Tag: sunshine

Posted in Friesland Farm

Direct sowing, flower crowns & a steam train ride.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th April 2022: Weeeee it’s Momday again and this week I am covid free 😁 It was raining this morning which is brilliant because we have not had any rain for ages and the water tanks are getting a bit dry. I think we have a good bit forecast on and off this week so it should replenish them nicely. Because it was raining I spent most of the day cleaning 🤪 Hoovering, moving furniture, dusting, stripping the beds and sorting through stuff to get everything put away in the right place. I finished that around 1pm and then thought I’d better start putting together a plan for this weeks flower club task, a pave, yes it was alien to me as well. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at designs so I have some idea of what I am doing, I identified the vessel I will be making it in and now I just have to wait and cut the foliage and flowers on Wednesday morning ready to go and do my thing on Wednesday evening. As always I don’t really know what or how and like last time I thought ‘maybe I won’t do it’ but then again I like a challenge so I am going to give it my best shot. I then had a phone call from Flowers from the Farm, or at least one of the ladies that run the organisation, we had a great chat on a few different subjects related to flower farming but the call was about the Flowers from the Farm big weekend 5th-7th August. Was I going to be putting on an event, probably not says I, only going into my first year and nothing to really show for it yet I would feel a bit out of my depth lol. She directed me to lots of information including a zoom meeting on the subject and different flowers farmers, the scale of their weekends which range from big to quite small, and the type of things they do. So I spent the next couple of hours watching, listening and learning about all kinds of events and potentially it may be something I will give some serious thought to. One lady did a small ticketed free event for just 10 people, a tour of her flowers, tea and cake, well I reckon I could probably manage that easy enough so watch this space. It is all to promote the British flower farming industry so keep an eye out for any you see advertised and go along 😁

Tuesday: A dry but very blowy day, not too bad temperature wise though. I got the usual jobs done before getting outside to get some bits done out there. I had intended to empty the rain butt by the greenhouse and stand it back upright again as it has gone lopsided and is no longer connected to the gutter 🙄 but it is full and so I didn’t want to waste the water in there, I will use it until it’s empty and then do the job. Next on to plant some ranunculus in the big tunnel, I want to get some flowers sooner rather than later from these and planting them under cover should do the trick, I can see my tunnel being a flower tunnel rather than a veg one soon 😂 Next job was to fill one of the raised beds with top soil and do some direct sowing. I felt the time is right and the farmer next door is sowing into the field as well so I am hoping we are correct. This will be a first sowing of pink love in a mist, some blue and mother of pearl poppies, bunny tail & foxtail grass, gypsophila, some calendula and some green amaranth. I then covered it with environmesh to stop it all getting dug up or eaten and weighted the mesh down as it is so windy today. I also moved a few things from the greenhouse outside to start hardening them off, sweet peas mainly. In the autumn I will be a lot quicker off the mark with autumn sown and planted things so that I have flowers earlier in the year to get going quickly. I think over the next few days I will be sowing veg seeds as well as planting out the peas, mangetout and this years broad beans, yep the season is under way 😁

Ready to get the first round of direct sowing done.
Indents made with a cane ready to sow the tiny seeds which will hopefully blossom into magnificence 😁

Wednesday: Awful weather today 🤪 rainy, windy, moody dark skies, yuk. I had already decided I was not going to be doing much out there 😂 My focus first thing this morning was to get all my bits together and ready for flower club tonight, the practical task was a pave. I didn’t have a clue what that was when it was mentioned but I spent a good bit of time researching it and collating an idea. Thinking how it will go and how it actually goes is two different things I discovered 🙄 I wasn’t the only one at the club to say ‘it didn’t really turn out how I thought it would’ in fact the majority of members said the same. Still I learnt some good lessons not least the shape of your vessel is important for what to you are trying to achieve. Mine had sloped sides and therefore I could not get the tulip heads down low enough to create the idea of a flat surface, it’s a learning curve which is exactly what it is meant to be 😁

For the rest of the day I indulged myself in doing something with flowers, making flower crowns 🥰 The blossom on the trees at this time of year just lend themselves beautifully to flower crowns. I made two, the first was a big blousy crown and the second a more refined one. I found it really difficult to take a good photo of them mind you, I resorted to wearing one and taking a photo in the mirror which is not a terribly good look but without anyone else around to model it that’s the only option I had, maybe I will look out for a glass head/fish bowl or something😜 I did take some photos and put them on my flower page and they were well received, in fact I have been looking at costings to do flower crown workshops which I think would be fun. I am just trying to establish what materials work well for the environmentally friendly side of things. All natural, totally compostable is doable but not so robust, the next step is recyclable which is a good alternative and a little stronger. A lot of crowns will use the florist tape which is not environmentally friendly and the industry hasn’t quite got there with that one yet so I have ordered some washi tape to see if that works or not 🤷‍♀️ once I have these things in place I can advertise workshops. John has kindly said he I’ll make a top to cover his pool table and we can use that room 👏 brilliant.

A half flower crown using lilac foliage and Arabis flower and love in a mist foliage.
This is a full crown using wild cherry blossom, Jerusalem cowslips, lilac foliage and some tiny dark red saxifrage.

Thursday: Still windy this morning though there is some sunshine about. Today I was hoping to make a cuppa, sit down and watch a video but I got the time muddled up so I just sat down with a cuppa instead. The video was live last night but I couldn’t watch it because I was at the flower club so I was hoping to watch it this morning but it won’t be available until after midnight tonight 🤷‍♀️ Flowers from the Farm had organised a live online charity event with Shane Connolly called Flowers for Ukraine with Shane Connolly. Too good an opportunity to be missed I signed up and made my donation, they sent the link but I knew I would have to wait and catch up later. I have seen the reviews on the group this morning and can’t wait to watch it but I will have to wait longer 😏 Shane Connolly is a florist of the highest calibre, he did the wedding flowers for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge so you can see it is a rare opportunity. They smashed their target amount and all the proceeds will go to help the people of Ukraine in one way or another. Not only are his credentials amazing (though that reason alone would be good enough) but wherever possible the company uses seasonal British flowers, are environmentally responsible and understand the relationship between plants, flowers and mental well-being, doesn’t get better than that I reckon 🥰 Roll on midnight 🤪

Blooming eck that is not very nice out there today, it’s not that it’s cold or wet, just the bloody wind, it feels like you are getting a constant battering, quite tiring really. Most of the morning I spent in the greenhouse planting up the ranunculus and potting on tomato plants, this year I have Roma, Tigerella, Alisa Craig and Indigo Rose. If I could only grow one I would choose the indigo varieties as they are delicious plus they have plenty of flesh so they are good for cooking as well as eating raw, they also come in cherry size and although I grew them last year I only have the larger ones this year. Hoping the wind dies back a bit soon, it is not easy trying to carry things around in this plus the empty pots I stacked neatly are beginning to blow all over the place 😜

I have been keeping an eye on the lilacs and I am hoping that over the next few days the buds will begin to burst open, I do have someone wanting a bouquet a week and I almost have some tulips that are ready, I think the combination will be lovely 😊 Hurry up and grow please 🤞

Friday: Golly gosh it’s 5.15pm and I just got the dinner prepped and on and finally sat down, now I feel tired 🥱 Busy day today, first up I got all the morning stuff done so that I could sit and watch this video link, oh my days that did not disappoint let me tell you. Inspirational is the only word I could use, British grown, seasonal flower arranging at its best and by one of the best, and I have to say, the nicest most genuine man. All done with reusable or compostable items even the funeral arrangement, not a single piece of floral foam in sight 😁 All the while raising money for Ukraine, a brilliant idea and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who donated and watched. After watching and still buzzing I decided to go and cut a few bits and do a quick outdoor arrangement celebrating all that is spring around here. Then I thought I ought to get on with some real work 😂 I spent the rest of the day in the garden planting up some flowers and ornamental bits, the end of the bed that we reduced needed some filling. Then some salvia arrived for the cutting patch and then I mostly spent the rest of the time going through plants I had growing in pots overwinter ready to sell. Discarding anything that didn’t make it or take root, sorting out plants to go out for sale in the front, watering (it’s surprising how quickly things in pots dry out) watering in the tunnels and the greenhouse before have a quiet sit down to enjoy the peace of the afternoon 🥰

Saturday: Mixed bag of weather, a tad cold at times, a breeze, some sunshine but dry at least. Busy day, after the initial jobs we went to the farm next door to get some dog and cat food but also because they had a Easter event going on, pony rides, Easter egg trail, piglets to look at, Easter hats to make, coffee and doughnuts on sale (the most important bit 🤪) Once back home I got on with some pricking out in the greenhouse before some planting up of sweet peas, red cabbage and new potatoes. Dashing backwards and forwards to the egg shed for customers who were paying by card, this has been one of the best decisions we have made to be fair as less and less people carry loose change. John meanwhile has been making some supports to go over the raised beds for the cut flowers, not all the beds need them but things like cosmos, delphinium, lupin, chrysanthemums all get very tall and need support. The supports for these don’t need to be pretty they are purely functional and so are basically a wooden frame with legs that sits over the raised bed. Jute netting will be attached across the top for the plants to grow through. I went for jute as a more environmentally friendly option so I will see how it stands up to the job.

We have an earlier than usual finish today as we are off out to catch a steam train 🥰 fish and chip supper on board while we take a gentle journey through the countryside, perfect.

Fabulous evening and well worth checking out their time table if you are ever in the area. https://www.gwsr.com/

Sunday: I had high hopes of getting a fair bit done today but that didn’t pan out as planned lol. John cleaned out the hens frost thing while I sorted out eggs etc and then we went and got some shopping as we were out of everything. Back home to drop off the shopping and put it away the. A quick trip to the garden centre to pick up a particular plant I was after. When we got back Sam, Luke and the kiddies arrived, Mia and Lucie stayed with us while George went with Sam and Luke to the barbers to get haircuts. They came back and shortly after that my Mum popped in to drop of some plants she had for me, she left and Charlie turned up and then Shelley, Martin and the kids arrived as well. So we spent the afternoon in the garden with everybody not getting much else done but that’s ok nothing is urgent and it will all wait for another time 😁

I have been keeping a close eye on any flowers and foliage trying to work out exactly when I will have the first couple of bunches or bouquets ready and I think I am just about there 😁 My first lot of flowers will be going to a customer on Wednesday, exciting stuff, hopefully I will have enough to put some out for the Easter weekend as well fingers crossed. Eventually I will have so many flowers I probably won’t know what to do with them all 🤪

Posted in Friesland Farm

Spring cleaning, sad news & my first bouquet 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st March 2022: A new week and I will try and keep my fat fingers under control 😂 The temperatures are looking great for the week ahead climbing up to 19c which will be great on the one hand but on the other I will be monitoring how well I feel out in it. I will be applying, and indeed have already started with, the factor 50 everyday to keep things under control as much as possible 🙄 Today my plan is to sort the rest of the beds for the cut flowers and see if I can start the ride on mower to cut the front paddock. I don’t hold out much hope on that score as it is difficult to start so I might have to wait for John to come home although he will be late today and I am on animal duty but I might get time before dark fingers crossed.

The avian flu is still a problem having had some outbreaks only last week. It is looking as though they will not be lifting the lockdown until we’ll into April 😏 This causes a massive problem for the industry as they will have to change all their advertising and packaging from free range to housed. Legally they can still call them free range for up to 16 weeks but after that they cannot so unless they lobby hard to get the birds released it is going to cost them a lot of money.

Well I didn’t do any of the jobs that I said I was going to lol, it was quite chilly to begin with so I decided for some weird reason to clean the bathroom 😂 A full clean, cupboards out and everything, clean everything, throw anything we don’t use or is out of date, change the towels, wash the used ones and put them out on the line to dry. A spot of lunch and a catch up with the news and then around 1pm I decided to clean out the greenhouse. It was still overcast and John had said he would be late tonight so I figured I had about four hours to get the job done before having to do the animals. I moved everything out and put it on the lawn which took about an hour, the sun started to make an appearance and I thought oh no this is going to be hot work 🥵 but luckily it clouded over again. I then spent the next three and half hours cleaning the windows, sweeping the floor and sorting out rubbish before putting everything back in again. Luckily John actually came home earlier than he had expected and he did the animals because by this point I was running over schedule 🤪 I still have the outside of the windows to wash along with the polytunnels but that is a good job sorted. Indoors to sort the dinner, it was going to be a shepherds pie but due to lack of time it was mince, veg and potatoes all in the same pot to cook and tasted just as good. Plumb crumble for dessert and that is today done and dusted except for the washing up of course.

A whole lot tidier then it was before 😂

I wanted to get it cleaned out before it got too full of plants, I thought there was a mouse living in there but although I could see signs of one having been there, none are in there now. There was however a big fat slug already so that is what has eating the tops off my sweet peas 🤬 I evicted him along with the tortoise who I have put in the outside hut and stuffed it with straw. Billy has been awake for a while and outside but Voldertort is a bit slower being that bit smaller. On the back bench is the heat mat and everything on and above that needs a little bit of heat to get it going, then there are two propagators with things in that need a good amount of heat like pepper and tomato plants plus a few flower plants and then to the side are seedlings that do not need any heat such as peas and brassica. The shelves are to keep things up out of the way of any potential tiny footed nibblers but it doesn’t stop slugs who slime their way to anything 😏 Then under the staging are cuttings, out of the light but still in relative warmth, and any other paraphernalia that I need including sat pads for the outdoor chairs😂

Tuesday: Oh what a lovely day 🥰 it the first day of the year that I have stood and thought ‘I am one lucky person’ this is my office today and it is amazing 🤩 I spent the first part of the morning watering things in pots and digging up some huechera self sown seedlings. Then I got some of the pallet collars round for the stables and placed them on the ground where I think they will be going for cut flowers. After that I planted the remaining gladioli bulbs and covered them with a grille so they don’t get dug up. Samantha and the twins arrived and after playing and having lunch on a blanket in the garden Sam got the horses in for a brush and a tail cut. The twins were supposed to be helping but they wanted to play with everything else instead, there was the tractor that George is drawn to and the pile of ballast that Lucie was drawn to. At one point Lucie was completely undressed (this is standard Lucie) and then George, who had dug in some engine oil that was on the ground, smeared it all over Lucie 😂 Sam was not best pleased but I said it was a bit like swallows and amazons 🤣 Shelley and Florence came and we went back into the garden to leave Sam in peace while the kids played in the pirate ship, Lucie singing at the top of her voice ‘the big ship sails on the alley alley oh’ 🥰 After they all left I sat down for a while, watched the news, listened to a podcast and then ordered some chrysanthemums. They had largely fallen out of favour in gardens over the last few decades but they are making a comeback with some really zingy, modern shades so it will be good to add them to my cutting garden. The other bonus is that they flower right through to the first frost and some varieties even go to December/January which will be great for Christmas flowers. Halloween is a time I would love to have some colour appropriate bunches of flowers and so some of the chrysanthemum are a lovely burnt orange, I think black is going to be a no go but dark purple would work. John came home and we got the lawn mower started and while I cut the front paddock he fed the birds and collected the eggs. In for a cup of tea, some dinner and day done ✔️

🥰 Lucie has started to get herself dressed each morning so mostly her clothes are on back to front and inside out 😂 but good on her for being so independent 🥰

Wednesday: Another fine and glorious day with a fresh start. I went straight into the greenhouse first thing and potted on a few things, moved things around a little and moved the seedlings that were in the office out to the greenhouse so I can have my work space back in there. Once I finished that then onto the next job which was to get the edger and do the edge of the grass all down the driveway. I felt old today doing that as it wore me out for some reason, the sun was shinning mind you so that could have been the reason I found it hard going. That little lot took me up to early afternoon, then time for some lunch and a good long sit down. Back out to plant up a few bits into the ground, some stocks, curry plants and something else I have forgotten the name of 😝 Mum came over to drop off some plastic pots so we sat in the garden for a bit of a chat and just after she left John arrived home. Pop out for some shopping, come home, get dinner and another day done.

Thursday: Another blue sky, warm temps day and I had decided to have a more gentle day today. I began, as always, in the greenhouse checking things over, watering anything that needed it and also taking a few roots cuttings from the liatris plants that are growing well. My gentle day became punctuated with lots of things going on and people coming and going. First Mum arrived with some bits I am selling for her and the money raised is going to Ukraine, then I had a delivery of topsoil arrive after that my sister arrived to pick up some stuff going to a Ukraine, then John came home briefly, then a delivery of a specimen plant arrived lol. Meanwhile I was waiting for someone to collect something but they didn’t arrive 🙄 So much for a gentle day as that was all before 12 noon 😂 The specimen plant is a 7ft Clematis Armandii a vigorous, evergreen clematis that has gorgeous white flowers in spring that are scented, it is to climb over the old dog kennels and also provide me with some beautiful blooms in spring 😁 A spot of lunch, a sit down and catch up with the news and now we have another despot launching missiles 😏 what is wrong with these idiots, nobody wants to invade their countries so I find it difficult to understand why they feel the need to either defend themselves or invade others 🤷‍♀️

I had a second delivery of plants and bulbs, those I was expecting but a tall package came with them and I said to the delivery driver I don’t know what that is I don’t remember ordering anything else 😂 turns out I qualified for a free tree 🥰 well a pussy willow actually but it was nice surprise. I planted as many bulbs as I could before Sam arrived with the twins for our Thursday session. Mia goes to her swimming lesson and the twins stay here and play, I cook them dinner and then once Mia has finished they get collected and go home. Today as John was here I thought I would be a good idea to get them to help feed the chickens and collect the eggs. It’s a bit of a mission to watch both of them at the same time regarding the egg collection but I am pleased to say we managed it with no breakages 😜

Friday: Glorious weather again today so making the most of it while it lasts. This morning instead of going into the greenhouse I did some housework, quick hoover round, polish, wipe the surfaces, I thought I had better lol. Then my hairdresser came for a quick trim and then it was out with Sam, Shelley, Flo, George & Lucie to a local cafe near a big open space and a park, perfect for everyone 🥰 Once back home I went into the greenhouse and planted up the rest of the bulbs into pots. They are hyacinth and so should have been something I bought and planted last year but once it is time for them to flower they very often get sold of cheap which is what these were. There is still time however to force them and so they have been potted and are now in the polytunnel where the warmth will bring them on hopefully. I spent quite a while watering everything in the greenhouse and then planting one or two bits in the cutting garden.

John arrived home just after I finished that with some bad news about the chicken feed, it is going up again! A whopping £1.20 a bag this time, that is on top of the 45p it has just gone up, that’s an increase of £1.65 in less than two months. We use a bag a day just in layers pellets so there is corn on top of that, we will need to sell just over £65 worth of eggs a week just to break even. Together with the lack of customers this week I am thinking we probably need to call it a day, I know I said it last year but back then I really didn’t think feed would go up as much as it has so I was willing to keep going. If you buy anything from a small local business, do me a favour and tell everyone about it because at this rate they will all be going under 😞 it really is a very depressing outlook to be honest. At one time I could put eggs up for sale on the local selling sites and get them shifted but the algorithms no longer allow it so we are relying on word of mouth really. It is not helped by the avian flu each year when the birds are locked down 🙄 they eat less when they are out and about scratching around in the grass and the dirt but when they are shut in it costs more to feed them, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place 😏

I spent most of the evening bringing the egg sales into the age of technology 😂 Up until the pandemic 100% of our sales had been cash sales, then nobody wanted to physically touch money 🤪 and so we had to look at other ways to pay for some customers, then spare change became scarce 😂 and now I think we lose customers because they don’t have cash on them. So it’s time to make other options available, I ordered a card reader and I have also set up QR codes for when I am not able to go out there, hopefully that will help 😁

Saturday: Fine and sunny again today and it has been a busy day. I started off taking fresh bedding up to the geese and collecting their eggs, the picking a couple of bunches of daffodils from the paddock they are in. Onto picking rhubarb, the first of the year, and putting it out for sale. Out to the front to pot up the clematis that arrived the day before and I was just finishing that off when Shelley arrived with Josh because he was staying with me while Flo went to a party. Josh and I cleaned out the Guinea pigs and went round cleaning all the water buckets and topping up with fresh water plus finding the rabbits and torts some nice greens. Meanwhile John went off to get feed before the price goes up and then unload when he came back. He also sorted out getting the water all back on in the garden and connected the pump for the rainwater to be pumped over to the garden area. We did lots of little jobs like sorting out hoses and connections ready for the year ahead, making sure everything was working and more importantly not leaking 🤪 The chap was also here doing the second lot of fencing which is now finished I just need to get hold of some field gates and get those hung. Once the fencing was finished we stood and had a long chat to put the world to rights 😂 a quick cup of tea and then it’s time to do the afternoon rounds to end the day.

The more I learn about growing flowers for cutting the more I realise exactly how much there is to learn 😜 I am getting there though, I just wish I had started earlier in preparation for the beginning of this year. The 1st sowing of gladioli are beginning to show tiny shoot tips which is great because I had no idea when I planted the second lot of the first ones we’re doing anything at all 😁 It is all moving in the right direction though and I don’t really want to go at full speed with it, a gentle approach will mean I have time to learn along the way hopefully. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and today I have been going round looking at what is available to cut for just one special bouquet, I think I will have just about enough to give something lovely to my Mum 🥰

Early evening bought some sad news but news I have been expecting. My Dads long term partner Sue, who used to own our place, passed away peacefully at home with family by her side, after a short stay in hospital. She had known she was ill for quite a while but she hadn’t told anyone at all until she absolutely had to. Rest in peace, I am sure Dad is there waiting with a gin and tonic in one hand and a roll up in the other for you x x

Good night Mrs M x

Sunday: Mothers Day, so much love today for some and so much sadness for others x x It was a fair bit colder today than the whole of the last week but we still got on with a few jobs outside. John spent the morning clearing old rails from the paddock and then dragging the smaller middle one. I spent the early bit of the morning going round cutting foliage and flowers for the bouquet of the day. Charlie came round early on with breakfast for me 🥰 pastries, fruit, yoghurt, smoothie and also a chocolate heart box made locally, beautifully made with delicious chocolate covered strawberries and chocolates inside. Near lunchtime I gathered the flowers and foliage that had been conditioning and I made my first home grown bouquet, and naturally it was going to be for my Mum 😁 I was excited and nervous putting it together but the result was beautiful, a home grown, sustainable bouquet, I even impressed myself 😝 Off round to see Mum, give her the flowers and have a cuppa with her before returning home as Sam, Luke and the children had arrived at ours. Sam got me some lovely new gardening gloves and a very professional looking pair of long blade snips for cutting flowers (I need a tool belt I think as I kept losing my secateurs this morning) We fed the tortoises and the horses then they went for a walk before going home. A quick sit down and a cup of tea before the afternoon rounds and then round to Shelley and Martins for a roast dinner which was amazing. Presents again, Hotel Chocolat choccies and a daily organiser for me to write all my jobs and musings down in, I have been spoilt rotten 🥰

You can find _sweetsoph_ on Instagram 🥰

I put out the first picking of new season rhubarb this week which all sold as quick as a wink, now I just need the eggs to go that fast lol as the birds are laying like crazy and we have plenty of them every day 😁

In the week ahead the temperatures will be much colder but I hope you have a good one anyway x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Fat fingers 🤪 lovely weather and so plenty to do.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Oh ffs 🤦‍♀️ fat fingers meant I missed the target of save draft and hit discard by accident arrrrgggghhhh. It’s Thursday and I have lost Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 😝

Basic round up of lost days 😜: I mostly spent Monday and Tuesday in the greenhouse and potting up self set seedlings and plantlets such as rudbeckia, campanula, Erigeron. I unwrapped the lemon and orange tree, one has faired better than the other but both are still alive so I have watered and fed them to start them on their way. It was Florence’s birthday on Tuesday so we went round for cake. Wednesday was a total washout, constant rain all day long and we have the usual river and lake in the side paddock as a result. I think that will clear quickly as the forecast is good for the next few days. I spent the day inside, cleaning the boot room and then some other household bits rather than getting a soaking outside.

Thursday: Fat finger day 🤣 omg I can’t believe I did that and it’s not even in the bin so I can’t retrieve it 🤬 On a better note the sun is shining this morning though we did have a frost, should be a lovely day.

Friday: A misty start to the day but full of promise. I got the usual jobs done and then went up to the village, just along to next field actually, to help with some hedge planting that was going on. The field belongs to the village and is an allotment field but there are no allotments any more it has been farmed since allotments fell out of fashion many years back. The chap who farms it has a stewardship scheme to plant a hedge (1600 saplings) and then some wildflower margins and the environment action group were helping to plant them and asked for help and so I went along for a couple of hours to lend a hand. By noon it was getting a bit warm for me even though I had put on my factor 50 🙄 and just as I was thinking I would have to leave them to it Samantha turned up with the twins and so it was a good time to quit. I applied more factor 50 and we went into town to take George and Lucie to the park and then to get them a smoothie so that was pretty much my Friday done.

Saturday: Another nice day although the breeze (strong gusts at times) was a little on the chilly side. Nevertheless John spent the morning painting the new fence in the paddock with preservative and I pottered in the garden. I tidied up the decking area and repotted all the plants that were on the decking plus a bit of planting in some smaller garden borders. We went out to the local landscapers in the afternoon to find it was shut so called in to the expensive garden centre where I bought nothing because the prices are outrageous 😂 Back home to cut the lawn, out for fish and chips and that was Saturday done.

Sunday: Again, a nice sunny day a little less fresh than yesterday, fab 😁 Again we spent the best part of the day outside, John cleaned out the ducks and the chickens while I sorted out plants to go out for sale and sowed a few more seeds. A bit of potting on of plants that have been dormant over winter and are now beginning to put some good growth on. Went round to see Mum and Ken for a cuppa in the afternoon and then early evening we went to Charlie and Maccas for a roast dinner 🥰

There is more good weather forecast for next week although we have a cold night ahead tonight. Jobs on the list for the week are to get the remaining beds up and running for the perennial flowers for cutting, mow the front paddock and the front driveway, possibly direct sow some of the annual flowers, plant more gladioli bulbs for successional picking, direct sow some of the veg seeds such as beetroot and start thinking about planting potatoes. Probably some hoeing and weeding of perennial weeds, clearing of any remaining dead foliage, potting up any self sown plants I find on my journey and keep a good eye on the dahlias so that I can start to take cuttings from those. Housework, paperwork, garden work, Smallholding work, family time, enjoy the spring, that’s the itinerary for the week ahead 😁

Have a good one and I will try to slim my fingers down and not hit the wrong button next time 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sowing, Planting & 2nd place (I will take that 😁)

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th February 2022: There was a beautiful pink glow in the sky this morning before it turned to drizzle.

To say I felt sick yesterday when Putin started talking about Nuclear alert was an understatement and I am sure that the vast majority of you felt the same. How is it in this day and age that someone with such power can (or even want to) play such stupid games 🤷‍♀️ A world where everyone lives in harmony is clearly not possible sadly, the events are unbelievable and the pathetic rhetoric he spouts is also unbelievable, he has lost touch with reality, if he really ever had a hold of it. Because of all that is going on my thoughts are dragged straight back to self sufficiency mode. Not just on a personal level but a National one, the reliance on other countries for vast amounts of supply be it energy, metals, wood or food etc is, in my humble opinion, a big mistake. We have seen how quickly things can change and if the last few years have taught us anything at all it should be that relying on others for our needs can at times see us limping along in survival mode rather than thriving 😏

I spent the morning in relative bliss in the greenhouse potting on plants that I started off at the end of last year. There are good signs of growth and so while we are in the calm before the storm period I decided to pot things on and feed anything that looked like it was in need. Most of these plants will go out for sale at the front but some of them will be used for the cut flower beds or to fill up any empty areas in my flower beds.

Rain stopped play outside in the afternoon.

Tuesday: Is it just me or has everyone got a morbid interest of turning the news on whenever possible? I like information and if I see something written or heard something I like to check it out from as many sources as I can. Nothing I have heard that has come from Russian propaganda has any merit whatsoever as far as I can tell. Things like the Nazi reference to Ukraine, does he have a point I think so off I go to check it out from the most reliable, independent source I can find, I have checked out many things and they have all been twisted to suit Putins purpose, so I conclude that the man is mad, I suspect most other people think so too and who knows where this will end. I am willing Ukraine to somehow beat off the might of the Russian army, their bravery is incredible.

I did a bit in the greenhouse, sowed a couple more seeds but that was about it really, I went to town in the afternoon with a Shelley for a mooch round the charity shops and a hot chocolate (weather is miserable). It was me doing the animals in the afternoon and while I was doing the rounds I realised that the fox had tried to get in the goose hut. One one of the roof rails is rotten and the ply underneath joins right at that point, I think the fox has got up there and tried to scrabble the rotten wood out of the way to gain access. What made me think this is that some things that were on the roof were down on the floor and they were not there yesterday evening. John had to go up and put an extra piece of ply on top of the roof as a temporary measure to make sure I don’t lose any of my lovely gooses 😁

Wednesday: More of the same weather wise though it is supposed to improve later in the week. For now it is grey, damp and drizzly so not much going on outside. I did sow some mangetout seeds (1st sowing) in the greenhouse, I think trying to sow direct would be a waste of time, there are the mice that pinch them or the weather that rots them so starting them off inside is a safer option.

I have been putting the final touches to my very first competition entry at the flower club tonight 😝 I really have no idea if I fulfilled the brief, in fact there wasn’t one really, look it up on the internet, well that produced thousands of different interpretations 😂 so I have done my best with what I had and what I wanted to achieve. I was surprised how nervous I am at submitting it later, but I am also excited to see what everyone else has done to get some ideas for another time and we have a demonstration which will be lovely. A pot et fleur is what was asked for and hopefully that’s what I have produced 🤷‍♀️ next time it’s a pave so I’d better get researching that next 😋

Thursday: I am bouncing around this morning with the biggest grin on my face because I only went and came in second in the ‘pot et fleur’ competition 😁 I was genuinely amazed and even more amazing is that the demonstrator who was booked was the independent judge and did the critique said that it was a difficult choice between the first and second place, whaaaaat 😁😁😁 seriously I can’t tell you how chuffed I am that I got it right. The demonstration itself was really inspiring it was titled ‘be kind to the earth’ and the arrangements were all made using compostable or recyclable holders so right up my street and she even made a heart similar to the ones I made with the weeping birch, obviously hers were amazing but it gives me something to work towards next year so watch this space lol.

My entry which I was totally amazed to find got second place 😁

Not much on the agenda this morning and I had a hospital appointment in the afternoon. The trip to and from the hospital took longer than the actual appointment 🙄 still it was nice to see a consultant face to face again, last time I saw anyone it was 2019 😮 All is well though so that is a good thing.

Friday: Not a bad day, a tad cold this morning but no rain and the sun made an appearance this afternoon. I did some baking this morning, just an oat and seed bar for me to snack on and a date and walnut cake for John to snack on lol. In the afternoon I went into the greenhouse and potted up some dahlias that had arrived, these were from Sarah Raven and are the William Morris collection 😁 there were supposed to be four tubers in there but I found five yay. I also sowed quite few annual seeds, amaranth (green giant) China Aster, phlox (crème brûlée) calendula (orange flash) some sunflowers, teddy bear, a multi stem and some large sunflowers, I also sowed some foxglove seeds, I think that was it but could have been a few more things 🤔 After that I made a cup of tea and sat out the front in the sunshine for a little while that was until,I spotted lots of sycamore seedlings sprouting so I did some weeding. Back inside to get the dinner sorted and then out to feed the poultry and collect the eggs. Back in to get the dinner in the oven and while it was cooking I had a live workshop to attend online. After we had eaten I had another live workshop to attend online and finally that was the end of the day and I could spend the rest of the evening relaxing (actually I was playing wordless unlimited 😝)

Saturday: I planted up plenty of gladioli bulbs today although not all of them, I will be successionally planting these so as to stagger the time that they come into bloom, I don’t want them all blooming at the same time. This will be the same for most of the annuals, the seeds will have a gap of at least two weeks between sowings so that I get a continuous flush of flowers rather than all at once (that’s the plan anyhow) I also potted on some tomato seedlings that I have been growing indoors, they are doing well and just needed to go into bigger pots to bring them on more. I sowed some more zinnia seeds and some sweet peas called ‘sublime scent’ 🥰 After doing that I went and helped John who had been giving the birds a good clean out, he did the ducks, the new point of lay at the front and the hens at the back. I went and did the birds in the stable block, we deep litter those so it was a case of raking it over, adding new sawdust and redoing the laying boxes and areas. I also added some sunflower hearts, seaweed and diatomaceous Earth to their food bowls. The new hens have begun to lay 😁 it won’t be long before we are getting lots of pullet eggs every day. Early evening I went over to Sam’s to babysit while he and Luke went out for the night.

Sunday: Not a bad day today although the sunshine was a bit deceiving, it looked a lot warmer than it actually was. We were up quite late for us as the babysitting was an early morning finish 🥱 but we soon got on with a few things. John did some tidying and burnt some rubbish meanwhile I prepped the dinner for later today and this time it was Sam, Luke and the kids coming for roast. I can’t think what else we did today but we were constantly on the go so must have got quite a bit done.

I need to wander across the paddock tomorrow sometime and see if the wild garlic is growing yet, I have seen other posts where people have handfuls, maybe mine will get to that stage one day 🙄

I hope you have a great week, the news on the world stage at the minute is not so good and every time I watch the news I feel heartbroken for Ukraine. All the more reason to really enjoy the little things in life, the Robin singing it’s heart out on the branch of a tree, that lonesome sunbeam that has found a chink in the clouds, the sound of normal everyday life going on around us, don’t take anything for granted, look, listen, love x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

A new lawn area, new hens & plants arriving 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st February 2022: We have had three storms in five days and it’s not done yet, Dudley, Eunice, Franklin and next will be coming Gladys 🙄😩 The first was bad, the second was worse, the third was as bad as the second and goodness knows what the forth has in store for us, all the while each gust will be loosening tree roots and the dry winter we had just came to an abrupt end 😝 As I always say, you have to watch for February, it’s a bitch that bites you on the backside!

We managed to get the new lawn area down before the storms hit, it makes the garden look a lot bigger but I now have to decided where to put the herbs I dug up.

This is where I had the herb bed but we have done away with it and made a bigger lawn area, less weeding for me more play area for the children.
Luckily we have had plenty of rain to water the new turf in 😂

There is absolutely no let up in the constant gusting of wind 😏 It’s like a headache you can’t get rid of. John has gone to work this morning but he did the rounds before he left and one of the geese has laid an egg 😁 hopefully that will be the first of many. I would really like to be getting on outside but there is no chance of that at the minute so yesterday I bought more plants and bulbs instead 😝 We have the point of lay hens arriving this afternoon, they were supposed to come Friday but storm Eunice was a bit fierce for driving in and so it was decided that Monday would be better 🙄 Meanwhile I spent the morning indoors and paid the balance of our holiday later this year, it was one that was booked pre pandemic and so we never got there. One of the stops (the main reason we booked it) is in St Petersburg, Russia, so we may not get there again this year, who knows how that is all going to pan out at the minute. It is all pretty gloomy on the news front, the weather is awful, really should just hibernate I reckon.

I decided to pop out to the greenhouse and pot up the bulbs I bought to bring them on a little and also sowed a few seeds, bells of Ireland and lemon mint both which are good fillers for bouquets. The wind is insane and we have lost yet more roof panels from the Guinea pig cage, we bought two more on Saturday to replace the ones that had already come off and smashed but we haven’t been able to fix them yet as the wind has not relented. I did say to John we need to rethink the roof but he decided to just replace what is there, well now I think we really do need to re design it because that’s just ridiculous. I personally think we will have to drop the roof to inside the walls, it just gets the brunt of the strong winds and doesn’t survive, no point flogging a dead horse as they say. The fences out there are also wobbling like crazy, I think we are going to have a good bit of extra work to do once the winds finally cease. To be honest we need what I have always said we needed and that is an extra hedge down the side of the garden area, I wanted to double fence it years ago (because the horses would eat the hedge otherwise) and put a hedge inbetween, but my thoughts always land on deaf ears, time to shout louder I think as this kind of weather is only going to get worse in my humble opinion. Hedges are the natural windbreaks that help to slow the speed and reduce damage, it’s why I am always amazed that people are so keen to rip them out 🤷‍♀️

We took delivery of 40 point of lay hens today, they will begin laying in a couple of weeks time and so should have plenty of eggs going into spring. The price of feed is going up massively, the feed supplier isn’t even passing the whole increase on as he is too embarrassed but we have done the figures and will be running a deficit if we don’t put our eggs up by 20p a box. To be honest we should do it every time there is a feed price increase but we don’t and now find we are caught on the hop. Half the problem is the cost of everything is going up and the other half of the problem is the bigger companies squeeze out the smaller producers, so use them or lose them is my advice to anyone who has local producers near them. I know so many people who are thinking of giving up altogether because it’s just not cost effective to carry on 😣

The septic tank lorry arrived, I had spoken to the office but they never got back to me with an appointment so I wasn’t expecting him but that’s fine we were here and it needed emptying so it’s all good.

Tuesday: Not any old Tuesday 22/2/22 it will be all the 2s at 22:22 tonight lol. I got up wandered into the kitchen looked out the window and saw the horses in the front paddock 🙄 threw on my clothes quickly and went out to get them back into the side paddock. We had let them in there before Christmas to eat the grass off but they were inside an electric fence to stop them eating the hedgerow and my fruit trees. During the storms the side fence had rocked loose and a gateway had come down, I had said to John we need to sort that out, he said it will wait to the weekend so we hashed it back up. I was cross with myself really because I should have pushed John into getting it sorted there and then, I knew what the outcome would be and I was right. The horses will not miss any opportunity to be somewhere they are not supposed to be, luckily they didn’t touch the fruit trees or I would have been so much more annoyed. As it was I jarred my back again trying to move the slip rails to get them out of the field, not the best of moods this morning. I don’t feel the best either and took a covid test just to make sure it is not that (negative thank goodness) So with the niggling pain in my back returned (it was just easing right off) and a heady sinus thing going on, I am rather grumpy and tired today. The winds have eased off but it is still pretty windy out there, it was still this morning but picked up again now. The momentum and enthusiasm I had for everything Spring will bring, has for the moment disappeared, it doesn’t help with the very depressing problems on the Ukrainian border, worrying and unsettling times. I don’t think half the population even realise what it will mean if there is a full escalation of the situation, a Third World War is not something that is comprehensible in this day and age but it could have far reaching consequences for those that are ‘fighting fit’ it doesn’t bear thinking about to be honest.

Sam and Shelley came over with the children and we spent some time in the front paddock playing in the sun was still pretty blustery mind you lol.

John went out to look at a job and when he came back he said the horses had bust into the front paddock again 🙄 So I went out and got them some hay and took them to the far paddock and shut them in while we repaired the fence a little bit better than we had before though it still needs doing properly. It is solid for the time being but once they broke through they will keep going at it so it needs fortifying 😂

Charlotte came round to discuss her venture into growing veg 🥰 She is buying a tiny greenhouse and using some space here, it will be good to pass on as much knowledge as I can.

Wednesday: John has gone to work this morning but before he went he did the animals, the back lot anyway and which left me to do the animals in the orchard and the new hens, just to check on them and make sure everything’s got water and feed et cetera et cetera so that’s what I did. Once I’d finished making sure everything was fed and watered I thought, well I will pick up some of the debris from the storm namely the roof panels that came off of the guinea pig run, two had to come off and then some more came off and smashed all over the ground. Picked it all up and put it in a pile, bent down to pick the whole lot up and 🤬 buggered my back, just when it was getting so much better 😢 I limped inside shouting ‘ooo’ ‘arghh’ and the occasional swear word and am now stuck on the sofa, I wanted to get soo much done today 🤦‍♀️ I have taken some painkillers and having a coffee hoping it wears off, I could cry, in fact I feel like crying right at this minute.

It would be fair to say I did bugger all today except nurse a bad back, hobble about, get an ice pack on it, get a hot water bottle on it (at different times 😝) lie down, sit down, sit up, walk around, wince a lot and resign myself to being incapable, all of which is pretty annoying as there was a fair bit to do and the weather wasn’t too bad. Tomorrows weather is looking a bit more wintery so I will have missed the opportunity 😏

Thursday: Didn’t do much apart from the usual today as I went with Sam, Shelley and the children to soft play. Well I obviously didn’t go on the soft play but I sat and drank coffee while the kids played, then we all went back to Shelleys u til mid afternoon.

Friday: A busy, busy day today. I have plants arriving left right and centre and so I spent the morning planting them up in the cut flower bed area. Roses, sweet Williams, sea holly and Veronica all went in. Plus I planted some of the herbs I dug up at the end of last year. Then John came home and we went out for lunch, well that was the plan except the cafe was on a restricted menu so it was a sandwich and cake. Back home and we got on with tidying and sorting lots of areas in the garden ready for the season ahead. I planted up a task for the flower club I go to, a ‘pot au fleur‘ I have had to Google it and interpret it to fit with what I want to do. I don’t have house plants so don’t want to buy them just to do this arrangement so I have gone with an outdoor style one lol. John cut the grass this afternoon including the new turf, conveniently I get emails telling me what to look for in order to decide when to cut it, it’s ready and it’s dry enough today so that can be ticked off the list for a couple of weeks.

Drying tulip petals 😁

Ooops sorry busy weekend almost forgot about the blog 🤪 Saturday and Sunday: Busy out in the garden as the weather was lovely for the time of year. John has been busy putting an extra row of slabs next to the cold frames so that I have somewhere to put more plants that I am bringing on. Meanwhile I have had plants arriving eeek so I am E been busy planting g them up, generally speaking plants will arrive at the optimum time for planting unless they are plug plants. I have been sowing more seeds, sweet peas as a mouse ate most of the first lot 🙄 I have been out to the garden centre today with Charlotte, she wants to grow a lot more of her own this year and so we went to get seed potato’s and onion sets plus seeds for micro veg and other salads etc. I also cooked a roast today for Shelley, Martin and the kids this time.

Beautiful kale from the garden for dinner today 😁

That’s pretty much it for the week, things are looking awful in Europe, trying not to dwell on it too much but it does need thinking about from time to time, unbelievable in this day and age 😢 Have a good week and hopefully the situation will have improved by next week though I am not holding my breath x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Goodbye January, a baby announcement & a Sloe Gin competition 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 31st January 2022: The last day of January and while I would never be one to wish my life away I am certainly glad we are another month nearer to some warmer weather 😁 John has gone to work this morning which meant I was on the rota to do the rounds, it is squally out there. The wind is from the west but it is quite cold, there are some big gusts every now and then and it’s generally unpleasant though not as bad as they are having it further North so I am grateful for that. Unless I can find enough jobs to do in the greenhouse this morning I will not be going out there until the wind dies down 😂

I realise I now have a large amount of bulbs to plant for the cutting garden and I really need to sit down and fully apply myself to the plan. I need to go through everything I have ordered that is not here yet, every plant I have already bought that is here, every lot of bulbs I have ready to go in and every seed packet that I have ready to sow. I need to organise a sowing plan both for under cover and direct sowing and make sure I leave enough room for both and then a planting plan that is beneficial to all the plants and makes it easy to harvest the flowers. I seem to be stuck on the plan but that is because I haven’t collated everything yet, I am sure once I have it will be easier to look at what need to go where. That will just be the beginning because then there will be the soil improvement, maybe raised beds to build for some things, the planting up and the sowing at the right time. Growing flowers for cutting is certainly different to growing them for pleasure, with the latter it doesn’t really matter when the flowers appear as long as they do at some point, with the former I need a steady ‘bloom’ throughout the months in order to have the best bouquets and posies. All of this will be running alongside the veg growing lol, good job I have been doing that for years and it’s almost second nature.

I finally sat down with all the seeds, a list of plants and some note markers and plotted out the cutting patch. I needed to make sure I have pathways so that I can reach the blooms with little effort and I needed to get in some sort of order what is seeded when, with or without heat, undercover or direct sow 🙄 I think I have it sorted, until I realise I have either missed something out or for something in the wrong place 😂

Mum called round and I helped her to get something sorted on her laptop so that she can hopefully get her manuscript sorted and sent off to publishers, she has been writing it and re writing it for years, time to get it looked at 🥰

I heard a noise outside and wondered what the heck it was, looked out to see our hedge being cut in the driveway. We had it done for the first time last year and John decided it was so much easier and quicker to pay someone else to do it that he had asked him to do it again this year, he randomly turns up when he has got time.

And now I can tell you what I have known for a while, we are going to have another grandchild 😁🥰 Charlie and Macca are expecting their first baby in mid August and no they didn’t waste any time but that was the plan all along! Six grandchildren 😮 awesome, we are totally delighted and can’t wait to meet him/her when the time comes.

The egg numbers dropped drastically from the hens we moved outside, arrgghh just when I need them to stabilise, I should have given that a lot more thought 🤔 it’s colder out there and they had the light on for a couple of hours after dark in the stable block, doh.

Tuesday: Positively pooped by lunchtime 😂 I spent a very busy morning outside, first I did the morning rounds and then straight onto some gardening chores. I set up a map of the beds for the cut flower garden then decided that is wouldn’t work how I had organised it so I am back to the drawing board. I cleared a few weeds from the raised bed between the tunnels, it still has some small cabbages growing in there but I also found some self set aquilegia and a primrose 🤷‍♀️ so I transplant those. I planted some more plants I bought at the weekend, beautiful hellebores and very bright cheery primroses. I potted up the foliage shrubs I bought a few weeks ago and I potted on various bits and pieces. I also tidied up a lot of the plants I divided at the end of last year, I leave the dead stems until I am certain I can recognise what the plant is and then snip them off. Then I went over to one of the bigger beds and started raking up debris, I emptied the compost bin nearby and started to refill it with any uncomposted materials (quite a lot of that) I got halfway through and realised it was lunchtime and I was hungry 😋 It’s breezy but the sun is shining and it is quite nice out there today.

Wednesday: The day started off on the wrong foot, John went off to work and I went to do the morning rounds and found that the hens had eaten most of the eggs that had been laid already🤬 These are the hens we moved to the outside pen and I have no idea why they are doing it, they didn’t do it in the stable 🤷‍♀️ I have now split them up a little, it’s not the room that is the problem but once one starts they all start. I called the supplier and ordered 40 more point of lay because these lot are now around 2/3 and they have developed bad habits 😂 It’s fair to say that they have been a delinquent bunch from the off, we have had plenty of batches in over the years and these were trouble right from day one, going where they shouldn’t, laying goodness knows where, in house fighting and now egg eating on a mass scale, time to go, once the new hens are laying well these lot will be sold off.

In order to work off my grumps I went out to the veg garden, it is a lovely day, fairly mild and the sun is out. I spent the whole morning sorting out the bed behind the fruit cage, it has the apricot tree (which doesn’t produce many apricots) the cherry tree (that the birds eat before I can get to them) the runner bean area, spare asparagus and the thornless blackberry. A bit of a mish mash and to be honest probably could do with a massive overhaul as comfrey and feverfew grow like billio in there and no matter how much I try I have a job to keep it all under control. After raking up debris and cutting down runners from the apricot tree I went on to sort the runner bean area out. This bit has some of the bindweed problem and so I have weed membrane down but I pulled it all up, cleared the bindweed roots that where surface and laid it back down. Then I did the other side of it, it seems like a bit of a wasted area really but for the time being it will stay like that as I don’t have the time or the energy to change any of it. I just need to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control because it is an area I don’t need to visit very much and so gets overlooked ( maybe call it the wild area 😉) The bindweed roots I pulled up will be burnt, don’t want to risk them in the compost otherwise the problem will get worse. I came in for lunch and a sit down, my legs got a bit wobbly, I was in need of sustenance. That’s when I sat and wrote this and I am hoping I find some energy to get back out there 😝

Thursday: I started off well, got all the morning rounds done and the hens are better behaved today, not munching on eggs, I have no idea what that was all about 🤷‍♀️ Then into the greenhouse to sort a few things out and pit some things up, I also tidied a few things, stuff I put down thinking I will move that later then before you know it there is quite a bit to move. I put some pots of tulips and allium out for sale, the green shoots are just pushing through the top of the soil so I know they are good and strong. Then Samantha arrived with the twins and stayed for the afternoon, normally she would then take the twins and go to pick up Mia from school, come back, drop the twins off and take Mia swimming. Today though she left Lucie with me and took George so Lucie helped me to feed the chickens and collect the eggs, she was brilliant, carrying a bucket with some corn in she fed the hens like a pro 😁 George was most upset that he didn’t get to stay and do it but he can have a turn next time though I don’t think he will be as helpful somehow. Lucie is definitely going to be an outdoorsy grafter type, George more of an indoorsy desk job type I think, he is already very precise with everything so maybe an architect lol. Once Mia came back from swimming and they had all gone home it was time to get dinner, John had pool night and I had an online masterclass about annuals, perennials and foliage 🥰 Will sleep well tonight.

Friday: Brrrr cold and raining first thing this morning with some sleet thrown in for good measure, needless to say I waited a while before going out to do the animals 😝 Once it had stopped raining I went out and got that all done, I was just sorting the eggs out when John came home having finished work for the day and it was only 9.30! That kind of put paid to my plans for the day (which actually was just a fair amount of reading and resting because I still felt tired) After having a coffee we decided to go and get some shopping done, I had made a list the night before of a few things I needed. After shopping we went round to see Mum and Ken for a cup of coffee and got back home around Midday. We actually didn’t get a lot else done to be honest, except the necessary, by the time I sorted out the evening meal, John popped out to have a quick look at a job someone in the village wants doing, and a few household bits, there wasn’t much time for anything major. Just as well really as it never warmed up at all really and the lower temps are around for a couple of days more yet.

I have another masterclass online again tonight and then one on Monday evening as well, I love it and there is always something to learn 😁

Saturday: Not sure what we did to be honest, apart from the usual jobs I rather think we didn’t do much at all in the day 😂 In the evening we went to the Cotswolds 2022 Sloe Gin competition at The Fox Inn, Broadway which is between Stow on the Wold and Morton in Marsh. The event raised money for Maggie’s cancer care charity. What a fabulous evening we had, firstly the fact that the entries wereWith members from Cornwall to Inverness, Flowers from the Farm is the award-winning membership association for artisan cut flower growers in the UK. all from the villagers was indicative of a great community, secondly the pub and its staff were friendly and welcoming. It is very many years since I have been to a pub that has that traditional village pub feel and vibe, we had great fun judging the 22 entries and giving them a score, we had some great food and a good laugh with the locals who were a welcoming, friendly bunch, honestly I couldn’t speak more highly of the whole event. We will definitely being going back to the pub and most definitely for next years competition lol. And for anyone who watches Father Brown investigates, that’s the pub they use for filming 🥰

Sunday: Despite the gin tasting last night we were up and at it this morning 😝 The windy weather is still here, getting tedious now mind you 🙄 but it is a little milder today I think. I spent the morning giving a full clean out to the quail and Guinea pig runs, once the guineas were done I went onto the quail, opened the door and one flew straight out past me and up onto the Turkey run roof. It stayed where it was and didn’t move so I went and got the clean straw, told John and he came to help me catch it. He waved a long pole in the direction of the quail who duly took off towards the greenhouse and landed in an ungainly fashion on the lawn. John went round to look for it and shouted he could find it, I went round and said ‘you have to think like a quail’ 😂 what is the first thing you would do as a timid little bird out in the big wide world, hide, I went round to the area I had seen it land and there it was tucked in some long grass. I was hoping that I would have some more quail delivered today but the chap is having difficulty getting hold of them, I am not in a hurry so it can wait. We came in for some lunch and then I sent John off to pick up a vase I had seen on marketplace, meanwhile I went into the greenhouse. It seems I have a mouse again this year because some of the sweet pea seeds have been disturbed and one which was shooting has been chewed off 🤬 I have now primed the trap with peanut butter, I need to get this one as soon as possible or I will have nothing growing, it is not an ‘all you can eat restaurant’ ya know 😏 Mid afternoon I decided that was enough outside and came in to get some compost ordered. I am swapping over to peat free, it will be good once the whole industry makes the move to only supply peat free. The only reason I don’t always use it is because I often ask John to pick some up, multipurpose compost he can mange to remember, multipurpose, pear free would be pushing it too far 😉

Some spring hope appearing 🥰

This week I joined Flowers from the Farm, this is an organisation I first saw and heard a few years ago at an RHS show. I was tempted to join back then but didn’t really have a plan going forward about growing flowers, well now I have and so I applied and became a full member 🥰

‘With members from Cornwall to Inverness, Flowers from the Farm is the award-winning membership association for artisan cut flower growers in the UK.’

If you want to read more about the association, where you can see them, what they are all about then go to www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk they also have a live map of all members who grow flowers here in he UK (including me😁)

Posted in Friesland Farm

Cold frosty weather, a game changing bit of kit & a birthday lunch.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday: Grey, dull but mild enough for Winter. John still has his tooth problem and it has got worse not better but he went to the dentist this afternoon and they have given him stronger antibiotics. Because he is not sleeping well he was late up this morning and late going to work, he had a little job to do and went off to do that which meant I was doing the morning rounds. Once those were done I was determined to get these sweet peas sown and so once I had put some washing on I went out to the greenhouse. I sowed 100 sweet pea seeds, some Ammi majus (bishops flower) some cleome seeds and I took a chance with some indigo rose tomato seeds. The last three of these are now in a windowsill propagator on the kitchen sill and the sweet peas are in the greenhouse, fingers crossed for some germination. I had planned to carry on and get some more done outside on the garden itself but by the time I had done those my feet were freezing so I came inside to thaw them out. It started raining so that put paid to that and then John came home and spent the rest of the day on the sofa, I figured I might as well get some indoor work done and so I cleaned the bedroom, bathroom and living room. Hopefully this next lot of antibiotics will start to work fairly quickly and life can resume to normal and I don’t have to work round John at home.

Tuesday: John still has toothache this morning 🙄 but he has gone to work and hoping that the new antibiotics start to kick in at some point today. I did the morning rounds which at this time of year and we the birds in lockdown takes about 50 mins to an hour and then I can get on with other jobs. I went into the greenhouse and used my new gadget, a soil block, how have I managed without this for so long 🤷‍♀️ I can make soil blocks for seedlings in next to no time and can fit 80 blocks for seeds in the size of my hand 😮 it’s a game changer, save on compost and space 😁 I sowed antirrhinum (snap dragon) seeds and another Hardy annual though the name escapes me at the moment. After that I pruned my wisteria and climbing rose out the front and then onto a bed at the back where I cut down the Himalayan honeysuckle, winter pruned an apple and pear tree, lifted the canopy on the mulberry tree and then winter pruned another apple and pear tree further up in the veg garden. A winter prune is just taking a third off each branch, the younger trees I have left the middle stem unpruned as I want them to get a bit taller even though they are dwarf varieties. There is a lot of work to do but it is still quite wet and so I am choosing jobs that don’t require walking on the soil, I don’t want to crush the structure of the soil at this time of year.

At lunchtime Shelley picked me up and we collected Flo from school and went for lunch 🥰 a nice couple of hours out and although I didn’t purchase any plants I did by some reduced christmas baubles for next year 😂

Soil blockers by Ladbrooke a great gadget that saves on compost and space. The small one makes 20 blocks and fits in my hand, the bigger one makes four but has the small square that clips into it and perfectly leaves a space the size of the smaller soil block to pop the seedling straight into, no pricking out 😁

Wednesday: There is such a difference between the temperature yesterday and then today 🙄 Yesterday I went to put the eggs out in just a long sleeved T-shirt and my gillet, today it is very much colder and frosty even though the sun is out it is not burning the frost away as yet. I did the morning rounds and was hoping that by mid morning it would have warmed up a bit but that didn’t happen and so I did some more research and learning for the cut flowers. There is always much to learn even when you think you know a lot already 😂 this morning I was watching videos on plant support and how to make your own. Bought ones are expensive and when you need a lot of them it can be very costly so I am looking for different ways to achieve different types of support. Last year I used hazel whips, they work pretty well when they are bent over but they need to be quite long and very flexible, they work ok for things like delphinium and lupin but I want something a little more robust for the dahlias and rudbeckia. Then I need different support for sunflowers and different again for things like cosmos, John is going to be making a lot though he does not know it yet 🤪 He has different antibiotics now as the first lot were not doing much and the pain has subsided though not gone entirely just yet but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

As the sun was shining I went out in the front area and did a bit of weeding and cutting back for an hour or so. John came home just after lunch and later in the afternoon we went out and did a few jobs, burn some rubbish, hang a gate, alter a gate that had dropped and covered up one of the beds in the veg garden with weed membrane. We had a look and a discussion about the duck area which needs modifying and by that time it was getting dark so John did the afternoon rounds while I came in and got the dinner sorted.

I am trying to decide what to do with the bed I covered, I plan to put the cut flowers there but there but it has always been a problem area. It has bindweed in it, raspberries canes that I can’t get rid of and comfrey that has sprouted everywhere plus a row of lilacs that are creeping further and further into the bed. For the time being I have covered it to stop anything growing, it is about 10ft wide by 25ft long so it’s a good size area. In order to get something growing there this year I think I will have to leave the membrane down and put some raised beds on top, the decision is what to use without it costing a fortune 🤷‍♀️

Thursday: I did the morning rounds and then Sam picked me up to look after the twins all day at theirs while she went to work with Luke, once they were all home I went with Sam and Mia to watch Mia in her swimming lesson which was lovely to be able to do. Consequently I didn’t do anything at the farm and John went home in time to do the evening rounds.

Friday: I had high hopes for today but they went south 🤪 We started off early, John went to get feed and I did the morning rounds, it was freezing this morning 🥶 Once I had finished and John was back we went to town as I had to have my routine blood tests first thing. A quick coffee and a bite to eat for breakfast and then back home. There was not a lot of heat in the sun today and so the frost and frozen ground never really thawed, bang goes my plans of working on any open ground. I also had a little wobble today, I felt really tired and a little unwell mid morning so I had to have a lie down 🙄 I recovered after a short while and went out to collect some seeds from the snap dragons and put in some plant supports for the plants like delphinium, lupin and achillea. Then I had to have another lie down 🤷‍♀️ I was just completely zapped of any energy. By mid afternoon I felt a lot better but carried on resting, Mum called in and we had a cup of tea and chatted about what we had been doing in the week and gardening of course 😁 Hopefully it won’t be so cold all day tomorrow.

I ordered a grow light which arrived today, I thought I would give them a go and see how well they work. Because we have low light levels at this time of year, seedlings benefit from extra light but it needs to be the right kind of light, a light bulb won’t do the job you need a full spectrum light with red and blue light as well. Early seedlings can get leggy without good light and they tend to lean in the direction of the light meaning you constantly have to turn them to promote strength in the stem, a grow light should eliminate that, that’s the hope anyway.

Saturday: Really cold and frosty again with no sun appearing for the best part of the day in fact heavy fog came down. No point planning any outside work today just as well really as I spent more than three hours trying to sort out an app that just kept crashing. In the end, after exhausting all possibilities and communicating with the tech team, I abandoned the app, their loss (well mine as well because I really liked it 😏)

Sunday: A different day altogether 😁 much milder, sunshine and no rain. That meant that we could get some work done outside, John did the morning rounds while I sorted the eggs and indoor stuff and then it was outside to get on. John spent the morning cleaning and hoovering the car and van 🙄 not really the jobs I had in mind but they needed doing so I guess it’s all relevant. Meanwhile I spent the morning right at the front of the driveway where I have a beautiful contorted hazel tree. This will throw up straight stems and a try to revert so in order to keep it contorted the straight stems need cutting off right down at the bottom. This is the best time of year to get that done, before things get manic and I completely forget to do it. I shovelled up leaves from the driveway and cut back encroaching ivy which was trying to grow across the drive and generally had a good tidy up at the entrance, not too tidy just yet but tidy enough. I now have a bundle of hazel whips to decided what to do with and I was going to do the willow but the secateurs are not up to doing the thicker stems so that can wait for another day.

I also sorted out some seeds that I collected the day before, snapdragon and love in a mist, I have put them into little envelopes and put some out for sale. There are probably thousands of snap dragon seeds, I am not sure what I will do with the rest of them yet, I might sow some to bring on as plants for sale 🤷‍♀️

This afternoon we are off out for dinner, it is a surprise 30th birthday lunch for Macca and just for once I actually had enough time to put something nice on rather than slinging on clean jeans and a top which is what normally happens, so it is a rare occasion, if you see me out wearing a dress you will know why 😂 Of course as soon as we are back it will be work clothes back on to do the afternoon rounds 🤪

Have a great week 🥰

Posted in Friesland Farm

Dizzy, another storm & getting my stores in.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th December: Today was a bit of a write off, I went out and did the morning rounds but started feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous halfway round, that feeling didn’t leave me all day and so apart from the absolute basics I didn’t do anything except sit or lie down. I was hoping it would pass quickly, I had the same thing on Sunday morning which went after about an hour but this time it didn’t shift until around 2pm. So I didn’t get anything done at all really and am hoping it’s a passing thing.

Tuesday: I haven’t got the dizziness today but I still feel a bit like my head is a dough ball. That I can cope with, the dizziness not so much, I am guessing it’s sinus related and that it doesn’t last too long. Going from the warm, out to the cold and then back into the warm makes it worse. It was a lot colder than I thought when I did the morning rounds, it didn’t look that cold but my fingers and toes were telling me something different 🙄 We have another storm warning, high winds, cold weather, possibly snow, at the minute it is quite calm but likely to be a different story by the end of the day. I would have liked to get on with doing the rest of the pantry but we only just picked up the door yesterday and I don’t want to put any food source in there until I can keep any animals out, cats, dogs and mice included, so that will have to wait, John is putting the door on when he come home from work later. I think I may make mince pies today, seems like a good day to get that done and another thing I can tick off my list.

Early evening we got the door lining in and the door on the pantry so it is pretty much finished now, I am super chuffed with it. Everything in there is something we already had, it looks like it’s been there for years which was the intention and I have plenty of space to be able to store everything I am going to grow next year plus hang dried flowers and stock up on extra things that I can’t usually get in the kitchen cupboards, yep happy, happy me 🥰

Now I have the space I have ordered some apples direct from an orchard in the UK, I have long since finished my apples as there were not that many. My intention is to do the same with whatever produce I can as well as oranges direct from the grower in Spain, I am cutting out the middlemen that make a big fat profit while producers get paid a pittance for their goods. At least if I do that then all the money goes to the farmers, growers and producers and not the supermarket chains.

Wednesday: Windy today and cold rain with it at times, I got the morning jobs sorted and then out to do the morning feeding and watering. I just got back in when Sam called to see if I wanted to go to the garden centre, the twins were at nursery and it is one of the first times she has had a morning to herself since they were born so off we went 😁 When I got back I sorted through the Christmas presents I have already got so that when I go shopping on Friday (I made John book a day off 😂) I will know what I still need to get. Then I started sorting through things to put in the pantry, I have things all over the place and so it will be great to have it all in one place and know where it is and what I have got. I am going to have a field day next year, drying, dehydrating, pickling, jamming, jarring and storing oodles and oodles of different things. I have started a list of different combinations of jams, dehydrated vegetables for soup mixes (thus relying less on the freezer) yep the pioneer women in me will be in her element 😂 I will definitely be hoping for the best but preparing for the worst case scenario as you never know what is around the corner. A bit ott maybe? But maybe not 🤔 China are the biggest producers of tin cans in the world and they are having crisis after crisis with energy supplies which in turn means they keep shutting down factories, including the tin can ones. You may think that won’t affect you but the knock on effect is that there will be a shortage of them, knock again means there will not be as many tinned products on the shelf, people start buying dried goods, shortages occur, people start panic buying or stocking up, the supply chain is easily affected all the way to us as individuals. You only have to look at the fuel panic to see how quickly things get ridiculous, whichever way things pan out, I will either have plenty to keep us fed or plenty to keep us going if needs be. Being prepared is not about being a weirdo with a massive underground bunker stocked with supplies (although I admit that would be awesome 😝) it is about looking ahead and asking yourself ‘what would I do if ? happened) and then trying to give yourself a buffer against that scenario. In the last twenty years that kind of thinking has completely fallen by the wayside and we have a ‘live for today culture’ which on the surface of it is fine but hopefully we have plenty of tomorrow’s ahead of us as well so it makes sense to look beyond today, I guess a lot will find that out the hard way eventually 😏

In the afternoon as well as doing the usual I also got the horses in, the farrier is coming at 9am tomorrow and I don’t want to be under pressure when Jack starts to give me the run around in the paddock🙄

Thursday: Had to be up and about pretty sharpish this morning so I could get the morning rounds done before the farrier arrived. I was halfway through them when he turned up early lol lucky that I did get the horses in overnight then. Jack was a right prat today, normally he is good as gold for the farrier but not today 😏 he messed him about a fair bit and then once he had finished and moved on to do biscuit Jack decide to lob his hay net at my back while I was talking, no idea how he managed to get it undone let alone toss it in my direction 😂 he was ‘hoofing’ the ground and snorting, very impatient to get back out to the paddock. Once I took him back out there he had a good welly around to get it out of his system.

Once the farrier had gone I got on with the rest of the rounds and skipped out the stables so they are ready for next time they need to come in. Next I was due to have my hair cut but the hairdresser had messaged me the night before to say she had double booked me with an mot for her car lol, that’s fine, it gave me breathing space that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. The reason for that was because Sam was arriving with the twins much earlier than usual today, it was Mia’s Christmas play and as with most schools only one person from the family was allowed to attend so that meant the twins needed to be looked after. They came over just after lunch and they too were in high spirits today, must be something in the air! I had the twins right through to around 5.30 and I honestly don’t know how Samantha copes, it’s pretty simple with one toddler but with two that go in different directions, are much more nimble than I am and so that much faster it’s like trying to catch a room full of bouncing balls 😂 I just stop one from doing one thing and the other is already up to something they shouldn’t be and added to that George has quickly worked out the round and round the table game when he doesn’t want to be caught 🤪

Once they had all gone home I could make my dinner and relax for the evening that’s the beauty of being a grandparent, the children go home and are someone else’s hard work 😁

Friday: John has more or less finished for Christmas now and so I had booked him for the day to go Christmas shopping in Oxford. We got the animals all done and off we went, might as well stayed at home really as the shop didn’t have what I wanted and I sat in the coffee shop and ordered it online to be delivered 😂 We did actually get a few other things but it was hard going, no wonder the high street is suffering when their stores don’t have the stock but the warehouses do 🤷‍♀️ That took up much of the daylight hours really and so apart from the afternoon feeding there is not much else to report for today.

Saturday: I did the morning rounds while John started clearing some more of the back bit, there was a last bit of old roofing that had to be cut off and taken down. Once we were both done John went to make coffee, he came back and I used his favourite phrase ‘I have a plan, you are not going to like it’ 😂 His plan was to move everything else we had left to the storage caravan, I thought this was a waste of time because it is stuff we will be using and it will have to come back over at some point. My argument is why move it twice? ‘because we have nowhere to put it’ is his reply, well that’s my plan, we build a cupboard 🤪 And so that’s exactly what we spent Saturday morning doing, building a cupboard, we used all the odd bits of wood and cut offs from the ply and now we have a very useful cupboard with a worktop that has the vice bolted to it, brilliant, even if I do say so myself. In the afternoon we popped over to see Shelley and the Children and had tea and cake with them before coming back to do the afternoon rounds. The days are very short in the Winter for animal work, no sooner have you had lunch and it’s time to start thinking about feeding them and shutting the up for the night but we are marching towards the Winter solstice and then the days will very slowly start to stretch out again 😁

One box of oranges arrived today but I don’t know where the other box has got too 🤷‍♀️

Sunday: John helped with the animals this morning and then gave the gutters a clean out now most of the leaves have fallen. Meanwhile I planted some pretty pink cyclamen bulbs I got in a sale and also some persica which were originally marked at £45 for five bulbs 😮 but I got them for £5 so a bargain indeed. Then John went off to the tip with a broken fridge and a broken microwave, I cleaned out the greenhouse and got the dahlia bulbs all brushed off now they are dry and I have them stored in boxes under the staging in the greenhouse, hopefully they will survive. In the afternoon John went to watch the Grand Prix round at Maccas and I did some crafting, I did have the race on though and it was an exciting and controversial race, good job nobody was here to see me jumping around and shouting at the final lap 😂

That’s another week over, it was mild ending weatherwise, we have had everything so far this winter from snow and ice to wind, rain and sunshine, the temperatures have so far ranged from just below freezing up to 14c 🙄 that seems to be how things are these days, all over the place 🤪

Posted in Friesland Farm

Christmas cards, stir up Sunday & books done ✔️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Thursday 18th November: Yes it’s Thursday before I get to write anything down and that’s not just because I have forgotten. It’s is because Monday, Tuesday and four hours Wednesday morning I have mainly been doing paperwork ready for it to go to the accountant before the self assessment deadline 🙄 Our end of year is April but that and the following months are pretty hectic times on the Smallholding and so it gets pushed to the back of the to do pile. Then of course we had the hen do and the wedding and so I couldn’t really focus on anything other than those events. Well now the time had finally arrived when I could take a couple of days to plough through it all and get it sorted which is exactly what I did. I look forward to not having that nagging voice at the back of my head and being able to focus on what is ahead of me 😁

The rest of Wednesday I spent getting Christmas card orders done, in all honesty I never expected to have two big orders, I was just making them as and when and putting them out for sale in the little shed. On top of that I have had a request for some for a Christmas craft fair and so I need to make quite a few up for that 😜 I am not complaining as I love doing them but all the while I a thinking about the bulbs that need planting, the wood chip that needs moving as well as the daily jobs that need doing around the house and on the Smallholding itself.

The egg numbers have dropped off drastically and we are at the point where we have to decide how we want to move forward. Do we buy in more laying hens, we have been doing this for years and we have also had fox attacks for years on and off that wipe the flock out. Or do we move in a different direction entirely, I have tentatively started with the fresh flowers and it is a direction I would like to go in but I need to do a bit of research first and I also need to either commit fully and use some of the paddock space or not commit and tickle along until I need to expand 🤷‍♀️ decisions, decisions 🤔

The weather has still remained mild and really I should have been outside getting the veg garden bedded down for winter but in my head I am thinking, it will wait until spring if necessary but then spring will be a frantic affair 😂

This morning I spent a bit of time doing some more cards while FaceTiming with Shelley, the children have chickenpox and so she is holed up at home with them, after the lockdowns we have already had that can’t be any fun. Sam has messaged to see if she can come visit with the twins, of course you can, time has to always be made for grandchildren especially while they are young, other things can wait they are not that important on the scale of things.

Well it’s Monday 22nd and I have been poor at doing this again lol. What have I been up to? Mostly making cards and tags whenever I have time, I needed to get some made for the Christmas Fayre at the farm next door next week and so I have spent a lot of time doing that inbetween mundane every day jobs. I did get the Christmas cake done and that will need a feed this week. I also got the Christmas pudding mixed yesterday on stir up Sunday 😁 though I am waiting for a pudding basin to arrive so that I can steam it for a few hours. I usually use a Pyrex glass bowl but it is very difficult to tie the grease proof and tin foil top onto the bowl so I finally gave in and ordered a proper pudding bowl.

Stir up Sunday, the Christmas pud for the Mid Winter feast 🥰

I went to Oxford on Saturday to the Victorian Christmas market, slightly disappointed with the Victorian side of it but the stalls were mostly artisan goods so that was brilliant. I hate the markets where the stalls are full of things you can buy in the shop or cheap stuff from the internet 😏 While I was out shopping, John was busy screeding my pantry floor which is now ready to fit out. I am getting a second hand door that Martin has taken out on one of his jobs and all the fixtures and fittings will be upcycled or recycled things. I am having my sister give me a hand with this as she has a much better eye for styling than I do but it also needs to be practical as well.

The temps are set to fall quite a bit this week, to nearer normal for the time of year, we have had it too good for too long 😂 but it was very nice while it lasted and hopefully it will make the winter seem a little bit shorter 😝

Have a great week and once again apologies for the lack of dedication to writing things down 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Half term antics, a wedding & Samhain 😁😁😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

It is Wednesday and I realise I have not written a single thing for the blog! The main reason for that is that I have had other things on my mind and plenty to do that is not Smallholding related.

Tomorrow is Charlotte and Maccas wedding day 🥰 and so as you can imagine I have had lots of things to get ready and sort out for that. Couple that with half term and going out with the grandchildren and there is not much time for writing or anything else really. On Monday afternoon we went on a pumpkin trail that a local farm/cafe/campsite had put on for free in their woodland area, the kiddies really enjoyed finding the pumpkins and the treat at the end of the trail.

On Tuesday morning I went with Sam, Mia, George and Lucie for a photo shoot, part of a competition Sam won on social media. That was a fun morning until the twins got tired and fractious. Back home for lunch and then Sam and Mia went out into the front paddock to move the fencing for the horses again as they had eaten off the little bit extra I had given them on Sunday.

This morning I have mostly been organising my bag for staying away overnight ready for the big day tomorrow. I also had to nip round and make sure the rabbits, Guineas and the birds in the orchard were all topped up with feed and water, make sure the horses water was full up and that all slip rails and gates were closed just in case 🤪

Thursday: Charlie’s wedding day 🥰🥰

Friday: It’s going to be a short blog this week 😂 Wednesday afternoon, Sam, Shelley, Charlie and I left for the The Wheatsheaf hotel in Northleach where we spent the night before the wedding. Lovely hotel and the food was superb, the staff were friendly and very accommodating. The next morning we were up early and had breakfast before the hairdressers, make up lady and photographer arrived. We spent a wonderful and surprisingly relaxed morning getting ready before John and the cars arrived and we were off to the venue. Stone Barn near Bibury, again another fantastic venue, the staff were amazing and know their job well, the food was outstanding and the day was filled with love and laughter, an absolutely delightful day celebrating the marriage of two wonderful people who make an awesome couple. An amazing day full of so many thoughtful little touches, a day of many amazing moments for my memory bank, just perfect 🥰

My very beautiful youngest daughter Charlie and her new husband Sam aka Macca

Saturday: After doing all the usual jobs we spent the rest of the day taking down old bits of the back area and putting up new stud work for the pantry. A very exciting project as far as I am concerned because it’s were I get to store everything I grow or make and hang flowers and herbs to dry 😁 That literally took us all day to get that sorted.

Sunday: Oh my days, rain, torrential rain, non stop torrential rain! Then flooding in the back area because the outside drain was blocked, John normally keeps it clear but because of everything else he has been doing it got left. We had water coming in everywhere out the back 😏 Then the electric tripped, we went round trying to find out what had tripped it, it took six goes of turning it back on only for it to go again before we found the culprit which was an extension lead to one of the freezers, it was getting wet and electrics do not like that 😂 Eventually after spending time in the pouring rain, John managed to get the water to run away. We then got on with the job we had originally gone out there to do which was take down some more of the old stuff at the other end of the building where Johns pool table will be going. It’s like playing rubics cube at the minute because we have to keep moving everything from one place to another in order to get any further forward, eventually it will all fall into place.

We went out with Sam, Luke and the kiddies for a Sunday roast, it’s Luke’s birthday tomorrow so it was nice to have a bit of time out with them to mark the occasion.

The clocks went back last night and it’s Halloween or Samhain today. Samhain marks the end of the natural year really, everything is now harvested including nuts and berries and growth naturally dies back ready for the winter sleep. Having something hearty to eat is appropriate, it is a season to celebrate feasting now, not too much though or else or your stores will be gone before the next growing season gets underway 😂 I will miss the summer days and temperatures but I also enjoy the darker nights and frosty mornings, hunkering down and staying cosy as much as possible. I still have plenty to do outside in the garden but at this time of year if it doesn’t get done it can wait until spring, I can find plenty to occupy me inside if needs be.

Have a good week and find lots of things to do that give you that cosy feeling, Winter has arrived 😬