday 6th September 2022: I didn’t blog yesterday as I was still at Sam and Luke’s looking after the children until around 6pm, I called in to see Charlie, Macca and Oscar on the way home. We eventually got back in time to get some dinner on, John did the birds and the egg collecting and then an evening of sitting down. It is getting dark much earlier now but I quite like that, it means you actually get some time off rather than continually working. We have one heck of a storm last night, thunder so loud and plenty of lightening to go with it plus very heavy rain, I am not complying I love a good storm plus I am loving the rain 🥰 I was watching the live lightening strike map as it was going on and it covered a huge area of Europe as well as the UK, thousands of strikes, incredible.
This morning we got up and down the usual jobs, John went off to work and I went out into the greenhouse to plant up some plants and sow some seeds. The plants are from the rudbeckia I have already growing, they send out runners under ground and then little plantlets appear, I dug those up the other day put them in some water and this morning potted them up, they will probably go out for sale once established. Then it was onto sowing some ‘snaps’ snapdragon or antirrhinum in various colours, also some white marigolds and a few cornflowers. All in seed trays to bring on over winter, I have still got plenty to direct sow as well. I tidied up the greenhouse a little while I was in there and then inside to do a bit of paperwork. The rain has started again lol same old thing, once it starts…..
The looming energy crisis is a hot topic at the minute and I am trying to look at all angles to see how well we will do. Financially we will manage but that doesn’t mean to say that we shouldn’t be doing all we can to keep the costs down. I read that many people are batch cooking now before the costs go up so that they can just reheat food which makes a lot of sense. I have thought a lot about how I will be doing g the cooking as the oven uses a lot of electric to heat up so slow cooker, microwave and induction hob will be used as much as possible instead. Potentially two slow cookers, one for dinner, one for pudding 😁 they use only as much energy as a light bulb so it makes sense to cook that way. Tiered steamer pans are also a great saver as are microwave steam bags, they work brilliantly. One of the problems that has caught my attention is the possibility of blackouts, this might seems very 1970’s (to anyone old enough to remember the strikes) but the UK producers approx 40% of its energy needs, 30% is bought from Norway. That leaves a shortfall of 30% that we will have to buy from other sources, the problem is that because of the Russian pipelines being closed, all other countries that need it will also be trying to buy it from elsewhere. Two potential problems arise, a price bidding war and a shortage. Europe has already warned of potential blackouts, our government has not but the energy sector is talking about it and so it makes sense to prepare. If the preparations are not needed it doesn’t matter but if they are then I am ready for it. To be fair when we switched over to all electric I prepared then because we do have at least 5 power cuts every winter 🙄 so I bought a small camping gas stove and canisters so that we could still boil a kettle and cook something warming. I do have battery powered lights we can use indoors and we have always have powerful torches for use outside if needed. I just need to make sure we have our thermals to hand and some big blankets 😂 you never know when you will need them 🤪 We have thermal door curtains already which come out in the colder months but I am thinking of getting thermal curtain linings or some material to make some for the the bedroom windows, I figure every little will help this year but in all honesty it’s probably something we should have already been doing before.
I sat down for a couple of hours at lunchtime and got a few things done that made me feel productive, it’s raining outside so might as well get on inside. I looked up thermal curtains etc but in the end I decided to order the material and make the linings myself 🤪 as if I don’t have enough jobs on the to do list already. I did a few bits of paperwork, I say paperwork it’s mostly digital these days but they are done ✔️ I ordered a rug for the spare room, the floor really needs doing in there but I doubt we will get it done before winter so a rug will help with any draughts hopefully. I also ordered a second slow cooker, I a, definitely going down this route lol. I need to write John a list of winter ready jobs, mostly just small ones but they will make a difference
Wednesday: A sunny start so I got the morning jobs done and then out into the garden. First job was to cut flowers for my weekly customers flowers and then into the small tunnel to do plenty of cutting back. Some of the cosmos was beginning to get powdery mildew so I cut them right back and removed the foliage, the flowers went into my collecting bucket and will be used for jam jar flowers. Then onto the big tunnel where I did much the same, though there is no mildew in there the plants were getting big and flopping over onto other plants. I watered the cucumbers and peppers plus fed and watered the flowers and then picked lbs and lbs of tomatoes 😂 plus courgettes, peppers and cucumbers. Inside then to sort all the produce out, weigh it and put some of it out for sale. Then whizz up the tomato sauce I made in the slow cooker yesterday and bag it ready to go in the freezer. Sit down at 1pm for a rest, the heavens opened and right at this minute there is a heavy downpour. It hasn’t really stopped since the drought was broken by the first lot of rain 😂 it is a doubled edged sword because we really need the rain but it would be good to have a dry day inbetween so I can get stuff done. I did also put 200, yes 200 ranunculus tubers to soak, what was I thinking, 200 🤪 I have to find somewhere to plant all of those 😝
Thursday: Last night I went to flower club, totally got my weeks mixed up, not surprising really, I thought it was last week but no it was this week. It was competition week and at 6pm I did think is there anything I can do in the next hour to submit, in the end I thought nope just leave it this time 🤪 John dropped me off as he always does, he went round to Shelley’s to drop off some tomatoes and stopped for a cuppa. He made his way back to ours at dusk, he turned into the downs road which is the lane that connects to ours (about 2 1/2 miles long) he had only driven a short distance along the lane when he thought, oh my god! A little way ahead of him he saw an animal come out of the hedge on one side of the lane, take two bounds and disappear into the hedge on the other side. This is not unusual as we regularly see deer, foxes, badgers, owls, rabbits etc but this appeared to be a big cat 😯 Sadly we don’t have a dash cam but he said it was as tall as an Alsatian, long in the body, black and had the unmistakable rear end of a cat. There have been several sightings in the area over the past couple of months and I have heard first hand from someone else who has seen it in their paddock a few miles from us 🙄 He drove down the lane on the way to collect me later and then we both drove down together on the way home but no more sightings. Internet chatter suggests that because of the drought there have been far more sightings than usual throughout the country, I guess they were looking for water just like all the other wild animals, I may put the wildlife camera up and see what we get.
This morning I have been busy in the kitchen and doing the washing line Hokey Cokey, each time I put it out it rains so I get it back in, at the minute I have given up 😂 I have done a fair bit of batch cooking, I bought a second slow cooker so that I can have two lots going at the same time. Today I have mince,veg and potato in one and I have a spag Bol sauce in the other, that was bulked out with mushrooms, peppers and a tin of salad beans and I used the sauce I made yesterday. Johns was bulked out with plenty of veg including spinach and half a tin of baked beans I opened last night for dinner. Each batch had half a portion of mince in and I think I will get around 5/6 portions from the mince meal and 4/5 portions from the spag Bol meal. Apart from what we eat tonight the rest will be batched and labelled and into the freezer for another day. I then peeled and chopped a load of cooking apples and stewed those down with some blackberries and sugar and I made up a batch of crumble topping. The topping I pre cooked spread out on oven trays and then once the apple mix was cooled and batched up I sprinkled the crumble mix on top. My thinking behind this is that I will be able to get those out of the freezer and because it’s precooked it will only need reheating, saving me time, energy and money. While I did have the oven on to toast the topping I also made a cake and cooked that as well which will also be frozen until needed. I made a batch of chutney with the tomatoes and apples as I have plenty of those, a couple of courgettes some wrinkly grapes, brown sugar, malt vinegar, chopped ginger, onions and some mixed spice went into the mix as well 😁 The cake was a bit of a use it up cake, I had some caramel sauce to use up so I made up a general mix without sugar, added the sauce and some apples and it appears to have baked well, hopefully it will taste ok too. We are not really in the position where we will be worrying about the energy bill too much (I may spit feathers when I see the next bill mind you) but I love a challenge and we should all be more energy conscious no matter what the price of it is shouldn’t we? So I am aiming to trim the costs however I can and batch cooking and baking is definitely one way of doing it. Having two slow cookers is something I should have done years ago I think 😂 because John and I eat totally different things it is much easier to do big batches for each of us at the same time. The above is one example but I am also thinking that while John loves a good stew I prefer a curry or korma so I can do both now plus once it’s all prepped and in I have the rest of the day to get on with other things 🥰
Tomato and apple chutney 🥰
As I sit down to type this up, our Queen has been taken ill and they are concerned for her health, the family is travelling to Balmoral to see her so it’s not looking good. I think even people who are not royalists nevertheless have a deep respect for Her Majesty, for her total dedication to a position she didn’t expect to inherit and one that she has unfalteringly carried out through thick and thin all these years.
Early evening we had the news that we hoped wasn’t coming but in reality we knew it was 😢 HRH Queen Elizabeth II has died peacefully at Balmoral Castle. That is the end of an era, the 2nd Elizabethan Era, it’s pretty profound, we have a new King, King Charles III. The devotion and dedication that The Queen gave to the position that she held was unfaltering and that alone deserves huge respect, what an incredible woman, dignified and constant, a great example to us all. RIP Your Majesty, you will be deeply missed not only by your family but by millions of people around the world. Long Live The King 🇬🇧
Friday: I still feel pretty emotional this morning, it is just sinking in, the magnitude of the event on our historic timeline. When I started blogging it was to diarise the events of our life in a new adventure on a Smallholding, the good things that happened and the bad. Over the years it has included major world events and so it really has become a snapshot of life in the 21st century.
This morning I cut some flowers for jam jars later today, it was drizzling, the rain hasn’t really stopped since last Thursdays break in the drought conditions 😂 The poor flower heads are hoping for a dry day tomorrow as we are forecast sharp showers today and more often than not this week they have come with thunder and lightening. You couldn’t write this stuff, months of no rain, burning temperatures and then straight into torrential downpours and storms 🤷♀️
I batched up and got everything in the freezer, I also made a bath of dumplings yesterday which I open froze and they have now gone into a bag to use whenever we have a good stew. Stews and soups are a staple over the winter for us, they are wholesome and warming plus cooking in the slow cooker means I can get on with other things.
Saturday: I spent a lot of the day with my apple picker getting cooking apples from the tree, there are so many 😂 I have been giving plenty of them away. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and we picked some blackberries and then after they left I went and picked a whole load more. There are loads down in the back paddock and it was so peaceful and quiet, I just have to do something with them all now. I also want to get some elderberries picked and some rose hips to make the syrups which are great for winter, rose hip for coughs and sore throats, elderberries for colds and boosting energy.
Sunday: More picking today, eating apples and pears today as well as digging up some carrots and collecting a few more mulberries. Mum and Ken came over with bags to pick elderberries, I sent them in the direction of the blackberries as well, they also went home with windfall pears, cooking apples and some carrots. Charlie and Macca called in with Oscar, they had been out blackberry picking so I also sent them down to the paddock to get more blackberries and elderberries. To add to their haul were carrots and beetroot that Charlotte had sown back in the summer and they also had some pears and cooking apples. It’s a fabulous time of year and there is plenty to go round, I have been giving away loads of cooking apples but I still have more than I really know what to do with or indeed have time to process. Tomorrow I have pears, cooking apples and carrots to either process for freezing or wrapping for storing, I also want to get some batch cooking done in the slow cookers, chicken this time. John meanwhile has been digging up the ground 🙄 the IBC tanks won’t fit how we would have liked them to so we have had to rethink. While he was exploring his options he decided to re-route the drainage pipe that runs a cross the back of the hard standing. It makes sense because it collects run off rain water and goes off at a 45 degree angle, when it gets blocked this makes it difficult to rod so he decided to straighten it which meant digging out the concrete. For someone who complains about the amount of jobs there are to do he has done a great job of making himself more work 😂
It’s the end of another week but not just any old week, in just one week we have had a wedding, a new Prime Minister, a big cat sighting, the death of The Queen and a new King on the Throne. The mood of the country is double edged. Sorrow for the loss of a very much loved Sovereign who did her duty with total dedication for 70 years and was working right up to the end of her 96 years. Relief and happiness that King Charles III has taken up his rightful position. I don’t know about anyone else but that time in between the announcement of the Queens passing and the address to the nation from King Charles seemed very strange, almost as if I needed to see him to know all would be well and that someone was at the helm of the realm. It would take a whole blog on its own for me to explain how I feel about having a Monarchy, I know not everyone is as enthusiastic but for me it’s a rich tapestry of intricately woven threads forming a scene over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. The traditions, protocol and ceremonies are so old they seem archaic but I like that, it’s some of those rich threads forming a links with the past. I think there are a few Royals at the forefront that are fantastic ambassadors for our country and do far more good than harm. And then there are those who are either completely stupid or self obsessed and don’t have the grace and dignity it takes 🙄 I feel that generally the country is behind King Charles and wishing him the best at such a time of loss, I know I certainly am 🥰 As we leave the second Elizabethan age and move into the Carolean age we can look back with fondness and look forward with hope and what could be better than that?
Monday 1st August 2022: Last night Hilda had her first slug supper 🥰 I was glad she dived straight on it and devoured it because it means she knows what she should be eating and will be able to feed herself when she is released. She is also self anointing now which is another sign that she is capable of taking care of herself, I don’t know if they fully understand why hogs do his but they basically regurgitate and cover their spines in it 😝 Thoughts are that they cover their spines with toxins to protect from predators so I would say she is very ready to move on. I weighed her and she weighed 340g 😲 I have been making sure that we have as little interaction with her as possible and that I only feed her at night so that she doesn’t get used to food on tap during the day when she ought to be asleep. Basically I have made sure that the conditions she has been under were as close to her natural routine as possible to give her the best chance when she goes it alone. So it was release time 😁 I took her out in the dark and put her down near the shed and watched her for a while, she spent all the time I was watching, rubbing along the ground and self anointing which I guess is her way of marking territory 🤷♀️ I made sure there was water nearby and there are usually cat biscuits out by the door where diesel gets fed so I will also make sure that she can find those if she needs to. Job done ✔️ successfully reared and released and I will keep a look out for her to make sure she is doing ok, go forth and hedgehog Hilda 😂
Busy day today, John was home as my labourer 😂 so I set him to work on the compost area which had got a bit out of control. Meanwhile I did plenty of planting up and mulching, one bed of delphinium and one bed of Veronica and saliva. I also planted up various other plants that I got from the sale section at the garden centre 🥰 I sat down on my root bench mid morning and moved the blanket that had fallen on the floor and guess who was under it 😂 yep, Hilda, so I got my gloves and moved her to under the shed. We worked hard most of the day, even when the sun came out I found some jobs to do in the shade, a sit down late afternoon, cook dinner and then back out in the evening. We spent a couple of hours watering, weeding and then mulching the shrub bed in the front, this bed has suffered more than most for some reason, the two enormous orange ball budhliea probably sap all the moisture from the ground around them. Once that was done I went on to watering some of the beds in the garden area and then fill up the horses water. Just after dinner we were going out to do a bit and guess who came wandering towards us, Hilda 😂 I went and got her some soaked cat biscuits which she readily tucked into though she did eat a few slugs I found in a nearby pot as well. Once I had finished for the evening I sat on the bench outside, picked up the blanket which had fallen again and guess who was underneath 😂 yep you guessed it, Hilda 🤪 I have now made her a little house stuffed with straw which is next to the bench seeing as how that where she seems to want to be. I guess eventually she will be brave enough to wander off but for the time being she is still happy to be around me though she really does need to learn what exactly ‘nocturnal’ means 😝
Tuesday: Busy morning doing the usual then Charlie called in for a coffee and then Sam and the kids arrived. I was pretty tired today and so not a lot else got done to be honest apart from cooking dinner. No sign of Hilda today, she has gone off to hedgehog by herself hopefully 😁
Wednesday: Busy day 🙄 I began at 5.30am (and then I wonder why I am shattered by 2pm 😂) It was lovely and cool this morning, these humid, windy, overcast days are hard work 😓 The best time of the day is very early, quiet and peaceful as well as cool and fresh. This morning has been all about cutting flowers and harvesting veg, loads of both! Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and courgettes, flower of every colour and size and foliage to compliment them. Flowers and grasses for hanging to dry were also on my to do list, loving dried flowers, if you have a go at them then rip up the rule book and try anything. One of my favourite so far is antirrhinum and I wish I had done more but the truth is I just did one to see how it went 🙄 Once everything was gathered it was sorting the veg to go out for sale, tying up the flowers for drying and hanging those up and then onto making up jam jar flowers plus three bouquets and two bunches. I definitely need a separate workshop for this but at the minute because it’s indoors at least I clean up after myself, I can imagine not bothering in a workshop situation as I would think ‘I will do it after the next lot’ 🤪
Jam jar flowers
Gosh it’s Sunday evening 9.30pm and I haven’t written anything since Wednesday 😂 I now have to try and think of what I have been up to. Nothing unusual really, some seed sowing, flower cutting, apple picking, watering, watering, watering, a few bouquets and a couple of jam jars. A morning out with Sam, Mia, George, Lucie and Charlie, a walk round the woods and then coffee and cake, a tip to the garden centre with John to get some specific plants, all the usual household jobs and anything else that needed doing 😁
I haven’t seen Hilda again at all so I guess she has gone on her merry way somewhere although there is always water out for any animal that needs a drink and I think it’s pretty hard to find at the minute so please put water out if you haven’t already. A shallow dish with stones in for the wasps and bees, a dish that is kept topped up for the birds, a bigger dish for anything bigger that comes your way, foxes, deer, cats, hedgehogs etc. Its pretty dire out there, the trees are very stressed and dropping leaves already to conserve moisture, the only things still going are the bloody perennial weeds 🙄 I was just out filling up the horses buckets and looking at the paddocks, I have never seen them so dead and brown 😏 We had to let the horses into the winter paddock the other night as there is nothing left in the ones they were in. That means unless we get some rain in time for the grass to grow again we will be feeding hay for the first time in a couple of years. Up to now the system has worked well, leave the big paddock at the back as standing hay and they fast on that most of the winter, last year we didn’t even have to supplement with any hay at all, this year looks like it will be a different story all together.
I think we had a tiny bit of rain at some point this week, about a five minute burst but then the sun came out again and it was dried up before we knew it. Just imagine if it doesn’t rain ever again, nothing is impossible as the last few years have shown, we will be up s**t creek without a paddle 😬 There is no sign of rain in the forecast for at least another two weeks either, this green and pleasant land is now brown and thirsty 😔
I am now well into the stage of selecting what gets watered and what doesn’t, a couple of areas are very dead, the wild area under the weeping birch tree has been dying back for a while and so I have left it unwatered, just hoping that any seed will be viable enough for next spring. The area where I have the thornless blackberry, some of the rhubarb, and where I planted herbs in the spring has also not been watered for weeks and so most of that is dying back too. The three fruit trees at the bottom of the patch, the cherry, dual pear and apple tree are looking stressed but I have not watered them, that would take gallons and not very responsible but the mulberry bush is still thriving and that is in the same area 🤷♀️
John cut the grass in the walkway this evening, it’s not green grass it’s just dead long grass 😂 but might as well tidy it up anyway. One bonus in all this is that all the annual weeds have died so that has saved us a job.
It’s a crazy year in more ways than one and now we are also heading for recession, way back I did say I thought we were in for a bumpy few years and I wasn’t wrong was I!
Monday 20th June 2022: New week, new energy and hopefully better internet connection 😂 It is sunny this morning but not as hot as it was at the end of last week, a comfortable summers day. That means I can get on and I have a lot to do as always, last night I was trying to get to sleep but the list of things I wanted to get done were running through my head for ages. This morning I thought I had better get on and get some of them ticked off the list so first up was getting the eggs sorted and out for sale, then onto getting the washing done and hung out to dry. Once they were sorted I went out and cut flowers for a bouquet I have to do for tonight plus a couple of extra cuttings for putting out for sale. Sometimes you pick a combination and think ‘wow’ that is stunning, well I think so any way, they are calendula (a rusty orange, can’t remember the name but need to look it up) and ami Majus in flower, just beautiful and I added some mint for contrast. Next it was on to pick mangetout, strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants plus some tea leaves for drying. I hadn’t finished there because after that I harvested a good lot of lavender which was bundled up and put out for sale and then I cut two big bundles of flower heads for drying, the first was love is a mist and the second poppy. I am aiming to dry as many flowers as I can this year to extend the range of material I have available. With that in mind I have been reading up and researching the different ways of drying and preserving flowers, there are a few different techniques and I am going to give them all a go to find out which are the most successful.
If the internet connection is playing ball you might even get photos this week 🤪
Freshly harvested lavender and some of the redcurrants 🥰
I still have plenty of jobs to do, it’s continuous at the minute but I want to get some more seeds sown before it’s too late both flowers and veg and I have plants that still need to go into the ground 🙄
Just one of the flower combos I cut this morning and arranged this afternoon.
I got the dinner prepped and ready to go later, I have someone coming to collect some plants, someone coming to get a chicken dispatched, someone coming to pick up a bouquet, watering in the tunnels to do and more picking of flowers for drying later if I have time.
The last for the plants found me eventually, the chicken sadly died during the day and the flowers were collected. Just about time to cut some more flowers for drying while the dinner is cooking, quick sit down after eating and then I will go out and water.
Tuesday: Summer Solstice. Another fine and sunny day 😏 that means only half a day outside for me before I came in from the sunshine but I did get a good bit done. First up was cutting for a bouquet tomorrow then some picking, mostly fruit today including a good haul of redcurrants. Sam and the twins came in the afternoon and I sat in the shade while they played with water and had ice lollies. After dinner I went with some friends to a local wood to celebrate the summer solstice with some singing and dancing, making the most of the longest day and connecting with Mother Nature 🥰
Wednesday: Up early to make up a bouquet for collection first thing this morning and then cut some flowers for a bouquet delivery tonight. I harvested some more lavender for drying and I intend to make some lavender bags. I bought muslin bags and I used the flower pounding method to decorate them, entirely environmentally friendly and when they no longer have any scent they can be composted without any problem. I also gathered some rose petals and put those in the drying bag and hung it out on the oak tree, it takes a lot of petals to make a small amount but they would only end up in the compost so might as well make good use of them. I have made a video of the flower pounding technique but I am not sure if it uploaded to the page or got lost in the web so,where because as yet it has not appeared 😂
I sat down for lunch and had just finished when the doorbell rang, I went out and a lovely couple were enquiring about the name Friesland, they were Dutch of course and we had a laugh about the fact that they were not the first ones to stop in and ask and I doubt they will be the last. I really must try to find out what the connection is but I have a feeling it goes a very long way back. We are not in ‘danelaw’ territory as such but I know that around the late 800’s the Danes pushed further during various attacks and some then settled in Dorset so my best guess is that maybe it is named after a settler or settlers from that period 🤷♀️ I have had various contact from people over the years but if anyone can throw extra light on my theory or indeed blow it out of the water then please do get in touch I would be very interested to hear anything.
I spent an hour or so in the evening weeding and then doing a corsage workshop which produced some lovely work and in different styles. The sunset was amazing so it’s worth coming just to see that 😁
Thursday: I was up early because I wanted to get some serious weeding and cutting back done and I wasn’t sure if the sun would come out today or not. As it was it was mainly overcast all morning which meant I could get a lot done, it also meant I completely knackered myself out by 11.30am 😂 that was a fair stint though with a 5.30am start. I weeded the front three beds plus cut back anything that was going over or getting too thuggish. Then out to the veg garden to get the tulip bed cleared, I slowly went from bed to bed weeding, clearing and cutting anything that was no longer looking good or had finished producing a crop. I harvested new potatoes for dinner this evening as well as mangetout and broad beans, then strawberries, raspberries and red currants, plenty for eating later. By this point even though it was still overcast I really had to come in and take a proper break otherwise I will not be much good for anything later on 🙄 So many jobs both outside and indoors, I guess some will just have to wait. There are heavy downpours forecast today, I hope we get a bit of it but not too much, it certainly feels very close sometimes and then it seems to clear.
I was sitting on the bench having a coffee looking at the garden when it suddenly dawned on me that I have reached the point when I can safely say ‘I have a food forest’ 😁 after working towards it for a few years now it is beginning to come of age, it looks fabulous.
Had a sleep at lunchtime so that I had enough energy to carry on in the afternoon and evening, it’s pretty relentless right at this moment and I hardly have time to do anything else.
Friday: Oh my days I am exhausted today lol, another early start to cut loads of flowers for orders today and tomorrow. I had an enquiry come in for 3 x bouquets the first week of July, quite pleased because she had asked a local florist for British flowers and they said they couldn’t do it so she told them she would look elsewhere then and got in touch with me 😁 I had an extremely busy morning bombing around trying to get everything done including hoovering and polishing the house, picking veg and fruit, watering the tunnels, still no sign of this rain that we had been warned about 🤷♀️ A hundred and one jobs later and Sam arrived with the twins, we went into town, I took Lucie to the park while George went to the barbers and then we all went to the cafe for lunch. Back home and Charlie came to meet Sam and they went off to look at wedding dresses for Sam. By the time they came back I was frazzled 😂 the twins wore me out but my day hadn’t finished yet. Time to get dinner sorted and while it was cooking water the front beds because still no sign of any rain and things are looking pretty dry, I need flowers 😆 Then once dinner was eaten, out to do a good bit of weeding while John cut some more of the front paddock with the limp along lawn mower 😝 Indoors, wash up, write a shopping list for the morning which John will have to do because I have flowers to arrange and the spare room to clean as Josh, Flo and Mia are coming to stay. Finally sit down at 9.30pm and try not to fall asleep 😴
A charming hand held posy for a customer today 🥰
Saturday: Up early to get as much done as possible, still no rain as yet 🙄 One of the main things I wanted to get done was to plant some plants that had been sat a while waiting to go in. Dahlias that I grew from cuttings and some twizzled penstemon, can’t wait to see what they look like, also some knautia. I still have chrysanthemums to plant up but I want to get those inside, they are a late variety which will flower right up to Christmas and hopefully beyond if grown under cover. Meanwhile John went off early to get feed before yet another price rise of 90p a bag, corn has also gone up massively. When he came back he cut some more of the paddock while waiting for a customer to come and collect new hens. By this time I was inside making up two bouquets going out to orders today and some jam jars with the stems I didn’t use in the bouquets. Then John went off to get some shopping while I changed the beds and got ready for the grandchildren to come and stay, just about managed a cup of coffee and a pastry before they arrived. The rest of the day was given over to entertaining and feeding them 🥰 It is actually our 39th wedding anniversary today 😲 whaaat, where did all those years go 😂 I told John I am expecting rubies next year 😝
Back to the feed costs and it is becoming unsustainable to keep poultry for selling the eggs. We did some calculations and we make about £34 a week and that doesn’t include our time, if we factored that in we are definitely running at a loss. The other side of that is that hens are becoming harder to get hold of, October is the earliest our supplier can get some more, normally he is turning over 3,000 birds every 6/8 weeks. Not sure what the outcome of all this is going to be over the whole country 🤷♀️
A busy and tiring day, fish and chip supper, bathtime for the kiddies and I have no idea what time they will eventually go to sleep 🛌
Sunday: Kids finally went to sleep around 10pm and were up at 6am 😂 we had pancakes then they went with Grampy to do the feed rounds, played outside for a while, indoors for a snack and a drink, back outside to play in the paddock and see the horses, back in for a drink and a snack, I think they enjoyed themselves. Certainly tired themselves out judging by the photos of them sleeping in the afternoon once they had gone home 🥰 John and I then shot off to get some bits from the DIY shop and had a timely return, couldn’t have timed it any better if we tried because just as we turned into the driveway the fox was creeping across it and heading towards the front hens 🤬 that was about 4pm. It was definitely the youngster again, luckily John has trained the hens to go back in when he takes the corn feed to them. We are going out for Sunday lunch at 5pm so he rounded them up and got them in, can’t afford to lose any more 😳
I didn’t get anything done other than the above today and that was tiring enough but it was lovely and the children behaved themselves so well. I know they are my grandchildren but I was impressed with their manners, thanking my sister for bringing the fish and chips and asking to get down from the table each time they had finished eating, no prompting required, well done parents 😁
In the week ahead I have flowers to do every day except Friday 😲 amazing and very grateful for the support of customers especially as it’s only my first year. I can already see what mistakes I have made, what has gone well, what I would grow again and what I won’t be or what I will grow differently. I am loving it and wish I had done it years ago, next year will be bigger, more organised and I will have a better understanding of what I will have available and when. The combinations of flowers is unlimited it’s only my time and my purse that prevents me planting up the whole five acres 😂 but who knows 😝
Thanks for reading, have a great week, hopefully we will get a tad more rain 🤞
Monday 27th September 2021: Autumn made itself known this morning, we have had sunshine and warm temperatures for a few weeks now but this morning we woke to windy, rainy weather and the temps are a tad lower than they have been. The sun did break through though and most of the day was nice apart from a sudden shower just after I put the washing out 😜
I have been busy today trying to catch up with jobs that I couldn’t do Friday and Saturday. Firstly though I had promised John a roast dinner so I got that all sorted, veg, potatoes all from the garden and beef from Emma, apples for an apple crumble from the garden as well. I had promised John apple pie but discovered I had no flour left, lucky I made some crumble mix for the freezer last week. Then I made some elderberry syrup with a batch I picked and put in the fridge last week, knocked it over as I was bottling it, swore, then mopped it all up, lucky I didn’t lose too much of it but it was a messy clear up job.
Once that was done I set about sizing up and ordering the last electric radiator we need, John took the last old one out of the living room and I need to get the new ordered and in before the cold weather sets in. After some lunch I went out to the greenhouse and potted up all the herbs I dug up yesterday, some will be for the relocation of the herb bed and some will be for sale next Spring. Back indoors and I had an hour sit down before making a couple of loaves of bread. I want to try and utilise the energy I am using as well as possible and so the bread making was timed to bake them while I am cooking the roast dinner and the crumble. I need to be more aware this winter, not having the Rayburn anymore is going to change how I have to do the cooking and drying the washing (yep the rain shower wasn’t helping today on that score) I don’t actually have to be energy efficient in terms of paying for it but I chose to do it for the sake of the planet, hopefully I am doing the right thing, it won’t always work but at least I am trying.
I put in an order at our local flour mill for different types of flour, plain, self raising and bread flour, that should arrive tomorrow and I also have a delivery of chicken, in various forms plus sausages and bacon from a farm arriving tomorrow as well. With all the problems around CO2 and now fuel John said ‘I think we should go shopping and stock up’ no we don’t need to do that I told him, we have enough here in one form or another to keep us going. I prefer to make sure we can manage with what we have rather than rely on the supply chains as they seem dodgy at the moment lol.
With that in mind I have been thinking ahead to Christmas, we are already being told there will be shortages, think laterally then, eat something different, it doesn’t have to be the same as every other year just because that’s what we usually do. I shall be checking over my stores etc and see what I can use as replacement ingredients for things like the Christmas pudding and mincemeat just in case we can’t find the usual ingredients, in fact I may not even look for the usual ingredients and use what I have which is the whole idea of a life of self sufficiency really.
Tuesday: Today I wanted to get the new project area planted up but I felt I needed to get the ‘must do’ jobs done first, that way I could enjoy the time doing what I wanted to get done. Mainly it was all the usual stuff and then some bill paying etc before finally getting outside to plant up. The area is in front of the dog kennels, they are no longer used and the plan was to take them down and build an arbour but as that is not an urgent job I can’t see it getting done anytime soon so I started growing things up the kennel instead 😜 The hop looked so lovely that I thought I would add some more bits to it and that’s when the plan formed. I had a big wooden box that my brother was getting rid of one day when we were visiting, I will have that please 😁 It’s been sat there a while but today I lined it all filled it with some well rotted manure and a few bags of compost and planted it up with a hydrangea I bought in the summer. Everything I used was something I already had, plants, box, manure, just the compost I bought to do the job. It looks good, the hydrangea is a bit lost at the minute but next year it should look brilliant if I do say so myself. I now have a wisteria, hop, climbing rose and a jasmine which will grow up and over the kennels, the hydrangea in the box along with some huechera and bronze grass, various pots with small trees in to give shade to the hydrangea in the afternoon and a pot of tulip bulbs which will add a lovely splash of colour come spring, I planted some small dahlias in the pot on top of the bulbs for now. I think I will move some pots of daffodils out there to at some point.
Next Spring this should all look lovely and colourful and a lot more full. A nice way to hide the dilapidated kennels 😁
Once I had finished that I had a quick sit down and then got on with other jobs. The beef we had yesterday was quite a good sized joint and I don’t want to waste any of it. I have used half of what is left, chopped it up and along with onion, swede, turnip, carrots and potatoes, added some beef stock, mustard powder, flour, black pepper, tomato purée, Pontack sauce, rosemary sprigs and a bay leaf and piled it into the slow cooker. Once it is cooked I will freeze it in portions for another day. I had a delivery of fresh, free to roam chicken in various forms, a couple of whole ones and then breast, thighs and diced plus some marinated strips as well as some pork chops, sausages and bacon. That all came from Blackwall Farm in Dorset, I sorted out what we would have for dinner later and got the rest sorted for the freezer. I am pretty much stocked for the next few months with everything really, I have flour coming form the local mill and I have 5kg of sugar delivered lol. Every time we go to the shop there is no sugar so I ordered some and will have to find a space to keep such a big bag.
I am not sure what I will do with the chicken thighs yet, I would have liked to make a korma with some but also don’t want to waste energy cooking two different meals as John won’t eat curry, maybe if I cook a big enough batch I can freeze some for another day 🤔
I did intend to go out and pick runner beans in the afternoon but the rain came in and didn’t really stop long enough to get out there, it is definitely turning towards autumn now, hopefully John will get the wall plastered tonight where he took the old radiator off and we can get the new electric one on, we might need it soon.
In the end I did decide to make a batch of curry, some for dinner tonight and some for freezing for another day. With Johns chicken I made a spring chicken pot lol, in autumn 🙄 It’s just basically chicken, potatoes and runner beans in veg gravy, I fried off onions and garlic then browned his chicken before taking it out with a few onions and then I added mine chopped along with tikka spices and a tin of tomatoes, smells good hopefully it will taste good. I think I have a garlic naan lurking in the freezer somewhere so I will have that instead of doing rice.
I do love the Autumn not just for the amazing colours but also because as the weather changes I love being in the kitchen cooking up lots of delicious dinners and treats, I was thinking I may even make a harvest loaf just because I can 🥰
And the rain has well and truly set in today 🌧 When that happens and I can’t go outside to get stuff done I generally browse online for ideas on many different things. Today’s ‘ooo I think I might have a go at that’ is homemade bouillon cubes, I have most of the ingredients already as I have made powered onion, garlic and mushroom, I have herbs I can dry and powder and I have paprika in the cupboard, the only thing I would need to buy is nutritional yeast flakes and voila I would have my own bouillon cubes which could be used in soups and stews etc or can be added to hot water for a tasty warm up drink in the winter, watch this space 😜 I am definitely a prepped at heart I think 😂 I was also looking to see if could make hazelnut flour, turns out you can 🤷♀️
Wednesday: A better day today, I did some picking, it’s getting fewer and further between now but there are still things to pick.
Thursday: Blood tests this morning so I got up and got on then out early to the docs, had my flu jab at the same time so that’s ticked off the list. John dropped me at the docs then went off to do a small job so I had a look round the charity shops and then had a coffee before he returned to pick me up. He is at home today and so has been plastering the wall that the old radiator came off, then drilling through the wall in order to get electric cable to where the new one will go, hopefully the electrician won’t take too long to come round 🙄 he then had to make good the floor and skirting and we will think about decorating in the new year, until then it will stay as it is . Meanwhile I pottered about tidying bits up and sorting the office area out but all the while being on hand as the labourer 😂 When he went off to get some more supplies I set about making some bouillon powder. I had all the dried herbs so thought I would give it a go, I just needed nutritional yeast flakes which arrived yesterday. Blended it all up and it’s now stored in a jar on the side for use whenever I need it. I tasted the powder and it tastes delicious so I think I will be drying more herbs and making bigger batches of that 🥰
Friday: Not a bad day, the sun was out but it was slightly colder than of late. I spent the morning in the greenhouse sorting out the chilli and pepper plants. A lot of them have all but finished now, still a few that are producing but in all honesty I don’t need any more than I have got stored and I only sell a tiny amount of them. Half of them I removed from the greenhouse, some have succumbed to whitefly and greenfly, half of them I have left in to finish off the fruits that are still growing. I moved all the trays and are moved the capillary matting as they don’t need constant damp now and besides I found an army of slugs and their eggs hiding under it 😜 I bought one of the ginger plants indoors to see if I can keep it going over winter so it has a good head start next year. The other one I will put in the poly tunnel and see what happens, it will depend on how cold the winter gets as to its survival. I have some seedlings growing in there which I need to pot on next week, some herbs, parsley, coriander and basil and also some winter lettuce which I need to plant up in the tunnel once it’s cleared of cucumbers and tomatoes. I also have some annuals already growing for next spring. Sam came over with the twins, Charlie popped in and then Shelley came with Flo, John was home as well so we had a houseful in the afternoon. 🥰
Saturday: Oh such a different day today lol, we knew it was coming 🙄 Before the rain broke through John cleaned out the ducks and geese and I did the quail, rabbit, light Sussex and turkeys, topping up all the pens and huts with fresh straw. Two reasons, one because as their minder you want them to be warm and comfy 😜 two because it will make the eggs less muddy in all this rain. I put a load of straw in the tortoise hut and placed them inside, they have been digging into the ground so are definitely getting ready to hibernate. Then I got the hop up and the apple picker and went out to pick the remaining apples from the cooking apple tree. To be honest I didn’t think there were many but in the end I got two bucketfuls so I am happy with that this year. Into the kitchen then where I chopped up a butternut squash and made some soup for lunch and I made a big batch of mincemeat ready to jar up and store for December when I will begin making mince pies 😁 John grouted the tiles in the living room, the electric radiator is now in place and the area round it made good just need an electrician to put a socket in. Apart from the necessary jobs of afternoon feeding and egg collecting I doubt very much we will do anything for the rest of the afternoon, just sit and relax I think.
Sunday: Not too shabby today although it feels colder, still some sunshine in the showers though. John was up early enough, surprising really as he went out last night for a pre wedding drink with the lads and had much more than one too many sherberts 🤣 While he was doing that I made bread, an apple pie and prepped for a roast later. That seemed to take me a lot of the morning as I can’t think I did much else other than peeling and mixing 🤪 Mid afternoon a chap called in to drop some honey off, the honey we had been selling has now finished but he is just down the road and had supplies and so we struck up a deal and now have more honey in the egg shed to sell 🥰
Home made mincemeat batch, 8lb and most of it will be gone by new year 😂
Monday 14th June 2021: Today we find out if any of the restrictions still in place will be lifted or not, not holding out much hope for a full lift 🙄
Another fine day with the temps set to climb up near 30c, you know what that means for me, early morning, so it’s 8.30pm I have stopped for a coffee after already doing a three hour stint this morning. Most of that was picking, peas & mangetout today, a bit of weeding while I was going round, sorting out some plants in the cold frame and picking weeds to feed the Guineas and torts. I also did all the usual jobs of feeding various four legged pets, putting eggs out, a bit of watering out the front etc etc.
This is the month where the harvests begin to come in, they start off slowly but soon there will be so much to pick I won’t know if I am coming or going. And then there is the processing of it all lol, at the minute my plan is to keep back what I want for the day and put the rest out for sale, this morning that only amounted to two bags of mangetout and a tub of strawberries but it will start to come thick and fast especially if we get any rain, doesn’t look very promising at the minute. Of course we have been here before and what will happen next is too much rain that spoils the fruit 🤣 there is no winning this swim only treading water and trying to stay afloat 🤪 I still have some squash to get in the ground but I am waiting until it cools a little first, they will be fine in pots for now. I also have a fair few pepper seedlings and runner beans, I tried selling them but no takers and I hate throwing them away so I am going to have to find a place for them to grow on.
After coffee I did another hour outside which will probably do for today. I have potted on the pepper seedlings, it doesn’t matter if I have 20 pepper plants, I have space for them so may as well grow them, there was a jalapeño plant too, the tomato plants that didn’t sell are also potted on, I may put them back out or plant them up outside who knows yet. I planted up sweetcorn that I had left over, I put those in a bucket for the kids to pick if they get big enough, the corn, not the kids and I sowed some more carrot seeds, some in a bed in between the rows that are nearly done and some in pots again for the kids to pick. They are round carrot so ideal for pots, I picked some of those from the bed for dinner tonight and I found a stray potato which had grown so that will be potato, carrots and peas from the garden as well as strawberries for pudding 🥰 That is what is called the good life and it really is.
I noticed, when I pulled the carrots that the bed was very dry under the initial damp surface so I gave it a good soaking with the rain water hose. It is always worth digging down a bit to see exactly how far the water has penetrated, you will be surprised at dry it really is. A good indicator are ants, if there are a fair few nearby then you can bet there is an ants nest and that will tell you it’s way too dry they don’t like damp soil.
Once indoors I decided to get some polishing, cleaning done and change the bed sheets, I found a great podcast to listen to while doing it, Self Sufficient Hub. There are some interesting topics so if self sufficiency is for you then have a listen or have a listen if it’s it’s not you may get the bug 😁 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/self-sufficient-hub/id1506405294
It’s 1pm and I am a little tired now so I have had a quick lunch and am now going to have a little rest and maybe listen to another podcast.
In the evening after some dinner we went round to Mum and Ken’s for a cuppa and a slice of cake, there is always cake at Mums 🥰
Tuesday: Up earlyish to get the morning jobs done as I have blood tests first thing, they are a little over due but not to worry. Back home and I just about go put the washing hung out when Sam arrived with the twins. She had come over to move the electric fencing and make a bigger restriction paddock that will also now house Jack as well as Biscuit. To be fair Biscuit is looking and doing well but Jack on the other hand is getting too fat, too much grass for him to eat all by himself lol. He will also now be restricted probably for the next 2/3 months depending on the weather. If it stays hot and dry the grass will die off and he can go back out but any rain that we have will ‘flush’ the grass and he will have to stay put. He won’t like it one little bit but he will get I’ll otherwise so it’s for his own good. That took up a couple of hours, once we had got the stakes in place and some electric tape plus the water buckets all filled I took the twins back to the house to get some snacks and a drink while Sam finished it all off.
The twins had such a fun time here that they had to have a bath before going home 🤣 George had by that point, played with horse poo, dirty water in the garden & soil in the veg bed which he delighted in putting all over Lucies back. Lucie had stuck her whole foot in the horses water bucket, sock, trainer and all, thrown her bear in there too and de planted some of Nannys pricked out foxglove seedlings 🤪 All good fun and because there are two of them it can be manic when one goes in one direction to create havoc while the other is off in another direction, hilarious at times as well though 🤣
Wednesday: I was up fairly early and got on with a few jobs before having breakfast, John did the animals and then left for work. Next came a first for me, a covid test, a lateral flow test to be precise, the reason being that I have a sore throat, similar to having swallowed sandpaper 🙄 which is making me cough. I checked my temperature and oxygen levels all normal, I didn’t think for one minute I had covid but I have to check. Two things struck me as I did the test, first on opening I couldn’t help but notice it was all made in China 🙄 if I was a conspiracist I would definitely be jumping up and down saying ‘I told you’ China is probably making a fortune at the minute 😬 Secondly I don’t know if it was just me but I suspect not, I could not help but sneeze, 4/5/6 times while doing the nostril bit. I was thinking good job I am not in a test clinic and positive or else those sneeze spores are going to be all over the place 🤷♀️ I have just checked my test as time is up and it’s negative, I kind of knew it would be but you never know. Actually I have a third point to add, all the pieces of the test are plastic, they go into a plastic bag when you have finished and then that goes in the bin 😖 In a time when we are trying to reduce plastic use this is disastrous really, I know there is probably not a way round it when they are needed so quickly and in great quantities but can you image exactly how many billions of pieces of plastic have been added to landfill over the last year and a half 😢
While I was waiting for the test to ‘ripen’ I went out to water and feed the plants in the greenhouse and then the small tunnel.
Pottered about a bit picking strawberries and peas, a bit of watering and then Shelley arrived with Flo. They had come over to help get some work done in the veg garden, they weeded around the courgette plants and then watered and put down some cardboard mulch as the relentless sun dries the ground so quickly. The we went onto tidying, weeding and sorting the area right inside the gate, I tend to dump pots and tools and everything else there on my way to and from the front garden and never get round to tidying it, well mow it’s all done and feels like a much nicer part of the garden. I have many spaces like that to sort out mind you 😜 Shelley had bought lunch and went inside to make that while I carried on a little more and then we sat down and ate in the garden where there was still some shade. We are forecast thunderstorms and rain over the next couple of days and we could really do it to be honest, everything is flagging a little.
I heard on the radio a report that in this country, and many more around the world I suspect, we are unprepared for the climate chaos that is ahead in the UK. This definitely rings alarms bells for me, I have been saying for a couple of years now that the weather is so much more unpredictable than it was even five years ago. It was never this relentlessly hot for days or even weeks on end, we seem to have our weather in blocks these days and it is nearly always extreme bouts of it too. I seriously need to get a handle on what it is I need to do in order to be able to continue to grow fruit and veg successfully. Trying to stabilise the soil is probably the main thing, the torrential downpours we get now wash the soil downhill. Next would be trying to work out ways to get through drought periods, I may have to use more drought tolerant varieties, I am finding that swede and turnips just keep bolting because of the lack of rain, I either don’t plant them any more or look for better varieties. One thing is certain, a change in thinking and planning is needed to combat whatever the future weather has in store.
I just signed up with a group called Arbtalk where you can register as a tip site for free woodchip if any members are working in your area 😁
After a quick dinner we went over to babysit Mia, George and Lucy for a few hours while Sam and Luke went out for a drink.
Thursday: It’s 9.15am and I have already showered, breakfasted, put on some washing, fed the dogs, cats and Guineas, sorted the eggs and put them out for sale, have three loaves of bread on a second prove and got a lamb stew going in the slow cooker. It rained a little over night but not as much as was forecast and no thunder storms, my plan was to be indoors today as it was supposed to rain heavily most of the morning but as yet nothing🙄 As I am already committed to timings and will have the oven on I am going to make some more rhubarb and orange jam. A couple of years ago I split my three rhubarb plants into six because I couldn’t keep up with the demand for rhubarb, it’s Sod’s law that nobody seems to want much of it this year 🤪 Nobody seems to want much of anything actually lol but that’s fine, more for us and less pressure.
I still feel a bit rough but the throat no longer feels like sandpaper so that’s an improvement 😁
11am and three loaves of bread cooked and cooling as well as five jars of jam and the washing up done. Time for a sit down I think.
Those loaves are bigger than they look in the picture 😂 they are 1lb loaves, I use half white flour and half granary to get a nice loaf, forgot to score the tops of these though 🤷♀️
I emptied, what was left in the small chest freezer, into the big chest freezer and have now turned the smaller one off to defrost. This will be cleaned out and moved to a new position and I will reload it with only what I want to keep and will use. Both of the freezers were half empty or half full depends on how you view it, and both freezers have things in them that I will probably not get round to using before the next lot of produce starts going in. The plan is to throw out what I don’t want, when I say throw out I don’t mean throw away mind you, there is a fair amount in there that I will feed to the dogs, gravy stock for instance, if I don’t think I will be using it within the next couple of months I will defrost and use it to mix with the dog biscuits. The reason being I am bound to be making more so I need to move it on. There are ice packs in there, a drawer full, they have arrived at various times with meat or fish orders and rather than throw them away I have kept them but I don’t need them, what I do need to do is get rid of them 🙄 There are things like frozen buttermillk, pesto, herb portions in there, I need to get good idea of what is available and plan to use it all up. Once the smaller freezer is cleaned and moved I will transfer over and then defrost the bigger one which we will be selling, I have a small under counter front loading freezer which is off most of the time but I will keep it just in case I need extra space 😜 It is always handy to use if you are stocking up for a birthday or bbq anyway.
I went outside and did a bit of weeding in the bed on the side of the driveway, then some picking of peas and watering in the small tunnel. I pulled up the rocket which has now gone over and some early sown baby spinach which has now bolted. These were both in tubs in the small tunnel because they were sown so early, once it gets hot in there they just bolt. I gave the tubs (old recycle bins) a good soaking and then sowed some corn salad in one tub and some celery seeds in the other. The celery will be for snipping like you do with cress, I never was a good enough veg gardener to perfect the art of full grown celery 🤪 but this way is ideal, useful on salads and if I don’t use all of it the leaves will get big enough to pick and dry as celery powder or freeze in packets.
I keep looking at the sky and thinking ‘come on, rain please’ but as usual the weather forecast has changed somewhat and there is no rain in sight until later tonight, so much for heavy downpours, I may have to do a rain dance at this rate. It is seriously beginning to affect some areas now, not everything, some things are plodding away content with the sprinkling they might get when I hose at night or the spitting we had overnight which hardly wet the ground and certainly didn’t penetrate much further into the soil than a nano of a millimetre 🙄 Around the farm I can see the ground beginning to open up with fissures, dry, cracked ground, I think I have been here before 🤔 The water tanks are almost empty now and it’s very definitely going to become a problem is we don’t get some rain soon.
During the afternoon and then in the evening I watered, the signs of rain were there but I it wasn’t really happening and I know from experience that I may as well do it. If the rain comes then it’s a bonus if it doesn’t come then at least the plants get something to drink.
At teatime I looked after the twins while Sam took Mia for her swimming lesson and then in the evening Sue and Shane popped over for a cuppa and to let me know about a small business arrangement that I may be able to take advantage of, more about that later if it happens 😁
By the time we went to bed, still no rain, we were later to bed than usual as we have been binge watching Clarksons Farm, which is the funniest thing on TV all year, seriously it’s hilarious, definitely watch it if you live around the Cotswolds, the very real characters are worth a watch in their own and together with Jeremys humour it is side splitting 🤣🤣
Friday: Rain 🌧 actual rain, enough to wet the top layer of the soil 😁 hopefully we will get a fair bit today, it will enliven the plants and fill the water tanks. The problem will be getting it to stop 🤪 The forecast is possibly ‘a days rain in an hour’ 🙄 that is definitely climate change, we never had such volumes in such a short time years ago, whatever is causing the change it is undeniably here. Still it means that today I don’t have to water anything outside and as I did the tunnels and greenhouse last night and the sun is nowhere to be seen, it means no watering at all and I can concentrate on other jobs. I still feel a bit rough, still have a sore throat so I am thinking that I will probably have a good rest this afternoon to gather strength for the weekends work ahead.
It’s been steadily raining for a few hours now, nice and steady so far 🙄 which is what we want, heavy rain washes away the top of the soil because we are on a slight slope and that’s not good.
After doing the washing up I went out to mop up the defrosted freezer, what I could have done with was a pile of tea towels 🤪 I knew I needed them for something. I have cleaned all the areas I can get to, inside is done and the front and sides, I need to move it so that I can Hoover off the back and the side ventilation, that will have to wait until John is home, unless I am feeling particularly strong. Actually I don’t think they are that heavy once they are empty just cumbersome due to the size.
I was listening to a couple of podcasts while I was working and I need to get some more veg in for successional sowing, things like French beans and beetroot, but I also need to start off some veg for overwintering such as cabbage maybe. If you sow them now and keep them in modules until later then hopefully you miss the cabbage white butterfly which as you probably know will decimate a crop very quickly. Think I will have my first break now and peruse some catalogue to see if there is anything I haven’t got that I could be sowing for winter.
The business thing I was talking about has happened quickly and so I am able to tell you that from later today we will be selling local honey from the egg shed 🥰 I am delighted to be able to help a small local producer by buying any jars they haven’t sold and then selling them in the shed. It’s a win win situation and I hope it works out well. The bees live in a quiet area on the edge of woodland just 4 miles away at Grove Farm, I am very excited at the opportunity to be able to do this for our customers.
I popped into the greenhouse for half an hour and have sown some swede, turnip, peas, cabbage, cauliflower and French beans as well as some icicle radish. I know I said I wasn’t going to do some of these but I am thinking that later sowings might be better especially for the root veg. By the time they are big enough to go in the ground, then establish and finally begin to put on some growth they won’t have got so big that they need to bolt due to lack of rain or consistent sunny weather 🤷♀️ I will only know if it try it out, I will have the onion bed available at the beginning of next month and then the broad bean bed will also probably be vacant by then, both of these areas I can use to grow veg well into the Autumn or even winter.
The honey arrived and I got sorted making a little notice for the shed and putting it on the Farm Facebook page. I had some on the bread I made yesterday (toasted) I can confirm it is delicious 😋
I have been researching mulches, home made mulches to be precise, to see exactly what you can/can’t should/shouldn’t use as a mulch. Pretty much anything as long as it does have a seed head is the answer, I have plenty of raw material round here it’s just a case of deciding which to use, probably a mixture of a few things would be ideal. I need to get into the habit of shredding everything I cut back but you can even use a shredder to shred cardboard (as long as the blade is sharp enough and the cardboard is dry) Remember the jute I was trialling? Well here is my conclusion, yes it works well for the first year, it doesn’t exclude all light but it is not a bad alternative to plastic membrane, however as expected it does not last through to the following spring, even if you take it up off the garden, the weather has already started to degrade it. I would say if you can get hold of it easily or cheaply then use it but I wouldn’t buy it off the shelf unless you have plenty of disposable income. Next the biodegradable, compostable plastic membrane, this one had good points and not so good. It was flimsy, quite expensive (but hey we are trying to save the planet 😬) Not permeable which is a bit of a drawback if you are using it to grow crops in, however I would think if you made a ridge and furrow type bed, laid the membrane then planted into the top of the ridge the furrows would collect water run off and so water would get to the roots that way. Laying it on the top of a flat bed does not really work if you are growing through it but it is ideal as a weed suppressant on its own. As for it breaking down, I think you could probably get two years out of it, it showed no signs of disintegrating when it came to plant season again this spring though it didn’t feel quite so robust. It is also a bit like cling film, sticks to itself making for a very good comedy sketch if your sense of humour is present that day 😜 So the good points are, it’s good for the environment, not so good, fairly expensive and tricky to use. Cardboard is another one I use, this is pretty good, the thicker the cardboard the better, but slugs do like to have a festival gathering underneath it so make sure you have frogs and hedgehogs to help keep the slugs down. Mostly I am trying whatever I can to suppress weeds and prevent moisture loss, so far the woven weed membrane is ticking all the boxes except the most important one which is the environment.
Went and got some food shopping early evening, when we got back the geese were making a racket so John left the shopping in the front and ran up the back to see what was happening, he couldn’t really see anything and so came back in. When he went to put the birds away the fox has had two full grown geese 🤬🤬 Last night as he was putting away he nearly tripped over the fox who was busy eating one of our new hens 😳 It’s a f…ing nightmare, what are you supposed to do, full grown geese can’t be kept in a fox proof pen, they graze grass and cover large areas while they are doing it 🤷♀️ getting close to the ‘what’s the point’ point 😢
Saturday: It’s overcast and quite a bit cooler today hence why it’s now 5pm and this is the first time I have sat down all day long I even ate my lunch on the move. I spent the first hour or so doing the usual jobs and then picking, peas, mangetout, baby beetroot and rhubarb, while John did the morning rounds. After that I went out to move the horses restricted fencing just a tad so that they have a bit more grass. Then we moved the freezer into its new position and I went to inspect the damage to the geese from the fox last night. He had gone for the goose on the nest and the gander had tried to defend her but he had both of them. The eggs were scattered everywhere last night but this morning they had put them all back in a nest 😢 However we had already decided to get her off the nest as it was now obvious they were not going to hatch, we wait every year but they are nearly always duff. These were the same I threw them in the hedge and most of them exploded eww that stinks. I then said to John we need to get the grass cut in that paddock, one of the reasons they would have not seen the fox was because the grass was long and it could easily sneak up. Once we got the ride on mower going I whizzed round and round until it was done, found the remains of the female goose in the long grass, the fox has been chewing away on it overnight by the looks of things 🤬 John dug up any ragwort and docks for burning. I then went round to the side by the ducks and cut that grass, it’s a walkway really so needed cutting, John meanwhile dug up docks in the side paddock. He then went in for lunch and I made a sandwich while he got the strimmer going, once it was running I finished my lunch quickly and went out to strim. John had a bit of a sit down but not for long, once I had finished that we tided up some rubbish from the back area and sorted out one of the cupboards which had stuff in there I have been keeping ‘just in case’ five years later I haven’t ever needed it and so now it is getting binned. It is nothing special just things like nets that bulbs came in or plastic fruit punnets I had collected by the dozens 🤣 I also had some brewing gear in there but that is going to my niece and her partner, I said he could have it in exchange for a bottle of whatever it is he decides to brew. I did do some brewing once upon a time, not much, a batch of beer and some cider but as neither of us drink very much I haven’t really bothered for years so might as well give it to someone who will. Shelley came over with the children, my sister was here doing the caravan and then my Mum turned up, all at the same time lol so we had a cup of tea 🫖 Then it was time to do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting which John did while I cleaned the kitchen up a bit and washed the floor and that lot took us up to 5pm 🤪 At least I can get a good days work in when the weather is like this, here’s hoping it is the same again tomorrow and at this rate everything will be ship shape in no time at all.
Ooo one thing I nearly forgot, I picked some tea 😁 Camellia Sinensis, not much but about 15 leaves, the tips of the plant (hence PG Tips 😜) will dry them out and then wait for some more to grow and pick them and keep doing that until I have enough for a cup of tea 😂 Actually what I need to do is propagate the plant so I have quite a bit to pick at the same time.
I took some pics in the week of all the lovely pink flowers that are coming out 🥰
I love the baby pink lupin, the rose is Hermione, the salvia is pink sensation and I had no idea I had this dusky pink delphinium 😁
And some of the pyramid orchids growing in the long grass in the driveway, that’s why I can’t cut the grass yet 😁
Pyramid Orchid, there are a few in the driveway and quite a few more in the front paddock, hopefully by not mowing they will increase year on year.
Sunday: Father’s Day, we got up and did all the early morning jobs as usual and then Charlie, Shelley, Martin, Florence and Josh came over. They bought all the necessary ingredients to cook a Father’s Day breakfast which we all sat and ate together, lovely. That was a couple of hours of a leisurely breakfast and some Sunday morning chat and then John went off to pick up some tiles we had ordered to repair the floor in the kitchen where the Rayburn had been taken out. A short rest early afternoon and then mid afternoon someone arrived as planned to take the Rayburn and all the fittings. So now Rosie the Rayburn has gone, I am going to have mixed feelings, we were getting to the point where it was bloody hard work, chopping and cutting wood all summer, loading and keep her going all winter but I will miss the cooking facilities and the amazing warm hug that comes from a wood burning stove that you just can’t replicate with any other heat. I have toyed with the idea of having a small wood burner but that is my heart tugging and not my head thinking 😂
Later we are off to Sam and Luke’s for a roast dinner 😁 and this evening a chap is coming to see if he can dispatch the fox for us. Actually it’s two more foxes, he was here last night and saw them but couldn’t get a safe shot as one was in the yard and the other near the goose hut. When we lost the chickens the other week, he got three foxes and now there are two more to deal with, when I say it’s relentless, it really is. And as I will always say we don’t just do it for the sake of it, the nighttime prowlers are perfectly entitled to prowl, the birds are locked away safely, but the daylight ones well they are a different kettle of fish, we can’t afford to just allow the fox to continuously take all our birds. Come the day that happens we will be shutting up shop as there is only so much of a bashing you can realistically take. I know there are people who don’t agree and that’s fine they are entitled to their opinions and while it is still lawful we are entitled to ours. Before we go out we will be locking the geese away, the new hens have been locked away for three days now, the ones out the front are still free ranging but I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose a few of those while we are out 🙄 people like free range eggs but they come at a cost one way or another 😕
Well we have arrived back home about 8pm from having dinner with Sam and Luke, to a massacre 🤬🤬 I don’t even know what to say to be honest, you know when you just feel hysterical and it’s going to go one way or the other, either laugh or scream. There are bodies and feathers all over the front paddock, side paddock and walkway. This is unsustainable, as I say I can’t see how you can keep a free range flock safe any more unless you invest a lot of money and fence them and then they are not really free range are they 🤷♀️ It is soul destroying and we are getting nearer to the end of keeping hens a lot quicker than we had anticipated, seriously we can’t go on like this much more, we can’t even go out for a few hours. The fox numbers are becoming out of control, they will be in competition with each other for food, I have already heard first hand reports of small dogs being snatched, I suspect at least two of our cats were taken when they were small, where does it end ? 😢 When we no longer have birds it won’t be our problem but at the minute it is and it’s a big problem 😡
Monday 27th August, Bank Holiday Monday 😀 only thing is for us it is just another day lol, John has actually gone to work today to catch up with all the plumbing before he has the week off next week when his phoned will be switched off for a fortnight 😜
Dry this morning after yesterday’s downpours, the temps are still fairly low though, it’s all or nothing in a temperate climate like ours, I said to John yesterday wouldn’t it be nice to have steady weather lol.
I must just show you a picture of these, I bought them home from the picnic yesterday, Home made scotch eggs made by my Auntie Louie, I can tell you they are delish, which is why I didn’t hesitate to have the leftovers 😀 One day I will get round to making some and hope they taste this good.
I fed the orchard birds and the rabbits have had hay, apples, pears and plums today, we have started a week of worming the birds in order to get them in top top condition going into the Winter, a fair few of them are in a moult so I need to get a spice mix made up as well to help with recovery. I make my own it’s cheaper than buy special tubs of it, I just buy the ingredients wholesale and mix it all, smells the same and a bit of a treat for them when the weather changes.
Just sat down for a coffee, it’s 11.30, I have been picking and prepping and processing 😀
John has got a one pot chicken dinner for tonight, basically everything goes in the pot at once and cooks in the oven, that’s it very easy and he likes it 😀 veg in there that I picked this morning, carrots, beans, broccoli, potatoes, some leftover chicken from yesterday, stock and cornflour, simple and tasty with all the fresh veg packing in the flavour. Then a jumble crumble, I just invented that, for pudding, which is a mix of blackberry, apples and plums, I was going to have scotch egg and salad but Macca and I ate them this morning 😝 thinking about it they make a very good breakfast on the go, egg, sausage and bread, I really need to get on and make some of these, I want to try them with the quail eggs as a small snack, maybe in the winter when I have more time. It’s surprising how much time everything takes to do, picking, prepping, blanching, freezing, no wonder we love Birds Eye (other frozen brands of veg are available 😆) really they are a working woman’s/mans saving grace and I have watched the process they really are very fresh when frozen, I see no shame in using them.
Tuesday: Dry again, did the orchard lot and a bit of tidying then I thought I better take a look at the mobile coop John is repairing. I did say to him last night that he needed to get it creosoted as time was ticking away and it needs at least a week or so to dry before the hens move in there. Personally I would have creosoted first then done the repairs as time is of the essence but it’s still sat there so I got the brush out and started the job especially in the nest box area. Then Mia arrived and that was the end of that job or any other for that matter lol.
When John came home we spent a couple of hours creosoting the chicken coop, him on the inside and me on the outside 😋
Tonight for dinner we had sea trout with a breadcrumb & pine nut crust which was delish and I take no credit for because Samatha made it before she went home, I need to get the exact ingredients off her so I can make it again.
Wednesday: Small amount of rain over night by the looks of it. Like a lot of people I sit and check my phone first thing in the morning, mostly to make sure there are no urgent messages and the to catch up with any goings on. This morning I had notification through from the neighbourhood watch scheme that another vehicle that was involved in poaching and ramming a game keeper just up the road has been caught and crushed, they caught one last week and they have crushed 5 in 3 weeks linked to rural crimes 😀 That’s a great result because rural crime is endemic round here and most rural areas feel the same I suspect. We are in a particularly affluent area and so it attracts those of a dubious nature from far and wide, and we are always on the alert for ‘strange or unusual’ behaviour. It’s funny how your senses become honed after a while and you can definitely get a feel for something that isn’t quite what it seems, you know instantly when a vehicle pulls in if it is a legitimate customer or not. Sometimes they are lost and that’s fine we can help them with that but sometimes they are up to no good and I have had to deal with this on a few occasions, mostly when you march out there and ask what they are doing they back off quickly, like the time they were rifling though our skip, and sometimes they are more persistent, luckily I had two egg customers with me when one lot were very shifty and not taking no for an answer, eventually we got rid of them, took the number plate and reported it to the police. So remember if you ever pull into a farm/rural gateway/driveway, to use the phone, have a smoke break, change the baby’s nappy (yep we have had that one too) that somebody will be clocking you and taking down your reg number 😋 of course if you are genuine that’s as far as it goes unless it’s a regular occurrence, and if you are not genuine you are probably not reading this anyway 🤪
Did the orchard lot and got a bale of straw from the hay barn to top up all the nest/housing boxes, filled up the rabbit ‘burrow’ etc as the night are getting a little chiller, now I have tiny bits of prickly straw all stuck in my clothing 😝
We have had notification of an increase in feed prices in September then another increase in October 😏 this means we will be putting up the price of the eggs. Demand for feed is going to be high, the yield was lower than usual and most farmers have used their Winter feed already due to the lack of rain and the heatwave over Summer, it is going to have a real knock on effect for food prices, the news said approx £7.50 per month for each household but I think it’s likely to be higher than that in the long run.
When Sam came back from work yesterday we set about taking down the fence at the side of the building and starting to clear the wood that is there. A couple of years ago we started taking down the huge conifers that are just inside the boundary fence, unfortunately we didn’t get round to doing all of them as the ground in front built up with felled limbs, then the grass grew over it all and it was just a mess which is really annoying. So we have begun to clear it, we have someone coming in next week to help John cut up and tidy it up so hopefully we will eventually reach our aim of getting all the trees down and opening up that side of the property to use as the main entrance to the yard at the back. At the moment we use the other driveway which goes right past the back door and curves around the building making it a bit difficult for deliveries such as hay and straw trailers, only taken us about 5 years so far 😝
Thursday: Dry but noticeably fresher, the past few mornings have been slightly warmer than this one however the Sun is already up and doing its thing. Shelley, Josh and Flo are coming over this morning to help with some jobs and I have the ideal one in mind for Josh as he loves to use the broom, the stones all need sweeping back from the drive onto the hardstanding area 😀
A friend dropped off a jar of honey that is produced in the village, so food miles are minimal, well for us not sure how far the bees fly 😜 I couldn’t resist dipping my finger in the jar, oh my, totally delicious 😋
Had a busy day all in all with the hoeing and sweeping and raking and tidying, Shelley picked and processed some runner beans as well and then it was time to go to yet another family birthday 😜 The only thing is at this time of year we always have to leave early (before the cake, much to Johns annoyance) because the chickens have to be shut in before foxy sniffs them out!
Friday: Another lovely early Autumnal morning which turned out to be very warm. Mum came over and set about clearing one side of the poly tunnel, the tomatoes have not been ripening properly and the leaves have gone funny, now I would say it’s blight but these have only ever been watered with mains water so I’m puzzled by that. Anyhow they might as well come out as I have plenty more growing in other places, not least the ‘extra’ plants I shoved in the ground outside which have done better than all the rest! Just goes to show that mollycoddling them isn’t necessary. Meanwhile I did some picking and also cutting back the herbs on the herb bed, later Mum dug up and divided the bee balm, Monarda, and replanted, potting up the other divisions to be planted elsewhere later in the year or maybe in the spring depending on how far I get with things.
Sam and Mia came over in the afternoon and I rested with Mia while Sam did some jobs, then we collected the eggs and did the feeding in the afternoon.
In the evening John and I went to babysit Josh and Florence while Mummy and Daddy went out for a couple of hours.
Saturday: Fresh and sunny this morning, I think it will be another very warm day, did the animals then John went off to sort his Mum out, I need to start getting sorted for our holiday next week as in between that Dad and Sue are coming to stay, they will be staying in Charlie’s room as her and Macca are away in Cyprus for a wedding 😀
I am really looking forward to getting away, more than most holidays in recent years, as soon as we get there it will be ‘and relax’ 🤪
Cut the grass in the driveway and had to wait to cut the lawn as it was pretty sunny out there, when I could do it, it was hard going because the bottom end had got long and thick, it’s the only grass in the place that has grown 😝 John carried on fixing the hen coop ready for delivery of hens next week, had to do some watering as it has got amazingly dry again. I have a resident frog in the big poly tunnel, goodness knows why he has set up in there but he has been there a couple of weeks now. In light of the fact that Mum cleared it yesterday and most of his cover has gone, I filled up a bowl of rain water, put a brick in it and another on the outside, found a piece of slate to cover it put it under the melon foliage and hopefully he will be very happy 😃 great slug eaters so I’m glad he is in there.
I strained the pear and spices in the vodka and now I just have infused alcohol, so I have added sugar and this will now go into a dark cupboard for a couple,e of months, the colour is wonderful, a bit like sherry, can’t wait to try it on a cold night.
Sunday: Another fresh but sunny morning no doubt temps will climb again today, after doing the morning bits and some bits round the house, I am going out for the day 😀 Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire has a Catherine Parr day and I am going with my Mum, Sister and Niece, a rare day off, Johns in charge 😝
We had a lovely very day and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the area. I made a good discovery though as I was beginning to think that all the work here was what was causing problems with my feet and hands but nope, even on a day out without any work my feet/ankles swelled and hurt and my hand, not really sure where that gets me but at least I know and can report this to the consultant next week.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 