2021 - A Fresh Start.

 Hello! 

This is my first post since December 7! We enjoyed our quiet Christmas the same as we always do, so no change for us really. New Year's Eve, too, was quiet as normal - just the Hootenanny with a glass or two of bubbly then to bed.

To hope the coming year of 2021 will be an improvement on the last is an understatement for most people and for those I feel so sorry for all the loss, heartache, difficult times and challenges they have had to face. However I am and will forever be full of gratitude for our being safe on our little homestead, Jon still being able to go to work, our boys carrying on with their schooling at home (though challenging at times, too) not missing going abroad and just happy to be where we are on my little patch of paradise.

I wish everyone a healthy 2021 and look forward to sharing all your, and my, doings in the coming year, be it your sowing n growing, baking n making in the kitchen or craft projects.xx

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Anyway, onwards.This is the view which greeted me at the back door this morning. We had a good covering of snow yesterday and a little more over night but the brightness of the day had already begun to melt it; beautiful sky anyhow.

Yesterday and today I took a few photos inside and out, in the poly tunnel, the garden and the poly house. However, the first photo is of the man who came to scan the pregnant ewes on the 30th. We had a fantastic result as out of  43 ewes we had 26 singles and 17 twins! Fantastic.

Back to sowing and growing. I have very little growing but here goes!

These are my leeks; I haven't harvested any from these tyres but plan to do so soon. I did take up a few from one of the other beds as they were the only thing in it and I wanted to cover it with some mulch; I'm going to try those this evening; they;re more like baby leeks but...

The onions are still coming along nicely...

and in the top of the toilet I have some annual flowers peeping through...trying to grow quite a few flowers this year for a change. Ooh, that reminds me I must make sure I've Marigolds on the list to go with the tomatoes...

plus the bulbs I planted last year appear to be coming to life once more.

Talking of coming back to life the Stellata Magnolia is showing some buds and ...

on the ground beneath it I think are the beginnings of the daffodils!

I don't have much going on the poly house but these are the red onion sets I planted a good while ago and so far 20 or so of them are springing into life;I intend to plant these out in February.

In the poly tunnel the sweet peas are doing ok, need to check when and where I'll plant those out. I was just way too late last year and I had none so fingers crossed I'll get a much better result this year.

I have a few pots of herbs just pootling along which are two pots of  Champion Parsley, some Oregano and then there is Lemon Balm. I'm still hoping to make a good herb 'garden' in the tall planters outside this year.

I'm very pleased that the three broccoli plants seem to be in suspended animation along with the dwarf peas and salad leaves. Apologies for the green algae stuff on the surface; need to clear that off.

So, that was the show now for the tell! 

I've made my list for seed sowing and I've been really thorough, I think, to really try and not have empty beds outside from about July/August time which is what usually happens.😖 Going to keep sowing and keep planting out to try and avoid that hungry gap.

I'm going to do my best to make the most of the poly tunnel as we were already getting on for half way through the year when we bought it in 2020, sounds weird saying that already. I have plans for starting things in there are well as seeds for germination then to be planted in the beds and areas outside.

As we're not intending to take any Airbnb guests for the whole of 2021, this gives us the chance to do some projects in the garden when we don't need to worry about there being some mess and upheaval. A lot of clearance needs sorting around the beds and tyres as I'd eventually like to have membrane and pea gravel down to make the area a lot more tidy.

I'm really quite envious of people with big compost bins so that's something I have room for and Jon has access to any number of pallets we need for the job. 👍

I'm sure there are lots of things I want to do, would like to do, need to do but we'll get to that at some point.

That is about it for me. I can't wait to hear about your plans for inside and out over the coming months so why not drop me a line in the comments? 😊

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx