It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

 

Hello all.

I'm in red type mode because here at Bronllan we're in full Christmas mode and there will be no apologies. I'd just like to say I hope you're all still keeping safe still social distancing and wearing your masks. The news of the vaccine is fantastic and a real positive thing but it is not going to solve things over night so we need to persevere and keep going a bit longer. Christmas and all that comes with it will be very different this year but I hope your are able to still do your shopping, maybe supporting some local businesses, and see your nearest and deastes somehow, in person or by the power of zoom.

**********************************

So, I thought I'd share how things are shaping up for Christmas on our little homestead.

This year I wanted to make my front door wreath out of totally natural elements so I headed off to meet Jon at the sawmill on my way back from Aber at the end of November to collect some fresh moss and left it to dry in the cellar for a few days.

We normally put up the tree over the first weekend of Decemeber but due to the way the weekend fell this year we were up and decorated on November 28th! That day I managed to get quite a lot done, with lots of cheery Christmas music on in the background, obvs!

After the tree I began with the other decorations which I like to have around the house; this is how my kitchen table looks at this time of the year! I have lots of tags, chains and hanging decorations I've made over the year and love using these along with new ones I make.

I began with the wooden box which was made for us, the actual box, by Jon's very creative cousin. It now sits on the kitchen side table which I can see from my reguralr spot at the table.

I sooo love my baking bench at this time of the year with lights and homemade chains of vintage paper. I whipped up a couple of batches of pastry for the fridge ready for mince pie making; I always use Mary Berry's recipe with orange zext and icing sugar and it never fails.

A couple of days later this is now the hall way looked. I made this star from some of the ceiling we had to take down in the living room when we arrived at Bronllan five years ago. It was sort of wattle and daub with the thin pieces of wood between the beams; I hope you know what I mean but this is a fabulous memory of our first Christmas and I hope to keep it for a long time.

It is decorated with had made tags, 

the old church shelf underneath it has this mixed media decoration of mine and the wonderful felt gnome made by the wonderful Maryline of Rural and Rustic.

In the kitchen I got down to the first three dozen mince pies. 12 went straight in the freezer, as usual, as that way we will always have a few for emergencies....

This sign I made a couple of Christmases ago but thought for this year it needed a bit of a make over. My very creative youngest added the decorations on the lower part and Jon did some new outlining. I love it!

In this photo the sign is leaning against our beautiful vintage sideboard which turns into our lovely drinks bar over the festive season. You may be able to see my bottle of Advocaat from which I am already enjoying a Snowball here and there, complete of course with a couple of Marachino cherries, would be rude not to!

After a little walk around the garden I brought in some greenery to go along wit the moss and the front door wreath was completed.

Over the next couple of days more decoations went up

and more pies were in the planning, of course.

We're really feeling very festive now. Presents are being wrapped, but not under the tree just yet, and although the family we were hoping to have travel to us for a few days are now not able to, we will enjoy our wonderful family time together. There's still quite a lot to do, such as very important jobs of printing off our A - Z game we play every Christmas Eve, buying presents for playing bingo on Boxing Day and lots of other things on my Christmas Planner which will gradually get crossed off one by one to ensure nothing is forgotten and that we have a joyous time.

I hope your plans are coming along well for however you plan on spending the festive season.

Bye for now,

take care

Lou. xx

Inspiration, we all love a bit of that!

Hello there. How is everybody? 💖 Not wishing to sound like a broken record but we are just keeping on keeping on here, except for the fact that my youngest was sent home on Monday. A classmate tested positive and he has to isolate but is returning to school on Wednesday, something he is VERY pleased about as he is not a big fan of online learning!

                                                         *************************

Saturday.

I'm in the living room, no woodburner lit yet so have an extra layer on, but having some ish-quiet time with a brew and a biscuit. The weather outside is miserable as sin, the dog is asleep in the kitchen, Jon has popped to Aber for dog food (missed off my shopping list yesterday) the boys are upstairs putting up Christmas lights and Aled Jones' dulcets are wafting down the stairs, don't ask, as I sit here and write my blog post.

This morning I came across a note scribbled in my Household Notebook about sowing some tomatoes which can be grown outside. I've never been brave enough to do this because my efforts growing toms have never come to much with those IN doors, although this last year I did have better results in the poly tunnel. So this coming growing season after feeling inspired by my good friend Tracy of Our Smallholding Adventure, as usual, I've decided to give it a go. She's always very enthusiastic when it comes to growing tomatoes, most things really, and tries so hard sowing early, different varieties etc. So as well as trying some outside I'll be sowing a good variety of this very useful fruit - yes I think we all know tomatoes are a fruit not a vegetable!😄

So here are the sowing choices I've made for next year.

IDI F1: Quite a tasty variety I found this year and great to add some different colour to a plate. They are small, yellow and pear shaped, an indeterminate, vining variety and produced by the RHS and Mr Fothergill's.

Tomato F1Tumbling Tom Red : Next year will be the first time I've grown tumbling tomatoes, these seeds are from Simply Seed, and thought I would have them in a hanging basket in the poly tunnel as this variety is not frost hardy.

Maskota : This is a cherry variety by Mr Fothergill's, the seeds of which I was given by a neighbour. Now these were not a real success last year however I'm trying with them again which gives me the chance to grow at least one variety outside. These are also a bush type and ideal for pots, tall ones as they can tumble.

Big Mama F1 : I so do want to grow some big plum tomatoes to make sauce, my dream is to have jars of them in my cellar store room. These are said to be good for sauces, soups and salsa and they skin easily after par-boiing; wish me luck with these seeds from D T Brown.

Maghrebi : These are from the Heritage Seed Library and originate in Morocco They are said to be blight resistant and work well fresh, cooked or pureed. 

Marmande : From Kings Seeds these seeds produce large, attractive fruits which mature slightly later so you can hopefully extend your growing season. They are bushy and don't require side shooting. I hope to do better with these next year.

I'd be interested to know if you're growing anything different or special next year - inside or out.

Inspiration also struck after watching  on Homesteading Family on YouTube who are based in North Idaho in the States- I was put onto them by Tracy! In one of their many videos Carolyn the lady of the house talks about home management including about turning from consumers to producers. Now I think this is pretty much the main idea of those who own or wish to own a smallholding or homestead depending on your description of choice, see my blog post wth some of my thougts about that here.

Obviously we'll still be trying in what will be, amazingly, our 6th growing season to provide as much food as we can; with the advent of my poly tunnel I hope to improve on my harvests as we will have 4 extra months at the beginning of the year compared to last. I'm constantly learning when it comes to sowing and growing and I know those who have been doing it much much longer than me are also still learning and I think that's just great. When it comes to indoors and providing food I think next year I'll try having a couple of days a month to batch bake and make in the kitchen. This will cut down on buying certain things like snack biscuits but also to have meals and dishes to just take out of the freezer when at times we need to make things easy for ourselves or we are busy. We plan on getting a bigger downstairs freezer for the cellar room next year so I'll surely have space. 

Inspiration also came from Hugh and Fiona over at English Country Life on their latest YouTube video. Suggestions were given for books as Christmas presents for those who wish to learn about or gain more information about smallholding and all it can bring. I will now be asking Santa for a copy of this: 

I really want to up my game next year and I think this could be the book for me. Funnily enough Tracy has this on her list, too. You get the feeling we are a couple of peas in a pod!

....Life continually gets in the way so I'm now finishing my little ramblings on Sunday morning at the kitchen table. I've already fed the chooks, lit the Rayburn, put a wash load on, put another load to dry and had my first coffee. Jon took Belle out first thing and I can hear the kettle boiling for a second cup as we've now had breakfast and he and the boys are on a shed clearing out day.

I'm continutally inspired, like lots of people, by lots of people and I'm sure you are, too. 

Please leave a comment if you have time as I'd love to hear about how you are inspired along with any plans you have for the coming growing season.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

Poly House, Crafting and Christmas.

 Hello.

I'd hoped to get this post published on Monday when here in Wales we came out of our circuit breaker. I'm hoping people will not see this as a time to celebrate the end of restrictions but to instead keep asking themselves what they can do to keep the virus at bay and from spreading.

Also in the news this week there has been real progress with vaccines. It is said there is a chance of maybe two being available by the Spring; this is wonderful but in the meantime we need to keep up with the rules:

                                                HANDS                  FACE                SPACE                                              

Moving on. Here on our little homestead we're been cracking on with jobs and the most exciting one is the re-covering of the poly house. I'm not sure how long it had been in such disarray but it is months. 

The job was started last week, in the wind and rain.

Because of the weather this last week we had to wait until Satruday morning to start again so Jon fetched new battens and he and the boys set to work et voila!! 

I am absolutely chuffed to bits that it is useable again and in the afternoon I set about tidying up, putting all the pots above the door where they belong and gave it a good sweep out. 

I'm sooooo looking forward to getting back to doing inside outside jobs again, but also to just spending some me time in there with a brew, thinking about the sowing and growing I'll be able to do in there in the coming months.

I didn't actually wait that long to get in there to do something as on Sunday I planted 62 red onion sets in individual pots! 

I had ordered variety Electric but I was sent a replacement vairiety called Roelin which I'm asured is a suitable substitute. They are Autumn planting ones but I just thought I would experiment and plant them like this and then put them out later, just because....

I received a fairly big order of seeds last month which I talked about on my last post and I'm hoping for that my last order, I think, will arrive in the next couple of days. (Post man has just been so won't be today!) I'm waiting for the following:

courgette Gold F1

tomato Big Mama F1 

cucumber Diamant (gherkins)

Nasturtium Alaska

sweetcorn Swift F1

I've been getting back to a little more crafting after taking a break after finishing my mammoth project of my festive journal. You can see a flip through of it here on my YouTube channel. This shadow box is something I've been working on for a while until I had the special lights. You can see how it makes such a difference to the effect.

We're really looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year, even though it will be a little different. We normally love having friends and neighbours round on Boxing Day, kitchen table heaving with food, treats and a few glasses of bubbly but we won't be doing that this year. It won't stop us having a lovely family time, though, as we always do and a part of this is me decorating in my own, special way which I can't WAIT to do. 

With the cake already sitting in the cupboard waiting to be fed, which is normal at this time of the year, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I know some people don't like to think about  Cristmas too early but I'm just thinking what the heck. The turkey is ordered, there is mincemeat in the cellar store room from last year waiting for the first lot of mince pies and even a box of crackers we didn't get round to pullng and our youngest has got his music playlist sorted. Doesn't seem to be a way of stopping the festive juggernaut and frankly I'm not too concerned in doing so, but I do draw the line at Christmas songs being played before December 1st. 

And to that, in the words of the fabulous Matthew McConaughey, I say "alright, alright, alright"!

Ok well, enough of my ramblings. Today is Jon's birthday so better get that cake iced.

Take care of yourself and each other.

Bye for now,

Lou.xx

Autumn School Days and Homestead Harvesting

Good morning everybody.

Well here we are in September with the nights certainly getting chillier and darker quite a lot earlier; I love the colours of the seasons changing, too.

Autumn and Winter are my very favourite seasons and I can't WAIT to get the Rayburn and wood burner lit. The first I think we'll light in the middle of this month. Sooo helps to cut down on winter outgoings as we do as much cooking on and in it as we can, it heats the water and keeps some of upstairs warm, or we put on an extra sweater! The boys love coming home to hot chocolate and cake in the warmth of the living room, curtains shut and I love sitting in there with Jon at night time chatting or listening to music. Even though the TV is only up two steps in a room off the living room it's a lovely quiet space if the boys want to do something else.

I have to admit to loving the winding down of the year and this year is one that surely needs to come to an end so we can look forward to a better, though I suspect still very different, 2021.

My usual question at the start of proceedings is how are you all getting on? I know a lot of people are describing our situation as lockdown having been lifted, but here on our little homestead we are pretty much behaving the same way, still living the dream in our own way here on my little patch of paradise.

(Apologies for the cement mixer but work in progress!)

We're only going to the shops for things we need, no browsing for fun; August Bank Holiday has just passed and we drove into Aber on the Sunday and it was extremely busy so we got what was needed and, as we say, got the hell out of dodge!

Just now shopping involves getting school supplies for our boys. With one who is 14 the week they go back and currently 5ft 4 it's proving a little tricky getting regulation school clothes as we're on the brink of the age range seeing as he's already in 15 - 16 yrs shirts, and don't get me started on trousers! Things will be very different for them, I think I mentioned I'll be driving them to school but I'm still waiting to hear that we can transfer Alfie to join Harry at his school in Aber.🤞 They will be in school next week for two or three days but we have no dates for attendance confirmed beyond that as yet. We expect there'll be some blended learning ie. home as well as in school but again this information has not come to us yet.

Here on the homestead Jon is continuing work on the new Airbnb listing. It's coming on very well indeed and we are just planning the colours, layout and style and as we plan on having some much missed family to stay with us over Christmas, no not apologising for saying it, we're looking forward to it being very welcoming and cosy for them.

Harvests have really not been too bad this year. Still have lots of carrots to come along with the Maris Piper maincrop spuds which seem to be really good already. I was a little concerned about the spuds due to the little tomato things growing on them again this year but was confident it wasn't blight although they also seemed to be dying back a bit early - my diary said they shouldn't be ready before Sept 19 about. Aaaaanyhow, I decided to cut them down to soil level and when I harvested two plants yesterday I came in with 4lbs of quality produce which I thought was a good amount. 

(The bags in the background are the 2nd cropping ones.)

Of course, I have the second cropping ones planted which will be going into the poly tunnel at some point; the growing bags will probably take the place of the butternut squash that took over the corner for so long.

I've been out foraging for blackberries, too, haven't really had to go very far for them,10 minutes from home at the most, and there have been sooo many that we now have a good couple of lbs in the freezer. Great for breakfast with yoghurt - hope to go out again this week and see if they are still in such abundance before the season ends.

I FINALLY have quite a few tomatoes ripening, from different varieties, too; they seem to have taken an absolute age so hope to pick those in the next couple of days; not enough to process into anything but never mind another year maybe.

I took up my beetroot last week; not loads this year but hope to have a late entry of some I have planted outside. I used the fresh along with some from the freezer which I grew last year. I had enough to make a couple of jars of relish, plus some for tasting, from a recipe by Thane Prince, and it was yummy; this will be perfect to go with cold meats at Christmas, oops there it is again! Not much preserving going on but some.

The outside beds and areas are beginning to look a little bit naked. The empty tyres where I grew my early spuds will be for onions and garlic I think, should be enough space. 

One of my great successes this year is definitely the kale. Constantly picking, rinsing and popping it into a bag for the fridge.

Maryline and I from Rural and Rustic were just saying that an eye needs to be kept on poly tunnel temperatures just now to ensure the more delicate things are still happy. I'll be popping out shortly to  feed the toms and few other things when I do the rounds; we're having some rain here today so the outdoor plants should be ok.

Right, today is the last no-screen day for the boys and Wednesday is also Monopoly Day; we normally have lunch then start and play until about 3 or 3.30pm.

Enjoy your day and I hope you enjoyed more of my ramblings.

#stayhomeandstaysafe where you can.

Bye for now

Lou,xx

Preparations Inside And Out

Morning all.

Today I am having a Social Media-free day so have already got a lot done by 10am! Hubby and boys off for the day, bread is proving, had breakfast, boys' rooms dusted, run half a mile on the treadmill, chooks fed and had a chat to our Airbnb guests who, excitedly, are house hunting in the area. I told them they couldn't have picked a better spot!

This week I have re-discovered my gardening mojo a little enough to do some garden prep. With being do busy in the summer I neglected things a little as I think I have mentioned before. However, I manged to get outside on a couple of my favourite Autumnal days where it was dry and bright, if a little cool.

On Saturday I finished mulching all the six big tyres, 

oh and the bed behind the poly house is now covered. I have kept the frame on because it is quite handy for leaning against.

Then yesterday it was sooo very lovely that I would have felt very guilty indeed if I had not gone outside and done something! I gave the strawberry plants a haircut, still have a couple of other pots to do, 

mulched and covered the two massive tyres 

and prepared bed 2 for mulching by clearing all the leaves from it. 

That corner of the garden has about four trees in it and I'm looking forward to Jon cutting a couple of them down to reduce the leaf drop in the Autumn but to also open up a little more light in that area during the growing season.

The other thing I did was to cut all the loose polythene off the poly house where it has been battered by the wind. This happened last year and we are definitely using the roof from the conservatory, when that is refurbished,to cover it this time and not bothering with polythene again. I will HAVE to utilise the conservatory in the early sowing period until that job is done; there is always something to be done on our little homestead.

So that is preparations outside, now for indoors.

I know for some people it is a little too early to talk about the festive season. However, if anybody knows me well they will know I LOVE the preparations leading up to Christmas and luckily all four of us feel the same way!

The cake is made using Gluehwein and has been fed twice already with lovely spiced rum...

and is currently sitting in the cupboard wrapped up in grease proof paper, cling film and foil. I've made the required additions to this week's shopping list as I need to make the pudding, a request from Jon, and the mincemeat for the enormous amount of pies we get through during December! I have also decide to make a little hamper of edible goodies for some friends we are visiting just down the road on the weekend the boys and Jon break up. I used to make a lot of hampers, here are some I created in the past for raffle prizes or gifts, then whilst looking for the hamper photos I found photos of the craft fayres I used to take part in.

 

Right I'd better get on with something else.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx