A few weeks ago, when it was still allowed, we met some friends for a walk in the woods. It wasn't a sunny day, and my pictures are all rather gloomy, but goodness, isn't time spent with friends precious at the minute? While we were in the woods, we spent a lot of time talking about trees. Partly the trees we were walking near, but also our trees. I think I've skirted round this a little on here, because I wasn't convinced it would happen, but it seems pretty close to certain now, so here's a little announcement - we're creating our own little woodland. These two fields, it seems, will soon play host to 1000 trees. avoiding the power lines, of course and leaving plenty of views. Aspen, beech, sessile oak, silver birch, field maple, hawthorn, and even plenty we can harvest - crab apple, elder, willow, hazel (some for coppicing for fuel), and blackthorn.
I hadn't looked at the list of trees until yesterday, so while I'd been getting excited about trees generally, I'd not really thought too much about what we might be able to harvest from them, but now I am beyond excited about the amount of sloe gin I can make with 100 blackthorns. I'm slightly daunted. Planting a woodland feels like changing the landscape - for the better (in my opinion, in this case), but still changing. That will affect other people, and for the next couple of years it won't look that exciting. I've woken in the night fretting about signing contracts with the national park, making sure we don't block the power lines or the view, worrying about the neighbours, and all manner of other things, but I'm trying to let those things go and focus on the trees (and the gin).
1 Comment
Time keeps ticking on, and despite it feeling like this year might just last forever, the months are actually passing. My 20 in 2020 project feels less like a project and more like a taunting to do list at the minute. Much as I like tracking what I'm up to, I'm not sure I'm going to do it in this format again. Still, I do feel the need to finish it now I've started, so here goes. 20 things mended (10/20) Just one this month - I mended the seam on a pillow. Of course, I left it far too long, and the whole seam ripped, and stuffing got everywhere. A stitch in time would indeed have saved me far more than nine on this occasion. I used the opportunity to take it all out and fluff it up before sewing it back together. I thought I'd taken a photo but I can't find it anywhere. 19 letters written (15/19) Just one this month, to a friend I've not heard from for yonks. I do have a couple of others to reply to though, so hopefully the tally will creep up in November. 18 days without internet (6/18) No more to add this month, oh dear! My prediction that I'd need to spend the whole last week of the year without internet to get my tally up is in danger of coming true. Have I really not spent more than six days in the last ten months without the internet? 17 books read (achieved in March) Reading has tailed off again somewhat this month as work has been busy again and I've not wanted to read anything, paper or screen, except the occasional book in the bath. Hoping this will pick up again, as I've enjoyed reading a lot this year. 16 household items or pieces of clothing made (14/16) No more this month. 15 meals with friends (achieved in August) Sadly this has tailed off considerably with the weather turning, the darker nights, and many of our friends going into Tier 3. We're all now in national lockdown, so no chance of a meal with anyone. We did spend quite a bit of time in our favourite cafe on our own before the lockdown, but aside from one lunch with a friend (which doesn't count, because it was just me, not both of us), there's nothing to add here this month. 14 meals from home grown produce (stopped counting in September) Ooh, now here there is indeed some progress. Peter has developed a new and surprising enthusiasm for making pies. He doesn't have much enthusiasm for eating pies though, so that task largely falls to me. I'm not complaining. Mostly they're made from whatever is growing in the garden (turnips, kale, chard) and eggs, cracked whole into the pie crust on top of everything else. They're great. 13 evening lectures (6/13) Progress here too, although technically they weren't in the evening. I signed up for the annual Permaculture Convergence, and watched four hour-long sessions over the course of a weekend. Most enjoyable, and I've still got several left to watch. I've just realised the picture below shows me watching the London Marathon (which I was meant to do, not watch, but the less said about that the better) - I did knit while watching the Convergence too though. 12 donations to the foodbank (8/12) Another online donation. 11 solo days out for me (2/11) Not technically a day out, but probably as good as I'm going to get at the minute, so I'm counting it - a whole morning sitting on my own plotting and scheming in a cafe with my notebooks, and then wandering around town. Hadn't realised how much I just needed to hang out with myself for a while. 10 loaves of bread made (0/10) 9 bike rides (achieved in July) 8 organised runs (2/8) 7 new places visited (4/7) 6 attempts at cheese making (0/6) 5 'No Quibble' weekends away (0/5) No, no, no, no, no and no. 4 pairs of socks made (0.75/4) Still not finished, but I'm getting there! 3 days volunteering (0/3)
2 LAND centres visited (1/2) No, and no. 1 holiday (0/1) Oh, we got ever so close on this one! Not an actual holiday, but a weekend away (but not a No Quibble weekend, because it was a joint choice of where to go). I booked a couple of days off work, and we spent forever trying to find somewhere isolated to go but... now we're in lockdown again. We didn't even get round to booking it in the end. We are SO very ready for a holiday. We've not even had a weekend away since staying with friends in Berlin in 2017, and we've not had a proper holiday for over five years. Hey ho, maybe next year. We're going to try to make good use of my time off, which is coming up this week - more on that next month. So there we are. No progress at all on most things. A little bit of knitting, a bit of mending, some letter writing, some garden pies, and a few online lectures. Not too bad, considering. What will November bring? Some letter writing, I imagine. No meals with friends, no weekend away. I might aim for a bike ride, and a couple of days without the internet. Will I finally bake a loaf of bread, or finish my second sock? Stay tuned... Where did October go? One minute it was back-to-school time, and now it's dark by five o'clock and we're rocketing towards the end of the year. I've spent a lot of time inside this month, and I've even worked much of the past two weekends. It's not a situation I like, but it's where we are, and it will pass. I'm grateful to have a job at all at the minute with so many people out of work. The veg patch The garden has, yet again, had to fend for itself this last month. Fortunately it's getting on just fine without me. Mostly in October my outside tasks involved cleaning out the chickens, spreading a bit of compost, and tidying. I hope I'm not the only one whose veg patch is looking a little straggly by the end of October. I finally admitted defeat with the sweetcorn. It's the first time I've attempted to grow it, and I'm not really sure why I did. This year I just planted all my remaining seeds to see what would happen. I suspect it's just a bit too windy up here. Even the courgettes didn't do very well - I think I just didn't get them in the ground early enough. Another lesson for next year. I've not attempted turnips before either, but they've done really quite well, and I'll definitely try them again. At least I think they're turnips. The seedlings got rather mixed up with the swedes, and then the chickens dug some up and I had to replant, and I lost track. They don't look quite like swedes, but they're rather bigger than I imagined a turnip would be. Who knows. Anyway, whatever they are, they make a good alternative to pumpkins. There's still plenty of kale, and the leeks are looking healthy. The chard is starting to bolt now though, so that's getting brought in and cooked. Plotting and scheming Not much else actually happened on the homestead in October, but we have laid some plans for the future. Someone came round to look at the stable block roof, so we need to make arrangements to have that fixed soon. And tree-related shenanigans are ongoing - I'll have some proper plans to share in November I hope. Mostly though, October on the homestead involved looking out of the window, and occasionally eating soup. Not a bad way to spend the month.
|
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
All
Archives
February 2024
|