Tag: shilton

Posted in Friesland Farm

Picking, Strawberry jam & feathers everywhere.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st July and the weeks keep rolling on 😏 A nice morning as far as I am concerned, overcast, dry and not to warm 😀 John did a couple of the bird pens before going to work and I did the rest and picked greenery for the torts and rabbits etc. Then once I had done the ‘housekeeping’ bits I got on with putting out some plants for sale and digging up some self set plants and potted them up ready for sale in a couple of weeks. After that I picked blackcurrants and gooseberries, you can tell they are ready when you disturb the blackbirds foraging underneath the bushes. I do leave enough for the birds, taking some to put out for sale and some to either freeze or make jam.

The girls and the grandchildren came for a couple of hours in the afternoon and after they went I made the blackcurrant jam.

After getting the dinner I went outside to do some more picking and the watering, I picked broad beans and rhubarb and found a courgette I had missed previously which was on the way to becoming a marrow 🙄 Everything I s coming on nicely, the tomatoes have started to form as have the peppers, there are tiny melons, no sign of cucumbers yet though. Dwarf beans are flowering and there are some squash forming, I am keeping an eye on the cherries so the birds don’t get them first, the brassicas in the cage are romping away and the potatoes are abundant, looks like a good year 😀

Tuesday: Another lovely looking morning, the sinusitis was getting better, I thought, but it had come back with a vengeance this morning 😐 thick head and all.

After doing the rounds I then collected greenery for the torts and rabbits/guineas, the rabbits etc had mainly trees and herbs this morning, lilac, hazel, willow, mint, lemon balm, fennel and a few dandelion types for good measure. The torts love the yellow flowers of all dandelion types so I went round and collected those for them today.

I noticed this morning that my nut and fruit trees are absolutely covered with ladybird larvae in different stages, fantastic 😀

I took some blueberry cuttings, I need to do something with the blueberries they are not thriving like they should and therefore the yield is not great, in fact an overhaul for the fruit cage interior is very much on the cards. I have ordered some weed membrane and intend to plant the raspberries that are in pots into the ground, it was a job I was going to do last year but didn’t get round to it, the membrane will hopefully keep most of the weeds at bay and the moisture in the ground so it will be less work in the long run.

In the afternoon, Sam, Mia, Shelley, Josh, Florence and I went to a pick your own farm to get strawberries 😀 I do not have enough of my own this year to make jam so off we went to gather some, a few kilos later and a fun afternoon and this evening I have made strawberry jam 😀 I wish I could let you smell the divine smell of it bubbling away on the hob, amazing smell 😀 A word of advice if you ever buy homemade jam, if you are dairy intolerant just check with the maker that they haven’t put butter in it. Some recipes advise a knob of butter to disperse the scum, personally I haven’t found it makes a difference and I prefer to use the back of a metal spoon to lift it off, it sticks readily to the back and can be scrapped off into a bowl. If I am making jam that is purely for our own use I don’t even bother, it looks unsightly but there is nothing wrong with it, it’s just froth really.

Normally I would make a dessert or two with the strawberries but the last two weeks John has come home with cakes made by his customers, not little cakes, full size cakes, last week a chocolate one and this week, from a different customer I might add, a lemon one. So we have cake to eat and no point making anything with the strawberries except jam lol.

I sold three more ducklings today, that’s 27 in total so not bad, I am planning on keeping 15 so have another 9 to sell.

Wednesday: Up and at it early, did the rounds then onto watering things that are in the shade, the ground is dry again due to lack of moisture. I spent a good hour or so watering things and I will have to do the rest tonight, especially the raspberries as they are small and dry not plump, so lacking in water even the ones in the ground, I never used to have this problem, only in the last couple of years. By 10 I had come in, I was feeling tired, the steroids stopped a couple of weeks ago, and once I’m tired I know I’m not going to achieve much so time to recuperate with a coffee, some cake and a sit down 😀

Blue skies mean I don’t get outside much more today, I did go back out in the evening once it had cooled down a bit and did some more watering.

The fox had a hen in the side paddock, she was out when I fed them at 4pm, I had tried to catch her but couldn’t and forgot to tell John when he came home, at about 8pm the dogs barked, but they do that a lot so we didn’t take much notice and then when John went to put the hens to bed…..feathers everywhere ☹️

Thursday: Another blue sky, sunny day on the cards so I set my alarm for 5.30, the early morning air was fresh and cool, delightful, I got plenty done before I had to come in. I didn’t water as I had done that the night before but I did a bit of weeding in the polytunnel and I harvested some potatoes, these were some I grow in a large square crate, and I leave the tiny potatoes that come off in there to go again, so in essence they are self set and I always get a good haul from them, touch wood they have never had disease either, I have been doing this for about 4 years now, maybe I should just do it for all my potatoes?

Contemplating what to do for dinner tonight, I found some frozen pizza dough I made and some passata frozen from last years tomatoes, I have mozzarella in the fridge and fresh basil, a drizzle of chilli oil that Shelley bought back from Italy so I’m good, that just leaves what to cook for John 🙄

With some of the strawberries I have left I made a simple strawberry sauce to bottle up and put in the fridge, this can be used on ice cream, in milkshakes, on pancakes or in yoghurt, whatever you want to put it on really lol. I made a batch of Greek yoghurt at the same time then I will have both things to use at the same time. I use an easiyo maker which is VERY easy to use and makes great yoghurt, one day I would like to make my own yoghurt from scratch but as only I eat eat and not that often it’s not something I have tried doing yet.

I’m getting paranoid about the crows stealing my cherries 😂 the minute I hear them out there I go out to check they are not raiding my trees. The year before last they stripped everything, cherries, pears, gooseberries so I am determined to get some this time round, I can’t imagine how farmers feels when they strip a whole crop!

Friday: I went to Josh’s sports morning first thing then we went to the new shake shop that has opened in town 😀 I’m writing this Sunday and can’t actually recall what else I did that day apart from probably watering 😜

Saturday: Overcast today, whoop, so I did a fair bit of weeding and sorting out plants for sale, generally speaking all day in the garden doing stuff. In the evening we went to a Memorial walk and family fun event, I didn’t do the walk but joined them later for the bbq and raffle. It was in aid of the Eve appeal which is a charity for research into gynaecological cancers, a very special lady, Julie, our cousin died from Vulval cancer and the event is to raise funds and awareness. Here is the link to their website if you want to know more

https://eveappeal.org.uk

It was raining when we left there it just about 4/5 miles away and when we got home, nothing 🙁 could have done with a small shower for the veg garden.

We came back with My sister and brother in law who were having a ‘quick cuppa’ a couple of hours later, we had booked a small break between us and it was time for bed lol.

Sunday: Overcast to begin with so I did a lot of picking, carrots, peas, broad beans, raspberries, turnips, potatoes. The raspberries are getting more numerous now so it makes them worth picking 😀 We are having lamb later with all our own veg seasoned with homegrown rosemary and garlic, then we will have the raspberries for dessert.

One of my cherry trees has already been raided, not the crows en mass this year but the blackbirds in covert operations from underneath, and now they have started on the morellos 😕 The problem is that they eat them just before they ripen and as cherries do not continue to ripen there is no point me picking them early, so the decision I have made is to let the birds have them, I have plenty of other fruit and I can’t keep rushing out there to shoo them off because they come straight back when I go in. Netting won’t work for the smaller birds as they go under and up, it would keep off the crows mind but they don’t seem interested this year.

The tomatoes are turning red 😀 I always feel that it’s the pinnacle of the main growing season and I have a strange sense of fulfilment 😀

The geese are moulting after their egg laying stint, it looks like a fox attack as there are feathers like this all over the farm 🤣

Posted in Friesland Farm

Garden produce, borage & hot weather.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th June: It’s very humid today, no Sun so that’s great for me but, sweating and glasses steaming up hinders work 😂 On top of that my cold has now turned to sinusitis, bloody brilliant 🙄 I can’t breathe through my nose very well and that even makes eating difficult lol. Having said that I have been working (and eating) I did the morning rounds as usual and then tidied up the front flower border outside the gate, then I went into the brassica cage and weeded all of that, a trugful of weeds divided between the torts, the rabbits/guineas and the young chickens. I picked some peas which we will have with our dinner tonight, some rhubarb which I am planning to make jam with and some artichokes which I have no idea what I will do with! Artichoke is a delicacy and we are not that kind of eaters, they are also a bit of a faff if I’m honest but they make great architectural plants and if there was nothing else available I’m sure we would eat them, I must try the torts actually as they might like them. The easiest way to eat them is cut in half, remove the choke, then use garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, plus herbs if you like to coat them and roast them in the oven, they are delicious but as I said a bit of a faff even to eat them lol.

It was trying to rain when I came in at lunchtime and we have these thunderstorms supposed to arrive but as yet nothing.

I’m sorry a couple of the photos didn’t upload correctly on last weeks blog so the pic of the kittens wasn’t there, nor the greenhouse, I will see if I can fix that this week.

Update on the kittens, Benny is getting a little braver and will have a stroke now and again, Sam bought them some dreamy treats and they love them so it’s a good way to get him to come to me, however when I say love them, I mean love them, addictively 🤪 so much so that I have had to limit them and be careful when giving them as TC bit into my thumb last night because I was holding one, his needle like tooth went straight through my thumbnail, ouch, very ouch 😲

We finally got round to getting the fridge out, it’s an integral fridge so everything had to be unscrewed, we found a mouse nest at the bottom and it had chewed the lagging off the cooling pipe which had then frozen with solid lumps of ice. Unfortunately we also found a hole in the top and water leaking from it, goodness knows how it got there, anyhow we weighed everything up, the fact that it is over six years old and if we got someone to repair it, if they could, it would start to cost the same amount as a new one. The fact that it’s integral means it is quite small, goodness knows what I was thinking when I decided on it in the first place, and I have always complained that I can’t get much in it, so we decided to buy a new one, not integral but freestanding. I opted to have it taken away and recycled and to have the packaging taken away and recycled so I feel better about it slightly, but things ain’t what they used to be these days 🙄

Watered the poly tunnels and a few other bits, no sign of the storms yet.

I decided not to make rhubarb jam in the end instead I cut it and open froze it for use in the winter.

Tuesday: It’s raining this morning, it seems the thunderstorms that were predicted have abated a little, I’m glad of the rain it means I don’t have to water the garden but the temps are set to climb high this week. I say high, probably not by some countries standards but they are by ours.

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary 😲 where did all those years go.

It’s 7.30am and I am waiting for a break in the rain before I go out and do the rounds, I don’t fancy getting too wet this morning 😂

After braving it and not getting too soaked, I made some bread and a mixed crumble with the rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, did a bit of cleaning, then got soaked when someone came to buy some ducks lol, some you win, some you lose 😜

Wednesday: Another good day for me weatherwise, overcast which means I can get out and about easily and do some stuff. Mum came over in the morning (with a bit of homemade Bakewell tart 😀) to give me a hand so we weeded the front area which looks better now 😀 I am not sure what to do about it long term, it’s a huge expense of gravel and normally I weedkiller it but I’ve been trying to avoid that, however the weeds are growing like billio 🙄 and it looks scruffy. One idea is to cast seeds from love in a mist, foxglove, poppy etc so that it’s supposed to look like that lol, what ever I decide it has to be the least amount of work possible to keep it looking ok.

Sam arrived and took me food shopping, the new fridge also arrived and I didn’t want to go before that came so that I didn’t have too much to unload when the time came but now I can fill it up 😀

After a short rest I went out and cut the lawn and the front driveway grass while John pulled up a forest of stinging nettles. The farmers are out busy cutting the hay so we know we are in for a good few days of sunshine, great for everyone, not so great for me 😂 I shall be up early (hopefully) to crack on before the temps climb too high.

Thursday: A sunny morning, feels like it’s going to be hot 🥵 I did the morning rounds, discovered John had turned on the ICB tank at the back last night, forgot to turn it off and now it’s empty! Great just what we needed 1000ltr of rain water gone and no rain forecast for a while 🙄🙄 I went for routine blood tests today and on the way back along the lane a hare ran across the road in front of us, that made my day, week, month 😀😀😀 I have a particular love for hares.

We had lamb for dinner tonight with carrots, kale and potatoes all from the garden, and then raspberries and strawberries for pudding also from the garden, delish, the taste is amazing especially the carrots, John said ‘I don’t know what they do to the carrots in the shops but they have no taste compared to these’ I take that as a compliment 😀

Friday: Another fine day, I often wonder what other countries use as an icebreaker conversation, here in the UK it’s always the weather lol, mostly ‘it’s, hot, cold, wet, horrid, today isn’t it’ but occasionally ‘it’s a beautiful day’ and today is one of those 😀

After doing the morning rounds and collecting forage for the torts I made coffee and sat and watched them to see what they prefer. For both the rabbits and the torts it’s always dandelions first, especially the flowers for the torts they love them. I gave them some borage flowers today, I had picked some along with the raspberries and strawberries which I will eat alongside each other. Borage, just in case you didn’t know is the starflower, all parts are edible but the root is not palatable, it’s contains gamma linoleic acid which is anti inflammatory and helps to build muscle rather than fat, besides that it is a beautiful plant, though it self seeds readily, and it attracts pollinating insects by the score.

I am always interested in what is edible both conventional and wild, John says that I can’t wait for an apocalypse lol, I can, I don’t want one to happen but if it does and the supermarkets run out, I want to know what we can eat 😜 and if that ever happens in our lifetime, he will be grateful too.

I am beginning to get a fair few courgettes, I can feed them to the chickens and I do make the yummy chocolate/courgette cake but as a general rule we don’t eat them, I would like to know how others use them in their cooking please 😀

The baby robins have fledged so I can now rummage around in my plant pot stash without fear of disturbing them, unless of course Mum and Dad come back for a third batch!

I was watching the ‘dead stick pile’ the other morning and the amount of birds that use it for cover is amazing, all the fledglings feel safe flying into the piles and there are obviously nests in there as well so I will definitely be using these for the wildlife. I thought I had hit upon something new but apparently they are called dead hedges and I can see how they would be totally useful in a very quick time to ‘fence’ off an area, I intend to use the idea round newly planted trees to stop the geese from stripping the bark and the hens from scratching up the disturbed soil.

I made a lemon and courgette Madeira cake, simple enough recipe and tasty enough, at least it’s a way of getting some of your 5 a day 😜 I’m not actually sure it counts to be fair but it uses up a courgette and they are coming thick and fast now.

The recipe is from thecrazykitchen.co.uk

For dinner we had roasted new potatoes and peas from the garden with steak, I roasted the potatoes and steak in the oven with olive oil, crushed garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, simple but delicious 😋

Saturday: John went and did the rounds while I cleaned the boot room where the kitty’s are and then cleaned out the rabbit/guinea run and collected leaves for them and the torts. Picked a few courgettes and some raspberries and by 9.30am it’s already hot out there, I can feel my skin beginning to prickle and itch, I can see I won’t be outside for very long today. The Lupus makes it difficult to get out and get some work done on days like this because I don’t want to end up with another flare which is what will happen if I was stupid enough to work out in the Sun, the antibodies would have a field day and I would be back in a place that is not good, so although I would love to be out in it, I will hide away inside for most of the day 😏

I was able to work in the shade until about 12.30 sorting out the area around the greenhouse, by then bumps started to appear on my hands so it was time to go inside. Days like these are when I am grateful for the insulation as it’s wonderfully cool indoors 😀 we had lunch and then rested on the sofas for the afternoon waiting for it to cool down again.

The dogs are laying in the shade, they have a great life, they don’t go for walks but have free range of the place from early in the morning to late at night, Mia spends a lot of time trying to round up ducks 😂 patch doesn’t bother choosing to lay and watch 😜

Charlie and Macca invited us for a bbq in the evening, their garden is shaded by that time so it was nice and cool 😀

Sunday: I had set the alarm for 5am this morning in order to get some stuff done before it gets too hot, John got up at the same time and did the morning rounds then cleaned out the hens, I watered things that were flagging from yesterday’s heat and then picked courgettes, broad beans, raspberries and rhubarb. It was lovely and cool at that time of the morning and easy to get on with things. I potted up some peppers that I had been growing in the poly tunnel but moved to the greenhouse, even though they are late they should do ok in there and produce something. Then we went for breakfast at Shelleys, they returned home from a holiday in Italy yesterday so we went to hear all about it, sounds wonderful and they fell in love with Italy 🇮🇹

As it happens it’s about 8 degrees or more cooler than yesterday and cloudier so we probably didn’t need to get up early but it’s a great time of the day 😀

I tried the gooseberries but they need a little longer until they are sweet, I will be keeping an eye on them and the cherries as the crows strip them as fast as anything once they know they are ready.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Kittens, Fairy’s & Bon Jovi lol

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 17th June: Perfect day for me finally, no rain, no sun 😀 so I spent until 2pm out in the garden, mostly weeding, a huge trugfull for the rabbits and Guineas one for the little chicks, some juicy thistles etc for the torts, yep plenty of weeding done today lol. I planted some more sweet corn that Shelley gave me, and watched the little robins darting back and forth to the nest with worms, this is the second brood they have raised in my plant pot holder, I disturbed a little frog under a pile of weeds, good to know the wildlife is abundant 😀

I picked more courgettes today, I was looking at all the plants thinking omg I am going to have a lot of courgettes lol but the hens will eat them so will the torts and the rabbit and guineas so what ever we don’t use or sell will still be of use. The cucumbers I planted out when it was warm are struggling with all the wet weather so I dug one up and moved it indoors, one looks like it may be ok and the other three, well I don’t think they will make it 😏 I do have three more in the big tunnel that are doing fine so should have plenty of cues 😀 There are tomatoes beginning to form on one of the plants and plenty of flowers on the other plants, most things are just beginning to get going now, it always seems like a long wait and then there will be gluts of everything 😜

Just watching ‘The War on Plastics’ again, horrific, it goes from bad to worse! Wet wipes 🙄 Flannels, cloths, cotton rounds, water and baby lotion are the way forward!

Tuesday: Dry so far this morning although the rain is forecast this afternoon 😛 Mia day today, last one as Sam goes on maternity leave after this week. This cold I have gets better one day and comes back the next so I have a headache today, better than a blocked nose I suppose. A quick look round the garden with my coffee in hand, picked a few raspberries and a couple of strawberries but not many.

We had a lovely lovely day, the rain mostly stayed away, Mia was a fairy in the morning lol and then my Mum came over to do a bit of gardening and Mia was her little helper, well more talking her ears off but it was lovely listening to the pair of them while they were working.

I picked all of the remaining broad beans from the plants that have been growing since last autumn and as mentioned the early potatoes have blight so I dug most of them up, there is half a row that as yet is untouched by it. It wasn’t a bad haul from a small space and I will now use that space to grow more carrots I think.

In the evening we went to collect two new animal members of the farm, meet TC and Benny, you will have to be of a certain age to get the names 😜 but it was one of Johns favourite cartoons.

Wednesday: Strange day as far as the weather goes, it seems like it’s going to rain but hasn’t yet, dreary but warm, I know there are big thunderstorms going on in the UK but we don’t seem to be getting anything. I did the morning rounds and then a quick check of the veg garden. Some hoovering and prepping the dinner later, home grown potatoes, carrot and broad beans, yum. Played with the kittens a couple of times to get them used to me, they were born on a farm in a shed and did have humans but being taken away must be quite frightening so I am trying to settle them in gently and hope they realise we are nice 😀

We are fast approaching the longest day, summer solstice, and haven’t even had any summer yet! Hmmm we could definitely do with a bit more warmth for the toms cucumbers and peppers, the rest will tickle along nicely as it is.

The kittens are in a large dog cage in the boot room, I thought they were secure 😂 I watched them earlier climbing up the cage and thought, ah how cute, when John went out the back later he said ‘the kittens are out, do you know’? Now maybe the fact that the cage door was still bolted might have given him some kind of indication that, no, I didn’t know! It seems they have climbed up and got out of a gap at the top, obviously a cage made for a large dog isn’t going to keep two tiny kittens in, duh, I should have thought it through more thoroughly. Gap now plugged it remains to be seen if they can squeeze through any other gaps, the problem with letting them out is that we have a large pipe running surface on the floor, right in the middle to be precise and it has to be stepped over every time 🙄 it was temporary about 5 years ago, and until the exit areas of the pipe are checked I have no idea if they are sealed when they meet the walls. John is busy eating an ice cream so can’t do it at the moment 😜 priorities. All checked and secured, kittens now back inside the cage hopefully they will remain there 😏

TC is the friendliest one who will come for a stroke and purrs, Benny doesn’t, he hides away and so he is the one we need to work on.

One thing really bugging me at the moment is the integral fridge, it is freezing everything so at the weekend we are going to pull it out clean all around it and see if that makes a difference.

Thursday: Writing this at the end of the day and can’t actually remember what I have done, can’t be that memorable 😏

I do know that I prepped the dinner early on this morning, I had a random minced pork in the freezer, I probably bought it for stuffing at some point and never used it so tonight John has ‘piggy pie’ a pork version of shepherds pie and I made meatballs to go with some garlic, basil and tomato sauce that I made last year and froze.

The kittens have been given free reign of the boot room, well they were escaping every time we shut them in the cage anyhow so might as well let them out. It does mean the dogs can’t have the door open to come and go like they usually do though, I don’t think they are too bothered and they don’t seem bothered by the kittens who have found themselves a perch high up out of the way 😜

Friday: Summer solstice, It looks set to be a warm day today 😀 I did the morning rounds cleaning out the ducklings on the way round, they are getting big now and have almost feathered up and are definitely quacking instead of cheeping lol. I did a bit of watering, it’s surprising just how quickly things dry out even after a week long of rain showers. The other ducks have been left inside the stable today as we are off to Wembley to watch Bon Jovi tonight, looking forward to that, as the ducks tend to roam far and wide I thought it would be safer if they were in😀 Charlie will be coming after work to let the dogs out and put the birds to bed.

It’s befitting that we are going to a concert today on the solstice, a day of celebration which traditionally combines feasting, music, and enjoying the company of others, yep I think that covers it, I have of course taken time to just enjoy the outdoors and wander amongst the flowers, herbs and veg, stroking some of them so that they release their scents, listen to the birdsong, watch the butterflies and bees flying around and appreciating it all, that’s the main thing, you’d be surprised how many people can be right in the middle of nature and not really notice anything and there is such a lot going on even in the smallest of spaces.

I have begun to pick a few raspberries, not many at the moment but enough to have with a bit of cream after dinner 😀

I did a bit in the poly tunnel, some potting on of plants to put out for sale when they get big enough and some potting on of others that I either will plant eventually or keep to gather seed from. Having been out of ‘flower gardening’ for a long time I am re kindling my love affair with certain flowers, Cerinthe is one that I love, it’s not showy or particularly fabulous but I like it for its understated beautiful purple drop like flowers.

One thing I have discovered while looking up some plants is I seem to be drawn to the ‘wort’ family, cerinthe is honeywort, I have motherwort, soapwort, spiderwort, dropwort (in fact the dropwort was the plant I thought was growing and turned out to be ragwort) and the drop wort was growing next to it. Worts have medicinal uses, must be the hedgewitch in me that is drawn to them 😜

The concert was amazing 😀 Manic Street Preachers were the warm up band, all you can eat food and all you can drink bar, we didn’t overdo it though lol, many thanks to my sister and brother in law for the opportunity x x

Saturday: So busy today that it’s 9.30pm before I sit down and type this up 😜 We have at last got all the glass in the greenhouse and we have 2 out of 3 benches in plus my potting bench that John bought me a few years ago, although I use it as a work station because it’s too nice to use for anything else 😂. Basically that’s what we have been doing most of the day with cups of tea and a bite to eat in between, we went to the DIY shop to get a sander and some storage boxes and called in to see Sam, Luke and Mia on the way back.

It has been hot today although we did have occasional cloud passing over, with the temps rising the forecast is for thunderstorms tomorrow evening ⛈

Sunday: Today we finished off the benches/staging in the greenhouse and now I am as happy as a pig in poo 😝 I have just come in from sitting in there with a cuppa and listening to classic fm, did you know they had a classics chart countdown on a Sunday evening, nope neither did I lol.

This morning I picked 6 courgettes and some raspberries 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, rain & that’s it, just rain 😏

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th June: An ok morning as far as the weather goes, not sunny but not raining, yet, and not cold although colder than we expect for June. We are stuck in a weather front with the jet stream coming down from the North and the warm air coming up from Southern Europe, result, mostly rain 🙄 We do need a bit of heat now to move the veg along a bit, well those veg that need it any way, the melons for instance in the tunnel are not putting on as much growth as they should be and the tomatoes/peppers like it warm, still we have a couple of months left yet so all is not lost.

After doing the animals I went into the garden and picked peas, broad beans, rhubarb and some kale, I will use all these for dinner later, I did put out some broad beans for sale. The pea plants were put in last autumn and they have nearly finished now so I have pulled them up to make way for something else, the nitrogen nodules on the roots were huge so I pulled them off and put them back into the soil 😀 the leaves and stem I will leave to wilt a while before putting them onto the soil to rot down naturally and feed the soil.

The number of bees, I have noticed is great as are the ladybirds but so are the aphids 😂 I guess that’s what you call a balance of nature!

My soft fruit is a bit dire this year and needs an overhaul, when we had to replace the fruit cage at the end of last year, I think it was, I dug up the raspberry canes (most of them) and put them in pots, I thought it would be good to leave them in there but I was wrong. The problem with raspberries is they send out runners underground, lots of them, but on hindsight it’s easier to just hoe them down than to maintain the plants in pots. The blueberries are struggling yet again and these are new plants, the old ones got wind rock during the winter before last and died off, these are alive but not really bearing many fruits, I need a good think about where to site them as they don’t seem to like it where they are even though they have been cosseted with ericaceous soil and feed. A couple of years back I was picking kilos of strawberries then I changed things about and since then I have not had more than a meagre picking so again I need to sort that out.

The rain came 😏 I took the opportunity to watch the new series of The Handmaids Tale, I know it goes far beyond Margaret Attwoods original novel but I’m loving it.

Omg we have had some torrential downpours! Sam and Mia arrived I could see the car in the drive, Sam waited for an interval in the rain and got out to get Mia out but just as she had fully committed herself down cake another torrential pouring. I grabbed a towel and opened the back door but they were soaked by the time they got in, clothes off and in the dryer, electric fire on, and soup on the go.

OMG what a horrid day, rain, rain, rain, get a soaking, dry off, get a soaking, dry off, get a soaking 😋 peed off 😝 I wouldn’t mind if it was autumn or winter I’d be expecting it but not bloody mid June 😏

Shelley also came over in the afternoon, she has just done a threading course and needed victims er I mean volunteers 🤪 Now not being one to keep up with my beauty regimes I actually had no idea what this was when she said she was going to do it, I thought it was something like weaving hairs into your eyebrows 🤣 I found it fascinating to watch this ancient technique being applied and it didn’t hurt that much 🙄

7.45pm stilling pissing down ☹️ to add insult to injury John was working just two villages over and he said it hardly rained there!

Tuesday: Another grey, rainy morning, yesterday we had about 2” of rain judging by what has been captured in the various buckets around the place. Great because we really needed some rain but really it can stop now and bring back the sunshine 🙄 It’s going to be a long day today, Mia day and no chance of getting outside by the looks of it 😏 looking at the forecast we are not going to get any let up until Friday. Lol I’m aware that I am moaning if it’s too hot and moaning if it’s raining but seriously we don’t seem to be getting much ‘in-between’ weather anymore, just a regular day would be lovely.

I watched Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall on ‘The war on plastic’ last night, it’s shocking stuff to be honest, we really have to make a massive effort to get rid of single use plastics, not just recycle them as clearly it’s just a problem being dumped in someone else’s back yard, but get rid of them totally. I am always appalled at cucumbers, swede, cabbage etc shrink wrapped in plastic, there is no need, when I shop, on the whole, I put the items loose in the trolley if I can. The more I try to avoid it the more I realise just how much is out there, everything is packaged in plastic🥺 I use brown paper bags to sell produce, I do also use plastic fruit containers as I have found it difficult to source cardboard ones at a reasonable price but I do ask people to bring them back so that I can wash and re use them, the same goes for any plants I sell, there is a notice to say plastic plants pots are welcome so that they can be re used.

Wednesday: Hopefully the weather is going to start to be drier from here on in 🙄

I did the morning rounds and cleaned out the ducklings and the hens in the stable, picked some herbage for them and the rabbits/guineas, in between that, put on some washing and drying and checked the garden over. The colder than usual temps are having an effect as nothing is really moving forward and overnight we have lost some of the younger chicks ☹️ A couple of weeks back it was flaming and they were fine but last night they had obviously got cold, gone under the bigger ones and got crushed, bloody weather, although my bad as I should have preempted the situation really. I have a drake missing, I noticed yesterday he was not around, I can’t see any evidence of him being taken but I have no idea what has happened I him.

Now I am coming right down on the steroids I don’t have as much energy as I had before which is a bummer 😏 the difference is very noticeable, I get a bit done and then think, I need a sit down, and could even manage a nap lol, it’s rubbish but it is what it is.

On the plus side the water tanks are all full 😀 even the new IBC tank at the back and I haven’t had to spend hours watering everything, every cloud and all that.

My plan for the rest of the day is housework 😝 might as well do it while the ground is too wet to work on.

I was watching a lecture on regenerative culture and about 2 thirds of the way through I encountered an enlightening moment, really quite profound, SUSTAINABILITY IS A NEUTRAL POINT! WOW, just WOW, I had never thought of it like that before which is why I guess it was such an interesting statement to me. I know it seems that all I do here is potter around with the animals and plants, bake things, make things etc but my aim has always to be self sufficient as far as possible, I’m missing the mark by a mile, I’m aware of that but I’m doing what I can, or am I?

The future of the planet and humanity is dire, it really is, if you having been living with your head in the sand you will not have noticed but when you read, listen to and take note of scientists, ecologists etc you begin to understand what is happening. I am not into activism as such but I’m glad there are groups out there, they are not fanatics or tree huggers or fringe livers they are people who understand ( on the whole) and are trying to get others to take note. Back to the sustainability issue, is it by fluke or is it progression that I had taken onboard the whole forest gardening and tree planting thing because that is the next step forward from sustainability, I can see that now but I had to watch an obscure video to have it spelled out to me!

Do yourself, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and so on, a favour and start thinking about your accountability to this planet before it’s too late. Make changes for the better, better for the environment, better for the country, better for the world, you know what they are and if you don’t then learn the information is out there.

I had a hankering for cake so instead of housework I baked 😀 Two fruit loaves and two small date and nut loaves, using our own nuts 😀. I made that many because as I was turning the oven on I might as well get good use from it. I have started doing a few things that can help with saving water, we don’t have a dishwasher so I wash up at the end of the day, just once instead of many times, unless I have a mountain of dishes of course lol, and I don’t flush the toilet every time, every other time or three times, obviously if there is something bigger than a wee in there I will but I figure it all helps even if it’s just a little.

I need to explore the areas that I am not doing well in, John is the biggest one 🤣 he is just not environmentally inclined and it’s difficult to change a lifetime of habits, some things he gets, like not using weed killers and contaminants and after watching the war on plastic he is beginning to realise how ingrained it all is in society but he doesn’t apply that to the things he likes to eat that come in plastic so he won’t change it which is why it has to be a big turnaround from the manufacturers because I think that is how a lot of people think. I have been actively seeking out things that come in glass bottles, things that are cardboard, paper or wax wrapped rather than plastic but some things are difficult and I don’t want to avoid them altogether. I remember a time when toilet rolls came in paper and now it’s all plastic outers 😕 why?

I did do some cleaning, hoovering and polishing in the end, thought I had better 😋

Fed the birds, collected and sorted the eggs, sat down for a cuppa with a slice of cake, I thought the rain had finished as it has been dry all day but it’s just started again 😐 the temperature is warmer today mind you, the wind from the north east has gone.

Thursday: Another day in paradise, in the rainy season that is! According to my forecast it was supposed to dry up but nope it’s still peeing down which means nothing will get done on the veg garden and the weeds will be romping away, after spending last week trying to get them under control it seems futile 🤪 I have just looked at the forecast again and now rain is on the cards for the next few days 😏 Vegetable gardening in these constantly changeable conditions seems like harder work each year, honestly you never have any idea of what is going to be thrown at you and for how long, our seasons are out of whack! Oh well short of putting everything under cover there is not much I can do about it except moan 😜

Doing the rounds this morning I noticed that all of the geese came out and left the area so I quickly grabbed a torch and went to see what was happening with the eggs they are sitting on. Four nests, one with one egg that looks viable, one with two eggs that look viable, one with four eggs that mostly look ok and one with three eggs that are clear so not viable. I took out the unviable ones and swapped in a couple from the other nests, the reason being that typically the goose who has sat the longest is on the dud eggs! The geese may be getting fed up of sitting now which is why they have all come out and I’m not too worried about them hatching anything except for their own good. After I made a coffee I looked out and could see that two of the geese had gone back so we will see what happens, a couple of the eggs are close to hatching by the looks of it, once they do they will abandon the rest of the eggs anyway, they are pretty fickle lol.

I have seen a few pics of wildflower meadows lately and my sisters neighbour has even done it on her front garden in town, now that the grass is not being eaten off I was thinking I would like to do this in some form. I missed the boat a bit because I could have easily turned the front paddock into wildflowers while the hens were not on it but left it a bit too late to think about it.

Prolonged days of rainy weather like this mean the egg numbers will drop from the hens, they hate the rain and are reluctant to get out in the grass and forage naturally, they stay huddled under or in the coop. You would think the opposite would be true for the ducks and to some extent it is, of course they love the rain but they don’t lay any better 😂

Oh it’s horrible out there lol, Sam, Mia and I went for cake, I mean what else can you do on a day like this 😜 When I got back I did the hens and eggs, as I was walking up the back the sun tried to peek through but the rain soon got the better of it! I went into the poly tunnel, I could see large, dark black clouds looming, I had some late tomatoes to prick out and was stuck in there while the heavens opened, everything is soaking, dripping, puddly yuk, yuk, yuk it’s supposed to be summer.

I found a flower in the driveway, I think it may be an orchid (update, it is an orchid, possibly a pyramid orchid) but I’m not sure yet.

Then I remembered that one year we had them in the back paddock so I took a walk and found a bee orchid 😀 delightful.

Friday: Guess what? It’s raining 😝 we are at saturation point now, previously because the ground was so dry it has been soaked up but now we have standing water in areas. We don’t flood as such, we have a corner in the front paddock where all the water runs to which is flooded for a while but soon runs away and if we have volumes of rain and it can’t get away fast enough we have areas that get very wet but not flooding as such which is lucky. I had a wander round the veg garden, everything is doing ok, we could just do with some warmth to push it on a little bit now.

And then the electric tripped 😏 luckily I’ve got used to this and know what causes it, the pump for the water tanks, it always happens when we have a lot of rain.

Made some bread, did the afternoon rounds and put cleaning bedding in for the ducks. The sun made an appearance and it started drying up, I want to clean out the little chicks but not if the rain is going to come back as it would be a waste of time.

I picked the few Strawberries I have and ate them all myself with some sour cream lol

If you are interested in the Sun in anyway apart from bathing in it 😜 you may be interested to know that it has an 11 year cycle with solar maximum and solar minimum, we are entering a solar minimum, that is a minimum amount of sun spots and flares, the jury is out on how much this affects our climate but I’d say (though I am no expert) that it has to has some bearing on our weather even if minimal and they say it will be a deep minimum 🙄 which could have effects up to 30 years, though humans are undoubtedly causing more damage to the climate overall.

In the evening the lads came over to get the greenhouse along a bit.

Saturday: I have officially had enough of his poxy bloody weather now, the plan today was for John and I to finish glazing the roof but although it was supposed to be mainly dry it has in fact been mainly wet!!!! In between showers we got four panels of glass up there and then discovered we were one short 😡 so can’t finish it, the the lead sealant nozzle snapped clean off so it’s game over as far as that is concerned today. Meanwhile I still can’t get any bloody gardening done and the weeds will be like triffids, time to find another direction in life maybe?? This one seems to have far to many hurdles thrown in the way 🙄

I did pick a few things early this morning when it was dry and sunny, the first courgette some kale, rhubarb and artichokes and I picked peas and mangetout in the afternoon.

I took some dianthus cuttings and went into the poly tunnel just as the heavens opened again.

I have been watching two melon plants which have been struggling, two more at the other end of the tunnel are doing fine but these two are not. I had a closer look and they have severed at the root, I’m not sure what has caused this, either a cold spot in the ground or too wet or something has eaten them off underground. I found some wood and built a box, lined it and filled it with compost then planted the only melon plant I have left in there along with some Chinese gooseberry and a pepper, hopefully I have covered all bases and it will be fine 😀

The sweet potato I put in water to root is slowing doing so, however the process has been long so I would need to start it off a lot earlier next year.

I woke up with a cold this morning, 🤧 very rare for me, I will blame it on the weather 😛

Sunday: Guess what, it’s raining! John did the animals this morning and finally the ducks have started laying more, I won’t hold my breath though as tomorrow we may be down on numbers again. I noticed yesterday that the potatoes have blight (early blight) ffs, that’s the trouble with all this rain it will cause, fungus of all types, I’m thinking a giant undercover area would be an all round option 🤪 No wonder farmers have developed various methods to get successful crops over the years, even though they turned out to be detrimental to the environment, you cant blame them for trying and it’s very trying at times 🙄

I have come to the conclusion that the way I am gardening veg is not really working for me so I need to tweak it a bit next year, just re arrange a few things and do a bit better on planning and siting. I am finding it a bit too muddly for my organised mind, I am sure there is a better way and I will find it eventually lol.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Last of the planting, some picking & Johns birthday

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd June: Well rested after a weekend away it’s time to crack on 😜 After sorting all the birds out in the morning it was straight into the garden to see what’s been happening and what needs to be done.

I planted the cucumbers, loofahs, some tomato plants and the dahlias, all a bit late going in but it won’t harm them. I put a few more plants out for sale, picked some buckets of weeds and herbs for the rabbits and hens and picked some veg that was ready. Today’s pickings were rhubarb, broad beans and baby turnips, some of which I put out for sale, the turnips I kept back were washed diced and blanched and will be open frozen for use in soups, stews and casseroles. It’s it easier to do it this way then I can grab a handful when I need them, I am aiming to do this will all the root veg if possible. The dwarf kale is reading for picking but I will pick it as I need it. I also cut some flowers for the table, roses, sweet Williams and huechera , it looks pretty and brightens the place up plus the roses smell amazing.

There are one or two strawberries that have ripened while I was away, might as well eat those while I am wandering around lol, there are also plenty of radish and salad leaves to be had at the moment.

We have plaice for dinner, I keep avoiding it in the freezer because I need to fillet it first but today is the day I decided to do it lol, I will cook it with lemon and parsley butter, potatoes and the peas I picked before we went away, delish 😋

Did the afternoon egg collection then cleaned out the ducklings and prepped the dinner, then time for a sit down and a cuppa plus a piece of banana bread that Charlotte made while she was staying here 😀 I taught her to bake from about the age of seven, she was diagnosed as a coeliac at 14 months and the whole family mostly ate gluten free while she was growing up and so teaching her about food was important. In fact all three of the girls know about food, they understand the different food groups and how they go together, they understand the difference between ‘real’ food and processed food (you’d be surprised at how many people don’t) they can all cook and bake from scratch without a jar of sauce or packet mix in sight (I’m not saying they do all the time, just that they can 😝) and most of all on the whole, they enjoy cooking, job done ✅ there I reckon 😀

I pruned the leader branches from the cherry tree, two reason, one I don’t want it to get too big and the other so that when they start to ripen I can still get a net over it to stop the crows from stripping the tree in no time at all!

With stone fruit you should prune in June that’s the general rule so they don’t get silver leaf or canker.

As rhubarb is still in plentiful supply I made a rhubarb pudding cake for dessert, a self saucing pud, easy peasy.

Tuesday: Mia day 😀 I got all the morning jobs done before Mia arrived and then we pretty much played all day lol, picked dandelions for the torts, sat on a blanket on the grass for an hour or so, then the rain came. We are getting the ideal amount of rain as far as the garden goes because I’m not worrying about things not growing, on the contrary they are growing well including the weeds 😝 I’m not quite sure what to do about them they have overtaken my ability to keep them in order at the moment. I saw some cornstarch weed barrier but the price is rather high for my liking so I will carry on hoeing until I come up with a plan! Once the veg start to romp away it will be fine as they will shade out the weeds but until then it’s a constant struggle lol.

Wednesday: Well the weather is certainly not flaming June! Not that I’m complaining because at least I can work out in it but it a tad on the cold side 😜 After sorting out the morning jobs I set to sorting out the poly tunnel so that I could get a couple more melons and tomato plants in, I did a fair amount of hoeing outside so that I could rearrange pots of plants that I am growing on and organised those. Mum came at lunchtime and did some weeding and it looks great especially the fruit cage and I no longer feel like I’m drowning in weeds so thank you Mum you are a star ⭐️ I had Josh for a couple of hours in the afternoon he likes to come and be on his own at the farm with me and help do the jobs lol, we collected the eggs and did the ducklings, pinched the tops off of the broad beans as they have blackfly, sang some songs with Mum and then had to watch tv as we had worked so hard 🤣 his words not mine.

I did a bit of hand weeding late afternoon, the carrots have been sporadic to say the least, we will get some summer carrot but I think I will need to sow some more for winter use.

I made some bread and some choc chunk cookies and I also picked some elderflower which is steeping in water and lemon juice overnight to extract the flavour, I’m intending to make jam with it 😀

The 75th Anniversary of the D Day landings got me interested in learning a bit more about RAF Broadwell, part of our land was part of the dispersed sites, No3 to be precise. When the weather is dry and certainly last summer you can easily see where the foundations of buildings were and when you are trying to get anything in the ground in the front paddock you always hit red brick lol. It would be great if I could find a comprehensive map or old photos of where we are but although there are many photos online and some sites are detailed ours does not seem to be 😏 If we ever found an underground bunker I would consider that we would hit the jackpot lol, it would be cold storage at it best.

Thursday: Did the morning stuff then popped to town to get a few bits, it’s Johns birthday tomorrow and so our turn to feed everyone 😀 the forecast is heavy rain ☹️ so I am doing pulled pork rolls and accompanying salads.

I finally got the limoncello under way, basically it’s lemongrass (bashed with a rolling pin) and lemon verbena, steeped for a few days in vodka then make a sugar syrup to add to it and voila. I have also got elderflower and lemons steeping in water to make elderflower jam. It being a creative kind of day I picked some roses and I am drying the petals, to start them off drying I have put them in the poly tunnel but I won’t leave them in there as it will be too hot and also the light will fade them too much, along with that I have picked some flowers to hang to dry, I’m thinking I need a drying shed 😜 as I would like to dry a whole bunch of things. I want to be making wreaths at Christmas after my day out last year and so drying things to use seems like a good idea, I will experiment with all sorts and see what turns out the best.

Friday, Johns Birthday: I spent most of the day prepping and cooking food! Starting with the birthday cake first thing in the morning after getting the animals done. John had the day off from his regular work but neglected to tell me he was going to be home, consequently I had arranged to get all this cooking done and have a visit from a friend so he sat around like a spare part most of the day🙄 It mostly rained so doing anything outside was a bit pointless for him, it was a surprise he said, yes guess what, surprise, I’m busy all day 🤪 next time tell me in advance and we will go out for lunch and I will do nibbles for the birthday guests not a full on pulled pork feast!

In amongst all that two new Guinea pigs arrived, I wasn’t expecting them until the weekend and so I hadn’t got anything ready, I put them straight in with the rabbit (who is still fine) and the other pig, later in the day when Sam and Mia came they cleaned out the run which I had intended to do tomorrow morning.

Later in the early evening everyone arrived, ate, drank, chatted, sang happy birthday and then went home, Happy Birthday John 😀

We had a bit of thunder and lightening but not much, I love a good storm.

Saturday: Pouring with rain this morning and looks like it has been from early on, June, such a lovely warm month 😂

We are off out to have breakfast this morning with Sam, Charlie & Shelley as a little treat for Sam as she didn’t want a baby shower, the twins are growing well but she could go into labour anytime and she can’t eat a full on meal anymore, no room 🤪 so breakfast is the lighter option.

Breakfast was lovely, I had waffles, bacon and maple syrup 😋 we went to The Old Shed just outside Charlbury, it’s delightful there, shame the weather wasn’t better or we could have eaten al fresco!

We popped in to see my brother and sister in law on the way back, then home, John cleaned out the ducklings while I got Jacks stable ready to get him in for a day or so, with all the rain we have had the grass is going to grow like billyo and he needs restricting so until we make his field smaller, he is coming in and going on hay, he won’t like it one bit but it’s for his own good.

The sun came out but it’s really windy, it makes moving straw a bit of a futile effort, get a load on the end of the pitchfork, turn around to put it in the barrow and you’d be lucky to get half of it in while the other half blows away!

I decided to call the guinea pigs Boris and Donald 🤣 Josh has named the other one socco? Until now he hasn’t really had a name lol, the rabbit is called Peter even though she is a girl, that’s at Mia’s insistence and she is still very well thank goodness. When we went for breakfast they had animals and I noticed that they had double lined the cage with two lots of wire with a gap inbetween, this seems like a good idea as any wild animals could not get nose to nose with the enclosed ones, an idea I think I will implement on future runs.

Sunday: John did the morning rounds while I went out and picked broad beans and rhubarb to put out for sale which went within minutes!

Yesterday Martin came over and did a bit more to the greenhouse and today Luke came over and we got some of the windows in, just a bit more to do and it will be finished.

It’s cold for the time of year this evening, the sun was nice today but now the temps have dipped a bit ☹️

The elderflower I had steeping, and it said 48 hours, went mouldy so I’m going to have to start that again 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain 😀 a few jobs done & a trip to Wales

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 27th May: Bank Holiday. Although it looked like rain threatening all day, it never came.

We did some cleaning out this morning, John did the the two big hen huts while I cleaned out the now vacant rabbit pen. The other rabbit is still looking fine which rules out my two suspicions of how they might of got infected, one being the forage I collected from the field but she also had it so can’t be that, and two, taking her for a walk, her contracting it and passing it to them through the grille, obviously not. Their pen can easily be reached by wild rabbits and maybe some nose to nose contact through the bars, her pen cannot be reached so that’s the conclusion I have got to so far.

In the afternoon we went to the local steam and vintage rally which was a nice break although the wind was a bit chilly, great to see all the old vehicles and steam engines, from a bygone era. When we got back I watered the poly tunnels and the recently planted stuff and that was it for the day lol.

I took some Clematis cuttings, I have been taking cuttings of everything and anything 🤪

All the things I am growing at the moment 😲 no wonder I’m busy!

Garlic, onions, beetroot, bulb fennel, dwarf beans, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, sprouts, turnips, swede, broad beans, peas, tomato, cucumber, melons, carrots, salad leaves, spinach, radish, spring onion, strawberries, parsley, coriander, peppers, cape gooseberry, grape, lemon grass, raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, kiwi, apricot, cherry, apple, pear, honey berry, Logan berry, runner beans, pumpkins, courgettes, potatoes, garlic, chives, mint, fennel, caraway, sweet cicely, horseradish, rosemary, oregano, sage, lovage, lemon balm, lemon verbena, asparagus, rhubarb, artichoke, red currant, cranberries, olives, fig, peach, plums, choke berry, loofah, gooseberry (red and green) mulberry, Angelica, bay, thyme, amaranth, quinoa, tree spinach, and then there are things like small leaves limes, Hostas, day lilies also edible, flowers/trees and shrubs for the beneficial insects a mixture of native wildflowers and trees and of course weeds 😝 something for every living thing here 😀

The rain came at 9pm and yessss it came down in bucket loads which will help to fill the rain tanks ready for more hot weather predicted for next weekend. It got torrential just at the time that John went out to put all the birds to bed 😬 ooops, I put the fire on and made a hot drink for when he came back in, he was soaked! It just happens that it’s his job to do the putting away as I’m am usually clearing up or washing up or typing up my blog notes 📝 still I spent many years walking the kids to back and forth to school and clubs in the rain so do I fell bad…..nah 🤪

I have been reading up on biochar, the good and the bad, I haven’t made up my mind which wins yet yet but I do think that with practice you could make it yourself rather than buy it.

There are four geese sat on four nests of goodness knows how many eggs in them! Typically because I wasn’t planning on having goslings this year it will probably be a successful hatch and there will be loads of them 😝

Tuesday: It’s half term so Sam is not working and I don’t have Mia today, I can crack on with a few jobs, John is also home so he can get stuck in to some work as well. After doing the morning stuff he started to make a base and fit one of the IBC tanks on the POL pen, this had a water barrel but it doesn’t hold much so a tank of this size (1000ltr) will be great. Then he started adapting the pen so we can put the ducklings out in it. Some draught proofing is needing but that’s about all it needs, the remaining five hens in there will move out into the paddock with the laying hens. Meanwhile I started tidying up the orchard pen, raking the ground and moving stuff that had been used and just got left and cleaning out any cages that are now also vacant. The little light Sussex that I hatched out, are inside a pen, inside the orchard pen if you see what I mean but I have been letting them out into the bigger area which they are loving.

In the afternoon, Shelley came over with Josh and Florence, Shelley and Martin have both got a vomiting bug 😷 so I took the kids out for a wander round the farm for an hour or so while Shelley got a bit of sleep, it got them out in the fresh air and running off a bit of steam as well. We saw a Little Blue butterfly which are quite common here and another small pretty one that I don’t know the name of and I didnt have my phone with me so couldn’t photograph it. One year we had some orchids growing in the big paddock so I had a look for those but couldn’t see any sign of them, maybe one year they will appear again. I may go back out later with a camera and see what I can photograph.

I have just been reading an article on how it would be possible to be self sufficient in fruit and veg in this country. I have had this conversation with people before, some saying it isn’t possible but I really think it is, if we utilise what spaces we have well, then food can easily be grown in the garden. There are small patio fruit trees and bushes these days making it easier for small gardens and you would be surprised with just how much you can pack into small areas. We import 70% of the apples consumed into this country, which is ridiculous given that our climate is perfect for growing them and in Autumn the amount you see lying on the ground is criminal. The same can be said for nuts, perfect climate, they grow in abundance yet we are importing them, go figure 🙄 If you want to but think, I can’t, I don’t know how, then just push yourself a little bit, learn or just try and see what happens, most plants want to grow they just need you to look after them, water is essential for all plants and some need more warmth or a bit of protection from birds etc but it’s really not that hard. Start with the easy stuff like herbs, this time of year even tender herbs will thrive, Then there are tomatoes, given plenty of water they will do well in a grow bag by the back door and there is nothing better than a sunwarmed ripe tomato, dwarf beans, easy again, get the plants make sure they stay watered and voila fresh veg. Ok you will still need to go shopping but you may just get the bug and want to learn/grow more 😀 There is no magic, green fingers help but we don’t all have those 🤣 yes you need to water but imagine standing outside with your wine or tea in your hand while doing it, perfect.

If you want to know more or learn I am more than happy to show you round my veg plot and you can ask as many questions as you like and endeavour to help you get going 😀

We moved the ducklings to their new abode, they are loving the extra room.

John moved a load of muck with the tractor from the back to the front, hopefully we will get the back cleared and a fence up, that’s the plan anyway.

We have an old caravan which was here when we came and it has lots of stuff stored in it mostly crap lol, I made the mistake of going in there and then one thing led to another and I started going through stuff 🙄 It’s been on the to do list for about 8 years 🤣 you never know I may finally complete the job.

I don’t need to water today yay, so after dinner I got a few hours off 😀

Wednesday: Rain again today so that’s fabulous, we are heading to high temps at the weekend apparently.

John has gone to work today so I get a bit of peace and quiet 🤪 Did all the morning feeding, letting out, filling up water troughs etc, the ducklings are fine despite being outside overnight so that’s good. Then I collected a couple of bucketfuls of herbs and weeds, one for the rabbit and guinea pig and one for the hens in the stable, not sure what I am going to do with them yet but I can’t have them on the veg garden so for now they have to stay there.

I moved the big poly tunnel around a bit so that I could plant some more cucumbers in the ground also a couple of tomatoes and some dill. I didn’t really think it through when I said no rush about finishing the greenhouse because everything that was in there is stored in the tunnel, including a very long potting bench and now I need to be planting into the ground I can’t 😬

The rain came so I went indoors to do a bit of cleaning, polishing, hoovering, washing all the boring stuff lol.

On Friday we are going to Llandeilo in Wales to see Dad and Sue, we are using Airbnb for the first time and staying on a smallholding which I am very excited about, I will tell you all about it later. Shelley and Sam will be here for the day on Friday to look after things then Charlie will be staying here Saturday and Sunday to look after things. It means I have to sit down and write a list of the routines and jobs that need doing, fairly straightforward except for the idiosyncrasies that everyone has lol such as the tap that is connected to the rain water tanks. It is connected to a pump but that is playing up and you have to turn it on then off again before connecting the hose otherwise the pump won’t kick in, then when you turn it off the pump keeps running so you have to listen out for that and turn the tap on then off again and it goes off, if you don’t it will blow the electrics by keep running, haha these are things I know but need to remember to tell others!

Quick cuppa and a natter with my neighbour in the afternoon who bought me a bag of bottom shearings (they are off of her sheep not her 😂) which I will use as a mulch, added bonus are the dags which are basically poo caught up in the wool, extra fertiliser 😀

I made a schoolboy error of not putting my wellies on when I went to do the afternoon feed and egg collection, I know have wet feet and trouser bottoms, div 🤪

When John came in from putting everything to bed he said he couldn’t find one of the light Sussex hens and she hadn’t gone to bed by herself, he looked everywhere 🙄 I went out and found her fairly quickly, you have to think like a chicken, she is too heavy to go up so she will hunker down in a corner somewhere which is exactly how I found her.

Thursday: The sun is back this morning after a couple of chiller, wet days. John is home again today and we did the morning routine between us.

This morning I have a blackbird that seems fascinated by the bag of sheep’s wool, I have now idea why by it keeps hopping up to it tweeting away, maybe it wants some of it for a nest.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the forest garden approach, I’m struggling with letting go of the control of the garden, it’s better for me because I’m not stressing trying to keep everything together but still there is that part of me that wants to clean, tidy, hoe, rake, cut back lol. At the moment it looks like organised chaos, eventually, and I know it’s a process that can’t be hurried, it will all make sense but getting there is taxing me 😝 Of course is going to be so much better in the long run, especially for the wildlife, I can see the sense in it, even though I haven’t used pesticides or artificial fertilisers etc for years the difference that not having bare earth between veg rows makes is noticeable both for the plants and the insects/birds. One day I will achieve ‘forest garden’ gold 😂 Meanwhile I am busy learning as much as I can about it.

Friday: We were up and busy doing the feeding and letting out before we set off for Wales to visit Dad and Sue.

We had booked through Airbnb to stay on a smallholding which was absolutely delightful, very rural and very quiet. We had a homemade honey topped cake on arrival which was delicious and ate heartily at Dad and Sues plus a trip to Aberglasny gardens.

At the smallholding old habits die hard and I was up at 6am each morning sitting outside on the patio with my coffee, just the birds, a few sheep, a goat and some cows a couple of fields away for company total bliss 😀 On the first morning John got up about 7 and we went for a walk along the lane lol, not a soul around, we will definitely stay then when we go back again. Doug and Stella were our hosts, friendly and very easy to chat with and ‘The Cartshed’ was just perfect.

BIG thank you’s to Shelley, Sam and Charlie for looking after things superbly while we were away.

Posted in Friesland Farm

No rain, lemon yoghurt cake, still no rain 🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th May: We didn’t get any more rain yesterday despite the forecast saying there were heavy showers around 🙄 It’s slightly worrying that the pattern seems similar to last year in terms of lack of rain which is one of the reason I am trying to move in a different direction with the gardening. Large bare areas that are ready to plant/sow veg into are not ideal any more, the ground needs to be covered either with planting, mulching, or material cover or a mixture of all three. The weeds are getting a bit out of control BUT where there is a weed density the plants are thriving so there is a compromise to be had there.

I did the morning rounds and had made a mental note to not work on the garden today, giving my time to other things, initially I stuck to this and got some cleaning done and some bread on the go, then I got sidetracked in the garden 🤪 a bit of planting, some watering and some mulching.

Massage evening 😀😀😀 fabulous 😀😀😀 good for the mind, body and soul.

More watering when I got back 😝

Tuesday: I had Mia today so 99% of it revolves around her lol, however we did manage to get one half of the ducklings outside so they could splash around in a bowl of water and clean/preen themselves which they seemed to enjoy, the other half will have to wait a couple of days. Not sure if we did anything else apart from playing and reading etc.

Once she had gone home it was time to get the watering going, honestly I really wouldn’t expect to be watering quite so much at this time of year already but this is the second year in a row, the water butts are sounding hollow so nearly empty already. We are hopefully picking up 4 IBC tanks this week which will be another 4000 litres but they will be for the smaller buildings and hold water for the hens etc.

The comfrey has flowered and was teeming with bees 🐝 tonight which is fabulous 😀 I was about to cut some of it back but I couldn’t bring myself to do it with that much activity on it.

We dispatched two more of the rabbits tonight as they were definitely infected with Mitzi, the other, last one, is in a separate cage with the guinea pig and doesn’t look at all like she is but only time will tell.

Well I sat down around 8.45, typed up this then is was out to sort the ducklings, turned on the heat lamp, bulb blew, tripped the fuse out there and blew the fuse in the plug, so they are on a 60w bulb 🙄 hopefully the temps don’t get too cold tonight!

Wednesday: Nice morning again, up early and had my cuppa outside 😀 Did the ducklings then the morning feeding and letting out. John didn’t shut the ducks away last night, the ones in the pen, and this morning there was a dead duck, well headless actually, so guessing the fox got in, how on Earth we didn’t lose the whole lot is anyone’s guess!

Into the garden to get the last of the planting bits done, I am going to have so many courgettes this year lol. I planted almost the last of the beans to go out, ying yang and haricot beans, then planted a bed with the tree spinach, amaranth and quinoa looking forward to seeing how they turn out, probably self seed everywhere 😜

I watched the medals episode of Chelsea Flower Show, then did the ducklings again, then I got ready for my hospital appointment in the afternoon. I checked the post box, there was a live plant package in there, tomatoes and cucumber, oooops. I thought I had ordered some but couldn’t find the e-mail so grew some and bought some, now I have loads, ah well better to have too much than not enough, just need to find spaces for them 🙄

An afternoon getting to, having the appointment and getting home again, all my vital signs are good 😝 so onwards and upwards, just got to come off the steroids now.

When I got back John had got the ducks outside for some fresh air and a splash about, they really are mucky and I have scoured the internet to find ways of making it less so but it seems that’s what you have to put up with lol.

The tomato and cucumber plants that arrived had been soaking in the sink so I put them outside on the table in their plastic carriers which detailed from left to right which plants were which, but I hadn’t quite closed them tightly enough and a gust of wind blew them off the table and now I have no idea which is which variety 🤪 After dinner I got them potted up and left them to soak.

I had a very excited Shelley FaceTime me with her very first homegrown radish 😀😀

Thursday: Up a bit late today 🙄 7.30 so chasing my tail a bit and quickly ran out of cooler/shady weather so after doing hot ducklings and feeding etc I thought a bit of cake making might be the order of the day.

I had some Greek yoghurt, from the batch I made, to use up so I made a lemon yoghurt cake, very simple, just how I like it, mix up the ingredients and cook, I also made a batch of scones, they taste great but didn’t t rise very well lol.

Mix dry ingredients, then mix eggs with the milk and add, then add the oil and mix ….cook, I baked it at about 160c until the knife came out clean. Then make a mix of icing sugar and lemon juice up and pour over the top, amount depends on how much you want on it 😀

Went off to a farm a few villages away to pick up the IBC tanks, I’m pretty pleased with these, to collect as much rain water as possible has to be the way forward. Pop to the shop to get a few bits afterwards, home for dinner, then out to do the watering and finally cut the driveway grass and use for mulching.

So many jobs, so little time 😝

Friday: How is it Friday already!

Up at the crack of sparrows this morning and been running around ever since trying to get all the ‘must do’ jobs done then I can concentrate on the ‘should do’ ones 😜 The ducklings, as you can imagine are taking up quite a lot of cleaning, moving, watering, feeding time and growing fast. Hopefully we have some people coming this weekend to take a few of them so a little less work but not by much. They are having daily sessions outside now, it means I can put deeper water out there for them for splash in and wash and preen and I don’t have to clean the brooder box every few hours! Boy are they messy lol.

I swapped some plants with my neighbour this week so I have been planting up some more veg that I didn’t grow myself, swedes mostly, she also gave me some more pumpkins and cucumbers, I will try and sell some on but I may be planting them in the ménage to see if they will grow in there, just need John to fix the gate so the ducks can’t get at them.

I have a fig tree in a pot, it’s not huge at the moment but it will get bigger, a couple of the branches hang low down to the ground so I am going to layer them, this just means pegging them down into a pot of soil/compost and waiting, for quite a long time lol for them to put out some roots.

Apparently we may get a shower today but the sky is looking so blue that I wonder if it will all just pass us by 😏 The ground is dustbowl dry and in desperate need of some rain, plus it would be nice to get the tanks filling up again.

I had a coffee and a slice of lemon yoghurt cake, it has a texture like Madeira so quite dry and not sweet so if that how you like cake it’s a good one to try. Over the last few years I have really gone off cakes with icing, I find them far too sickly, except for an iced bun of course 😂

Saturday: Another fine morning, still no sign of any rain 🙄 We got up and got on with the mornings jobs, John went off to pick up some bits from the local building merchants and I watered the polytunnels and picked food for the remaining rabbit and guinea pig. I got Jack in as he is getting too fat on the grass that is available, he is not happy in the stable with just hay, kicking the billio out of the door. I sorted out some plants to go out for sale at the front and we had someone come to buy some ducklings 😀

Some sweet corn plants arrived in the post (more plants that I had forgotten I had ordered) and some mangetout seeds. I planted up the corn and sowed the peas round them, the peas can use the sweet corn stems for support. With everything I have planted and sown this year we will definitely not be going hungry 😋 and I may even be able to do veg boxes at the height of the season which would be amazing.

I have been out eyeing up the elderflower to see if they are open enough to start harvesting some, not quite ready just yet but the ones that are open smell amazing 😀 I am going to make a simple elderflower syrup and some jam this year as I think that will be more versatile, you can make a multitude of things with it including champagne. Apparently elderflower is very good for the immune system and if you infuse it in honey it makes a good flu buster for the winter months.

I haven’t forgotten the limoncello, I have the vodka ready, I am just waiting on the lemon verbena plant I bought to put on a bit more growth then I will be making it, we tasted it added to Prosecco and it was delicious even though I don’t drink Prosecco very often it will make great gifts for those that do 😀 I will be more inclined to add the elderflower syrup to gin and tonic 😀

I spent an hour or so shelling the last of the walnuts and hazelnuts that I had stored from last autumn, they will be nice in salads or just as a snack, they have kept well and not very many had dried up, bit of a faff collecting/washing/drying/ storing them at the time, but I’m glad at this time of year that I did.

Did some grass cutting, some watering of the plants I put in today and some of the pots, 6pm time to come in and cook the dinner 🙄 knackered today.

I felt some spots of rain but so far that’s it and only an 18% chance, I’m not taking the risk on that as the sun has been blaring for the best part of the day!

Meanwhile John has been moving wood from down the back and staining the capping for the greenhouse, cleaning out the ducks and various other jobs on the never ending job list 😝

Spag bol for me with a sauce I made and froze last year with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil and John has mince with freshly picked peas and broad beans, the only thing that would be better than that would be new potatoes freshly dug but they are not ready yet. Still reaping the rewards of last years growing season 😀 To be fair we still have loads of fruit and veg left in the freezer and when I went shopping the other night it was just for basics like cat food and washing liquid as I am trying to make an effort not to buy anything unnecessary which will force me to look in the freezers and use it up, it’s too easy to just buy more and add to the amount we already have in there which is hardly the point of what I am trying to do here.

Sunday: The rain has been teasing us today, a sprinkle here and there but nothing substantial as yet 🙄 Did the morning things and a bit of potting on while John fixes one of the gates. Then we went to visit his Mum and afterwards to visit my brother and sister-in-law, popped in the see Sam, Luke and Mia on the way home. By the time we got back it was feeding and egg collecting time again and someone came to buy a couple of ducklings, the numbers are going down slowly. We have been putting them outside in a pen which they are enjoying but have to get them in when we go out as we can’t risk leaving them, so it’s in, out, in, out lol. I’m sat here writing this, the sky is black and I’m willing it very hard to pour down 🤪 the saplings I planted in the autumn are also beginning to struggle, they went through winter with no problems but with the wall to wall sunshine we have had without any rain the problems are starting to show.

The rain blew over quickly so it looks like I will be watering tonight 😝

We have a breast of lamb, rolled with garlic and rosemary, in the slow cooker for dinner so I haven’t got much prep to do, just as well as I was hoping I wouldn’t be doing the watering tonight.

That’s it for this week 😀 a bit boring really, I will try and pep it up a bit next week lol.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Asparagus frittata, grapes forming & the ducks are a no show ☹️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th April: I’m feeling full of positive energy today 😀 The Sun is shinning and before doing anything else other than breakfast and showering, I have been out and cut the asparagus and rhubarb to put out for sale. Some of the asparagus I have kept back and made an asparagus frittata/crust less quiche, whatever you want to call it. I am making an effort to do a bit of clean(er) eating this week and as the asparagus is coming through plentiful and we have eggs I thought this would be ideal for lunch. I used 3 eggs, a bundle of asparagus, a clove of garlic, grated cheese, a spoonful of sour cream I needed to use up, pinch of salt and a shake of black pepper, bake at 160c ish for 30mins give or take and voila, lunch is done for a couple of days before I’ve even fed the chickens 😀

So what have I been doing all morning, well first I wrote myself a list of things I wanted to get done, and then worked through it, nearly all gardening things but a couple of others too boot. Firstly I wanted to feed a tree that is in the front paddock, Cherry, it’s been in all winter but I felt it needed a bit of a boost as the soil is very shallow out there and probably not many nutrients either. While I was out there I wandered over to look at the wild garlic which has now flowered 😀

Burn a bit of cardboard rubbish that has been piling up, sort out plants I am putting out for sale, dig up the last few leeks ready to chop and freeze for later use, one I have left as it’s going to seed so I can collect that at the end of the year. Hang the washing loads out, should dry well today, pay an outstanding bill online, hand weed the carrot bed and sow more carrots. The carrots I sowed a few weeks back have not been very good, it was a shorter, early variety that I was trying but the seedlings are sparse so I have intersown with a more familiar variety (Nantes) and then the other half of the bed with a later variety. I potted on more plants that are steadily growing and starting to put everything hardy enough outside to acclimatise. The more tender plants will stay in for probably another week then I can start hardening them off. I planted a couple of pepper plants in the small tunnel, the other three are still in pots in the large tunnel until I decide where to grow them. I looked up in the large tunnel and was cock a hoop to see the grape vine has tiny bunches of grapes growing 😀

I have seen a couple Pinterest posts with sweet potato slips being grown suspended over water so I am giving that a try to see if it works.

I bought one of those boxes of scatter and sow seeds at the weekend so I have done exactly that and watered them in, I’m not sure these really work, I have tried before with not great results but fingers crossed these just might.

There are still of jobs on the list to do lol but I’m getting through them as best I can 😜 and of course keep adding to the list all the while.

In the afternoon I did some slightly more gentle pottering, last year I decided that I wouldn’t do pots of things as it was bloody hard work trying to keep everything alive but today I changed my mind 🙄 so I have been finding bits to put into pots to go on the decking area. While I was down there I spotted a rat! I thought the torts were eating rather a lot 😝 so I will be giving the rat(s) supper tonight 😜 John had other ideas about trying to shoot it though, I say trying, it was an entertaining hour watching him stalking the thing, he has no patience to sit and wait for it to come out, he is also by his own admission ‘a crap shot’ added to that he kept moaning he couldn’t see through the sight, needless to say I’m still going to ‘feed’ it tonight 😛

Tuesday: Nice sunny morning, looks like a promising day 😁 I had Mia today and roped her in to help pick/cut some food for the rabbits and guinea pig and get some sacks filled with hay for them. She bought a marble painting kit with her that she got as a present for her birthday, it’s a great little kit, well thought out, we expanded the idea a little with splodge pictures and got messier and messier 😆

I received the invoice for the ducklings this morning and suddenly realised that has crept up on me fast 😂 I now need to think about moving the chicks to another pen, they should be able to go outside in the next few days as they are all feathered up now 🙂

I’m glad a did the whole ‘pond’ thing last year although it needs some work again now as the chickens decimated the planting, hopefully I will be rehoming some froglets to add to it so I need to make sure the area is damp and dark for them, natural slug patrol 😁

After Mia went home and John came home, I gave him the job of feeding the birds and collecting the eggs while I went out to water the poly tunnels, feed the citrus trees and pot a couple of things on, by the time we ate it was nearly 8pm 😜

Wednesday: Cooler this morning with a nice heavy dew, good for the garden 😁 Got the animals all sorted and picked a few bunches of asparagus which will go out for sale today.

When I went to collect the post from the end of the drive I could hear grasshoppers 😁 that made me smile 😀

I showed you a picture of a guild last week that I had planted, here is one that has more or less sprung up by itself so I have let it carry on, this is a cherry tree, feverfew, comfrey, some sweet cicely, there are daffodils and violet in there as well as a bit of horseradish, quite a combination! All doing very well although the feverfew is a bit thuggish. One of the asparagus beds runs behind it along the back

I should have been full steam ahead this morning but I’m taking it a little slower, I have been experiencing a high heart rate at times and trying to work out why, obviously it’s to do with the medication and I had stopped the anti inflammatory because I didn’t think I needed it anymore but maybe I still do, so a quieter day back on that and see what happens.

I have mainly pottered about doing bits and pieces, I sowed a couple of rows of beetroot, I need to find out what I can plant along side them to do them some good, I moved a few things around and then I picked some chard to take to the hens in the stable block. As I came out I whacked my head a good un on the closed top bit, why I don’t know because I KNOW ITS THERE and even stooped to miss it but not far enough it seems 🤕 ouch, one those when you just want to cry, I even checked to make sure I hadn’t cut it open, luckily not, just as well I took the anti inflammatory 🙄

It seems that beans and peas can be pretty much grown with anything so I have sowed some more dwarf bean seeds to use dotted around the garden as companions, I sowed some yarrow, potted on courgettes and melons and sorted out plants for Shelley, she has a terrific little courtyard garden which has the potential to grow lots of food as it is sheltered and parts are a sun trap.

I just witnessed first hand the ‘crow’ problem that is causing concerns throughout the countryside. I opened the pen for the light Sussex to get out further than normal earlier, this afternoon I can see about 15 crows in there, the problem (for the crows) is that the wire roof slants upwards and they cannot figure how to get out once they are disturbed. I haven’t been able to see yet if they have attacked the eggs the hen is sat on or if they were drawn in because the eggs have hatched (due any day) or if they were after feed. What I witnessed was two very angry cockerels attacking any crow that came down to the ground, one crow was attacked four or five times, but they are pretty tough as it still got out eventually! And then they all came back but the cockerel got the better of one of them this time though it took a bit of doing, if you are wondering why I didn’t intervene, not a chance I am going in there with a cockerel on a mission like that, and the fact that there are two cockerels in there having a go is a definite no way.

Tonight for my dinner I have chicken with coconut rice and a mango and avocado salsa 😀

Thursday: I got the morning stuff done, then moved the little chicks out to where the quail used to be to make room for the ducklings which are arriving tomorrow morning first thing. Then it was off to Shelley’s for the day to help her with her garden it’s a lovely little courtyard garden but full of weeds and building rubble from their renovations, now it’s all tided up, weeded and pots filled with edibles from patio trees and fruit bushes to vegetables 😀 we forgot to take before and after photos though 🤪

John got the ducks some starter crumb and the chicks some growers pellets on the way home. I cleaned out the brooder this morning so we are good to go with duckies.

Friday: Well it started off well, I was up early, got the brooder lamp on, opened a new bag of starter crumb and was making a duckling proof waterer at 7.30am all ready for the delivery of ducklings, get a phone call at 7.45 to say they are not coming because the hatch was 300 short ☹️ I’m a bit pissed off to be fair 🙄 All that work in making brooders, getting feed in (a 20kg bag which I opened minutes before the phonecall) not to mention the anticipation, all for nowt. They are going to ring back on Tuesday to see what they can do, it may mean waiting for another hatch but I’m guessing they have already allocated those to customers 😕 meanwhile the ducks I have are laying poorly at the minute so not many duck eggs. The last lot I bought in Ffairfach when I was down at Dads and that was a few years ago, we are going down at the end of this month and I may have to see if I can find some in that area to bring back with us, honestly, who knew it would be so hard to get hold of ducks lol.

I did the morning rounds and got everything else sorted all the while thinking about how things look rosy for a while and then bump, down you come with a thud lol.

I spent the morning in the poly tunnel sulking 😝 lol, well potting on etc then I did some planting of perennials that I had split last autumn and overwintered. Sam and Mia came over at lunchtime, ‘do you fancy lunch out’ I said, ‘yep’ then let’s go 😀

Got back and did the feeding and eggs, I have sold 12 goose eggs today 😁

After that I had a sit down and I need a new purse as mine is on its last legs, well we are back to the light bulb saga for choice, it seems these days you really need to have a purse that is RFID blocking to prevent unauthorised scanning 😏 I need it big enough to get a medication card (I have to carry around with me) in it, I would quite like one big enough to get my phone in it if I am not taking my bag with me, and of course a multitude of loyalty cards, (mostly for garden centres 😂), some old one pound notes I was given as a birthday present many years ago and never spent 🤣, I choose one eventually and then found I could get it half price if I buy one in damaged packaging, yep that will do fine I throw that bit away anyhow!

Babysat Florence in the evening while Shelley and Martin took Josh to see Madagascar the musical which he absolutely loved 😁😁

Saturday: A cold North wind this morning, apparently it’s the coldest May bank holiday weekend for however many years, the weather patterns are so up and down this year. John went off to get feed and I did the feeding etc. I had a few larger plants in pots that needed moving to bigger pots and so thats what I did, meanwhile John cleaned out his van which took nearly all morning, I washed it as he was just going to park it back on the driveway and it was filthy! In the afternoon we went over to Cheltenham to visit our niece whose birthday was this week and she has just moved into a new flat there, good to get out and about, back home for an hour then over to Sam and Luke’s for a burger and some pooling of ideas for their garden which is about to have a huge transformation. That’s pretty much it for the day 😀

I have managed to find a couple of kittens not too far away and hopefully will be going to look at them next weekend 😀

Sunday: Brrrr still colder than it should be by now. Morning rounds first then I did some hoeing, the weeds are beginning to sprout everywhere, John went off to visit his Mum and when he came back he got the mower out to do the front paddock. We have kept the chickens off this paddock to give it a rest and get the sward thickened up, it’s looking pretty good although there are still some bare patches. He got bored after a couple of goes round so I took over while he got on with taking out a gate post near the back door that had rotted out and needed renewing. Halfway through that job we decided to go out and get something to eat, came back and he finished the job off while I did some pricking out and potting on lol my favourite jobs at the minute. I have put some runner beans out for hardening off as they will need to be planted up soon, I did put an extra cover of bubble wrap over the top though as it’s unseasonably chilly 😏

We had to light the Rayburn as it’s a tad too cold in the house, come back sunshine 🌞

Mostly garden tasks this week lol at the expense of everything else but I’m loving it so I’ll carry on regardless 😜

Have a good week everyone x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Swallows, petrichor & some CPR training

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Easter Monday: I keep thinking it’s Sunday lol, Another nice morning, up early again because John is off it means I can go straight out to the garden and get started on some stuff. I have hoed the brassica cage, keeping the weeds for the rabbits, planted some broad beans round the edge of the cage and the brassicas will go in the middle, I’m also planning on growing peas in there because they will grow upwards rather than outwards so I can get them in between the brassicas and keep the birds off, bonus 😀 I did as much hoeing as I needed, I’m taking a more relaxed approach this year as I mentioned before, a lot of the weeds will be hand pulled to feed the rabbits and torts so I need a supply lol. The only weed I am actively controlling is bindweed, the rabbits will eat it but it’s such a thug it gets out of hand quickly and swamps everything so I’m trying to keep it down. I have planted a couple of herbs, my rosemary got so big it split in two and that caused the plant to rot over winter so I have a new one in and I also bought a curry plant to give that a try, I have been going round finding self set plants and digging those up and potting them, even things like Rosa rugosa because I can plant those in the hedge lines eventually.

The swallows have arrived, John spotted them yesterday afternoon flying around, you know Spring has sprung when they turn up 😀 They will have come from South Africa travelling up to 200 miles a day to get here, I think they deserve the noting of their arrival!

Tuesday: St George’s Day April 23rd not celebrated as it should be in my opinion considering it’s our National day! Mia day today but I got everything done before she arrived plus a little watering, I do hope we get some rain this week as things are beginning to struggle a little, they need something to perk them up. We didn’t do much apart from watch the torts and play but Sam finished early so I whizzed round and did the feeding and eggs then time for GOT 😀😀 I feel tired today, that’s the first time in a week or so, not sure why but definitely not got the umph I have had 😕 Late afternoon I planted some more peas, these are going in the brassica cage with broad beans and the brassicas. I thought I would take advantage of the fact that the cage is netted so that will keep the pigeons off them also they will grow much higher/narrower than the beans and cabbages/cauliflower so won’t be competing for space and light. I watered them in even though a touch of rain is forecast and I could smell that the air was charged. I could hear rumbles of thunder while I was out there but as yet I hasn’t come to much and the from the amount of times I have left it because it was supposed to rain and didn’t , I have learnt from experience, a little extra doesn’t do any harm. Hopefully with a rest tonight and a good nights sleep (which now I think about it, I didn’t have last night, I kept waking up for some reason) I should be raring to go tomorrow 🙄

I have ordered 25 Silver Birch trees, yep 25, well they were a bargain, I will only want a few of them but the rest I can pot up and sell on hopefully, if not we will have lots more lovely trees around the place. I tried growing some from seed but they didn’t grow at all and the around the two birches I already have I have never found saplings.

Going back to this morning I just have to tell you this, I went into the stable block to feed the hens that are in the stable (the escapees from the back paddock) near the tap was an overturned bucket with lots of the ground scratched about round it, I lifted the bucket and there was a hen, she has had a lucky escape from the fox by the looks of it, obviously the fox couldn’t work out how to knock the bucket over but it knew there was something under it, the hen clearly felt safe as she had even laid an egg 😬

Wednesday: Feeling less tired today so cracked on a bit, got the feeding etc done and then Into the garden. With rain forecast I wanted to get a couple of things done, first, cut the grass on the lawn and the driveway, two reasons, I want the clippings to put on the beds as a mulch and I don’t want the grass to spurt and get too long to cut when the rain comes. Second job was to get some things planted in the ground also because rain is forecast and that will give them a good start, eating peas and sweet peas mostly. I could have spent forever doing things but finally a shower 😀 I have heard thunder and the patter of a few drops since last night but nothing materialised until now. It seems odd that in England, where the rest of the world thinks it rains all the time, we are desperate for some rain, we haven’t had any for around 2/3 weeks and together with the scorching spring temperatures we have had, it’s a recipe for disaster in the garden, especially veg gardens. It’s not that we want rain all the time but over the years we have got used to it and so garden accordingly, we are now beginning to realise that we need to adapt and change, that is the reason I have been trying to create more of a forest garden so that we have a canopy to hold the moisture in the soil. The time for neat rows and bare soil has passed, well here at least and I need to learn a different way, not new, it’s been done in various forms for hundreds of years and there are always new ideas to tap into, it’s a journey of discovery I am enjoying.

I took a photo of one of the ‘guilds’ I created, it’s in its infancy and the photo is taken from directly above, I planted this up last year and the apple tree had been moved from the paddock because it was struggling massively. The tree is the one with the red leaves in the middle, I so want this to do well because the flesh of the apple is also red which I thought would be fun, then there is comfrey an accumulator, it will pull up nutrients from deep down and deposit them when it either dies back or is chopped and dropped, that’s the theory anyway, then there are strawberries they will spread, covering the bare ground and they obviously bring bees and insects to the area (pollinator) it doesn’t matter if the berries get eaten by birds, they are not my main plants for harvesting, you can just see onions poking through, those help deter pests due to the smell (repellers) I need to plant a (fixer) in there which will be from the legume family, they draw nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on the roots and release it into the soil when they die back, nitrogen is one of the most important chemicals to a plant, it’s needed to make chlorophyll, clover is probably what I will sow, it’s permanent unlike the beans and peas although I may put a couple of those in as well, it’s not difficult once to understand what each plant does and how it helps the other, in this case they are all helping he apple tree, hopefully it will work out, I will let you know. I have other guilds to plant up, the fruit trees have already been in the ground for a year so time to build the guilds 😀

We had a short shower, long enough to be able to smell that delightful smell of Petrichor 😀 one of my fave smells, this is the rain causing chemical reactions of either oil being realised from plants or bacteria, either way it’s a smell I love and the garden loves it too which is the most important thing. You could spend a day watering with tap water just to keep things ticking over, but a short burst of rain and the plants do a little happy dance, burst into life and put on good growth, now we just need a little bit more to fill up the water tanks please 😜

Went up to my neighbours to try and help identify some veg seedlings for her, the classic mistake we all make ‘I will recognise those when they come up’ or the labels fade/wash away, and you are left with trays of very similar looking seedlings 😀

Back home and did an hour in the tunnel, emptying things that have not grown, sowing odd packets of things that have been opened last year and a few left, they may come up, they may not but nothing ventured nothing gained. There were a few chick pea seeds so I sowed them and they grew well but didn’t produce much last time, however I figure the rabbits will eat the tops if nothing else.

I picked a few bits for the egg shed, rhubarb, asparagus and I put out Welsh onion, these are not something you will find readily in the shops, they are a perennial onion with a bit more of a kick than chives but not as strong as an onion, use them the same way you would as spring onion or chives.

Thursday: We have had a substantial amount of rain overnight by the looks of it which is great, the sun is trying to shine and the temps are not too low so it’s great growing weather. We popped out to do some bits last night and driving down the lanes I was thinking how fabulous the countryside looks when the hedges all start to fill out.

Pick a job, any job that’s the order of the day today, indoors, animals, garden, plenty needs doing, first of all though shower and coffee 😜

I ordered some tomato plants, I thought I had ordered some previously but I can’t find any email saying so (probably end up with loads arriving) I have got some seeds in but I think it’s a bit late really and the plants will give me a good start.

Yesterday while gardening I found a few borage seedlings in the path so I dug them up and relocated them back onto the herb bed, I was reading this morning that borage is especially useful to pollinating insects as it fills up with nectar every two minutes 😲 so I will be on the look out for more seedlings to transplant around the rest of the beds, borage can be a bit annoying if you like well structured gardening as it is big, hairy and floppy (yes, now I’ve written it, I see how rudely that will be interpreted by some 😜) and seeds everywhere but it is a fabulous plant for the insects so well worth putting up with 😀

I got a few of those jobs done that have needed doing for a while, you know the ones you walk past daily thinking, I need to do that, I must do that, I really have to do that soon lol. Mainly it was cleaning out the rabbits, they get deep littered over winter which works well, they have a couple of wet areas the rest is dry and the bumbles fall through the straw to the bottom. Well now was the time to sift all through it, take out the wet, shovel up the bumbles and dust, a lot of the straw is perfectly fine to throw on the toilet areas and then they will have clean straw and hay elsewhere. The quail hut needed doing as well and the nest boxes of the incarcerated hens in the stable, I’m keeping them in hoping that when they finally go back out into the back paddock most of them will stay there 🙄 I picked some fresh food for the rabbits and guinea, weeds, some herbs, and some chard, I gave a bit of chard to the light Sussex and the hens in the stable. We have a light Sussex hen sitting on eggs at the moment, I would be nice if she manages to hatch a bunch of them out, we haven’t had hen raised chicks for a couple of years.

What I really need to get a grip with is feeding the light Sussex as naturally as possible, that was always the intention, a flock of dual purpose birds for our own use, to feed them fresh fruit, veg, herbs & then grain & pulses. For one reason or another it has not been possible to get them out on a paddock as yet and now she is sitting I will have to wait a while longer but it gives me time to put something in place for when the time comes.

We hadn’t had as much rain over night as I thought, just a spitting by the looks of it but just as I finished the rabbits, tidied away and came in for coffee the heavens opened and down it came, good timing 😝

The sun is coming out in between showers so I went out and planted the rest of the seed potatoes this year we have swift (earlies) and Picasso (main crop) last year the potato harvest was not good because of the long hot spell hopefully this year will be better. I also scattered some cornflower and poppy seeds in the flower bed, I have cornflower growing from seed in the tunnel as well but you can never have enough cornflowers 😀 I am trialing a few other things, millet, quinoa, kidney beans, and haricot beans, and sunflowers seeds from the bird seed, to see if they grow and how well and I have had a piece of ginger in my fruit bowl that I was hoping would begin to sprout, it has so now I have placed it on top of some compost in a pot in the tunnel to see if I can get that going. Ginger is a bit hit and miss I find, it sprouts really well then dies off but I do know people who grow it successfully so giving it a go. My tea bush (Camellia Sinensis) survived winter, I need to read up on the best location to plant it once it’s big enough and get this, because if I was trying I wouldn’t succeed, but I used some cut apple wood branches to secure a piece of mesh round some bulbs and the wood has rooted 😲 free apple tree 😀 only one piece out of about 8 buy hey I’ll take that as a win. Amaranth is another I am going to try, the leaves are eaten like spinach and if it goes to seed the birds/hens will love it.

I put an item up for sale on social media and had a chap contact me as he wanted to buy it, all very normal, he didn’t know the area and doesn’t have a sat nav so asked if he could meet in Carterton which he does know a bit, that’s fine we can do that, as a thank you for going out of your way (it’s not really) would you like some tomato plants, yes please 😀 Sungold and Indigo, I haven’t grown either before so looking forward to seeing how they do.

Friday: I have only done the basics today, firstly it’s bloods day, I am pleased to say that the last lot of results were all normal so these should be too, then I went with Shelley while Josh had his class photos taken, then to get a coffee and cake, then a bit of food shopping. Back home and Mum came, then Sam and Mia so we all had a lunch of prawns and salad leaves from the tunnel and some general chat while the children argued over every little thing 😂 the amazing thing is that when it was time for Josh to go, he and Mia suddenly declared how much they love each other lol, if only they did that at the start it might have been a less fractious afternoon, kids 😝

Some brassica plants arrived today, I had forgotten that I ordered them but I’m pleased that there are Brussel sprouts in with them as well as cauliflower, cabbage and purple sprouting, I have loads of the latter two as seedlings so goodness knows what I will do with them all. I ordered plants last year and they did so well that I must have decided to repeat it again this year, meanwhile gaily sowing plenty of the seeds as well 🙄

Saturday: Oh what a difference in the weather from this time last week! The wind is very cold this morning, if you are reading this and not living in the UK you might be able to see why we are obsessed with talking about he weather, it’s soooo changeable it’s ridiculous, it makes planning anything outdoors very sketchy. We are lulled into a false sense of Spring then wham October is back lol, it’s a reminder to make sure any plants that are going out are short and strong rather than spindly or leggy as they will get battered.

We did the morning feeding and letting out and John keeps complaining about the wind and how cold it is, I told him, I know you are just trying to talk yourself into a warm comfy seat in front of the telly for F1 and some snooker 😝 I can find plenty of jobs under cover 😂

Before we get under way for the day on the smallholding though we are going for a bit of CPR training, the village now has a defibrillator in place and offered the free opportunity to learn or freshen up on CPR and familiarise ourselves with how the defibrillator works, too good an opportunity to miss.

The we went straight to pick up some multi purpose compost from the garden centre and of course John had to have a breakfast while he was there 😂 It gave me a bit of time for a look round and pick up some bits, I like to go to the casualty dept and rescue something I might fancy, today was a large lemon thyme for £2. For nearly ten years I have only grown vegetables and fruit with the odd flower or shrub in a pot, I realised how much I missed flower gardening, gardening in general, but I’m a bit giddy with my rediscovered passion for it lol and buying, propagating plants left right and centre. I’m even thinking, where can I start a real garden, by that I mean a dedicated area, it’s not that we don’t have the space, 5 acres is a lot, but can I, should I, give over a particular space to it? At the moment I have a small border in the front of the gate, pots and boxes in front of the building and a small area approx 5ft x 5ft in the veg garden.

I am changing the place bit by bit, I wish I had started 10 years back but hey that’s hindsight for you, the small paddock has got some fruit trees and I have a couple more native trees to go in so that will have a small copse area, and we have a small copse area in the side paddock right down near the road, I have never touched this but was looking at it yesterday thinking I could doing a little bit of tidying in there, it’s mostly hawthorn bushes and put a couple of other trees in there as well. We would have to fence it off though or the horse will probably eat anything I put in!

When we got back I spent a bit of time in the tunnel, it’s nice in there and horrid outside the wind is fierce. I picked up some 50p herbs from the supermarket, basil and parsley the basil I have planted in a pot with a cloche and the parsley I took a sharp knife to the roots and divided it into 4, planted 2 in the salad bed and potted 2 just to see if they take and how they do because that would be a very cheap way to get plenty of herbs on the go. I also picked up a rosemary also 50p, (these are all living herbs with roots) and took some cuttings from the nice soft tips of it, also just to see if it works.

After that we had decided that we would use one of the brooders that John made to move the chicks into as they need more space and will be moved out of it by the time the ducklings arrive. I don’t often give John the credit he is due (doesn’t pay to let him get too big for his boots 😜) but I am soooo pleased with these, they are just perfect and he has done a great job of building them, so if you see him out and about you can tell him ‘nice brooder unit’ 😀😀

Back out into the tunnel (my happy, happy place) and pot on a few more seedlings that are getting big enough now, I’m going to have so much to plant out very soon I will be busy from dawn till dusk 😋 Inbetween I was trying to go round picking up stuff that has been strewn by the wind 😕 hoping it dies down soon.

Then we went to pick up Josh who is coming for sausage and chips and a sleepover at Nanas and Gramp Gramps 😀

Sunday: A better day weather wise, the wind has dropped and we had a fair bit of sunshine in the afternoon. Josh went out and helped Grampy do the feeding and letting out this morning then the boys came over to do some more to the greenhouse and the girls came over with the rest of the grandchildren. By early afternoon they had gone and I set about planting the brassicas up, the whole cage is full now with broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, purple sprouting, dwarf kale and some turnips, all that together with the broad beans and some peas should fill it to bursting once it’s all growing.

I potted up most of the silver birch whips, heeled a couple of them in in various places in the veg garden, the rest will be planted around the farm somewhere yet to be decided.

Charlie and Macca invited us for roast dinner, never going to say no to that 😀 and when we returned I went out to water the stuff I had planted earlier.

Picture of ranunculus which I have totally fallen in love with.

Job done

Day done

Week done 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of Sunshine, lots of birthdays & Easter 🐣

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th April: I was up Uber early today lol, I woke at 5 decided it was still dark so would go back to sleep, couldn’t settle back so eventually got up at 5.45. I was starving, that’s the steroids, I couldn’t settle because my mind had by this time gone into overdrive and that’s also the steroids lol, still it’s a lot better than not having the energy to bother with anything at all so I’m happy 😃

I got up, dressed, breakfasted, out to do the morning rounds all before 7am, it gave John a lie in anyway 😘

I made a gruesome discovery in the quail house, something has devoured one of them, I’m not sure if the others have attacked it or if something has got in, I can’t see how but it’s possible, whatever has happened they have torn it apart and stripped all the meat off the bones making me think it’s possibly a rat but this hut is on 4ft legs up high. I will have to move the other three to safety and see what happens, they can be vicious towards each other if they decide to turn but at the moment it’s a mystery.

According to the weather forecast we are getting some warmer weather this week 😀 a bit of heat for all the fruit and veg will be very welcome.

Today is Charlie’s birthday and we are off out for lunch at Aston Pottery https://astonpottery.co.uk/ which is local to us, it’s a lovely place for lunch, plus a vast range of pottery and gifts and they also have a fabulous garden and sell the plants too, what’s not to love 💗

The wind was a bit blowy today and the warmth never really materialised but it didn’t matter for lunch and nattering and to be honest apart from the basics I didn’t get much else done today 🙄

The seeds are doing well in the tunnel, well most of them, yet again this year the peas are sporadic to say the least, last year I had to sow two lots and still they didn’t come up and this year the first lot are hit and miss, mostly miss 😜 Everything else is romping along.

Tuesday: Mia day today and so I got a few bits done outside as well as the feeding etc, then when she arrived she helped to do a few more bits before we spent a hour playing pirates in the pirate ship 😀 Then Josh, Flo and Shelley arrived for a couple of hours playing, Sam finished early and picked up Mia so I dashed round got the eggs and feeding down then indulged myself with Game of Thrones 😃 Another birthday today so when John got home we went off for cake 😀 Hoping for the warmth of the sun tomorrow as I have plenty of jobs to get done.

Wednesday: Up early because I couldn’t resist the promise of some warm weather 😀 I could see the orange Sun rising over the hedge when I opened the curtains whoop whoop, then it went cloudy lol, but still warmer than of late. I got the bed stripped and room hoovered and bed re made before 7.15 😀 off out to get the birds feed and let out and then straight into the poly tunnel and garden 😀 Mum arrived and we had a lovely session in the poly tunnel, she was giving me some lessons on cuttings, she has green fingers and years of knowledge so I’m tapping into that 😀 It got even better when some plants arrived with the postman and we got those potted on, ooo what a lovely morning 😀 Mum was just going when Sam and brought lunch, could this day get much better, lunch eaten Sam went to get the horse in and get him a wash down which by all accounts he enjoyed thoroughly. I went and picked some weeds for the rabbits and guinea pig and the set up a run that we have to put the tortoises in so they could eat without the chickens stealing it all.

I’m still moaning on about the price of plants at the garden centre lol, this has driven me to learn more about cuttings and propagating everything I have and I’m enjoying doing it, I just need the green fingers that my Mum has 😜

A quick sit down before I start again.

I did the feeding etc then spent a good few hours doing lots of little jobs, there are a million and one of them 😂 bathing the dogs, they haven’t been done for a while and with some dry days now is a good time. Patch is easy as he is short haired and lanky so doesn’t get too dirty, Mia on the other hand is shorter, longer haired and loves to roll in fox poo 💩 they both get a dose of flea treatment, Mia has a prescription treatment because she likes to roll in fox poo 💩 and can get mange from it. I altered the wording on the egg board sign, put some plants out for sale, got the washing in, put the dinner on, fed and watered the little chicks which are growing at a rate and beginning to feather up, watered the plants in pots out the front, oh and in between I reserved some turkeys to raise for Christmas 🤣 as you do. We always said we would like to do some turkeys and the opportunity arose so I took it, only 6 just to see how they do, excited 😜

I haven’t seen Diesel on the farm for a while, I see him down on the boundary wall and John sees him up the road a little but he is hardly ever at the yard at the moment 😕 there has been no sign of Cruella since the fox attacks back in February so I have no idea what happened to her ☹️ we have not had much luck with cats over the past two years, Molly hung around but obviously she was already old and now no longer with us so to that end I am on the search for two kittens. We have tried the re homing feral cats with not much success, they turn out to be not so feral more petrified, so we thought have them from young, two will be company for each other and hopefully they will be here for a long time to come, just got to find kittens that are short haired and not ridiculously priced!

Thursday: Up early again, you guessed it, bathroom cleaned and hoovered before 7.15, I’m on fire 🔥 😜 two loads of washing on and done then out to feed everything and let it all out for the day. Watering next because we have a distinct lack of rain 😲 so things in pots need a bit of help. Onto the polytunnel to water in there then a quick clean up in the boot room. I had Josh on his own for a few hours and we fed jack a carrot, put fresh bedding in for the ducks, moved the torts to the pen so they can eat, hung out the washing, made a paper aeroplane and flew it, kind of, then we gathered sticks and made a fire, cooked and ate cowboy sausages in the garden 😀

PICTURE ‘this is the life’ was our motto today 😀

Quick rest and a cuppa then onto the unending list of jobs, I’m down to around 999, 874.3 left on the list now 😝

Cleaned out the little chicks who are feathering up nicely now and growing every day!

Did a few more domestic bits before John came home and then went to get a bit of shopping because with a 4 day weekend there will be nothing left on the shelves 😂 I picked up a couple more plants for a couple of quid each a hardy fushia £2 and some day lilies also £2, not complaining at that 😝 and I think they will be on sale by the end of the weekend as most are in need of water!

Good Friday: The beginning of the Easter weekend, Eostre an ancient word meaning Spring, the celebrations of new life, hence the eggs and bunnies both symbols of fertility and the return of some warm weather 😀

It also happens to be Mia’s 3rd birthday today 😀

Up early 😜 crack on before it gets too hot! John did the feeding etc while I did some watering and domestic bits then we set about getting the poultry netting set up in the back paddock, this is a belts and braces job because we have three single strands of wire around the outside too. We need to (a) keep the hens in and (b) keep the foxes out 🙄 the netting has been chewed to bit by various animals, rabbits, geese, fox, as soon as there is not enough charge in a battery it gets chewed so I’m thinking we won’t buy that again. Anyway we have it, such as it is so we have doubled it all up and can only hope that this will work.

While we were collecting netting from the front we saw a car parked in the lane, I went to investigate as there was no one in it and saw a chap taking photos over our neighbours gate, I asked him what he was doing and he said he was photographing the horses, I think he was genuine but I explained to him that it’s not a good idea and he could be seen as scoping the place out, he seemed a bit shocked at that, either way if he was genuine he learnt something new and if he was not he has been clocked, keep em peeled people 😜

I was supposed to have a customer come and collect some goose eggs today but they can’t get past the traffic to the local wildlife park, do you think I should put in a claim 😝 honestly in the last two years the traffic to there on bank holidays has got horrendous.

We had a birthday party for Mia in the afternoon, the weather was amazing, bit too hot for me, hush my mouth, but it was a lovely time playing in the front paddock.

We moved 51 hens to their new back paddock enclosure, fingers crossed they stay there 🙄 by this time it was 9pm so we shut everything else away, I made myself a hot chocolate and John a tea, then I sat outside and drank mine 😀 The moon was fantastic tonight with an Amber glow just fabulous, I listened to all the noises, distant dog barking, sheep bleating, watched the night flights going back to London and wondering where they had been, and was aware of the bats flying around. We have always had bats flying here, I don’t know where they roost, we have never come across any in 10 years but they are out every night. Back inside to catch up with Gardeners World 😀

Saturday: Ahhh up at 5.30 lol, once I’m awake these days and if it’s light I figure I might as well get up and get on so that’s what I did, nice time of the morning as I watched the deer running across the field at the back of us. By the time John got up at 7.30 I had everything fed, watered and let out, got some plants in situ and done the watering 😀 He went off to finish the last few bits of Shelley and Martins bathroom and I set about planting the broad beans and putting together some metal shelving in the poly tunnel. Martin came and dropped off the wood for the greenhouse which is being done tomorrow 😀

Now by this time I was beginning to notice one or two hens walking around the place 😣 I went into the stables and there were about 10 of the buggers, more have appeared during the morning, we decided in the end just to electrify the ring fencing hoping the hens would stay behind the netting, so that’s clearly not working. I managed to shut the majority of them in a stable and that’s where they can stay for now, at least it’s not all 51 of them……yet!

I cut a piece of contorted hazel for the Easter tree, I like doing it and the children like looking at it, they get to take something off the tree to keep each year.

The thing I’m finding with this glorious weather is that I quickly run out of time to spend in the poly tunnel, it gets hot and as the trees are not out in full leaf yet there is no shade either, so while I’m itching to be out there, i can’t 🙄

Browsing through things while it’s a bit too hot for me I discovered you can eat Hostas, Hostas, who knew that? Amazing, apparently they taste a bit like asparagus and are considered a mountain vegetable, might just have to try one 😜 further reading and I discover that they are the perfect forest garden vegetable and have the potential to be a major commercial vegetable 😲 I wonder how many people I can convince to have a go lol, well if they are good enough for the slugs I guess they must be tasty 😋

Late afternoon/early evening I planted out some peas and watered bits that I have been planting over the last couple of days, then it was time to round up the escapees and take them back to the hut in the small back paddock, 22 of them in all 😕 Tomorrow we will electrify the netting instead of the strand wire and see if it keeps a few more of them in.

Before we did that John put the other birds away and I went to do the geese and Sussex, as I stepped out of the door I could hear a Robin sending out the alarm call and jumping from branch to branch in the trees, I wondered what was alarming it and then the cat appeared (the Robin has a nest in my plastic flower mountain) then I went over to the geese two of which had managed to get the wrong side of the fence so there were geese honking, A Robin shrilling loudly and the cat meowing, a right racket going on lol.

Easter Sunday: A busy day ahead of us, Martin & Luke are coming over to build the frame for the greenhouse, Macca is giving them a hand as is John. Charlie, Sam, Shelley, Josh, Mia and Florence will also be coming over and I will be on bacon rolls and tea duties then later on a roast lamb dinner and blueberry and apple pie, Chocolate cake and of course Easter eggs😜

It really was a busy day but the lads got loads done, we ate heartily and the children were exhausted at the end of it all, I am pooped 😬

The asparagus is at last coming through 😀

Over and out for this week 😴😴😴😴😴