Yes, I know - no posts for several weeks, and then two in one day. But at least I feel like I'm vaguely catching up with myself. October has been all over the place. Work has been busier than usual for a start, and I feel like I've trekked up and down the country more than I have in a while too. But I have spent some time at home, and some things have been done, so I'm counting that as a win. Scything We had some good weather towards the start of the month, and I did get out into the field a few times. Then the rain set in, and things became rather soggy, and what with one thing and another, I barely got out at all in the last couple of weeks. Got to the end of row 14 though. Getting there, albeit slowly. The weather Good at the start, soggy from the middle onwards. We live on the top of a hill, so the flooding didn't really affect us that much, but our cellar has a well in, and does flood pretty regularly. I measured a good two feet of water in it at one point, but it receded pretty quickly, thank goodness. Apparently we did have a couple of nicer days towards the end, and I spent a little time drinking tea in the garden (not much though, it was starting to get pretty cold). Plotting and scheming I did a lot of plotting and scheming in October. Sometimes at home, sometimes in a cafe, always with a notebook in hand. We visited some friends early in the month - the sun shone, and we spent a long time just sitting around in their garden, which gave me a few ideas for a new sitting spot in ours. Our garden is quite windy and exposed, but there is a little sheltered corner that isn't taken advantage of. I've often thought of putting planters there, but never chairs. I shifted things around a little to see what it would feel like. Obviously it needs a fair bit of work, but I think it could be a bit of a winter suntrap, just the right spot for sitting out with a cuppa. There are better views elsewhere, but this is at least sheltered and not windy. It might be a little project for me over the winter.
And that's it for October I think! I had my head down for a fair bit of it, either working or travelling, and not much got done on the homestead. I did manage a small adventure or two though (more on those later, if I get round to it). And what will November bring? Work is still busy, so not much so far. Hopefully a little bit of house and garden progress, but I'm not holding my breath. Oh, and shhhh.... I've applied for a new job. It's along shot - I can't imagine I'll get an interview, let alone the job itself, but it was good to pull the application together. I should hear something at least in November, so fingers crossed (but again, I won't hold my breath).
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Yes, I know it's November now, and September was quite a long time ago. And I also know that, despite my best intentions, I'm clearly not going to get back into the habit of posting here more regularly any time soon. But never mind, I'm here now. Let's see if I can remember anything that happened back in September. Sitting around I've realised that some of the pictures I used in my August post were actually from early September! The sun came out just as I went back to work, and I spent quite a bit of time lounging around in the garden and out in the fields. Very lovely it was too. Making hay I hurt my back doing too much enthusiastic running at the very beginning of the month, which hampered things somewhat, and then hurt it again in the middle of the month (leaning over a desk to cross something off on a wall chart - very athletic). Scything continued in fits and starts around my injuries though, and I think by the end of September I was up to the end of row twelve, not bad. It was starting to feel quicker to do each row, but I'd not been back and gathered up any more of the cut grass. Harvest! My harvest has been largely woeful this year. I did manage a single courgette, and a handful of tomatoes, but that was it for veg. The damson tree put on a fine show though, and I spent a happy morning harvesting damsons and getting them into the freezer. Washing liquid Our homemade washing liquid finally ran out (I made it in July 2022), so it was time to make some more, this time using up some of my own home made soap. Not pretty, but it does the job, and costs practically nothing, and this will last me well over a year again, I imagine. Batch cooking I've continued to batch cook and fill up the freezer, making sure I've got relatively wholesome meals for when I don't have time to cook. It's good, and yet again, I'm amazed I never got round to doing this before. Overall, September was a quiet month round here. I could move very quickly, so nothing overly drastic happened in relation to DIY or the garden, and a lot of time was spent sitting around. No bad thing though.
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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