Tag: seed sowing

Posted in Friesland Farm

Gathering the (tiny) harvest in, botanical dyeing & still plenty of rain.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 31st July 2023: The whole of July we have had rain every day, sometimes heavy, we have had hardly any sun but at least the temperature has been ok on the whole. It is topsy turvy at the moment, I am not complaining too much though as I have not had to water the garden at all this month 😂

I have had some pretty busy weeks with the flowers but this week is much calmer so it gives me chance to catch up with all the other jobs that have been neglected. I started off with tidying things away indoors, finding the right places for ‘stuff’ to live 🙄 Then outside into the greenhouse to sow some foxglove seeds for next year (lovely apricot ones) and pot on some brassica plants. They ought to be planted out really but I need to reorganise the garden and so no point planting them until they can go into the final place. They are curly kale and purple sprouting broccoli which I love to be able to pick fresh in the new year, it’s worth the wait when nothing else is around. I also sowed some carrot seeds and some perpetual spinach. Then I picked some purple French beans and some Logan berries and took those indoors to prep. The beans were blanched and drained then bagged up ready for the freezer and along with some apples from the tree the berries were cooked in honey ready for crumbles. I made two lots of crumble toppings, one traditional for John and one healthy one for me, oats, nuts and cinnamon. Both lots can be frozen for using as and when needed but the oat one will need coconut oil added to it before cooking. I made two crumbles for dessert later so I will see what it tastes like, John won’t like just honey in his apple and berry mix but he can add sugar if needs be whereas I prefer mine on the sharper side so just honey is fine. At this time of year I start to think about stocking up and making things for winter use, it’s that primal side of me again 😜 I will continue to add goods to my dried and frozen store and if we ever have to hunker down I am all in 😂

Had a visit from Sam and the kiddies in the afternoon, they have just come back from their caravan holiday in the New Forest and were full of stories of their adventures 🥰

We have lamb loin for dinner tonight with French beans, johns potatoes are sliced and roasted in the oven plainly while mine are made into a gratin with stock, crème fraise and Parmesan cheese. I have no objection to this while John is still doing all the washing up 😂 he is beginning to realise that when cooking everything from scratch you use a lot of bowls and utensils. He made himself scrambled egg at lunchtime and normally would not give the dirty pan another thought, I told him he would have to wash it up because I need it to cook the beans for dinner and as I still can’t do the washing up (shame) he would have to get it done sharpish 😜

I have Oscar all day tomorrow from early morning as it is Charlie’s first day back at work so I need to get tomorrows dinner sorted tonight. Slow cooker meals it is then, a chicken stew for John I think and a dhal for me, I will make extra portions of botthat can be frozen for another day

Tuesday: Oscar day 🥰 all went fairly well, takes a bit of getting used to having a little one all day again 😜 I did take him out for a walk in the pushchair when he clearly didn’t want to sleep in the cot, I foraged some cherry plums while I was out 😁 Hoping to go back for some more later this evening, I’m pretty sure they are early this year 🤷‍♀️ I have had conversations online with other country folk, there seems to be an awful lot of blackberry flowers this year to, we are wondering what the winter has in store for us 🙄

I have been stocking up my pantry with various dried goods and some tins, the news is full of doom and gloom about wheat at the minute. Wheat coming from Ukraine (or rather not coming) and the wheat harvest here because of the rain in July. My take on this is that we can (and should) adjust what we eat, be more resilient, more flexible but so many people are not which is a worry I think.

After dinner I went outside to cut flowers, they are not for orders but because the forecast for tomorrow is horrible, thunder, lightening, possible heavy downpours and high winds. I don’t want the blooms that are almost ready to get damaged and so it was a damage limitation exercise 🙄 I will use them one way or another, new orders might come in and I will have flowers good to go or I will see what can be dried or I can just use them to practise something new. I only have one Lily and I don’t even know where it came from but I cut it and ended up with pollen on my cheek. It was quite difficult to remove the stain and so I thought that the stamen might be useful for dyeing the silk ribbons 🤷‍♀️ nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

Once that was done I was determined to get some more cherry plums from the side of the road, if tomorrow’s weather is correct most of them will end up on the floor and there are hundreds of them. I would have liked to get a lot more but the general rule is to take only as much as you need or can use and so I behaved myself 😜

Wednesday: The terrible weather that was forecast didn’t arrive 😜 so I spent my time making up some flower bunches with the flowers I cut. There are a lot of pinks around at the minute so with the Barbie movie current at the minute I made very pink jam jar arrangements and a pink bunch. Then I decided to colour code the other bunches until I had a rainbow of flowers 😁

No idea what else I did that day, (writing this up on Saturday) I think Sam and the children came over for a couple of hours in the afternoon. John has been off a fair bit this week so he has been tidying up the stable block and re boarding the walls. He tried cutting grass but the mower is broken, two of the blades won’t work so it has to go in for repair and is being picked up on Friday.

Thursday: Still not much of a clue as to what I did except I have been doing a lot of dyeing, it’s addictive 😂 Finding plants that I think will work well as a dye, researching so that I understand what I am doing with it. So far I have tried cold dye with no mordant to see what effect I get, loving the berry dye colours 🥰 I have used avocado skins, sage, mulberries, lavender (not much colour but the ribbon smells lovely) calendula, coreopsis, indigo powder and turmeric.

The one on the right hand side is the original colour of the raw silk.

The twins came over for their weekly session with me while Mia goes to swimming lessons. We played tig with Grampy outside in the garden and then got dinner for them. This is the last week we will have them on Thursdays 😔 as they start their own swimming lessons next week 😁

Friday: I had a phone call late afternoon yesterday for a large celebration bouquet to be collected this morning. It was a big one and I had to make three bunches and put them together to make one large bouquet as my hands are pretty small lol. I made that first thing along with another order that was being collected in the afternoon. John was off today so was working in the stable block some of the time and harassing me about shares the rest of the time. He has had shares for a while and just left them where they were but has now decided to shuffle them around, the only problem with that is it is me that has to do it because he doesn’t know how (and doesn’t do technology 🙄) He watches them on his phone and comes to find me when he wants to buy or sell them 😜 fine except that he expects me to drop what I am doing there and then to get the best price 😂 I did suggest he gets his own iPad (phone screens are too small at our age to see everything in one go) and do it himself but secretly I rather enjoy the thrill of buying and selling at the right time when possible.

Saturday: Started off in the early hours with torrential rain and basically has not stopped all morning, everything will be a washout today 😏 We went to get some shopping 🙄 drives me nuts going as I am quite sure we don’t need anything but if the biscuit tin is empty John thinks we need to go. I am definitely getting more tetchy as I get older either than or everything is going to the dogs. The shop (Morrisons) was flipping freezing and I know it’s cold for August but seriously I was so cold near the fridges I couldn’t concentrate on what I wanted to get. Last winter it was Baltic in there and I said to John (and the lady in the till) I am not shopping in here this winter coming it’s too cold. I have no idea what they are trying to do, save money I guess but it will backfire, if you are too cold to concentrate then people just won’t stop long, counterproductive if you ask me. Second bugbear is the bloody loyalty card system, it’s supposed to be geared to you personally, it is not, I will never be buying ginsters sausage rolls so don’t give me a discount, it seems more like they are trying to lead you to buying what they want you to buy and I am not that customer. To be honest I do not want to be a customer but John insists on going there, I am going to do my best to either avoid it or write him a list so he can go in future 😂 Johns shopping list is cheese, butter, bread, biscuits, crisps , jam, chocolate and ice cream oh and spring onions as a nod to something healthy 😜 If he doesn’t have those then we have ‘nothing to eat in the cupboards’ 🙄

We spent the rest of the day binge watching tv because the weather was so appalling it was not even worth stepping outside 🌧️

Sunday: I had flower to do this morning and so got straight on with those. The weather is better, dry at least but it’s still a tad on the colder side of summer. We are stuck in a weather dump that is going to move this week sometime but that has been nearly six weeks of crap in summer like weather we were stuck in 😂 the only consolation is that I haven’t watered outside at all 😁 Charlie walked over with Oscar first thing, he had his breakfast here and then they walked back, he was asleep before they even left the driveway. I then watered the small tunnel with the tomatoes and cucumbers in before cutting back a lot of the bottom foliage from the tomato plants so that the tomatoes can begin to ripen, even they are a bit slow this year.

We went out for lunch with friends midday which is something we rarely do, in fact I think it may be a first 😂 I lunch or have dinner with my friends or we do the same with family but not usually both of us out with friends. We had a lovely lunch in a lovely old Manor House that I didn’t even know was there but will definitely go back again.

In the evening I had a wander round the orchard area to see how the plums are doing this year. Not so good as last year but they can’t produce masses every year I guess. The plums trees really need some attention they are getting a bit straggly, it is difficult to get the pruning right on those as too late in the year and they could get disease but they are not looking great anyway then probably nothing to lose. The walnut tree has got huge this year and nuts are already dropping but I cracked one and it is still soft so no idea what is going on with that, they seem to be shedding early but not ready and the same with the hazel trees. It has been a most peculiar year mind you so anything is possible. I walked into the front paddock and was dismayed to find that when John had done some strimming he has strimmed a pussy willow whip I had been growing 😔 That is the third year in a row I had tried to grow something there and he has strimmed it down 😡 He has left a runner from the plumtree growing nicely though 😬 There was metal wire on the ground he said, yes I put that there to protect the roots from the chickens who like to scratch in dug over soil, ffs I give up sometimes, flipping trigger happy with that thing. We really need an odd job man to come once a week and do some of the jobs I think 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

It is still raining 😂 a trip to Diddly Squat & my birthday 🥳

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th July 2023: A rainy start to the day and week, I am a little annoyed with myself because yesterday was dry and I could have got a fair bit done outside and now it’s soggy. Goodness knows what has happened to our weather lol we are stuck in a cycle of rain but I am not complaining as parts of Europe are literally burning 😏

I am waiting for the rain to stop so that I can go out and cut the echinops. I have been watching them carefully waiting for them to colour up, the trick is not to let them go into flower if you want them for drying as they will start to fall apart once dry otherwise.

This patch started off a one small plant a couple of years ago! It has now got huge and needs dividing in autumn, it is swamping everything around it 😂

Although it is only the end of July I have already started taking bookings for Christmas wreath workshops so I need to be thinking that far ahead. I am also going to do a pumpkin arrangement workshop and all those dates are firmly in the diary but I do have the flexibility to add more if necessary. I need to do a post to advertise them but it seems a bit too early yet 🤷‍♀️

As it kept on raining I gave the pantry a tidy up, I still have a few apples but some of them have either shrivelled now or gone soft but the ones that are ok I will start chopping and freezing so I don’t lose any more. Our apple harvest was huge last year, this year not so many eating apples but still plenty of cookers on the tree providing the crows don’t eat them all that is 🙄

Cleaning it up made me start thinking about winter storing and prepping, we have seen that you never know what is round the corner these days 🤔 In the event of something catastrophic happening the food chain would break immediately and I like to be prepared 😂 it’s the primal side of me 😜

Tuesday: Dry today whoo hoo, I cut the echinops first thing along with some eryingyum they are so different to most things that are growing at the minute so they add texture to flowers. I then spent the rest of the morning doing some proper gardening, weeding, hoeing, deadheading, planting, potting on. I think if I ever get to a point of taking anyone on the first job would be for a gardener 😂 or at the very least, a weeder. I have potted on plants that have been waiting for weeks and now hopefully they can put on good growth before planting in autumn. I have a lot of re organising to do come autumn, I made some errors when laying out the cutting flower beds so they need turning round. I planted some things in places that, it has become apparent, they are outgrowing already 😜 It is all a learning curve.

Wednesday/Thursday: Forgot to type anything up and have no idea what I have been doing 😜 Working here is all I know as I haven’t been anywhere else, trying to catch up on all the weeding and tidying plus cutting anything that needs cutting. I did deliver flowers on Thursday I remember that much.

Friday: I had a fair amount of flowers to cut today for orders and for the flower workshop this evening, it started raining around 7.30am, wouldn’t you bloody know it 🙄 Nevertheless I had to get it done and so off I went out into the rain, it stopped raining almost as soon as I had finished 😜 We had the ride on mower collected this morning as the belt has broken plus it could do with a service. That is one thing John has been trying to do, get the front paddock cut but the grass is very long. It would seem that many are in a similar situation because of the constant switch between rain and sun and the chap has plenty of belts to repair 😂 I spent a good part of the day in the flower hut sorting it out and getting ready for later. The flowers are not drying as well as hoped in there and I am not sure if it is because of the humidity outside all month long. I can’t leave the door open because all and sundry will be inside before long, cats, dogs, chickens, geese 🙄 so I have rigged up a metal grill that can be tied to go across the open door to try and get some airflow in there. Schoolboy error not having a window up high!

I have decided to have a go at dyeing natural silk with plant dyes. Trying to find eco friendly ribbon is difficult and expensive so I thought I would have a go at making my own and see how they come out, you never know it could be another string to my bow 😁

Saturday: It started off sunny then clouded over and drizzled 🙄 I had the flower room to tidy up and social media posts to do and then mid morning deliver some flowers to a customer. It was near to Mums so we popped in for a coffee before heading back home. In the afternoon we decided to take a drive to Diddly Squat Farm which is only around 15/20 minutes away. It was heaving with people, seriously the car park was rammed, the other car park (field) was rammed and the queue must have been about an hour long just to get into the shop and then another similar queue for the food wagon 🙄 So we took the obligatory photo and left lol, we decided to call into Burford on the way back and grab an ice cream. Not a parking space to be found anywhere so we headed for Bibury instead, same story there 😏 We drove home through some lovely little villages and rural back lanes and grabbed an ice cream in Carterton instead 😂 Where exactly is the cost of living crisis because it is not here I can tell you that much 🤷‍♀️ You can no longer just walk into a pub and ask for a table for food as they are always booked up, you need to book in advance. The roads are clogged up with cars so no one is worried about how much fuel they are using, the shops are always busy, so much so that I can’t even be bothered to go into them these days unless absolutely necessary.

In the evening we had booked a table in the next town along for a meal out instead of our usual fish and chip night. We ordered fish and chips 😂 it was delicious though.

Sunday: It’s my birthday 🥳 Up and out for an early breakfast at one our favourite places, they start serving at 7.30am 😂 which is great for us as I think breakfast at 10am is halfway through the day 😜 Once back home we had a relaxed day, not sure why John was relaxing it wasn’t his birthday 😂 Plenty of visitors throughout the day, we had birthday cake and chocolates and I had lots of lovely gifts for which I am grateful 🥰 This just about sums me up, a goldfinch whistle, a giant cookie, a medieval cooking pan, plants, gardening gloves, essential oils, a book and a new top plus a few other things. In-between cups of tea, cake and visitors we watched a couple of films, perfect relaxing day.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A lot more flowers again this week 💐 a small harvest & what lies ahead 🌍

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 17th July 2023: Monday again already 🙄 I have been out already this morning and cut flowers for tomorrows orders, hoovered the house and now having tea and toast before I go out and check on my seeds and do any other jobs I spot that need doing, it won’t be hard to spot them 😜

Once of the biggest disappointments for me this year was not being able to get many seeds sown, flower or veg. This is the time I should be harvesting plenty of produce, so much that I never know what to do with it all! This year that is not happening but I have managed to get a tiny yield even despite this and I still have plenty in the freezer which is lucky. This morning I have picked a few broad beans and some dwarf French beans plus a fair few berries 😁 The berries have been cooked down and some have been allocated to a crumble for John later the rest will be compote for my yoghurt 🥰 The beans have been blanched and frozen and the cucumbers will be used up or given to the family for them to use. One of the things that crossed my mind today was more perennial veg, you can get perennial onions, kale, asparagus, artichoke, chard will grow happily for a couple of years before needing to be redone (if it doesn’t seed itself everywhere) fruit bushes are perennial as are fruit trees. It is definitely worth thinking about if you are short on time, have mobility issues or for when life restricts your growing ambitions.

Merge harvests today but still 100 times better than anything you can buy 🥰

I looked after Oscar for the afternoon so playing and blowing raspberries was the agenda until nap time. John came home early and made two people in the house napping 😴

Watching the news and the breakthrough in dementia medication which is great news. The bit that is worrying me is the dementia test, I can’t count backwards taking seven away each time when I am fully compos mentis so I said to John, make sure you tell them that if I ever have to go 😂 Seriously I have many strengths, numbers is not one of them especially odd numbers and taking away 🙄 words, yes, numbers, nope 😜

Tuesday: First job make up the flowers orders going out later. John always asks me ‘what are your plans’ when he is home, I don’t make plans because you never know what will come up and interrupt those plans. I usually do what I did today and think, that needs doing, I could do that, and then I have to do something different. I had a couple of notifications come through about van and car break ins in the immediate area 🙄 I had said previously to John that I need to cut the apple tree back because I can’t see down the driveway when people arrive, so that became a more important job to address today. It means I have a clear line of sight and can see what is going on, that may be customers arriving, deliveries or just randoms mooching around 😜

A bit of gardening for the rest of the day , so much that needs cutting back at the minute to encourage more flowers.

I have so many orders to get through tomorrow, Thursday and Friday and then a last minute order for flowers first thing tomorrow morning. By this time it is raining quite well and so an hour before dark I was out in the rain cutting flowers and getting soaked 😂 Back inside and change out of my wet clothes and into my pjs and a cup of tea before bedtime.

Wednesday: Up and out to cut flowers again this morning and then get the orders ready for customer pick up. Out mid morning to deliver an order then back to get the rest of the orders done. Customers arrived to collect various orders and then I had a two hour sit down around 1pm before cracking on again. More flower cutting in the evening plus watering the poly tunnels and finally sit down around 8.30pm. I have flowers to cut tomorrow morning and then orders to make up for afternoon collections so another busy day and I have had to say that I have no more availability because I literally do not have enough time to do any more😜

Thursday: Up and out to cut lots of flowers this morning, practically everything I have growing at the minute for the last orders this week. I will be having the weekend off from flowers 😂 Once they were cut it was time to make the first lot of todays orders that are being collected later on today. A short rest, then the twins and then I will will making up the last of this weeks flowers ready for collection tomorrow. I have a Oscar from early in the morning so I need to be done and ready.

I have been trying to think if I have actually left the farm at all this week, apart from a delivery of flowers (straight there and back) I think the answer is no not since last Sunday 🙄

Thursday evening was the time I needed to make up the last three bouquets for this week, I have Oscar from 7am tomorrow so won’t be able to do it then and they are being collected at lunchtime.

Friday: Looking after Oscar all morning until early afternoon, he was a good boy and we played and sang and he napped and fed, all good. In the afternoon I gave myself some time off, I needed it after that week which was fabulous but full on.

Saturday: Back to the rain and I hope it’s not too much today as one of my customers is getting married so I will keep my fingers crossed for them 🤞 I needed to tidy up the flower hut because a week long of arranging had left a bit of a mess to clear away plus I have left over flowers to deal with. They are now hanging up to dry for a different use later in the year. I had oak blocks to mark up ready for drilling as I will be doing lots more of these ready for selling as soon as I can get them done.

If you take time to really look and listen all around you there is another level of activity going on while we are all getting on with our lives. Yesterday I was stood by the back door and saw a leaf cutter bee with a piece of leaf, it disappeared next to the shed and when I looked there was a bamboo cane which is holding up some netting, I guess it went in there to make its little nest to lay an egg. It was a tiny thing but lovely to witness, this morning I saw and heard a fight going on 🙄 Again I was in the kitchen and heard birds making a right racket, normally it’s because the cats are around and we have blackbirds nesting close by as well as wrens. I looked out of the door and saw a sparrow hawk on the ground under the hazel trees trying to get the fledgling blackbirds 🥲 So I opened the door and stepped out, off flew the sparrow hawk closely followed by Daddy blackbird in pursuit, he was brave. I couldn’t see any sign of fledgling bodies so hopefully I foiled the plot.

It is not exactly an inspiring day today, rain, colder than average for the time of year and not at all like July. Saying that, John and I both agreed we would rather have this than be frying in the temps they have in Europe at the minute. I typed a whole paragraph early in the week on my thoughts about what is happening in the world climate at the minute, I read it back and thought, that’s a bit heavy and deleted it but I do think it needs addressing or I need to say it, one or the other. The problem is that a large percentage of the population think that it is geeky or whacky (just like they did with the then Prince Charles) It isn’t, it is far sighted that’s what it is, it’s being able to look further ahead and see what is coming and not burying your head in the sand, not living for today without thinking about the tomorrow. We are in for some difficult years ahead with the climate and it is happening faster than anyone expected. How do we deal with it? I don’t have any answers but we do need to start thinking about it PDQ. One question I posed to John before bedtime was, how do we prepare for living with extreme heat? What practical things can we do to make sure our house stays as cool as possible ? To be fair our place stays fairly cool, we have plenty of insulation and we have UV glass in the windows (more for the Lupus but coming in useful now) What else can we do? Maybe shutters on the windows 🤷‍♀️ The next topic was about water supply, all very accessible while things are running normally however I see problems in the years ahead so we should think about how we prepare for that. We already catch a lot of water and we have tanks to install which will catch more but that only works if it rains. What about drought, that will cause big problems for everyone eventually. We need to make sure that anything we are growing holds onto as much moisture as possible for as long as possible, mulching is the answer to that. We will need to change what we grow to eat, we are all going to be eating differently because some things we are used to eating just won’t grow in extreme heat, although we will be able to grow more exotic things probably. We were talking about exploring options for a bore hole. It is crazy to think that most villages and towns would have had plenty of wells and they have mostly all be filled in over the years. And then on the flip side what about flash flooding and deluges of rain, we have had it all thrown at us over the last few years 😂 we need to prepare for every eventually. I do think that where we live at the minute we are in a good position to cope with volumes of water unlike the folk at the bottom of the hill. So if you are looking to move in the near future I would suggest you get up as high as possible lol, high temperatures are going to cause a multitude of problems and rising water levels is one of them. None of this is fantasy, we are seeing the effects globally every day, it makes the headlines and yet it is not a topic of serious discussion for most people 🙄 You only have to look at the graphs since the Industrial Revolution to see what we have done to the world, that and applying harmful chemicals to every aspect of our lives 😏 We are furiously trying to either backpedal or outrun the consequences but we are not going to be able to so we need a plan. Governments and politicians are too busy trying to outdo each other with their manifesto’s, they are only declarations of intention it doesn’t mean they will get them done 🤔 Those that are not fighting with words are fighting with real ammunition 😡 humans seem hell bent on destroying each other or the planet one way or another, intelligent life, pull the other one!

Do I feel better for getting that of my chest, not really it just opens up hundreds of other lines of thought 😜 But if it gets one person thinking about what lies ahead and how to deal with it then I will be happy enough x

Sunday: Yesterday late afternoon we went over to see the twins, it is their 4th birthday today but they are going on holiday so we went to see them beforehand. We bought back Josh and Flo with us to stay overnight as Shelley and Martin were off to a wedding reception that evening, the weather hasn’t been a great July for weddings and that one was no exception 😕

I had decided to mainly have the day off today, apart from looking after the children until they were collected I had no other plans. I did water the small tunnel though, the cucumbers and tomatoes are growing well in there and I am already harvesting plenty of cucumbers. We did pop out to a local plant nursery as there are still one or two things I am looking for, I didn’t find them but I did get a couple of other plants 😬 We had a roast at Shelley’s mid afternoon and then back home for the rest of the day. The weather was mainly dry and I should have done some work but I was tired and decided to recharge instead.

One of the plants I keep thinking about getting is a smoke bush or continue, I think it would be a useful addition and I wonder how well the ‘smoke’ would dry but I have no idea. If anyone has a bush they wouldn’t mind me snipping a few bits off to test I would be grateful 😁

In the evening Dave bought round a delivery of honey for the egg shed, I can hardly call it that now as the lack of eggs is fairly evident 🙄 We find eaten eggs around the place, that is either birds, the dogs or the hens themselves. The problem once hens get to a certain age is they develop bad habits like eating their own eggs, the months of lockdown don’t help as that is often when they begin with these habits which is why the industry turns them over quite quickly, approximately 2 years and then they are changed. Some of our hens are getting on for 3 or 4 and no longer productive but happily living out their days, as long as the fox doesn’t get them of course 🦊

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, strawberries & the ying and yang of life.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th June 2023: A new week and a fairly busy one too as far as flowers go. It is British Flowers Week and I have the intention of doing something for it but not sure what yet. I was up early to get a bit more watering done, I did have the irrigation hoses on in the front beds last night and just wanted to get the pots watered properly. Each year I think, it can’t be as hot and dry as last year can it? and the answer is yes, yes it can 😜 After doing the watering I had a shower and breakfast, did the eggs, put on a wash load and then went out to cut some more lavender. I also cut some fairy roses for drying, they dry beautifully and are always worth doing. The lavender I have plans for once that is dry but I have sold a few bunches too. Then it was onto social media updates as you have to keep those going constantly for the algorithms 😂 plus it’s good to update customers or potential customers as to what is going on or what is available. I had the undertaker to ring for the funeral flowers on Friday, I just needed to know what time they could be delivered, then answer a message from my doctors surgery who wanted a blood pressure reading. That was not great, it is on the high side (even though I feel better today than I have for ages lol) and I now have to do morning and evening readings for a week to see what it is doing over time or if it was because I have been up working since 5am 😜 After doing that I planted up two roses that we got for our anniversary, one is called rambling Ruby and the other is called, As Good as it Gets ( a compact floribunda) now both planted and watered in. Next a sit down to do a few modules of my online course, which is mostly just watching at the minute to be honest so it is not taxing my brain. Then onto making up the flowers to be delivered later today and google the address so I know where to deliver to. It is not even noon yet.

We have geese and we have approx 4 acres they can roam in and sit wherever they like in those 4 acres but guess where they have decided is best 🙄 Right outside the door of my flower workshop, yep let’s sit and crap here all day, not even to the left or the right of the door but right smack bang in front 🤦‍♀️

The ducks have also decided they would rather like to come in the front drive, climb up on the raised beds (flattening everything with their flat feet as they go) and lay eggs there instead of in their hut. John says the ducks are not laying many eggs, I say they are laying them somewhere else, he says no I don’t think so, I find a pile of eggs in my flower beds 🤔 At the minute they are confined to their run, which is a pretty big area but they are not free ranging all over the place and especially not on my flower beds 😜

Tuesday: The whole blood pressure thing is not great, I have to send in readings and they are still up this morning. This is likely to be related to my medication although I will be making adjustments to my diet 😂 On the whole I don’t eat or do things that are bad for my blood pressure, I don’t smoke, I rarely drink and I cook most thing from scratch so salt is limited. What I have been over the last couple of months is sedentary due to the shingles and I do eat more biscuits and chocolate than is necessary 😜 but not big quantities. I was actually feeling pretty good yesterday until I took the first reading 😂

This morning I have been doing lots of different things starting with giving the flower room a clean, tidy, sweep and wash the buckets plus hang any unused flowers up to dry. Then onto some weeding in the garden, the weather is ideal for me today but I am really hoping we get some rain again soon it is very dry.

Wednesday: I planned on doing one thing and then did something entirely different 😜 But first I cut some foliage for a funeral sheaf I am making for Friday, this requires strong foliage such as a tree branch and they need as much conditioning as possible to take up plenty of water and stay looking good. Charlotte came over with Oscar before going to baby group and also to collect some flowers ordered by her friend, she delivered them for me on her rounds. Then I had planned on doing some gardening but instead I did the rest of the online course and then went I to the flower hut to do some practice 😁

We had dinner in the evening and after I went outside to pick a bowlful of strawberries for dessert 🍓 yum. I then spent an hour in the flower hut making a fresh lavender wreath which will now hang to dry as it is.

Thursday: We had a bit of rain early this morning, not much but again it will freshen everything up in a way that watering can’t do. I had some more flowers to cut, the rest of them for the funeral sheaf I will make tonight and then some for other orders.

After that I decided I really ought to do some cleaning. Initially the girls came and do it for me, changing the bed sheets etc as well but eventually I was able to help and now I am able to do it on my own again yay 😜 I did a deep clean of the bathroom the other week and then with Shelley’s help the same in the living room as I was not able to move the sofas by myself but now I need to do the bedrooms. Move everything, dust, clean, hoover and put stuff away that has been sat around for far too long. Same with the spare room where everything gets dumped, everything is now lovely and I will wait for the sun to move round before cleaning the windows which also have not been touched for a good few months lol. I still have the office, boot room and the kitchen to tackle but that can wait for another day as my hand is smarting a little so best not push it too far.

Knowing my luck the minute I hang the sheets out on the line it will rain 😂

It didn’t rain and the sheets dried beautifully 😁 In the evening it was to make up the sheaf of flowers for tomorrows funeral. It is always delightful to do flowers for people to receive but there is something profoundly humbling to be asked to do flowers for someone’s final journey.

Friday: After breakfast the first job of the day was to cut flowers for a wholesale bucket customer this tomorrow and while I was doing that Charlie and Oscar arrived. They had walked over and Oscar had his breakfast here before they walked back home again before it rains. The forecast says rain, the rain radar says rain and it looks like it will rain but as yet nothing has fallen from the sky 🙄 I did the final touches to the sheaf before delivering it to the funeral director in Witney. The flowers I do are as always fully compostable except the little cellophane cover on the message card and that is only there in case it rains so as not to smudge the writing. Natural, sustainable, seasonal, compostable 🥰

Once back home I made a cuppa and sat down, I have just had another order come in and have had to delay until Monday or Tuesday (which is fine with the customer) as I have pretty much used or will have used most of what I have growing this weekend. The flowers are at a switch over stage, the early summer flowers are still blooming but desperately need some rain and the showy summer flowers are in bud but not quite out yet, they need some rain too!

I went back outside and got on with some cutting back and weeding, the lupins and delphinium have had their first flush and I can see new growth at the base, cutting them right back will hopefully produce a second flush in a couple of months time. Cutting back plants that are going over also means that you let more light into those that are yet to bloom or have got overshadowed by the stars of the show. I cut back the nepeta which gets unruly and the campanula which grows tall then flops everywhere, the tall daisy’s are getting a bit unruly too so they got thinned out. I have the biggest patch of echinops growing, once they start to colour up I will be cutting them and that plant will need dividing, I should get some good plant material to pot up from it, grow it on and either plant elsewhere next year or sell some or both.

Early afternoon I had a delivery and not one that I had ordered this time. This was a gift from friends who came to our anniversary party, it was afternoon tea from the Cornish company 🥰 freshly baked scones, Cornish jam and cream, tea grown in Cornwall and Cornish biscuits, delicious so thank you very much Sally and Ian x

As John was 60 this year he knows a lot of 60 year olds 😜 so we are off out to a 60th birthday party tonight , the theme is 1920’s or black and white, we opted for black and white 😂

Early evening and still no sign of the rain they have been forecasting all day 🤷‍♀️🙄😏 probably pour down just as we step out of the door later 😂

Saturday: Started with cutting this morning for orders tomorrow, put the watering on in the small tunnel for the cucumbers and tomatoes, then the twins came to stay for an hour while Sam took Mia to her riding lesson. Shelley and Flo popped in and Shelley helped with a bit of technology that had me flummoxed 😶 Customers arrived to collect their orders and then I pottered around doing I have no idea what for the afternoon. Meanwhile John has been busy digging up dock and a few bits of ragwort from the bigger paddock, he did the small one the other day, then dragged it and topped it and that is looking good.

Popped out for a few hours early evening to visit my sister and on our return found a card and some strawberries in the shed for the ‘hen humans’ how lovely was that. While getting the washing in I was thinking that the universe/cosmos must listen and for every Ying there is a Yang. Just lately I have felt that some humans have no thought for anyone but themselves 😏 couple that with the loss of hens, we started with 70 when we came back from holiday and are down to 25 and it can feel quite depressing at times and then out of the blue, a lovely gesture which restores my faith in my fellow humans 🥰 thank you 🙏

Sunday: A new day and a better frame of mind today, still no rain mind you 🙄 I had flowers to get ready for customer collection mid morning but then I pottered around doing the usual, watering, weeding and watching lol. Watching to see what is about to come out, I have plenty in bud at the minute they just need a burst of rain or sun or both to chivvy them along. Once the flowers were collected we went to get some food shopping, I keep telling John to go on his own as it is mostly stuff for him, I can mange with the garden and the freezers 😂

We went over to Shelley’s for a bite to eat mid afternoon then once back I got the hose connected to do some more watering. I then wandered round and did some cutting for drying, nice red colours today which will hopefully be nice for winter arrangements. John was going to put a lot more hooks up for me but he has been doing the paddocks and changing the broken pump on the water tanks so I guess they will have to wait.

Grown not flown, natural, seasonal, local flowers 🥰
Posted in Friesland Farm

Fox attacks, summer solstice and our Ruby wedding anniversary.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th June 2023: After the bit of rain last night everything is nice and fresh this morning and it’s not so hot that it all just evaporates. My first garden job was to cut some of the taller stems that I will need later in the week, the reason is that we are expecting much more rain tomorrow and I don’t want them bashed down by any heavy rain. These are flowers that are perfect for cutting now with just a few buds open, the rest will continue to open in time for making up the bouquets. I am cutting flowers daily and not always for orders but because in order to keep them coming they need cutting otherwise if they go to seed they will stop producing and I don’t want that. It is one of the reason that a cutting garden is not filled with flowers as people expect, quite the opposite as they have been cut for using one way or another, fresh or for drying.

At lunchtime I had some customers arrive to talk about wedding flowers for the end of the year, a small wedding which I can easily do 😁 The afternoon was overcast enough to get some cutting back and tidying up done.

The evening was again spent getting watering done, the bit we had the other day was good enough to freshen up but not much else, we need some prolonged rain that will soak right into the ground. I was right last year when I said we need to catch as much as possible going forward, two years running now we have had prolonged, hot weather with no rain. It doesn’t help that our pump burnt out on the water tanks at the weekend and as yet John has not replaced it, I am sure he will if I keep in moaning enough 😜 I cut yet more flowers this evening after watering the beds they were growing in, flowers are coming thick and fast and I keep cutting them. I also walk around thinking, I need to change this or that, there will be plenty to do come autumn. Having done a full year and a bit I can now see what I did right and what I did wrong, I also know which flowers I like and what is not worth growing. The annuals were pretty much a no go this year due to me being ill and I have found I can do without most of them, yes they are lovely but there are other flowers that are just as good and perennial, saving me lots of time and worry.

Tuesday: I can’t function today, I tried but I cannot. Almost 8 weeks since the shingles broke out and I am still getting pain on one side of the wrist, hand and fingers. The skin is healing and the new skin is tender, the stinging feeling never goes away, never dulls even with painkillers, consequently it is very tiring, on the up side my eye seems to have got better by itself 🤷‍♀️ I would just like a day when I wake up in the morning and feel full of beans and ready to get going, not too much to ask is it?

We have had two daytime fox attacks today and lost around 10 birds, I heard the first commotion around lunchtime, went out and there were hens upon the egg shed, up on the fence and all making a racket. I walked round the front paddock to check it over but couldn’t see anything. An hour later another commotion and a similar scenario, we are down to 30 hens, half of those don’t lay anymore either so we will be very short on eggs and resigned to the fact that we are coming to the end of our egg selling days. Yes I know people love our eggs but we do not love the constant battle that it takes to provide them ☹️

No watering tonight as we had a good load this morning and I am glad of the rest.

Wednesday: Solstice. A better day functioning 😁 so I got on with lots of flowery things, I know I should have done cleaning but hey that can wait 😜 I started my online course and did two modules and then John came home at lunchtime. After a cuppa and a quick sit down we went out to try and find something I wanted to do flower things in, couldn’t find what I was looking for but I found a few plants instead 😂

Back home and after another sit down, John did some weeding in the driveway. I keep telling him he is wasting his time as he is doing it by hand, by the time he finishes one bit the last bit will have grown again but it falls on deaf ears 🤷‍♀️ He did stop to make me some wooden boxes to fit jam jars in, I was trying to find plastic wallpaper paste troughs earlier but can’t find any so wood will do, actually they are probably much nicer. Dinner eaten then back out to get some watering in the tunnels done, do the horses water and that basically is the end of the longest day. There was no spectacular sunset, indeed no sunset at all otherwise I would have taken a photo.

Thursday: Mostly I have been doing flowery things 😂 well there is something new 😜 Cutting a bucketful first thing this morning and then to the online course which is soooo good I keep doing module after module. I did take a few break to go and cut some drying material after every three or four modules because I needed to move around a bit.

I spent the evening making up two living vase bouquets for delivery first thing in the morning, plus flowers for Friday.

Friday: After delivery the flowers this morning we set off for a day out to Stratford on Avon, Shakespeare country. When Sam and Luke got married last year they gave us and Luke’s parents the gift of Afternoon tea and a river cruise which was lovely of them. We booked it a couple of months ago and today was the day that we got to go and enjoy the gift. We met Luke’s parents there and enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea at The Arden Hotel, the service was impeccable, the sandwiches, cakes and scones were delicious and the surroundings had a relaxed elegance. The day was very relaxed as it often is when you are next to or on the river I think, the only downfall was the volume of traffic on the journey home 😜 The weather was perfect for me to be able to wander round, overcast but warm

Saturday: I had an early night last night so that I could get up early and do some watering this morning. Pyjama gardening early in the morning is one of my favourite activities lol. Again it was overcast and so I was able to spend quite a few hours getting some gardening done including weeding, planting and harvesting berries and lavender. I was also able to wear a short sleeved t shirt which is rare for me in the summer.

1st of the lavender harvest
Juicy redcurrants full of lycopene and so good for you

I had a phone call mid morning and unbelievably I have an order for flowers from Aberdeen 😂 to be delivered locally obviously but how amazing is that.

After bundling up lavender to hang for drying and de stalking red currants it was time for a quick sit down before having a shower and getting ready to go out again. The girls are taking us out for our 40th wedding anniversary which is tomorrow.

Forty years! Where has that gone 🤷‍♀️ we met on a blind date at the Masons Arms in Brize Norton, we got engaged on my 18th birthday party which was at Bradwell Grove (when it was still a hospital) social hall, we had our hen and stag do in the Rose and Crown in Shilton and then we got married in the Holy Rood Church at Shilton. We haven’t traveled far have we 😂 not in terms of miles anyway.

The life road we have navigated has been scenic, lots of hills climbed and plenty of freewheeling downhill, we have hit plenty of pot holes and bumps on the road. The travellers we have met along the road have been many, some travelling with us and some travelling in the opposite direction but all have enriched our life journey in one way or another. At times we barely had enough fuel to keep going or the means of buying the fuel and at other times we have had enough to propel us many more miles than we ever thought we could get. We have taken turns in navigating, when one is tired or just can’t, the other takes over. We are as different as chalk and cheese and you would think that could never work but actually it works very well, I would say we are both different pieces of the same jigsaw 😂 We have accumulated some fantastic passengers on our journey, our three amazing and beautiful daughters, they invited their own passengers along, three fabulous husbands and six adorable children between them so far. Would I do anything differently, of course I would, maybe some of the turns we took were wrong turns, maybe some of the ones we didn’t take, we should have 🤷‍♀️ but I wouldn’t change who I was travelling with, on the whole considering we have travelled all that way without a map I think we are doing ok 🥰

STOP PRESS: We thought we were going out for a meal with the family, turns out they had organised a surprise party 🎉 It really was a surprise I can tell you 😂 Friends and family were waiting to greet us, a table laden with food, old photos, cake, music and a bar, what a lovely afternoon we had (once I got over the shock) We had lots of lovely cards and presents which was very kind of people, just a lovely thing to do and I can’t believe nobody gave the secret away.

Us as fresh faced teenagers 😂 our life map is now recorded in wrinkles 😜

Sunday: Another scorcher of a day ahead, at 8am this morning when I was putting out the eggs it was already very warm, normally at that time of the morning it is a pleasant temperature still but not today.

Today is actually our anniversary day but we dont have anything planned so the usual jobs got done first thing. I then had flowers to cut for a delivery tomorrow and John has been digging out docks from the paddocks. Biscuit broke out of her paddock the other day but as there is not a lot of grass around due to lack of rain we have left her in with Jack. That meant John could then top and drag the small paddock while she is not in there, meanwhile I gave the kitchen a bit of a clean. My hand is just about at the stage where I can manage most things now, though I still can’t make a fist at least the pain has gone and I am just left with an constant uncomfortable tingling which will hopefully go soon. Our plan was to get done in the morning and then nothing for the rest of the afternoon but stay in the cool of the house and hope that some rain comes our way 🙄 We also have cake to eat 😂 so invited anyone who wants some over for a cuppa.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, foxes and a bit more rain.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th June 2023: After the rain last night it is set to be another hot day again though I think more storms are in the pipeline. Seeing as I didn’t have to water today 😁 I got on with cutting flowers straight away. The flowers need cutting regardless of whether there are any orders or not, you need to keep the blooms coming and so either dead head or cut to achieve that. I do have some orders so that is what they will be used for and any that can be dried successfully will be hung up.

Once it was too hot to do any more (which was pretty early today) I came inside on was on a mission to clean the bathroom. Everything needs a good clean really as six weeks of not being able to do it has left a build up of dust and dirt. The place has has a quick hoover and a whip round with a cloth but not a real clean and I did contemplate getting a cleaner in. I mentioned it to John in the hopes he would say don’t worry I can help you but all I got was ‘it’s fine’ we’ll it’s not fine not to me anyway and so I set about cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom with my left hand and a small amount of use from my right hand. I can’t use hot water so that was out of the question, wipes it is then, not that I like using them but needs must in my current situation. I have one of those dust mops so that went around the walls first, then hoover with the brush attachment to pick up any debris and cobwebs, clean out the cupboards and wipe down all the walls, the units, the towels rails (painfully slowly I might add) use the limescale cleaner and a toothbrush on the China and the shower cubicle, wipe everything over, hoover the floor, wipe the floor over and voila about two and a half hours later I have finished 😂 A quick sit down and decide if I can do the same in the living room now or if I will run out of steam and do a half hearted job 🤔 This is really my spring clean which I was not able to do, probably not the greatest decision to do it on a very hot day but it’s either that or leave it and I don’t think I can as it’s driving me nuts 😜

I did start the sitting room and Shelley came over to visit and gave me a hand which was useful as I can’t move the sofas on my own at the minute, moved, dusted, cleaned and hoovered everything and I even got three loads of washing done. I watched the rain radar very carefully so that I knew when to get the washing in before the rain came, not a huge amount but still enough for me not to have to go out and water this evening.

Tuesday: This morning I got outside early and did some planting up which was actually a bigger job than it sounds. The bed that had been growing tulips and narcissi needed weeding and the bulbs all lifting so that they can be dried. They won’t be used as cut flowers again next year as the flowers are likely to be small but they will still be added to the front bed with shrubs in and over a couple of year will gather strength and maybe even multiply. Once it was cleared I could plant some dahlias, coreopsis and a penstemon I had been growing, then once watered in well it was given a good mulch with the old woodchip (not the new stuff as that needs to break down before using on growing beds) Thinking it must be nearly lunchtime I came in to find it was only 10.30 😂 So the next job was to go and make up a bouquet for an order that John would be delivering at lunchtime. I also needed to get the flower room tided up ready for a workshop this evening, not a flower one this time but an introduction to beekeeping workshop which will be taught by Dave from Bradwell Bees whose honey we sell in the egg shed.

I had a visit from Charlie and Oscar at lunchtime and then my hairdresser came to give me a hair cut. After that I had a sit down for a couple of hours, busy morning, rest in the afternoon, busy evening that’s how it goes on hot days for me.

It feels very close again now, I can’t see any rain on the radar so it will be an uncomfortable muggy night I think 🙄

I spent the evening outside watering, weeding and planting, I also saw a hedgehog, not sure if it was Hilda but lovely to see.

Not sure what happened to Wednesday 😂 much of the same I suspect.

Thursday: Up at 4.45 this morning to get some work done outside before it gets hot again. Watering mostly but some cutting of flowers for tomorrow’s Friday flowers. indoors once it got too hot and I ran out of shade, I did manage to prick out some seedlings in the greenhouse though 😁

After school the twins came but George was not very well and I had to send John out to get some calpol as I didn’t have any left.

In the evening I made up some jam jar flowers and some market bunches. While I was working the dogs started barking, I checked outside and couldn’t see anything. Then I heard Patch yapping in the front paddock so I went through the garden so see where he was and why he was barking. I whistled him and he came back, I told John I thought the fox had been about which is why the dogs were barking. When John went to shut the hens away in the front the bloody fox was in the hen house, somehow it had got in and the gate had shut behind him so he couldn’t get out. We have lost quite a few hens lately and can’t get anymore until September and I am not sure we will even bother. When we first came to live here the hunt was still allowed and the fox population was controlled or if you had a problem you could call them in but now there is no control and it is relentless. Couple that with the rise in feed prices, avian flu lockdowns and you wonder what the point is anymore, it’s pretty soul destroying.

Drying petals
Practising a foam free arrangement
😡 we will not have many hens left soon and we have said before that it will take some serious thinking through to decide if we bother to get any more or not as each year we battle against last years cubs fending for themselves and mother foxes feeding young, they are always out and about during the day which is difficult to protect free range hens from. With little control over the fox population the problem gets worse year on year but I guess what will happen is once the population gets too big they will begin to starve or turn to other food sources 🙄

Friday: Up early again, did a bit of pruning and cutting back and then cut flowers for tomorrow’s orders and workshop. Then Charlie picked me up and we went to Witney for a mooch round and some brunch, a very nice bagel at Coffeesmith and then pistachio ice cream a little bit later on the way back to the car. Shelley messaged and it was Josh’s turn to be poorly and she asked us to pick up a thermometer, we dropped it round on the way back and Josh was running a fever ☹️

John and I went out to get some shopping and called in to see how Josh was on our way home, he had perked up a little since the afternoon which is good.

Back home and straight on with more work, a couple of flower orders to make up for collection tomorrow afternoon and also a memorial heart for Father’s Day also being pick up tomorrow. Tidy up the flower room and sort the flowers for the workshop tomorrow morning, change all the water and snip the stems of all the flowers. With the weather so warm the flowers are struggling a little bit so I need to keep them in top condition. Sweep up and I am done at 9.30pm. John did the animals and also gave the lawn a trim for me, if I am showing people round it’s one thing that can look tidy 😂

Saturday: Plenty to get sorted before this mornings workshop, watering, cutting, weeding etc. Workshop at 10am and it was a lovely couple of hours, I really enjoy teaching (who would have thought) and each time the dynamics are different, the questions are slightly different and peoples experiences are different which makes it interesting. Once the workshop was over I had customers coming to collect orders in the afternoon then a well earned rest 😁

Hand tied bouquet workshop.

Except I didn’t have a rest, I remembered that I went back out to the workshop to do some practice with a hand held posy. I gave it to my sister in law later that evening as she has had a difficult week 🥰

Sunday: Father’s Day here in the UK so we went out for breakfast with Shelley, Charlie and their families to The Old Shed, fabulous full English for the menfolk and Josh, I opted for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, Flo had pancakes with berries and maple syrup, Shelley and Charlie went for the scrambled egg and avocado option. The place was seriously busy but the service was quick, the food was hot and delicious and we had a lovely time. We had a meander through the attached woodland afterwards, found the zip line and of course the men and Charlie couldn’t wait to get a have a go at that though they had to wait for the kids to have a go first 😂 Suitably fed and entertained we made our way back home 😁

Waiting and hoping for some more rain to arrive today, temps are still higher than average for the time of year and we really need some precipitation.

I need to call the eye hospital as my eyes have flared up again, actually what I think it that they didn’t quite heal and I should have continued with the steroid drops a little longer 🤷‍♀️

I signed up for an online course with Bex Partridge, a full dried flower course. I have her books and I have watched a workshop with her through one of my flowers groups before but I thought I would like to see her whole process as I can definitely learn more and it’s good to learn.

It rained in the evening, not much but enough to please the garden and me 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Flowers, ducklings and thunderstorms.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 5th June 2023: We have had wall,to wall blue sky over the weekend but today it was overcast, great for me because it means I can get on 😁 I had plenty flowers to cut this morning for quite a few orders tomorrow and Wednesday so that was the first job after the usual morning jobs.

Bucketfuls of flowers ready for making up bunches, bouquets and jam jar flowers for orders tomorrow.

Once I had done that I sat with a cuppa to practice making an animated motion post lol, I know, I had no idea what this was either but when I looked it up I thought it looked easy enough so I gave it a go.

Not a masterpiece but not bad for a first effort, hopefully you can play it 🤷‍♀️

Then as it was still overcast I thought I should work in the poly tunnel so I soaked the soil, dug in some blood, fish and bone and then planted up chrysanthemums and zinnia. The zinnia LOVE the heat so provided they get enough water they will be fine, the chrysanthemums not so much but I am trying out different planting places on things to see what happens. I tried delphinium in the tunnel to see if they would flower earlier than the outside ones, initially they started to flower but the cold early on in the year took them even though I tried to keep the flowers out of any draught. The plants were still fine themselves and continued to grow flowering at the same time as the outdoor plants so those will go back outside at the end of the year. No point pampering something that is going to do what it wants when it wants 😂

Inside them for some lunch and then back out to cut some flowers and foliage for something I want to have a go at, something different from my usual style. If it works out see picture below, if not it won’t be there 😜 Once those were cut and conditioning nicely it was time for a sit down for an hour.

The scent of this was amazing!

Tuesday: It is positively not June weather today 🥶 I give up wondering what our weather is doing it has a mind of its own, flaming June, more like flaming cold. I think I rather over did the weeding and planting the last couple of days as my hand was pinging away last night, it is a little better this morning but I was up later than usual at 7.15! I had plenty to do this morning as well so I more or less got straight on with making up flower orders that were being collected later today, I also have an order for tomorrow which I have already made up. Then I spent a little time doing something for myself, practising different flowers like the picture above. I confess I did it then had to take it apart and redo it before I was happy enough with it but it turned out nicely in the end I think.

We have been losing the odd hen every day to the fox, they will be feeding cubs and so more likely to come out in the daytime to find food. I heard someone not far from us lost around 60 in one go when the fox dug in 😏 At the minute we are unable to get new hens there is an all round shortage of point of lay hens, we have customers waiting and we will need some to replace the ones taken but not until September we are told 🙄 We may end up cutting our egg selling days shorter than we thought if we lose many more, we are at the point where we are not too worried about replacing them and continuing with egg sales anyway, this might force our hand. With the cost of feeding, watering, housing (and egg box costs even though we get returns we still have to buy more) the hens we just about break even, if you add in our time we definitely don’t so basically we (and by that I mean John 😂) is working for free and let’s face it who is really prepared to do that 🤔

Once all flowers had been collected it was time for a sit down but first dig something out of the freezer for dinner tonight. If anyone has a foolproof way of organising a chest freezer please tell me 😂 I know I had some lime and chilli chicken in there somewhere but I cannot find it 🤷‍♀️ The task was even more difficult than usual because my hand is not good with temperature extremes hence why I am still not doing the washing up. There must be a skill to it somewhere, bear in mind that often I have small packets of various bits and pieces that I have saved or picked and frozen for later use so not bags and boxes at all. I did find that using sacks in the bottom worked well, one with frozen fruit one with veg and one with meat but that does not cover a plethora of other oddities like frozen herbs (tiny portions) fruit cubes, passata, hazelnuts, cheese, eggs and even chocolate I think 😂 Knowing what I have in there is not the problem but finding it definitely is 😜

Wednesday: Johns 60th birthday, initially he was going to go to work but I said I don’t know why you don’t have the day off so he did. He did the morning jobs then had a shower and changed into his best clothes, meanwhile I still had work to do and he ended up following me around wondering what to do 😂 I was waiting for a delivery at lunchtime and once that arrived we took flowers down to the pub and had lunch while we were there. Back home just in time for a free delivery of woodchip, love free woodchip 🥰 I am on a database for anyone doing tree work in the area, they get in touch and ask if I want it once it’s chipped, then they deliver it. This was all willow and poplar so great stuff, he asked if I wanted laurel and holly, not chipped I said but if you cut it off whole I will definitely have it especially nearer wreath making time lol. It’s been a good day as Shelley took some flowers to her friend who was working, the manager saw them and asked where they were from, he then contacted me and wants weekly flowers plus extras now and again plus interested in me doing activities with the residents from time to time, brilliant 😁 Various family came and went over the course of the afternoon and evening and John has some rather nice events to look forward to including an F1 hospitality day and Dr Who escape room experience 😂 the second will push him outside of his usual boundaries 😜

I have had to put the sprinkler on the garden this evening, it is so dry the ground is starting to crack up and we have temps of 26c coming at the weekend apparently. It might bring thunderstorms and rain with it but you can bet your bottom dollar if we need it we won’t get it!

Thursday: I have a few orders this weekend as well as Friday flowers so I needed to get flowers and other material cut first thing. Once that was done I really needed to tidy up the flower room a little, some flowers I haven’t use or have gone past their best either get composted or the petals removed for drying. Some I had already decided to hang up to dry I just needed to get and do it so those jobs are all done and I am ready for the next lot. I need to be cutting every other day now to keep the flowers producing and if they are not being used fresh they get dried. Charlie came over with instructions and some of Oscars things as he is staying over tonight (not sure how that is going to go 😂) Shelley is having him this afternoon then bringing him after tea and Charlie and Macca are going to a wedding. I have the twins first though so I will quite possibly be knackered by bedtime 😜

It is all very well having an irrigation system set up but we really really need some rain, there is nothing quite like rain to saturate the ground and give things some oomph again. I am at the point where the things that survive stay and the things that don’t do not get replaced as I think this is the way things are going to stay, possibly (probably) even get worse 🙄 We can only do what we can and there is no point fighting against it we have to work round it but watching the news and the pollution in the USA from wildfires in Canada ought to make us take better notice of what is ahead. And just as I type scientist’s have confirmed that ‘el Nino’ has begun 😏

Friday: Oscar was a superb guest and I even got smiles in the morning, he was up at 5ish had pre breakfast, played, pooped and then went back to sleep at 7.30 for another 45 mins. That gave me just enough time to dash out and water the front and put the eggs out. Once he was awake again I put him in the pushchair and we went out to the paddock to do the horses water, take the rubbish down to the bins and feed the torts. A not of playtime and then Charlie and Macca came to collect him, he had been fine but on seeing them he suddenly realised they hadn’t been here and burst into tears 🥰 Sam and the twins came mid morning for an hour or so and then once they had gone I had to get on with making up some flower bunches to put into the flower shed for Friday flowers.

In the evening we went to get a bit of shopping and on our return a wild duck and lots of ducklings were in the driveway. Last year a duck, and I assume it is the same duck, walked all the way along our lane and down the hill to the local pond with her ducklings, it’s over a mile and she was escorted by a local lady for some of the way. This year after she left our drive she decided to go across the fields, I hope she made it. The evening wasn’t over and I had to make up a tribute heart for a customer collecting in the morning, a bit of watering and finally it was bedtime.

Saturday: Up at 5am and outside to get some watering on and cut some flowers for more orders and market bunches. The next job was to make up 20 jam jars for an order to deliver this afternoon and then a flower arrangement for the local church. It was very hot today and I was hoping for a decent thunder storm and some good rain but what we got was plenty of noise and a wetting. Everything is seriously dry, I put in soaker hoses for irrigation but didn’t bank in no rain for weeks and then temps of 30c in early June 🙄 Being on clay the water gets sucked up so quickly even on raised beds that it barely helps the plants when it is so hot and dry. Once the jam jars were delivered we had a couple of hours rest before getting on with other jobs. Back into the flower room to make up bunches of flowers and jam jars to put out for sale and also prep flowers for drying. All the while I have had the sprinkler on and moving it round every hour or so, I can’t rely on waiting for rain or I will have no flowers left.

Tribute flowers, seasonal, local, compostable, Shilton
Heart tribute flowers for a grave
Jam jars boxed and ready to deliver

It seems after talking to a few people that we missed the downpour that was happening all around 😂 literally we had a wetting that was it, no downpour that would soak the ground, barely enough to make any difference whatsoever 🙄

Sunday: Up early and gardening in my pjs 😁 watering, some cutting back and some weeding before it gets too hot. I have come to the conclusion we are in totally the wrong location to try growing anything 😂 no wonder it is always a battle 😜 The rain moves round us, the sun beats down on us, the clay and brash soak up all moisture it’s surprising I can grow anything really!

Once we had dropped off the flowers to the church we went to a nursery to look for some specific plants. I found a few but there were still some eluding me so we set off for a garden centre. We got a bit lost in the country lanes but it was a nice morning and eventually ended up where we wanted to be. As we pulled up I spotted my brothers truck and found him his wife and my mum having breakfast lol. We ordered coffee and cake as we were five mins too late for the breakfast menu. I still couldn’t find the plants I was looking for, salvia amistad seems to have dropped off the face of the garden centres this year 🤷‍♀️ I lost mine in the winter wet and cold, I had some on order but the order was cancelled and despite looking I have not been able to locate any as yet. I also wanted some white astrantia which is proving to be difficult to find in stock anywhere. Nevertheless I did come back with a few plants so I satisfied my wants for now 😜

It was hot in the afternoon so we stayed inside and relaxed, it is Sunday after all. I spent my time watching the live rain radar and was thrilled when I realised we were actually going to getting some rain, we also got thunder and lightning galore, love a good storm and the smell is fabulous. A strange thing happened when it started thundering though, John started sneezing, loads, I mean 20/30 sneezes so I looked it up and it is a thing, who knew 🤷‍♀️ it is called thunderstorm asthma, you learn something new every day. I am hoping we get a fair bit more rain as I need those tanks to fill up but I will take what we have had so far, it will energise the plants at least. I think we are a very long way short of restoring ground water levels though but I am happy for now.

I am still having a little trouble with my hand but no where near as much as I have had. I still don’t have full grip and I still can’t tolerate temperature extremes and using it for any length of time starts it jangling but hopefully day by day it gets back to normal.

Have a lovely week x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hot, cold, windy but still no rain & 60th birthday celebrations.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th May 2023: Yesterday was overcast for most of the day so I was able to get some work done outside. Today it’s sunny again so I have scorted about doing as much as possible before it gets too hot to work in. Our weather is nuts sometimes, we got from cold and wet to mild and wet to full on blue skies with not much transition in-between. My walnut tree is not yet in full leaf and usually shades the greenhouse a little is the summer but the heat we have had for the past couple of weeks is on a par with early/mid summer and as a result the plants in the greenhouse are suffering. I have removed all but those that love the heat, zinnia for instance, everything else has been moved out for now.

I am at the stage where I will be cutting flowers daily, mostly to keep more flowers coming but I do have a good few orders to do as well and of course Friday flowers which may soon become daily flowers.

I have had to put covers in place on a couple of the beds as the cats think they are deluxe toilet facilities 🙄 they damage the roots keep scratching the soil up. Other jobs included labelling and putting more plants out for sale, planting up some pots for the front area, feeding and watering anything that looks in need and anything else that looks like it needed doing, staking in this string breeze we have at the minute is a must.

Indoors at 1ish to have some lunch and sort the contents of the fridge, take some of it to the torts, sit down for a while a recoup. There are not enough hours in the day at the minute and I really need a clone or two 😂 or as I said to a friend, at least a cook and a cleaner. I already primed John that his job tonight is too mow a strip down the driveway, not all of it but just enough to make it look tidy. I can’t start the mower still because of my hand, I don’t have full grip yet otherwise I would do it myself. We have open gardens in the village soon so I thought I’d better make it look a bit presentable. Not that we are even in the village or that I am opening mine, I’m not, I used to open mine at our old place and it’s a lot of work. I have also gardened for those who then open their gardens and and take all the credit 😜

Yet again this year I will be lacking in veg that is mostly due to not being able to get things sown and planted when I needed to. I have dwarf beans, broad beans, courgettes and onions in but that’s it, if I remember I will get some sprouting broccoli sown ready for early next year that is always a welcome bit of greens to have. I have tomato and cucumbers in but no carrots, beetroot or any root veg but I can always sow some late carrots. The peas all shrivelled up in the greenhouse heat, what with that and my incapacitation it’s been a bit of a disaster year for the veg. At least the fruit is all coming along nicely though 😁

Tuesday: I spent the morning cutting some flowers and general pottering in the garden, mostly weeding but some sowing of annuals and a bit of watering as everything is very dry again already. The water butt by the greenhouse is empty, it’s all or nothing with the rain.

Wednesday: Overcast again this morning though we have had a smattering of rain overnight by the looks of things. It won’t take much at this time of year to perk the plants up no end and even if it doesn’t soak the ground it rehydrates the leaves at least which will give them a boost. It feels very much cooler today as well, the sun is supposed to appear later this has been the routine for the last three days I think.

Cut a bucket full of flowers today to make up into bunches, there is so much growing now that I will probably be able to put out flowers during the week as well as Fridays. I will make those up later and put them out into the flower shed.

Friday: Forgot to blog yesterday but I cut some jam jars flowers then went out for coffee and cake in the morning with the girls and the children then to the park for an hour so they could let off some half term steam. Onto the shop to get some shopping for the bbq on Saturday and then in the afternoon I felt a little unwell and actually nodded off for a while. John came home, he got the dinner and cut the grass and while he was cutting it I nodded off again! Definitely something going on. I made up the jam jars late evening once I was feeling better again.

Today we were up early as I needed to get a bucketful of flowers cut for an order later today then off to get some blood tests done. I haven’t had any for a while because I either was away or I haven’t been well enough to go. John then went off to the Osteopath, his shoulder/neck is still not right and it might be that he needs to have it looked at medically yet if it’s not resolved by other means. I find that these days you have to do a lot of looking out for yourself when it comes to medical issues due to the NHS being overloaded. I have only physically seen my consultant once since the pandemic and so now I test my own urine as they used to routinely do it when I went. I want to be able to pick up any problems as early as possible, I don’t mind doing it but I do feel that there are going to be so many problems ahead for people at this rate. I know we are lucky to have the service and they are fabulous once it’s identified that there is a problem but sadly many fall through the net I think. I was thinking about when I had that really bad cough, there wasn’t a doctor in the land that wanted to see anyone with a cough 😂 so I borrowed an inhaler from a family member which helped enormously but not the way it should be. The other thing I am thinking about is not having my next covid jab that they keep reminding me I am due for. I missed my flu jab simply because since last October I have rarely had any time that I have been 100%. I had infections that were difficult to clear up, then a cough worse than I have ever had in my entire life, a week or so when I was well at Christmas, another cough after which lasted forever, then the eye problem and finally the shingles 🤔 I am wondering (and I know I am not the only one) what the jabs have done to my already compromised immune system. On the other hand I wonder what would happen if I don’t have the jab, difficult choice to make 🤷‍♀️

The rest of today I will be sorting stuff out for the bbq tomorrow I hope it warms up a tad, it has been cold most of the week with overcast skies. When the sun does occasionally come out it’s hot mind you so maybe a bit of cloud and a bit of sun would be the perfect solution.

I have had to relent and put my fleece hoodie back on today rather than just a long sleeve top and Gillet, 2nd June and it’s flipping cold, ridiculous 🙄

The girls all came over in the afternoon and we sorted out the garden ready for the bbq, garden chairs needed washing etc. Sam then went and gave the horses a bath and Jack especially is looking very shiny now lol.

In the evening John and I went shopping for the bbq, it cost a fair amount but you are only 60 once I guess and you can’t take it with you so may as well enjoy it.

Watered the garden until it got dark, we have not have rain for around three weeks, we are not forecast any for at least another two weeks and when the sun comes out it is hot! Every year is different so it’s difficult to get a handle on what is best to do.

Saturday: 9am and I am already pooped 😂 did the morning jobs then get stuff out of the freezer to defrost, out to water the pots in the front, get out tablecloths and set up all the condiments and cutlery etc. Quick breakfast before everyone arrives to help out.

It was a long day 😂 but a really lovely afternoon and evening even if I did buy way too much meat for the bbq 🙄 luckily it was all fresh and so it is now in the freezer.

Cake made by Charlie 🤩

Sunday: Bit of a lay in after yesterdays busy day but once we were up we got on with the day. Once the usual jobs were done I cut a couple of bucketfuls of flowers for upcoming orders and Johns job of the day was to get the sink in the flower hut connected up to the water. I also got some hooks put up in the ceiling for drying flowers and the drying net for drying petals. Mum came up around 9 and spent a good few hours doing some weeding for me in the fruit cage which had got out of control. I had the hose connected to my watering system to water one of the front beds and I will need to do plenty of watering this evening. The lack of rain during May is ridiculous and none in sight for the next couple of weeks at least, everything is getting crispy.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Chelsea Flower show, eye hospital & flower workshop.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd May 2023: I am hoping I can type more this week, the microphone way has its limits 😜 The day started off dull but the sun soon came out and there is a considerable amount of heat in it when it does. I had to water some of the pots this morning as they are flagging already and considering the amount of rain we had previously that has caught me by surprise. The farrier came mid morning but as I couldn’t get the horses in Sam had to come here before she went shopping, go and get her shopping while he was doing his hoof work and then come back after she finished shopping to put them back out into the field. Biscuit is doing ok, she is still in the smallest paddock and no longer confined to a tiny part of it which I feel is better as she can at least get some exercise, she never runs but she has the option now😂

Charlie and Oscar came over for an hour or so, once they had gone home I decided I needed a nap. I can tolerate the constant stinging sensation when I am busy during the day but the nighttime is horrible and I didn’t get much sleep last night so was pretty tired. Late afternoon I did go outside and do a bit of work, the weeds are romping away and most of them I leave for the wildlife. Things like dead nettle and chickweed are easy to pull and don’t really swamp plants but other weeds such as bindweed, goose grass, dock and dandelion either strangle or sprawl out taking valuable light from the plants so they need to come out. Because I am limited in what I can do at the minute I have ordered some more weed membrane, not the best option being plastic but much better than weedkiller which is the other option. I did trial natural things like jute and cardboard, they work for a while but soon break down and I need a longer term solution this year. I also got some watering done especially things in pots and the tunnels, they dry out very quickly when the sun is full on. I have seen that mulching is the best way to keep plants going, two of the beds in the front were mulched and the third I didn’t get round to doing, I can see the difference so must make it a priority come autumn. I did loose quite a few plants to the very low temperatures in Winter, I think we went down to around -12 at one point, I lost both pittosporum bushes, an olive tree, rosemary, plumbago and a few others that I have no idea what they are now they are just brown twigs. Quite disheartening but everything is a lesson to learn and I know that many other people lost a lot as well.

I spent the whole morning gardening which was nice, some weeding, some planting up and watering some things, the cloudy weather made that possible if the sun came out then I would not have got much done at all.

Tuesday: I spent the whole morning gardening, sowing some annual seeds and the seedlings that are big enough to now go out. My sister came over at lunchtime with her granddaughter and had a cup of tea while Ivy played in the pirate ship and looked at all the animals. By then the sun was out and so I went inside to get stuff done. At 3pm we lost power 🙄 calls to the electric board suggested that it would not be back on until 10pm. John arrived home wanting a cuppa, no chance lol so we went shopping and called into my sister on the way home for a cup of tea. She did offer us dinner but I said it’s ok we will light the fire pit and cook on there, John was not keen so we had a cheese sandwich 😂 The electric actually came on at around 8pm so it wasn’t too bad and the first thing we did was put the kettle on 😜

Wednesday: I didn’t sleep very well last night even with painkillers 🙄 so was a bit tired today. But I had work to do first thing and so I spent a lovely hour or so cutting flowers for orders, I have had a flurry of orders this week which is fab. I had some deliveries to wait for today, stools for the workshop plus a wood delivery which did not arrive 🙄 John came home early as he had an appointment with an osteopath for his neck which has been ongoing for months now. Apparently it’s the worst he has ever seen and it took three attempts to do whatever it was he was trying to do. John has exercises to do 🙄 hopefully he will do them instead of complaining about how much it hurts all the time, you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink can you 😜 In the evening I made up the flower orders for tomorrow and Friday as I have an early start in the morning and a long but lovely day at Chelsea flower show 🥰

Thursday: Chelsea Flower Show day 😁 an early start but it made no difference as the traffic was horrendous and it still took us three hours to get there (could have driven to Devon in that time 😂) Luckily for me it was fairly overcast all day so I didn’t have to worry about hats and sun cream although I had packed it all plus wore my factor 50 top. The show itself was great, lots of natural planting and everywhere I looked the flowers were the ones I grow so my style is on point people 🙌 We saw a few gardeners world presenters including Monty so that’s a ✔️ but the people oh my goodness it was jam packed seriously rammed. We waited until around 4pm to go round again and be able to get to see the gardens, I think they should have special viewing for short people 😜 The atmosphere was lovely mind you and the food we ate was delicious plus great coffee (always a bonus) but trying to find even a square of grass to sit down was a mission. In conclusion I am delighted I went but would not go again and I am grateful that I live out in the countryside where we have great gardens and planting (natural and man made) everywhere you look 🥰 A dive into London life is not something I would like to do very often, manic and full on 😬

You couldn’t fail to notice these driftwood sculptures at Chelsea 🤩 and if you zoom in closer to the trunk you will see tiny carved fairies too.
Nearly every garden was planted similar to this, even the planters in the cafe, loved it because it is so much my kind of style, even weeds and grasses featured heavily, maybe the message is finally getting through 😁

Friday: After a full day away I feel like a whirlwind this morning not because I am full of energy but because I have lots to fit in. I have an appointment at the eye hospital again this morning for a check up and also another sample for research 🙄 I could have said I don’t want to do it again but as I said if people don’t volunteer then they will never learn anything will they. I won’t be offering my services for a third time though 😂 So this morning I was up with the alarm, breakfasted and then making up jam jars and market bunches for Friday flowers at the farm gate. It has been a busy flower week so far and it’s not finished yet as I have a flower workshop to teach on Sunday 🥰 A wood delivery arrived and that is then enough to finish the cladding on the front of the stable block which is looking great. I constantly think how ‘4th bridge’ this place is though, never ending work to do in order to fix things and all the while you are fixing one thing, something else is breaking down 😬 still it keeps us on our toes and active which is a good thing as you get older.

My arm and hand are very much improved though I still can’t hold a pen well enough to write neatly and I am still getting the stinging sensations which are intense at times but much less often. The blisters have mostly all dried up and on my arm the have all gone just the hand and fingers left now. It seems like it has taken forever and it has been around 20 days from when the shingles outbreak peaked so already it has been 27 days from onset to now and it’s still not gone entirely.

Outing of the day today was back to the eye hospital to have a needle stuck in my right eye 😜 This time is was a timed appointment and we were not there very long, the reason I was seen so quickly was because the whole thing was set up for the research doctors to be there especially for me 👍 I can’t believe how truly grateful all were and kept saying thank you, I did say I am happy to do it as long as you don’t want me to come back a third time 😂 I don’t think I could do it again, it doesn’t hurt but it the thinking about it beforehand and then the whole routine of drops for days afterwards is u settling.

While I was at the hospital I had a text from the farm next door to say that they had shit their hens away as the fox was about, there was nothing I could do except hope it didn’t go down our way. When I got home Sam was there with the kiddies and had let the dogs out so that was some comfort although John tells me we lost one hen at the back. The problem this time of year is that they are feeding young and so will risk a daytime visit 😏 I didn’t do anything else until the evening when I spent time moving some flower stuff over to the hut and getting the place sorted ready for working in. John continued to clad the outside and we are very nearly there now.

Watering plants late evening finished off the day.

Saturday: Was hoping for a good nights sleep last night but no, the pain (tingling now) intensifies at night 🙄 Anyhow I was still up when the alarm went off as I had lots to do this morning, after the usual jobs I spent an hour and a half cutting flowers and foliage for tomorrow. Typically the flowers I was hoping would be out have not yet arrived, cornflowers and campanula being two I can think of. Luckily I ah E plenty of other things growing and so I have cut delphinium, lupin, geums, astrantia, nepeta, tellima, hesperis, aquilegia, some shepherds purse and buttercups too. Tomorrow I will cut some grasses and some cow parsley for movement and air as most of the showstopper flowers in May are pointy and so some contrast is needed.

I sat down for a while after doing that as my hand was pinging like crazy 😜 It is down to the last bit now on the wrist and hand as the arm has cleared up and no sensations at all from there thank goodness. Constant pain, however small, is very wearing both mentally and physically I am just glad there will hopefully be and end to this soon although some people co to use to suffer for many months ☹️

All the while I am organising the flower workshop, flower orders for next week, what gardening needs doing plus the usual household jobs, I am also organising a bbq for next Saturday for John. It will be his 60th birthday the following week 😂 When I was 17 and we first met I could never have envisaged John being 60 and us having 3 beautiful girls and 6 gorgeous grandchildren plus the three brilliant husbands in their lives. We have been very fortunate and I count my blessings every day as does John and of course he hit the jackpot when he married me 😜 We will also be celebrating 40 years of marriage at the end of June, whaaaat where did those years go 🤷‍♀️

Sunday: First flower workshop day 🥰 Up early as I still had plenty to organise including more cutting of grasses and anything else I decided was useful. John was busy finishing off a few bits on the outside of the building and tidying the area so there were no trips hazards. I then had to divide up everything I have cut in equal measure into the six buckets, 1 for me to demonstrate and 5 for the ‘students’ I also did a quick arrangement in a vase to pretty up outside the door and after a few other bits had a sit down before they arrived at 2pm.

We then spent two hours learning about British grown flowers, how to cut, condition and look after the flowers in a vase. I demonstrated a hand tied while Tea and coffee was served along with some delicious blondies from Indulge by Amy. After that it was over to the ladies to get a bucket of flowers and make their own all by themselves. It all went very quiet, the concentration was intense but they all produce a hand tie that stood up as a hand tie should and were very pleased with themselves as was I because it meant I had taught well. We had a quick photo session before heading out to the garden for a look at where I grow the flowers, although not many out because I had cut them all the day before for the workshop 😂

Hand Tied flower workshop Oxfordshire, Flowers from the Farm
Fabulous time at my first flower workshop 🥰 more dates available in the year if anyone is interested.

I had a bit of a sit down for an hour or so after that before returning to tidy up. Now I have such a great space to work in I will be able to do so much more and one of the first things I did was a living vase bouquet which I was pleased with. The cellophane used is biodegradable and all other materials are either recyclable or compostable.

Celebration bouquet in a living vase now available 😀

And that was the end of a rather busy week lol, but I look forward to more busy weeks like that in the future. Thank you for reading have a great week x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Weather – variable, Flower sales – great, to do list – getting there 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday17th April 2023: I had one of those mornings where all the things that were bugging me just had to be done and there was no putting it off any longer. It’s not that I put them off just that other jobs jump the queue 😂 So this morning I hoovered the boot room and washed down all the side areas, it gets dusty and dirty with the cats and dogs in there but when it’s constantly raining there is no point even trying to clean it because it won’t stay like that for more than ten minutes. It probably still won’t stay very clean but I couldn’t put up with it any longer, then there was the fridge to clean out, things lurking in the back and half used things sitting on the shelves, all clean and tidy again. I managed to smash my favourite tea mug while I was wiping down the side ☹️ so I then had to hoover the kitchen floor which also needs a wash but as the wet just gets walked right in I only want to do it when we have a dry period 😜 I cleaned the bathroom and emptied the wash basket, I also need to wash a few extra things for our holiday, my hat for instance. There were things to put away in their right place things that just get put down somewhere and left for a few weeks 😬 I feel less stressed when these jobs have left my head because they are done ✔️

The weather is cloudy and not at all spring like but that suits me fine as long as it’s not raining though the air is damp with no sun shining through. I have a few flowers to do for customers this week, some today but mostly at the end of the week and then there are Friday flowers of course, they sell quickly most of the time and as the growth season gets under way there will be many more flowers and so many more to put out which will be fabulous.

John bought home a second hand commercial freestanding sink and drainer which we had found locally, we got it all cleaned up (it wasn’t too bad just some grease on a couple of the legs) and go that in the flower hut. They have a deeper sink so much better for getting the buckets in, it is difficult in a shallow sink to get the taller buckets in and get the tap over the top. It will only be used to fill the buckets and give them a swill so didn’t need to be anything too fancy. Flowers being picked up this evening and then I have an online meeting later tonight.

Tuesday: I keep thinking it’s Wednesday 🤷‍♀️ I have flowers to do for Thursday and thought I better get cutting ready for conditioning then realised it’s only Tuesday 🙄 The morning started badly with me waking up with pink eye and then later dropping a box of eggs as I was taking them out to the shed 😝 Maybe I should just sit quietly today 😂 I know I won’t though as the sun is trying to make an appearance, it still feels a tad cold out but it’s only 9am so if it stays out it will warm up to a beautiful spring day hopefully.

It is three years today that Dad passed away, where does the time go and how come it goes by faster the older you get 🤔

I spent a large part of the day weeding, Shelley called in and also got stuck in helping me with the never ending weed harvest 😂 I know you can eat a lot of them and I have made food from them before now but mostly they feed other animals or get composted. I also took some cuttings from a sedum and dug up some campanula seedlings and potted those up, getting free plants for another day is money saving and satisfying.

Wednesday: It is Mia’s birthday today, a whole seven years old, oh to be seven again lol. We will be popping over to see her later after she finishes school.

I am hoping it will be dry enough to get the towels washed and on the line today 🤞🙄 They are just finishing the cycle as I type, I have a hearty beef stew in the slow cooker along with a multitude of yummy veg so once the towels are out I am free to get on with the rest of my day. I will be lifting and cutting flowers today ready for Friday flowers plus a few other orders I have tomorrow and Friday. Once the season is underway I hopefully will have flowers available all week long but at this time of year I concentrate them to the end of the week. This way I don’t end up with flowers I haven’t sold and therefore money wasted.

I got another brew on the go yesterday, comfrey tea 😁 comfrey grows like mad here and so best to make good use of it by steeping it in water for a few weeks. It makes a stinking tea but it is great plant food so worth the effort, sustainable, natural plant food 🥰 Fill a bucket with the leaves, cover with water, cover the bucket (because of the smell) and leave for three weeks then use it at a 10:1 ratio the 10 being water. It has a high nutrient content due to the deep tap root being able to access deeper soils, high in potassium and nitrogen, it can be used as a spray (foliar) feed or watered onto the soil promoting good strong growth and good fruiting/flowering.

Having sung Biscuits praises saying she doesn’t try and get out (famous last words) she has got out three days running the little s**t 😂 The electric tape is up and clicking away so I know it’s on, I think she is literally climbing through the post and rail fencing 🙄 So plan b is put into action 😝 She is fenced off inside the smallest paddock we have so I lure Jack across with the showing of tasty hay and shut the gates at either side of the paddock. I undo the electric fenced off area and let them both roam the small paddock, the hopeful outcome will be that Jack helps to graze it right off and then he will go into the paddock next door while Biscuit stays in the eaten off one. Every now and then we will have to put Jack in there to help keep the grass down as it is growing well now. This is the plan, plans do not always go how they should, watch this space 👀 by the time I finish sorting this out it is lunchtime.

Over to see Mia after school to celebrate her birthday with her. I left the water on in the tunnel while I was away and this year I and using the timer on my watch to remind me to turn the water off again, so far that is working well though I did have to re set it twice while we were out as I had only set it for an hour.

Thursday: A sunny day with a stiff breeze making it feel cooler. I had a busy morning doing flowers, I have some orders going to customers today, some tomorrow and then the Friday flowers and jam jars. It is surprising how long it takes to do them all, it’s after 1pm and I have only just finished having been doing them all morning. Normally I would do them this evening but I have some deliveries to make after the twins have gone home and then it’s pool night for John so I have to squeeze it in-between the two 😝

Friday: Up before the alarm this morning to get things done, flowers needed to go out early for customers coming first thing, the bunches needed wrapping and the jam jar flower needed tying loosely. I was hoping to get it done before the alarm went off and John got up but he decided to get up early too 😝 He had to stand and eat his toast as I had commandeered the kitchen table, once the flower hut is ready this will no longer be a problem. I had early customers coming for eggs and honey to so I had to make sure all those were ready and out in the shed. My day is going to be like that today, I have an appointment at 9 Shelley is coming over around 10.30 to walk through things that she will be looking after while we are away, I have customers coming to collect flowers at other times of the day and I have someone coming to collect lambing equipment I sold online.

The weather was lovely yesterday and today it’s not! Colder and wet again urrgghh there is just no consistency to the weather patterns at the minute. On the sunny days you think ‘ooo Spring has sprung’ and then back to ‘oh it’s winter again’ 😂 it does not make life easy for growing things either, the fluctuation in temperatures in the greenhouse and poly tunnels confuse the plants and seedlings and things growing outside are trying but progress is slooooow. Hey Ho no two years are ever the same so at least we are used to ‘winging it’ 😜 All we can do is try our best.

Locally grown cut flowers, British grown cut flowers, flowers from the farm, Shilton, Oxon

Saturday: Foggy and cold start to the day, it took a good few hours for the sun to burn it off but when it finally did it was not a bad day though it ended with rain and was cold again. First thing this morning we went to town as I needed a good rain coat for our holiday ✔️ then stop to get some shopping ✔️ once home I needed to pick rhubarb and then take that along with flowers down to the pub ✔️ once back I spent an hour or so in the greenhouse potting on plants and then I had the twins for a few hours while Sam and Luke took Mia out for her birthday treat. They were very good and I had them picking all the dandelion heads off the lawn and feeding them to the torts. Then George helped me to dig up dandelions in the pathways, I think he thoroughly enjoyed that especially the great big ones. I seem to have an awful lot of them this year they were growing everywhere and in order to knock them back a bit I needed to dig them up. Not all of them obviously, I have left some smaller ones and I didn’t dig any out of the lawn they can stay and just be mown every now and then. They got hungry and we went inside for lunch and stayed in for the next hour as the sun went in and it got cold outside again. Once they had been collected I was straight back out on the dandelion mission while John cut the lawn. As I said in the beginning the temps dropped and the rain came 🙄 Joping for a half decent day tomorrow 😬

Sunday: It was, for the most part, a decent day 😁 the weather conditions were just about right for me and so I spent most of the time in the greenhouse potting on or pricking out seedlings. John was busy having a bonfire at the back and tidying up. Sam came over with the children, a friend and the friends daughter who goes to riding lessons with Mia. They spent some time grooming the horses then saddled them up for rides around the paddock, everyone, horses and children were very well behaved except Lucie who by all accounts played in the horses water bucket 😂 and then had to strip off because she was soaking wet, you gotta love a spirited carefree child 🥰

We went round to Mums later in the afternoon and we were there when the national test alarm sounded on our phones. Mums went off and then around 30 seconds later mine went off, apparently lots of people didn’t get it at all so it’s lucky it was a test signal and not the real thing 😝 We had a discussion about what exactly the alarm might sound for, we don’t have tsunami, we have fires but nowhere near the scale of some countries, I suppose flash flooding might trigger it but I am guessing the flood would be quicker than the alarm 🤷‍♀️ chemical leaks or explosions might well be on the list but they would be localised as would many threat to life situations such as a gunman on the loose. We concluded that a meteor strike or nuclear attack were what it is intended for 🤔 Which begs the questions, do they know something?