This place has felt like a building site for so long. It's still half finished, but I'm trying to cultivate more of a feeling of home. When we began thinking about moving clothes into the new bedroom, we realised we didn't want to keep them all. We made lots of charity shop trips, and it felt good to be creating more space. There's more to do in the bedroom, but I've also moved onto the study. The bookshelves are deep, and the rows of books were at the front, with miscellaneous piles of stuff shoved behind. Notebooks, old magazines, books I'm never going to read again - it's all been turfed out, along with the dust and cobwebs, and slowly a sense of space is emerging. I'm never going to be minimalist, but I'm getting a bit fed up of looking at the same stuff after decades of keeping things 'just in case'. I'm casting my eyes round to see what's next. Moving into the bedroom is what's next. Peter's on the case sorting out shelves and clothes storage, and I've started thinking about blinds. We're going for the easiest, lowest-tech solution first, so I'm attempting to make blinds from some fabric we found in a charity shop years ago and have been carting around ever since, waiting for the right project. I made a very basic prototype roman blind, just to see if it worked. Not properly measured, or pressed, or hemmed, and the rings (which are actually knitting place holders) just tacked on loosely, just to give us an idea. The fabric works, but we've decided to keep it even more simple, with just a straightforward blind with dowels at the top and bottom, that you roll by hand and secure with a tie. If that doesn't work, longer term we'll consider something more sophisticated. I just need to get on the case with sewing them now - but that involves me finishing sorting out the mess I've made in the study so I can get the sewing machine out. In amongst all this, we've had friends to stay, and visited other friends, and I've been baking. I'm not a great baker - I improvise a bit too much, and am usually in a bit of a rush, but my baking usually tastes nice, even if it looks a bit odd. I don't think we're ever going to live in a show home, but I hope one day the house will feel less like a project, and more finished.
Not yet though. This weekend is all about grass cutting, both in the garden and in the hay field. It's hard work and I'm complaining a lot, but hopefully the result will be worth it. Will report back.
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March has been a funny old month. We've had some glorious sunshine, and some freezing snow. We have been on strike at work for part of the month, which has caused disruption and stress, as well as a loss of wages. The chickens are still shut in under the Avian Flu housing order, and nothing feels quite settled. As usual though, when I look back, progress has been made and things are moving forwards. Inside the house We haven't made any more progress in the kitchen in March, although we did find these bar stools for £5 each in a charity shop, so we've been enjoying sitting at the breakfast bar. I promised myself I'd finish the painting in the bedroom in March, and I did just about manage it. I've oiled all the skirting boards with Danish Oil, and finished the final coat of gold paint on the walls. We've still not moved in... but we have at least moved the mattress and bed base in there, and have the dehumidifier on to make sure everything is properly dried out. I've also had a bit of a clear out of clothes in preparation for moving everything to the new room eventually. March was also the month we finally got round to taking the Christmas tree down. Chickens Ah, the chickens. The Avian Flu housing order is still in place. Last year it was lifted on 1st April, but the outbreak is much worse this year, so it's still in force, and because it's been more than 16 weeks, you can no longer buy free range eggs in the shops. What a mess it all is. Our chickens are lucky, and have an excellent, spacious run, with plenty of things to perch on, an indoor dust bath, and humans to bring them treats. Peter built them a new viewing platform in March, so they can stand and shout at us when they see us out in the garden. After a quiet month on the chicken front in February, we have had quite the palaver with Bessie in March. Bessie is our oldest chicken. She's an ex-battery hen, rescued at 18 months old, and we've had her for 3 years now. She's settled in nicely - here she is in happier times enjoying a sunbeam. Anyway. She started looking a bit poorly, and we suspected her hormonal implant was wearing off. Sadly, our vet is right in the middle of an avian flu outbreak zone, and so can't see chickens. Another chicken we might have risked a local vet - very nice, with her own chickens, but not a specialist - but for Bessie... we are sentimental fools. And so the vet came on a home visit, and then another one a couple of weeks later to check the infection had gone and she wasn't carrying any fluid. We eventually settled into a routine with twice a day antibiotics - Peter catching Bessie, and holding her head up, and me pushing two separate half tablets down her throat. None of us have enjoyed it... but we've got pretty good at it now, and it seems to have headed off the problem. Of course, none of this comes cheap, and we have had to have a serious rethink of our vet strategy. The rest of the ladies from now on will be going taking their chances with the local vet... Batch cooking On a related note, I've done an audit of our food cupboard, and am attempting to make a dent in it in April, in order to limit our spending on food a bit (ridiculous, yes, when we just spent four months worth of food budget on Bessie, but there we are). And so I've been batch cooking, which I've not done for ages, and which I've very much enjoyed. Brown rice, quinoa, red lentil dhal, two different pasta bakes - all nicely stored away in the freezer for work lunches and easily-defrosted tea. It's made me feel nicely organised and domesticated, and I'll be doing more of it this evening. It's so easy to fall into the trap of buying lunch at work, or getting home late and just having toast for tea. In the garden I've not done much in the garden yet - it's mostly been quite cold, and I've been focusing on getting the bedroom ready. But outside is definitely waking up. The daffodils are out along the drive, and there's even some frogspawn in the soggy areas of grass in the fields. We've had some frosty nights, but it's still been warm enough occasionally to hang the washing out, and to sit outside with a cuppa. I made a good start on cleaning out the greenhouse, and even found what I think are loofah seeds. I've not planted anything yet though - we're quite high up here, and seem to be behind many places in our growing season, so there's not much point. April will be the month though... The elders in the edible windbreak have started sprouting, and I spotted this cosy little nest last week too. The veg patch itself is looking barren, with only a few lonely sprouts reminding me of last year's failed harvests. We've been doing 'deep littering' in the chicken run for a few years now, and every now and then I dig a few barrows of lovely, crumbly compost from the bottom of the run and spread it over the veg beds. I'm also slowly spreading some of the wood chip mountain onto the paths. I turned some of the compost, and managed to twinge my back, but fortunately that seems to have recovered now. And I spent a day pottering about and moving all these pallets and bits of scrap wood off the grass - I'm going to want to mow at some point fairly soon and these were all in the way. The owls have been very active round here lately, with one in particular hooting at all times of the day. I found this owl pellet under the conifers - it's quite gruesome and fascinating to see all the little bones in there. So that was March, and as usual, listing everything here makes me feel like I did actually get something done after all. So what's on the cards for April? I'm hoping we can move into the bedroom, and start the process of turning the old bedroom into a craft room. I want to sow some seeds, of course, and do a bit of work on some of our dry stone walls before the cows come back. I'm investigating hiring a power scythe to finish off the hay field.
So hopefully there will be some good progress to report by the end of April. We'll see. |
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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