John Lennon Had It Right.

Ok, usual opening.

(Sorry about typeface issues.)

Good morning, I hope you're safe and well? Things regarding the pandemic seem to be changing quite rapidly here in Wales. We've now been instructed to wear masks on all public transport and if we collect food from a takeaway establishment. My delivery of facemasks came this week so I'm now wearing at all times when I go shopping; I intend to keep them by both doors to ensure I always have one with me.

As more people are out and about I feel they are not always observing social distancing. I now feel safer when I have on a mask whilst still taking care myself to stick to the 2 meter rule. This applies especially in the supermarkets as this is really the only one place I go to. I find it quite difficult at times, though, when customers appear to be browsing in the stores and not concentrating on getting their shopping done and getting home again; the masks do help to cut down on my anxiety.

Stay safe, and stay home, where you can.

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

Right, onto sowing and growing.

I checked back in my diary for this time last year and was rather pleased to read that progress wasn't much further forward in 2019 than just now.

JUST WANTED TO POIINT OUT THAT THIS POST FAILRY ACCURATELY ILLUSTRATES HOW LIFE GETS IN THE WAY OF EVERYTHING AT TIMES - AS JOHN LENNON SAID - 

"LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU ARE BUSY MAKING OTHER PLANS" 

I started this post about a week ago so better get to it!

Today is Tuesday, as I type this the time is 9.15am, but obvs I'm not getting it done quickly!😂Chooks have been fed, there's no washing or bed changing to do today and I've taken a chocolate brownie out of the oven. The weather is a little overcast and chilly, compared to the last couple of which was very pleasant - need to close the poly tunnel door a little. This means we've got some jobs done outside but I'm having an indoor day today - need those now and again.

Yesterday Jon finished refurbishing his trailer so it is better equipped for fetching feed for the sheep in Winter;

he has treated himself to a new Milwaukee impact drill so was giving that a proper outing with the boys dying to have a go, too. In the good weather he's also mended the large lime spreader so that job could be done on the farm.

**I feel at this point I should clarify that we do not ourselves own a farm. However, our sheep farming neighbour is 81, fairly agile but age has its limits, obvs, so Jon is basically the one taking care of the sheep, helping along with our boys at lambing and shearing time and making sure all the maintenance is done around the place. He works full time at the moment, is currently in his second week of two weeks off though, and in the future may become the caretaker of the farm. Right now he is more than happy to be there to help and our neighbour is very appreciative. **

In line with this we have a new member to the household...

Belle arrived a week ago last Sunday and was eight weeks old yesterday. She is already getting to enjoy the garden and the big outdoors.

He will shortly begin the tiling of the bathroom in the last Airbnb listing after making the shelves for the walk in wardrobe yesterday. We have out listings 'snoozed' at the moment so people are unable to contact us until we are ready after refurbishments, new photos and obviously Christmas. I'm more than happy not to have guests staying with us just now; we were looking forward to welcoming old and new guests for the Eisteddfod but that will come again next year and well worth the wait for participants and visitors alike.

Ok, lets get onto other things.

I have some flowers growing in the garden; not my usual thing but I love Nigella so very pleased these are now out.

I planted dahlias for the first time last year outside the Studio but this year only one has come back, still lovely though.

I took delivery yesterday of this hydrangea, the variety which I saw on Gardeners' World when the lovely Adam Frost was hosting - hope he gets to do that a bit more.

A member of our Facebook Community page which was set up at the beginning of lockdown swapped a fairly big bag of brown rice for a couple of different dahlias and one of them is flowering. I love the colour and can see it from the top kitchen window.....

... along with these.

I just nipped out to take a few photos of the veg beds and a video of the poly tunnel. Sorry there is no sound but I really don't like speaking so do hope the visual is sufficient.

There might just be enough beetroot to pickle along with some I still have in the freezer. I still have trays and pots of seedlings - salad leaves, parlsey, khol rabi, dwarf beans. Highlights are all the flowers on the tomatoes but none ripening yet.... The dwarf beans have all but finished, in part due to some aphids which I seem to have under control now with a spray of diluted washing up liquid. The one huge squash continues to grow. Finally have some small cucumbers, kale is amazing. More seedlings of cauli, basil, a few spring onions plus wallflowers and broccoli pricked out and potted on yesterday. Runner beans? more kale? I moved the blueberries into the tunnel as seem to have lost some ripening ones to the birds for the first time. Still lots of salad Mazur and herbs including coriander, lemon balm and oregano.

Outside the courgettes are doing really quite well, both varieties here and I also have Goldena and Zucchini, not the dodgy ones, in containers, too.

The broccoli is doing really well, so happy that I netted it. Need to keep an eye on this as I don't want it to blot whilst I'm hoping it will get bigger as happened with my cauli last year.

(Talking of netting, I have lost almost all of my cabbages because I DIDN'T net them but plan in sowing Spring cabbage shortly.)

The carrot patch is looking very healthy and we plan on using some of those really soon.

I have dwarf peas in the poly tunnel but it seems, as with last year, for me they do better outside.

The Charlotte spuds are really very good this year; dying back so pulling those up every couple of days and eating pretty much daily.

Oooh, nearly forgot, on Saturday I planted all of my Christmas spuds, 12 tubers.

Well, I think that's it for me just now. In between starting and finishing life stuff has happened again, I've washed up, we've had lunch together and now it's time to get on with my other jobs then I can go and do my crafting, which DOES involve the festive season, soooooory!😂

Hope you enjoyed my latest ramblings.

Take care

Bye for now, Lou.xx

Weekend Work? No, Homestead Harmony!

Hi!

This weekend we had some fantastic weather so we made the best of it with us all doing our bit where we could.

Yesterday I had an early jaunt to Aber to take Harry into Aber as he was boating with the cadets. I came home and as we had Airbnb guests due in the afternoon I made sure the room was ready. We had to head back into town to run a few errands, pick up Harry and grab a quick bite to eat.

Once home Jon and Harry went down to the field for logs and they split and stacked more wood to add to our supply for next winter. Funny, on our little homestead as with lots of other people, in Winter we prepare for Summer and in Summer we prepare for Winter. Alf and Harry were helping today.

Alf and I headed to the poly house.things are looking great in there at the moment. 

We set about potting on the last two sunflowers Pacino and a few courgettes Tondo di Piacenza. 

We also sowed butternut squash Butterbush - I'm growing this smaller variety in one of the big tyres this year and it also stores well - and Alf filled up water bottles and watering cans. A few more kale seeds were added to the small bed outside where it IS showing signs of life from the first sowing.

We had a bigger job as we needed to lay membrane in the bottom of the third veg bed, I think I've shown this image before so sorry for that. Then we spread out the compost which had been in the now removed raised beds; this didn't take too long then I also put a barrow full of my own compost - always very satisfying to make and use your own goodness; the bed does need a bit more to fill it completely. 

Quite a satisfying job. I think the first thing I'm going to put in there at one end are the second lot of Meteor peas I've sown and have growing in a drainpipe in the poly house. 

Talking of the peas, look, I have pods! 

This is very exciting as I checked my diaries and I sowed these on October 22 lasy year and successfully overwintered them in the greenhouse; they were then planted in the poly house on January 17. 

Today with a little help from Alf I've planted my 2nd early spuds, Charlottes.

These are in bed 2 which is in the far right corner of my little patch of paradise.

Jon came back from the field after chopping some of the trees to get the trailer and said I needed to go with; I took these photos of just at the gate where he has taken down the trees. 

The stream is to the left of the gate....

and this is the view with the gate behind you and the field itself is a few minutes walk down this way and spreads out at the bottom. 

This is the map of the space lined in red with the narrow end to the right being where the stream is and the main gate

My last job of the day was to level out the main veg patch using some of my compost; its matured nicely....

and the beds are all looking great ready for the fun and games of the coming season. 

I'm so very excited about getting them full of edibles!

Right, that's my little round up finished.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Cooking On Gas...Well Logs Actually!

I think we are taking it as read, or as lit, that Winter is well on the way as yesterday we fired up the Rayburn; we have managed to leave it until November 1 which is great as we normally light it at the start of October.

I made the most of it I have to say and loved it. I baked a cob loaf which I have decided I can make pretty much every day and I have another baking as we speak. It is a very easy recipe. I made some egg-free choc chip biscuits for the boys as they came home from The Gramps today after being away since last Saturday. (Egg-free as the girls are freeloading a bit at the moment...) So lovely to have the boys home again and we still have time with them until they go back to school on Monday. 

I cooked lunch and tea on and in it, too.

So very pleased that once again we have eaten, heated the water and warmed the house with the old girl. We all squeezed together on the bench with the door open just watching the flames after tea. Fab!

This week I was pleased as punch, or rather as sloe gin! that I got round to picking and preserving some sloes just down the road from the house. Only about 12oz but enough so I popped them in the freezer to save me having to pin prick them all.

After having the gin and sugar added they are now sitting in the cellar being shaken periodically until ready to be strained for Christmas. Fab when you finally get round to doing something you've always fancied giving a go.

Not much going on outside just now; we have had all sorts of weather this last week or so. I've at times managed to dry the clothes on the line but we have had hail yesterday and some pretty heavy rain, too.

I've been doing a bit more Winter garden prep by adding compost to and covering over one of the massive tyres plus one end of the small veg patch. Also breaking news; hubby thinks we need one more large veg patch so we can really do our best to grow as much of our fruit and veg as we can. Its going to be dug out along side the three new planters he built; no pressure there, in fact loads, especially when not everything went as well as hoped this year. I just don't want to fail so we are going to make sure we have plenty of coverings so we do not fall prey to those damn caterpillas, or anything that eats brassicas really; I soooo want to have cabbages and broccoli next year, and anything else I can manage on the list that we really want to eat. Not buying fresh produce is something we really do want to get to grips with. Ok, rant over I think.

Another glorious day here today; a bit of a nip in the air but lovely.

I'm waiting on guests arriving at about 3pm so want to get outisde for an hour or so before then. Just waiting for the bread to finish and have my lunch. Had a morning of doing a bit of admin, trip to the bottle bank with the boys and putting out the washing whilst they stocked up on logs and kindling and done other bits and pieces so have to get some fresh air on this beautiful day.

Right that's all my ramblings.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Back To Basics

Good morning.

The weather has changed quite dramatically over the last couple of days. We were having monsoon-type rain ie. wet and warm but this weekend it has turned decidedly chilly and we succumbed to lighting the woodburner in the living room on Saturday evening. This morning is a might chilly also but a glorious morning all the same.

The shifting of the seasons brings most gardeners and growers of their own around to planning for the next growing season, and that includes me.

I have some overwintering plans in place which I'll update another time but just now I have a few other bits and bobs to share. To this end I have just received some new seeds. 

The first of which are Nantes 2 early carrots. I plan on sowing these in either the greenhouse or poly house, maybe in containers or one of the raised beds in the greenhouse once the sweet potatoes have been harvested which should be some time within the next four weeks or so.

I also have plans for dwarf pea Meteor; these are very hardy and only grow around 16-18" tall so don't really require any support. I can put these outside or in but probably the latter space willing.

I admit to getting into a bit of a panic recently as my harvests have not been the best this year so....

I'm going back to basics for the next growing season. My aim is to grow plenty of what we all eat as I really want to see how much we can avoid spending money, on vegetables at least, examples being spinach beet and chard. I am the only person who eats either of these so I'm keeping these to a minimum as I had already sown some but these can be grown in the houses without taking up a lot of space. I have never done too well with spring onions so these are on the back burner for now.

So, along with the above new additions, this year I will mostly be growing - 

carrots, cabbages, broccoli, potatoes, onions, garlic (though not masses), cucumbers
NO gherkins this year, aubergines, tomatoes (hopefully a MUCH better result) peppers 
salad leaves, courgettes but probably just the one plant, dwarf beans as they were great this year so more of those, leeks, swede, turnips (not huge this year due to spacing I think but very tasty) and probably NOT climbing peas this year as for a really good harvest I think I need more space than I can allow.

More to the point with all of this I do need more space to grow enough of what we eat for it to make a real difference.

Currently I have the following space to use:
19 x 6 ft veg patch 
4.5 x 10 ft veg patch
3 x 3 ft veg patches, 3 of these including the one in the poly house
1.5 x 6 ft approx. raised beds in the greenhouse, 2 of these...

and this weekend Jon has built me one of three new raised beds which are 1.5 x 4 ft each; there will be three in total.

I like raised beds because at times I struggle with my back and the size of them may look a bit overkill but they are solidly built to last and hopefully make my back last a bit longer, too!

I've been thinking, but not overthinking as Jon thinks that is half my problem, I should be able to make a good go of it next year. I have literally just measured the new beds so really don't know what will go where but they are about a foot and a half deep so would be good for carrots, turnips, garlic, onions but not the brassicas as they will need more planting out space than that.

I look forward to using this new space in the coming months and sharing with you how I get on. I'd be interested in plans others have for the next season of sowing and growing.

Along with all of this I don't think I've yet shared the photos of our new ducks; 1 Khaki Campbell called Crispy and 2 Muscovy and the other are Duck-chess and L'Orange, as in duck a L'orange! They are not laying right now but the entertainment value more than makes up for them being freeloaders when it comes to feeding!

Oh and O M G, major excitement in the house is that we FINALLY have a quad bike.

Everybody in the family are extremely excited about this. It means we can get our pigs next year as Jon can get in the field to prepare things, we can get the trailer in the field to cut down trees for logs to store and the boys are just excited about getting to drive it! Get in!!!

I've just had to stop to put a match to the fire - really quite chilly and it is my birthday so I think I deserve to be warm!

That's all from me for today.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Outdoor Jobs Yay!

Good afternoon.

It's February and I made a little vignette in the living room window with my Country Diary book and some hyacinths (two pots for £2), I thought it was time to brighten things up.

I've finally got some jobs done outside as for once we had no rain today. It really has been relentless recently and had no chance really to get anything done.

However I started on Friday and today I finished working on the small veg patch. I began by taking up the sweetcorn which had been rotting down along with any other weeds that had grown there; it looked like this before....

....and after all my hard work we have this. Yay! 

It is now covered, as is the main veg patch -  there I finished off putting down the last of the compost and the tarps to keep the ground warm until planting begins.

Whilst I was doing this, cleaning out the chooks and saying goodbye to our Airbnb guest, Jon and the boys were clearing all his tools, equipment etc from our shed into the tractor shed across the road we are borrowing from our kindly neighbour. Before putting anything in there Jon put the doors that were on the second Airbnb room, waste not want not, as good security along with breeze blocking up a small doorway; it looks great now. In the third photo you may just be able to see the opening prior to the doors going on (taken when we were putting in the parking area.)

Jon came home in the middle of the day on Friday, always a lovely surprise and chance for a brew and a quick chat, with two presents for me - tyres, but not just any old tyres. These are mahoosive!! Apologies for the blurry action photos!

This is their final resting place. 

The other fab thing is that we also have access to some good top soil as we are going to need a tonne of the stuff to fill these two. It looks as though the vast majority of my potato planting will fit in these two! Which reminds me, I need to put those to chit next week.

In other news we have established the Poly House will not be fixed before Spring properly begins, ie March at the earliest. This means I will be using the conservatory to start off my seeds as I did last year in the run up to Jon finishing the build. I didn't have it to use until the end of April so I will manage just fine.

It is getting very exciting, preparing everything the coming months.

Out of interest, what is anybody enjoying on TV at the moment? We are LOVING McMafia; James Norton is just fantastic, Call The Midwife is fab as ever and I enjoy watching that on catch up with my lunch on a Monday.

Ooh, one last thing. I have rearranged nearly all of my craft things into the office upstairs as we're going to move the pool table into the cellar. I'm pleased about this as I think I will do a few more projects with the stash being in the house proper if you see what I mean. To this end I've decided to attempt to make a few things so I can have a table at our local Winter fayre. I know, Winter has only just gone but I never have time in the summer so thought I'd do this and that way I have plenty of time. Hope to post anything I get round to making.

Ok, I think that is it for now. Looking forward, as ever, to seeing what everybody got up to over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx