Wednesday 27th July: Oooo it’s Wednesday before I even get anything written down 🙄 now I have to try and remember what I have been doing this week 🤔 On Monday I did a mornings work cleaning the house, boring but necessary for my own sense of peace and wellbeing. Just before lunchtime Sam came over with the children and we went for a walk up the lane, a couple of hours later and approx two + miles of walking we arrived back, the twins did very well but did start sitting down in protest on the last leg, they certainly earned their lunch that day. We took a bag with us in the hopes we would find something to forage but nothing was quite ready. Once they had left to go home I carried on with the rest of the housework and cleaning. In the evening I tried to get a bit done in the garden but I had developed a pain that was almost stopping me from walking. It’s funny but not funny, earlier in the day one of my feet slipped and went in a different direction to the rest of me. I didn’t fall and recovered quickly and thought no more of it until about an hour later when I had a dull ache at the front of my pelvis, I must have pulled a muscle or stretched a tendon/ligament or something and by mid evening I had to sit and rest. After a nights rest it was better when I first got up and then gravity kicked in 😂 it has gradually got better since then.
On Tuesday I did outside work, potting plants on, digging up self setting seedlings and potting those up, giving them all a good feed at the same time. I have also been collecting seeds from various plants, so far I have poppy seeds, calendula, cerinthe, nigella and sweet william, I am constantly watching to see what is ready to collect or transplant. I also cut a couple of big buckets of flowers ready for bouquets tomorrow. Then Shelley arrived with Flo and Josh and we went out for lunch at the garden centre where some plants fell into my basket 🤷♀️😂🤪 I spent some time in the evening weeding the pathways of the veg garden. One good thing about no significant rain is that the weeds elsewhere (front driveway)have mostly died off but where we heavily mulched the pathways in the garden with woodchip the moisture is retained (proves mulching works well) and so weeds (healthy ones at that) are popping up all over.
Wednesday: I was up early this morning and straight outside to get some watering done, still no rain and the rumblings of a hosepipe ban are getting louder, it’s a dry year. The last time it was this dry was in the 1970’s according to the statistics. In between watering I wired some dried flowers and had a go at making a hair comb with them, I have some tweaking to do but it was not bad for a first effort. Charlie arrived and stopped for a coffee before going off for a walk and a picnic with Sam, Shelley and all the children. I thought I had better not go out again today 😂 need to get some work done.
Thursday: A busy morning getting a few bits and bins done indoors and then outside to pick produce, quite a haul today which means one thing, inside to process it all in various ways. Prep for the freezer or for dinner this evening, put out for sale and put by anything that the girls want. That took me to 1pm and I think I earned a sit down which is exactly what I am doing now, although after writing up this and I shall be looking for recipe inspiration online 😁
Friday: I think I am officially done trying to bust a gut to keep everything alive, some things are dead already because I just can’t get round to water them as other things are more important and come first. It’s a pretty serious situation when you look at the bigger trees which are now starting to drop their leaves to save moisture 😔 the elderflower bushes are looking very sorry for themselves too, top fruit is going to be less than great when it was looking like a bumper crop year but now the fruitlets are dropping on the floor. I swear every year it gets more and more difficult when it should get easier 🤷♀️ Each year I start off with a great deal of enthusiasm which slowly gets eroded by one thing or another and they usually come in succession, I feel like I try really hard and the result is always not quite good enough. If we don’t get some rain soon it is going to be a hosepipe ban for sure and that is only the tip of the problems and failures ahead, not just for me but on a bigger food producing scale nationally. I know there is nothing I can do about it but still it is very irksome.
Saturday: It’s my birthday 🥳 still have jobs that have got to be done mind you so I was up to get on with it. Sam messaged to see if I wanted to go and watch Mia on her riding lesson and as it was overcast I said yes. Lovely watching her learning to ride and I was very impressed with her sitting trot, no reins 🥰 she has a good seat and great balance, last time I tried that I fell off and broke my collar bone and I have only ridden once or twice since then which was about 10 years ago. I did make me think I wouldn’t actually mind riding again but not sure I would manage to get my leg over the saddle without getting terrible cramp these days 😂 We came back to ours and then Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and Charlie and Macca arrived. They bought a delicious spread of cheese, meats, fruits with them and Charlie made a lovely cake, very spoilt 🥰 At various times of the day other family members arrived to wish me happy birthday, have tea and cake and some chit chat and then in the evening it rained, oh happy day 😁 We need a bit more rain but anything is better than nothing at this point.
Sunday: It rained a bit more overnight, a gentle constant drizzle which is great, much better than a downpour, downpours though good to fill water tanks, run off very quickly whereas gentle drizzle has time to soak into the ground. Because we had rain I didn’t have to be outside checking to see what was flagging and watering so we went out for breakfast. We met my brother and his wife and afterwards went to the local garden centre, I know I have a bad plant buying habit 😂 and so do they 😝 He had told me of the great plant sale they had on there and he wasn’t wrong, I picked up some bargains for a couple of quid a plant and jammed them into every area of the car that was available 🤪 Once home I gave them all a good watering, they will also have a feed before going into their planting positions. We had more short showers this afternoon and hopefully we will have more overnight, we just need enough to keep them going for a few weeks with minimum watering from the refilled tanks.
Just having a sit down now in time to watch England Ladies play Germany in the Euro 22 final, Sweet Caroline I hope we win this but even if we don’t the team are incredible and are changing the future of womens football here in the UK, it’s history in the making from this team 🏴 COME ON ENGLAND 🏴
Have a fabulous week and enjoy the little things as well as the bigger events x
Monday 18th July 2022: Today could possibly be a record breaking day here in the UK as the temperature is set to climb up near 40c and possibly 41c 🙄🥵 That is insane for this country and possibly a warning of what is yet to come 😏 I was up early as you can imagine, I have done all I can to prepare the garden for todays heat, I have no idea if it is enough I am just keeping my fingers crossed. No doubt I will lose one or two plants and some of the the bigger well established shrubs are already suffering from lack of water. This will have a knock on effect for the top fruit because lack of rain means the fruit is not getting any moisture and it won’t swell, indeed if we continue to have no rain they will shrivel and die altogether. These are the things we need to be mindful of when thinking about climate change and how it will affect us and future generations because it is going to have a big impact. I really feel that we are entering some kind of Armageddon, without being too dramatic we have war, drought, flooding, fires and disease, I mean was there ever a clearer message to mankind 🤷♀️
On a lighter note 🤪 this mornings jobs were cutting flowers, some for bouquets, some for drying and some for trying out a different drying technique. Once the flowers were all cut I made sure the hedgehog was fed, I have had to give her a bigger bowl to eat from now she is consuming much more food. I made sure there were bowls of water out for birds, cats, other hedgehogs, bees, in fact anything that needs a drink can hopefully find a source they can use somewhere out there in the garden (in the shade of course). By 9am it was already hot, John had done all the farm animals early this morning before he went off to work (he is working in an old cottage with thick walls so it will be nice and cool in there) I fed the torts, they will eat a lot in this weather and they are very speedy too lol. Then I sorted out all the dried flowers that have been drying in the kitchen, they have all moved to the pantry now and I have the next lot hanging in the kitchen to dry. Plus I have put some flower heads in silica (like the little sachets that come with shoes etc, it can be reused many, many times) to see how well that works, you can do that then microwave it but I am going for the longer method of putting them in an airtight container and extracting the moisture slowly, hopefully this will retain more of the colour. After that was all done and I quickly hoovered up I sorted out dinner for later. I don’t want to put the oven on today and so I am using the slow cooker which I would normally only use in the cooler months. I went round and closed all the windows and shut the curtains and blinds putting up extra cover on some of them. Our front three windows which are south facing filter out UVs luckily 😁 on a colder day it’s a bit of a pain that they don’t allow the sun to warm the room but on days like this, yippee 😁 I have even put a cover up on the little window on the stable door, I pinned a doubled over tea towel up there 😝 anything to keep the heat out and the cool in.
Early morning flower cutting to beat the heat. Pretty flowers with short stems are not wasted, silica is another way to dry flowers so I am giving it a go.
This all might seem dramatic to those who live in warmer climates but we are just not used to it and we are also not geared up for it. We tend to have large windows to let maximum light in during the darker months, more glass area means the house heats up, useful for winter sun, not for extraordinary summer sun. Most of us don’t have air conditioning, nor on the whole, do our shops, offices or public buildings, we just about have it in our vehicles (though ours doesn’t work 😬) We don’t have cellars or cold storage other than a domestic fridge or freezer and although my pantry is cooler than anywhere else, it’s not insulated well enough for abnormal heat spikes like this. So you can see we are ill prepared for 40c, add to that the fact that most workplaces will still expect staff to turn up for a days work and you can see we are going to run into problems. Some places are closing for the day, the majority won’t and I feel sorry for those who don’t have a choice. We have rules for working in minimum temperatures in the UK (rules, not laws) but we have nothing similar for maximum temperatures because on the whole the matter never arises. Schools are normally constructed to look like giant greenhouses, big windows for maximum light so stop the kids nodding off 🤭 We just never considered that heat like this might become the norm but if it does we need to sit up and pay attention and get our act together pdq!
I spent the evening from 8pm (that was when it was finally comfortable enough to go out) until after dark, checking things over, making sure everything had enough water and was doing ok. One or two of the plants had suffered badly, one of the squash plants was at the point of collapse, the other 9 were fine so no idea why that one, I gave it a good long drink. Also some foxglove plants in pots that I had been growing on until I can plant them collapsed, all the other plants around them were fine. Again I gave those a good long drink, moved them to heavy shade, recovered them with shade netting and hope for the best. The hedgehog has been moved to a cooler room as the heat was building too much in the pool room, the horses water has been moved to a more shaded area closer to where they are choosing to stand in the daytime heat, they don’t have to go far to rehydrate then. I did as much as I could do in order of priority, just hope it is enough.
Tuesday: The night was not quite as bad as I expected, though it was warm I did manage to sleep most of the night. Up early this morning when it was nice and cool, I flung open all the windows to make use of the cool air and closed them about two hours later to keep out the rising heat. The two lots plants that I had to rescue have revived but they have searing heat again today so who knows what will happen to them. I did water in the poly tunnels but that is all, it’s a case of just keeping everything ticking along until the temperature drops again which hopefully will be tomorrow 🤞 still no sign of rain though 🙄 A good thunderstorm would be a bonus right now. It is already 24c indoors and I can’t get it any cooler than that, we definitely need to think about how we go forward because I don’t think this is going to be the one and only time we hit these temperatures so we need to gear up for them really.
I am going out early this morning with Charlie, we are going for breakfast, it’s my birthday treat from her. My birthday is a couple of weeks away yet but her due date is not far behind so we are going now while we can. We didn’t bank on it being the hottest day ever mind you 😝 thank goodness for air con in cars these days, when I was young air con was an open window 😂
Well what a treat that was The Yurt at Nicholsons (Bicester) if you have never been then I urge you to try it out 🥰 The breakfast, and I had Turkish eggs, was so delicious, seriously good food. The yurt is awesome and even in this heat it was ok to sit in without feelingtoo hot. One of the best bits, though it was all totally fabulous, was that I received a birthday card on arrival and the yurt supports Women in the Wild in the Maasai Mara who grow and plant indigenous trees to help with things like soil erosion, shade and climate change. To celebrate my birthday (and anyone else who goes along for their birthday) the yurt supports the growing of a tree in my name 🥰🥰🥰 I just absolutely love this, it’s amazing, the world needs more trees, I am always saying it and right now an extra one can be grown in the Maasai just because it’s my birthday and I ate there, big fat ✔️ from me 😁
This was seriously good tucker people 🥰 Turkish eggs and most of the ingredients they use are locally sourced 🥰 All I did was eat breakfast for my birthday but look how far reaching that can be 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Not much done for the whole afternoon but once the early evening arrived and there was cloud cover it was out to water and check on how things had managed. There are a couple of losses that I do t think will recover but on the whole not too bad, I say that glibly because that’s just the things I have been watering. The plants I haven’t done because they are low down on the priority list have all but collapsed, under the apricot tree for instance were herbs I planted, feverfew en masse, a couple of rhubarb plants, a thornless blackberry and some asparagus. I just couldn’t do those as well so they have gone by the by, they may recover they may not and only time will tell. It tried to rain, we had a few spots, I kept on watering regardless as that was never going to make much difference. I spent most of the evening moving the sprinkler around and giving some of the beds a really good soak, the rest I will do in the morning. I also spent some time picking purple French beans, carrots, kohlrabi and hunting for the hidden cucumbers. There are tomatoes that are ready but I want to leave them to see if this year I can get a whole vine ripened, never managed it before maybe this is the year 🙄 I am totally done in now, the temps seem to have dropped slightly, I am hoping they drop some more overnight, I will be very happy to get up early if it is much cooler than the last couple of days.
Wednesday: Oh soo much cooler plus we have had a splash of rain, not much but we will take anything at the minute. I had bouquets to make up for later on in the day plus I did a couple of jam jars and got all the veg out for sale in the shed. I got the dinner prepped ready for later, it’s a full home grown/locally grown dinner tonight 🥰 At lunchtime Sam came with the children and then Shelley came with hers, schools out for summer 🥳 well the kids will be happy anyway, the parents not soo much 🤪 After delivering two lots of flowers late afternoon it was get the dinner on slow to cook, have a cuppa and a sit down, not rush out to water because we had a drop of rain. Great really because I feel really tired and my finger joints are playing up, must be something going on with my system so it’s good to have a restful evening.
Thursday: A quiet day on the whole, I did plenty of the usual jobs plus a fair bit of weeding and some cutting back some seed collecting and cutting for dried flowers and grasses. Shelley came over with the children at lunchtime for a couple of hours, after they had gone Sam came with the twins for their Thursday session while Mia was swimming. Today I introduced the twins to fresh tomatoes from the plant and showed them how cucumbers grow. The taste test was approved by George in both cases but not by Lucie 😂
I discovered why it was quiet when Sam came and she said the road is closed, is it that was news to me 🙄 Apparently there was a water leak and Thames Water was fixing it so they closed the road. John and I went and had a look in the hole they had dug and it seemed like they had taped it up and were coming back hopefully tomorrow to fix it properly and reopen the road. By the evening cars were ignoring the road closed sign and squeezing past the mound of rubble they had dug out and left in the road surrounded by plastic fencing. It was pretty annoying as our egg customers could get through from that end and I felt that if they had put the rubble they dug out to the side a bit more they could have left the road open 🤷♀️ Bearing in mind that they might turn the water off tomorrow to fix it I made sure everything had water or was well watered.
Friday: I was up early and getting on with tidying up the front area where I have lots of plants in pots, I potted up a couple of other things to put out there, fed it and watered it all and weeded all the pavement cracks and it’s looking much better. I want to go and get some bedding plants which is not something I normally do but all the grass and paddocks are looking brown and dead so I thought that might cheer things up a bit No sign of any workmen by 9am and by this point a huge lorry had decided he wasn’t going round and moved everything to the side so it could get through and plenty of cars were still going through as well.
I went to Witney with Charlie who was having a blood test, we stopped and had coffee beforehand then a mooch around the shops and some lunch afterwards. When I got back about 1.30pm there was still no sign of any workmen 😏 but people seem to be ignoring the road closed sign which is just as well really, don’t close the bloody road and then not bother to come back and fix it, I doubt they work weekends either so when will the hole get filled in?
John came home early and we went to get some singing colour plants for the front area, I should have got them earlier in the year really as there was not much zing left 😁 But I managed to find some plants to buy 😂
I got in touch with Thames Water and they apparently have a permit to close the road until the end of Monday 😏 No need to close the whole road off, people are still moving the signs and barriers to get round or they are driving on the verge and quite frankly I don’t blame them 🙄 Meanwhile I am very depressed about the whole egg sales situation 😢 I am doing all I can as it is trying to get people to buy eggs, for some reason it has become very difficult to shift them and now a road closure is the icing on the bloody cake. I am not in a happy place regarding that topic today, seriously I just feel like shutting the gate and saying nope, not doing this anymore, I’m done. What will happen is that we will carry on but definitely won’t be replacing any chickens that die or get taken by the fox. It’s not just the road closure, there just doesn’t seem to be any interest in eggs or veg anymore 🤷♀️ and it’s depressing to keep flogging a dead horse so I’m not going to bother. Meanwhile though the eggs are piling up and even more depressing is that you know if you put them up for free there would be loads of people willing to come and get them then 😫 Oh woe is me today 😔
To add to my misery the bloody crows keep landing in my cooking apple tree and raiding it, with the amount of crows we have around here they will strip it in no time at all, they stripped the cherry trees, they strip everything, it’s a bad day folks.
Saturday: I am altogether in a better mood today 😝 I know they are first world problems but sometimes they weigh you down and it’s ok to acknowledge that, sleep on it and move on 😊 I was up early today no for any other reason than the dog was barking, obviously something about outside so I got up and let them out and then carried on with the day. I did a bit more hoeing, weeding and sweeping in the front drive and although the grass is dead it’s looking tidy. Still no significant rain despite it looking like something will happen at any minute 🙄 I am sure eventually we will get a downpour that doesn’t stop for days 😂
It’s a busy time of year for flowers and plants and I have been collecting seed, cutting for dried flowers, dividing some plants, potting some plants on, feeding plants in pots and generally making sure everything is growing away healthily. Anything that isn’t is either fed to see if I can revive it or discarded if it gone past the point of no return. The ‘big guns’ are flowering, dahlias, cosmos, zinnia, gladioli, all delightful pops of colour and exquisite form 🥰
Today is George and Lucie’s 3rd birthday, where has that time gone lol. They are at the most delightful age, an age I love because they come out with the funniest things and you can hold a conversation with them and you never know how it will develop 😂 At three they are always happy to see Nana and readily give hugs and kisses, by school age that’s not very cool so I take what I can now. It has been fascinating watching them grow together, they always have each other, sometimes to bounce off of, sometimes to fight with, sometimes to share with but the one thing they always do is look out for each other, one will always ask where the other is if they can’t see them, definitely a bond there that will never be broken 🥰🥰
Sunday: Still no rain, things are looking grim, the verges are brown, the fields are brown, even big trees are beginning to drop their leaves 😢 I am battling every day to just keep things alive and feeling like I am losing the battle. I am exhausted trying and it’s getting me down, I feel that nothing is ever good enough, no matter how hard I try there comes a point in the year when everything is hard work. It can be all kinds of reasons, too much rain, not enough rain, too much sun, not enough sun, too windy, pests, disease, or usually multiples of them all at once. I have seen one flower farmer further North who has lost a massive amount of her flowers due to the high temperatures, they are just scorched 😔 At least it’s not that bad here but still it feels pretty rubbish today.
I have had some good things though, the tomatoes are doing really well as are the cucumbers and this year I have had great success with peppers. I have got way too many though as nobody seems to want to buy veg this year 😂 that’s fine, next year I will just be growing enough for us, that will give me more time for other things. It feels like everything is going uphill, a general state of flux is what I thought today.
That’s it for this week, Hilda is doing fine, eating loads and escaping out of her run every now and then, it should be another couple of weeks and I will be able to release her. I will keep on feeding her if she stays around, at least that way I will know she is well enough to survive the winter.
Monday 27th June 2022: Blimey where is the year going, shooting by fast 😝 We have a lot of family social events coming up over the next couple of months and so the time will probably shoot by faster than I would like it too, it won’t be a relaxed summer more a full on charge.
It was lovely and sunny when I first woke up this morning and that’s when I should have got up, but I didn’t, I fell asleep again and then when I woke up next time it was raining 🌧 I am happy to see a bit of rain but I also needed to cut flowers and I got soaked doing that, my own fault I should have got up earlier 🤪 I have plenty of flowers to do this week coming and am waiting patiently for the the summer blooms to appear, they are coming I can see the flower heads they are just not opening yet. I have plenty of veg and soft fruit to get out and pick too but I will wait until later in the day and hopefully I will have dried out a little by then. The rain is a double edged sword, desperately needed to get things growing but it hinders the harvesting, treading on wet soil will damage the structure of it and make a mess to boot if I try planting anything, damp soil is ideal. No matter I have plenty of other jobs to keep me busy 😂 Soft wood cuttings can be done at this time of year as well as things like carnations and pinks. It’s time for sowing biennial seeds though I am wondering if I should bother or not, jury’s out on sweet Williams, not sure if they are worth the bother and wall flowers well, not really my favourite. Rocket and honesty though, they are delightful additions and of course the honesty seed heads are a favourite for drying. My flower drying space is rapidly being filled up and I am already looking at other areas to use, I also need to do a bit of reading up about storing large amounts of dried flowers and grasses which I may do today as it is raining.
The fox got in to my neighbours hens and had the lot 😤 it’s pretty soul destroying when that happens, we are constantly on the lookout and it’s pretty tiring I can tell you. The fox we are seeing looks like a youngster probably last years cub, it is around at all times of the day and evening and raiding our compost bins over night. It is constantly around which means it is probably living close by somewhere, I can definitely smell it when it’s about.
The weather is changeable today, one minute sunshine the next rain, I am doing the hokey, Cokey 🤪 Actually I spent a bit of time in the greenhouse, I had collected some cuttings from dianthus, hydrangea and gaura so I potted those up and also sowed some honesty and sweet william as well as some more zinnia. There is soo much to do at this time of year that I don’t know if I am coming or going at times, just keep moving forward, that’s the key.
After a pit stop lunch I got on with doing the first lot of flowers that were being collected this afternoon. A new customer that wants regular flowers which is fabulous and has a client that may also want regular flowers (little happy dance here) I also just confirmed another order for early July 😁 With the orders coming in really well it’s time to think about next years flowers already and I have just put in an order for some beautiful Italian ranunculus in various colours. The problem is where will I put them 😂 Don’t worry I will find somewhere to squeeze them in, I was a bit late for these this year but oooo they are going to be stunning next year 🥰
Busy afternoon and busy evening it never stops 🙄 Late afternoon I was cutting flowers for drying then decided I needed more drying space so I found an unused welly rack and got John to put that up, even now it won’t be enough space and I am trying to work out where else I can get some hanging 😂 The problem is the boot room gets dusty as does the back area so they are no good really, I am using space in the pantry as well but I could really do with a nice garage with high eaves 😝 Then after dinner I went out to cut some dead stuff back, feed a few things that are struggling, plant a few bits to fill gaps, water the plants in the cold frame area and then pick some strawberries, raspberries and red currants before they go over. Finally sitting down at 10pm! It will be bedtime in ten minutes I reckon.
Tuesday: Up and about, jump in the shower, get the washing on, hang it out, pray it doesn’t rain 😝 Windy enough to dry it quickly today, mixed bag, some sun, plenty of wind, colder when there is cloud cover. Have a hair cut, crack on with the mornings work. The work was planting up anything I have in pots to fill gaps in the front beds. But first each pot needed a thorough watering as did the soil I was digging into, it is as dry as a bone despite rain last Saturday, I definitely need to dig in a good amount of well rotted manure, the soil is great looking but lacking somewhat in substance. I still have gaps, I think last year I filled them with lots of bedding dahlias some of which have returned this year I am happy to say. I may even take the chance of leaving my bigger dahlia tubers in the ground and cover them, it will save an awful lot of work and storing over winter. That took me up lunchtime when I came in for a good sit down, cue John coming home and ‘have you been sat down all morning’ 😤 It is always a working lunch unless I am really tired then it’s a nap 😝 but today I was reading up about dried flowers and storing them, mostly reading Bex Partridge’s blog, her dried flowers are awesome, the colours are amazing and she will have a go at drying anything, nothing ventured, nothing gained 😁 With the inspiration fresh in my mind I set out after lunch to cut flowers for drying.
Before I knew where I was it was 3pm and I had not only read a lot on dried flowers but also ordered a hydropod cuttings propagator, oops. Well as I am notoriously rubbish at cuttings I thought I may as well give myself a helping hand and the reviews are fabulous, I even know someone in person who has one and says it’s brilliant.
Greenhouse Sensations Hydropod cuttings propagator, I will give it a whirl and see how I get on.
A bit of cutting back, weeding and watering the small raised bed at the other side of the house while the dinner was cooking, then dinner, then deliver some flowers, then pop to the shop to get some meat for a bbq at my brothers tomorrow, pop to Mums for a cuppa and say hello to my Aussie family, back home, cut some flowers for tomorrow’s bouquet (because it is supposed to rain overnight and early morning) and finally cut some shade netting and tie in sausage shapes around the cherry tree branches so that I actually get some this year, and that’s another day done.
The Aussie family have been to Sardinia for a week to meet up with Monique’s Dad who is from Czechoslovakia and they flew back to the UK today. They are here until Friday when they will be going home and so tomorrow we are having a bbq at my other brothers house hence the shopping.
I am determined to get some cherries this year, normally the bloody birds strip the tree clean before I even get one. Josh said to me the other day ‘ are you doing cherry pie this year Nana, we have cherry pie every year don’t we’ 🥰 Well the fact is that we only ever had it once, the one year I was able to get some but if my Grandson wants cherry pie and thinks we have it every year then I am doing my utmost to make sure that is the case 😂 hence the sausage wrapped branches on the tree, I will get cherries for that pie 🥧
Wednesday: A busy day as always with an even busier afternoon/evening. I had multiple phone conversations about the ride on mower that went to be fixed, basically it’s so old they cannot get the parts anymore. We have had our moneys worth from it and so we are getting another second hand one. Flowers to do for the weekly delivery, once they were made up we went off to deliver them, then onto look at the mower we are going to buy and then straight from there to my brothers for a bbq evening with the family to say goodbye to my brother and his family who will be flying home tomorrow.
Thursday: A busy morning again trying to get everything done before 10am when someone was coming to collect some plants and then a friend arriving for a DIY bucket of flowers for a wedding she is doing for her friend on Saturday. We have not seen each other in person for about 8 years I think but it’s one of those friendships that just picks up where it left off. We met at college on an Organic Gardening course and so have a lot in common, she owns a very successful green roof company, Oxford Green Roofs, and we had plenty to catch up on and stories to tell. A good few hours of uplifting chatter and positive vibes, plus flower talk, brilliant. After she left I had just enough time to grab a cup of tea before the twins arrived for their Thursday afternoon visit while Mia goes swimming.
Friday: Up early again to get jobs done before going out for the day, such a busy social life at the minute 😂 all or nothing just like growing produce. I got the bouquet made up and some jam jar flowers to go out, did the eggs, plus numerous jobs that I can’t even remember. Then off to get some routine blood tests done, return home, eat some breakfast and hand over a bouquet to a customer. Whizz round and do any last minute things before Shelley arrives and we go off for the day strawberry picking with the three youngest grandchildren. As the twins are always eyeing up my strawberries I thought it would be great to take them where there are thousands of them to pick 🥰 They had a great time and Lucies very primal cry when she saw all the lovely juicy red berries was hilarious.
Back home mid afternoon and time for a sit down and maybe a power nap, if I didn’t then I was never going to function well for the rest of the day.
Once recovered I sorted out dinner, put that on to cook and did various jobs like soft fruit picking plus cherries as well, cut a lot of flowers that are too short for bouquets but will do beautifully in jam jars, got the eggs sorted and ready for the morning, watered the tunnels, watched a live online weekly round up with the flower growing group I am with and then gardeners world, day done. Both of the things I was watching reminded me that I still have a lot of jobs to do in the coming week 🙄
Saturday: Up early getting the jam jar flowers made up (still in my pyjamas) getting the egg shed loaded ready for the day ahead, sorting out household bits and then getting ready for the day ahead because I am out again today as well 😝 Hen party today, fancy dress 🤪 And it’s not like me to say this but I rather hope the weather warms up a tad as it’s rather cloudy and breezy today 😏
Just for fun, a little hand held for Sam to carry on her hen do today x
It rained most of the day but that was fine we had a fabulous day on the river 😁 Great fun was had by all, plenty of drink, food and silly games 😂
Unfortunately we lost 7 hens to the fox 🤬 John was one of those giving us all a lift and we left around 11am, he was gone for an hour and a bit and when he drove back in the drive he could see dead chickens all over the front paddock. We lost 3 yesterday as well, all from the front so all our young hens that we haven’t even had our moneys worth out of yet 😏 Totally exasperating, night time raids or even evening ones is one thing but in the middle of the bloody daytime is quite another, what a waste of time, energy and money, feeling deflated 😞
Sunday: I went to bed early last night, it was a tiring day lol, consequently though I woke early this morning 🙄 So at 4.30 I made a cup of tea and took it back to drink in bed while reading. I got up about 5.30 and cracked on with some jobs, might as well get an early start. We went out around 9.30 (kept the hens in the safety of their outdoor pens today) we had some breakfast out, bought some plants, bought an old book on growing flowers for cutting and then made our way home. That was harder than it sounds, first we encountered an accident that had not long happened and the traffic was backed up, once we got past that we headed home on the bypass. Got to the end of it to join the A40 and that was closed for resurfacing, now I am all in favour of them resurfacing the roads but the least they could do was put a sign at the previous exit to say you can’t get off further down 😂 There is a roundabout so everyone was going either all the way round and back on the bypass or off the first exit. We chose the first exit, thought we will cut through left to the nearest village and along the back roads and get back home the other way. Nope every Tom, dick and Harry was thinking the same thing and from the other direction too which caused a blockage in the narrow roads through. We headed back from the direction we came and took the next right through a different village to try and get back across towards home, well the traffic was heavy, every back lane we were driving along so was everyone else, blimey 😧 we didn’t expect that today.
We haven’t really done anything else today apart from attempt to watch the Grand Prix which has had troubles of its own, luckily everyone is ok. What is funny is that we were sat watching the warm up programme and the Red Arrows went over our house and then 10mins or so later there they were on the telly at Silverstone 😝
I have spent a fair amount of time reading about sowing biennials, taking cuttings and Autumn sowing, plus updating my profile on the Flowers from the Farm page. I had a call from my sister to say that she was talking to a florist about 15miles away from us and telling her about me and my flowers and she asked where I was and then said oh yes I have heard about her flowers 😁 (I assume it was in a good way 😂) I am not really planning on doing much today to be honest, I think it’s ok to take a break every now and then isn’t it (even if there are tons of jobs to be done)
Have a great week, either enjoy what you do or do what you enjoy 😊
These poppies are absolutely gorgeous but even with the correct conditioning they will only last around 3 days in a vase. The way to get good value from these is to cut some of the stems in ‘cracked bud’ form so that one the first ones have gone over the next lot are flowering 😁
Monday 20th June 2022: New week, new energy and hopefully better internet connection 😂 It is sunny this morning but not as hot as it was at the end of last week, a comfortable summers day. That means I can get on and I have a lot to do as always, last night I was trying to get to sleep but the list of things I wanted to get done were running through my head for ages. This morning I thought I had better get on and get some of them ticked off the list so first up was getting the eggs sorted and out for sale, then onto getting the washing done and hung out to dry. Once they were sorted I went out and cut flowers for a bouquet I have to do for tonight plus a couple of extra cuttings for putting out for sale. Sometimes you pick a combination and think ‘wow’ that is stunning, well I think so any way, they are calendula (a rusty orange, can’t remember the name but need to look it up) and ami Majus in flower, just beautiful and I added some mint for contrast. Next it was on to pick mangetout, strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants plus some tea leaves for drying. I hadn’t finished there because after that I harvested a good lot of lavender which was bundled up and put out for sale and then I cut two big bundles of flower heads for drying, the first was love is a mist and the second poppy. I am aiming to dry as many flowers as I can this year to extend the range of material I have available. With that in mind I have been reading up and researching the different ways of drying and preserving flowers, there are a few different techniques and I am going to give them all a go to find out which are the most successful.
If the internet connection is playing ball you might even get photos this week 🤪
Freshly harvested lavender and some of the redcurrants 🥰
I still have plenty of jobs to do, it’s continuous at the minute but I want to get some more seeds sown before it’s too late both flowers and veg and I have plants that still need to go into the ground 🙄
Just one of the flower combos I cut this morning and arranged this afternoon.
I got the dinner prepped and ready to go later, I have someone coming to collect some plants, someone coming to get a chicken dispatched, someone coming to pick up a bouquet, watering in the tunnels to do and more picking of flowers for drying later if I have time.
The last for the plants found me eventually, the chicken sadly died during the day and the flowers were collected. Just about time to cut some more flowers for drying while the dinner is cooking, quick sit down after eating and then I will go out and water.
Tuesday: Summer Solstice. Another fine and sunny day 😏 that means only half a day outside for me before I came in from the sunshine but I did get a good bit done. First up was cutting for a bouquet tomorrow then some picking, mostly fruit today including a good haul of redcurrants. Sam and the twins came in the afternoon and I sat in the shade while they played with water and had ice lollies. After dinner I went with some friends to a local wood to celebrate the summer solstice with some singing and dancing, making the most of the longest day and connecting with Mother Nature 🥰
Wednesday: Up early to make up a bouquet for collection first thing this morning and then cut some flowers for a bouquet delivery tonight. I harvested some more lavender for drying and I intend to make some lavender bags. I bought muslin bags and I used the flower pounding method to decorate them, entirely environmentally friendly and when they no longer have any scent they can be composted without any problem. I also gathered some rose petals and put those in the drying bag and hung it out on the oak tree, it takes a lot of petals to make a small amount but they would only end up in the compost so might as well make good use of them. I have made a video of the flower pounding technique but I am not sure if it uploaded to the page or got lost in the web so,where because as yet it has not appeared 😂
I sat down for lunch and had just finished when the doorbell rang, I went out and a lovely couple were enquiring about the name Friesland, they were Dutch of course and we had a laugh about the fact that they were not the first ones to stop in and ask and I doubt they will be the last. I really must try to find out what the connection is but I have a feeling it goes a very long way back. We are not in ‘danelaw’ territory as such but I know that around the late 800’s the Danes pushed further during various attacks and some then settled in Dorset so my best guess is that maybe it is named after a settler or settlers from that period 🤷♀️ I have had various contact from people over the years but if anyone can throw extra light on my theory or indeed blow it out of the water then please do get in touch I would be very interested to hear anything.
I spent an hour or so in the evening weeding and then doing a corsage workshop which produced some lovely work and in different styles. The sunset was amazing so it’s worth coming just to see that 😁
Thursday: I was up early because I wanted to get some serious weeding and cutting back done and I wasn’t sure if the sun would come out today or not. As it was it was mainly overcast all morning which meant I could get a lot done, it also meant I completely knackered myself out by 11.30am 😂 that was a fair stint though with a 5.30am start. I weeded the front three beds plus cut back anything that was going over or getting too thuggish. Then out to the veg garden to get the tulip bed cleared, I slowly went from bed to bed weeding, clearing and cutting anything that was no longer looking good or had finished producing a crop. I harvested new potatoes for dinner this evening as well as mangetout and broad beans, then strawberries, raspberries and red currants, plenty for eating later. By this point even though it was still overcast I really had to come in and take a proper break otherwise I will not be much good for anything later on 🙄 So many jobs both outside and indoors, I guess some will just have to wait. There are heavy downpours forecast today, I hope we get a bit of it but not too much, it certainly feels very close sometimes and then it seems to clear.
I was sitting on the bench having a coffee looking at the garden when it suddenly dawned on me that I have reached the point when I can safely say ‘I have a food forest’ 😁 after working towards it for a few years now it is beginning to come of age, it looks fabulous.
Had a sleep at lunchtime so that I had enough energy to carry on in the afternoon and evening, it’s pretty relentless right at this moment and I hardly have time to do anything else.
Friday: Oh my days I am exhausted today lol, another early start to cut loads of flowers for orders today and tomorrow. I had an enquiry come in for 3 x bouquets the first week of July, quite pleased because she had asked a local florist for British flowers and they said they couldn’t do it so she told them she would look elsewhere then and got in touch with me 😁 I had an extremely busy morning bombing around trying to get everything done including hoovering and polishing the house, picking veg and fruit, watering the tunnels, still no sign of this rain that we had been warned about 🤷♀️ A hundred and one jobs later and Sam arrived with the twins, we went into town, I took Lucie to the park while George went to the barbers and then we all went to the cafe for lunch. Back home and Charlie came to meet Sam and they went off to look at wedding dresses for Sam. By the time they came back I was frazzled 😂 the twins wore me out but my day hadn’t finished yet. Time to get dinner sorted and while it was cooking water the front beds because still no sign of any rain and things are looking pretty dry, I need flowers 😆 Then once dinner was eaten, out to do a good bit of weeding while John cut some more of the front paddock with the limp along lawn mower 😝 Indoors, wash up, write a shopping list for the morning which John will have to do because I have flowers to arrange and the spare room to clean as Josh, Flo and Mia are coming to stay. Finally sit down at 9.30pm and try not to fall asleep 😴
A charming hand held posy for a customer today 🥰
Saturday: Up early to get as much done as possible, still no rain as yet 🙄 One of the main things I wanted to get done was to plant some plants that had been sat a while waiting to go in. Dahlias that I grew from cuttings and some twizzled penstemon, can’t wait to see what they look like, also some knautia. I still have chrysanthemums to plant up but I want to get those inside, they are a late variety which will flower right up to Christmas and hopefully beyond if grown under cover. Meanwhile John went off early to get feed before yet another price rise of 90p a bag, corn has also gone up massively. When he came back he cut some more of the paddock while waiting for a customer to come and collect new hens. By this time I was inside making up two bouquets going out to orders today and some jam jars with the stems I didn’t use in the bouquets. Then John went off to get some shopping while I changed the beds and got ready for the grandchildren to come and stay, just about managed a cup of coffee and a pastry before they arrived. The rest of the day was given over to entertaining and feeding them 🥰 It is actually our 39th wedding anniversary today 😲 whaaat, where did all those years go 😂 I told John I am expecting rubies next year 😝
Back to the feed costs and it is becoming unsustainable to keep poultry for selling the eggs. We did some calculations and we make about £34 a week and that doesn’t include our time, if we factored that in we are definitely running at a loss. The other side of that is that hens are becoming harder to get hold of, October is the earliest our supplier can get some more, normally he is turning over 3,000 birds every 6/8 weeks. Not sure what the outcome of all this is going to be over the whole country 🤷♀️
A busy and tiring day, fish and chip supper, bathtime for the kiddies and I have no idea what time they will eventually go to sleep 🛌
Sunday: Kids finally went to sleep around 10pm and were up at 6am 😂 we had pancakes then they went with Grampy to do the feed rounds, played outside for a while, indoors for a snack and a drink, back outside to play in the paddock and see the horses, back in for a drink and a snack, I think they enjoyed themselves. Certainly tired themselves out judging by the photos of them sleeping in the afternoon once they had gone home 🥰 John and I then shot off to get some bits from the DIY shop and had a timely return, couldn’t have timed it any better if we tried because just as we turned into the driveway the fox was creeping across it and heading towards the front hens 🤬 that was about 4pm. It was definitely the youngster again, luckily John has trained the hens to go back in when he takes the corn feed to them. We are going out for Sunday lunch at 5pm so he rounded them up and got them in, can’t afford to lose any more 😳
I didn’t get anything done other than the above today and that was tiring enough but it was lovely and the children behaved themselves so well. I know they are my grandchildren but I was impressed with their manners, thanking my sister for bringing the fish and chips and asking to get down from the table each time they had finished eating, no prompting required, well done parents 😁
In the week ahead I have flowers to do every day except Friday 😲 amazing and very grateful for the support of customers especially as it’s only my first year. I can already see what mistakes I have made, what has gone well, what I would grow again and what I won’t be or what I will grow differently. I am loving it and wish I had done it years ago, next year will be bigger, more organised and I will have a better understanding of what I will have available and when. The combinations of flowers is unlimited it’s only my time and my purse that prevents me planting up the whole five acres 😂 but who knows 😝
Thanks for reading, have a great week, hopefully we will get a tad more rain 🤞
Well hello everyone 😁 we are back from our holibobs which was a mixed bag of weather and destinations, the one consistent thing was the excellent food and service. The holiday started well enough two days at sea and then an announcement about very windy weather meaning we were unable to dock at two of our stops 🙄 Another two days at sea 😬 We finally arrived at Stockholm and it was raining, cold hard rain 😏 After that the weather settled to mild and sunny for the other stops until we reached Oslo when it was ridiculously hot 🥵 We have seen some great places and learnt a lot of history, my favourite place had to be Sweden 🥰 In Lithuania we had a fabulous opportunity to go to a Smallholding with the tour guide that lives there, self sufficient, living the good life and sharing it with us. Fab trip with nettle tea, homemade cheese and honey on offer, it was right up my street but all the others really enjoyed themselves as well. One thing that was evident throughout the Baltic countries was the negative impact Russia has had on each country over time and you can clearly see why they don’t want them back. Historic architecture destroyed and replaced with grey, drab, concrete slab buildings, seems like nothing has changed with their mindset for centuries 😢
Once back home it was a marathon of washing and weeding, I literally did not stop except to sleep for the first two days! Shelley did an excellent job of keeping everything going while we were gone but I knew it would be the weeds that got the better of her, they are insane and with rain and sun alternating it’s not surprising 😂 Two more days of constant weeding and we are now at Sunday evening with plenty more to do over the next few weeks, never ending.
One thing Shelley wasn’t sure about were the mangetout (or were they sweet peas) so she didn’t touch them. They were mangetout and there were loads so I set about picking them, some had gone from being nice flat pods to developing tiny peas but in order to keep them coming they need to be picked regularly. What do you do with lots and lots of gone passed their best mangetout, you make soup of course. So today I have made a batch of pea pod and potato soup, modifying it with mangetout pods and some other extras as I always do. I have told John he will have to eat it as I am not wasting food, this year of all years when the prices are rising constantly. My inspiration for self sufficiency was reinvigorated by the trip in Lithuania, they basically live on what they grow, they had five healthy children and were all full of energy. The whole trip made me realise, as if I didn’t already know, that we don’t eat healthily here in the UK, even when we think we do, we fall a very long way short of good simple, nutritious food and yet again the supermarkets are a fraction of the size of ours with far less convenience food on sale.
Monday 13th June 2022: John went to work today that’s the first time we have not spent a day together for four weeks and I think we are both relieved 😂 Since we got back we have mostly been playing catch up with things, we let the hens out to free range again and promptly lost 3 to a fox 🙄 so today they are in until later in the day, these attacks appeared to have been around mid afternoon. I don’t really know what we are going to do because to keep on fighting against it is becoming hard work, it’s constant and I think there is definitely more than one including a family which must be living close by. I am thinking the time will soon come when we give up the ghost and call it a day on having lots of hens keeping just a small flock that can be safely kept 🤷♀️ The main thing I have been doing today is picking which is a whole nicer topic 😁 Mangetout, broad beans, carrot thinnings and self set potatoes are on the menu with chicken tonight as well as strawberries, raspberries and red currants. Red currants are the jewel of mid summer, delightful shiny red globes of goodness 🥰 I think I will make a compote to have with Greek yoghurt and keep some for breakfast maybe with mini pancakes and yoghurt. I picked quite a lot of red currants so I will freeze some and use them for jams or jellies when I have enough or just add them to pies and crumbles. Red currant jelly is a great thing to have to hand as it can be used in gravies and stews for flavour or basted on meat for a sweet sticky coating, I am sure there are a hundred and one other things you can use them for as well. I know the obvious one is summer pudding but although I like almost everything, summer pudding is one of the few things I really do not like, the fact that it is cold is one thing and the texture is the other, not for me thank you very much lol. The weather is perfect for me today, warm but overcast which means I can move around easily and not worry about dashing for shade in the middle of the day.
Popped over to take Mum some rhubarb late afternoon when we got back I got the dinner on and then spent the evening watering pots and anything in the tunnels and greenhouse plus a freshen up for the veg and plant beds. Out into the paddocks to clean out the horse water buckets and let biscuit into the bigger area before finally coming inside at 9.30pm 💤
Tuesday: Sunshine right from the beginning this morning so a hot day ahead and you know what that means for me 🤪 I don’t have flowers to cut this morning and I did the watering last night so it is less of a ‘rush around’ morning and more of a gentle amble about. I had put the washing on last night so hung that out early, got the eggs sorted and put out for sale, messaged the lawn mower man to get that fixed and serviced, invoiced one of Johns customers, had two cups of tea, a banana and then made a yoghurt smoothie all before 8am. The yoghurt smoothie was supposed to be yoghurt with fruit compote. I made the compote yesterday from the fruit I picked and then last night I made some yoghurt. A few years ago I bought one of those easy yoghurt makers and use the sachets for Greek yoghurt because making it yourself involves something like three strainings for Greek yoghurt texture and flavour, this method is much quicker. Or it would be if it had set 😂 I think (well I know now) that the water was too warm and so the yoghurt did not set to the thick consistency I would expect, it was still runny. I had been looking forward to that combination for breakfast but not to be deterred I put some of each in the blender and had a yoghurt smoothie for breakfast instead 🥰
Next job on the list was working out what to make with some pork I got out of the freezer last night. I really need to start using up as much as possible from the freezers before I start loading it with this years pickings 🙄
Out for the afternoon to Shelley’s which was lovely as we picked Flo up from school went back got my nail varnish taken off had a general chat looked at the garden they are just redoing (a mammoth job) and then picked up Josh from school before being dropped off at home 😁
Had a rest before starting the dinner, John had pork casserole and I had pork and peas fried rice so that used up the pork nicely. I had to wait until around 8pm for it to cool down enough to get some watering done 😏 but I need to keep on top of it for the next couple of days as the temps climb. I dug around in the freezer for tomorrows dinner and also found some cherries and strawberries so I will use those to make a couple of crumbles I think and maybe some more compote 😁 They were labelled up for jam but John has gone off jam on toast for breakfast lately preferring scrambled egg which is much better for him 😝 I shall be up very early tomorrow morning to get some flowers cut for a bouquet, get as much done as possible before it gets too hot out there 🥵
Friday: I missed a couple of days days writing but as it was hot I spent most of the time inside 😝 Early yesterday morning as I took the eggs out to the shed and just as John was going up the back to let out the hens I spotted the fox running down the side of the hedge in next doors paddocks 😏 I shouted fox and luckily John heard me and so they didn’t get let out. Yesterday evening Charlie came over with Macca (he played pool) and she went for a wander up the back, when she came in she said she had seen the fox in our little paddock (as well as a large hedgehog 🥰) at the back and so had called the dogs up to see if off. This morning I had just finished cutting flowers and picking broad beans and mangetout when I heard the fox bark up in the little paddock at the back so I took the dogs up there and there was definitely something the other side of the wall judging by the way the dogs were bouncing up and down the boundary and the way a magpie was screeching away. It is a serious problem at the minute and I don’t expect it to get any better, the only thing we can do is be more vigilant and pro active in scaring it or them off. With that in mind I dug out a small solar powered radio and sat that on the fence at the back where it will be on all day hopefully making the fox think there is someone around 🤞 If it doesn’t work I can see our hen numbers going down and down and this time we will be throwing in the towel I reckon 😢
On a happier note I have been busy cutting flowers for orders 🥰 There is a great range available at the minute and I am beginning to see what is worth growing and what is not, I am also working out what other flowers would be great to grow and in what quantities. My mistakes are also becoming apparent now, mostly not staking properly to get maximum stem length or growing too close together which means plants are fighting to space, it’s all a learning curve. I had more plants arrive while I was away which Shelley potted on and then some more arrived yesterday which I need to get in the ground. The problem at the minute for me is the sun, I quickly run out of shade at this time of the year when it’s hot and although I would love to be out there working it is better for my overall health if I avoid it. The flowers love the sun though so I cant grow in the shade which would be the ideal option 😂 It will soon be time for the ‘big guns’ to start blooming, dahlias mainly and who can resist those 😍 I have, I think, made good plans for a continual flower supply right through to November, December, January but only time will tell, I have also been drying some flowers, not many but I will keep doing them and hopefully will have some great material to use if and when I need it. Flower petals have also been drying nicely though you do need a massive amount of those to do any thing on a sellable scale.
We have been eating broad beans and mangetout with all our meals as they are in plentiful supply right now as well as red currants which reminds me I need to pick more of those tonight when it’s cooler (maybe in the dark 😆)
I was up early today to beat the heat and get flowers cut, a couple of ordered bouquets and some wedding jam jars which I am really excited to do. Initially I was asked for green and white and I explained that I couldn’t guarantee a colour so if they definitely wanted that then they might like to try elsewhere. The customer then came back and asked how it all worked and I explained that it would be flowers that were available at the time of cutting to which she replied ‘oh that’s fine, whatever is available then’ great to have customers that understand. As it is I am happy to say that I did indeed have plenty of white and green and so am able to fulfil the original brief. I really had no idea of what would be ready this year, next year I will have a better idea of what is likely to be ready and when 😁
With it being so hot at the minute I have the windows and the curtains closed all day to keep the house cool which it does I am pleased to say. Then overnight I open the windows to let the cooler midnight air in but leave the curtains/blinds shut to keep the bugs out 😝
The rest of today I will be doing mostly not a lot especially outside at any rate and there is only so much I can be doing indoors. Better to use the time reading up, researching, catching up with all subjects that are remotely interesting, to me at any rate, such as gardening, flower arranging, recipes, the walking dead 🤣 yep I am a mixed bag of a personality but it keeps things interesting 🧐
It was an all or nothing day today as predicted, nothing for most of the day as it was too hot for me to get outside and I really couldn’t be bothered to do much except read etc indoors. Then mid evening it was full on getting the flowers and jam jars ready for tomorrow morning plus the two other bouquets ordered. It’s now 10pm and I am sat outside where it is soooo much cooler than it has been and much cooler than indoors. John has gone to bed already because if he has told me once that he is shattered he has told me at least a hundred times 😂 Hopefully we will get the predicted rain showers tomorrow 😁
Saturday: What a drop in temperature 😂 the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction it’s unbelievable, the hottest day of the year so far yesterday and today it’s very much colder and wet, wet, wet. I for one am glad of the rain it replenishes the water tanks and means I don’t spend hours watering the garden. With the amount we have had today I won’t have to water it for a good couple of weeks I would say.
I was up early and outside getting some weeding done before the rain came, also a bit of cutting back and seed collecting. The cerinthe needed some attention and some of it is already producing seeds so it was time to collect. Part of the sustainability angle is to collect the seed from the plants to use in autumn sowings or next spring, it will save you a good deal of money, I will also sell some of them on if I can collect enough. Once I had done that and watered the poly tunnels it was time to deliver flowers, some were collected yesterday evening which left two lots to deliver. One lot of jam jar posies for a wedding and one bouquet to a different customer. I was really chuffed with the jam jars they looked amazing and the smell was divine from the lemon verbena which I included.
In the afternoon Sam came over for a few hours with Mia, George & Lucie, but apart from their visit we didn’t do much else except the usual jobs. Popped out in the evening for our Saturday night fish and chip supper with my sister and brother in law.
We have been having a proper fox problem though and this afternoon John caught the fox chasing my geese. It seems like the same one I saw the other morning, a youngster I think which means it’s no match for full grown adult geese but still it’s a problem as it is stealing hens on a daily basis, we have lost around six since we came home 😏
Just sat typing this up at 10pm when I heard the cat bowl by the back door rattle, thinking it might be the fox I opened the top half of the stable door quickly to surprise it, the cat was sat meowing while a hedgehog was helping itself to cat biscuits 😂
Sunday: Fathers Day, we were up and about fairly early, John went to do the morning rounds and I cut some flowers then Charlie came round to cook her dad some breakfast 🥰 After that we went over to Dads grave where we met the others and I put the flowers I had cut in a jam jar. My brother from Australia and his family came, this is the first time he has been able to visit the grave and see where Dad is laid to rest. I gave them all a family history tour around the graveyard as lots of family members are buried there including Nan and Gramp and Great Grampy Charlie. On to the garden centre, not to but plants but for tea and cake with Shelley, Martin and the kiddies as well as my brother and his family. Back home and Sam and the kiddies arrived with a card and chocolate for John, all about the Daddies today 😁
One annoying thing that has happened twice today is that a bird keeps getting in the egg shed and pecking at the eggs in the egg boxes 😠 twice I have had to clear up in there. One of the problems is that the door doesn’t get closed properly when customers have finished, also though the catch does work it’s not really strong enough and bounces back open. I imagine it’s a magpie as we have a few of them around at the minute and they are pretty resourceful and good at repetitive behaviour.
I am having real trouble with the internet today, well since Friday actually, this happens quite a lot at the weekend and I have a theory that it is to do with that massive cock up of our telephone lines a couple of years ago. Every time it happens I check to see if there is a fault but it always comes back clear from BT but there is definitely a problem somewhere I just can’t figure out where, either that or our router is on its way out 🤷♀️ answers on a postcard please. I have tried and failed multiple times (+10) to upload photos for this blog, it’s just not happening so I am sorry about the lack of them 😏
Have a great week and thank you for reading, take time to enjoy everything, even the little things 😁
Monday 16th May 2022: Unlike a usual Sunday evening, I didn’t sit down, instead I made cakes 🙄 simple 2lb loaf cakes, four lemon and two chocolate. The chocolate ones were made with oil instead of butter because I ran out of that. I definitely managed to use up a few eggs though and as it stands I will have 9 cakes in the freezer for future use 😂 Always handy when we don’t have any eggs in the winter, if we still have loads of eggs when I get back from holiday I shall start among other things, not sure what yet but I will find some recipes I am sure, and I will also start freezing them, might as well. John was also busy out strimming until it started to rain, hopefully we will continue to get some showers over the next couple of days, we really need to replenish the water table.
Actual Monday 😁 I spent nearly all of the morning sorting out clothes ready for packing, all of mine anyway, still have Johns to do yet. He was supposed to be just popping out to replace a set of taps, by 1pm he had not returned, I phoned him and he had had multiple phone calls from customers for various small jobs so had decided to get them done. That’s all well and good but I was waiting to go into town and pick up a few last things for our holiday. Eventually he returned and off we went. Went we got back we had a quick rest before cracking on with some jobs in the evening, mine mostly involved cleaning the washing machine and hoovering the boot room😝 nothing very interesting today.
Tuesday: Started off well with getting some things done in the garden areas, putting up some trellis for a couple of climbers that will ramble over the dog kennels. They have dual purpose, cover the shape you looking kennel structure and provide some lovely foliage for flowers next year 😁 Meanwhile John was fixing wood to the bottom of the gates to stop the bloody geese getting through, they have been ducking under and coming into the front area and then round to the lawn if the gate is open. I then went on to do a bit of weeding and planting the squash plants that had been growing, I also planted up a couple of cucumbers outside and some tomato plants, might as well get them in if I have got them. The reason being that the Bank of England is predicting apocalyptic food prices by the end of the year and inflation at 10%, grow everything you can and make sure you use everything you grow. With doom and gloom on the horizon I thought I would try and experiment, freezing eggs in a muffin tin. You crack them open into the tin, pop the yolk with a cocktail stick, cover and freeze, then once frozen take them out of the tin and freeze in freezer bags. I think this will work fine for any eggs you want to use in baking once they are defrosted they should be like any other egg you have just cracked. Not sure about poached and fried but I can’t see why they would be much different and certainly will be fine for scrambled. Come autumn when the hens are all moulting the egg number reduced drastically and this way I should always have plenty.
Freezing eggs for the inevitable shortage in autumn
Sam came over with the twins late morning and then Shelley and Florence, we spent a pleasant enough hour in the garden although first George got stung by stinging nettles and then Lucie 🙄 They had both finished crying and we were chatting again when Sam looked across to the house with a look of concern and said ‘what’s that’ I stood up to look and immediately shouted to everyone to get in the house. I then shouted to John to get the dogs in now, every one did exactly as they were told which was great. The reason was a swarm, thousands of bees had decided that somewhere nearby they were going to settle, they were not high up either but low down at face level which is why I thought it was better to get in out of the way. They settled in the cider apple tree next to the house and I phoned around to get someone to come and collect them. Dave, one of the bee keepers who we sold honey for last year came over, he got his bee suit on and collected them up, much to the delight of the children, it was exciting for them. He waited a fair time to gather them all up but there were a lot he couldn’t get to go in the box and so he left with the ones he had which must have been thousands, it was a big swarm apparently. The rest were still flying around and clustered on the tree for a while but we went out to get some shopping and when we came back they had dispersed. Early evening I went out to water the poly tunnel and as I got near to the small one I could hear exactly where they had gone 😂 hundreds of them in my tunnel. Hopefully Dave is coming back late evening with some pheromone to gather them up.
The swarm settled pretty quickly fairly low down in a tree right next to the house.
Dave came back with a box that previously had a swarm in and some syrup in the hopes they would go in but they were quite docile but this point and reluctant to move, he gently brushed some of them in and is leaving the box overnight to see if more can be encouraged to go in. I need to water the tunnel 😂 so I am waiting until almost dark before going out to do it, don’t want to make them angry 🐝
Wednesday: I was up early this morning 5am, I needed to get quite a lot of flowers cut for orders today and I didn’t want to be disturbing those bees in the tunnel 😂 They were still mostly all sleeping 💤 I went about my business in relative safety 🙄 actually they are apparently not hostile when they are swarming as they have nothing to protect, no hive, no honey and no eggs, that’s reassuring but still when there are thousands of them it’s a bit scary. The ones that have been left behind number around 200 which is a tiny fraction of the amount of bees in a hive, still it’s a lot of bees in my poly tunnel 😂 I got all the cutting done ended up with wet feet and arms as the dew was pretty heavy after the rain yesterday. Then I went on to getting some weeding done in one of the front beds, I wanted to get them out before we go away or they would be triffids by the time I get back. I got stung on the arms and feet by long stinging nettles, I had changed my shoes for flip flops, what the heck was I even thinking 🧐 numpty. After doing that job it was round to the veg garden, which is rapidly becoming a flower garden 😝 to plant up, you guessed it, flowers. Grasses this time actually, specific types that are great for flower bouquets, they add movement and sparkle. Then I planted up some scented pelargoniums, not my usual thing but the foliage smells amazing and again good for flower posies.
Back indoors and I got the eggs from the freezer, they took a little bit of persuading to leave the tin, bang, bang, bang, but eventually I got them out and popped them into a bag and returned them to the freezer for use later in the year. Back outside to potter a little bit more and to observe the bees, I am quite fascinated by them to be honest, their behaviour patterns under the circumstances are interesting, they clump together quite a bit and appear dozy. Here is what I have learnt, if they don’t go to the box Dave bought, they will die, they need to feed and they are not getting any instruction from the rest of the hive so they don’t really know what to do without all the others 😢 As I said before they are a tiny fraction of the hive, a couple of hundred out of a swarm of 40/50,000 so are dispensable as far as the hive health goes. But they are bees and we need bees so trying to gather up stragglers is a good idea. Those that don’t go to the box will definitely die, this is ok though because they then become part of the food chain for other insects and small mammals such as beetles and mice, it’s just sad. Some of the younger ones could gather pollen and go to a different hive and because they are young and have the pollen they would probably be accepted, old bees or bees with no pollen will not 😏 Nature is both amazing and cruel at the same time isn’t it.
Indoors early afternoon to make up the flower orders and then a sit down before going out late afternoon to deliver flowers and eggs today 😁 Then I have a flower bouquet collection late afternoon.
It’s definitely swarm weather, the chap that collected our bees has collected another three swarms today! He came back to get any of the bees that had gone into the box by dusk, sadly the rest that are clustering in the polytunnel in various places will now die off and be part of the food chain. A queen bee can lay up to a thousand eggs a day apparently so they will soon replenish and he also said ‘our swarm’ is now in a hive and working really hard, yay go bees 🐝
More rain this evening, I for one am not complaining, we really needed the ground water levels to get back up to decent levels 🌧
Massive thunder storms with lightning and heavy bursts of rain.
Thursday: I spent the morning getting my hair done while John was busy at home sorting and tidying his van.
When we returned home we watched the lunchtime news and I can’t help but comment on a couple of things. First is the fact that potentially there will be food shortages due to goods not being able to be shipped from Ukraine. It is a fertile and abundant country but don’t you think it is a bit ridiculous to rely so heavily on one country to provide vast quantities for the rest of the world. Obviously Ukraine needs all the support we can give it in anyway we can but if it teaches us one thing it should be to look at worse case scenarios and see how resilient we are going forward.
Second is the rate of inflation and the rising cost of living, well I just can’t shut up sorry 😝 Back in the 80’s (yes I know I am going to sound like an old fossil) inflation went above 10% and mortgage interest rates climbed up and beyond 15%, 15%! Just let that sink in if you are in your 20/30’s and have a mortgage, I am not age bashing but seriously it was a tough period for our finances and guess what, there wasn’t any talk of help in any way from any direction at all. You got on with it by working more hours or taking a second job and dispensing with any little luxuries, you rode the storm basically and yes some people sank under the cost of it all, some people lost everything and had to start again. I can tell you countless stories of the types of jobs people took that wasn’t their usual line of work because it was a necessity to do so. But also back in the day hardly anyone was in debt up to the hilt, mostly we had a mortgage and that was it, we had a second hand car that was bought and paid for not on tick and our lifestyle was not as extravagant as they are today, that extravagance has become the norm 🙄 it seems to have become an entitlement. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, I know things have changed a lot and I know that there is genuine hardship out there but from observations there are also a lot out there who do not know how to cut their cloth either that or they couldn’t possibly give up what I would consider luxuries at a time like this 🤔
We had a busy few hours this evening, I wrote a list of jobs that need doing just in case John was not aware of all of them 😂 He started off by cutting the grass in the driveway then the paddock and finally the lawn. I potted up some chrysanthemums that arrived today, these will extend the flowers available right through to Christmas 😁 I did the watering in the tunnels, cleaned the horses water buckets out and filled them all up, did a bit of weeding, sorted all the eggs after John fed the birds and collected the eggs. In-between all that we had the twins and then I had a live online workshop to attend, my eyes are very tired 🥱 Up early tomorrow to cut flowers for a 100th birthday bouquet 🥰
Friday: Still rainy lol after all those dry months it hasn’t stopped raining on and off for a week now. Up early and I cracked on with cutting flowers for todays birthday bouquet 🥰 Then it was on to cleaning and then just before lunch ironing johns shirts. The only time I do ironing is for occasions and though I don’t mind doing it I was glad when it was finished 😂 Meanwhile John had to pop out to get a small job done and then once he was back there were jobs on the list for him to get his teeth into. Shelley said make sure I leave her some jobs to do, so I definitely will 😝
I made up the flowers at lunchtime and then delivered them and when I got back I thought I would have a go at a corsage. I quite liked doing one, it’s a different skill to try out.
Popped out early evening to pick up some plants that I had seen for sale, good sized plants that were too good to pass up lol. When I got back I put the dinner on then out to the paddock to get Biscuit in and confine her to a small pen. She hasn’t been bad it’s just that she will get bad if I leave her out on all that grass after the rain we have had so this is preventative.
A live meeting then gardeners world, lovely Friday night, almost, my jeans unexpectedly ripped across the front of the thigh area so I now have to quickly order new jeans for going away 😂
Saturday: A busy day today rammed with every type of job you could possibly think off both inside and out. John has been busy as well cleaning out the birds and mowing the grass in the front paddock by hand because the belt broke on the ride on mower 😝 Shelley came over in the afternoon and we walked through two lots of flower selection, conditioning and arranging, she did a great job and all will be well with that side of things I am certain. In the evening I printed of yet more paperwork for the holiday 😂 one more bit to do.
Sunday: Another busy, crammed day of things to do, mainly packing, I think I have packed way too much and then not enough at the same time 🤪 It’s all the little things to remember but hopefully I have remembered everything and what I haven’t, tough. John has been cutting everything g with the hand mower again, flipping typical that the ride on breaks just as you need to get everything up together. Then he had the front hens to clean out and power wash, that’s the last of the big clean outs, Shelley will then be able to just skip out and all should be fine. I have cleaned the spare room ready for the kids to sleep in, I still need to go and alter biscuits electric fencing to give her a bigger area for a week, then Sam is back from her holiday and will re jig the grazing again.
There is such a massive amount to organise on a Smallholding when you want to go on holiday, there are endless lists of daily, weekly routines for each and every animal, lists for the top priority jobs, lists for what, where, when, how and why, general lists for the household stuff, deliveries, customers and then there is all the work needed to get it all up together to make life easier for the person who is coming to take over. We are incredibly lucky to have the girls who always know how much we need a holiday and are willing to step in and help out massively, without them we simply couldn’t go away 🥰🥰🥰
Downloaded a few books to read and the Miriam Margolyes book in Audio form, that should be a bit of a hoot 😁
This afternoon I am having my nails, eyelashes and eyebrows, preened, tinted and polished and then a roast a Shelley’s 😁 Back home to get some watering done and water in some nematodes for the vine weevil, fill up the horses water, let a biscuit out for a day and a half before she gets confined for a week, and finally get a sit down. We will have plenty of last minute jobs and things to get sorted tomorrow but for the blog that’s it for almost three weeks. That just leaves me to say have a wonderful Jubilee celebration weekend, it’s not often a Platinum Jubilee is held, what an amazing lady our Queen is in every way, and providing we get a fit to travel result I will be back in a few weeks time. 🚢😁🥂🥳 🇬🇧
Monday 9th May 2022: Woah what a full on morning I have had this morning. First though, after I published the blog yesterday afternoon we had a situation. John shouted, you better come out here the goose is not well, it’s backside is hanging out 🙄 I go out and sure enough the goose had prolapsed, yesterday I spotted her going into the stable block so I said to John you’d better check for goose eggs in there, turns out she was going in for other reasons 😏 We managed to separate her from the others and catch her, with some shouting from John 😂 I got m rubber gloves on and had a good look, hoping that she was just egg bound which I might have been able to do something about. She wasn’t and the prolapse was all fluid filled making the decision a quick one, sadly she would have to be dispatched 😢 Trying to reinsert a prolapse like that would likely end in rupture which would cause her death anyway so we had to do the deed. Very sad, no particular reason for it, sometimes it just happens.
Back to this mornings workload, it started around 7.30am with two hours of weeding, then onto panting up one of the cutting beds. John has now made the supports and so I decided to plant it up with some of the annuals I have coming on. I also have some of these direct sown as seeds so I should get a good succession providing we don’t have a hard frost and if one is forecast as long as I remember to cover them up. Then I had a message from a local flower shop asking if I would be willing to be a contact to supply locally grown flowers. I explained I was starting off small and that was ok they are looking for all sizes, so I said yes that is something I could do. With that in mind I thought I better get on and plant up more of the plants I have been nurturing, all annuals now so they need to go in but also be protected from the cold. That lot took me up to 1pm, in for a quick rest before a live online workshop this afternoon. Oh I also planted up the courgette plants so I did get a bit of vegetable stuff done too but I can see at this rate it is going to be mostly about flowers lol.
The online workshop was brilliant, it was an hour and a half of learning all about the value of the flowers we grow and sell, about how when we start out we nearly all undervalue ourselves, our work, our skills and our results. Without exception we were all nodding and laughing knowing we had done all the things we shouldn’t have and now need to rectify that in order to make a living from what we are doing. Very interesting, and very revealing but also empowering 🥰
Shelley called in so we did a walk round the garden discussing what will need doing while I away, I think the added cut flower bit is daunting but I know she will cope 😁
Tuesday: Bit of drizzle this morning 😁 not much but hopefully at some point we will get a splash more 🙄 we definitely need it the rain tanks are dry 😏 I have a regional meet up with the Flowers from the Farm South East group today which is being held locally so I am going to that. I am looking forward to meeting up with others, a couple of them are only a few miles away from me so it will be nice to make some connections. Just the usual morning jobs to get sorted before I go.
Well actually I got the wrong day 🤪 but luckily I double checked before going 😂 so with a spare day ahead of me I got on with the usual things out in the garden. John came home at lunchtime so we went out to get something to eat and pick up a plant I have been looking for.
Wednesday: Today I actually went to the meeting I thought was yesterday 😬 First in the morning though I spent about an hour printing off paperwork for our forthcoming holiday, in the age of technology and ‘E-tickets’ it confounds me that we are advised to print everything off in case the internet isn’t working on check in 🤷♀️🤪😂 So after I printed off a novels worth of pages it was time to go out for the day. What a day it was, the place that we met and had the meeting is a member also and her set up is truly amazing, inspiring and we all took photos with the intention of getting husbands and partners to build us something similar 😝 We talked about all kinds of flowers and growing them, types of compost, good and bad, had a good look round the whole flower farm (immaculate) and then went to the pub for lunch. All in all that was one of the best days I have had of late lol and it was lovely to meet up with other local area members from Flowers from the Farm 😁 Back home mid afternoon and on with some planting up, make up a bouquet, deliver it, dinner, etc etc, day done. We had a good lot of rain today which is fabulous as we really need it.
Thursday: I spent quite a bit of time sorting out eggs, plants for sale, cutting flowers ready for conditioning, a few household chores and then out to check on everything and water the tunnels and greenhouse. I am getting good enquiries about the flowers which is exciting and I am glad people are loving them 🥰 With the enquiries coming in I thought I had better crack on and get everything I can in the ground, I think I am going to need it all. John was home at lunchtime again and we popped out to get a few things. Shelley came with Josh and Flo after school so that I could show Shelley what conditioning the flowers is all about, plus a wander round the garden just showing her what and when to cut the flowers and foliage. As she will be living here while we are away and looking after everything that will include the flowers this time. It is a bit daunting but I have total faith in her ability to cope with whatever comes her way 😁 Sam arrived with Lucie and George, Mia went off for her swimming lesson, once everyone had gone home I sat down with a cuppa and thought about all the things I need to get done tomorrow, there is always a long, long list 🤪
Friday: Which all morning I actually thought was Saturday 🤪 That’s because John has been at home probably. He has been busy clearing and topping the paddocks while I have been Uber busy in the garden. Yesterday I had an enquiry for quite a large flower order eeek, at first I was ‘oh I don’t think I am ready for this’ and then I thought ‘absolutely I can do this’ and so that is what I replied. So I was up early to get cutting flowers which took me longer than I thought it would lol, then it was on to planting up everything I have that is ready to go in and and in every available space I could find. I also sowed plenty of annual seeds direct into the ground, these are over and above the ones I have already sown. Not ideal as flowers will be all over the place but the garden is going to look amazing 🤩 I had another small order to cut for which I also did first thing and then another order for four posies that came in for tomorrow, I am loving this and wish I had done it years ago 🥰 By early afternoon I was pooped and so inside for a bite to eat, a cuppa and a good long sit down, maybe even a nap.
These two pictures are for the big order, they are loose to be arranged by the customer, hopefully I can get some pictures from her when they are done.
And this is what my flower storage area looks like right at this minute 😂
In the afternoon I put in flower support jute netting in the small poly tunnel, I did want to get some wind break up but it was windy 🤪 so there was no chance of that. I did a fair bit of watering in the evening and had all the flowers that were ordered collected finally getting inside as it was getting dark.
Saturday: Up early to cut more flowers this morning for the hand held posies that were ordered for today. I wanted to do it early because I suspected it was going to get hot pretty quickly and I was right. Once they were cut and in the back conditioning we went to get some dog food and some peat free compost from the farm next door. I need more flower growing space 😝 I have two raised beds in the veg garden unplanted and so have now allocated those to flowers 😂 John barrowed the home made compost over and filled the beds 2/3 full with that, then as it is likely to be weedy we put a layer of cardboard on top, wetted it down and put the peat free compost on top of that. By the time the plants have established roots long enough to go down the cardboard will have rotted (that’s the plan anyway) I now have two more beds to fill up, I will have grasses in one, different types of grass, sparkling fountain, millet grass and bunny tails, all good for flower bouquets. The other bed will probably have chrysanthemums which will be arriving soon. If you think chrysanthemums are boring then watch this space, the new varieties are zingy and bright and as a bonus they can keep flowering right into the winter months making them an excellent addition to a flower farm.
Hand held posies for a customer this morning, there are three in this pot but they make an amazing bunch 🥰
I have already (asked 😬) told John what I want for my birthday in July 😂 I want a hydropod for cuttings lol. I fail miserably at cuttings no matter how I try, I just don’t think the conditions are right and so a hydropod will eliminate all of that and I might actually have more successes than failures 🤞
I have a quiet few days at the minute for flowers which is great because I have used everything that is blooming already, need to wait for the next flush of flowers.
Sunday: We have been non stop busy over the past three days really, this morning we were still busy getting things tired and sorted. John has been busy in the paddock taking down the rest of the fence, he is doing it slowly, changing to other jobs now and again so that he is not overworking his elbow and that seems to be working as the pain is much less now. He has also been giving the stable block a tidy up and we will probably have a bonfire next week sometime. Meanwhile I have been in the greenhouse potting on the last few things and sorting out the cold frame area. Getting rid of anything that did t grown over winter or is struggling to grow now and putting plants out for sale so that there is less work for Shelley to do while we are away. Not that she minds it’s just that keeping things on an even keel in the greenhouse is difficult enough as it is with the temps up and down like they are at the minute, if she can just concentrate on keeping the stuff outside watered if it doesn’t rain much and the stuff in tunnels watered anyway then we should be on a winner. Then it was out for the afternoon to visit Ken who is 80 years young today, plenty of cake and chat before returning home to get the afternoon jobs done. I was delighted to see that we had actually had a few eggs customers, I was starting to get concerned at the lack of egg sales 🙄 I was wondering what the heck we were going to do with all these eggs, not sure where everyone has gone but normally Saturday is busy and yesterday we only had one customer. Only one customer today up until we went out as well but thankfully quite a few while we were out which makes me feel better. I know it’s not just us that are struggling to sell them and I can’t work out why that would be 🤷♀️ Maybe everyone has gone away the same week or maybe they are just not eating eggs this week 😂 That’s the problem with egg sales they are all or nothing it seems lately but trying to get a balance is really difficult. If the egg shortages that are predicted come then we will be inundated with customers but then I will be thinking that it’s not fair on our loyal regulars, maybe time to introduce a loyalty scheme of some sort 🤔
It has rained today again, fabulous, there are thunderstorms and heavy rain predicted for sometime this evening as well, might get those tanks filled back up again yet 😁
The elderflowers are about to come out and I really wanted get some elderflower cordial made this year but what’s the betting they will appear when I am away. It is a very distinct smell and I am already getting a waft of it now and again 🥰 The asparagus, which has been slow due to the dry weather has now started shooting up after the first bit of rain, hopefully we will get a decent crop now it has rained again. I really need to look at way of preserving it so that we can have it later on in the summer as well.
Monday: 25th April 2022: A new week, tad chillier this week in the morning but it did warm up as the day went on. John had to phone the doctor this morning about his arm, who sent him to the MIU (who didn’t want to see him at the weekend) for an x-ray, when he got there they said he couldn’t have one without a referral from the doctor (who had just told him to go there 🙄) so he called the doctor who sent the referral over, got the x-ray done, no break which is good but they said they would send the info over to the doctor next week. Next week! He was kind of left in limbo then as he has to get his job finished but he is having real problems with the mobility and pain in the arm, next week pfft. We had the conversation that many people are having about what has happened to the NHS since covid. Don’t get me wrong I fully support them and I think overall they do an amazing job and during the pandemic the strain would have been unbearable but the service does not seem to have come out the other side yet. Multiple factors I am guessing like massive back logs and workloads but the basic functions of connecting departments seems to have fractured leaving people in limbo and I know I am not the only one saying this. Having said all that John must have said something to them because in the afternoon he had a call from the doctor who was surprised at how quickly she got his results back 😁 Anyway the upshot is that the elbow joint is worn out, I told John that is lifting too many cups of tea 😂 didn’t go down well 😝 in all honesty it will be the years of plastering, grouting and heavy lifting that has done it and he is basically getting old and falling to bits. The doctor was great though and has given him stronger painkillers, told him that if after his holiday and rest it is no better, to go back and they will look at more options, can’t ask for more than that it was just the getting there that was difficult.
Meanwhile back here I was busy getting on with the day, weeding, pottering, watering, checking things over, all the usual stuff and nothing more exciting than that really.
Tuesday: Still a chilly start to the morning almost cold enough for a touch of frost I think. Once the eggs were done and out, the washing was on, the household bits done, I went out to cut some flowers for a hand held posy someone has ordered and collecting g later today. Doing a smaller posy is lovely because you can use the smaller flowers that don’t have the stem length needed for a bouquet and there are some delightful flowers to use.
I have started to wash my tops with the UV wash which gives me just a little added protection from the sun in the coming weeks. Every little helps as they say and I have already started to get itchy raised bumps on my arms so I need to be more careful going forward. We often think the spring sunshine is not strong but the UV rays are still capable of doing damage to my skin and it would be good to get it under control as soon as I can, that is the best way to avoid a flare up.
I went out to look over the plants for sale out the front to find something has dug out some of the strawberry plants. Judging by the smell it’s fox looking for worms 🙄 yesterday it stole the butter left by the milk man and it has been leaving its smell and making a mess tipping out various rubbish here. We have know it has been hanging around for a while because every morning when I open the back door it stinks of fox, it has tried digging in the run where the front chickens are as well. All of this does not bode well because the mandatory housing restrictions for the poultry is being lifted on May 1st, we will need to get something sorted before they are allowed out.
Another fiasco we have had is that someone has hit Johns van while it was in the driveway 😡 hit it and then just driven off, it’s not the damage so much as the not saying anything that is infuriating. He has been like a little rabid dog trying to figure out exactly when and who it was. I get it, I really do but chuntering on and on and on about it will not solve anything at all. It’s done, the damage is done, we have an idea of who it was but no way of proving it so 🤷♀️ what can you say except that some peoples morals are not very high 😏
I said back in the middle of the pandemic that I thought we were in for a bumpy few years ahead, not sure why I just had a sense of foreboding 😏 The pandemic was bad enough, the invasion of Ukraine by someone who can only be described as an out of touch despot made it all worse and the knock on effect of both of these events are food shortages, a fuel crisis and big price rises. Now to add to the misery we could well be heading for a drought year, a dry Winter, lack of rain in Feb, March and April and the longer forecast showing not much sign of rain for most of May 🙄 John and I have been saying for weeks that it’s not looking good this year, the water tanks are almost empty and no rain ahead to fill them up again. I know we have mains water but that all adds to the bills so we try and use as much rainwater as we can collect for the animals and garden. The soil has a deficit of 23mm of water at the minute which doesn’t sound like a lot but it is Spring and 51% of the rivers are below normal levels already. Hopefully we will get some eventually, probably a deluge just when we don’t want it 😂
A small hand held posy made to order today for someone who has lost a family member, this one has one small sprig of symbolic Rosemary in it which represents remembrance ❤️
Wednesday: I was up before the alarm went off this morning, at first the sunrise looked promising but it soon clouded over and was a tad chilly for a while. I had breakfast, got the usual stuff sorted, washing, eggs, rubbish, recycling and then it was time to cut flowers 🥰 I don’t think this will ever get boring 🌸😁 I have two bigger bouquets to make up today, one for a birthday and one is a weekly order going forward. The tulip season is going to be over soon but there is so much more coming on, I watch the garden every day to see what is coming next, in the words of Penny (Patricia Hodge) from Miranda (one of my absolute favs) it is ‘such fun’. Once the flowers and foliage are cut they are ‘conditioned’ this means sitting in a bucket of water in a cool dark place for as many hours as possible before arranging into a bouquet. Sometimes there is a little bit of extra conditioning to do for some things, woody or hollow stems but in the whole they are all pretty much treated the same.
The rest of the day remained chilly 🥶
I did a bit of pricking out and some potting on in the greenhouse and some pottering around. I spent way too much time trying to get something up and running online 🙄 I cut a load of hazel and soaked it in the bath for something I want to try out for a flower arrangement I have to do. I made two prototypes of the thing I had in mind, one out of paper and one out of wire to see how it would all go together. Then finally I tried it with the soaked hazel sticks, half of it went well the other half not so much, not at all in fact 😝 I have good ideas but I am not very good at executing them, on that basis I have asked if anyone has anything similar I can borrow that is already made 😂
Then it was time to make up the two bouquets, one to be delivered the other to be collected, it is just delightful working with such beautiful flowers and foliage 🥰
Thursday: It’s still cold, what’s with the lack of sunshine, mind you with the total lack of rain as well it’s probably not a bad thing, everything would be keeling over by now otherwise. I did say to John I would go out and give anything struggling a bit of the wet stuff but once out there I felt it seemed too cold and they wouldn’t benefit from getting even colder, tricky one. So instead of that and after I had done the necessary jobs, I decided to play with flowers 😁 I had a colour combination in my head and wanted to see how it turned out, rather splendidly I think don’t you?
Dark purple and white tulips, an allium and some pale blue Jerusalem cowslips together with mock orange foliage and some sambucus nigra make a winning combo 🥰
Friday, still a bit chilly but I got a few things done outside including mowing the lawn. Last year I left it for no mow May but this year we have the new lawn piece and I have to keep it cut to stop anything growing in it such as comfrey. The ground that we cleared still had a few roots left in it I think and so in order to kill them off we are going to have to keep it mown. Just before lunch Sam came over with the twins, the farrier was coming late afternoon and so she came to get the horses in beforehand. She couldn’t stay because it was right over school pick up time but it meant all I had to do was get them out of the stable and tie them up on the hard standing area. Biscuit had been a bit pottery on her feet but luckily she has not developed laminitis, her feet had just grown a bit long and she was footsore. She is now all trimmed up and on a restricted patch of ground so she doesn’t end up poorly. Jack is fine so he gets turned back out on the grass.
Saturday: Up and got all my jobs done because I was off out for the day with a friend 🥰 We went to a Beltane singing group day, it was lovely, we sat in a circle, the entrance was a May bower with foliage and ribbons and we sang songs about May and Beltane and the Green Man. We went to the woods and sang among the Bluebells and really connected with nature, I feel very ‘earthed’ now 😁 Or at least I did until I got back 🤪
We have what I can only described as the most incompetent pharmacy ever or so it seems. Month after month they never have my prescription ready despite having put it in well in advance, it’s always the same, you will have to come back tomorrow, I leave it to the last possible day as it is. This time John came home with it and it was only a bit of it, come back for the rest tomorrow 🙄 he goes back today while I was out and when I got home it was only a bit more of it and by now the place had shut and I am without some of my meds until they open again. They just didn’t give him the whole lot, nobody checked to see what should have been there and realised that was not all of it. I would t complain but this is all the time, it’s fractious going to pick up a prescription from them and it’s not just the pandemic it’s been going on for years. I would change pharmacy but from what I have heard they won’t have another company in the town 🤷♀️ how is that possible and how is it that they can give such poor service without any consequences. It’s not just me saying this either, ask just about anyone in the town and they will tell you the same thing, bloody useless and that’s on a good day!
I had to help John retrieve the goose eggs this evening, one of them is sitting but the eggs are not fertile so no point her doing that. The plan I came up with was to get the other three out of the paddock that way you only have one to deal with not the other three coming to her defence 😝 I tried a stick first to see if I could get her to move off the nest that didn’t work, so I got a bucket, put it over her head and manoeuvred her towards the door and off she went while I collected the eggs 😁
Sunday May 1st, May Day, Beltane, blessings to you all on this very special day. A day celebrated throughout time in many different countries and religions, a day to welcome the ‘growth’ of all things. One of the best days of the year I think 🥰 Except that it was cold and rainy, the rain I am not complaining about as we really need it but the cold side of it can do one 😂 Not much gone done today really, John did some burning and some cleaning out, can’t remember what I did but later in the afternoon I went over to look after Mia and the twins while Sam and Luke went out for dinner.
I did make up a small bouquet for the flower shed just in case anyone wants one 😁
Monday 18th April, Bank Holiday Monday: Taking it fairly easy today , every day is a work day but some are more work than others 😂 John spent a couple of hours burning all the rubbish, that is cardboard rubbish and tree clipping rubbish from a few weeks ago then he spent the rest of the time on and off finishing the coating on the fences in the paddock. I spent most of my time pottering in the garden doing things like weeding, sowing seeds and taking cuttings. My sister and brother in law came over and I went with them over to Dads grave to put some flowers on (he died two years ago today) but that was mostly all we have done. It has been a lovely sunny day again although slightly cooler and a bit more cloud today.
I picked some flowers this morning for the purpose of trying out some photography, I find it difficult to get good shots so I asked online and got a few tips.
Tuesday: The sun has disappeared today and it’s a tad colder but not too bad, no sign of rain yet though and everything is getting a bit dry 🙄 After a week of working outside, a holiday weekend of socialising (and some more work) I thought it was time to get some housework done 😏 I spent the morning hoovering, polishing, washing and wiping down, I have scratched that itch for a while 🤪 I have also spent some time recording a podcast ‘extra’ which is all about my journey into the flower side of things and how that is going, I was contacted by a listener and they asked for it specifically so I was happy to oblige 😁
It is our granddaughter’s birthday today, Mia is the grand old age of six, which feels pretty grown up to a five year old. It never ceases to make me chuckle how children can’t wait to be the next year older and adults are always yearning to be younger 😂
We had a conversation yesterday with my Sister and Brother in law, the topic was, if you could travel back in time, what time would you go to? I found this interesting because both the fellas decided that it would be good to go to the sixties, and the reason, because you could buy up lots of old run down properties come back to now and be rich 🙄 My sister and I on the other hand thought the post war years would be interesting, nothing to do with getting rich though 😂 more to do with observing how people lived and managed after the war, not only do different generations have a different take on things but it would seem different sexes as well 🤔
It’s raining which is great as the garden is dry, not so great is that I hung the washing out about half an hour ago 😬
Wednesday: I spent the morning cleaning out the Guinea pigs, quail, light Sussex and turkeys before going on to plant up mange tout. Ted the Turkey is a bit bothersome for his lady friend at this time of year and so we have had to separate them so she gets a break 🙄 The problem is he then started attacking the light Sussex cockerel through the fence 🙄 so had to beef up the fencing so he couldn’t get near and hope that works, turkeys, nope never again lol. It has been disastrous to be honest, the females get too much attention and can’t handle it, the males (Ted in the case) spends his whole time trying to find something or someone to mate with 😬 Everything else is doing fine and the quail have started laying in abundance which is good.
I thought I would tackle one thing at a time and so peas were on the agenda, I had some more sweet peas to plant up, some in the ground and some in pots with hazel sticks to climb up. Then the mangetout into one of the vegetable beds, they had to be covered with mesh straight away or the cats will get in and dig them up, anyone would think I lay on toilet areas especially for them. It’s not like they don’t have plenty of space to go and do their business elsewhere.
I did a bit of weeding in the front and then looked after the twins while Mia went for her birthday treat at a riding school. After they had gone it was hum drum things like get the dinner and do some shopping.
Thursday: Another lovely day and a tad warmer than the previous couple. After the usual morning jobs I got my bucket and snips and went out to cut some flowers and foliage. I made up three little jam jar posies to go out and also cut a couple of buckets to make some flower bunches up to put out tomorrow. Had a message to see if I could do a bunch of flowers today and luckily as I had just cut everything I can do that no problem.
I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse pricking out seedlings before it got a bit hot in there and then checking on all the plants I have already planted up giving them some water if it looked like they needed it. We have had no April showers so far this year 😏 we really could do with one or two as everything is very dry. I think it has been like this a couple of years in a row now, very dry spring, John thinks we may have a drought this year 🤷♀️
Friday: I spent the morning in the greenhouse, no sun today so it wasn’t too hot to work in there. Plenty of pricking out and potting on plus moving some plants over to the poly tunnel as I am fast running out of space in the greenhouse. Just a couple more weeks and everything will be able to go outside and harden off or get planted up.
Then I spent the afternoon with Sam, Shelley and the kiddies at a local Bluebell Wood called Bradbury Clump, the carpet of Bluebells was amazing and the smell was delicious 😋 It was quite cold mind you but as long as you keep walking and it was ok, the children had a fab time running, climbing and playing.
Bluebell woods 🥰
When I got home I had two deliveries, one was florist buckets, I quickly worked out I needed more than one bucket 😂 so I ordered another five. The other was a plant delivery 🤪 a wholesale order of 84, yes 84 penstemon plug plants!
Saturday: More of the same as every other day lol, plenty to do in the greenhouse and in the garden, I wanted to get the dwarf beans planted up and they are now in situ. I had to get Biscuit in from the paddock and section her a small area off as she is lying down a lot which is a sign she is having too much grass. That means getting the electric fencing out and the tape, John put the tape away at the end of last year 🙄 and if you have ever tried to untangle that stuff you will know why I was 😡 if I get it in I do it properly so that it’s easy to use next time, not John he just gathered it up and dumped it 🙄 Once I had done that I wanted to get the front paddock cut before any rain (chance would be a fine thing) Last year we didn’t cut it and then struggled at the end of the year and had to put the horses on it. This year I want to cut a good inner circle of it and leave the outsides long for the orchids which will mean that we should be able to cut the long grass more easily at the end of the year. The problem is out mower does not like long grass 😂 but if it’s half on short grass then it copes more easily, that’s the plan any way.
Sunday: Busy day today, for me anyway, not so much for John. He has had a painful elbow for a few weeks but though I keep telling him to get it looked at he did nothing about it. This morning he could barely move his arm so he tried to call 111, long waiting time, called the minor injuries they don’t want to know because it’s been so long since it first happened, back on the phone to 111, long phone call and finally get an answer to call the surgery in the morning 😏 I fully support the NHS but talking to other people they say the same and that is, not sure what has happened to the service since covid, people are struggling to get phone appointments let alone face to face ones and don’t even get me started on the chemist in our area 😬 I am sure it will all sort itself out in time 🤷♀️
Anyhow, while John was laying on the sofa 🤪 I spent most of the day outside working on all aspects of the garden. Some watering as it’s bone dry 🙄 some planting up of tomatoes in the big tunnel and some flowers in the veg garden area. I also planted up 6 small shrubs which will eventually be used for cut foliage, they are now where the bed between the tunnels used to be, hopefully they will do well there. They will never get too big for the area because I will constantly be trimming them lol. Did I tell you I had decided to use the small tunnel for flowers 😊 well I have and I planted up some flower plants yesterday, more of the same will go outside it is just so that I can get some earlier blooms of a few things. Planted up a grapevine that I got from the sale area at a garden centre back in late winter, bargain as it has now come into leaf. I picked the first lot of asparagus for dinner tonight along with some spring greens, not sure what else I did but it was plenty up to mid afternoon when we decided to visit my Mum. I took her some flowers because I can 😁 and I made her pose for photos 😂 she tried to hide behind them. Beautiful aren’t they, the flowers and my Mum 🥰 Back home, cook the dinner then out to the greenhouse to water that after a day of sunshine. Another week done, I hope you have a great week and get to do at least one thing you love x
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 🤪
frieslandfarm (flowers) 