Tag: tomatoes

Posted in Friesland Farm

A pick ‘n’ mix of a week 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More pod than peas 😜

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winter preparations, Chutney & Sustainable Flower arranging 💐

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th Nov: It rained in the night, it woke me up so must have been heavy at some point. The ground underfoot quickly goes from dry to a bit of a mud bath and, except for when it’s freezing, I don’t expect that to clear now until next Spring 😏

I got on with the morning feeding and then straight on with drawing and dressing (Sally Stewart 😜) the cockerels we dispatched and plucked yesterday. By 10.15 I had all three done, two in the freezer, one ready for roasting later, all the cloths and apron in the washing machine on a hot cycle, the utensils all washed on hot soapy water and the entrails in the incinerator. The necks, feet, heart and liver are cooking in the oven for the cats and dogs so nothing is wasted apart from the intestines, lungs, kidneys and gizzard, the first two are no good any way and the dogs won’t eat the other two. Previously I have kept the chicken livers for pate but I still have some in the freezer so the dogs can have these. Tonight we will have roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables, the whole lot will have been grown on the farm with almost a zero carbon footprint, I say almost because if I’m being purist things had to be delivered or transported here including feed for the birds so it’s ‘almost’.

Time for a coffee and sit down to watch a couple of videos on flower farming 😀 I reckon I have earned it. I watched that for about an hour and then had many more questions that needed a bit of researching lol.

I am planning on lift my dahlia bulbs and the freesias but I have to get the timing right for both of them, after the first two substantial frosts should be a good time. Normally I wouldn’t faff arse about with things like that but I want to move them from where they have been growing this year so lifting them is the only answer I think and besides having invested in the bulbs in the first place I really ought to try and keep them going each year. Most of the seeds I have collected are now dried and they will be stored in the spare room, it’s too damp through winter even in the greenhouse to keep them successfully but I have to put a notice up to remind myself where they are otherwise come spring I will be searching everywhere for them!

While I was busy on Saturday John installed a dog flap in the back door, we have a door to the boot room then a back door but we always had to leave the back door open for the dogs, now they have a lovely flap and I can keep the door shut 😀 it didn’t take them very long to work it out and I was hoping the cat would use it too be he has declined so far, he may get braver as the weather gets colder 😜

Reading through the previous blog that has been published those dratted ads are back, I’m very sorry about those they should not be there and I report each and every single one of them but somehow they manage to get back in, not sure how to get rid them entirely.

Tuesday: Morning rounds done and dusted, included this morning was the cleaning out of the duck shed 😏 a heavy mat of wet s**t is mostly what it is when it’s been raining like it has, all nice clean straw now but that won’t last long lol. On my way round I have shut the horses out of the big side paddock and at the moment they are in the small middle one but soon I will need to open up the large back one for them to use all winter. The ground gets poached very quickly when the rain is constant and this year is no exception, I’m slipping around in sloppy mud already, we have been trying to devise ways of getting the hens off the paddocks and maybe keeping them in the spare stables over winter but as I said to John they will just be all over my veg garden. We agreed that maybe a six foot fence around the veg area might be the best option however the logistics of doing that are complicated lol.

I did a good mornings work outside, not on the jobs I had intended to do as is often the way lol, I went into the big tunnel and decided that it needed tidying and sorting out. Last spring I used it for growing seedlings as the old greenhouse was gone and the new not finished. Most of the stuff had been moved out long since but there was still quite a lot left in there, plus I needed to get to the plants that now all resemble triffids and cut them back, pull them up or cosset them for winter temps. I grew cape gooseberries and the plants are huge and sprawling, plenty of flowers lots of fruit but none of them ripening 😏 I have cut them all back and left it on the ground to see if the fruit will ripen at all, I don’t hold out much hope, the plants I will cosset and see if they make it through the winter. The same applies to the lemon verbena, it got swamped by the gooseberries but it’s still alive and so I cut it back and hopefully with extra bubble wrap it will last. I have some lemon grass and pepper plants which have also been given a bit of protection with bubble wrap. The ground I have put in some well rotted manure and covered with weed membrane for the winter, I don’t tend to use the big tunnel for winter crops as it is not as sheltered as the small one and so crops do better in there besides it’s quicker to get to when it’s blowing a hoolie or there is snow on the ground, I’m a keen gardener but there are limits and winds and the cold are mine 😜

I can’t seem to make a decision to save my life at the moment, is it an age thing or brain fog or just apathy, I’ve have no idea. We have had our sofas for about 25 years, one set has gone as that broke, the other is threadbare but structurally sound and I have one that was Shelleys she was getting rid of which is perfectly fine but doesn’t match the other one. I have patched up the covers as best I can and throws hide a multitude of sins but keep thinking about getting new ones, but then thinking, well actually there is nothing wrong with these really lol, shall I just get some new cushion covers? Then I look at the selection and can’t decide what colour or pattern or if I should bother at all, I’m all of a fuddle 😜 The problem isn’t that the original sofa has covers that come off and can be washed but they are not going to stand up to many more washes, I have used the cushion covers from the sofa that broke to patch it up but I’m running out of cushion covers 😂 First world problems and all that 🙄

I don’t know about you but I often don’t know what day it is either 🙄 all day today I keep thinking it’s Wednesday, I had to ask John this morning because I thought I had forgotten to take my meds yesterday but no it’s seems we are only on Tuesday so that ok.

I did a bit of hoovering in the afternoon, that’s when the whole sofa debate rose in my head, then got some dinner on, chicken casserole for John from the left over chicken yesterday and I have had a lentil and vegetable soup going on the slow cooker all day, smell great 😀 the sky is getting very dark luckily I lit the fire earlier too, looks like I might get a soaking when I do the afternoon feeding and egg collection 😔 I have left the turkeys in their pen today as yesterday no only did I have to get them back in from the driveway but they were impossible to round up come bed time, good job John arrived about half an hour of me trying although by that time I was swearing a lot 🤬

I feel very tired this afternoon, I mean absolutely washed out dead on my feet tired, I’m wondering if leaving the blood tests for two weeks was a bad idea and that my inflammation markers have soared or if I am just coming down with something, that’s the problem with the Lupus you can never see the wood for the trees 😜 I have instructed John to return with chocolate just in case it’s what I need 😂

Wednesday: It’s fresh this morning, not sure if there was a frost but it seemed cold enough however at 7am there was no sign of one? The morning rounds were pretty straight forward, go to feed room fill up buckets go round empty out and let out, collect any eggs already laid. Two out of the four chicken huts/pens are not let out straightaway, they are the one in the stable and the ones in the front paddock, because they have complete free range they tend to run off and scatter when they are let out which means they are not eating their feed which in turn means they won’t lay so they are confined until they have had sufficient time to eat their breakfast lol. It seems to be working with the front lot as the egg numbers are slowly going up but the stable lot are probably getting too old to be laying very many eggs, most of them are the retired lot, we don’t get rid of them when they are no longer productive they are just allowed to while away their days on the farm keeping bugs and grubs down, pooping and fertilising so I guess they are still earning their keep really 🙄 There are signs of rat activity in the stable block again, new holes have been excavated and there is an empty eggshell in an unused stable. I am reluctant to put poison down but sometimes you need to knock a problem on the head quickly and it seems like the best way. I have tried traps and not caught a single rat in them but I know when the poison disappears I will find a dead rat sooner or later. Placement of poison has to be done with care obviously, I generally pour it down the hole and then put some sort of cover such as a piece of wood or a large stone over it so that it can’t be seen by small birds. I have tried the black boxes that you often see but they mostly get ignored by the rats, this way is a quick removal of bait usually overnight it’s all gone. We are careful to make sure that chicken/duck feed is not left down overnight but I learnt the other day that rats actually drink a lot of water on a daily basis so it’s best not to leave water buckets full overnight either.

Rat activity

I decided not to have a hard day today lol, so I have been making chutney from the apples and tomatoes (that never ripened even in the dark) and the grapes I picked were still in the fridge and are now drying out slowly in the oven to make sultanas 😀 waste not want not 😜

I feel stressed this week and it’s only Wednesday 😜 not anything on the smallholding but lots of, fairly trivial, things and each day seems to bring a new stress factor with it building it up to a bigger stress ball. I’m doing the deep breathing exercises and even trying some meditation but so far I’m still feeling it 😏 and ‘it’ is a physical thing, could be to do with not being on the Lupus meds after all they were stopped abruptly and although they needed to be, it can’t be a good thing for my physiology can it?

Did a bit of online shopping for Christmas presents, better get started I guess lol.

Thursday: I have a fresh head on today Aunt Sally, just in case you are not familiar its from an old programme called Worzel Gummidge 😜 Onwards and upwards as they say.

It rained heavily overnight, I was walking around this morning on what felt like wet carpet, it’s squishy underfoot everywhere you go, the silver lining in this has to be that the reservoirs must be full if not overflowing. There are warnings of flooding over parts of the country, I’m not sure we have had so much rain this early in the Winter before and who knows what the remainder of the season will bring we just have to ride it out.

After doing the animals I potted up some plant that arrived yesterday, these don’t look in as good condition as the ones that arrived earlier and plug plants at this time of year in an I heated greenhouse are a bit of a risk but hopefully they will pull through.

My aim this morning is to do a bit of research on rat proof duck housing. The hens will lay up high if you give them a place to do it but the ducks lay on the floor as they are not as agile. This morning I have been into the stable where I put down the poison and I can see another duck egg pulled through a hole in the wall from the stable where the ducks are 🙄 the poison remains untouched so I’m wondering if it might be something else such as a stoat or weasel. Anyway if I can find a solution for the duck housing we might be able to save a few eggs.

I have been out and cleaned out the stable that the hens use and tried to give them more places to roost, still not sure what to do with the ducks 😏

We popped out in the evening to go a see Mum, my stepdad is doing ok after a small procedure and hopefully will be home at the weekend. On the way there we saw two big deer in the road but by the time I got my phone out to take a photo they had gone and on the way back we saw a badger crossing the road, plenty of wildlife around here lol.

Friday: I didn’t do much other than the normal stuff and prepping the dinner for later, I lit the Rayburn early as Sam and the kiddies came over in the afternoon and I didn’t want it to be cold.

Saturday: A very cold start to the day, that killing frost had arrived with a vengeance, we did the morning rounds and then John took me over to Daylesford Organic Farm where I spent a lovely morning learning about sustainable flower arrangements, foraging for foliage (both dead and alive) to make an informal arrangement along with some flowers that were provided. The flowers were imported from Holland mind you because there is not much in the way of lovely blooms at this time of year over here.

I kept thinking, what a pleasant way to spend my time doing this, I think I would like to do a lot more of it next year.

John meanwhile had been very busy, dropping me off, going to pick up feed, getting in wood, lighting the Rayburn and meeting someone who had come to buy the horse box, then coming back to pick me up at the end of the morning 😀 We decided to pop out for lunch and spend the afternoon in the warm watching the telly. The weather started off ok today but soon spiralled downwards with the constant rain and the cold, a vile day to be working outside so if it’s not necessary then don’t do it lol, much better indoors nice and cosy for the afternoon, until feeding time that is 😜

It’s mid evening and still raining, sometimes heavily, flooding is an issue in many parts of the country and I fear for the village we live in. Although we live up on the top of the hill the main part of the village is in the Shill valley with the brook running through and a very picturesque pond in the summer. There was some flood prevention installed a couple of years back but it can only do so much and the ground was already sodden as I mentioned earlier this week, I can only imagine they are all praying for it to stop raining 🙄

Sunday: Well it rained most of the night but had stopped by morning when it was cold but sunny. I was shocked at the amount of water we had standing in the paddock and out in the lane, it always does this after persistent rain and soon clears but I think that it’s bigger than I have ever seen it before. I checked with someone in the village first thing to see if it had flooded but the new flood defences seem to have done the job intended and held back the water thankfully. I have spotted and marked a spot where water appears to be coming up, I’m secretly hoping it’s a spring lol or at least a point where a bore hole would be most beneficial 🙄 We went out early to get some shopping and then called in to see Mum and Ken, he is home now and looking/feeling ok so that’s good news.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hygge, Hops and a Hedgehog 🦔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th September: The Autumn equinox has occurred, the end of the light time of the year and the beginning of the dark time is upon us. Time to reflect and look back at what has worked, what hasn’t and a time to look forward and think about what to do next year. A time of myths, legends and rituals of all kinds, harvest is one of my favourite times of year, the word derives from an old English word meaning Autumn. I like the fact that it gets dark early and you can hunker down inside all cosy and warm having fed everyone with a hearty supper, Hygge as the Norwegian and Danish would say.

Talking of myths we heard a lovely one in Guernsey, some of the older houses have a large stone protruding from the chimney of the building, a witch seat, the belief was that a witch out flying on her broomstick could rest on one of these stones and get warmth from the chimney and if you provided one of these you would be spared of any witchy spells she might inflict 🧙‍♀️

The temps plummeted last night and I think there was a grass frost this morning, good job the Rayburn is ready when we are although the temps are set to climb again during the week.

John did the main of the birds this morning then it was just the orchard lot for me to do, my main thought is to lock up the house while I’m out on the farm, sad times but I’ve heard another report from just down the road that occurred yesterday so there is still skullduggery going on and best to be safe than sorry.

There were plenty of walnuts all over the floor so I have picked them up, washed them off, rinsed them in white vinegar (to stop mould forming) dried them off and put them in open trays in the kitchen to dry off. Quick coffee then outside again to see what else can be done, Sun is shinning this morning though you can feel a real nip in the air.

Managed to get a good bit done, two loads of muck into the polytunnel, plant a shrub in the duck pen and secure round it, plant a bush in the orchard and secure round it, pick a trug full of greens for the rabbits, harvest all the small broccoli florets and collect eggs and put them out for sale, the biggest pain in the arse though is keep locking and unlocking the doors to go in and out!

Tuesday: Mia arrived early in the morning, I had managed to just get the orchard lot fed and watered so that was ok, we did go out about 10am to pick up some eggs but apart from that we spent the day inside. Mia is in the middle of potty training so it doesn’t do to venture too far from the bathroom at the moment although she is doing very well, amazing, as I keep telling her 😀

I am practising Hygge tonight, an extra cardi on, a nice cup of milky coffee and my Norwegian slippers which are very warm and cosy, I have already worn them out once and Mum kindly re-felted the bottoms so I could carry on wearing them 😀

Wednesday: Another sunny, dry day 😀 After doing the orchard lot and re filling some of the bedding in various houses, I decided to try and start sorting out the garden in preparation for the winter. The garden gets ravaged either by the weather, the ducks or the chickens and so putting everything away or securing everything is a must, especially any plants in pots that you want ready for next Spring. The ducks walk over everything squashing it all, the chickens kick everything over then scratch through it and the wind just blows it all around, so it seemed like a good day to start organising stuff. I now have two areas that have plants in that are cordoned off and covered with mesh, I have planted a few more bits along the edible hedge in the orchard, when I say edible that includes food for the birds and bees as well as the chickens and ducks 😀 A bit of egg collecting and sorting in between and suddenly it’s already lunchtime.

I have decided to pull the plug on the new greenhouse for now, we haven’t got round to dismantling it and putting a base down and to be honest I’m not sure I can justify the money really, so I will use the old one again next year and see how things go. No point spending a fortune on something if I’m ill again and can’t get out there to use it to it’s maximum so for now it’s on the back burner.

I’m quite tired after all that so going to have a sit down and maybe a quick nap 😀 I’m am very fortunate to be able to stop and rest when I need to if I had a regular job I think I would have got the sack by now 😝 Don’t get me wrong, what I really want to be doing is ploughing into jobs, the mind is willing, the body is most definitely not!

I tried a little shut eye but I couldn’t so I thought I would read the rest of my book instead, after visiting Guernsey the obvious choice for new reading material was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a delightful gem of a book 😀 I thoroughly recommend it if you are a reader, now I just need to watch the film and see if they managed to capture the essence of it? (I watched it, they didn’t)

I have been eyeing up the light Sussex chickens, they are pretty big now but need to put on weight before we process them, ideally I would like them to get a couple of months on the garden free ranging, some will be selected to hold back for breeding for the next batch and I think there are at least 4 cockerels in there. The joy with writing a blog diary is that I can look back and find out exactly when they hatched, on investigation I find that they are 16 weeks so plenty of growing time left yet 😀

Did a bit of hoovering, polishing and cleaning, the place needs a proper good going through really but I will save it for rainy/colder weather.

I’m still picking up walnuts and there are still loads left on the tree, I need to make a real effort to use them this year especially in cooking but by the time I have cracked them all open I have lost the will to cook 😝

Did the afternoon egg collecting, the pullets are laying really well now, at least half of them, though the eggs are small they are still mighty fine eggs 😀

I need to decide about Tuesdays, it proved quite a logistical event especially as its potty training time as well as having to lock the doors behind me, I can no longer, nip out so I’m contemplating putting a notice out to say there will be no egg collections on a Tuesday until further notice, it would give me a bit of a break from the pressure of having to get them out there on time and who knows we may be able to catch up with sales instead of constantly selling out.

Think it, do it, lol, that’s what I have done, put a notice out, no eggs on a Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

I lit the Rayburn 😋 just for a couple of hours to take the chill off the air during the evening and I must admit it will be nice to have dry, warm towels again. The problem with this time of year is that it’s not quite cold enough to have it full on but it’s too chilly not to have it at all, probably be sweating in bed later lol.

It will take a while to get to know how she has decided to perform this year but I’m sure we will all settle into a routine soon enough, the one regret I have is that there is not enough space to have a chair right next to her, that would have been perfick 😋 mind you, you would have found me sat there all Winter long 😝

Thursday: Fabulous morning, sunny with a hint of mist rising from the ground, beautiful. By 8am I had done my morning bits and was stood having a coffee outside. My neighbour had ask if I have anything for the harvest festival display so I went round and had a look, some hops, a few little pumpkins and some sweet corn stalks is about all I have this year, hopefully they will be of use. I cut down all the hops and put some aside and the rest I have harvested ready to dry, I want to make hop pillows and need to dry the heads. They are very tactile little things once they are off the vine and as light as a feather, I will leave them in the sun for today and finish them off drying indoors for a couple of days. I don’t have very many as I try to keep the vine under control, it’s suppose to grow along the fence but it keeps creeping up the pear tree and strangling it!

Did a bit of pottering about which was nice, I watered the shrubs I had planted on the front paddock fence line and the apple tree, collected a couple of ‘keeper’ apples there are not many this year, sat and ate the last pear I found hiding on the tree, beautifully succulent and tasty 😋 picked up some eggs and put them out, saw a dragonfly which made me smile, a fab day for pottering out there.

I have a large amount of tomatoes to use up so I’m going to roast them with some olive oil and garlic then sieve them and freeze them for winter use, it’s such a good year for them that you can’t even give them away let alone sell them lol.

I ordered a bulb planter for the daffs, it’s a good strong one which I was surprised as it only cost £24, I took it up the back paddock to have a go but the ground is still much too hard! It needs a bit of rain on it dare I say 😋

Friday: No sun as yet this morning but it’s still early, John was up and out to do the birds just as it got light, patch the dog was barking incessantly, I got up to investigate couldn’t see anything, when John came in he told me it was a hedgehog 😀😀😀😀😀 A hedgehog, I couldn’t be more delighted 😁 they are in decline here in the UK and I haven’t seen one on the farm for about 5 years now so it’s an exciting find and puts paid to any idea that I had about using roundup on the veg garden paths, it will have to be hoed instead 😝

The wildlife has steadily increased over the years, frogs, toads, hedgehogs (well at least one of each) multiple different garden birds, the sparrows that seemed to have gone over the last few weeks have suddenly all come back to check out the roosting areas they used last winter, dragonflies, butterflies, insects galore, it’s a great feeling to nurture nature.

I’m walking back from doing the orchard lot and what do I see in the middle of the driveway but a rolled up ball of prickles covered in leaves, the dogs must have managed to roll it out to play football with it! So I went and got appropriate hand wear and picked it up and took it to the greenhouse along with some cat food, it’s not hungry and I’m pleased to say it looks in good condition, no ticks. I watched it walk around looking for a way out and so went and built a quick hedgehog house out of wooden posts and a broken slab with some leaves and straw for bedding, and then popped it in there. Hopefully it will at least hang around, taking care to stay out of the way of the dogs in future 😋

Blood tests this morning, I was supposed to have them last week but didn’t ring up in time.

Popped in to see my Mum and Ken as they have just come back from caravanning in the south west, came home with lots of killer jars and a couple of shrubs 😀

Went for a walk along the downs road with Josh, Shelley and Flo this afternoon, we played hide and seek behind the trees, ‘room on the broom’, ‘pull me out of the rabbit hole nana’ and conker football 😀

The woodpecker is about, I spotted him hammering a tree trunk this morning, then when I was out doing the afternoon feeding I heard him and then saw him take off in the unmistakable, undulating flight back toward this mornings tree. It is a greater spotted woodpecker the green ones tend to stay more in the hedge-line at the side of the long paddock so I don’t see them as often, one day I will get a picture but they are very quick.

Saturday: Another lovey sunny Autumn morning, I know the bubble is going to burst eventually but loving it while it’s here 😀 Today we are off to the local ploughing match, heavy horses, tractors galore and plenty of ‘Old McDonalds’ for Josh to see 😝

Fabulous day, glorious weather and bone dry under foot, we have seen heavy horses in their finery, steam engines galore, tractors old and new, eaten ice creams, doughnuts, hot dogs and baked potatoes (some of us ate some of them, not all of us ate all of them 😜) had a beer, looked at the produce competitions, watched some old crafts, thank goodness there are people who keep these going and chatted to friends and acquaintances, all in all a great time had by all. I am pretty sure Josh will fall asleep early and not wake up till morning, dreaming of the vintage tractor parade 😀

I bought a Hardy plumbago plant while I was there, mine died over winter and it’s a plant that I miss.

Sunday: I almost forgot it’s blog day! Perfect day for me outside for getting some work done, pleasant enough, not much sun but a hint now and again. I have been planting, barrowing, weeding, covering and generally trying to get things in order ready for Winter. Plants that I have bought and needed to plant out or on, barrowing muck from the heap onto beds, weeding the pathways and covering bare soil that has been weeded. By 2pm I was quite exhausted but feel I have achieved something at least. I pulled some carrots, they are in a raised bed and so not getting waterlogged (chance would be a fine thing as rain is mostly a distant memory this year) I’m hoping to get some cooking and baking done this week and tomato soup is still on my radar, carrots add a great bit of flavour to the soup. I am still picking outdoor tomatoes though it won’t be long before the frost gets them, I would make green tomato chutney but we have enough pickles to last us a while. My Dad always says ‘you should try green tomatoes fried’ hmmm not sure on that one, maybe I should at least try them?

John has been busy, tidying up and burning the bits of wood that couldn’t be cut up for the fire, we always seem to have wood lying around that needs burning, then he cleaned out the front hens and he has a plan to move them off of the front paddock and make a bigger pen where the hens for sale used to be housed seeing as we won’t be doing that anymore. He has now gone to do his Mum and I’ve sent him with a shopping list so I don’t have to go 😜

I washed and dried another load of walnuts today, that’s it now I’m not gathering any more! It’s weird because when Johns Dad was alive he used to ask me for walnuts and we never had that many, the two years since he died have been bumper years and the squirrel has been nowhere near, coincidence? Or is he giving me a helping hand?

I saw a green woodpecker flying around the farm today 😀

Definitely going to light the fire tonight, it’s chilly indoors at 3pm already.