Tag: rain

Posted in Friesland Farm

A trip down memory lane, the twins 1st birthdays and the phone line saga continues 🤬

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th July 2020: John is working again this week, I am not sure when he will next have any time off now things seem to be getting back to normalish. Before he went he did the morning feeding and letting out, I did the horses water and found some greens for the guineas, quail and light Sussex. I had a little wander around the fields, no point having land if you don’t wander aimlessly round it now and again. I had a good look at the hedgerow, at the minute there are plenty of blackberries but if the horses get to them later in the year I will have to find another source. I did a little bit in the garden, some watering and I picked three good sized cucumbers. I then went down to the very front of the driveway on the lane, I needed to cut back some dog rose and over hanging tree branches that make it difficult to turn out as you can’t see traffic coming up the lane clearly and they do tend to go fast even though we have a new 30 mile an hour speed limit 🙄 After that it was indoors to make some bread and some biscuits although I made a bit of a mistake. I was reading one recipe and decided to follow another but put the amount of butter from the first into the recipe I was doing if that makes sense. I thought it seemed a bit short and my fear was that they would spread and be crumbly but as it happened they were fine, I’d say they were more like small cakes than biscuits but they taste great which is the main thing.

A better looking loaf today 😀

I also ordered a new kettle, if you go back in my blog about five years, maybe even six, you will read about my lovely new kettle. I had done some research because I was sick of buying £20 kettles that leaked everywhere within the year so I had splashed out and paid £100 for a decent one 😯 One that I hoped would last five years and so cost the same in real terms, well it has, did I should say, it still doesn’t leak water from the spout but the lid has broken and is unfixabke so I have ordered a new one. The only difference is that it is a different colour (black) as the new colours are about £30 more expensive and I’m not paying that just for a trendy colour 😂 I have gone for exactly the same model as it is a beautiful ergonomic design that is easy on the eye, can you tell how much I love it yet 😜 Of course at this point you will want to know which kettle, it’s a Delonghi and it’s the scultura model. I would have purchased a matching toaster but we don’t really need a new one of those so I will wait until we do 😀

Tuesday: Another sunny day ahead which is lovely if a little restricting for me. I do miss not being able to be in the sun for any length of time, quite often if I feel cold I will go and stand out in it to warm up not for too long though 😜 I would love to be able to go for a walk in the sunshine especially on days like today where it’s not unbearably hot just pleasant. In order to do that I would need to cover every part of me with some clothing and a hat, sunscreen is not enough to stop the rays causing havoc!

John did the morning rounds and I watered the tunnels and the greenhouse, I watered the pots out in the driveway and checked over the plants in the gravelled area out the front. The wood chip I nicely swept and tided last week has been scattered everywhere by some hens that have decided to escape every day 🙄 I’m trying not to let it bother me 🤪 John told me this morning that the duck I had noticed was missing (though I didn’t think the fox had got it) was sitting on a nest under the hedge at the side 😀😀😀 yay this makes me very happy indeed, in all the years I have kept ducks I have never had one sit on a nest and hatch ducklings successfully, fingers crossed it happens this time, I will be cock a hoop even though we don’t need any more ducks lol.

Up to lunchtime I haven’t really done much except pottering, I am still feeling tired 🤷‍♀️ but I’m not worried as there are times when I’m not, it’s hopefully a passing phase. I have plenty of phases during and after a flare especially when I go on to new meds, it’s always a delight figuring out what’s what 😜

John came home early which was nice, after spending weeks and weeks with someone here most of the time I think I have found it difficult being back on my own for most of the day everyday. After doing the afternoon feeding and egg collection we popped to town quickly to pick up my prescription and early evening we went to Sam and Luke’s to water the garden while they are on holiday.

So the medicine wheel thing is getting interesting 🤔 today the discussion was about Karma/rules and self concept. It’s all about how you see yourself and the boundaries you perceive to be there, either put there by you or your interpretation of what others have put there for you and more importantly exploring them and either mentally moving/changing them or accepting them, deep I know lol, but quite liberating actually 😀 It rather blew my mind to realise that I had created boundaries for myself over the years and just by thinking about them thoroughly I can change them 🙄

Wednesday: Another lovely day ahead, John did the morning rounds and then went off to work. I did some picking this morning, the French beans are beginning to produce good quantities now, I picked about 1/2kg of those, a couple of cucumbers, a few courgettes and some toms to ripen on the windowsill.

I went out for coffee this morning with Shelley, the kids and my Mum also met us there. It was in the village I grew up in and afterwards we had a walk around the recreation area which was a great playground for us as youngsters as it had a small stream running alongside, we spent hours down there catching minnows, bullheads and crayfish. Sadly these days there is not much sign of any life in it 😏

When I got back my brother phoned as he had acquired a plant and some seed heads from a lady where he was working. Salsify, a Victorian vegetable which is rarely used these days, it tastes like oysters apparently and is also known as the oyster plant. He was passing and so dropped off some seeds for me 😀 I will definitely have a go at growing these, they were a very useful winter crop when not much else was available. They belong to the dandelion family which is very evident from the seeds, so they should be great for wildlife as well.

I was reminded that although my veg seems to be really slow this year (which frankly has been depressing me) the wildlife has come on in leaps and bounds 😀 I am determined to be grateful for that at least 🥰

Luckily my appetite seems to have returned 😀 😅 I’m not sure where it went or why but it’s back again which is great because I can start looking through recipes with some degree of interest.

Thursday: I’m having a quick coffee break and a sit down, it’s 10.30 and I have been busy since 6.30 this morning. Firstly sorting and putting out plants for sale, I had a bit of a lull because during the lockdown I sold everything I had almost and so had to wait for things to come on again 🙄 After doing a few other bits outside it was indoors to do some cleaning, oh joy, but it did need doing, I am doing half today and half tomorrow to break up the monotony 😂 Going through the place I keep thinking I must get rid of stuff we don’t use anymore as it’s taking up space. I have a cupboard full of cushions and blankets that have accumulated over time, sometimes I use them outside for the children but I also have a load more in the airing cupboard 🤪 pretty sure I don’t need that many do I? One thing I put up for collection were some magazines to do with gardening and smallholding, the lady that wanted them turns out to have moved in nearby and is collecting them later, it will be nice to meet someone likeminded 😀

The telephone line saga continues and I now know who’s number we have, the cottage up the road! A service engineer called to confirm his appointment this afternoon, he thought I was the person from the other property, I explained the whole situation to him and he is also coming here later to see if he can help sort the whole mess out. Basically he says that someone has switched the wrong lines, I do hope he can help us because at the moment they have no phone line and we have theirs😏

It’s the twins 1st birthday today 🥰🥰 where did that year go! They are developing their little characters, both entirely different, Lucie is the happiest baby I have ever come across and George just wants crawl, walk, run, climb and is very cheeky lol.

Happy, smiley Lucie
Let me get at it George

All the grandchildren are growing fast, this summer was going to be the summer before the two oldest start school and so we were going to have plenty of farm time fun but the virus got in the way 😏 Never mind we still have a bit of time left.

I heard somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours to master something and so become a master in that field so to speak, if you do three hours a day it would still take you nine years to ‘master’ whatever it is. From this I realise that I am a master of many things 😀 Definitely a master gardener, It probably only took me three years to get that far, I am a master parent having spent at least sixteen years 24/7 parenting 😂 I am a master housekeeper, in fact I must be, along with many others, a supreme master at that having spent the last 37 years doing it! There are so many things that we spend almost a lifetime doing and so become masters, they may seem like trivial topics but let’s face it some people fail miserably at them so take your credit where it’s due 😘

The phone line saga: So the engineer came out, he was brilliant and went above and beyond the call of duty but he still couldn’t sort it for us although the two of us spent another two hours on the phone to BT. The upshot is that the cottage had their line de activated at the beginning of lockdown because it is a holiday let 🙄 then they re activated it, meanwhile we received a letter 9 days late due to the Swindon depot being closed due to coronavirus, consequently they had already sent out open reach to do whatever it is they do to the line BUT somehow they switched the cottage number to our line and disconnected ours, are you keeping up? The anomaly in this is why did BT think our line was theirs, no idea! They also sent the letter out addressed to us but have the owners name on file for the service call, you think someone would have noticed the difference, clearly not😏 So as it stands we have to wait until their fault is cleared that means their number connected to them and then we will be completely disconnected and have to apply for a new line, beggars belief doesn’t it, but it’s still not guaranteed that we will get our old number back because they are ‘Pooled’ for two weeks then reused 😯 WTAF! None of this is in anyway our fault but we are paying for other people’s decisions and incompetencies, not happy. Nor apparently is the chap in the holiday let as he was complaining that he was supposed to be working online and can’t, so I guess the owners will get grief from him, not that I am in any way sympathetic after all we have been jumping through hoops for the last two and a half weeks with no sign of it getting resolved very soon. All I am waiting for now is for someone to try and charge us for the other line then I will be f…ing fuming and the wrath will be unleashed 🤬

On a more gentle and country living note 😜 we saw a baby hedgehog tonight, about the size of a tennis ball, so not only do we have at least three adults we have babies as well, how good is that 😀 we are a hedgehog breeding ground 🥰

Friday: Up early to get things sorted, John did the rounds and I started on some cleaning. Sue is visiting today which will be the first time we have been able to see each other since Dad died. I had planned yesterday afternoon to go to the local Smokery and get some smoked chicken for dinner but BT put paid to that so thanks again, not that I am becoming bitter or anything 😜 The weather is not bad, I don’t think it will be hot today, it’s warm but overcast at the minute.

Saturday: Short and sweet report today as you can imagine I have been busy being sociable 😀 We had a very decent downpour or two today, a bit of thunder thrown in for good measure. All good for the veg garden.

Sunday: Out for breakfast this morning with Sue and then a visit to see the twins in the afternoon meant that apart from the essentials nothing else got done around the place. Although John and I did agree on a plan to re develop the front area once we have altered to access point to the yard behind the house which we are moving from one side to the other, I will take before and after photos this time 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

A pick ‘n’ mix of a week 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th July 2020: It was a sunny start though the sun seems to have disappeared behind clouds now which is great for me. I did a bit of picking first thing this morning, rhubarb, dwarf beans, courgettes, a marrow, beetroot, salad turnips, French breakfast radish and white globe radish plus a few blueberries and raspberries. The little birds are still getting into the fruit cage though I can’t see where they are managing to get in, i did think that the raspberries were not producing very much, they are being eaten before I even get out of bed!

It’s ‘Bees need’ week this week and there are five simple things you can do to help the plight of our most important creatures. Grow more flowers (the open type, not multiple petals as they can’t reach the nectar) Leave some wild areas, weeds are not favoured by humans but the bees love them and we need the bees to survive otherwise we won’t 🙄 Don’t cut the grass so often, I know it looks a bit unsightly but we managed without hairdressers and barbers for a while and it didn’t hurt did it 😜 Don’t disturb nests and hibernation places, if you find a bees nest just leave it, they won’t bother you if you don’t bother them, of course I am not talking about a swarm, that does need sorting but on the whole solitary bees will move on once the young have hatched. Don’t use pesticides, this in my opinion is the biggest problem for insects, nurture nature to get a good balance in your garden instead of resorting to pesticide. Those are the main five things but there are other things you can do to help when it’s really hot, leave a dish of topped up water for insects to find and quench their thirst. When it’s turning cold provide areas for them to overwinter, bug houses are all the rage but areas that have not been tidied are just as good, resist the temptation to tidy and leave it until spring 😀

This morning I have been doing a bit of this and a bit of that in the garden. I planted up the pak Choi and the chicory into the polytunnel for the colder months and I sowed a new bed of mixed lettuce leaves which will be quick growing. The bed I pulled all the carrots from has now got a layer of mushroom compost on it to condition the soil and I have sown some lambs lettuce and winter purslane (I think) in the bed that the radish were in. The bulb fennel seeds I sowed in there failed to materialise 🙄 After that it was onto re potting some plants I bought at the weekend, ornamental grasses. The area in the front that I cast lots of wildflower seeds onto has not really done much, I have some things in pots but I think the seeds and small plants I put there have been eaten by earwigs or woodlouse as it has a layer of wood chip covering, ideal for pests to live in 😜 So I bought some grasses and will put them in pots over there the idea being that they set seed and do the job for me, I can’t dig into the ground as it was an area used to put types of aggregate and now is a solid bed of stones.

Update: something is eating the pak Choi and something has dug up a couple of the chicory plants, why do I bother lol

I was looking forward to lunchtime because today is the day I get to eat the first couple of ripe tomatoes in a cheese sandwich, that is always a day to look forward to 😀 as I always say grow/find yourself some home grown toms they taste a hundred times better than shop bought ones especially if they are freshly picked after being warmed by the sun ☀️

I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for the afternoon yet, I seem to run out of steam after lunch, definitely not got the ooomph I had when I was on the steroids 😏

I got this evenings dinner on the go, I like to do it either first thing or at least by lunchtime otherwise I feel disinclined to sort anything at the actual time. I don’t know how people come in from work and decide what to have, we would end up with something on toast every night 😜 Tonight’s dinner is lamb shank (just one is enough for the two of us) cooked in the slow cooker with veg from the garden, broad beans, dwarf beans, turnips, potatoes, peas, garlic I grew and is now stored and rosemary from the garden, along with some lamb stock from the freezer. The lamb is from a local smallholder so it’s entirely a smallholder meal 😀 For pudding (or dessert if you are posh) we have mixed fruit crumble, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb, all from the garden, as I have said before, we eat like kings here 👑

John has gone to work today which enables me to get on a bit I think, I am certainly more organised when he is not here, I think it’s the fact that I can’t entirely get on with what I want to do as there is usually something to be discussed or looked at and he is inclined to come in for lunch and turn the tv on to watch the news so I sit down and watch it too, something I don’t do when I am here by myself (except in the winter months)

John has been in the wars at work today, a piece of tile he was chopping off the wall flew and caught his middle finger between the knuckle and the hand. He came home with a couple of bloody plasters on it. He went off to do the egg collecting and came back in swearing, he saw a rat in the duck pen, picked up an iron bar to whack it, missed and blood starting pouring out of his finger again, he says pouring I say dribbling. He is quite dramatic in his descriptions ‘ I had a bad accident at work today’ seriously, you cut your finger, ‘it’s really deep’ can’t be that deep or your finger would be hanging off! You can see I’m not the sympathetic type 😜 so when I had to clean it up and re dress it and he is hanging onto the sink saying ‘I feel sick and dizzy’ my answer is ‘strap a pair on will you’ 🤪 I don’t really understand those who feel sick and dizzy at the slightest cut, I am of a mind to think it’s all in the head but maybe it isn’t, maybe it’s a real thing that I have just never experienced being made of sterner stuff 😀

Tuesday: Today is a long awaited day, I get a hair cut 😂 not that I am one who regularly has a hair cut just when it gets on my nerves which it is doing at the minute. Two reasons, one it has got a bit long and is annoying when it’s wrapping itself round my neck when I’m sleeping 🙄 and two it is falling out, probably due to the new meds but I think a good cut will help a bit, I’m hoping anyway 🤞

John is working again today, this will probably be the norm now, mostly working with the odd day off here and there, even though he wants to spend more time at home, the phone keeps ringing, well his mobile anyway as the house phone you know about already! I have slung the Hoover round and done a bit of wiping over and topped and tailed the gooseberries I picked the other day ready for the freezer. Topping and tailing is pretty time consuming luckily it’s only gooseberries that need it, blackcurrants don’t really as the ‘bit’ is the remainder of the flower and so perfectly fine to eat, saves a lot of time. I feel tired today and lethargic, I am wondering what to do next and then wondering if I can be bothered 😕

A new law comes into effect next week and we will have to wear face masks in shops, some people already do but I never have, the choice is wear a mask or don’t go shopping 😜 hmmm I think I prefer the latter.

Shelley and the children came over and we dug some potatoes for their dinner later, picked some peas and ate them from the pod 😀 I love to teach the children about where food actually comes from. Josh and I had an interesting conversation about flies eyes and how they have 360o vision, I managed to get him off the subject of superheroes for a minute or two 😜

Wednesday: An overcast but pleasant enough day, some very slight drizzle first thing that soon went. First thing I did was water the greenhouse and feed the torts, then move the grasses I re potted to their position out in the front area. I decided to give the whole area a bit of a tidy up, weeding, sweeping, dead heading cutting back and mowing the grass in the driveway, it’s looking a lot better now. At times I feel overwhelmed by the weeds and amount of tidying it will take to get it looking immaculate, then I remind myself that it’s good for the wildlife and I shouldn’t be too tidy 🙄 It’s been a difficult transition that has taken years to let go, in our old place I opened the garden once a year so everything was immaculate all the time but that is exhausting as well as time consuming. Part of me likes a tidy well turned out garden but another part of me loves the overgrown look, if I could achieve a combination of the two that would be a great result, I will keep working on it 😜 A Gardeners’ work is always a life time road I think, it changes direction sometimes but it is a constant motion when it’s in the blood I reckon 🙂

I have just discovered the medicine wheel, literally just discovered it last night when I joined a balanced life group. I am curious to see how this can help with life and felt drawn to it for some reason so am following. I have talked before about how I see life, in circles, the minute, the hour, the day, the year, after some discussion and thought, the month is not seen the same but as part of a circle that forms the year. Apparently lots of people see these in linear form, so stretching ahead of you, have you ever thought about it? And if you have after reading this, which one are you? If you are a circle person you are much more in touch with your life balance than you think but you can have blockages which is where the medicine wheel comes in, I am looking forward to the discovery of any blockage I have and as a bonus it’s always good to learn something new 😀

In the afternoon the girls came over with the kiddies and we went for a walk up the local lane. I like to keep an eye on a couple of apple trees and a plum tree along there, we have had some very tasty fruit from those trees and they are loaded again this year I am glad to see. We had a few incidents, Josh turned the hose on and got Flo all wet, then on the walk Florence walked into a blackberry runner so had scratches all over her face, when we got back Mia turned the hose on and got Josh wet (that’s Karma we all explained to him 🤪) the only difference was that whereas Josh readily apologised to Flo, Mia has enormous difficulty saying sorry. It ends up with her having a total meltdown, by this time the twins are crying as well, poor Sam, Mia still won’t apologise no matter how much you try and coax her or tell her and then she melts down further because Shelley, Josh and Flo are going to feed the chickens but she is not allowed because she won’t say sorry. The horse pesters Shelley (she doesn’t like horses) so she feeds the hens but abandons the egg collection, Mia goes with Josh, Flo and Shelley to do the front hens, Sam goes to pick the eggs up where shelley couldn’t and the geese arrive and harass Samantha, eventually all situations are resolved but it’s pure carnage when it’s going on 😂 When they have all gone it’s time for a quiet cuppa before I start again.

We all commented on how cold it was for the time of year, it really is very noticeable especially if there is a breeze, it’s going to jump up 6 degrees tomorrow that is quite a difference from one day to the next.

We went to the supermarket this evening and although we have not worn masks before we thought now would be a good time to get used to doing it. I can tell you my future trips will be as little as possible, my glasses kept steaming up so I couldn’t see anything, resulted in keep moving them from my face to my head and that involves touching 🙄 I felt more at ease when I wasn’t wearing one, I may see if there are any delivery slots available yet 😏

Thursday: I did a bit of picking this morning, the usual culprits lol but it does look like I may have found where the little birds get in the fruit cage because I blocked up a hole and this morning I have quite a few raspberries 😀 After doing the picking I cut the lawn but I confess I am a bit tired today, I need to remember that though I have come out the other side of a flare and I am on meds, I still have lupus and I still get tired. So today I a, winky going to rest and hopefully build up some reserve energy for tomorrow. I bought a gardening magazine yesterday so I will read it at my leisure I think 😀

Remember the cuttings I took back in May, well I can report that most of them didn’t take 🤪 but some did 😀 I think I had eight pots of four cuttings and I have ended up with six plants 🙄 still, six free plants is better than none, a couple of them I am really chuffed about, a clematis and a climbing rose 😀 the others are a sage, a japonica, elderflower (nigra). The dahlias I took cuttings from took really easily and I now have four in a pot out the front so hopefully they will flower and I would definitely do those again but some of the other stuff I think is easier to grow from seed/root/dividing, still it was good to give it a go and I had some measure of success.

Friday: A beautiful summer morning, just how summer should be, a fresh but sunny start with the promise of more warmth as the day progresses but not so hot that you can’t function properly 🤣 I started with watering the pots out the front then onto the poly tunnels so that they can cope with any heat, the greenhouse and the pots on the decking and in the cold frames, in fact anything that is in a pot got a watering. I picked a few raspberries and blueberries and there are still a few strawberries to be had, a handful of tomatoes were ready as well. I did pick a coup,e of cucumbers a while back and the rest are still too small to pick but there are plenty of them. I had a good look round and although everything seems slow it is producing, just not in vast quantities, I’m not sure why but others have said the same this year, in contrast I see others who have said it’s a bumper year, I guess it just depends on where you are. I sat with a coffee and watched all the wildlife, goldfinches, blackbirds (pinching the choke berries) a wren that had got herself into the greenhouse and then couldn’t find the bloody great doorway to get back out 😂 I have noticed an increase in butterflies and I aim to get some photos at some point, I still think the smaller insects are a bit thin on the ground which is a worry, normally I would see hoverflies, dragonflies, lacewings etc but they seem to be absent, maybe now the sun is here they will come out to play.

I am feeling less tired today thankfully, I’m not sure what it was, could be anything from air pressure to the Lupus, who knows but today I feel as though I can get on which is great.

Saturday: I spent most of the morning picking, watering and cutting back. I picked all the peas/mangetout I could find and then gave the plants a good cut back. You can still sow seeds at this time of year so I thought as the plants are already growing I might as well just cut the existing ones back and see what’s happens. I have done it with the broad beans and they are flowering again already, hopefully I will get a second crop. I don’t sell peas in the shed, the reason being we use a lot of them, they are labour intensive mind you and you end up with much more empty pod than peas but worth the bother I think. You can make pea pod wine apparently but I have never tried. I picked about 1/2 kg of dwarf French beans, some out for sale and some in the freezer, the more you pick beans and peas the more the plant will produce, once you stop picking they will stop producing so it’s best to keep taking them off. I also,picked courgettes, tomatoes, radish, cucumber, peppers, quite a haul this morning. A bit of watering to keep everything going and then into the kitchen to process it all.

More pod than peas 😜

Sunday: A rainy start so I needn’t have done any watering yesterday 😂 We got the usual jobs done and then went out for breakfast, on the way back we popped in to see Mum and Ken and when we got home Charlie and Macca were here so we sat and had coffee with them. We sat down for a while and then my mobile rang and it was BT complaints dept about the complaint I made last Sunday after getting nowhere. I then spent two and a half hours more on the phone going form dept to dept, the upshot is we have been ‘slammed’ I think that is their term for massive cock up. Basically they disconnected the wrong line and now we are having to spend hours trying to get it reinstated, I reordered it once but that order has been cancelled because they have the line under the wrong address and the other person cancelled the order. I have been from the complaints dept to the faults dept to the ‘I have no idea’ dept and finally to the order dept explaining I have been through all this already and won’t it just happen again, they assured me it won’t, I somehow don’t believe them 🙄 Watch this space………

Consequently we have not done much else today except that John spent half an hour digging up ragwort from the paddocks before it goes to seed. He did start some chainsaw work this morning but the chain snapped, luckily it stayed on the blade otherwise it could have been a day spent at the hospital instead!

Have a good week and as always, stay safe x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Curveball INCOMING……………🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd June 2020: And here we are back round at Monday again, still in the throes of a pandemic but hopefully coming out the other side slowly. We have had a constant day today, plenty of jobs and constantly busy. We started off with a bit of tractor work which John did, dragging the paddocks and then he decided to roll them, I told him it was too dry but he didn’t listen. When he came back in he said ‘the paddocks are too dry’ 🙄 I did a fair bit of picking, mostly veg for dinner tonight but also fruit. Most of our meal is home grown everyday at the minute and what isn’t home grown is from other smallholders 😀 Seasonal eating means strawberries and raspberries for pudding every day 😜 I’m not complaining. I picked cherries again this morning and the morello cherries are ripe, and the birds haven’t eaten them so far, so I picked the ones that were ready and started the process of glacé cherries. It’s a ten day process but well worth doing if you fancy a go. Picking and processing begins in earnest now for winter stores and any future pandemic 🤪

After a spot of lunch and a cuppa the next batch of chickens arrived, John sorted them out while I messaged everyone who had them on order. Then time to feed the chickens and collect the eggs ready to put them out and as soon as that was done customers began to arrive to collect their chickens. We squeezed dinner in between arrivals and then Samantha arrived to give Mia the dog a haircut. She has such a thick coat and with the temps set to climb over 30 this week it seemed like a good time to get it off for her, she is now scalped and bathed and I have ordered her a new bed as patch keeps pinching her nice plush one.

A little bit of work in the garden once it had cooled right down, in for a hot chocolate before we ago off to bed, the alarm is set for 5am so I can get some work done before it gets too hot tomorrow.

Tuesday: Up at the crack of sparrows 😜 actually the sparrows have been up for at least an hour already lol. Straight out in the garden to get some picking and weeding done. I managed to get another lot of morello cherries, last year the crows stripped the tree bare but this year they have left them alone and I only have a single blackbird helping himself so I don’t mind that. I also picked mangetout, rhubarb and artichoke, I sorted out a few plants to put out for sale, did the hoovering indoors and then we nipped out to do a few bits in town. Now it’s very hot out there and I can feel the uv rays causing itching on my arms already so it’s 12noon and I am done outside as there’s no more shade for me to furtively move about in 🤪

Generally any indoor time I spend looking up recipes or doing a bit of research on various subjects, or cooking etc.

A few more chicken customers this evening, dinner then pop to the shop to buy bread and come out with two bagfuls of shopping 🙄 pop round to Shelley and Martin for a quick cuppa and then home.

Wednesday: Up very early today as it is going to be hot and I want to get a bit done before I have to come indoors. Plenty of hoeing and weeding, some pricking out (spring cabbage ready for winter planting) some picking, more mange tout and cherries. Then indoors to stone the cherries and freeze them the mange tout went out for sale, do what needs to be done to the glacé cherries and make some blackcurrant sauce for ice cream. Tidy up and put a few bits away, put some washing out, Hoover the boot room and clean the dog beds, lunch. I saw a rat while I was putting food out for the torts so John got his air gun out and I sat with him for a while to see where they are coming from and going to, I have left him out there waiting ………..I doubt very much he will get any, he is far too impatient and keeps moving about, not quietly either 🙄

Thought I would take a photo of my arm and show you what just getting caught in the sun for a few minutes at a time does to me. You can see small raised bumps, that continues up my arms and is really itchy especially when I get hot. This occurs even when I am trying to spend as much time out of the sun as possible because even doing that I have to nip out to get the washing in or go to the gate and get a delivery, even in the car to appointments is exposure. The more I am exposed the worse it gets. At the moment I have the butterfly rash on my face as well, luckily that does not itch its just annoying as it looks like I’ve had one too many 😜 The itchy bumps come even if I have myself covered so the uv rays penetrate clothing easily and if I sat out in it my legs, back, neck and chest would all be affected, great isn’t it, that is why I avoid the sun as much as possible, even factor 50 can’t protect me enough. My medication is supposed to bring my immune system down to a ‘normal’ level in line with everyone else but it never seems to work like that with sun exposure. In a nutshell, I don’t do sunshine 🤪

Thursday: It’s bloody hot lol. It’s our 37th Wedding Anniversary today not that we can do a lot of celebrating 🥳 Up early got the outside work done and then it was blood tests for me, I had to wear a face mask this time which is something new and FYI your glasses steam up every few seconds 🙄 Then we got a takeaway coffee from a local cafe that has re opened, they do particularly good coffee and we sat out on the pavement (not actually on the pavement) and watched the town for about 15 minutes. It’s Market day and although it was busier than it has been of late, it’s not anywhere near as busy as it used to be before the pandemic. We popped in to see Mum and Ken where we had more coffee and then back home to spend the rest of the day inside in the cool. John nipped out late afternoon to do a sink for someone but that’s pretty much it, just waiting now for the weather to break a bit, it will probably hammer down and I still won’t be doing much outside, I should give up really, everything seems against me getting any outside work done lately.

Friday: Getting pretty peed off with the weather now, it was supposed to break and rain today but again we have wall to wall sunshine, John has been off this week but it’s been too hot to do much and I wanted to get a quick trip to a local nursery or the garden centre in but that has also not been possible. Most of the areas are obviously outside and by the time they are open it’s too hot for me to be walking about in it, so I’m sulking instead 😏 We got the morning jobs done in the cool of the day and cleaned all the furniture on the decking. We put the decking under a wild cherry tree, big mistake, at this time of year not only are the cherries falling but the birds sit up there eating them and do what birds do when something goes in one end 🙄 The cherries are nearly all gone now and tonight we are having champagne and nibbles with my brother and his wife and my sister and her husband, we were all supposed to be going on the cruise together and so I thought it would be nice to at least get together and lament 🤪

The new egg customers that were so desperate to have eggs during the lockdown appear to have abandoned us 🙄 that’s fine because it means that for our long standing loyal customers there should always be eggs for them but it does make you think about how fickle people are. John and I discussed the idea that if a second lockdown came we would only allow regular customers to have eggs we just need to work out how we would do it.

Saturday: Life has a habit of throwing you a curveball every now and then and that is exactly what happened last night. John started having chronic stomach pains and eventually was taken to A & E where he was kept overnight and today has been admitted to a ward. About 20 years ago he had the same problem over a period of four years and they didn’t know what it was until eventually it was so bad one day that they just opened him up to have a look. What they found was a condition called interception which is where the bowel folds in on itself causing a narrowing of the bowel, they think this was triggered buy the fact that he cannot digest mushrooms and they were lodged firmly in the narrowing. He hasn’t had mushrooms though so at this point I have no idea what has caused it this time 🙄 Obviously it’s not great timing with the whole pandemic, the system is much different to what we are used to, for a start you deliver them to the door of A & E and that’s it, you can’t go in, you can’t visit and so consequently most of the time you have no idea of what is happening 🙄 We managed to get through and find out what was going on at lunchtime today that’s a long time to wait with no news. As you can imagine, today I have done the morning rounds and that is it, I am waiting near the phone in case I get an update, I will do the afternoon rounds later but not much else will get done today. The covid distancing rules went out the window as my sister and brother in law took John to hospital and later Charlie and Macca came here to stay the night with me 🙄

Sunday: John is still in hospital though having spoken to the nurse on several occasions I can report that he is no longer in pain and is declining pain relief so that’s progress. He has had several investigations and at the moment they are waiting to see what happens when he eats, all being well they are thinking of discharging him tomorrow, we wait and see.

Charlie stayed over again last night and helped out with things this morning, there are still jobs to be done, feeding, watering, picking etc. Once everything was completed I sorted out the veg and shelley arrived so I gave her the cherries to process 😀 meanwhile I made something I saw on a Facebook feed and it intrigued me, a recipe that was hundreds of years old, very simple and a delicious healthy snack which is why I wanted to give it a go. Dried dates, soaked in boiling water for half an hour, pistachios ground up to make a powder and a tiny amount of butter, that’s it. Add half the pistachio powder to the soaked dates (discard the water first) add the melted butter and fork them together then roll small amounts in the remaining powder, voila, easy, nutritious and healthy snacks 😀 You thought power packed healthy food was a modern thing didn’t you, turns out our ancestors knew about them all along lol.

Mersu

That’s about it from me this week although I am all fired up after watching a film that I think everyone should watch if they eat, and that’s most of us isnt it. https://grow.foodrevolution.org/ watch this space I will be writing more about this once life has got back to some sort of normality.

Have a great week, stay safe x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Ladybird larvae, picking begins & pyramid orchids.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th June 2020: A few bits of catch up news that I have forgotten to update on: I am easily making 10,000 steps a day on my Fitbit 😀 so at least I know I’m not lazy lol. The chive flower vinegar is at last in the bottle, now just need some chips to try it out on 😂 I’d forgotten that I had taken a photo of the muck pile gates as they were and so I can show you a before and after picture.

Last night I ordered some ladybird larvae lol and now I have to make the brassica cage a des res for them hoping they will stick around. I am hoping to get a bug hotel that I can put up for them to hibernate in come winter. A bit of research tells me it’s better to get the larvae than the ladybirds themselves as the larvae will at least stick around long enough to eat a few thousand aphids before flying off 😂

An early start and a busy morning, picking mange tout, broad beans, asparagus and rhubarb, at last we are starting to get a decent return from the plants. Though I have heard people talking about their raspberries and courgettes, mine have not started producing yet, some small fruits but nothing more. I seem to have been constantly on the go but I can’t remember what else I have been doing, some weeding and planted a couple of small plants, feeding the rabbits/guineas all the weed pickings, a bit of watering, then indoors to do a bit of cleaning, all sparkly and fresh and time for a sit down I reckon.

I have ordered some things that hang in trees to keep the birds away from my fruit this year, I am also hoping it frightens off the crows. We have about 30 of them each morning squawking and cackling all morning long, they come for the crane fly larvae in the paddocks but roost in the trees making a right old racket.

Thinking about the easing of lockdown measures and not much has really changed for me, I’m not bothered by the shops opening, I don’t spend my time shopping for clothes and goods etc, the only joy will be to go out for something to eat preferably at a good garden centre 😜

The strawberries are coming thick and fast, not enough to make jam yet and besides we are eating them just as fast. I was going to make a French strawberry cake for pudding later but then I thought we might as well eat them as they are, almost 😀 they are sprinkled with truvia not sugar and I have taken a liking to having mine with marscapone 🥰 try it, delicious, fresh, home grown, seasonal, doesn’t get much better than that as far as I am concerned 😀

Just had the biggest rumble of thunder, I love a good thunderstorm and a bit of lightening too 😀 An hour or so later and we haven’t had any more thunder but we have had a good dose of rain 🌧 😀 no watering for me tonight except that I had already done the front lot about 2 hours ago 😂 Ah well it won’t hurt for them to have extra and the rate it’s coming down it will definitely fill the water tanks.

Tuesday: A misty morning after the rainfall last night and the weather is going to be humid 😜 with outbreaks of sunshine and possible rain showers, perfect for the garden not so much for us lol. The ladybird larvae arrived, that was pretty quick, I opened them up and there were lots of teeny weeny larvae in there, supposed to be 100 but I don’t know if quality control had to count them 😂 anyway they come on shredded paper and you tip them into a little bag that is provided and place the bag near where you want the larvae to eventually move to. So at the moment they are in the bag underneath a big cabbage leaf in the brassica cage. When I came back I and looked at the box they came in there were one or two still in there so I took them to the greenhouse and let them go in the pepper plants, I have had to keep wiping greenfly off these plants each morning. That’s what I spent the first half hour doing this morning, that and moving the aubergine plants outside. I keep trying aubergine each year but this year I think will be the last time, I have tried everything I can, various growing mediums and conditions and this year I bought grafted plants (they are not cheap) but although they flower, the flower just drops off, I even hand pollinated them with a paintbrush to no avail. They also seem to attract multiple pests, greenfly and whitefly particularly, so they have been put outside to either fail completely or by some miracle produce at least one fruit we will see which. I picked some mangetout, with the rain and sun there will be plenty of pickings every day, I also picked a few broad beans, I haven’t checked anything else yet but as the sun is now out and on the garden it will have to wait until later on or some cloud cover lol. I did check on the cherries this morning and so far so good the birds have not been at them, I am hoping he sun today will turn enough of them for me to pick a bowl full. Everything comes at once which is why you need methods of preserving the produce, I noticed there are a few raspberries to be picked and plenty of strawberries again today.

We have had a bad run with the rabbits we got back at the beginning of the year, all three came from the same place but all three have died, the last one died yesterday, he has not been anywhere near the other two so it’s not infectious and he looked completely healthy just like the others did and yet died so I’m thinking it’s got to be genetic. I know the chap we got them from and the same problem with all of his but he didn’t have this until after we had got them for him so he wasn’t to know.

The compost delivery came so that enabled me to get on with some potting on, I have a fair bit to do, shrubs and flowers I had put into pots and now need bigger pots, trees I have been growing need bigger pots before I decide what to do with them, seedlings that need pricking out and then there is the mushroom compost for soil conditioning.

I got a bug house from a friend who’s husband is making them and then they sell them for the Air Ambulance charity 😀 I am hoping the ladybirds will move in a hibernate over winter and then be around for next years growing season 🙄

A couple of things to report, firstly, I am impressed with the biodegradable membrane/mulch it really does keep the moisture in, I only wish I had got it early enough to plant into rather than having to cut round but will def get this at the beginning of the season next year. Secondly, the orchids are back 😀 and this time there are more 😀😀 I deliberately left some long grass around the edges of the front paddock as I knew that’s where they grow and success they are back. Another thing to report is that if you wear your Fitbit on the mower and the ground is rough it counts the bumps as steps 😂😂😂 Another thing I want to share is the pinching out of side shoots on tomatoes, I do this, I guess most tomato growers do it to. What I usually do is discard the bits but you can plant them up and they will grow, so this time I thought I would have a go and just pushed them into soil with the basil I have growing. I think they are taking 😀 that means that if you buy tomato plants normally, you really only have to buy one plant, wait patiently for the side shoots and pinch them out, there are always plenty of them. I have also done it with the indigo rose tomato as that is the only one I have bought the others have all been raised from seed, watch this space, Im hoping that one takes as well, more bang for your bucks as they say plus it means I could buy a few different varieties and not have hundreds of seedlings just a few plants instead, worth remembering for next year.

Pyramid Orchid

I went outside after tea to collect some Huechera seed, sow some into a pot and save some for sowing next year if the pot ones don’t come up. John decided that we should top the front paddock, taking off the heads of any plantain etc that’s when I noticed the orchids, we then did the small back paddock again leaving a large patch in the middle long, there were plenty of insects flying around so I thought it best to leave them something to feed on. Apparently we are due two inches of rain tomorrow so getting it cut beforehand is a good idea, at least the rain we get will be used by the grass and not the weeds.

I picked strawberries, blackcurrants and a couple of cherries, the rest are not ripe enough yet. The Blackcurrants are not as prolific as they were last year, I had to cut it back quite hard last year as the greenfly decimated the new growth, this year they don’t have greenfly, you never know what is going to happen from year to year. I don’t mind there not being that many as I think there are still some in the freezer I can use if I need to. I froze 500g of the strawberries as there were not enough in one picking to make some jam and they will spoil if I leave them too long. I picked a few raspberries that were ready too, I have sun gold raspberries as well as the regular red ones. I had three of these canes but I think I have lost one over winter so come autumn I will be propagating these as they are very reliable and more importantly taste lovely. I think it will be a real novelty to make jam with them don’t you? But I need enough to be able to do that so I need to increase what I have already.

Wednesday: Ooo I’ve had a lovely morning so far, I have been concentrating on bulbs, that is pots of bulbs that I planted up and now need thinning out. I ordered the bulbs a couple of years ago and just shoved them into big tubs, they grew well but not what I had intended to do with them, I just ran out of time or enthusiasm or something. Now I have the compost and lots of big pots thanks to my brother, I spent the morning sorting them all out. I now have smaller decorative pots with a few bulbs in and lots of little pots with bulbs in ready for selling on next year, I have had to use an old cold frame that has environmesh on it to keep them in as I’m not sure if the squirrels will eat them otherwise. There are ranunculus, tulips and English bluebells and probably some others but I will have to wait until they come up next spring to see exactly what they are. One more tub has yet to flower so I will leave that until they have and then sort them out too. I picked a few mange tout but nothing else this morning, there will be a good picking every day from them for a while, keep picking is the key, the more you pick the more they will produce.

You may read my blog and think, she spends a lot of time in the garden, well yes I do 😀 it’s what I love doing, it’s the lifestyle choice we made that enables me to be able to do exactly that. we made sacrifices along the way and we have had our struggles just like everyone else but eventually we got there. During the lockdown John was beginning to see why I enjoy it so much, it’s a more relaxed pace of life and certainly much less stressful than out in the workplace which I never really fitted into, I love being my own boss, making my own choices and mistakes with only me to account too. I love having my time to do what I want to be able to do (on the whole) if I want to do something I will, if not I won’t, having said that there are things that have to be done of course especially when you have animals, they come first and foremost. I don’t make a lot of money at it, it’s not about the money for me, never has been, it’s about quality of life, we only get one shot at it might as well spend it as close to how you would like it as you can 😀

Sam, Shelley and the children came round in the afternoon for garden time, the kids spent a bit of time running of some energy in the front paddock, it’s great that we have the space for them to run around especially in times like these. 4pm and still no rain yet though just as I am typing the thunder starts lol.

Thursday: Rain and plenty of it, I woke at 4.30am and could hear torrential rain and then when I woke again at 6.30 it’s was still going, 11.45 and it still raining though a steady rate rather than heavy and it’s supposed to move slowly on during the course of the afternoon. It is a very welcome decent load and will do the garden good, the veg will come on a treat now 😀

As working out side is not an option I decided to tackle the office 🙄 Paperwork which should have been sorted, has been dumped on the desk for the last 12 weeks, the room itself has had stuff just dumped in it with the idea of sorting it at some point and today is that point. So I spent the morning going through some of the bits, stuff for the bin, stuff for the charity shop, stuff to sell on and then there is stuff I have no idea what to do with so it goes back to where it came from 😜 I call it the office because it’s where I go to do paperwork and it has a desk but it also has the Hoover in there, some coats, a cupboard full of bits and pieces, photographs, Christmas stuff, children’s toys and books, I should re name it the multi room really 😂

Friday: It was still drizzling first thing but gradually the day improved. I did some picking, the rain has ramped up the growth so I will probably spend many hours picking from here on here. Mangetout, raspberries and strawberries this morning and cherries this afternoon. I cooked the cherries with sugar and cornflour to make a pie filling that I will freeze and use at a later date. We have plenty of fresh fruit for puddings at the minute so need need for pies and crumbles much to Johns disgust lol. Once it had dried up a bit more I did some hoeing, the weeds will also ramp up after the deluge especially if the sun comes out as well. I was showing someone round the garden this afternoon when they said ‘oh is that a lizard I just saw, or a baby snake’ 🤪 I guess breeding has been successful for my grass snake and now there are babies, not sure what I think about that 😂 as long as I don’t find any while weeding by hand I will be fine 🙄

John came home at lunchtime today and has a new plan for the hens at the back, he is moving them to the side paddock next to the others. First he had to go and get a battery for the tractor from the scrapyard and he also refelted the duck house roof (the wind ripped off the last lot) and then cleaned the ducks out as the rain lashed in there making a right old mess. It makes sense to move them to the side as I am out there more often than not during the day and in the evening we can nip out and check at intervals hopefully frightening the fox away.

Saturday & Sunday: I forgot to make any notes yesterday so I will have to try and remember what we did lol. John moved the chicken hut that was up the back, down to the side so that we can put the hens back out and keep an eye on them 👀 He burnt a bit of rubbish which now we have had some rain was safe to do. I can’t remember what I did lol but I was busy 😂

Solstice blessings to you all,. Today has also been a busy day, mostly with Father’s Day visits, I do a couple of hours in the garden this morning hen we went to get a coffee, pop in to see Ken, back here to see Samantha, then off to see Charlie and back here again to see Shelley, a full day of fatherly love 💕 This evening we had someone taking care of our disappearing chicken problem 😉 which I can report was mission accomplished so now at least John doesn’t have to spend all evening guarding them. Now we just have a couple of rats and a few dozen crows to deal with, the crows will hopefully move on soon, they are after the crane flies in the ground, once the hatch into daddy long legs they will move on to another food source and as long as it’s not my fruit trees I don’t mind. The rats, and I saw one this morning in the light Sussex pen, have been given a hearty meal 😜 I don’t like poison on the whole but they are being a bit of a nuisance and I don’t really want hoards of them. My elderly rabbit died sometime over night and by the time I got to her this morning the rats had eaten her eyes out, urgh horrible creatures. I thought the run was rat proof but obviously not so we will need to look that over and see what else we can do, though rats can chew through concrete so I’m not sure there is anything that will some them except poison or shooting them.

John has another week off this week coming, we were due to go on holiday on Tuesday and obviously that’s not happening now so he might as well make himself useful at home 😀 Have a great week and as always, stay safe.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lemon curd, routine jobs and another fox problem 😏

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday June 8th 2020: Its just gone midday and I have sat down for a sandwich and a breather, I have had a bits and pieces morning doing whatever needed doing. So far I have weeded the brassica, sweetcorn and squash beds, picked asparagus, mange tout, broad beans and rhubarb, poo picked biscuits paddock and done their water buckets, gone on the hunt for randomly laid eggs, given the boot room a quick clean over, repotted some Solomans seal, and sowed some little gem lettuce in the big tunnel, not a bad mornings work. Time for a quick rest before starting again this afternoon.

Lemon curd, remember I said I can’t make it, well someone in the family can 😀 Samantha made a pavlova for Johns afternoon tea party and used the yolks to make lemon curd, first time she had ever tried it and success, it taste amazing, I had it on toast for breakfast this morning, I am very impressed 😀😀 and a little jealous lol.

Samantha’s amazing lemon curd 🥰

Just as soon as I sit down, as always, someone wants me lol, and they always arrive in multiples, must be a radar system somewhere that lets people know I have a spare minute 😜

It’s the season of pests 😜 they are upon us in their millions and I have several infestations. The one I am most concerned about is in the brassica cage, the small plants are covered in whitefly, luckily I had ordered some neem oil (I still couldn’t find the other bottle) I made up a solution and sprayed everything. Neem is a great organic pesticide, it interrupts the hormone system of the fly and they ‘forget’ to eat and breed 🙄 Buy a good cold pressed oil, mix it with some mild liquid soap, add water and spray away, it definitely works 😀 N.B don’t use neem if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant as it can interfere with your hormones!

Tuesday: It’s 4.30pm and I thought I would come in and write a bit up, typically it’s been pretty cloudy today which is great 😀 so at about 3.30 I decided to turn on one of the soaker hoses and lo and behold the sun has been out ever since, can’t win 😜 Other than pottering again I have made bread and I made a batch of biscuits, choc chip, lemon curd and plain as Mum and Ken came up for a coffee and a sit in the garden mid morning which was lovely. It’s nice to be able to sit and take the time to enjoy the garden and surroundings rather than continuously working in it lol. 3pm and it’s down to me today to do the egg collecting and feeding, it didn’t take long for Johns work day to go from 9-3 to 7.30-5.30 did it 🤔

The ground is still incredibly dry, the rain we had was great for filling up the tanks and giving the ground a good soaking but a couple of days later and it’s as dry as a bone again already. We had a good conversation about compost, especially the stuff you get from the garden centres, over the last few years it has got worse rather than better I think, you find all kinds of bits in it including plastic 😔 We have a big compost heap and make quite a bit of our own that and the horse the horse muck will cover the veg beds in winter but it still leaves me short for seed growing and potting on so I think I will invest in a tonne of mushroom compost, I have tried the tonne bags of multipurpose but again it’s not that good. I was reading an article the other day and people have reported weedkiller damage to their crops from organic compost, the upshot is that compost can be called organic because it comes from organic material and not from an organic source that hasn’t been treated with weedkiller, seriously, you have to know the ins and outs of advertising to understand exactly what you are getting 🙄 like everything else it’s a minefield.

We spent most of the evening outside, John replaced the pump that sends the rain water over to the garden, the old one kept randomly coming on even when the tap wasn’t turned on and then wouldn’t turn off. Sometimes it wouldn’t come on at all until you weren’t ready for it then it suddenly spat out at you 🤪 meanwhile I did some watering and then went round and cleaned out and filled up all the water buckets for every pen and the horses. We let the geese out thinking they might be hungry as the grass is looking a bit brown in places but they just decided to ‘trev’ around the farm causing chaos, not that hungry then 🙄

Wednesday: We started off the day by me asking ‘what day was it’ and John replying it don’t know’ bodes wells doesn’t it lol. John did the animals while I collected all the burnable rubbish up and burnt that before doing anything else. After that I moved onto sorting out the light Sussex, three hens had gone broody and we had three chicks hatch although there were about twenty eggs. I would have left them except this morning the eggs had been scattered and one of the chicks was dead. In order to sort the situation I have separated one hen and the two chicks, they are now in a hut in the front paddock, the other two were determined to sit back on an empty nest (the remaining eggs I removed as they had gone cold) so I have shut the hit up and they can’t get back in. Hopefully they will begin to lay eggs again as we could do with them. Out of the egg I removed only three had anything in them the rest were all empty, sadly the embryos were all dead as they had been left to get cold. I hope I have put the hen who sat the longest with the chicks, I studied the comb to see which one of them had stopped laying the longest, she definitely hasn’t laid for a while, the other two, who have only jumped on the bad wagon in the last week, still had a tinge of red on their combs, not scientific but it’s all I have to go on. Any of the hens would look after the chicks and the chicks will go to any of the hens for warmth so it doesn’t matter in that respect, they don’t recognise mumma only warmth, food and water.

After that was sorted I did a bit of picking, some mangetout and the asparagus has livened up since the heavy rain so I can just about get a picking or two out of it before the season ends. It was coming through spindly so I had thought I would leave it now for the year but suddenly some nice fat spears came up, not going to waste those 😀 Then it was onto watering the raspberries (in pots) and giving them a feed, I also tied in the stems that are long enough, it’s surprising how heavy the branches get when they are fully loaded with berries, they can drag right down on the ground if not secured upright, which spoils them. Then onto pruning the apricot tree back a bit, the strong wind we had blew nearly all the young fruit off and so I figured I might as well prune. I am not going to get any fruit this year and I needed to raise the canopy a little and take out any branches that were not needed. The tree is diseased, it has canker but as it’s the only fruit tree there it shouldn’t pass it on to any others around the place as long as I am careful. By that I mean clearing the ground of cuttings and debris and not composting them but burning them and making sure I thoroughly clean my pruners with alcohol after using them. The tree can still produce fruit for the time being and it provides some shade and a place for the birds so until it gets too bad to keep it can stay. All the while when working in the garden I am acutely aware that there is a three foot snake somewhere 😜 at one point I give myself a right fright, thinking I had just stepped on it I looked down and realised it was just the soaker hose 😅 I finished that it started to rain, just a spit to begin with then a steady drizzle, at that point which was nearly lunchtime I decided to come in and whizz the hoover round before having a bite to eat.

Thursday: John is off today and tomorrow and so we started off doing the morning rounds and then he went into the paddocks as his job for the next few days is pulling all the docks/stingers etc, (I give him all the best jobs 😂) Meanwhile I did some hoeing and weeding in the veg garden and I sowed some rows of edible flowers, borage, nasturtiums and viola, it will be different using those in salads, they are packed with vitamins and minerals, good for you as well as pretty 😀

In the afternoon we went to a local nursery (needed a plant fix 🤪) I went with a specific area in mind but as usual what happens is I get sidetracked by what I see lol. The area is in the front compound and it is where we used to keep a trailer, it is also where hardcore would be delivered and then wood chip, the hardcore is pretty compacted over years of being there and so it’s difficult to dig into. We covered it with a layer of wood chip back at the beginning of the lockdown and I have planted some bits into it but they have to be small as I can’t get a trowel in deep enough. I want the area to be for bees and pollinating insects so I have planted some shasta daisies, some yellow daisies, toadflax and campanula, I did plant some cosmos but that got eaten by woodlouse I think. I planted some dog roses near the fence at the back and at the end of last year I put a holly in but it’s still fairy small. The plants I got from the nursery were coreopsis, scabious, nepeta and sedum, I have planted these into pots and tubs because they are quite big plants and I will never get them into the ground there, hopefully some of them will self seed. I also scattered poppy/love in a mist seeds but I’m not sure they will come up or if they will get eaten as well. What I got sidetracked by was a lovely little huechera that I hadn’t seen before, ballon flower which I have never grown before and another plant that at the moment I can’t recall the name of. All the plants are good big plants with plenty of roots so most of them I divided into four, that means I paid £6 each for them but once established I end up with £24 worth 😀, that’s a win, win as far as I am concerned. From the sedum I took bits that had already formed roots and potted up those as well, once established I can put them out for sale and cover my costs.

Friday: I have joined the Fitbit society and bought one for myself, I want to see just how many steps I do in a normal day plus it monitors my heart rate which is a bit jumpy at times, I think this is due to the meds but I can keep track and mention it to the consultant if needs be, I can track my sleep to see exactly what sort of a night I am getting as at the moment I feel like I am waking up all the time, plus it will spur me on to drink more water and up my steps if I need to, don’t want to get lazy 😂 It’s nearly 2pm and I have done nearly 8,000 steps apparently 🙄

The rest of the morning was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, John is off again and on paddock weed duty, I have done some watering and a little bit of picking as well as doing some of the feed rounds this morning and walking into the village to post a letter first thing. Shelley and the children came for a cuppa in the garden.

When they left we had some lunch and then I planted a couple of courgettes that I picked up yesterday (I only had yellow ones to grow from seed and so bought a coup,e of green ones as well) Then walking past a little raised bed approx 2 x 3ft which had self set potatoes in it, I realised that they were not doing very well, they got frosted early on and never really seemed to recover, now they have blight so the best thing to do is pull them up and use the bed for something else. It was not a bad haul of potatoes considering, there is enough to feed us for a few days at any rate and the bed can now be used for something else, I will need to have a think about what to put in there.

Self set potatoes, not bad for no effort at all 😀

Saturday: Eat, sleep, work repeat lol, seems like a lot of what we do is the same over and over 😜 Today was no exception, more weed pulling duty for John, more weeding and picking for me, a quick trip to a local landscapers to order a big bag of compost and another of mushroom compost. I need to use so much of it to repot everything it was costing a fortune buying the smaller bags, I should have done it in the beginning but with everything shut down it was impossible.

The ‘June drop’ is happening, that’s where some of the fruit on the trees drops off, don’t be alarmed it’s perfectly normal and good for the tree (as long as you don’t just have one apple or plum on there 😜) the next job will be to remove some more of the fruits if they are clustered together, this will help the remaining fruit get bigger and better, there will be less chance of disease with a good air flow between fruits.

John went out to put the birds to bed and I went to shut the poly tunnel and greenhouse door, I could hear a fox in the field next to us. John said it took two hens, he couldn’t get to them in time and it was as big as our dogs 🙄 Bloody pain in the arse, having free range hens is great but it always comes at a price. On the up side we also saw a barn owl swooping over our paddocks presumably hunting, shame they don’t hunt foxes 😜 And the bats were flying well tonight, I have no idea where they live, we have never found any sign of them here but I watched a programme and they will travel miles each nigh apparently so I assume they live in a stone barn somewhere around here.

Sunday: Pretty much a similar day to yesterday work wise, I was up early and gardening in my PJs 🤪 in the early morning sun. I did a bit of weeding, and put some of this new membrane round the melons and cucumbers in the tunnel to see how it does. I have had to cut it round the plants which is not ideal but better than nothing, I want to see how it performs and what the advantages are, if any. I emptied out the bags I have been growing potatoes in, there are quite a few and we will have some for tea tonight. We went round to have coffee in the garden with Mum and Ken mid morning and naturally I bought some bits back with me, a couple of miniature roses and a huechera that she had dug up and didn’t want, happy me, any plant fix is a good fix 😜

I spent the afternoon going in and out depending on cloud cover lol, that was mostly to hand hoe various beds. After tea I spent a bit of time wiping greenfly off the brassica plants, luckily the leaves are small and not too many at the minute but trying to keep the numbers down seems relentless. The netting keeps out the butterflies bit it also keeps out the ladybirds so I might have to buy some in to release in there as a control. I am just waiting for the heat to go out of the sun before I pick strawberries and water some of the beds. John has been getting a stable ready for the hens, we will have to move them back in until the fox problem is sorted again, it has picked a couple off in the daytime so it’s a problem. We had a good long run with no foxes and now all of a sudden we seem inundated with them. We have a wasp nest right by the kitchen window in the lap board so that will be another lovely job for tonight 🙄 best to leave it as late as possible, last time John had to go up a ladder to do it and they stung him, he said I can do this one 😏

Have a good week and stay safe x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Runner beans 😀 a snake and finally some rain 🌧

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday June 1st 2020: There is still a worldwide pandemic going on but life is trying to get back to normal albeit baby steps. John has returned to the bathroom he started 10 weeks ago to finish it off this week, it is still a little difficult getting building supplies but it can be done it just needs planning ahead. He is doing the morning rounds before he goes so that I can get straight on in the veg garden, this is because if I did the animals, by the time I have finished the Sun has moved right round and I am running out of time to get anything sorted 🙄 He will be home in time to do the afternoon rounds, again because it is so hot I would suffer badly having to go out in it every day. It does occur to me that we need to radically change how things are set up but we never seem to work out how is best to do it, you can’t really get instant shade unless you pay a fortune for it, we would need a forest really lol.

I spent the early morning watering the plants that needed doing, poly tunnels, newly sown seeds and pots, then I had time to go round and sort out all the odds and sods I have in pots around he place. Some of them are pot bound, mostly bits I potted up last year and then left to get on with it, I had lovage in a pot and I have now divided into four pieces and potted those up, I had straggly bits of plants here and there, all are for putting out for sale eventually but they need a bit of tlc first. A couple of dog roses I had in pots have now been planted next to a boundary fence that had gaps and I dug up bits that had self set in various places, free plants 😀

Next job was indoors to do a bit of hoovering and polishing, it’s easier when there is only me around plus it stays clean and tidy for a while which is nice. I have so many things to sort out indoors, the spare room now seems to have become a dumping ground as well as the office 😏 I need to have a good clear out I think as there are things I am never going to use just waiting there, just in case 😂

Guess what I just found! My jar of runner beans seeds, I bloody knew I had a jar somewhere 😂 I keep the seeds in the spare room over winter as it’s dry and cool, when I took the rest out I must have left them behind, then I had lots of spare cushions from the old sofa which I had put down the side of the bed and there under them was a jar of runner bean seeds 😜 The first lot I ordered still never turned up and now (unless I have catastrophic failure) I don’t need them 🙄

Sorry for the blur, I was so chuffed to have found them that I didn’t look at the pic I had taken 😂

Foxes are the bane of a chicken keepers life but I had a phone call this morning and heard an awful story of bees killing chickens. A hive was being relocated but apparently they didn’t get all the bees when they moved it, the ones left behind, realising their hive had gone, got angry, swarmed and attacked the hens next door killing three of them, poor hens 🙄

Tuesday: It’s 10am and I have sat down for a coffee, I drink a few cups of coffee in the mornings but usually on the go lol. I woke at 4am did consider getting up, I opened the curtains and the windows then thought it’s perhaps a tad too early and so laid back down and must have fallen asleep waking again at 5, this time I was up and about. First job after breakfasting was to go out and turn on one of the soaker hoses, I decided after poking my finger into various beds that the peas and bean bed would benefit most. While that was watering I picked veg for tonight’s dinner, carrots, the first of the new potatoes, mange-tout and asparagus we are having that with some lamb steaks. I also picked a few stalks of rhubarb and some strawberries, rhubarb and strawberry crumble for dessert 😀 I have chopped the mange-tout up smaller so John doesn’t notice, I also chopped the asparagus and carrots so we are having a ‘medley’ of veg. The rhubarb and strawberry crumble has been tweaked as well with a tiny pinch of vanilla power and some oats in the crumble mixture, I shall await the complaint from John but have decided that if I’m cooking, I’m doing it how I would like it sometimes 😜 I know he will still eat it anyway, he just likes to utter his objections 😂 I had a couple of over ripe bananas (that’s a novelty after weeks of not being able to get any) and so I also made a banana bread loaf with a twist. I substituted an ounce of butter with an ounce of peanut butter and added a few chocolate chips, again John doesn’t like peanut butter but his compulsion to eat cake will be greater 😂 The struggle with fussy eaters is real people, but I’m slowly managing to get him to comply. I am going to marinate my lamb in mint, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, I will do Johns plain, he would have a hissy fit at that and definitely wouldn’t eat it no matter how hungry he was lol.

After the picking and before the prepping and cooking I cleaned out the two rabbit/guinea cages and the quail hut, sorted the horses water and hay and put out some plants for sale at the front. John has gone to work again today but as always did the animals beforehand, after so many weeks off he is more than a little reluctant to go back, and if you know John in the workplace you will also know he is a worker, always loved going to work. He has enjoyed being home much more than he ever thought he would and hasn’t missed work one bit, well maybe a little bit as he does like to chatter, drink tea and get fed cake, with customers 😋

My blood tests all came back normal, yay, that’s the first time in about three months, I am slowly coming down off the steroids and increasing the new medication, next week it will be at full strength. So far it has been ok, I keep getting the sweats but the same thing happened with the methotrexate and eventually it subsided so I’m hoping the same happens with these tablets. At my time of life you would be forgiven for thinking it was menopausal but, and this is a stroke of luck, I was late to the meno, and have had hardly any of the problems that other women suffer with, I’m grateful, I mean there is only so much shit one person can handle and I think I have my fair share already 🙄

After coffee it was time to feed the torts, in weather like this they eat a lot lol, they can easily eat 4 big tomatoes a pepper, half a cucumber and two large handfuls of weeds a day if not more. Normally it would be hotter later in the year and I would have plenty growing to feed them with but this early in the season I have to buy toms, peppers and cues for them. They only really get those as seconds as the first thing they are offered are weeds and leafy greens but not lettuce (well a tiny bit) Their favourites in order of preference go like this, Tomato, peppers, cucumber, dandelion, thistle, garden weeds, aloe vera, ice plant, cabbage. They adore banana and strawberries although both are given in very limited quantities only occasionally as a treat, not so different from humans wanting the goodies all the time 😂 They have pretty much exhausted their forage now coupled with the lack of rain it’s a bit sparse although there is plenty of clover they don’t seem to be that interested in it.

Big Billy
Voldertort

They haven’t had their annual bath yet as the grandchildren normally do it so I’m waiting for the day they can start working again 😜

In the evening we went to Shelleys to have a cuppa in the garden with them but before we left I wanted to get the runner beans watered so I connected up the soaker hose ready to leave running while we were out. I moved a piece of black weed membrane that had blown across where it shouldn’t be and got a right surprise as something slithered across in front of me and dived back under it where I had moved it to. I carefully lifted it up and found a rather large grass snake looking at me 😀 I am quite delighted to see it as it means my little eco system is alive and well although they do eat frogs 😏 and eggs apparently 🙄 I also just read that the females are larger than the males and as this was around 3ft long I’m guessing it was female, and may have eggs in the compost heap 🤪

Did you know?

When threatened by one of its many predators, the grass snake often ‘plays dead’, perhaps making itself less appealing to eat. Predators include badgers, red foxes, domestic cats, hedgehogs and a number of birds; when caught, grass snakes hiss and release a foul-smelling substance from their anal gland. Although they may also strike with the head, they do not bite and are harmless to humans. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/reptiles/grass-snake

Wednesday: Oooo I have had the best of mornings 😀 firstly, it’s about 8/10 degrees cooler today and overcast 😀 secondly, we have had some rain, just a wetting so far nothing much but coupled with the cooler day it will do a little bit of good and I didn’t have to water early this morning. That left me to get on with other things, the bed that I can’t normally get to in sunny weather, I have moved the rhubarb that was there, it was really struggling so I dug it up and out it where we keep the muck ready to go on the garden. Instead I have planted another pumpkin nearby, I had to soak the ground beforehand as it’s rock solid, I put in plenty of well rotted manure, pumpkins are hungry plants, and hopefully it will grow nicely and give plenty of ground cover until I can decide what to do there come autumn. I planted some plum tomatoes in the big tunnel, still a few more to plant but they are still a bit small just yet. I have pottered and hoed and pottered some more 😀

Early this morning I spotted something unusual and thought it was a bee, I took photos and asked online and discovered it was an emerging cinnabar moth, I know what these look like but have never seen one that was just about to unfold itself before. It was a real treat to keep popping back and watching the process 😀

Emerging cinnabar moth
This is when I can see the hard work starting to pay off 😀 #selfsufficiency

Well it’s been kind of raining on and off all day so far, not enough to even start filling the water tanks but enough of a wetting to perk up the veg garden, not enough though to give them a proper soaking so far, I’m hoping that somewhere they are getting a good downpour as it will at least increase the available ground water levels 🙄

Although we are in full swing with the growing season it’s now the time to think about Winter veg sowings, this year I am going to try pak Choi as a winter crop, I thought about peas and broad beans but actually they only arrive a few weeks earlier than a spring sowing so I am undecided on that at the moment. I feel the garlic does much better over winter than spring sowings so will definitely do that again, I haven’t done onions this year and may not bother, leeks are just as useful and I have the perennial onions which I need to increase. I am also going to try forcing some rhubarb next spring for early, sweeter stalks, not all the plants but maybe two of them, never done it before it will be new and exciting to me 😀 Now is also the time to start preparing any beds, where the crops will soon be lifted, for next year, plenty of rotted manure on them and plenty of cover, though I have not decided what to use for that yet as the weed membrane gets ripped to bits but the wind. I did consider sewing the edges so it doesn’t happen 🙄

Thursday: Altogether a much cooler day ahead and I for one am grateful. We didn’t get anywhere near enough rain for anything but to perk up what is already growing, we still have some on the horizon for tomorrow but I think this years growing is going to be more difficult as we haven’t even got to the summer months fully yet 🙄 With the knowledge that we are only in June and it’s already a challenge I set about looking for an eco friendly weed suppressant, I found bio degradable mulch film, this will suppress weeds but also trap moisture in the ground for the plants to make use of, it can then be dug in at the end of the season. I have to weigh up the fors and against in costs, watering and the time spent watering and weeding versus the cost of the material. I will see how it goes and how cost effective it is.

As I said yesterday I am already planning for autumn/winter growing and this morning I have sown purple sprouting broccoli, one of the best hungry gap fillers you can get. I have also sown radishio (chicory) which will give a crop well into late autumn under cover and I have sown more dwarf beans and peas to extend the season, if the weather is favourable I should get a second crop. There is still plenty you can sow at the moment although space is obviously an issue as existing crops are still taking up space. One of the experiments I am pleased with is a tub of brassica leaves. I had a lot of seeds for cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower and I don’t have space in the garden for rows and rows of individual plants so I sprinkled them in compost in an old recycling box and will pick the leaves as needed, you don’t need to wait for them to get to their usual form they are edible as they are, tasty young leaves.

In the afternoon I had a look over the three rows of swede, turnip and beetroot I sowed a few weeks back, the beetroot are doing ok, the swede have a long way to go yet and hopefully with some rain they will swell eventually but the turnips are like bullets 🙄 so I will cut my losses pull them up, give the tops to the rabbits and re sow with something else I think.

When I took some of the the tops to the rabbits I could hear cheeping from the light Sussex pen, we have chicks, well at least one anyway, I went and got some chick crumb and a small drinker to put in and hopefully in a few days time they will all be running around in there. I took a photo and you can just about see a tiny beak if you zoom in close enough.

I made some garlic bread before going out to do the turnips, I hadn’t intended on doing them but just started weeding and pottering away, completely forgetting that the bread was in the oven 😜 luckily I remembered in time and I didn’t burn it 😅

The garlic that had been drying needed dealing with, it won’t store and if I leave it too long it will start trying to grow again and when you get a green shoot in garlic it makes it bitter. I peeled about 6 heads and have stored them in oil, I get two things, ready available garlic cloves and of course garlic infused olive oil to use 😀

Friday: Again, once John has done the morning rounds, it’s me on me tod here, I was enjoying lockdown with him home and hopefully he won’t book too much work in 😜 The weather, yes it’s always about the weather, is colder and pretty windy to boot 🙄 honestly couldn’t we just have a little something in-between blazing hot days and cold windy days not even any wet days to compensate. It is a least cold enough to let the plants make use of any watering I do, in the heat it was as much as they could manage to just keep going I think so with this cooler spell they should put on good growth, that’s if the wind doesn’t knock them back too much. I spent a pleasant hour or so sorting out my plant labels, the little white stick type, I have tried wooden ones but the writing runs or they rot very quickly so the next best thing is to keep re using what I have already. As the year goes on I tend to toss them into a tub and have to spend ages searching through for what I need, now they are all bagged up in their various cultivars so I should be able to access what I want quickly. I watered the big tunnel and went round securing anything that had the potential to fly in this wind, I don’t want plants to start getting broken by flying buckets etc. The three rows of carrot and one of beetroot I sowed last week have started to emerge, I am happy about that as carrot seems to be hit and miss over the last couple of years I don’t know why. With that in mind I looked up the Moon phase to see what is best sown now, we have a full moon tonight and the next phase is suited to sowing root crops and doing cuttings and division as the sap is pulled down, it’s all about the ebb and the flow just like the oceans. I will try and get some more root crops sown and I have just taken cuttings of one of my dahlias to see how that goes.

It’s early Saturday afternoon and we at last have rain 🌧 a decent enough amount so far to penetrate the soil 😀 happy me, happy vegetable garden.

This mornings work consisted of cutting back a few bits that had gone to seed such as the winter spinach and sorrel in fact I pulled up the spinach stumps and have sown some salad turnips and spring onions in there instead and late yesterday I sowed some bulb fennel in the bed next to it that had garlic in it. I also did a bit of picking, there was quite a bit really considering it’s early in the year and we have not had much rain. I pulled all the early carrots that were in the polytunnel, we have been eating them when needed but I decided to get them all up, some are now chopped and in the freezer, some in a pan along with peas and asparagus for dinner later. I picked mange-tout and pod peas, some baby beetroot, Swiss chard, and some self set potatoes, not a bad little haul for the day.

I have done a little bit of dividing up of a couple of plants, one lot were the primroses from the beginning of the year, I now have three new pots of them as well as the original three and a plant I picked up at the garden centre for half price has now been divided into four, a Tiarella, hardy perennial, spring flowering. I will put them aside to get going and I will have plenty of new plants to either sell on or fill my flower beds with 😀 As I’m typing, it is still raining 😀 I’m hoping it will at least half fill the water tanks, that would be a bonus, oh it’s raining harder also most hammering down 😀 I know I should be careful what I wish for but 🤪

Whoo hoo lovely jubbly, early evening and we have had some pretty heavy downpours, this will not only fill the water tanks , water the garden but also swell the ground water which is the most useful of all for the bigger trees 😀

It’s Johns birthday tomorrow and I have made a batch of blueberry muffins, we are hoping to have a socially distanced afternoon tea with the children and grandchildren, I have scones and sandwiches to make tomorrow, Charlie is making birthday cake, Shelley is bringing crisps and dips and Samantha is making pavlova so I think with some beers or Prosecco we have things covered 😀 just hope its dry 🤣🤣

Tonight’s job was to move the hens from the pen back to the paddock at the back and hope that the fox has found other quarry. The sunset tonight was magnificent, you will have to take my word for it as I didn’t have my phone so couldn’t get a pic but the sun was fiery orange and the billowy clouds were all different hues of stormy grey, the sun rays were streaming through the clouds, lol I wish I had got a picture now.

The hen with the pecked bum has now fully recovered and she has a fluffy bottom again and so she has gone back out with the batch we moved. Q

Sunday: Johns birthday 🍰 even when it’s your birthday there are still jobs to be done, I had set Alexa to play Happy Birthday at 6.25 and then forgot all about it until she starting up this morning, in a sleep daze I thought ‘ what the heck is going on’ 😂 We got up had breakfast and then out to do the feeding, watering, letting out and collect the duck eggs. I then went into the garden to get a few things done, the good thing about the rain is that it means I don’t have to water and so can do other things for a change instead. My brother had given me lots of big pots he no longer wanted and I spent some time potting bigger plants on. I have a Nandina (heavenly bamboo) that has been struggling for a couple of years, when I got it out of the pot the drainage holes were blocked and so I made some more, took away some of the old compost from around the roots and repotted it with some fresh compost, hopefully it will begin to pick right up now. I have two box balls that I grew from tiny plants that also needed repotting and freshening up as they have been struggling, those are now done and had a trim. A tamarisk tree in a pot that other things have self seeded alongside (foxgloves and verbena) has also had a clear out and some new compost, the foxgloves and verbena have been potted up to go out for sale once they establish. A strawberry tree that was in a broken pot (didn’t hold water very well🙄) is now in a new pot and should perk up quickly.

My sister and brother in law called in mid morning and we had coffee in the garden which was lovely, the weather has improved massively today and so it was very pleasant. When they went I made a batch of scones ready for afternoon tea later, as long as the rain holds off I think we will have a socially distanced afternoon tea picnic in the front paddock 😀

That’s where I will leave for this week, I can then enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening helping the birthday boy to celebrate. Have a great week and as always stay safe x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Garlic harvest, wildlife mornings & a tad of the wet stuff.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th May 2020: A new week 😀 still in a global pandemic and life has taken a slower pace for a majority of us. I wonder how many will continue to take it much slower once the threat is over. John has decided that when he goes back to work he is going to go later and come home earlier, I have heard that before mind you 😂 and of course he has the luxury of choice, we don’t have a mortgage, the bills are fairly low and he is self employed so can please himself to an extent.

He is going to do a job today, a leak under a floor which is regarded as an essential repair, he is going to do the hens and ducks before he goes though and will be home to do the afternoon rounds. This is because the temps look set to be pretty high and I will struggle out in the sun. The paddocks are ridiculously exposed areas and had we known 11 years ago that I would end up with this disease we would have started way back then planting many many trees so it was easier for me to move around in the shade lol.

We set the alarm this morning as we have things to get on with and seem to be sleeping in longer and longer! John did the feeding and letting out, I did the ponies and then we went to try and establish if the goose eggs were worth letting her sit on them for very much longer. You take your life in your hands really as the rest of them are not happy you are apparently ‘attacking’ the other one 😂 I did manage to pick up two eggs and they feel heavy enough to contain something so we put some food and water in for her as she is losing condition bu not coming off the nest.

Next I had to rig up electric fencing across the slip rail we repaired yesterday because although Jack has free run of some pretty big paddocks he has decided he wants the grass on the other side of the fence 🙄

John then left for work and I got on with some gardening jobs. First I pulled all the rest of the garlic that I grew over winter, it’s ready now and I want the space for more tomato plants, it’s now drying in the sun. I planted some leeks, they are a bit late going in but will catch up, you need firm ground that you can make good deep holes with the dibber for leeks. You just drop the tiny plants into the holes and eventually they will swell to fit the holes, leeks are a great staple for winter and they are kinder on the stomach than onions so if you have IBS try leeks instead. Then onto some more weeding and I took the hens a bucketful, the tree spinach I grew last year has self seeded everywhere but it’s good for the hens, rabbits and torts so it will come in handy. After that I found a tree stake and put that in next to a dwarf apple I planted in the veg garden, it a bit blowy today so I thought it could do with staking before it snaps off. A great day for drying the washing so two loads are now out on the line as well, at that point I figured a short sit down had been earned 😀

Leeks, I planted about 15 in all and I have plenty more seedlings, I might just spread the rest around in spare areas or inbetween rows of other crops already growing, you can never have too many leeks 😀

After my sit down my aim is to clean the bathroom, Hoover and polish the sitting room and give the kitchen a clean plus decided what to have to dinner tonight.

I got the jobs done that I wanted plus I made bread and a sultana and orange tray bake (Mary Berry) one of the simplest and foolproof recipes I have ever used and tasty, great if you have a sad looking orange sitting in the fruit bowl lol. We are having fish cakes for dinner, John will have chips and peas but I am having some of the salad leaves from the garden, the wild rocket is particularly tasty and I have a good bed of mixed salad leaves waiting to be used up.

I went with John this evening to fix a leaking outside tap, on our way back home just up the lane we saw a beautiful barn owl flying low over the field, life is good 😀

Tuesday: John has to go and finish the job he started yesterday but did the animals first, I helped a bit before getting on with watering the poly tunnels before it gets too hot. Then I spent the rest of the morning (until 11am) potting things on, I have a lot of shrubs/trees and plants that I have been growing since last year and they won’t get much bigger unless I give them some tlc. Bigger pots, fresh compost, plenty of water and some feed should see them come on in leaps and bounds now. I planted a few things out into the flower beds and then it was time for coffee and recharging my batteries 😜

I am trying to work out what is the best thing to do with our front area immediately out side the house, it’s basically been a gravelled area for about 10 years. I have filled the area in front of the house with pots, this is because at some point we need to reclad the front and so I didn’t want to dig a border or bed as it will get trampled down, so pots are a great option however they do have to be watered every day. The other problem is weeds growing in the gravel, some I don’t mind, some are a pain and unsightly but I also am not inclined to use too much weedkiller because of the wildlife, so you can see I have a dilemma lol, which I honestly don’t know how to overcome at the minute. The area opposite the building has got weedy and untidy but I have started putting a few plants and shrubs in that bit to brighten it up and I have the catalpa tree coming which will also get planted there. Another problem with the area is that it gets the sun from early morning until late afternoon, south facing, not too bad for sun loving plants but for me it’s difficult to spend much time on it each day, so I can’t make an impact within a few hours, more like ten minutes here and there which is not much use. The other day the sun went behind clouds so I went and got the hoe and by the time I got out there the sun was back out lol, I did his about four times before giving up completely. I need an overcast day but all we are getting is sunshine at the moment.

The afternoon I spent indoors and had a cheeky nap as I felt a bit tired. John came home in time to do the egg collecting and feeding, we had dinner then went in search of ice creams 😀

When we got back it had cooled down enough for me to go outside and get the Indian Bean Tree planted, John did come out and dig the hole for me as it turns out there was some kind of footings right where I had chosen to put it, so an iron bar was needed to break it up. I carried on outside, hoeing, sweeping, tidying and watering until almost 10pm. It was a lovely cool evening so I made the most of it 😀

Wednesday: I was up with the larks this morning lol, 5am i woke up and thought, I need a wee, I’m hungry and I could do with a cuppa so I got up made a brew and went outside where the air was lovely and cool, there was a low mist and the pink sunrise sky made it almost magical. I had a shower went out and did watering, weeding, planting, sorted out the horses with fresh water, poo picking and putting Biscuit back in her lockdown paddock after letting her out overnight to have some time with Jack and some fresh grass. I came back in to get some breakfast and John still wasn’t up lol. Eventually he hauled his sorry arse out of bed and did the feeding rounds and then we went off to a local landscaping yard to get some new pots and I came back with a tree 😜 We also called in at the local Smokery where I bought some fresh fruit, freshly made sausages and some strawberries and cream 😋 The afternoon was spent inside in the cool as it’s far to hot for me and we decided that we would wait until it cools right down and spend the evening outside working again.

Another evening stint, cutting the grass, repotting and re positioning plants, watering, so much nicer when it’s cooler lol. John spent the evening digging up nettle and plantain clumps in the front paddock and helping me move heavy pots etc. I ran out of time to get a photo of the most beautiful aquilegia, in the evening light it had a wonderful glow, if I remember I will try and get a pic tomorrow, it probably has an optimum glory time which I just missed 😜

No filter needed for this beauty 😀

Thursday: John is off to do another job today, easing himself back in slowly, he will have to be careful about hand washing etc and the customers have to stay out of the way and hopefully all should be ok, he was enjoying not working but you can’t stay like that forever unless you have a big bank account 😜 So far though he has kept his promise about doing the morning rounds before he goes, this is so I can get on with watering in the garden before it gets too hot. I have to water in two stints, one in the morning and one in the evening, two different half’s of the garden and mostly because we have had no rain for weeks. The water tanks are almost empty, that’s nearly 20,000 litres used in various places, they need a refill. I was up early again, 5.30 this time, dressed and out with a cuppa in my hand, love the cool mornings. I had plenty of wildlife experiences this morning, firstly a deer in the far paddock grazing away oblivious to the fact I was watching. Then as I was watering in the garden a heron flew straight over the top of me, they make quite a bit of noise when flying unlike other birds, after that I found baby bees hatching in the hay, literally hatching right there and then, cute little bumbles. The last is worthy of a paragraph of its own 😂 in all the years I have kept ducks (around 20) I have never seen an elusive duck penis, yep you read that correctly lol, but this morning was the morning. Now this one was still attached to the drake, there are fabled stories of drakes discarding them now and again, if you have not read one of my previous blogs on the matter, they can be up to half a metre long and fit the chosen mate so if the mate dies they grow a new one. Anyway there it was when I came round the corner this morning, fascinating, as I said, still attached and slowly retracting but definitely a first for me 😜

This mornings main job was to tidy up bits of the garden that just get left and to clean out the pirate ship for whenever the kiddies can use it again. I found a nest in there while I was sweeping and it has eggs in, I’m guessing Robin, it’s quite high so I left it undisturbed. Sweeping down the decking area and giving the table a wash, tidying up the seating area under the oak tree and making it look like someone cares 😌 Put up the hammock, just in case I get a fancy for laying in it today, potting up some self set plants that are coming up round the garden, huecheras and daisy type flowers. Feed the torts some thistles, spinach and sorrel, plant a tomato plant that arrived (black tomatoes, they sold well last year and are very tasty) Back indoors to get some bread on and decide what’s for dinner later, then a well earned break after all that is a five hour stint I have done already lol.

An evening spent watering, the ground is sooo dry it’s ridiculous and I know rain is forecast but in my years of experience never rely on it to come unless of course you don’t want it because you are having an outdoor event 🤣 then it pours down!

Have a look at this photo, just a dog laying on the ground right? Zoom in and look again, the blob to the right of the dog is a fledgling blue tit. The baby bird was flapping out squawking and Mia just sat watching it bless her, I’m surprised she didn’t try to catch it as she is always trying to catch bees 😂

John was concerned about the fledgling, it can’t fly, shall we pick it up? No, is the answer, it can fly or at least it’s learning to fly, the parents will be very close by encouraging it to take flight by cheeping at it. Sure enough within a couple of minutes it was making progress and eventually went up the tree albeit by climbing the trunk 😜

This bit of the garden always make me smile as I go past, the flowers are a mix of old fashioned type plants, common varieties and wildflowers (some might call weeds) BUT it is always teeming with bees and insects which was the intention so I’m more than happy with that 😀

Friday: An altogether different morning this morning, blowy and although it has tried hard to rain all we got was a ‘spit‘ and unless we get anything else we are going to be in a bit of trouble for watering 😏 John is working again today, once it starts it won’t stop, but he did the animals beforehand, just as well as I feel under par today and I actually went and had a lay back down and 15 minutes sleep at about 8.30, I think the early mornings and working evenings finally caught up with me. I spent a couple of hours tidying up the greenhouse, going through old seed packets etc, making sure everything that needed potting on is done and has sufficient watering needs. I sorted out plants that will be going to Mum, they are at this moment making their way back across France and should be in the UK by tomorrow, they will then probably have to self isolate but they will be very glad to get home. I have been growing a few veg plants for her so that she has a chance at getting a crop this year, we had no idea how long they would have to stay in Spain for but luckily she will be in time to get some stuff in the ground 😀

Saturday: Still very blowy, unseasonably windy they said and it’s a pain as it has already broken off my splendid artichoke plants 😏 Still it has bought a bit of rain with it, not enough to fill the tanks but enough to chivvy along all the veg growing outside, they respond quickly and strongly to rain unlike tap water or even water from the rain butt for that matter. It’s the chemical reaction that is sparked that charges the ground and the air and motivates the growth. As the temps are set to rise again next week I will take whatever we can get at the minute.

This morning John had to go and sort out a hot water issue and I got on with doing some bits in the garden, quite a few bits actually. Firstly, last night I had a plan lol, I have grown some marrow seedlings because I had them but they take up a lot of room so I have put a tub, half filled with manure and half filled with compost, in the front area where it gets really weedy gravel. I planted three plants in there and hopefully they will grow well and produce some marrows, if not they will at least produce lots of foliage which will spread and help cover the weeds. I also have a trellis out there which is doing nothing so I am going to grow a couple of cucumbers up it, plenty of sun out there so they should produce something and again the foliage will be better than bare trellis. I potted up some Hyacinth Bean which is a climbing flower also to grow up the trellis, potted on all kinds of things, sorted out what is going to Mums for her to continue growing and put some bits out for sale. I barrowed two lots of muck, one for the melons, tomatoes and cucumbers in the poly tunnel and one for the pumpkins and dwarf beans, they will need as much mulch as they can get without any serious rain coming any time soon.

I discovered a few greenfly on a couple of peppers and aubergine in the greenhouse, I then started the hunt for a bottle of neem oil I have somewhere in the boot room but do you think I could find it, nope, everything else but that, in the end I used thyme oil diluted and hopefully that might work just as well 🙄 On a wider note about greenfly and blackfly in the garden, I seem to be doing ok this year so far🤞 last year was a bad year and lots of things suffered but I’m hoping I have a good balance this year which is helping. I stop feeding the garden birds around the beginning of May, the weather is better and there should be plenty to keep the birds and youngsters going, I help them and then they help me and I have seen plenty of little beaks filled with grubs and bugs so it’s working well. I do have some powdery mildew on the brambly apple tree in the front though 🙄 this is due to the prolonged dry weather and as it is a large tree Im not sure that anything I can do will be sufficient, it’s only on a few leaves at the minute and I am tempted to leave it to nature and see what happens, theoretically the balance of nature should sort it but we will see.

One seasonal fruit I like to tell people about are oranges, there is a season for them even though you can get them all year round 🙄 Orange season is just coming to an end and if you buy oranges get them from around the end of Feb to May, you will find they are at their tastiest then, you can thank me later 😀 After orange season comes lemon season so we are just coming into that now, I think, fingers crossed, I am going to get my very first ripe lemon this year 😀😀😀 very exited about that. I had a chat with an egg customer the other day about lemon curd (which I love) I can’t make it, by that I mean I can never get it to turn no matter how much I try, do it in the slow cooker she said, whaaaaaat, I didn’t know this was a thing and so I am definitely going to give this a go, I will have to buy lemons this year but once the tree is producing lots I shall use my own. The other thing I have growing for the first time this year, and I don’t want to jinx it, are kiwi, the vine is about four years old and usually gets frosted so no fruit, but this year I can see a few small fruitlets forming, another exciting first. It’s not all good mind you as the grape vine that produced masses last year looks to have died over winter, you win some you lose some, that life 😜

We nipped to the local garden centre this afternoon, I wanted a couple of packets of seeds for another project, a climbing rose and I bought some plants for hanging baskets 🤷‍♀️ wtf, I don’t even do hanging baskets 🤣 impulse buys 😂 It was nice to get out even if it wasn’t the usual gentle stroll around, but the system they have was flawless and they have worked hard to make sure it’s all socially distanced. We treated ourselves to an ice cream and milkshake from the pop up coffee shop afterwards, lol funny how we feel the need to treat ourselves, goes hand in hand with the impulse buys I think!

I am pleased to report that the thyme oil appears to have killed off the greenfly on the peppers, now all I have to do is make sure it doesn’t affect the growth of the plant leaves or the peppers 😀

Sunday: A busy morning again this morning, I did some watering first thing, pots and poly tunnels, then I spent a while sorting out plants that need to go to the cold frames and holding area ready for growing on either for autumn or next spring. It can be a slow process sometimes waiting for plants to establish and get going especially when like me you hate paying silly money for plants so get the small ones lol. It’s the time of year for semi ripe cuttings and I’m not very good at cuttings despite the lesson Mum gave me last year, however all I really have to lose is some compost so I set about identifying what I wanted to take cutting from. The pot of compost wants to be free draining so I added grit to it for that purpose, they also need to be in the light but not in the sun so they are under the greenhouse bench, they need humidity so after watering they have been placed in a propagator (not turned on) and hopefully some of them will strike. I have done rosemary, lavender, olive, clematis, sambucus, japonica and the new climbing rose I just bought. I have tried my best and fingers crossed I get something from them lol.

Meanwhile after doing the morning rounds John started on creosoting the hen hut at the back, the hens (which were being picked off by the fox and are now secure) will go back in there once the creosote is dry and isn’t giving off odour!

Ooops just had a notification of some other seeds I’d ordered, is there a group for ‘Gardeners’ anonymous’ 😜luckily they were only £2 but they are jack fruit which I’ve not tired before, love trying new stuff 😀

When he finished that and I had finished doing all my bits we shot to another garden centre to pick up some more compost (I need to get a bulk delivery next year I think) of course there were a couple of plants that went into the trolley and a pot for the new climbing rose I bought yesterday. It’s my weakness I have to admit 😜 I would rather go to garden centre after garden centre than shopping centre after shopping centre 😂 The plants are big ones so I can easily divide them and get at least two if not three out of each one so in my eyes it’s money saving (apart from the fact that I didn’t need them 😋)

Another evening of watering and working and it’s around this time of year I start wondering why?? The winds were awful and they have taken off all the apricots and peaches that were growing, the artichoke which were in their fully glory are now on the ground so I have had to salvage what I could and chop the rest down 😏 The weeds are gaily growing away fiercely unlike the veg which is struggling due to lack of rain, the slugs are managing to find the strawberries before I do, and I’m finding more and more greenfly, yep definitely the time of year I think I might just give up 😜 On the plus side the mangetout are beginning to get big enough to pick and the broad beans are developing, I do have small kiwis and there are lemons, the apple, pear and cherry trees are loaded with fruit so are the gooseberries, blackcurrants and raspberries so it’s not all bad. Maybe it’s just time to get rid of what fails and stick with the easier stuff.

Another day and another week tomorrow, always onwards and upwards lol, stay safe x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Keeping busy, drying herbs & VEDay celebrations.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th May 2020: We are still in the depths of the global pandemic, not that anyone needs reminding but it’s good to look back in a few years time and see what was going on lol. We escaped for a few hours today, a few hours we will never get back, queuing 😜 We decided to venture out and get some shopping, a big shop, the first we have done in six weeks! To be fair the queue into the shop was non existent and doing the shopping was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated and we got a lot of shopping. It should keep us going for a few weeks more and most importantly I know have choices when it comes to lunch and dinner which is a real treat. Up to now either the girls have been getting us stuff or we have popped to a small shop to get the odd bits and pieces, but it’s good to get all the odds and ends that you never think of when writing a list for someone else to get. They have their own shopping to get as well and so I don’t like to burden them with a massive list lol, anyway now we have done it once we will probably do it again but not for a few weeks. Then we went to the surgery to pick up my prescription of steroids, another queue and wait times with social distances always at the front of your mind. How we are going to progress through this I don’t know but we have to move forward somehow and probably need to start creeping forwards soon.

We only did the basics for the rest of the day lol, getting a bit lazy now.

Tuesday: We have a busy day ahead of us as the next batch of point of lay hens are coming in. Half are going straight back out but we are keeping half of them as we cannot keep up with demand for the eggs again. We should have kept some back from the second batch but hindsight is a wonderful thing 🙄 Before they arrive John has had to go and fix a leak for someone, those are the only jobs he is going out to do at the moment, he also went to pick up some sawdust and collect an order from our local builders merchant. It’s a long process, you have to e mail them with the order, then wait for them to confirm they have it then call them to arrange a collection time. Gone are the days when you could just nip down because you need some screws etc, one day I am sure it will all be back to normal but for the time being everything takes a few days.

Meanwhile I have been pottering, I am not feeling the best today, last night I broke out in a rash on my legs and was very tired, today my arms hurt and it’s an effort to lift them. I have done a bit of seed sowing in the greenhouse, the hoovering some washing and a wipe round of the bathroom but I am struggling. I had decided not to take any anti inflammatory today but I caved in around 10.30. I had an idea that I would go through my wardrobe and put anything with holes in the rag bin, anything that I don’t wear in the charity shop bag but I didn’t get very far with that. Sometimes, jobs can seem huge when you are not feeling up to it and I think I really need to be in a great frame of mind to sort stuff out otherwise it all goes back in the wardrobe. Johns work clothes I am able to sort though as his get pretty tatty, I have ordered him new jeans, trainers, t-shirts and sweatshirts so he will have a whole new lot and if I can sneak out the old lot without him seeing all will be good lol. He has favourites that he will spend days looking for if they get thrown away 😜

I also ordered a mini greenhouse/grow house that will go out the front to put plants for sale in. Some plants that are ready for sale can’t go out because they are annual and it’s a little too cold especially with the exposed area we have and so in order to move them on I need something for them to go in so that people can still buy them, as sitting in the greenhouse is never going to work 🙄

I picked a big bundle of oregano to dry in the dehydrator, I normally forget to do this as it wants picking well before the flowers appear and I always leave it too late. The plant will recover easily and I can use that fresh through the summer but have dried oregano for Winter use. I would like to make up some jars of herbs de Provence and I will try but it means picking various herbs as the others dry, if you do it all at once you can’t tell what’s what 😂 they are all green bits lol.

I have taken a few photos of plants I am loving in the garden at the minute, the mighty Angelica which has reached well over 5ft this year a beautifully architectural plant that I put in the tortoise run to give some shelter with the huge leaves. The ranunculus, which is the pink one in with the tulips, I adore these romantic flowers, lovely open blossoms perfect for bees and insects. And then there is the red Maple, again another mood lifting colour which goes particularly well with the clematis behind it, my intention was always to plant this tree in the front paddock but at the moment it’s still in the pot lol.

Ranunculus
Angelica, used for medicinal purposes and you may remember the green sugary sticks on granny’s trifles.
Red Maple, beautiful colouring, maybe one day I will get it planted into the paddock 😀

We have been at home for a good few weeks now and although we haven’t argued there are a few things beginning to grate 😜 one is every time the phones rings either house phone or mobile, John turns off the radio, I have told him it’s mobile for a reason, so you can leave the room 🙄 I wouldn’t mind but he never turns it back on again and I hate the silence with tinnitus. The other thing is that he keeps swilling out his cup and then leaving it right under the tap, now if I am wanting to wash my hands this means that soapy water is going into his cup, at first I would completely move it but now I’m like, if it tastes of soapy water, tough luck 😜 There are, as you can imagine, many more little things like this and I’m sure for him too, but we are muddling through as best we can just like everyone else 😂

This evening we were busy selling point of lay hens straight back out but have managed to keep a dozen for extra eggs.

Wednesday: We have been busy today but not really achieved much 😜 Thinking about it I don’t actually know what we have done just seem to have buzzing about sorting lots of little things. Sam came over with the children to poop pick biscuits mini paddock and Mia was able to get her a brush, we all kept a social distance but it’s hard when the twins are crying and Sam is trying to manage by herself 😏 Shelley came over with the children to get some eggs and they sat in the garden for a chat, again at a social distance. We have enough space here that we can easily do that and as they are coming to get essentials we figure that’s ok. I think many people are getting restless now and so hopefully we will be able to start some kind of shifting soon.

We got busier in the evening, I did some weeding and cut and edged the lawn while John made the tops for my cold frames, they are not exactly what I would have liked, I like the ones with old windows lol but that’s not very practical with grandchildren around and also they are pretty heavy so we have some lightweight safe ones. We had just finished up when we heard a commotion in the back paddock, John ran up there and there was a young fox trying to grab a hen so we were on fox patrol for the rest of the evening. By the time we had shut everything away it was 9.30, time to come in and get some supper as we missed dinner 😜

Thursday: Another fine warm day ahead and I had a good night so I feel fine today 😀 We got off to a start with the usual feeding and letting out then John had to get some petrol for the ride on mower as we want to mow the little back paddock later when it’s cooler. I moved all the plants that need hardening off to outside in the cold frames and did a bit of hoeing plus moved the fire pit which for some reason was right in the middle of the lawn. I then had to take up the bricks it was standing on and put some grass seed down, the fire pit is now near a bench which makes much more sense and I am likely to use it more.

It’s VE Day tomorrow and up to now I have only been able to find a tiny Union Jack, I considered printing out paper bunting but I don’t have enough ink to print colour ones or paint to paint plain ones so I raided Johns work t-shirts and made some bunting 😀

Pretty pleased with how these turned out 😀 🇬🇧

The new mini greenhouse arrived so we put that together in between proving and baking bread and rolls 😜 and I will fill it with plants for sale as soon as I think I can get out there I.e I need a passing cloud for cover lol

In the evening I cut the grass in the little paddock while John cleared up the burning patch and was on Fox watch, it appeared but because he was up there with the dogs he soon disappeared again. Even so, John spent the rest of the evening up there keeping guard. We did our claps at 8pm though and I had Mia on FaceTime as she wanted to do it with me 😀

Bank holiday Friday: VE Day 75th anniversary and we all have to celebrate at home 😏 as there wasn’t much point sitting out in our front garden to wave to the occasional passerby, we put up bunting and offered chocolate in the egg shed 😀

The day was spent pottering around, it was pretty hot early on and so that’s me counted out lol, I did manage to get a few bits potted on in the greenhouse and sort out plants to put out for sale. I’m not quite sure what else we did, but we will be busier outside once it cools down, I have some watering to do and John will be on fox watch again 😏

Saturday: Another fine hot day, I am looking forward in a strange way to the cooler weather coming in, at least I will be able to get on the garden. This morning and actually through the night I have had pains in my wrists and ankles and I fell exhausted so not much done today. John did all the morning rounds and then some weeding for me in the brassica cage to get that ready for planting. It should have been done by now but it’s just been too hot for me to do it. Meanwhile I potted on some runner beans, for a strange reason and I have never seen it before the beans started to grow upside down, in trays and in pots, very bizarre, all of them not just a couple, the roots coming up and the leaves under the soil. I have now turned them the right way up and hopefully they will continue to grow normally.

Sunday: We did a good mornings work as expected with the weather much cooler. Yesterday John clears the brassica cage for me and so today I was able to go in and plant 12 cauliflower and 12 broccoli in there. Meanwhile he was busy weeding the next area for planting up which will be the sweet corn and butternut squash areas. I am slowly getting everything in the ground and looking at the longer range forecast I may take the chance to plant these things out and possibly cover with fleece if it looks like frost but there are only 1 or 2 cold nights on the radar until the end of the month so a ch ace worth taking I think. I also planted up a few flowers that have been growing in pots and potted up some phlox that arrived yesterday. The plant sales have been amazing, really amazing and I am chuffed to bits with how much I have sold. The eggs are still in huge demand and we never have enough for the amount of customers but can’t increase the flock as once this is all over half of the people probably won’t come lol. W

We had someone take without paying this morning, as I came out of the garden I just caught a look at the back end of a lorry with motorway maintenance on it, that only means one thing round here as we are pretty far from any motorway 🙄 and we knew exactly what was in there and how much money should be there, luckily it was only a couple of boxes but still it makes you cross.

We had some rain, yippee that will save me watering tonight.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, Dads funeral & getting on with it.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday again! 27th April 2020, not a year we will forget in a hurry, a worldwide pandemic that has had massive impact on the way we live. There have been negatives but I’m hoping there will be some real positives that will change the way we do things both for the benefit of the environment and for our metal wellbeing. Time will tell but one thing is for sure we are living through one of the biggest historical events that will be written and learnt about for centuries to come.

Meanwhile I have been busy this morning doing a bit in the greenhouse, there are always plants to water and move round so they get a fair share of the sun, I potted on the peppers, they will continue to grow in the greenhouse as they did so well in there last year. I did a bit of hoeing to keep the weeds down on beds that are waiting for plants to go in and mulled over where things will get planted, I think I have a good idea of where everything will be going now. The sweet corn will be planted and underneath them will go pumpkin and butternut squash, they grow entirely differently, the sweet corn straight up and the squash will sprawl so double up the use of space. The same applies to melon and cucumber in the poly tunnel, the cucumbers are happy trailing along the ground, the melons like to climb so they will be planted together, the trailing plants will shut out the light and prevent weeds, another bonus. John has done a sterling job of clearing and cleaning out the back area which had yet again become a dumping ground, at least we have a space to dump everything I suppose but a lot of it is again stuff that we have collected and never used so it’s gone in the skip.

I feel like I’m just marking time, anyone else? I am trying to read articles I wouldn’t normally get the time to do and I really need to get back into listening to some podcasts, I think that would be a good idea. We are forecast a few days of rain so maybe that will be the time to chill a little.

Tuesday: Today is Dads funeral but before that we have the usual jobs to do and today because it is raining and likely to rain all day I am getting the horses in. Two reasons, one it’s not nice standing all day in the pouring rain and two the rain will make the grass ‘flush’ this is not good for them as the sugar content in the grass will go up and this could cause laminitis. If the horses were in work this would not be such a problem but because they are not using up that energy it would cause issues. I had a few other jobs to keep me busy, paying the end of month suppliers bills, John went to the chemist to pick up my prescription and then it was time for the off.

The funeral was a simple affair and I did reflect that Dad would have loved it, a few songs that were right up his street and a short eulogy and prayers, then we had a whisky toast at the grave side and said our goodbyes, we shared a few memories in the churchyard after the event and then it was time to come home. What is sad is that we could not have that all important wake after, a time to chat and remember with family and friends, many of whom lined the route but when the time is right we will have that get together as I suspect will may families around the country.

It has been raining all morning and when we got back we lit the fire and took the rest of the day off, well until feeding time later that is.

John did the feeding and egg collecting and I sorted them out ready to box up. The eggs sales are steady now, not manic like before thank goodness.

I had a lovely FaceTime session with all my brothers and sisters but mainly spent time just relaxing until it was time to go and and top the horses up with hay while John put all the birds to bed. Then I did something I never do and that is come back in and get into my PJs, normally I wouldn’t do this as you never know what will occur after dark but today I am making an exception and besides it will save time later when I can fall into bed and hopefully get a good nights sleep as last nights was a bit restless.

Wednesday: Raining again, good for the garden, that’s what I have to remind myself although it’s a tad chilly with it after the hot days we have had recently. This morning I turned Jack back out into the paddocks but at the moment Biscuit is still in and we will be making her a pen so that she does not gorge on grass once it starts growing. I then fed the rabbits/Guineas, turkey, light Sussex and quail and I was supposed to let the geese out but forgot and only realised after we returned from getting my bloods done, ooops schoolboy error. I did a bit more seed sowing in the greenhouse, some strips of peas, sweet corn and dwarf beans these will be for putting out for sale when they come through. I potted on some cherry tomato plants that Shelley had grown as well. Then it was time to go and have my blood test and on the way back pick up a few essential items from the shop. We probably won’t do much more than the usual today we have got into the habit of watching the lunchtime news and then the afternoon easy watching programmes 🤣🤣

This morning I noticed feathers under the hen coop and said to John that a hen must have been out over night and the fox had got it, when he went to clean them out later he discovered that actually the fox had chewed the legs off of a hen that was inside the coop. There are slats which let the poop fall through and onto the ground and normally the hens roost up on poles but this one obviously sat on the floor of the coop and that is what can happen. The mains electric was on but we need to watch out as this could be a problem fox.

I turned Biscuit out to be with Jack overnight and tomorrow Sam is coming to set up a strip for her to graze in.

Thursday: I had a bad night again last night and I just can’t figure it out at all, it starts off with me feeling the cold which turns to shivering and I can’t get warm all night, I get up in the night and take ibrufen and then I’m sweating. The doctor called with the results of the blood test and my platelets are still low, they have come up ever so slightly but nowhere near enough so I’m still off the methotrexate and still on the steroids bit a lower dose. I did say to her that it’s not like a normal flare up and that’s the difficulty of this disease it doesn’t really follow patterns, it’s different for everyone and even for the same person the flare ups can be different and random.

Sam was here bright and early and used the stakes and tape to set up an area that Biscuit will have to stay in for most of the summer now, she has a field shelter and some trees for shade and we can get in and out of the gateway without having to go through any other paddocks which is useful. If you have ever had a pony or horse you will know that they are on the whole not very respectful of fences 😂 but Biscuit is a real sweetheart and when Jack breaks out she will just stand there knowing she shouldn’t be following so I don’t envisage too many problems there.

It’s mid afternoon and it’s been peeing down all day, I have been inside cleaning the kitchen and doing a bit of baking and John has been in the stable block giving that a tidy up. I had some melon plants arrive which I had totally forgotten that I had ordered way back at the beginning of the year.

Friday: Mayday 😀 the beginning of a new month, a month of plenty to do and this morning I have been planting tomatoes and melons in the big tunnel, I did a bit of weeding in there and then a bit of watering, the strawberries that I put in last year are doing really well with plenty of fruit setting on them, I will look forward to eating those. With the rain comes plenty of weeds bit I can’t hoe until the ground is dry again and it’s supposed to be dry and warm again next week.

Meanwhile we caught the fox and had that dealt with and John has been edging the last bit of the lawn that needed doing (for about 5 years 😂) Then it hammered down, hopefully it will blow over and we will have a nice afternoon, fingers crossed🙄

Sunday: No idea what we did yesterday but it was probably similar to every day! Today has been pretty productive, we have cut a few areas of grass before it gets too long including the front paddock. We also spent a good couple of hours digging out patches of nettles that have sprung up in the front paddock, I don’t mind nettles but not when they begin to invade the middle areas, the edges they can stay as long as they don’t encroach too far. Nettles are probably one of the most beneficial plants you can find both for humans and wildlife, they support a huge range of insects and are supposedly good for many human ailments including chronic inflammation but as yet I have not tried them and of course you can make string and clothing from them though the process is long and hard going, but if we ever find ourselves in a situation (and never say never 🙄) nettles are the one thing you do want growing 😀

We have done plenty of other jobs inbetween, some hoeing/weeding, sorting out more plants lol, I have also weeded an area in the front that is looking scruffy and I have popped a few plants in to brighten it up a bit. It’s in the front compound area and the weeds tend to get a good hold so I have put a few thuggish plants in, if there is an area that is difficult then thuggery is the answer, the shasta Daisy is one such plant, things like periwinkle and lemon balm, borage, calendula, they will all grow no matter what you do to them and hopefully smoother out the weeds plus give a bit of colour against the drab fence. I always wanted this area full of lavender but the dogs we had when we first came trampled everything so I gave up on the idea, the dogs we have now are not so clumsy but still they do manage to tread on stuff and break it so lavender just won’t cut it.

John spent an hour or two metal detecting again and no we can’t retire on his findings, a few bits of twisted metal isn’t going to get us anywhere lol.

I found some duck breast in the freezer this morning so we have had those pan fried with crushed potato, purple sprouting picked fresh from the garden and a red wine gravy, tasty 😋

I am beginning to see and feel the steroids working albeit slowly, I do feel better than I did this time last week so hopefully it will be onwards and upwards, that is always the plan sometimes is jumps track 😜

John has gone back out after dinner to move the chicken fencing in the side paddock so that the hens are on fresh ground. We have another delivery of chickens tomorrow but we will be keeping some of these to add to our laying flock as the demand for eggs has not eased much, it will be good to be able to provide eggs for everyone that wants them.

Gosh, reading back it’s hard to believe that Dads funeral was at the beginning of the week it seems a lot longer ago, time feels like it’s dragging somewhat now but I guess we all have to hang in there and hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel. A customer said that her elderly Dad had died of the virus but actually that is the only person I know of, we don’t seem to have been hit too hard here or maybe once we get back out in the wider world we will hear of a few more 🤷‍♀️

I am sorry about the lack of photos, I keep saying that I know, must try harder Dawn, I can tell you that the fruit is all beginning to form, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, cherries, there are tiny broad beans on those plants and plenty of foliage on the potatoes, the carrot tops are getting bigger so hopefully underneath is as well and the garlic I planted last Autumn is huge. The root veg seeds I sowed at the beginning of the week are already up (well some of them) so all in all the veg garden is coming along nicely. I did think about planting out the more tender stuff this week coming (sweet corn and squash) but we are due to have a temperature dip next weekend so I will leave it, there is nothing worse than nurturing plants for them to be ravaged by the cold or the wind so I must be patient a little while longer 😀

Have a great week, stay safe x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

The normal routine, a few blips and some sad times x

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sorry this is late you will find out why when you get to Saturday 😢

Monday 13th April 2020: I’m losing track of how long we have been in lockdown now 🙄 I think we are going into week 4.

The temperature has dropped by 10 degrees today, hugely noticeable. I am definitely struggling today, the absence of my meds has increased inflammation and I recognise where this road ends so I’m hoping that blood tests on Friday will enable me to go back on the meds. I took anti inflammatories this morning which helps me to be able to get on and do a bit and even though it was cold I still went out to the garden. I did a fair bit of tidying up, I know I always say that but there always seems to be an area that needs sorting out, this time is was the areas around the poly tunnel, stuff that had been stacked or stored for winter, some broken stuff to get rid of, a bit of weeding here and there, and the area where I keep plants for selling on, always something. I planted out the next lot of broad beans and did some pricking out and potting on in the greenhouse, it filled my morning nicely 😀

I put some plants out for sale and was amazed that they sold very quickly, I have some more to go out and also some that I am bringing on in the greenhouse, I guess people can’t use the garden centres and so I am a good alternative.

Tuesday: Oh dear I haven’t felt well for a week or more now, the symptoms slowly getting worse and yesterday they came to a head, constant shivering even under layers of blankets, my joints have been getting worse and I can feel the inflammation in my scalp. So this morning I have phoned the doctor and am waiting for him to call back, I have been down this toad so many times that I recognise the way, if I don’t get it sorted quickly I will end up back on steroids, I might anyway but I might just be able to catch it in the nick of time, go back on the meds and take stronger anti inflammatories. This disease is such a see saw it’s hard to keep a balance.

Wednesday: Slight blip there but I’m feeling better today, I had my blood test bought forward and had it yesterday so just waiting for the results. UPDATE the doctor called and the white cells have dipped even lower so it’s the disease and not the medication, I am back on steroids for two weeks, this is bitter sweet, bitter because it means the disease is not stabilising at all and I lurch from one crisis to another, sweet because I know on steroids I will get loads of jobs done and be full of energy. I will also be starving most of the time which is great for John as I will always be thinking of the next meal instead of the lack lustre attitude I have had lately lol.

This morning I have been outside watering, it’s ridiculous how dry the ground is, I can’t even hoe or pull weeds because it’s rock solid and I am having to water newly planted stuff every day to keep them all going, the overnight moisture is not enough for the heat of the sun in the daytime. As I recall it was exactly the same this time last year, we had a very dry warm spell and despite trying to mulch everything it’s still a task to keep stuff alive. Not the stuff that has been going for a year or more, that’s all fine but I was aiming to get the flower beds up and running and they are struggling with the lack of moisture. I tried weeding the brassica cage but the ground is as hard as rock, seriously, I pulled what I could and will have to wait for some rain before I can get in there and do it all properly.

I am loving that I have the time to take everything in rather than scooting round and getting everything done. The tulips that Mum planted at the end of last year have come up all over the place and they are an absolute joy, some of the colours are vibrant and there is one little flower combo I adore, the photo doesn’t really do it justice but it’s so sweet I would love to replicate it on a bigger scale elsewhere at some point.

Today is a very special day as it’s Charlie’s 30th Birthday 🥳, we should have been at our favourite hotel enjoying the spa and delicious food but instead we are all at home separately, it’s also my sisters 50th birthday another celebration that will have to wait. One thing I have noticed is how creative everyone has got during these times, poetry, paintings, stories, baking, innovative ideas, it’s lovely that people have the time to do these things for each other, it’s one of the good things that have come from all this.

John had literally just cleared the wood pile the day before yesterday (it’s been there for about 4 years) when he had a phone call to say that someone had a van load of tree they had cut down if he wanted it, off he went to collect it and that gave him more cutting to do 🙄😜😂

A busy afternoon started with the delivery of 40 more hens ALL of which have been pre ordered and going straight back out for sale 🙄 unprecedented but great for us as it means we are still earning which is more than a lot of people are, on hindsight we should have bought in hundreds as we certainly could have sold them all.

Thursday: Another lovely day in store and I have already started on the steroids so my symptoms have begun to diminish already which is great as it means I can get on. I put plants out for sale again this morning and lots have been sold already, happy me 😀 The rest of the morning I spent picking rhubarb, asparagus and sowing some more seeds both vegetable and flower seed. We have been busy selling hens again today and by teatime we only had two left.

The early part of the evening I spent giving everything a good watering, there is rain on the forecast for tomorrow it you can never be too sure it will get here so better safe than sorry.

I am kind of beginning to forget we are in a very strange situation, until I see the government infomercials or watch the news that is, this life has become normal lol, I wonder how many people are going to be able to cope with going back to real life when the times comes 🙄

The turkey hen is still alive, she is very quiet but moving around and chirping sometimes, I’m beginning to wonder if she is like that because we took her eggs away as there doesn’t seem like much else wrong with her, if she had a blockage I would have expected her to have died by now. The new boy rabbit, sporty scar, has developed one floppy ear, they are lips but I had forgotten that and thought he might have broken it or something 😜 The geese are sitting on eggs, not all of them just two but fingers crossed we may get goslings. Everything else is tickling along nicely.

Who would have thought that our weekly excitement would be 8pm every Thursday evening when we go outside and clap, cheer, ring bells the works to honour the key workers that are keeping our country running, the NHS, the carers, the delivery drivers, the dustbin lorry crews, the post men and women, the shop workers, the farmers, we thank you for keeping going despite the risks. Captain Tom needs a special mention, 99 years young and has raised to date 14 million pounds for the NHS by completing 100 laps of his garden on his Zimmer frame before his 100th birthday tomorrow, true British grit, our hearts swell with pride at his achievement.

Friday: A cooler day today and we had a sprinkling of rain, it enough to fill the water tanks but enough to freshen up anything that has been planted so I am happy with that. I have again spent today pottering around in the greenhouse or sowing seeds, I sowed some spring onion seeds I found, I don’t usually have much luck with the but I can only try. I also found some chickpeas I grew last year, only 4 lol but I have planted those and I found a packet of liquorice seeds so I am giving those a go. I have pricked out leek seedlings into trays and potted up some blackcurrant bushes that have been stood in a bucket all winter, I also planted one of these in the orchard. John has been busy changing one of the taps on the water tank that had snapped and when they are nearly empty is a good time to do that, then he started clearing out his shed which is a kind of open the door and throw it in shed. We have discussed building a new one as this one is really on its last legs, it will have to wait until we can buy materials again.

We sold the last two chickens from the 40 that came in on Wednesday, we are breaking all our previous records here lol.

Like many people, I suspect, we have slipped into an easy routine of a bit of work, a tea break, a bit more work, dinner break, a sit down, a bit more work, a tea break etc etc I imagine this is how things will continue until the lockdown ends.

I just realised it’s Friday again which means Gardeners’ world is on tonight 😀 the one thing I really look forward to watching.

Saturday: Today is a very sad day, we had an early morning phone call to say that my Dad had passed away overnight, as far as we know he didn’t have corvid-19, he had the usual older persons ailments and it seems he passed away quietly in his sleep. I obviously won’t be doing much today except remembering, laughing and crying 💙😘💔 Night, night Dad, you will be missed x x

Monday: Today is a better day after two days of tears and memories. If you have lost someone close you will know how hard it is especially when you weren’t expecting it. What is even harder is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment where you can’t get together with family members and have/give hugs, it’s hard, really hard. The coroner has said it was age related so that’s a blessing, and he went peacefully in his sleep which is just how he would have wanted to go, we are grateful for that. My Dad was a man of simple needs, he loved life, whisky, roll ups, cricket, singing, whistling, good food especially common game, he loved music and he loved to dance, right up to the start of the pandemic they would go to jazz festivals and music events and dance the night away, he loved country ways especially the old ways which was what he was bought up with, he was a countryman through and through. The more you think about things the more you begin to realise about a person, he was way ahead in his thinking about girls and boys, he never treated any of us any differently, if you could lift a shovel, you could mix concrete, boy or girl it didn’t matter 😂 he was a good cook and more often than not cooked his own dinners, he was a great forager and we used to go mushrooming with him when we were younger, there are a million and one things I could tell you about him but most importantly he was my Dad. Goodnight Dad, I love you and I will miss you dearly but you have left behind so many memories and I will cherish those always 😘😘