September was rather sociable. We spent a lot of time in cafes, and at other people's houses, and we had people to visit every weekend and sometimes during the week too. It was lovely - although it did mean that the DIY was a bit neglected. The hay meadow One thing that wasn't neglected was the hay field. I was out there whenever I could, and both my mum and a friend did a full day of scything and raking as well. We made lots of progress. I'd left several rows of cut grass, so the first job was to rake all those up into piles, and ferry them to the new grass dumping ground, where I hope it will all rot down nicely into compost for next year. It definitely started to feel like we were getting somewhere. I've been keeping a record, and it seems we only actually spent 14 hours in this field in September, and that included the hours done by my mum and my friend. It doesn't seem like much - I did 24 hours in August on my own - but it was all just over two days, with the rest of the month given over to being sociable. The woodland One of our visitors is rather a tree expert, and was interested in inspecting our fledgling woodland. Of course, it still looks absolutely nothing like a woodland, but I was impressed how many trees were growing over the top of their guards. It's interesting to see how the different species are faring. We saw a lot of alder, birch, rowan, field maple, aspen, and oak, a good number of hawthorn, blackthorn, and hazel. We didn't spot any willow, but there are only 15 of those in a field of 1000 trees, so I'm not too surprised. We also didn't spot any beech - there should have been 45 of those, so again, not too surprising, although there are only 45 birch too and we did see plenty of those. It'll be good to see how it all works out. There were a few that hadn't made it, which is only to be expected. At some point over the winter I'll try to start gathering in the guards and stakes from those, and seeing if I can pass them on to someone else. We did pick a few blackberries while we were down in the fields, but not as many as I'd hoped to. I spotted them at the right time this year, but didn't pick them until later, when they were mostly gone. Oh well, there's always next year. Moles Another outdoor preoccupation in September was moles. Now, I have no interest whatsoever in a pristine lawn, and nothing at all against moles in principle. However, this summer our garden has become home to a very enthusiastic mole, who seems determined to colonise the entire garden. I don't really mind - but we did start getting concerned for the chicken run, after every trip to the compost bin resulted in one of us sinking into a mole tunnel. The chicken run doesn't have foundations - it's just built on top of breeze blocks, and the speed at which the surrounding ground was collapsing was quite alarming. September saw us make several failed attempts to encourage the moles into the hay field (which is very close, and where they could have free run) but to no avail. We resorted to more drastic measures, which I'll report in October's post. The hay box Moving inside now, but still thinking about hay - we made a hay box. This is extremely exciting, and something I've been meaning to get round to for a while. There's a fair bit of talk about these at the minute given the rise in electricity prices, but I don't know anyone who's made one. We talked about all kinds of fancy plans, but in the end just took a plastic storage box, and filled it with hay. Nestled a pan in the middle to make a hole, which we draped inelegantly with an old pillowcase. We stuffed another pillowcase with hay to put on top, and finished the whole thing off with a stone from the garden. The idea is that you bring your food up to the boil, then put it straight into the hay box, where it finishes cooking. These were, of course, popular in war time, and now there are a variety of thermal bag alternatives. We are complete converts, and have made all kinds in here - I did rather go overboard on how much rice I made (but it's brilliant having cooked brown rice in the freezer!) A new hat I've started making Peter a new hat. I've made a few of these before, but never got round to making a proper template, and it usually takes me a few goes to get right. It's still not quite finished, but I've been having fun making it (although there has been quite a bit of cursing too). Other things There's nothing much else to report from September. I got involved in the village well dressing, which was fun. We also went for a bit of a local walk, and spotted what I'm pretty sure was a red kite - not too common round these parts. Other than that, September was mostly just hanging out, either at friend's houses, in our own kitchen, or in our favourite cafe. Overall, a nice, cheerful month. October so far has been less sociable, but more DIY has been done. Will report back soon.
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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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