Tag: oxon

Posted in Friesland Farm

Is Spring ever going to arrive 🤷‍♀️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th April 2023: Bank holiday Monday and it’s raining what a surprise 😂 can’t really complain though we have had some nice weather and at least the tanks are collecting rainwater for the animals and the garden.

A comment has made me think a lot about the British flower revival and availability. Let me say first that I initially spent six months researching British grown flowers how/what/when and have learnt a lot more during the last year as well. I am also aware that some in the floristry industry might feel threatened by the success of British flowers but there is no need. Firstly there is room for everyone and secondly the British flowers revival is not driven by a ‘them and us’ attitude, from everything I read and people I interact with it is driven by caring for the planet and a love of flowers and yes there is also a business to be made but everyone has to earn a living somehow. So if you are a florist reading this hello 👋 it’s good to have you here and working together great things can be achieved to lessen the impact on our planet. There is a fabulous independent florist called Winnie & Olive who only sell British flowers and foliage, 100% all year round so it is doable 🥰 The British flower wholesalers have reported a huge increase in sales this year already, a sure sign that more and more florists are getting onboard. I’d agree that it is difficult for someone who has always done things one particular way to change but give yourself the freedom to do so and see where it takes you. It is just about relearning and there are plenty of people out there willing to give advice, social media is awash with information, oh and if you want to go floral foam free there is plenty of information in that department too, including a growing army of church flower arrangers 🥰

We got plenty done today and made good progress with the flower room. I spent some time in the greenhouse and John some time doing something, not sure what 😂 but just before midday he said we were ready to go and get flooring so off we went to the DIY shop and bought flooring whoop. Quick pit stop for a bite to eat and coffee before returning home and laying the flooring. We were three quarters of a way through and late into the day when we ran out of underlay 😜 A quick ask round and my brother had some in his garage so we went over there to collect it along with a large table base that we will be using for the main work area. Obviously we stopped for a cuppa and a natter and returned home and unloaded by which time it was 9pm and time for a sit down before bed. Oh yes it was very flipping windy today, gusts of up to 40mph 🙄

Tuesday: The weather started off ok this morning a touch cold maybe but dry, I got some washing on the line and then a second lot in the machine, did some hoovering and tidying bits away and put the second lot of washing on the line. Then I spent some time making up an arrangement I had seen online, I wanted to see how well it worked in reality, I changed it a little but the mechanics work well. Lunchtime and I sat down with a cuppa and some toast and then the heavens opened full pelt 🙄 I ran outside and collected the washing as quickly as I could but I still got pretty wet ☹️ and it was cold to boot 🥶 Shelley called in with Josh and Flo for a cuppa and a catch up and then John arrived home just as they were about to go, seems like the day went really quickly.

Wednesday: It’s 8am and I am annoyed already 😂 I got up, the sun was out though it’s cold, I looked at the weather app 0% chance of rain until 10am then rain and high winds. So I get everything done, rubbish out, feed the animals, breakfast, sort out flower buckets, put the eggs out not necessarily in that order but you get my drift. I am ready by 7.55 to go out and cut flowers, I go for a wee quickly and I can hear rain on the roof! 😡 that was not supposed to arrive for another couple of hours 😝 I know it April and it’s shower month but seriously the rain yesterday was awful, the high winds the day before were awful and we have at least today and tomorrow with the same wall to wall forecast 🙄 After that John tells me it is going up to 21 degrees, give me a break, I would like some normal settle weather please if the universe is listening ☺️ The plan was to cut tulips, narcissi and anything else that looks ready, if I cut it this morning then the weather can do it’s worst because I will be doing jobs inside while the storm is raging outside.

Well it’s 10am and the sun is shining 😂 bloody weather apps! When there was a break (or what I thought would be a break) in the rain I dashed out and cut tulips, dicentra and narcissi plus some foliage ready for the flowers on Friday. They will have a good 24 hours conditioning and time to dry out slowly, if I left it until tomorrow and it rains all day that would be more difficult so it is a case do it when you feel it is right. I have also spent some time on the phone (waiting 🙄) to finalise some details of our up coming holiday 🥰

The wind picked up a bit 🙄 blowing a hoolie lol. I sorted out some lamb feeding bits that we will no longer be using and put those up for sale, I had to give them a wash down first as they have been stored for a good few years. Next job was to put back together a bookcase my sister was getting rid of, it is for the workshop and I haven’t decided yet if it will have books on it or baskets for keeping things in.

Thursday: The weather is good enough for me today, dry and intermittent cloud 😁 it was a busy morning. After all the usual jobs the next thing was to sort out the flowers I cut yesterday, also sort some I still had waiting to hang for drying. Once that was done it was outside to cut rhubarb and take that down to the pub, it was a pleasant walk down and back again. When I got back Dave arrived with some more honey and we had a chat about a few things that we will probably be doing in a couple of months time. Introduction to bee keeping workshops and as time goes on maybe even full courses plus we talked about charcoal making and possible workshops for that as well, ooo it’s all going on 🥰 In-between all that it was answering messages about flower bunches and bouquets, looks like it will be a good week. The flowers here are really getting going now, the tulips are coming up beautifully as are the narcissus, following closely behind are the allium and everything is beginning to burst into leaf (still a couple of things I am waiting to see if they survived) I did sow some seeds on a trial basis, the trial being to see if they actually come up before sowing more 🙄

I also ordered some spring bulbs today! Yep I have got my order in already otherwise if you leave it too late you can’t get what you actually want. I couldn’t get my head around using bulbs in cut flowers because the bulbs get discarded, the reason for that is because once the flower is cut there is no way to make energy to send back down to the bulb so it won’t flower the following year. You can cut the stem and leave some foliage behind and although it might flower the following year it will be a smaller flower with shorter stem. My plan though is not to compost all the bulbs but to leave them somewhere for a couple of years and see what they do. I have an area in the garden that is suitable under a sycamore tree and have already begun to ‘dump’ bulbs there. One of two things will happen, firstly absolutely nothing and they will either rot away or get eaten or secondly I might end up with an area full of flowers 🤷‍♀️ While I was online and as John came home we discussed what we needed to make the top of the table and the work surfaces (unbanded, new scaffold boards) and ordered that as well. I feel like to today has been a productive day and I still have flowers to make up this evening 🥰

Friday: Fridays are always a bit frantic lol, lots of messages back and forth, flower collections and social media to keep an eye on. Then there is the record keeping of what, when, where, who for, I had deliveries arriving today mostly for farm activities and kitting out the flower hut (that’s what I am going to call it) I also tend to spend Fridays working out any future workshops, planting, and doing relevant posts, it can be quite exhausting and sometimes I don’t know if I am coming or going 😂 but it is all enjoyable.

John has mostly been home today doing the last few bits to the inside of the flower hut, I can then move everything in there and start using the space to create, once the wood arrives for the table top that is 🥰

Saturday: It is Charlottes birthday today and also one of my sisters, we worked all day up to the point where it was time to go out and visit birthday people. Most of the work was on the flower hut, we had put some doors in and then decided that they were not a great fit and so took them out and put some different ones in. Both lots were bought second hand from the same person so apart from time the cost was nothing. We popped into my sisters then went up to Charlottes for paella and cake plus watch the grand national while we were there. It’s a shame about the protestors, I would always say that if you have ever worked with horses then half a ton of horse cannot be made to move if it doesn’t want to let alone run. The horses are bred for running and looked after far better than a lot of people are, holding up the race is not good for the horses themselves as they are full of adrenaline at that point and waiting to get going.

Sunday: Another day another birthday so we will be out again later today. Meanwhile we are busy getting as much done as we can, me in the garden, potting up plants, taking cuttings, planting plants into the ground and John working on the outside of the flower hut. There was metal profile sheeting on the outside but the powder coating had deteriorated over the years so it has been taken off and will be replaced with rough feather edge boarding which should look nice.

While we were out late afternoon John asked if I’d let the pony out today, no why, oh it was out in the field earlier, um maybe you should have told me when we were there 🙄 On our return I went out to the field to find her chomping away on the nice grass, somehow the electric clip had come off the fence. It was probably during the windy weather as a bucket that I used to cover the extension lead had rolled off catching the clip I imagine. She is pretty good so it would have taken her a couple of days to pluck up courage to get out and she was definitely still in there this morning lol.

That is another week done, I have done a lot but I have a lot to do, this time of year the job list gets very long and I need to get ready for our holiday to. By the time we get on holiday we will definitely need it and we physically have to go away, we can’t have a week off and stay at home otherwise we never rest 😂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, a bit of work in between & more flowers 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th March: Eeeek it’s a big week this week with Mothers Day on Sunday, by the time I publish this I will have worked with 4/500 stems of various flowers and foliage 😲 and who knew I would absolutely love every single minute of it 🥰 My own flowers are slowly emerging so I still can’t use those but what I will be using are 100% British grown flowers and foliage and not a single stem imported. This is massively important to me, there are lists with wonderfully tempting flowers of all kinds on them, am I tempted, of course I am, would I do it, not a chance. I have been happily connected with British growers and sellers for a year now and each and every one of them is passionate about British grown flowers, sustainability, nature friendly gardening/farming and packaging materials, I have found my tribe 🙌

Why is it so important to me? Well just like food production I think it’s important to know what you are eating, where it comes from and how it was grown/reared and the more I learn the more I know it’s the right way for me. If I can convince a few others along the way then that is a great thing, the more of us on the same road the better off the planet will be.

It is a windy morning this morning, have I ever told you I hate the wind 😂 (many times) it is just that everything clanks and groans around here when it is so windy. My ultimate fear is the roof blowing off, sheets of tin flying around is not something I want to see, they are secure but Mother Nature is fierce as we all know and she can do whatever she wants if she sets her mind to it. It’s not that bad out there but a fear is a fear and not easily shrugged off 🙄 I have a plethora of jobs to chose from this morning, the cleaning needs doing, the bed needs stripping which means plenty of washing (too windy to get it on the line though) the hens at the back need cleaning out and so do the ducks. All the while the week ahead is buzzing round in my head, jobs to do in the flower garden, Mother’s Day flower payment links to go out, Friday flowers, Flos birthday, flower seeds to order, veg seeds I haven’t got yet that I need to order, what to get for dinner later. Another cup of tea before I begin I think lol.

I cleaned, hoovered, polished most of the rooms, changed the bed sheets and put the washing on and by early afternoon sat down for lunch. Charlie came over with Oscar and I looked after him while Charlie went and did her weekly shop. It didn’t go too well, he went to sleep but woke up 10/15 minutes later and I could not pacify him at all 😂 luckily Charlie was not away too long. You think as a seasoned parent you will be able to deal with most things as a grandparent but if you don’t have the milk on tap you are onto a loser 😝

Tuesday: A better day weatherwise though still not that warm and intermittent rain so unless it warms up as the day goes on I am not planning on going outside much. I did check the seedlings and plants in the greenhouse though and things are coming on nicely although we have temps dropping to around -5 again tonight 😏 hopefully that will be it for a while. We need some sunshine/warmth after the rain to get everything growing and the tree leaves sprouting, the buds are there but they are holding off for the time being.

The sun came out and there was a job I needed to do that was in the small tunnel so I figured today was a good day to do that and besides I wanted to get it done so that the tunnel was good to go when the time came. I could have waited for John to do it but to be honest he has a lot of projects on the go already plus the day job so I put my entry level carpentry skills into action. We have wood lying around so I measured what needed, gathered up the wood, got it all sawn to length and put it altogether 😁 I am suitably impressed with myself I can tell you.

Find some suitable wood, screws, saw, tape measure and cordless screwdriver……..
…….and build this 😁 the extra box I needed to finish down one side of the small tunnel 🥰

I just need to line it and fill it with compost, the seep has been cut to size and in the first photo you can see the piece of hose that links the two seep hoses together. I will now be able to attach a water hose to the end and leave it to water itself for an hour or two while I get on with other jobs 😁 ✔️

One of my main aims this year is to get the seep hoses in place beforehand, usually I am trying to lay them when everything has started to grow 😝

Wednesday: We had a frost this morning so it was quite cold over night but not the -5 they predicted I don’t think, the reason I say that is because the puddles were not frozen at 7.30 this morning so it can’t have gone down that low 🤷‍♀️ The temperatures are already up and I think it will be quite a nice day all in all. It is Florence’s 5th birthday today, oh to be five again 🥰 When I was five I was living in Swinbrook and being put on the school bus each morning to go to school in Burford, I can’t imagine that happens much these days 😬

Preparations begin for the Mothers Day flowers, first thing this morning was bucket washing. Buckets for conditioning the flowers need to be scrupulously clean, bacteria in the water is the main cause of premature decay in cut flowers, they are scrubbed with washing up liquid and warm water then thoroughly rinsed and dried ready to go. There will be wrapping to prepare and sundries such as string, raffia and tape to check (just in case I don’t have enough) All the wrapping I use is compostable, even the cellophane is plant based and the sellotape is plastic free 😁

John is at home today working on the flower workshop, I am not really sure what else to call it, I already have the small flower shed in the driveway and studio seems a bit presumptuous so if anyone has an idea please put it in the comments.

I spent most of the first half of the morning sorting out wrapping for the flowers, if I can pre do as much as possible it will save time when I start making up the bouquets. I also had vases to wrap and they are also done and ready to go. Next it was time to go outside and start cutting foliage, the pussy willow is amazing and it has sprouted up everywhere in the ménage 😂 I am thinking I might use this space for growing foliage, seems like a good use as it no longer gets used for the horses. I also cut some of the remaining stems from the willow trees, the stems have now turned a lovely orange colour, I already had some vibrant green stems of a dog wood and I added to that some lilac stems that are still in bud. Then it started to rain and it was quite cold with it so I abandoned that for the time being, tomorrow I will cut some more of anything useful I can find 😁

Went round to see Florence for her birthday 🥳 and eat cake 🎂🥰

Thursday: Drizzle first thing this morning but it feels warmer than of late, we could do with some sunshine though, it would help all the growth along now we have had some rain. It is flower delivery day today and boy have I got a lot of British grown flowers coming 😂 I have also been cutting whatever I have here that is ready. This morning I have cut hellebore and a few anemone, some honey berry that is just beginning to flower and some trailing ivy. I have got lots of flowers to make up in various forms for Mothers Day, bouquets, bunches and grave flowers and can’t wait until the flowers arrive, I have gone over and over the number I will need but as it is the first year I am panicking that I haven’t ordered enough 🙄 Once they are here and I can see exactly what I have I can then allocate some to Friday flowers and for other orders I have that are not Mothers Day related. I will have help tomorrow afternoon and evening, Charlie has offered to give me a hand which is great otherwise I think I would be working into the small hours 😂 I am loving it though and already thinking about things I can do for Mothers Day next year!

Once the flowers arrive they will all need sorting and conditioning, some need different kinds of treatment but basically they all need to sit in water in a cool dark place to take up as much moisture as the stems can hold. The hellebore I cut this morning all have a tiny 1mm line scored right down the stems and are immersed up to the flowers so that they can uptake as much as possible, the anemone just stand in water so you can see that some are more high maintenance than others.

As it often does, everything happened at once, I had a phonecall from Johns business insurance that I was in the middle of payingwhen the first delivery of flowers arrived quickly followed by the second delivery. I needed to get them all in water asap, they smelt amazing and the colours of the tulips were fabulous.

This gorgeous lot will all be turned into Mothers Day bouquets and bunches 🥰

Sam arrived straight from school with the children ready for Mia’s swimming lesson. They came bursting in and were all excited about having a bath a Nana’s, the reason Sam had said they would be having a bath is because they had been playing in the mud at Nursery and were mud splattered everywhere 😂 Time is tight on a Thursday for Sam so factoring in a bath when they get home from swimming is pushing it a bit, a bath at Nana’s was the solution. The question I asked them first is ‘did you have fun playing in the mud’ happy faces and shouts of yes was all the confirmation needed 🥰 I have never known children so happy to be having a bath, Mia on the other hand was mighty upset because she had to go swimming and would have preferred to stay and have a bath with them lol. I bathed them, washed their muddy hair and faces, and got their dinner, at least once they got home they would be ready to go to bed.

Friday: It’s Friday 😁 not any old Friday and definitely Friday flowers day but this time it’s all mothers day flowers. It will be a busy day and I am nervously excited about doing them all 🥰

Blimey 5pm and just finished, that was back breaking work lol, to be fair I did look after Oscar for a couple of hours while Charlie did the wrapping 😝 but still it was a full day of prepping, bunching, wrapping and tidying up. I think I need a nap!

I did manage to get Friday flowers out too which was a bonus. I made up five bunches and they would t all fit in one buckets and touch the water so I put them into two buckets. When I went out later someone had bought a bunch but then put the other bunch into the second bucket and took the bucket as well! I wouldn’t mind but I was really stretched for buckets with all the bunches and bouquets I had made up, I can only assume they used it so the car didn’t get wet and are planning on returning it 🙏

Saturday: I was awake early so got up made a cuppa and went back to bed to listen to a podcast. The electric went off at around 6am but luckily came back on five minutes later, I decided I may as well get up and have breakfast. I have a busy day of flower collections today but I do want to get other jobs done as well. I have asked John to reconnect the mains outside now that we have a mild period of weather coming up, it is so mild this morning I stood outside in my pjs and drank my tea 😁 First though he has gone to the builders merchant to get so bits for the workshop, I asked him ‘while you are there can you buy me some more buckets please’ 😂 builders buckets will have to do for now.

I had a delivery of dahlia tubers arrive yesterday, I have lost most of mine this year because of the cold weather, hopefully the ones in the front beds will have survived.

Oooosh it’s nearly 4.30pm I am on nearly 12,000 steps and my back is aching but Mothers Day flowers are done, collected and I am pooped. I spent half the time weeding in the garden and the other half with customers collecting flowers, it’s been amazing and I have loved every minute of it. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo mid afternoon and we dug up carrots, the kids washed them and then they took them home ready for roast dinner tomorrow, luckily we are invited 🥰 I also sold all the Friday flower bunches from the shed as well as a jam jar, there still some narcissi and daffs left but that is it 😁

On a sadder note the female Turkey, Tedalena, died yesterday ☹️ and now Ted is alone again, to be honest she wasn’t in the greatest shape when she came to us and that was more to do with her breeding than anything so I am surprised she lasted this long, the avian lockdown has not helped matters either.

Sunday: We spent the first part of the morning working outside, I have been weeding and moving pots of plants around, monitoring the seeds I have growing in the greenhouse, watering if necessary. Big Billy the tort has woken up and is moving around, he is still in the greenhouse until he acclimatises and then will go out, Voldertort is not mobile yet. It’s Mothers Day and Charlie and Macca came over with Oscar mid morning for a while, then we nipped off to the garden centre and when we got back Sam, Luke and the children arrived. Once they left we went round to see my Mum and then onto Shelley’s for a roast dinner 😁 Busy day but really lovely.

Lots of plants and trees are just beginning to spring into life which is fabulous, a bit behind this year I think but they will catch up easily enough. I spend a lot of my time looking and wondering exactly where I am going to be planting all the seedlings once they are big enough and trying to weed and tidy areas ready for when that time comes, but there is always so much to do 😝

Well that was the week that was all about Mothers Day flowers, it has been an epic week, I have loved it even though it was pretty full on, I will now spam the blog with pictures 😂

Friesland Farm Flowers Shilton, farm grown or British grown flowers and foliage, bunches, bouquets, wreaths, Shilton, Oxon

And the good thing is I am already getting repeat business 🥰 so something is right x

Posted in Friesland Farm

A disappearing dog and a trip away.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chipping Cambden

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Wreaths, a new path and delphiniums in November!

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wreath rings made from hoary mustard (I think)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dawnepears0

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed sowing, apple picking and the weather is swinging back and forth.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th September 2022: Arrghh where is the year disappearing too 🙄 I will try to be a bit more efficient with writing the blog this week 😂 Today the weather is squally, windy, rainy at times with the sun occasionally appearing and definitely a tad cooler. I did think though that today would be a good day to get some washing dry and apart from one dash to retrieve it from the line I managed to get two lots dry 😁 I also planted up a few plants, three to be precise before the rain started, and I have sown some sweet pea seeds (long stem) The dinner was in the slow cookers early on, chicken stew with dumplings for John and Parmesan chicken for me. I do love this time of year, it’s when you get to reap the rewards for all the veg growing and foraging. I also made a sponge pudding which will be cooked in the microwave, I cooked down some blackberries with sugar, they went into the bottom of the pudding basin and then a basic sponge mix with added diced apple mixed in went on the top. That will take only a few minutes to cook and voila, dessert, it’s not corden bleu I know but it will be tasty and filling and that’s all that it needs to be 🥰

I checked the bulbs I planted in the big tunnel, the last time I looked a mouse or something had dug up an anemone bulbs and chewed on it 😡 but luckily it does not look as though any more have been got at. I did leave the door open so that the cats could patrol it and help out a little. It is kind of coming to the end of the cut flower season, having said that I had prepared in advance for flowers to take me up into December, chrysanthemums are ideal for this and I have them planted in tubs so that I can move them under cover if I need to. I have early spring bulbs in pots that can be forced in stages for the new year and I am much more aware of what needs to be done than I was this time last year 😂 I would say my first cut flower season has been a success, I have sold flowers and plenty of them, next year I plan to build on that by reviewing what I have learnt, honing my skills and learning more over the winter months. I have a new planner for 2023, one that means I can keep all the information in one place, what, where, when, how, who and I am looking forward to using it fully. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and my only regret is that I didn’t start years ago 🙄 It was a pretty rough introduction with the weather we have had this summer but as with veg growing, no two years are ever the same and so next year it will be different obstacles to overcome, bring on the challenge 🤪

Tuesday: Dmard bloods first thing this morning, it will be interesting to see if they show anything, been feeling quite fatigued, stiff finger joints, cramp everywhere, sore feet. I could of course just be getting old and falling apart 🤪 Once I got back I started on my project for the day, an indoor one today. Operation thermal lined curtains 😂 I will say first off that I can sew and I have in the past sewn all my curtains and fitted bedcovers. I spent a good few years sewing coats in a local factory when I left school so am well practised but I didn’t want to sew these. I wanted to do a no sew project and see how it came out and so I bought some thermal curtain lining and some stick on Velcro, it’s pretty successful! The lining does not fray so needs no seam sowing and the Velcro sticks well, so I cut it to the size I wanted, put the Velcro on and then the opposite on the back of the curtain and ta da, thermal lined curtains the easy way. The curtains are already lined and it was a toss up between buying new thermal curtains or using the curtains I have already and putting another lining on, I went for the latter. It is almost impossible to detect that I have done it, you wouldn’t know unless I showed you really. You may wonder why bother, well because every little helps as they say, plus in the summer they will work in reverse (keeping the heat out) win, win I reckon 🥰 We already had thermal door curtains for the back door and the door between the kitchen and the boot room. I got those a couple of years ago because we did have draughty spots around those doors, they don’t stay up all year but today I got them out and put them up for the winter 🥶 I rather like making sure that we are as cosy and toasty as possible for as little money as possible and as I have said before, I like to challenge myself to do better.

Wednesday: Mid afternoon sit down 😁 This morning I got the dinner ready to go in the slow cooker, the last bit of hogget from the freezer. It was a breast and I have rolled it and put in plenty of rosemary and garlic. I also made some flatbreads for my soup at lunchtime, Greek yoghurt and self raising flour, mix it up, pat it out and dry fry, easy peasy. Then I had a hair cut and after that I was able to get out side and get some work done. I have planted plants, sown seeds, dug up self seeded plantlets and potted those, dug up the scented pelargoniums (they will not survive outside) and potted those up. I have taken some cuttings of those in case the plants don’t make it through. They don’t even like being in an unheated greenhouse and so they are going to Mums as she has a conservatory 😂 There is a ton of work to do still 🤪 but I am getting there slowly, I need to write this down every day just so I know where I am at 😁 The bed that had the pelargonium has been cleared and now has direct sown seed of pink love in a mist, some daucus and something else that I have completely forgotten already. I covered the bed and hopefully they will sprout over autumn and winter and I won’t need to tend to those until next spring. There are plenty of flowers still growing but you always have to be thinking six months ahead otherwise you miss the timings. For instance I already have my dahlia tubers ordered and paid for but they won’t be delivered until next year.

Thursday: Quick sit down mid afternoon before a customer comes for their flowers. I have made lamb and sweet potato soup today in the slow cooker, left over lamb from yesterday plus anything else that needed using up, courgettes, mushrooms etc. I left the juices form the lamb last night to cool down and have taken off the solidified fat which I will freeze for roasting potatoes another day and the delicious jelly that is left behind is incorporated into the soup mix. I have sown some Ammi seeds today, picked courgettes and around 160, yes 160 eating apples from a dwarf tree that is growing in the veg garden. Wowsers, it cropped heavily this year 😁 Approx two thirds are storable so they will be wiped and dried and then wrapped individually in newspaper and stored in the apple rack in the pantry. They are delicious 😋 I had one with a chunk of Stilton for lunch.

All the apples are now sorted and those that will store are wrapped and safe in the apple rack. It’s this time of year I get my ‘squirrel’ head on 😂 I don’t know what it is but I like to start stocking up, it’s not like we live in the back of beyond or anything so I guess it is a primal trait 🤪 A well stocked pantry is a thing of beauty especially when a lot of it is home grown, it feels like a great accomplishment, bring on six foot of snow I am ready for it 🥰

Sunday: Ooops missed a couple of days lol. Friday we went out with George and Lucie to show them the fish at the garden centre and have cake of course 😁 Saturday I spent the morning doing a dried flower wreath and the afternoon dividing and potting up achillea plants ready for next spring. Today was another lovely sunny day, Charlie, Macca and Oscar came over in the morning and in the afternoon John carried on with boarding out the back area, all the gaps where the wind blows in are nearly filled now. I spent some time in the greenhouse potting up self sown rock soapwort or tumbling Ted and planting a couple of plants in the beds. I had a customer come for flowers, I have done quite a few bunches and bouquets this week and I don’t really want the season to change, the leaves are beginning to die back of lots of things 😢 I guess that is what it is all about though, the changing seasons and so we will move into the next season and who knows I may even love it.

Have a great week 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Cooler mornings and evenings, slow cooking & bulb planting.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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 😬

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain! It rained 😁 thank you for the rain, I am so happy it finally rained 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th August 2022: I have taken to watching the rain radar, a live website so I can either see some relief or disappointment approaching 🤪 This morning, though I intended to get up early, I didn’t, so I was then playing catch up. I didn’t water, I am hoping that is done for me today 🙏 but I did cut flowers and harvest loads of tomatoes, cucumbers and baby courgettes, if it stays fairly overcast I can get a good bit done today including picking more plums and apples. We have an abundance of cooking apples this year, typical as we have had none for two years and now more than we could ever use or store. I am giving them away as I don’t want to see them going to waste at all. I have, in anticipation of some precipitation, cast some mixed seeds in the grass at the drive entrance to see if I can pretty that up for next year and I have also cast some pelleted chicken manure on the ornamental beds, hopefully the rain 🙄 will wash that in. The one thing that is great about today is that it is noticeably cooler 😁😁 smiles all round today without that relentless heat that you cannot even think straight in let alone work 🤪

I thought I would make a start on changing the beds around in the veg garden, the small raised beds are all north to southish but I want to change them east to westish to give me a long line of two that I can walk in between making it easier to get to things on all sides. Some of the beds are now empty so I can get on with moving them around and replanting them with perennials for cutting. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it, I mean it’s overcast and not as hot as it was and rain is on the way pffft. Not that easy as it turns out, the sun has decided to pee me right off and keep peeping out from the clouds, it is actually bloody hot when you are hefting and shifting and there is no sign of any water droplets let alone some decent rain! I can’t get the bloody box straight no matter how many times I try partly because it’s difficult diving back and forth to the shade, the sweat is running off me and I just want to cry because I just want to get something achieved but can’t, fml. All the while I know John will do it when he comes home but I would have really liked to do it and get the job moving in the right direction, right at this minute I bloody hate having Lupus and I bloody hate getting old and I bloody hate the total lack of rain 🤬 Just for once it would be nice if things went a little more smoothly instead of a constant uphill battle to achieve the smallest of things 😢 First world problems I know but it’s my problem to bleat on about ok 😝 I am not a quitter, never have been, never will be so as soon as I have cooled off a little both physically and mentally, I will be back out there having another go and who knows I may even manage it 🤷‍♀️

I didn’t manage it but luckily I have John 😁 not only did he do that one he did four others as well. I was helping of course as well as getting the dinner and watering at the same time. I now have two of the beds planted up, one with herbs for cutting, English Mace, sage, oregano, Angelica and I have all my different mints, apple, variegated and chocolate, in a very large pot. In the next bed I planted agastache, a short but airy verbena (the name escapes me) a very tall, white aster and some other things that I am too tired to remember right now. The next bed is already planted and staying where it is, it has three rose bushes in there and is now a bit bigger so I will be adding another rose. The next two need filling with soil and I haven’t quite decided what will go where but it is likely to be hydrangeas in one and who knows what in the next one. After that there is a row of honey berry bushes and an apple tree which will all be staying put and then the beds carry on, I have decided that the grasses do really well there so they will be permanent grass bed with all kinds of different grasses for cutting.

It rained! While we were working, well just finishing up, it started raining, lasted about five minutes and then stopped 🙄 not much but it felt really, really good 😊

Tuesday: I was up early and outside to get some flower cutting done, the main reason being the rain forecast today, I didn’t want the tall blooms I need this week to get bashed by any heavy rain. It was already sitting with rain which continued for a good while. Mid morning I went out for coffee with Charlie, back before midday and Sam and the children were here and then rain 🌧 real rain 🌧 a substantial amount of wonderful, wet rain 😂 happy, happy, happy, happy me, happy plants 😁 and tonight I finally get a night off from watering 🥰

Wednesday: I got up early this morning out of habit but I didn’t need to water as the ground was still damp in places 😁 So once all the morning it’s were done I got on with dried flowers instead. I have to say I love, love, love drying flowers and I have begun to construct the flowers for Sam and Luke’s wedding, they look fabulous even if I do say so myself, I definitely want to do more dried flower bouquets. I cleared away mid morning as Shelley and Sam arrived with the children, Charlie popped in too, she went home and then the rest of us went for a walk up to the downs. I got back mid afternoon and John arrived home in time for me to go and deliver a flower bouquet to my weekly customer and some jam jar flowers which I donated for their charity raffle which was happening today along with a cake sale.

Once back home I decided to do more dried flowers so from 3pm to 9pm I spent my time making up table arrangement bouquets x 8 and then sorting all the flowers out into separate bundles so that I can clearly see what I have. I had just picked them randomly and hung them to dry so they were mixed bunches, now they are all in coordinated bunches 😁 I just have two large arrangements to make for the wedding and then the flowers are done. While clearing up I watched an online talk in my flower group, it was all about herbs and the different types that are great for flower arranging, definitely going to be getting some more unusual ones as herbs always smell and look fab in with flowers.

Plenty of dried flower material to work with 😁

Thursday: I didn’t do very much today apart from bimble about 😂 I did make up a bouquet of flowers ready to be delivered in the evening. We went out to deliver the flower bouquet which was an un successful delivery 🙄 and an hour or so later returned home to get the animals done and the dinner on. We were still eating at 7.30pm when Martin arrived to play pool with John for their Thursday night session.

Friday: Awake super early and did a few normal jobs, then picked a few lbs of tomatoes, some cucumbers and some courgettes, fed the torts and plenty of overripe cucumbers to the quail, guineas, rabbit and chickens. Shelley came to pick me up at 9.45 and we went out to get coffee and cake. I went back to Shelley’s and spent an hour or so doing a drawing class with Josh, he was teaching me not the other way round as he is fabulous at it 😁 I came home and did some housework, hoovering polishing etc.

I contacted another customer about the flowers I had cut and arranged that didn’t get delivered and they are going to have them so that’s brilliant, no wasted flowers though a fair bit of my time wasted, I will put it down to experience.

Saturday: Up and about did a few household bits, then some shopping then delivered the flowers, back home and John got the mower out to do a bit more mowing. Went round to my sisters in the evening and she had lots of lovely ripe figs from

Sunday: John was busy today digging up any ragwort in the paddocks and then topping it just taking the very top of any growth off. There is not a lot of growth to be fair and the paddocks are still brown, the ones the horses have eaten off are just left with the odd weed standing proud but dead so that is what has been cut.

Not much from me this week as I have been busy elsewhere, all is well but I will tell you about it when it’s appropriate 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

It’s hot and dry, that is all I have to say 🥵

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 9th August 2022: No idea what I did on Monday apart from cut a whole load of flowers for an order that was cancelled 😏 and went to my brothers in the evening for his birthday. The rest is a blur 😝

Tuesday: After making up a couple of jam jars, sorting flowers for drying and making up a bouquet I went to Shelley’s with Charlie, Sam and the twins also went and we spent most of the day there. Shelley made lunch and the children played indoors some of the time and with the splash mat outside some of the time. It was hot 🥵

When I came home I had half an hour sit down and then spent 4 hours watering, yes 4 bloody hours of my life watering. Watering everything that was necessary, about two thirds of everything, the other third I have had to let take it’s chance 😔 Normally, in a normal year I would only be concentrating on the tunnels, greenhouse and anything in pots but this year it has to include all the beds both ornamental and vegetable. We have had no significant rain since we came back from our holiday in early June and coupled with that we have had ridiculously high temperature consistently and it’s not over yet. This means in order to keep everything alive I have to constantly water, the fact that I didn’t do any last night has a big knock on effect the next day. It’s tiring but I have invested a lot of time and effort into the veg, flowers and ornamental beds and so I can’t just give up, not to mention the money that plants cost. To give up now would cost me dearly, mentally, emotionally and financially, this year has taken gardeners by surprise but I will make sure it doesn’t happen again next year 🙄

Wednesday: It’s sooo bloody hot that evening standing around makes you sweat 😅 uuurgh give me back the traditional English weather if I wanted relentless heat I would go on holiday to a hot country and that is something we don’t do 😂

Busy morning of getting jobs done, cutting flowers for delivery today and then on to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and plums. I also decided that damage limitation was called for and pulled the cabbage and kohl Rabi plus carrots, it’s too hard trying to keep them watered so time to get them in the freezer. The courgettes I am picking when they are small (baby) so that I don’t need to water as much as I would to get them to normal size. From here on in fruit and outside veg will have to take their chances, I will only be watering the necessary plants.

I then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon prepping it all for the freezer. Slicing, chopping, peeling, blanching, bagging, cooling and finally freezing. I also made up three batches of crumble mix, stewed some apples with sugar and some maple syrup and made up four small apple crumbles which went into the freezer along with a bag of crumble mix. I did intend to make some plum jam but in all honestly I was tired by then and still had flowers to make up so I cleared away, washed up and I will do the jam in the next couple of days.

John came home early and went off to deliver the flowers for me, I had a phone call from the neighbouring farm to say they had lost some piglets and could I keep an eye out for them, I haven’t seen them yet but hopefully they will find them soon.

Tonight I will not be able to get any watering done as we are off on a short train journey for an evening trip. It’s going to be a round of watering for me again tomorrow that will take hours 🙄

With the complete lack of rain we have decided to increase the amount of rain we can hold, the amount that comes off our roof is an awful lot so makes sense to hold as much of it as possible and so we have ordered another 12,000 litres of tanks, that will take us up to around 30,000litres of water storage. Sod’s law we won’t even need it next year but ‘be prepared’ is a sensible mantra I reckon and so prepared is what I will be, for that at least.

If you are reading this and living in a hot, dry climate then all tips appreciated 😁 Approx 9th June was the last time we had any significant rain and temps have been at least 25c and mostly in the 30s pushing up just beyond 40c 🥵 According to farmers there is no significant rain in the forecast for at least another 30 days 🙄 crops are suffering as well as wildlife. Last night while watering I noticed around 30 sparrows making a racket in a puddle of water I had made on the driveway, I went into the garden and collected up all the shallow dishes I could find and filled them with water for them. A Robin was also sat in the tree watching me and so I filled up the bird bath (which I do daily) and watched him enjoying a much needed bath lol. I know I am going to hate the winter weather when it comes but seriously this is another level of ridiculousness 😬 If it is climate change, it’s coming a lot faster than predicted, it’s not good news for the planet or anything that lives on it 😔

Thursday: No idea what I did and it’s too hot to care 😝 I did plant up some alstroemeria at around 9pm, it wasn’t much cooler but the light was fading and I wanted to get them into the ground. The moon was beautiful, almost a full moon but not quite, that comes tomorrow evening.

Friday: What can I say except, it’s hot and dry, I am basically just trying to get from day to day until hopefully one of the days the temperature falls or we have rain 🙄 I spent most of the day making up button holes and hair combs with dried flowers plus a small arrangement to fix to a headband. I can’t show you the pictures yet as it is for a wedding that hasn’t happened but when it does I will.

Saturday: I was up early as was John, he went off to get feed for the poultry, I did the usual household bits then outside to get some watering done, We then had to pop out for an hour and get back to hand over some flowers to a customer 🥰 I can’t remember what other jobs we did but there were a fair few before coming indoors for the middle part of the day and watch some films. Back out in the evening once it was cool enough and more watering, I watched the meteor shower for a while, saw three, before going to bed.

Sunday: Still bloody hot 🥵 seriously it’s scorching weather, relentless too. We were up early again and it was nice and cool at that time of the morning so I got some watering done, John said ‘shall we have more tea’ at 7am, ‘nope’ I replied ‘we need to get the small paddock cut before it gets too hot’ so that’s what we spent the next hour doing. It had got long (long but mostly dead) and needed tidying up. John carried on outside for a couple of hours while I came inside and made plum jam. The thing is that the fruit will not wait no matter how hot the temps are the jam still needs making 🙄 We then spent the hottest part of the day inside again and went back out until dark once it had cooled down a touch, though that is not much at the minute.

I am sure you are all feeling it too, hot and bothered, the paddocks are as dead as I have ever seen them, there are huge fissures opening up in the ground, the massive trees that are around 50 years old are beginning to wilt, the berries that the birds would be feeding on to fatten up for winter are shrivelling up and there is not a drop of water to be found anywhere for the wildlife such as bees, butterflies, birds, beetles etc. Each day I am trying to keep plants alive and each evening when I go out they are parched again. I deadheaded some roses earlier and the petals were crispy 😳 I don’t think I have ever sweated so much before even when sitting still, when I was outside I kept thinking something was crawling on my leg but no it’s just beads of sweat running 😂 I am not one for praying but spending most of my time just trying to keep things alive is seriously taking its toll on my sanity so I am praying the rain comes tomorrow. It will fill up the water butts and hopefully give me the day off from running around like an idiot, I may even be able to get something different done for a change. Anyone know any good rain dances 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Time to release Hilda, everywhere is parched & still no significant rain.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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!