A Busy Sow And Sow!

Hello and bore da!

This is what I've been up to over the last few days. 

On Friday I re-sowed mixed Sweet Peppers and Sweet Romano peppers. the first lot really didn't seem to do anything so the new lot are in the conservatory still but covered over with a plastic bag; we'll see how they get on.

Sunday was great as I was in the poly house (PH) at about 9.30am making the best of things before it possibly rained and I set about getting a few jobs done inside and out. In my RAF surplus flying suit I was good to go but when you need a pee it's a bit of a bugger so in I went, twice(it's my age) and also put on another pair of socks as my feet were cold!

First I needed to cover over the veg beds, again, whilst taking up the odd weed; sooo bored of this wind.

I sowed my first tomatoes, three varieties - Cuor di Bue, Outdoor Girl and Yellow Delight. The PH was 20 degrees, as was my homemade propagator but need to increase that some how.

So I have some in there and some just on the bench to see if they germinate ok or if they need to go onto the window of the kitchen or conservatory - just about the extent of any trial work I do!

Getting a few things on the poly house benches now! 

I then set about sowing Kale Curly Dwarf outside in the bed with the shallots which is at the back of the (PH); I love Kale, managed to grow a bit last year so hoping to do better this time.

In a recent post I said I was trying to grow more flowers, well today I sowed some of the newly bought Nigella Persian Jewels in a terracotta pot in the PH. They grow to about 
45 cms so not sure now that will work out but we'll see!

I had two fruit trees which in a word died, doing nothing, so I've taken those out. The fruit area is definitely something which needs looking at; it is very, very overgrown.

You may remember Jon built me three new raised beds some time ago.

and these, too, have stayed covered over for a while; I decided to sow some turnips in one of them; turnips are another thing I love, sliced thinly and fried with garlic. Nomnom!

Because of the rain I had my youngest help by filling up the watering cans and bottles for the PH and he moved the wheelbarrow back where it belongs after being used to move logs and kindling. 

I've got quite a few strawberry plants to pot on; there are the 12 from my Thompson & Morgan bargain fruit bundle still in the small middle pot but the others are looking quite healthy; the drainpipe with strawbs in is now outside resting on the raised bed just outside the PH.

I don't think I've shared my seed potato plans for this year.

Swift and Charlotte earlies...

then maincrop Cara are all sitting in the conservatory.

I plan on growing most of them in open ground this year but there will be the odd growing bag, too, I'm sure.

Also on Sunday, Jon was managing to work on the fencing for the bird enclosures, thanks to a break in the weather, but he was still out there in the rain at times - he is very tenacious!

After the fox attack on both the chickens and ducks we  he is raising the height of the fencing. This means, of course, that the gates will be taller, too. (The tree seat came in useful as an extra support!)

Here is the gate into the ducks, love it...

and the one for the chicken area will be the same; this means we can let the chooks free-range at times without letting the ducks out; still a bit to do but a great job to get started on.

We are all very excited about getting the birds again.🐔

Today, Tuesday, I've been outside and potted on the two blueberry plants which also came in my T & M fruit bargain bundle. Does anybody else feel like ericaceous compost is like gold dust and shouldn't be wasted or is it just me?

Ok, that is it for me, finally got this done. I shared this on Twitter yesterday but what the heck. I got round to a bit of baking and for tea made a beef and spud pie in my skillet, in the oven for the first time, and was really quite pleased with the result.

And finally, I received in the post yesterday some new crochet hooks thanks to inspiration from Emma over at Farmer's Wife And Mummy and SueArcher6 over on Twitter. I've tried in the past as I sooo want to be able to do just simple projects. I'm going to give it another go today with the help of an internet tutorial.

Right that's it I think.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Flowers That Bloom In The Spring Tra La!

Hi, well that is a bit of a stretch regarding this post but never mind - can't beat a bit of G & S.
On such a dreary day where the rain is just lashing down I thought it might be nice to have a bit of colour so here goes.

I don't generally grow a lot of flowers in my garden, just the usual Spring bulbs and a wild flower mix in my old chimney pot outside the poly house which I actually love.

I grew sunflowers the last 2 years and I have some seedlings coming on as we speak. I can see they from my top kitchen window against my poly house which I love.

This year I'm growing Pacino variety and they have come thus far sitting in the conservatory.

This year I have bought some Nigella Persian Jewels seeds. I really like the colour mix.

I really need to find a proper place to put them. Our garden is not wild as such but not manicured by any stretch so I think I need to make a decision, and maybe a bed for them! 

The snowdrops have almost died off so, after being reminded by Monty on Friday night as he did last year, now is a great time to divide and re-plant some in other parts of the garden. I did that last year but think I'll move a few more this year.

Well, I hope this post have brightened your day a little, it has mine.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

A Big Old Catch Up.

Hi! Well, how good has this weather been, although I did see somebody on social media saying it wasn't right to be this warm in February, meaning that the planet was warming up, I think....

On Thursday it was my youngest's Ysgol Eisteddfod, school Eisteddfod. He recited a poem, in Welsh, for of the categories and came 2nd; he also won places in two writing classes. Very proud of him.

On Friday I had a delivery of my bare root fruit canes and some blueberry plants and seeds from Thompson & Morgan.

Sorry about the last photo being a bit scew!

At the weekend our Airbnb guests enjoyed the sun. We were really very busy with that as well as jobs around the house and outside.

Jon was doing the first cutting back of trees near to the roadside. 

There is more to do but with help as we'll have to take care of the passing traffic. 

In the afternoon he took the boys down to the river for the first try out in the kayak we bought them for Christmas.

On Sunday I manged to get into the garden. Yay!!! I sowed my February onions, variety Sturton in one of the large tyres. After it being suggested to me I've planted 5 of my existing strawberry plants in a drainpipe.

I may suspend this from the rafters of the poly house. I still have a couple more along with the 12 that came in the fruit order.....!

Last Friday I sowed the following: 

Sweet Romano peppers x 4 pots of 2 seeds
Sunflower Pacino (pots as above), these have been put in the conservatory, one of the Sunflower seeds is showing its face.

I've sown a couple of other things which are in my homemade propagator again, but I'll spare you the details as its early days yet. 

Cornflowers and Field flowers in the chimney outside the poly house and I'm looking forward to those coming up as they were lovely last year.

Yesterday, after the two sets of guests left,  I got myself outside. I discovered the other day that one of my rhubarb crowns have survived when I thought it had been flattened following some work in the garden. This morning I saw signs of the second one; they are very small!

I decided to clear the space properly, which included exposing the Wild Garlic I could smell as I was working, and to build something to protect said rhubarb. The area was a BIT over grown....the crowns were planted somewhere in the bottom left of the photo so was a little tricky to find them.

This is how it looked after a bit of work.

And here is what I am chuffed with. I used branches left from Jon's tree job on Saturday and made pegs to twine them around.

I am ridiculously pleased with myself. I just really hope after all my hard work that the crowns survive. If anybody has any advice for me it would be really appreciated.

The boys were busy too, one helping our elderly neighbour with some logging and the other sorting out some kindling for the store.

That's about it, apart from since I began planning this post I now have three Airbnb bookings for this week, and it is not quite the end of February!

Weather gorgeous again today so after getting both rooms ready this morning I'm having some lunch then going out into the poly house where, about 2 hours ago, it was 29 degrees. I plan on taking up the blueberry bushes from the garden and putting them in planters along with the cranberry I was given at Christmas. I bought ericaceous compost yesterday for this job.

Bye for now.

Spares and Repairs to Shiny and New!

Hello

I posted on Twitter a couple of photos of the recent restoration my hubby did on  
Rangemaster type cooker we bought and said I would put the whole process on here. Not everybody's cup of tea but here goes.

The cooker we had was a Stoves, great make but no idea how long it had been in the house before we moved into Bronllan and the electrics seemed a bit dodgy. We also really fancied a multi oven affair; the cupboard was going to have to change so this is the before photo.

I cleared all the pans etc from in the cupboard along with my herbs and spice box and dumped them in the top kitchen.

Jon saw the cooker for sale on Facebook for £20 somewhere just past Aberaeron; he came home with it feeling confident he could turn it around.

This is basically how it arrived at ours. Jon took all the doors off and we sourced new knobs from the internet.

The doors all needed sanding down and filling in parts where the heat proof paint was peeling. (Use 101 from a covered pool table!)

 

We ordered the new paint in a colour called Brunswick green. I'd thought about having it orange but with the Rayburn I thought it might get a bit obviously dirty plus the green really suits the style of the kitchen.

To have it fitted into the kitchen was a bit of a dusty job to say the least. Once the original cooker and cupboard were removed a 2 inch deep slate plinth needed to be taken out; I'm not good with mess and dust and it was probably a good thing that Jon just decided to get on with it without giving me too much notice. My hyper ventilation didn't last too long....

The lovely thing, one of them, is that some of the original black and terracotta tiles were exposed when the plinth was moved!

Jon had obviously taken the cupboard out previously but once the cooker was put in place and levelled Jon went about making a cupboard from the original casing.

Again, the conservatory was sooo useful for extra space.

I've lost exactly half the original space, but it looks as if it has always been this way.

Et voila, the after photo.

We are so very, very pleased with the result and all done for well under £100 including purchase price.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

And Sow It Begins.

Yay, the sowing and growing has begun.

After the day starting off a bit pants I was encouraged to not dwell on things and get outside!

So, today I've spent some time outside doing a few little jobs.

* I've filled up the water bottles I use to water things in the poly house.

* I sowed the following

- Lemon Balm in the herb sink and the Oregano and Thyme are coming back to life.

- Sweet Basil and Fine Curled Cress to put in the top kitchen window
- All The Year Round Lettuce and Salad Bowl Red n Green in the poly house drainpipe.

The main bench in the poly house is looking a bit bereft, apart from the tray of Sweet Peas,  but not for long hopefully.

Whilst doing this I found a mahoosive worm in the compost!

* I fed the shallots, garlic and onions with potash liquid.

* I put the strawberries into the poly house from the greenhouse, tidied up the leaves and        watered the pots.

The temperature in the poly house was 10 degrees at about 10am and at 1.15pm it was 13!

The greenhouse was 11 degrees at 10-ish.

A good time spent to take my mind off things.

Bye.

Baking Bonanza!

Morning.

Today is generally one of my social media free days but I don't mind doing the odd blog post as I tend to get distracted from this rather than being taken away from jobs if I am chatting to somebody on Twitter!

This morning I made THE most delicious Slimming World syn-free pancakes - American style; I heard about the recipe at my group last night.

Here are a couple of photos and the recipe in case anybody is interested. Super easy and, in Welsh, blasus iawn - very tasty!

I think they look like the real thing!

Here is the recipe. Enjoy, give it a whirl Tracy.

I was also reminded of how much I love the SW chickpea dhal loaf. Great sliced in portions for the freezer and served hot or cold with veg, salad, whatever takes your fancy.

Again, here is the recipe.

Not all the baking today was syn free. It is sausage casserole for the others tonight to be followed by apple and sultana crumble with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top. 

Then for the tin I've baked some shortbread biscuits again something I won't be eating but I love having the kitchen smell of lovely goodies!

This is the book I took the recipe from is Three Ingredient Baking by Sarah Rainey, take a look here. I chose these biscuits as there is always something you can make from the book because of the title! I really like it and have made a number of things from it.

Right, I now have sausage casserole in the Rayburn for tea and need to get on with the side dishes; today we have cabbage, mash, sliced green beans and sweetcorn - already have carrots in the pot!

That's it for me today. If you've had time to read my ramblings I hope you've enjoyed them.

Bye for now.

A Fresh (fruit n Veg) Start, Sort Of!!

Yesterday I sat reading my Kitchen Garden magazine and in one article a contributor mentioned their little patch of paradise being 150m above sea level. It got me thinking about how high up we are here at Bronllan.

We are 180m above the sea at Aberystwyth; when weather forecasts say "snow on high ground" I sometimes forget we're essentially on high ground so do get a fair amount of the white stuff at times.

Then I started to think about other things. The article talked about gardens being open to the elements because of their situation. Our garden is slightly protected in part by trees and a roadside wall running parallel to the growing area in the far corner. Where the chicken and duck enclosures are we have a number of trees to the left which means they get shade in the summer. Having said all of this we still had issues with wind damage to the poly house last year....

but I don't think sowing and growing here is that much of a challenge.

I've drawn a map, of sorts, to explain things but the top picture of the poly house might be a help for you to get your bearings too; you might have to enlarge the photo below a little.

And another thing, the position of the sun is always a MAJOR factor considered by gardeners and in that respect I think we're very lucky. If you look at the map you should hopefully be able to see the sun rises just behind to the left and it sets in the far right corner. This means the sun travels all down the long side of the poly house during the day, along the long side of the main veg patch and over the greenhouse.

It seems a good time for me to write this kind of post just now, what with the sowing and growing season just about to begin, as it makes it seem as if I'm starting to grow my own for the first time - bit weird really. It also makes me think there is no reason that I shouldn't succeed in all my endeavours to grow our own fruit and veg. We have a fantastic space here in a pretty much perfect position. If I put my everything into it then our harvest this year should be bountiful! 

One final thing to say - Bring On Spring!!!

Off to listen to Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4 now - how apt!

Bye.