Monday 25th March 2024: What a fabulous way to start the week, despite the early morning rain and grey skies, I had notification that I am in print in a magazine 😊 An article in ‘The Country Smallholder’ written by Jack Smellie, is all about the change of direction into flowers here on our Smallholding. I did the interview just after Christmas and had almost forgotten all about it but it is in the Spring edition should you wish to read it 😂 If anyone is a subscriber and comes across the article then do feel free to take a photo of yourselves with the article and tag Friesland Farm Flowers in on social media.
The other pleasures of a Monday morning consisted of cleaning the bathroom, hoovering and polishing the living room, hoovering and mopping down the boot room 🙄 Eventually I was able to escape my domestic chores and go out to the flower room. I had some tidying and clearing to do before getting out some dried flowers and making up some posies.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 It was supposed to be heavy rain mid morning so I decided we could go out for a quick walk down to the village. It always seems to be horrible weather on a Tuesday so it doesn’t happen every week. In the end it didn’t rain until much later in the day. Oscar had a good two hour sleep in the middle of the day and then Ayda came to play in the afternoon.
Wednesday: The rain set in last night and it is not much like Spring at all just at the moment. I had flowers delivered today from another grower because I have a lot of flowers to do at the weekend and not enough out in the flower garden of my own.
Thursday. The weather is atrocious, truly awful, cold, windy with burst of torrential rain in amongst the drizzle 🙄 I have been trying to cut flowers in the morning in these horrible conditions 🤪 I spent the rest of the day making up flowers for an order to be delivered tomorrow and an arrangement for the local church for the Easter Sunday service.
Good Friday: A quick trip to get some bits of shopping first thing before returning to load up with flowers and get them delivered to the customer. Then it was onto the next lot of flowers to be made up ready for Saturday. I had lefty of other things to get sorted because although she does not know it yet my Mum will be having a surprise 80th Vintage tea party birthday celebration. We have been planning and plotting for weeks and hopefully she has no idea. There was a bit of a spanner in the works last night when my stepdad ended up in hospital but luckily he came out today and so hopefully we are still on course.
Plenty of tidying up had to be done in the flower room as you can imagine which takes longer than you think it is going to especially when you constantly have to wash buckets out.
Saturday: Up early, John went off to get feed and then when he came back we delivered the flowers to the church. Today is party day and so I have spent the morning finalising all the flowers I am taking, the tablecloths needed ironing, and anything else I was responsible for on the list.
After days and days of rain we finally have some lovely sunshine this morning so let’s hope it lasts all day, we definitely need it for the garden and also for our sanity after a full winter.
We had a fabulous afternoon, team work makes the dream work and we certainly pulled off something a bit special today. Over the weeks, vintage china has been accumulated, cake plates made, tablecloths washed and pressed, hall and entertainment booked, arrangements finalised. Then it was cooking, baking, sandwich which making and flower arranging before we got to the hall and put everything together. Mum did not have a clue, Sue picked her up in her vintage morris and told her she was taking her out for afternoon tea with a quick pop in to a local vintage sale on the way there. We all waited in the hall and chorus of ‘surprise’ went up as she came in. We had a great afternoon, with a great vibe and some great food and entertainment, excellent job everyone 🥰
By the time I got home I could hardly walk but still had the car to unload, my feet and legs hurt from being on the, all day and my hips were killing after all the dancing we did. The clocks were going forward so it was a good excuse to go to bed early and get some well earned sleep.
Sunday: Easter Day, we don’t really celebrate Easter, well no further than chocolate eggs anyway 🤪 We are not religious and I have never put on Easter dinner or tea because when the kids were little we were usually on a family day out. We did a bit of work around the place before popping over to take chocolate to Mia, Lucie and George, back home before going out in the afternoon to take chocolate to Josh, Flo and Oscar (who was at Shelley’s for the day) Shelley had invite us for some dinner later in the afternoon so we stayed for that before returning home for the evening.
Monday: I have a week of social events ahead of me which makes a change from being here all week and working.
Today was the first event which was a regional meet up of Flowers from the Farm members from the South East. We met at Chippy Flower Farm which is about half an hour away and had a lovely morning talking about all things flower growing. The rain did try but the sun beat it off and so most of the morning the weather was pleasant. The last meet I went to was two years ago and so it was lovely to catch up with other growers from the area and discuss what everyone is growing, how they are growing it and what they are avoiding.
I got back home early afternoon and feeling inspired I had a quick lunch then went out to work on the garden finishing around 5pm, a very satisfying day.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 He loves the tale of the Gingerbread Man that CBeebies do with some of the Orchestra so I thought this week I would give him a Gingerbread man to eat while he watched the Gingerbread man get eaten 😂
Wednesday: Another trip out this afternoon but first I had some cutting to do for funeral flowers to be delivered on Thursday. I went to get some pussy willow from further up the Smallholding and when I turned around I saw the most gorgeous hawthorn covered in blossom. It was so beautiful I had to cut it but of course it is covered in thorns so I painstakingly snipped the end off each thorn just so I could use it 😊
Sam came armed with black sacks of washing as her washing machine broke down and won’t be fixed for a few days. With three children in the house the wash pile builds up quickly so I told her to come over and use my machine.
Then it was time to go and pick up Mum and set off for my second trip out this week. I had booked tickets as a Mothers Day treat to take Mum and visit Highgrove Gardens, it’s not every day you get to see the King of Englands gardens but today we did. As it is a private residence there are strict security checks and protocols including no photography in the gardens themselves. I can imagine that some people would think the gardens are manicured with shinning terraces, nothing could be further from that than these beautifully crafted, unassuming, natural and calming gardens 🥰 We had a cream tea in the tea rooms (where you were allowed to take photos) delicious warm scones and a pot of English tea rounded the visit off nicely.
Thursday: I did a few of the usual household jobs in the morning and then spent a couple of hours working on a seasonal, natural and biodegradable sheaf for a funeral. It is always lovely when someone understands what it is I am doing and the reasons I do what I do, even better when it is exactly what they are looking for. We need to move away from floral foam with great haste because it is perfectly possible to provide flowers in all forms without it. I think those that do not want to give it up are possibly just afraid that the arrangements won’t be as good. It is a different way of doing flowers but in my opinion so much more natural than the regimental arrangements that have been forced upon us for many years 🤷♀️ For those that have the same vision for the world and nature that I do there is an alternative you just have to look for it, green funeral flowers, natural funeral flowers, sustainable funeral flowers are out there so if that is what you want make sure you tell your nearest and dearest 😊
Seasonal, natural, sustainable, 100% compostable, British grown funeral sheaf.
Friday: Another day, another outing 😂 like buses my days out all come along at once and this was the last one on the last day of the week. Afternoon tea with Charlie and my Mum, Charlie had booked it for my Mother’s Day present and for my Mums birthday which is next weekend. We went to Aston Pottery and I can highly recommend it, the food was delicious, the service was fabulous and you get to have a mooch around at all the beautiful goods they have for sale too.
My amazing Mum who will be 80 years young next weekend 🥰
Saturday: The wind has changed direction and it’s flipping cold today despite the sun trying it’s best to shine. I had a few bits to get done early before Sam came over with the twins, they were staying with me while Mia went for her riding lesson as it was too cold for them to be standing around. John went out early to get some sleepers, more about that in a mo. Once he came back we went to get a couple of bags of multipurpose compost for potting up plants for sale. We can’t use our own compost as it has animal manures mixed in and that is prohibited for selling. After that we had a delivery of flowers to make before grabbing a takeaway coffee and returning home. John then got on with digging out the concrete area that we are going to put a bed with a pergola over (where the dog kennels used to be) this will be for climbing plants such as jasmine, roses, chocolate vine and clematis, all are useful in flower arrangements and bouquets. While he worked on that I got some seed sowing done before everyone arrived.
Later in the afternoon I was able to get on with a bit more potting up now that I had some compost to do it with.
Sunday: A cold wind again but the sun seemed a little stronger today and so it was more bearable. We went out as early as possible just to get a few groceries before returning home to carry on with much the same as yesterday. Digging out MOD concrete is a task and a half, the kango gave out towards the end so John had to finish with a pick axe and lump hammer 🙄 We have had the kango for well over 20 years so it has exceeded its life expectancy 😂 Luckily there was not much left to do although I dare say it was much harder work with hand tools 🤪 Once I had finished pricking out seedlings or potting on plants I did a good bit of weeding on the front beds and took a few basal cuttings of dicentra because you can never have enough of that fabulous early flowering plant.
This week coming I will be trying to work off those cream teas before Easter cakes are on the menu.
Monday 26th February 2024: Not frosty this morning but we have a cold wind instead 🙄 It’s lunchtime and I am just sitting down writing this up while I wait for my beef broth to defrost and heat up in the pan. Apart from the usual jobs one of the first things I did this morning was go out and pot up some more rhubarb plants. I dug up a huge root last year and divided it, potting some of them up and the rest just got left. I put the potted pants up for sale and had such a response I thought I better pot up the rest. Luckily rhubarb root weathers the winter well and then spring into life again which is exactly what all these have done so I might as well sell them on rather than compost them.
Next I decided to clean the kitchen, I had to wait for a few people coming to collect things so I figured I could do that and keep an eye out for anyone arriving. It really needed doing, there were cobwebs and everything in the corners 😂 Once upon a time I would have done a full clean weekly but not any more, life is too short for that, instead I tend to tackle one room intensely and skim the rest. That way everything gets a good clean every now and then and I get to do other more pleasurable tasks 😊
Tuesday: Oscar day, we did venture out for a little walk in the afternoon as it was not raining and the sun was trying, the wind was cold though so it was a short round trip of the village lol.
Wednesday: Have I ever said that February is my least favourite month of the year, I probably have 😂 It’s just that you seem to be waiting an age for things to warm up a little, even though this winter has been fairly mild so far. It is the dull, grey that is depressing and this year has been one of the dullest with only 36hrs of sunshine recorded apparently, I mean come on that’s bloody stingy isn’t it Mother Nature 🙄
Meanwhile I occupy myself with preparations for Mothers Day and Easter and hopefully the not too far away spring temperatures. It is the time of year when I try to do a good bit of learning and I often discover things I want to have a go at doing.
It is Shelley’s birthday today and she booked herself the day off, we are pretty much a family of self employed so she is her own boss and gave herself permission to enjoy her birthday 😂 We went out for a lovely lunch and a wander round the local upmarket garden company. When John comes home we will pop round to hers for some birthday cake 🎂
When I returned home I found a lovely delivery of plants, always a great cheer up moment on a dull, wet, cold day. These are eryngium, two different types to the ones I already have, a lovely white one which will be amazing dried hopefully and a blue one with more star like qualities than the blue one I have already.
Thursday: You know some days you just want to scream lol, no wonder mental health and stress levels are off the scale these days. A morning of trying to get things sorted or waiting for updates is crucial but so much time wasted 🙄 Trying to track a shipment that the tracking app wants to link to an email address I don’t use and didn’t use when I purchased the goods. So now I can’t find out the tracking number and have no idea when it will be delivered or even if it will. I tried several ways of rectifying the problem to no avail so I have to just wait and see what happens, if anything, not great.
Next was trying to ring and get a prescription 😣 Every day I think the NHS systems are broken just a little bit more and it just borders on ridiculous at the minute. Once you actually get where you need to be the service is great but ffs getting there is painful. I have been with the same practice since I was 5 yrs old, in all those years I knew who my doctors was and what they looked like, every one of them. Covid comes along and everything changes (fair enough) but things have never gone back to how they were and are so much worse now. You can barely even speak to a human being, go round in circles and just get left in limbo. First they put up plastic shields to talk through and now they won’t even talk to you, you are at the mercy of an answer machine or an online system that does not function fully 😡 Even worse for those who are not digitally adept or the elderly. To add insult to injury they then send you a ‘rate your appointment’ message well I rate my appointment, great but I would rate the system to get there in the first place defunct! 0, nil, shite to be perfectly honest. They are pushing people towards private health care which is all well and good but the elderly or someone like me with a long term chronic illness has no hope of that so we are just hung out to die I reckon, and that is how I feel today, I just want to cry.
I had Oscar for a couple of hours while Charlie went to get something sorted out (another system that has gone awry 🙄) I waited for my deliveries, one said delivered ( the most important one) but it wasn’t and I was just about to message the sender when the van turned up with it, so the delivery driver obviously pre programmed delivery which is fine but stressed me out. The other deliveries turned up at various points in the day.
Once Charlie had collected Oscar I made some lunch and then went out to the flower room to have a couple of hours doing flowery things. When I am doing that I am not thinking of anything else which is nice and relaxing. I have orders coming in thick and fast for Mothers Day as well as other orders, it’s nice to be working with flowers again.
British grown, on the bulb, muscari, a first for us 🥰
Friday: It rained a lot last night and looks like it will be the wettest February on record as well as the dullest 😂 I have been busy doing flower things today, I have had a lot of work come in this week and that’s on top of Mothers Day orders lol, I am not complaining though as I love doing it. I will have to balance it a bit more carefully once I am working outside more too or there won’t be enough hours in the day I am sure of that 🤪
Saturday: More flipping rain and quite a bit of it, the temperature is cold, wind chill even colder. I want to get in the greenhouse but I need ungloved hands for the work I want to do and they just keep going blue 🙄 pretty please can we have some sunshine soon 🙏 The spring flowers I have growing need a bit of warmth to spur them along, I was hoping to have lots of tulips ready for Mothers Day but I think they will probably make an appearance the week after 🤪 This flower farming lark is unpredictable at the best of times especially if you are not using heat and purely relying on Mother Nature which is more sustainable. There is not a decent solar heater on the market yet so that is not even an option, if you use bubble wrap you run the risk of mildew with all this wet damp weather, it is a no win situation at the minute so we just keep holding on and hoping.
I spent a quick half an hour making sure I have enough stems ordered for Mothers Day, I will have some flowers I can cut but I need to supplement with flowers from other British growers at this time of year and that is a bit of a balancing act 😬
Sunday: We had some sunshine and it was most welcome 😊 It started of foggy and frosty but the sun was trying hard to break through and eventually did so we made the most of the day. John spent the day cleaning out chickens, cleaning the car and mowing the grass. I spent the day potting up dahlias that had started to grow, some peony plants, strawberry plant plus some eryngium that need to go in the ground but we have another frost forecast so I potted them for now. Sam arrived for a visit with the children and they had bought some seeds they wanted to grow, strawberries and tomatoes. So we went into the greenhouse and they had a lesson on seed sowing, if they make it home still in the compost in one piece I will be surprised 🤪 but it’s good they have an interest and they can watch them daily to see how they are doing. Once they had gone a barrowed some woodchip put on the paths in the garden then cut some fresh greens from the greenhouse for our dinner later.
All the dahlias are now in separate pots and languishing in the kitchen for the next few weeks until it is warm enough to put the into the tunnels.
I had someone coming to collect some flowers, some rhubarb roots to drop to a neighbour, cook the dinner then I am done for the day, but it was a good, productive and fairly warm day.
Dahlias in the kitchen for a few weeks, it is a steady 16c in there so perfect conditions for them 😊
Monday 19th February 2024: Decent enough weather today even if it is a little colder than the weekend. I was up early as I needed to deliver pedestal flowers to the church for a funeral today, John dropped me off and it was a brisk walk back. The traffic is still awful due to another local road being closed and our village turned into a rat run instead 🙄 I spent the rest of the morning in the flower room mostly washing out jam jars I had been given, also had a fair amount of tidying up to do and while I was there I did do a bit of flower faffing because, well why not 😊 In the afternoon I went to the funeral that I had done the flowers for, it was the funeral of a local lady that was well known, full of character and well respected. The turn out was good and all the cars parked probably added to the chaos in the village, especially after someone made an error of judgement and drove into the Ford 🙄 too deep especially after all that rain we had, needless to say they were stranded and then apparently three fire engines arrived to try and get the vehicle out which further clogged up the through road 🤪 The police have now closed the Ford off so that no one else attempts to go through.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 we did venture out on to the farm for a little walk but for toddlers (who mainly stumble and fall over) it is not ideal with chicken and goose poop all over the place 😂
Wednesday: The weather is vile today, could hear heavy rain again in the night and this morning it has continued along with some windy weather as well.
One of the jobs high on my to do list is to empty out the greenhouse and give it a good clean and wash before putting everything back in. Obviously this needs a dry (and for comfort a fairly mild day) in order to complete it successfully, it looks like I will be waiting a while as rain is forecast forever 🤪
As I am in cleaning mode and as I can’t do the greenhouse I thought I might as well do the bathroom instead so that has had a descale, the walls wiped down everything cleaned. Then a quick hoover and polish around the rest of the rooms.
John informed me that the horses had got out over night, no surprise there as the fences are going over left right and centre. The amount of rain we have had has either rotted the posts or the ground movement has loosened them. We have the new fencing ready but are waiting for someone to come and knock them in with the tractor, it’s too wet for them to do it at the moment so we are in a catch 22 situation 🙄 At the end of this month lambing will begin in earnest all over the country and so farm workers will be busy doing that and we still may not get the fencing done due to the contractor we use having those other commitments. We might have to commit to a weekend and hire a hydraulic rammer and do it ourselves and just pray that the weather holds while we do it.
I did nip out to the greenhouse but it was not very nice out there so I came back inside. I needed to find a job to do, I have many but what do I want to do rather than what I should be doing feels right today 🤪 I had some bits of veg to use up from the fridge and so I made a veg stew in the slow cooker. I make plenty of soups, I had chicken and veg soup yesterday and then mushroom soup today both made from scratch, I wanted a side dish that could be frozen and then used with something like a lamb chop or even a piece of chicken. A veg stew seemed the perfect thing so I chopped up celery, carrot, leek, broccoli stalks, garlic and added spinach, broad beans and courgettes from the freezer some thyme I have hanging in the kitchen, veg stock and black pepper, put it all in the slow cooker and I will thicken it when is has cooked down a little. You could make this with pretty much anything you have and eat it like that or add dumplings or use it as a side dish like I intend to.
Thursday: I was determined to get the greenhouse cleaned this week but the weather this morning was atrocious nevertheless if a girl is on a mission, she is on a mission. I decided first up to wash down the outside because the rain would then rinse of the soap suds so I picked a dry moment dashed out and washed all the glass down. Then it hammered down which is fine because that’s what I wanted. Next I thought I may as well get in there and move everything from one end to the other and clean that end then move it all back and do the other end. Sounds easy but there was a lot of squeezing round or stepping over things to be done before I could put one end back again. I have swept it all down and cleaned all the windows, moved all the plants that are in there and checked for slugs while I was going, I found three big fat ones and slung them outside. I just started moving everything from the other end when the septic tank lorry turned up so I made the driver a coffee, had a little chat and then he was on his way again. He was telling me how his company has a scientist on board and she is making great strides setting up separate stations for them to take the sewage to and it is being processed in such a way that it is able to go back onto fields. It is all being vigorously tested and the fields are monitored and tested but it looks like it is a process that will work well. They are having difficulty taking it to the main sewage works because of the flooding at the minute and because the plants are not up to taking the amount that is produced, hence it has to go into the rivers. It is all very well moaning about it polluting the rivers but unless we all stop pooping then it will continue. The smaller stations dotted around would make much more sense and would be more able to cope by the sounds of things.
I went back into the greenhouse once he had left and continued with the other end and the areas under the benches. I had thought that I didn’t have any mice in there this year but as soon as I moved some stuff out shot a mouse. It was scared, I was surprised and I am not sure who moved fastest 😂 well actually it was the mouse 🤪 I carried on moving bits and another leapt out and promptly ran out of the door, still one little sod in there somewhere. They had been nesting in some soak mats that are used in the summer and there were holes in them plus they stank of mouse wee and now so do I. Eventually I had worked my way round the whole greenhouse and found some whopping great spiders while I was at it, shame they don’t eat slugs and mice really.
All the plants have had a good move round and the light levels are now better because the glass is clean and apart from the resident mouse everything is good and I can start some more seed sowing.
Friday: Much colder today and more rain overnight 🙄 I wanted to get some of the seedlings pricked out but I was not going to do it in the greenhouse. It was too cold in there and these seedlings have been growing on the windowsill indoors so the shock of temperature difference might have killed them off even if they were just there for a while. So I filled up the trays with compost and bought them into the kitchen to do the job, I just about found enough windowsill space to put them all. I did go out and do some support netting on the front beds but my feet got cold so I only did a small area. The sun came out so I thought I will go into the polytunnel and plant up some plants from the greenhouse, it was pleasant enough in there. I forgot the weed membrane on the floor lets the water through and ended up wet, dirty knees 🤪 Not much else I can do out there today really as the temps are plummeting to freezing tonight so best not to disturb anything too much. I came in and sat down to write the blog before having some lunch and the minute I sat down the doorbell went, It was delivery of canes which I was waiting for so I wasn’t too annoyed lol.
I have tried outside today but it’s too cold and wet so I thought I would be better off in the warm doing a bit more learning instead.
Saturday: A frosty start to the day and one of the first jobs was to get the horses back in their right paddock as they had escaped again 🙄 One of the problems is that we have had to shut them out of the biggest paddock at the back, we have a big problem with the fences this year. Due to the amount of rain and the rubbish fencing that was churned out a few years back they are now rotting and leaning or falling practically everywhere. We spent a chunk of money on new posts and are waiting for the chap to come and bang them in but the ground is so wet he can’t get his tractor on the ground without churning it up massively so we have to wait. Meanwhile the horses (or more specifically Jack) takes any opportunity to push through to other paddocks. The situation is such that we can’t get one lot of fencing up before another lot is going over, the high winds haven’t helped as some of the fence line has had hefty branches come down and take the fence with it.
John went to work first thing while I sorted out some flowers for Monday morning, burnt some rubbish and practiced making a dried flower, flower crown for an upcoming workshop. Then once John came home we went off to our grandnephews 4th birthday party where we caught up with extended family. Once back home we donned work clothes and went up the back to try and sort out (fix) some of the fencing that has gone over in the big paddock. Once we have cobbled it back together we can let the horses back in and they will be happier as they have more area to graze over. We worked out there until it got almost dark and we just have a bit more to do tomorrow.
Sunday: It was another frosty start but it thawed fairy quickly in the early sunshine. I cut some foliage for birthday flowers going out tomorrow then a few household bits while I waited for John to bring in the eggs. When he didn’t appear I went to look for him and he was down in the far corner fixing the fence already. Once that was done we were able to let the horses back in and they now have a new bit to graze on which was a sectioned off walkway. We don’t really need it now and the fence was falling down so we altered it for them to graze, it will save us mowing it.
I was doing some bits in the greenhouse and garden while John was trying to sort out a water butt on the end of the greenhouse. We have one each side but one keeps going over and so out came the sand and cement plus a few slabs and hopefully that will make it more stable.
By mid afternoon the sun had disappeared and it was cold on the fingers and toes so we called it a day, went in and lit the fire then spent the afternoon relaxing.
Early evening, I got the dinner, John did the animals then I had to make up the bouquets of flowers for tomorrow and finally we can sit down and not do anything at all 🤪
Monday 12th February 2023: Wowzers I logged on to see a message from WordPress wishing me happy anniversary, 13 years I have been blogging, that’s some dedication isn’t it 😂
The sun has shone beautifully today and my first job was to walk up to the church and meet the lady in charge as I have a customer who wants pedestal flowers for a funeral next week. It was nippy on the fingers but a lovely walk there and back, even with the volume of traffic that has increased due to another local road being closed from today for repairs. I say repairs I am not sure they actually do very much 🙄 the pot holes are ridiculous around the area, some could be regarded as craters rather than holes and some are very dangerous indeed especially on the unlit roads. The council seem to be able to wriggle out of paying any compensation from what I have seen on social media so it is costing car owners a fortune.
Once I was back I set about the business of selling flowers, well gearing up for it anyway. I got my roadside sign out and cleaned it up ready for the year ahead and made some extra signs that can be added to it to say when I have flowers available. Then I made a notice for the egg shed so that people know exactly how to pay for their flowers and finally make sure the doorbell was working, it wasn’t 🤪 So here is where working by yourself gets annoying, once I prised the bell off the gatepost and took it in to find a new battery (turns out I didn’t need one as the bell works and just needed the battery clamped a little tighter) I took it back outside and re fitted it. So far so good but I needed to see if it works and I am too far from the house to hear the internal end of the bell. So I set my phone on voice memo, pressed record and went outside to ring the bell, came back in to listen to the recording to find out if it actually works. I am glad to say it does and so that saves me a lot more faffing around.
I made soup for lunch today and we have left over roast chicken for dinner tonight, there is enough for bubble and squeak for John and I will have mine with some mushrooms and pasta or rice, haven’t decided which yet.
In the afternoon I was in the flower room creating a heart memorial with flowers for a customer tomorrow. I love doing these, they are different and I usually know who they are for so each one is a little sad to make but an honour to be asked and made with love and respect.
I also made up a small bunch of flowers for someone having a tough time at the minute, they are purely from me to them to say, chin up, you will get through this. That’s the thing about flowers, they can say so many things, I love you, I’m sorry, I’m here for you, Happy birthday, Happy anniversary and so much more, only one other thing can do the same, Chocolate 🥰
I will have flowers for Valentine’s Day but I have not taken orders I mean how many significant others are that well organised 😂 This year at least I will be relying on those that are driving past, see the sign and think ‘you have saved my day’ and with the diverted traffic increase it might work well!
I did a small amount outside, just moving Ranuculas from the greenhouse to the poly tunnel, where the air flow will be better for them, before coming in for a sit down.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 We had a fun filled afternoon it being pancake day. It’s one of those traditions that everyone loves, my Mum always made us pancakes, I made our girls pancakes and now they make their children pancakes. This year it fell in the half term and so they all came over here for pancakes with Oscar which is lovely. It was carnage 😂 all kinds of goodies went on top of each pancake and Oscar although he is only 16 months put away three of three and wanted more! Once they were done the adults had a chance to have a more civilised feast of pancakes, fruits, crème fraise and a drizzle of melted chocolate 😊
Although I had already been busy all day long there was no time to rest as I had flowers to get sorted for tomorrow. Finally sat down around 9pm so that was a long day.
Wednesday: It is of course Valentines day ❤️ so I was up early getting the sign out and putting out some flowers I had made up last evening.
I spent a good chunk of time sorting out what was going to be for lunch and dinner tonight before going out into the greenhouse for a more gentle couple of hours. I have sown seeds, pricked out seedlings and divided up a large pot of chrysanthemums. I have a lot more chrysanthemums to divide yet and no idea where I will put them all. Some I will be selling as small plants but I will be keeping a lot for flowers later in the year. I have two reasons to try and sell a lot of plants this year, one is because I have a lot of material to divide and can’t possibly use it all and the other is because I have an awful lot of plant pots 🤪 Seriously I can’t believe how many there are out there, so if I can use a good lot to sell plants in then I will free up some space. I don’t think I have ever bought a new plant pot in my life, not empty ones anyway, there is always someone who asks if I want any and I never say no lol.
Thursday: I got a bit done first thing and then Mia, George and Lucie for a few hours while Sam was busy and Charlie came over with Oscar. After everyone had lunched we went out for a walk, it was a lovely afternoon, the sun was out and it felt pleasant. The ground in still a bit soggy underfoot in places and so directing George away from mud was a full time job 😂
Friday: Another nice enough day in the end, the sun came out again and so working outside was ok. I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse first, dividing more chrysanthemums, I will have lot of good sized plants at this rate. Yesterday one of those cheap tunnels arrived because that’s where I want to put the chrysanthemums once they start to flower. At the minute they are in the small tunnel, they come out over summer and then go back in as the weather changes, mostly to save the flowers from the rain and cold. But it means I can’t use the tunnel for anything else and it is difficult to manoeuvre in there when I am cutting the stems and so I ordered this one. I put it together in the afternoon once I had put membrane down in the place I want it to go, turns out it was bigger than I had imagined, because of course I didn’t take much notice of the dimensions when I ordered it only that it was big enough 😂 It is actually really good value for money and fairly robust once everything is tightened up, though I am not sure it will stand up to high winds 🙄 so I may need to remove the cover once the flowers are done each winter 🤷♀️
Saturday: We did a few jobs around the place before going off to collect some very lovely flower buckets that someone was selling online. A florist that was retiring and moving away, she was lovely and full of support for British flowers, gave me lots of extras as well as lots of great flower arranging tips.
We just got back when Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and the Charlie, Macca and Oscar arrived too. Shelley and family had been in London for the past few days having a lovely time being tourists and we heard all about their adventures. Meanwhile Charlie had come to fill up some bags with woodchip to take home and put on her garden.
After everyone had gone I spent some time doing the greenery for a pedestal arrangement that will be going on Monday, the flowers I will put in on Sunday ready to be delivered first the Monday morning.
In the evening My brother and his wife popped for a visit and a cuppa.
Sunday: It rained all night long, heavy at times, we had 4 inches of water in a bucket that was empty last evening. The paddocks were flooded, the hay barn was flooded, the lane was flooded, it was a terrific amount of water overnight. We went out to the lane first thing to see just how deep it was and if cars could pass, just about was the conclusion we came to along with our neighbour.
John and I then spent quite a few hours working on the front fence line, it was in a state of disrepair and falling over so we began taking it down, cutting back and raking out debris. By mid afternoon we had got it sorted and now all that is left to do is burn all the branches and rotten fencing. We then need to plant some saplings into any gaps, we left the stock fencing up as there are so many bits of tree and shrubs growing through it that it stays there by itself and looks ok as it is.
All the time we were working we were watching cars come down the lane towards the flooded area, some, especially smaller cars, turned around, some drove through cautiously and some absolute t**ts sped through with some speed (yep that is you in the DPD van too) Great fun for them not so much for us with land each side and definitely not so much for the poor jogger who got soaked by one idiot going through 😡 and got called, quite rightly, some choice names. I was secretly hoping that at least one that went through like an idiot would break down the other side so we could have a good laugh, wicked I know but would have been very satisfying 🤣
Even though we had all that rain, the weather was actually really nice during the day, spring is definitely on the way thank goodness. Blossom is beginning to burst out, daffodils, iris, crocus, snowdrops, hellebore are all adding to the pops of colour and all very welcome after the greyness of Winter.
Monday October 30th 2023: The sun is shining this morning so that a good cue to get some washing on the go. I expect everyone else is all of a fuddle over what time of day it is exactly 😂 I had plenty of things I need to get done today as I seem to have a full week already 🙄 Cue a mad dash to hoover and polish quickly, whip round the bathroom and kitchen, put on a second load of washing and hang the first load out, get something out of the freezer for dinner on the way back. John has delivered flowers this morning and I have someone coming late morning for dried flowers. I have done the eggs and put out social media posts so that everyone knows what I have available today.
I feel like I am in busy mode all of the time and never enough time to get it all done properly. The flower side of things is pretty full on with getting bulbs landed, lift dahlias, clearing beds, transplanting next springs plants, preparing for workshops, preparing for table sales, cutting for orders and getting those ready, sorting dried flowers using those to make lovely things for sale. Then there is the paperwork side of all of that plus Johns paperwork, household paperwork and bills, housework, cooking, cleaning, appointments, Nana daycare, Smallholding jobs, don’t forget to sleep and eat 😜 Next there will be Christmas shopping to think about and I still haven’t done the books for the accountant yet! Don’t get me wrong, I do sit down but I am usually exhausted by then 😂 I think I may need a personal assistant, cook, cleaner or gardener or someone who can do any of those, thinking about it I am worth my weight in gold aren’t I 🤪
I spent most of the day in the flower shed doing dried flowers up ready for the upcoming table top sale. I sorted through and threw anything out that wasn’t up to scratch.
Around 4 I thought I better check the torts because I had put them in the other week and then out again when it got mild. I figured it was now time for them to go away for winter permanently. I found Voldertort easily enough he was in the hut but Billy was more difficult to find. This was because he had dug himself into the ground 😂 and boy can they dig, the tell tale signs were a give away though, freshly dug dirt under a large tuft of grass. I had to get a trowel to dig away all the mud and carefully lift him out and then take him to his winter quarters.
I am still getting enquires for wreath workshops, I have 5 this year all fully booked bar an odd space, not sure if I put more dates on or not. I guess I need to decide exactly how busy I want to be and how tired lol.
Tuesday: Oscar day, he is a little under the weather plus his big teeth are coming through so he is not a very happy chappy today 😞 While he was sleeping I looked for recipes using up apples, I had lots of cooking apples this year plus I have quite a few eating apples from one tree that look great but the taste is not there so I will use those for cooking too. I could dehydrate some but in all honesty I still have some from the other year as we seem to have bountiful harvests each year at the minute. I also have a lot of eggs at the minute so I think it will be a batch bake of apple cakes for the freezer but I will do those tomorrow. Yesterday evening I put all the bits of veg I needed to use up into the slow cooker for some vegetable soup today and as there was a fair bit of kale it is a very apt colour for Halloween 😂 green and nutritious 🥰
None of us can have escaped what is happening in Gaza, daily news is wall to wall with the war 😞 I thought we were an intelligent, civilised species but the more I see, the further away from that thought I find myself. Despite the reasons there are so many innocent people on both sides caught up in the rage, each of the next generations will feel animosity towards each other and so it never ends.
Wednesday: I needed to use up some eggs as we have lots and I have apples that need using because they are eating apples we grew but they don’t have the best flavour for eating fresh. So baking was on the schedule this morning, apple cake and lots of it. Most will go I to the freezer and then be drizzled with icing when needed, could be flavoured icing such as blackberry or could be chopped nuts either would be lovely. I ran out of butter because John has eaten it, I try to stash some some he can’t find it and then when I need it for baking I have it but he has opened it 🙄 So I switched to using olive oil instead and that works just as well, I also needed to use up some Greek yoghurt and that went in too. Two of the cakes are lemon and orange flavour rather than apple but all or any of them will make great tea time eating or even pudding with some custard or cream 😋
We have storm Ciaran approaching and a weather warning has been issued for later this evening so it will be nice to have some comfort food to hunker down with. We are on the letter C already for named storms and it’s only November, last year 22/23 we only had two named storms in total.
My elbows hurt today, what is that all about, no idea but it is noticeable enough for me to mention it 😞
It is not usually my day but I am collecting Oscar from nursery today after lunch and will have him for the afternoon. The security these days is impressive but sad that it is necessary, I need to be pre authorised, have ID, and a password, good that the children are safe and a sign of the times I guess but I feel sad at the loss of a way of life fast disappearing. I suppose that’s how each generation feels and it will be no different for future generations.
Thursday: I had to be up at the hospital for a blood test this morning as part of the Molecular research programme. HLA-B27 is a protein that is found on white blood cells, these proteins help the immune system tell the difference between good or harmful cells. Autoimmune patients are often positive for these proteins which is why the body attacks itself and is closely related to the eye problems I have been having. So I wait to hear the results of this test, it won’t make much difference to me, I already have what I have but it will help research teams to understand the diseases better. I was watching a new clip about AI and I know everyone is wary and rightly so but AI is already helping to understand the inflammatory process and being used to find out more about what might help, even cure may eventually be found 🤷♀️
Sam took me up to the hospital and afterwards we met Shelley, Charlie and Oscar for some lunch, nice to do that every now and again.
Friday: I spent most of today getting things ready to take to the coffee morning tomorrow and also doing some tidying up in the flowers room. Sam came over in the afternoon to get the horses in ready for the farrier at 4pm. We did a bit of tidying up in the stable block too and got some old straw and paper feed bags burnt.
Saturday: Coffee morning sale, I loaded up the car and we got there for 9.30 am and set up the table. Not soo many people this year but the weather was t great so no surprise really but it was a lovely couple of hours all the same. I came back with a hime Bakewell tart, one of my faves but I never make it because John doesn’t like it. I have cut it up into pieces and frozen it for some delicious pudding options 😊 I also bought a pair of knitted fingerless gloves, great for the colder months when I am working outside.
Once that was finished and I packed everything up and back into the car it was straight off to my great nieces 1st birthday party. I realised when I got there I had drunk plenty of cups of tea but not had anything except a banana since first thing, the food table was laden with lots of sandwiches and cakes luckily as I was starving by that point.
In the evening we went over to see my brother and his wife, we needed a piece of stone for the wood burner to sit on and he had just the thing so we went over to collect it and have a cuppa while we were there.
Sunday: I spent the first couple of hours cutting flowers for orders next week, I had two large bunches for Monday and the request was red. Actually the request was for poppies but they don’t grow at this time of year. The reason we use poppies for Remembrance Sunday is because they sprung up everywhere in the Spring following the end of WWII. Poppies love disturbed earth and sadly there would have been plenty of that, it would have been ideal conditions for them. Poppy seeds can lay dormant for a long time before germinating which is why they sprung up everywhere and why we use them but they don’t flower in November.
Meanwhile John was busy tiling the wall where the wood burner will go, it’s just a small one and we won’t be using it much but it is handy to have in a power cut over winter. It was the last component we needed in case of power loss, we have battery operated lights, a camping stove and gas canisters, a fire pit if needs be and now we will have something to keep us warm too 🥰
We were going to go out and find a bonfire and fireworks for Guy Fawkes but in the end decided we couldn’t be bothered 😂
Monday 23rd October 2023: I am gearing up for future workshops and so spent a couple of hours sending out messages and payment links plus checking what I need to order. I need to make sure I have all the sundries plus enough pairs of secateurs for each session. I was under the impression it would be raining this morning so I was glad to see that it wasn’t and by the time I finished my admin tasks it was warm enough to go out and get some work done on the garden.
4.30pm and I am knackered 🤪 I have been working on one of the big beds that I couldn’t control this spring and summer because of my arm. I have dug, cut, weeded, pulled, cleared, planted and barrowed all day long and if bind weed was a cash crop I would be rich 😂 I have to make a decision about the asparagus because that is the bed that it is in, the crowns are now around 8/10 years old and did not produce well this spring. It could have been the weather or it could be that bindweed is all around the roots 🤷♀️ should I dig it up or leave it? A quick bit of research and the jury is still out, several sites says anywhere from 10 to 20 years 🙄 I could feed them but I will also be feeding the bindweed lol.
I still have some bulbs to plant but I am waiting to lift some of the dahlias and then the tulip bulbs can go into that bed. After that first frost the weather has been mild again and so the dahlias are still flushing but not for much longer I suspect.
Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰
Wednesday: I spent most of the morning tidying up the flower room because I have workshops this weekend and besides it needed a tidy. Putting things away, throwing stuff out, sweeping, hoovering and washing buckets, it is now ready. Sam and the twins arrived just before midday and Mia was at pony club just down the road. The twins have discovered ‘snap’ but trying to teach them the rules is hilarious, Lucie is a big cheat but eventually she got the hang of it and how to play without cheating 😂
Sam went to collect Mia and she came home with a 1st rosette so she was very pleased with herself 🥰 After they left I went back to the room to trial one of the pumpkins, just cutting it because the outside seemed quite tough and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be too difficult for workshoppers, I needn’t have worried once through the skin it was just as easy as other types.
Late afternoon I watered the poly tunnels and greenhouse and had a look round at what flowers I might be cutting tomorrow, it has been lovely and sunny and lots have come out including more cosmos 😊
Thursday: Drizzle this morning which is a shame because I did think about cutting flowers late yesterday but in the end I didn’t, now I have to cut them and get wet at the same time 😣 You see plenty of social media images of people cutting in lovely sunshine and not so many in the rain but it has to happen sometimes.
It took me the best part of the morning to cut everything g I need for flower orders and workshops this weekend. After a quick lunch and a sit down with a cuppa I went back out to the flower hut and sorted out all of my dried flowers. Quite a bit needed to be thrown out either because they didn’t Ho,d colour very well or the stems were weak but now I have sorted it all I can use the material I have left to get on and make things. I have a table top sale to do first week of November so I need to have something to put on the table top 😜
John came home and bought me a cuppa while I carried on and by 4.30 I was able to sit down again and give my back a rest but I have no finished for the day yet, apart from getting dinner I still need to make up a bouquet order that is going out tomorrow and a jam jar for a birthday at the local residential home, I will do those this evening, oh and I have a zoom meeting too 🤦♀️
Friday: Up early to get sorted and all jobs done before Sam arrives with the kiddies as I am looking after them for a few hours while she goes to work. We did plenty of colouring, watched Harry Potter and Horrible Histories they had lunch and then Sam collected them mid afternoon.
I now had to get on and finalise everything for the workshop later, I went into the flower room only to find that the celebration flowers I had wrapped and boxed had leaked everywhere 🤦♀️ Oh ffs, I cleared everything up, cut new wrapping, got out a new box and got it sorted, again. I had also had another phonecall for flowers and so needed to get those made up as well as anther bouquet for Saturday morning. Once they were done I concentrated on making sure I had everything I needed for later. John came home and we went off to deliver two lots of the flowers locally and then to get a small amount of shopping, we just needed a few essentials so it was a quick whizz round. Back home and get dinner then out to the workshop to put everything in place, clean up the goose poo right outside the door, yep they are still sitting there everyday 🙄 and then wait for people to arrive.
It was a great evening and the arrangements all looked fabulous and round two again tomorrow night.
Saturday: The weather was not too bad for most of the day and so I spent the morning doing some work in the garden, John was busy riddling one of the big compost heaps.
Mid afternoon we went over to my niece who was having a Halloween party for all the kiddies, the decor was brilliant, plenty of sweets and food for the kids and drink and food for the adults. The dressing up was epic by some and all added to the occasion, we left early because I needed to get ready for the second pumpkin flower workshop that evening. The weather turned filthy, heavy rain showers all evening although luckily just at the times everyone was arriving and leaving it had stopped but before and inbetween it hammered down 😂
Is everyone gathered for a funeral 😂 nope its Halloween 🎃 The second workshop of pumpkin flowers 🥰
Sunday: The weather was not too bad today just the odd shower, I spent he morning in the flower hut tidying up from last night and then getting some of the dried flowers ready for selling. I also made a couple more of the little dried flower fairies, they are fiddly though so not sure how many I will get made. I have a table at the coffee morning next week so I need some stuff to sell which is why I have been getting the dried flowers ready.
The clocks went back last night and so today seems long, I came in at what I thought was around 1pm only to find it was just midday, I had done enough though and so had John so we downed tools and went out to get something to eat. The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling because you can’t work all the time can you lol.
Monday 18th September 2023: This month seems to be rattling past 🙄 the weather is up and down but there is definitely an autumnal nip in the air in the mornings and evenings. Last night there was a big storm, I have to say apparently because I didn’t hear it 😂 John said it lit up the room and was really loud, I was busy sucking up 💤 flat out and didn’t hear anything except at me point heavy rain woke me but that’s it. I must have been tired after our long walk during the day.
It may seem early and I am not one for acknowledging the festive season until the beginning of December usually but I am starting to advertise wreath workshops lol. The spaces are already filling up and so if I can fill them well beforehand then I don’t need to think about that again until nearer the time.
Meanwhile there is still a lot of preparation for next spring to be done first as well as ongoing flowery and gardening stuff. I have been soaking the Ranuculas and anemone bulbs and will hopefully get those planted today along with some daffodil bulbs. I have hardly annual and biennial seedlings and plants to constantly pot on or plant out and perennials to divide to increase my flowers for next year. I try to keep the seasons extended for as long as possible which includes drying flowers and making lovely wreaths or things with those, all of this plus everything else in life keeps me pretty busy on a daily basis.
We have the new hens and we had 32 in, yesterday we got 31 eggs from them which is fabulous, we just need the customers to return to buying them now. To be fair they are going well but it needs to be a constant turnover and at least I have enough eggs now to do some baking, everything was going out to the shed before 😂
The sun is shining today despite the storm last night, John is mostly going to be at home for the next couple of weeks, having said that he has gone to do a small job this morning 🙄
So far I have had a very productive day, I have planted up some of the bulbs that needed doing, sown some seeds and started another dried flower wreath. John came home and we went out to get some evergreen shrubs from the wholesale place, I can only do this during weekdays as they are not open at the weekend so I have to wait for John to be available. I got a nice haul of rosemary, pittosporum, photinia euonymus, griselinia and some white astrantia that I have been trying to find all summer, I will definitely be going back there.
Then Charlie picked me up and we went over to Upton Smokery where once upon a time they had a fabulous bbq restaurant and is now a much bigger shop with all kinds of fabulous ingredients and fresh fruit/veg and is a much nicer shopping experience than the supermarkets 🥰 I bought some wild mushrooms some other veg, smoked chicken and other goodies.
Once back home I made some mushroom soup for later, put some fresh tomatoes, carrot, onion and celery in the slow cooker to make another batch of soup for another day and made an apple and sultana sponge pudding. We are feasting on natures bounty tonight and there is nothing more I like than using fresh home grown or locally grown ingredients.
Tuesday: A blustery, grey day today but I had Oscar and so didn’t have to go outside.
Once Charlie had finished work and collected Oscar I decided to brush Mia the dog. She has long hair and is short in the leg which is not ideal on a farm 🙄 she has been moulting a lot and so giving her a brush would help it on a bit, there are clumps of fur all over the place from her at the minute. She is not keen but I managed to get quite a lot of fur off her and the wind was blowing it away which is useful. Meanwhile John is trying to stack wood that he has been cutting and, this is hilarious, Patch is trying to hide behind Johns legs wherever he goes thinking any minute now it will be his turn 😂 I didn’t have my phone on me but it would have made a great photo, the thing with Patch is that he is short haired and tall so he doesn’t need de fuzzing at all, somehow he always manages to look clean and tidy 🤷♀️ I came in and hoovered the boot room which was full of clumps of hair and now I keep feeling that I have a hair in my mouth which is highly likely 😜
I got my dahlia order in, no good waiting until next year to do it otherwise the ones I want will be all gone, they will be delivered next year in Spring.
Wednesday: Windy (very) rainy and altogether horrible, trees down in various places and I don’t think it is going to improve much more. Off to deliver an order first thing, then pop into costa on the way back, Johns treat, I understood why on the way home, can you just do me a couple of invoices when we get back’ 🙄
I am on a downer today with technology, it’s all very well ramping it up but when the systems don’t work correctly or you do everything it asks for and then find you didn’t need to do it after all because the bod on the gate says, oh yeah your name is on the list just go in, it’s bloody annoying. It is more annoying when I have to do all of Johns online stuff because he can’t (or won’t) and then there are crossed wires when logging in because it is all from the same iPad 🤪 and the algorithms don’t like that, one of us must be an imposter 😣 Then there is our upcoming holiday where everything is done online beforehand, check in, booking activities, booking bloody dinner, all the joy has been taken out of a holiday by this point and what about those who are not so tech savvy. We are all being herded into a technological cell, one that we will not be able to escape from before long, rate your delivery, rate our customer service, rate our rate app 🤦♀️ Collect points for shopping, collect beans for coffee, all very well if when you get there you can actually connect to the internet or the app is working correctly, it’s like a giant dysfunctional toy asking you to play but the parts don’t all clunk into place. I admit we have come a long way, I am the age that was there at the birth of the World Wide Web, dial up was slow and painful and very frustrating. It has all moved very fast but I am not sure the systems are up to it and I am not sure a lot of humans are either 😂
I spent the best part of the day in the small tunnel, I have some bulbs planted in there and I planted up the anemone as well. Next job was to clear the cucumber and tomatoes harvesting everything that was any good while I was clearing. I have a lot of tiny toms and will make more soup with those, a lot of green toms that hopefully will ripen, a lot of toms went to the torts as well as a hidden away cucumber that was huge, I also bought the last of the cucumbers indoors. Once that was done it was time to bring in the chrysanthemums, they now go into the small tunnel to flower and they are in there so that the weather does not spoil the flowers. I got soaked just getting those inside and had to come in and change my top putting the one I was wearing into the dryer for 10 mins. Some of chrysanthemum plants have got huge nearly 5ft tall, I really need to have a good research on how best to grow them because they need some hefty staking the way I am doing it. I think I should have split them in the spring but of course I couldn’t, my plan is to cut right down the stems that are flowering and see how they recover, it might be a good plan, it might not 🤷♀️ I do have some in the big tunnel too but they have also got big and the staking is not great meaning they flop over and then begin to grow bent which is not much good for a vase 🙄
It has been hammering down for most of the afternoon but I thought I would be safe in the tunnel and I was until I needed to go and get scissors, string etc 😂 Never mind it’s a good job done now and I can have a cup of tea.
Thursday: Up, jobs done, out to get blood tests by 9am, John had to have some as well so I had booked us both in at the same time, I also got my flu jab. Then it was on to Witney to get some bits for holiday, nothing exciting really, tights, socks and a 2024 diary. We saw Gerald from Jeremy Clarksons programme, he was leaning against the wall out side WHSmith, I gave him the thumbs up and he laughed 😂 We bumped into Sam and Charlie while we were there too lol. Next it was off somewhere else to get some new trainers and a new top I rather liked while I was at it. Back home and back to getting some work done, John has been doing an excellent job of clearing all the old wood we had lying around in a heap, I have no idea where it all comes from sometimes. We now have a pile of logs from the ash tree that had to come down, a pile of kindling from the hazels we cut back last year, a pile of pallet wood ready to make boxes for jam jars and the rest which was mostly old fencing etc has been burnt, looking good.
Sometime in the afternoon I finished a dried flower wreath that I started yesterday and then I started another one and eventually finished it halfway through the evening. A full round wreath takes a long time to do and a lot of materials, no wonder they are expensive to buy, the largest one I have done I definitely wouldn’t sell for less than it’s worth, soo much work and my back was aching after doing them because you can’t really sit down to do it otherwise you can’t see it properly.
Friday: The weather seems to be developing a pattern, nice in the morning then rain in the afternoon (usually around school run time as always 🙄) This morning I got some social media sorted and then some flower cutting and then onto a bit of gardening, potting up, dividing, propagating. Now is a good time to divide or propagate and I have this great gadget that I was given for my birthday.
It is inside my back door so if I take a cutting I can just pop it in here and wait for the roots to develop as they have in the bottom left tube, simples 😊 once the roots are good I take it out and pot it up carefully as those roots will be fragile, voila a new plant 🥰
Sam came late morning and we went off out to get some lunch leaving John working here, I did offer for him to join us but he declined (garden centre 😜) I did bring him back a slice of Victoria sponge though.
The rain started while we were on the way home and pretty much stopped and started all afternoon making it difficult to get anything half decent done outside. I did manage to plant up a few things and dig up some plants that were in the wrong place and pot them up for re positioning in Spring. I have a lot of this kind of work to do, re position plants and propagate lots of the plants that do well as cut flowers. I went to the wholesale nursery the other day and bought some evergreen shrubs, rosemary, you can never have enough of that and my big one split and died a couple of years ago so time for some new ones. Pittosporum, I lost both of mine in the cold last Winter, this is a much bigger shrub and along with a couple of photinia red Robin, Portuguese laurel, parvifolia and euonymus (which by the way I have no idea where I am going to put 🤪) I also have other evergreens in pots that all need to go into the ground 😣 I have tried buying the small plants and waiting for them to grow and now I am going for the bigger ones instead, the problem with that is our ground or rather lack of soil depth. I am sure I will work something out, we did discuss moving the fence between the garden and the paddock and pinching around 10ft x 50ft which would be a lot of space but then I thought about deer, rabbits, horses etc. At the minute the deer and rabbits cannot get in although the horse regularly leans over and nibbles on anything nearby. The reason for this way of thinking was that the fence needs replacing but there are self growing hazels and sycamore growing through it, take the fence out dig out anything that should not be there and move the fence a little. Sounds easy but it is still a fair amount of work and then the new fence would need to be animal proof, ducks, geese, chickens, deer, rabbits, horses and dogs would all be in there given half the chance 🙄 I might have to think about a plan B 🤔
And if anyone reading this locally is cutting back evergreens near the end of November I am more than happy to come and collect from you, I can use it for wreath work and it saves it from going into your green waste bin. I often wonder if people realise just how useful their cuttings would be, there is plenty to be foraged but there are also plenty of out of control shrubs in gardens 😂 and I am always looking when I am out wondering if the owners even know how useful the shrubs are 😜
Saturday: I spent the morning doing a dried flower arrangement while listening to John trying to start the ride on mower. Eventually I went out to try and help, well actually first off I told him to move it out into the sunshine in case it was just damp. When that didn’t work I went out to help him try and work out what was wrong. He had reversed it about a foot and it had cut out so we were thinking it was an air lock in the fuel line. John I did the first pipe and the fuel was getting to there (and by the way we had checked fuel levels, battery was fine as it was turning over well and all the fuses) The question was ‘is there a safety mechanism we had forgotten about?) I called the mower man and he said most likely an air lock further down the fuel line and did we have any easy start we could use. The answer to that was no and that’s because John would always refuse to use it even though my dad had said many, many times to him, you need some easy start 😂 Off he went to get some 😜 he came back we unbolted everything to get to the end of the fuel line, sprayed some easy start, started it up and voila it worked 😊 I have no idea what easy start actually is or what it does but from now on we will make sure we always have some 🤪
I then cut the front paddock, the side walkway and the back walk way and not sure what John did because I couldn’t see but it was something useful I am sure. To be fair he has been really busy this week and so much has gone done and tided so it’s looking much more loved than it has done.
Late afternoon I did some gardening as the weather was lovely, the sun was out but not too hot, I was weeding and planting and it was very enjoyable.
Sunday: If ever there was a full days work it was today, I feel like I have got lots done despite being a bit indecisive to start with. First I watered the small tunnel which had the chrysanthemums in and then onto planting up almost 600 bulbs! It sounds impressive but bulb planting for cutting is not quite the same as for garden display. The bulbs are planted very close together in tubs or pots and that’s because what I am after is stem length and flower not a pretty looking area. I have planted tulips and narcissi, all the tubs then need covering with wire so that a) the squirrel doesn’t plant nuts in there and b) so the cats don’t think I have made them some swanky toilet area. After a brief trip out to get some lunch I got straight back on with gardening, planting up carnations and sweet Williams into the spare area in the small tunnel. These are all flowers I am hoping will be ready as early as possible next spring along with some ammi Majus I planted the other day and some daucus (wild carrot) which I had grown from seed and now needed planting out. Then I went onto the delphinium bed, removed the netting that it grows through, cut them back, top dressed with some blood fish and bone, put some more wood chip on top, replaced the netting and stakes (oh also planted another one in the space I had obviously lost one over winter) and whoop that’s another bed sorted ready for next year. Next weed the small area next to it that does not have anything growing there except weeds, it is about half a metre by 1200 and is between the delphinium bed and another raised box that has a mock orange growing in it. I weeded the area and then put down weed membrane and pegged it down, that is another tiny bit under control plus it means I have a place that I can get from one path to the other without treading on the flower beds. By this time my shoulder was stinging, I have no idea what that is but I have had it for a very long time and once it starts I know it’s time to stop work 🤪 I feel as though I have accomplished a good amount today though and as a bonus I split a delphinium plant, planted one and then potted up three other small plants, always handy to have spare plants 🥰
This is how close the bulbs get planted when growing for cutting, they don’t need an air flow around them because they get cut as soon as they are ready and the bulbs won’t be any good for next year. Many people compost the bulbs but I don’t, in a couple of years they will recover enough to flower so mine will go in the raised beds in the front and if I get tulips that’s a result and if I don’t well I will wait. Believe it or not almost 600 spring bulbs are in these few containers.
We had a chap come from Wales today to catch some rabbits, he has been coming for a few years now (although not last year) he usually comes with a friend but today bought his son to teach him and get him off the computer, his words not mine lol. Many people would not agree with it but it is free meat and yes they do eat it, curried mostly I gather from our previous conversations. It is living off the land and not out of the supermarket, which to me is the best way, and great to teach the next generation because you never know when you might need to catch your own food in my opinion. We don’t eat rabbit but that’s only because John doesn’t like it, if we didn’t have anything else then we definitely would.
Monday 11th September 2023: A bit cooler today and def not as muggy thank goodness because I have spent 7 hours (yes you read that correctly) cleaning the kitchen 🙄 From top to bottom, every cupboard, every drawer pulled out cleaned, stuff I didn’t need thrown out and everything put back. I don’t know about you but my cupboards just get things stuffed into them 😜 and just exactly how many paper bags do I need to keep just in case 🙄 a whole bag full of them that’s how many, now in the recycling. Tubs without lids or lids without tubs, now gone, half used food stuff that is out of date, binned, I wish the manufacturers would realised that very few people can get through a colmans mustard powder tin within the allotted date 😂 smaller tins would be appreciated. To be fair I only used to buy it for when dad came or if I needed mustard powder for a gf recipe because for some reason the jar stuff is not gf or never used to be 🤷♀️ I have found stuff I had forgotten I had such as the special cleaner for the workshops and three bottles of windowlene with the price ticket of £2.59 on them, I have no idea how much it is now but these would have been from Johns Mums house and I do use it occasionally although a cloth and a squeegee are much quicker.
After I finished and steam cleaned the floor I had a quick cuppa waiting for it to dry and then onto the paperwork pile which (and I hate to say it) has been piling up for more than six months! It is all now in its respective years ready for the accounts (which I have yet to do) and I have plonked 22/23 in the office (another room that needs a total declutter and tidy) 23/24 is in the rack on the wall that separates it into plumbing, farm, household categories, John however can’t seem to get the hang of this simple filing system as I found plumbing stuffed into farm and farm stuffed into household 🙄 despite the fact that he is not supposed to file it at all, that only happens once it has been paid or dealt with, usually 😝
I think I can see just how poorly and lacklustre I had been for months now, sometime it is only when you look in the rear view mirror you can see what has been happening. To leave things for such a long time is not me but I was beginning to think it was, it is 5.30 and I don’t feel exhausted for once in fact I then hoovered the boot room too 😊 I will probably be tired tomorrow but that’s ok because I have Oscar and that is a different kind of day.
Tuesday: Although I was supposed to have Oscar today neither he nor Charlie are every well and so she is not going in to work. That gives me a day I was not expecting to have and so I spent most of it playing with flowers, I know I should have been doing other things but it was a bonus day so I took advantage of that lol.
One of the my favourite flower arrangement I have ever done was the dried flower meadows for Sam and Luke’s wedding. I used dry foam back then as I had no idea how else I would do it but I wanted to find a way without and so that’s what I set about doing. Using chicken wire topped with dry moss I got a pretty good result although I need to use smaller gauge wire (I just used what I had which was about 1 inch, too big really and would be better with much smaller holes because of the fine stems on dried flowers. I also made a fresh flower jam jar box, i also love doing these and think I will do workshops with these next year (just need to get John to make the boxes) and I had a go at another little flower fairy, these are very fiddly and delicate but great fun to make. This one reminds me of Nurse Phylis from Call the Midwife 😂 definitely capable of getting the job done 😊
In the evening we were going to pop along to Witney Feast which is a big local fair but my brother and his wife called in and we drank tea and chatted for the evening instead.
Wednesday: It is definitely a September morning this morning, dew on the ground and a slight chill in the air first thing but the sun is shining so I think it will be a lovely day.
Just gone 11am and I have another room sorted, the office/craft room had become a dumping ground for anything that didn’t have another home. I have sorted, recycled, bagged for the charity shop and binned plenty. It is where paperwork is supposed to get done but I couldn’t even get to the filing cabinet, it is where I keep the cot for when Oscar comes and I leave it up but it was hard to get round it. Now everything is tidy there is floor space again, cobwebs have been hoovered and surfaces wiped over, dusting done and I folded up the cot so I can now move around in there. I have a cupboard with Christmas stuff in photo albums, LPs and anything else that can’t be thrown out, though why we keep it all is anyone’s guess. The ironing board lives in there as does the steam mop and the hoover plus everything for crafting or sewing and a plethora of paperwork, pens, scissor, sellotape, card, glue, you get the idea 😂 I do have all the stuff I oiked out that needs to go to its final home to put away yet though and a lot of it is for the flower room as it is mostly for flower work, amazing how much stuff you can accumulate 😜
The weather is t as great as I thought it might be rather overcast but not raining at the minute so that’s good. We had a good couple of downpours yesterday so no watering needs doing for the time being 😊
Once I had put everything where it needed to be and could get to the desk I then needed to fix an issue with the laptop, it was connected to the internet but it seems there was something preventing it from accessing it. Cue a couple of hours downloading, restarting, installing, etc etc etc 🙄 While that was happening I decided to fill in the online forms and print documents for our up coming holiday and then phone the company to link a booking. While I was on hold to them I downloaded and printed off documents for Johns day out on Sunday, he is off to Williams Racing for the day to watch the Singapore race with hospitality. Jeez in the age of technology everything takes so bloody long to sort out, currently still on hold while I am typing this up listening to the music with the frequent interruption telling me ‘my time is precious so why not do things quicker online’ um because that does not seem to be an option in this instance 😂 Talk about multitasking!
Thursday: You can definitely feel the autumn chill in the air in the mornings and evenings now. The sun is shining this morning though and so I imagine it will be very much the same as yesterday.
I sorted out some dried flowers first thing, I have flowers to cut for orders and some to deliver as well. One of the reasons I tided the office was because I needed to get to some paperwork that was at the back of everything else as always. I had an official form to fill in online which I flipping hate doing anyway, I had until the 18th and yet they still sent me two reminders including a final reminder ffs, that’s enough to send the blood pressure up on its own. I had till the 18th and I was damn well going to do it before that and I don’t need you constantly sending out letters and emails 😂 I hate officialdom in any form, it always makes me nervous, when I was in the thick of it and doing it all the time I wasn’t so bad, I got used to it, but not having done it for years I was putting it off till as late as possible. Well now I could find the right paperwork I was set to do it and logged on, my anxiety levels were high (ridiculous I know but that’s the way I am) I started the online filing, gave details requested for the first couple of pages and that was it! What 😯 I had put off doing this because it would stress me out trying to find all the info and all they wanted was basic details not even official documented proof 😂😂😂 what an idiot Dawn, all that time worrying about it for nothing 😜
So now that is done I can get on with the rest of my day in relative harmony 🙏
I got flowers arranged for delivery later and then took flowers down to the local pub, nice walk down and back today, the village was much quieter than it has been the last couple of walks. Once back I did some flower pressing and then a lunchtime sit down.
Friday: Now I can get the ironing board up in the office I did a bit of ironing, I like ironing on the whole but don’t do it very often lol. I picked the rest of the ripe tomatoes while waiting for a customer to come and collect flowers. The variety I have this year has produced literally hundreds of cherry tomatoes and while they may be small they certainly do not lack that full tomato flavour.
In the afternoon I started a full dried flower wreath, that is a lot of work and a lot of flowers but it turned out beautifully and is so much better in real,life than the photo I took.
Saturday: The forecast was for hot sunny weather today but that did not pan out, not here anyway. It was however the perfect day for me to get some gardening work done, overcast and warm enough, perfect. I started off in the big tunnel, clearing, weeding, deadheading and cutting back. Then onto potting or pricking out some of the seeds I have been growing for next year, planting out was next, cornflowers and ammi majus. Weeding next, plenty of that to do, plus cutting back some of the perennials, next year I need to cut back harder and earlier I think. Quick stop for lunch and then out to help John clear up or pick apples from the cooking apple tree which has had hundreds of apples this year. I have been giving them away for weeks and there are still a lot left on the tree, I need to do some more for the freezer but not too many or we will never use it all up before next years crop, unless we don’t get one which is possible.
It rained a little in the afternoon but nothing that gave you a soaking, in the evening we went over to my brothers for a bbq to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.
Sunday: An early alarm set for today, John is off on a F1 hospitality day which was a birthday present from Charlie and Macca. I hope he has fun Charlie messaged, um he is being fed all day and watching the racing it’s all his dreams come true 😂
That left me home on my own so I opted for a lazy Sunday morning, not in bed because that’s not me but in my pjs lounging around drinking tea, eating toast and catching up with watching Instagram posts and reels. Well I did that until I figured I really ought to get on with something because we are off out on a birthday ramble with Samantha and family today, hope it does not rain too hard but I a, sure we will find a nice pub at the end with something warm to eat and drink.
We had a lovely walk today around Sherborne Estate and village, the rain held off until we were safely inside a local pub having something to eat, the heavens opened just after we got there 😂
Lovely village shop and great coffee 🥰
John got home before I did and he also had a great day at Williams F1 in Grove, good day all round and a great end to the week 😊
frieslandfarm (flowers) 