I know, I know - July was ages ago, but here we are. A funny month. There's no evidence from my photographs that I did anything but laze around for the first half of the month, and then in the second half I finally caught covid for the first time. As usual though, some things have happened, in spite of me. Trees Our trees are growing! We had 1000 planted by the national park back in December 2020, and many of them are starting to appear from the top of their guards. It's nowhere near a woodland yet, but I'm starting to see how it might be in a few years. We even spotted the first orchid we've seen here. Chickens I'm not sure I've said much about the chickens for a while, but they're still here, mostly lazing around in the sunshine. We had to take poor Bonny to the vets at the end of the month though. She'd laid a few lash eggs over several weeks, and the vet gave her a hormonal implant to stop her producing any more eggs, and hopefully let her fight off whatever she was fighting. She's always been skittish, and never remotely appreciated being picked up, and it was difficult to catch her. The vet described her as 'having an attitude'... She's had mixed fortunes in relation to her health since then - more in August's post. Sorting out We've been slowly sorting out odd corners of the house, and July was the turn of these shelves in the the offshot. They housed all kinds of bric a brac, but now are home to nicely organised chicken-related supplies. The reason we had to empty all this out in the first place was because there's something wrong with the washing machine. I was hoping emptying the filter for the first time in 20 years would help, and it did, a bit - but there's clearly something else wrong too. We can't go into the winter with a machine that leaves us with sopping wet clothes, so that needs to be sorted with some urgency (although clearly not much, as it's now near the end of August and I still haven't done it...). Isolation Finally, after avoiding it for over two years, I caught covid. I wasn't too ill, but it was a fairly rotten few days. I moved into the spare room, and after a couple of days of lying around feeling sorry for myself, I settled into a nice routine of watching tv and knitting, and once I felt a little better, repairing some cushions and sewing new covers. I had a day lounging on the swing with the chickens, knitting and looking at the view, and then towards the end, I spent a day sat at the kitchen table, writing a five year plan (sounds ridiculous, but I do love a good planning session). Outside July in the garden was a mostly spent despairing at the state of it. Seedlings not planted out, weeds everywhere, and a general mess. I did harvest some fruit though - although I've just thrown it in the freezer, so I do need to do something more permanent with it. It's looking like we might actually get some apples this year too. So that was July, and, of course, I didn't finish the kitchen ceiling, or paint the walls - I was planning on doing that in my week off, but covid intervened. It's not a secret that I haven't yet done it, but I'm hopeful for this weekend... (although scything has now taken precedence, so we'll see).
August's update should show considerably more activity - I'll try not to be so late in writing it this time...
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I like making things, and I've done it a lot over the years. Nothing fancy, usually just small household things - dishcloths, cushion covers, and the like, as well as presents, and occasionally simple clothes for myself. I've got out of the habit lately - partly because I'm caught up with other priorities, and partly because the sewing machine doesn't have its own table, which means clearing off my desk every time I want to sew anything. The house has been in such disarray for such a long time that it's been difficult to look past DIY jobs to do anything that feels less essential. Lately though, things have started to feel a bit more manageable (although there is still plenty of DIY), and I've managed to make a few things. First up was a baby blanket, using lots of small bits of fabric that have been knocking around in my stash for a long time. The next thing I made was a new hot water bottle cover. I made the last one at the start of last year, and I'm annoyed with myself, as I could have saved it if I'd heeded the old adage 'a stitch in time saves nine'. Sadly, by the time I got round to it, far more than nine stitches were needed, and I decided to replace it instead. Again I turned to my stash, and used up part of a large piece of cotton that I've had for years, waiting for the perfect use (this isn't the perfect use I imagined, but I'm pleased it's getting seen regularly!) For the inside, I used several layers of an old sheet that I've had for years - as well as this brown one, I've got a pink one and a purple one too, and while I've used them for loads of things, there's still plenty left. I think I did four layers, and in the process broke both needles on my overlocker - I forget it's not quite as sturdy as the normal sewing machine... The final thing I made lately was laundry liquid. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and never quite got round to it. We don't exactly have a large laundry bill - we use plain washing soda, which costs about 99p a bag, and each bag lasts several months. If we were washing white things all the time, it wouldn't be adequate, but we don't, and so it does well enough. Anyway, I like making household things, and yesterday I finally got round to having a go. I used this recipe, which was very straightforward. I halved the batch and made just five litres, which I imagine will still take us a while to use up. It was practically free. I used a quarter of a cup each of washing soda and borax substitute (if I hadn't already had that in, I might have just ignored it), and a couple of free hotel soaps that we had knocking around. I've stored it in old milk cartons - not pretty, but it's only going under the sink anyway. Let's see how long it takes us to use that up. My guess is it'll see us past Christmas. If so, it will have cut our annual washing powder bill by 90%, which sounds impressive until you remember we only spent about £2 a year anyway. Quite a saving if you buy 'proper' laundry liquid though!
Next on my list of things to make is blinds for the bedroom and kitchen. Let's see how long that takes me... In the meantime, while I was raking through my fabric and wool stash, I found some cotton, and so I've started knitting dishcloths again, using this pattern this time. Mustn't get too sidetracked... I don't really know where June went. We had some sunshine, and spent some more time in the garden, an even harvested a little. The months just seem to whizz by sometimes. Furry visitor We had our furry pal to visit for a few days at the start of the month. He's perfectly lovely, but it's a bit of a nuisance as we don't have an enclosed garden so we have to take him out several times a day, and of course he can't come into contact with the chickens at all, which makes things quite difficult at times. Having the dog did make me do quite a bit more walking than usual, which was nice. Fortunately, he also spent quite a lot of time snoozing. In the garden I'm not sure my photos do the garden work justice this month. I feel like I've spent a lot of time wheelbarrowing woodchips, weeding, and watering the greenhouse. A friend and I cleared the buttercups between the apple trees to create a new bed for some of the patty pan squash. The edible windbreak is looking luscious, if a little untidy. We'll need to do a fair bit of excavation to find the gooseberries once they're ripe. I planted some comfrey last year and I'm pleased to see it's taking off nicely. It can spread as much as it likes here so it will be good to see how far it gets. I'm also pleased to see that we look set to get a few apples this year, fingers crossed. We've also been keeping nicely on top of the strimming, and things aren't looking too scruffy at the minute. Eating outside All this tidying up, coupled with light evenings and sunshine, has meant we've cooked and eaten outside quite a lot. Nothing fancy, usually just veggie sausages and eggs, but it's nice to sit outside with a bit of fire as the sun goes down. Harvest I finally got round to harvesting last year's leeks. I was leaving them in the hope they'd get bigger than spring onions, but apparently not, and I wanted the space for this year's veg, so out they came. I also pulled up the rhubarb, and made some jam. There wasn't much, possibly because it was buried under a load of nettles in the windbreak - I think I'll split the crowns and space them out a little later this year. I made just one jar of jam, and I suspect I left it to boil for a bit too long, because it's rather more like toffee than jam... Still, I quite like the idea of doing small batches of experimental preserves - I'm hoping my technique will get more reliable if I try regularly. Spring cleaning I've been continuing last month's tidying and sorting of the house, and got round to washing, airing, and mending a couple of blankets. We have SO many blankets. We seem to have just acquired so many over the years, from charity shops, people making them, and goodness knows where else. They get carted out into the garden, thrown in the car, taken upstairs, brought back downstairs, and shoved on the back of the sofa. I feel like we have far too many, but they do all get used, so I won't be having a blanket clear out any time soon. There's not much else to report from June. I made a bit of progress on the kitchen ceiling, but nothing worth photographing. Peter made some progress with the new wardrobe area, but again, I didn't take any photographs - I need to rectify that soon.
And what's in store for July? I WILL finish the kitchen ceiling - I've been saying that for months but I am so very close now. A second coat of yellow on the kitchen walls. Will we have moved into the new bedroom?? Things are certainly heading in that direction. Outside, I need to get the rest of the seedlings out of the greenhouse, and it's time to start scything the meadow again. I'm determined to scythe it all this year, so need to start soon. That's probably enough of a list for now. May has been an interesting month. I experimented with giving up various online activities - so no social media, no forums, and no online news, for a whole month. I didn't give up everything, but it shift the balance somewhat. Nothing dramatic happened - I didn't suddenly have hours extra every day - but I did find myself doing more pottering around the house, spending a little more time in the garden, going for a walk each evening. So, what's happened around here in May? Tidying up I've never been much of a housekeeper, but in May I did actually stick to a regular routine, with just a little pottering in a different room each evening, and it's made such a difference. I spent a week doing a little pottering around in the bathroom each evening, and, as well as clearing out a few drawers, I also managed to scrape some of the ludicrous flaking paintwork from round the edge of the bath. The bathroom is tiled, and the tiles have been painted with emulsion. It's hideous, but it won't get anywhere near the top of the priority list until the kitchen and bedroom are finished. Around the bath though, the paint has been flaking off for a while, and each time I have a shower more is dislodged. Finally I just got the scraper and scraped it all off, and while it looks ridiculous, at least no more paint is flaking into the bath, and it's a lot easier to clean the walls. I also spent fifteen minutes each evening decluttering and sorting out the study, the room that I work in when I work at home. This houses most of my books, which were piled higgledy piggledy onto the shelves, sometimes two or three deep, as well as my sewing paraphernalia, and all manner of other things. I sifted and sorted, and prioritised, and gave things away, and finally the bookshelves are just one book deep, and I can easily see and get at everything. I even got rid of most of the stuff that was piled up on my desk. My desk is an extendable table, and I cleared so much space I was able to take out the extension to make it smaller, which means I can now get at the window. Everything has been cleaned and dusted and hoovered, and I am thrilled. It seems I didn't take a picture though, and now I've got the sofa bed up in there for a few days, so I'll take one once order is restored. In the meadow (and the windbreak) I finished raking up the dry cut grass after April's mechanical scythe experiments, and spread it all on the windbreak to keep down the weeds. The cuckoo flower is in bloom out there, and I finally found the yellow rattle seeds I collected last autumn, and sowed them into the meadow. In all probability this was a useless endeavour - they really need a period of frost to germinate, and spring-sown seeds often don't take, but they don't last more than one season, so since I had them, there was no point not sowing them. I put them in the freezer for a couple of weeks first - again, probably pointless. Time will tell I suppose. I also finally got round to cutting some willow, and planting it in a soggy bit of the windbreak area. It's too late in the season really, but again, there was no real point in not trying. Some of the cuttings have taken, some haven't - I'll try some more in the autumn to give them a better chance. Sowing seeds I finally got round to sowing my seeds in May. I was much earlier last year, and spent quite a lot of April mollycoddling them with fleece overnight until the frost risk passed. This lot have germinated quickly, and I think they're pretty much caught up with last year. In the garden Outside, the veg garden isn't quite ready, but I've been pottering out there and some of the weeds have been cleared, and it won't be too long now. We've had a lovely show of blossom this year so I have high hopes for more than one apple in the autumn. I've done some more strimming, and I've very much enjoyed pottering around in the evening and seeing evidence of where the chickens have been in the daytime. The chickens The chickens are all well (touch wood), and there is nothing much to report on that front, thank goodness. Long may it stay that way. Poppy Chicken did have a brief period of malaise, but made a miraculous recovery on the day of her vet trip. We did keep the appointment just in case, but the vet confirmed our suspicions that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with her. Cheeky monkey. The Avian Flu lockdown ended on 1st May, so the chickens have been roaming free, which both they and we are delighted about. We've had some lovely weather, and the girls have made excellent use of the sunbathing opportunities. They've been producing plenty of eggs, so we've been making pancakes galore and taking eggs with us every time we visit someone. Overall, May has been pretty cheerful. I've still not finished the kitchen ceiling, and we're still not installed in the new bedroom, but both of those things are inching closer.
And June, what will June bring? We have a temporary visiting dog for a few days, so the first part of the month will be spent on duty making sure the dog never comes face to face with the chickens (neither are well-trained, and none of them can be trusted). Some seedlings will make it out into the garden, and I have high hopes for the kitchen ceiling, although I'm making no promises. The big job for the summer is another extension to the chicken run. Will we make a start on that in June? That might depend if I can squeeze in a few more days off. We'll see. We've had some lovely weather in May, and I've been doing a bit more wandering. Not far - either in terms of distance from home, or distance walked, but still wandering, and a nice bit of scenery. Up to the moors, down through the fields, along the valley, and across the bridge to the place where three counties meet. I've been here once before, many years ago, but it didn't feel familiar at all. It was nice to be back though. Another sunny afternoon we went in another direction with some friends. Down the hill, through the village, past the little shop-in-a-shed, along the track, over the bridge, stopping for a little paddle. I've been trying to get out in the evenings too for a little wander up and down the lanes. Not far, just a little stretch of the legs. Every year around this time, I start to walk more, and vow I'll keep it up all year, and it rarely lasts past the autumn. Let's see what happens this year.
I've not actually done much local adventuring since we moved here. Some wandering, of course, but with one thing and another, not too much exploring. As it happens, I still haven't been anywhere completely new, but I have made a bit of an effort to revisit places I've not been for twenty years. At the beginning of March, I went up to The Roaches, a rocky outcrop overlooking the Cheshire plains. This is a well known climbers' haunt, and there is a house built into the rock face which I once stayed in. There are rumours that a mermaid lives in this pool. It's quite breezy up on the top, but the views are well worth the wind and the climb. I think I only walked about three miles that day. It was chilly, and I didn't want an epic trek. Turning round, Tittesworth reservoir was glinting in the sunshine. A few weeks later, on my birthday, we went down to the reservoir I'd seen from the top. I've been here before too, but not for a while. We didn't walk all the way round, just wandered a little way along the edge, then back to the cafe for a cup of tea. It's a nice mix of scenery - there are wooded areas, and at times the view opens out across the water and you can see back up to The Roaches looming on the horizon a few miles away. There's always a tendency to go to the same places, but I'm going to make a bit more of an effort this year to find some new places, and revisit some I've not been to for a long time. There are a lot on the list.
We have had a rather dry April, an I've spent a good amount of time outside, which I'm very grateful for. I didn't have my usual fortnight off work over Easter, but I've had a few long weekends, and am feeling rather more rested than I was at the end of March. So what's been happening in April? Strimming the grass We have a lot of grass, and I don't have a lawnmower - largely because I don't really have much you'd describe with such a sedate term as a 'lawn'. Our grass is bumpy, tufty, unwieldy, and full of weeds, and while I considered buying a diesel mower this month, I was eventually won over by a strimmer harness, which takes the weight of the strimmer, making it far easier to carry for the hour or so it takes to cut the bits of grass I can be bothered to cut. It's not exactly a bowling green... but at least I don't have to wear wellies to peg the washing out. I've left plenty long for the wild flowers to grow throughout the summer. The veg patch There isn't much to say about the veg patch. I've done very little in there so far, aside from occasionally waving a hoe on my way past, and throwing down a bit of wood chip. It's untidy and not really ready for planting, but that's ok, because I haven't sown a single seed in the greenhouse yet, so I won't be planting anything for a while. Things are starting to grow though. There has been blossom on the plum tree, and the apple trees are starting to bloom too. The fig tree is getting started in the greenhouse too. I see from last year's April on the Homestead post that I had all kinds of things growing in April, but not this year. Cutting the hay field My main outdoor job in April has been cutting the hay field. This is not something that usually happens in April. Since I've been cutting the hay with a scythe, usually in late summer, I've never managed to get through the whole field before the winter, meaning the new spring grass grows through the flattened, dried grass from the previous year, creating a thatch, and making it much harder to cut with a scythe at the end of the summer. This year, I decided I was going to experiment with some machinery to try and remove last year's grass, in a bid to make scything easier later, and hired a power scythe (or rather, a rotavator with a scythe attachment) for a weekend. I've never used one before, and gosh, it was a heavy and unwieldy beast. It was self-propelling, so at least I didn't have to push, but it had a mind of its own, and it was quite a struggle to get it to go in a straight line over our bumpy, tussocky field. I'd also anticipated that the scythe attachment at the front would slice under the thatch of old, dried grass, but no - the machine just sailed over the top of the flattened grass, with the blade chomping into thin air. I suspect it would be slightly more effective for cutting a field of standing hay (which is what it's designed for). All this meant that I had to effectively lift the handles as I was guiding it along, and even then, it didn't go under the thatch, but it did at least manage to remove some of the dried grass. You can see that even after cutting, and raking, there's still a lot of dried grass on the ground that hasn't been cut. Not much I can do about that at this point. I'm trying to restore it as a traditional hay meadow, which means no cutting (or grazing etc) rom now until towards the end of the summer to let the flowers do their thing. Incidentally, people often ask me why I haven't hired in a contractor, or put some sheep in, or some other solution that doesn't involve me either swinging a scythe or wielding machinery. It's a reasonable question - I'm often complaining about scything/machinery-wielding, so I can see why people ask. The answer, of course, is not that I didn't think of those things, but that I've weighed up all the options and am trying the one that's the most straightforward first. That doesn't mean it's the least effort on my part (far from it). But this is a small field, and this is the wrong type of year for hay-making, and so finding someone with a large tractor and hay-making equipment who is willing to drive it out here for a tiny amount of grass (when they're not cutting any other fields locally) isn't going to be easy. It might be possible to get someone to cut it when they're cutting other local fields - but that means having it cut when other farmers are cutting for silage (often June) which is too early for the flower seeds to have dropped. Making silage doesn't have the same requirements or routine as making hay, and barely anyone round here makes hay because of the unreliable weather. As for sheep (or llamas, or whatever) - again, this is a small field. Yes, there are some local sheep farmers, who all have their own land. This field has no water supply, falling-down walls, and a large, dangerous, derelict barn, meaning animals would need an electric fence and daily tending, which I'm not volunteering for. The cows we have in the other fields don't turn up until May - and if we let them in this field at that point, they'd just munch all the plants we were trying to encourage. And anyway, last year's dry, flattened grass, isn't really an appealing prospect for many animals, who'd likely be inclined to just munch the new green shoots and ignore the old stuff. Right now, I prefer to spend a small amount of money hiring a small piece of equipment and put in a load of effort myself over a weekend, rather than traipsing around the countryside asking local farmers for things they would rightly regard as a bit mad. Anyway, the point is that I have inadvertently made some hay in April, and it all got spread as mulch on the edible windbreak, which I see is exactly what I did with the small amount of hay I had at this time last year too. I also spread a bit around the willow dome, which I hope this year will actually grow enough to turn into a dome. Other things All was pleasingly uneventful on the chicken front in April, which is how we like it, although the bird flu lockdown was still in force (lifted today - hooray!) We've had plenty of eggs, which we've mostly either given away or made into pancakes. We cooked our first meal outside towards the end of the month - it wasn't quite warm enough but we'd committed ourselves by that point, so we did it anyway. And in possibly the most exciting event of the month, our resident owl landed on our swing seat and peered at us through the living room window. We have made some progress inside, although apparently I haven't taken any photos of it. Mostly it's involved moving three different bookcases around the house in a kind of bookcase version of musical chairs. We do now have shelves in the new bedroom though, and I'm hopeful some clothes rails will follow shortly, and then we can start moving clothes in. Getting there. Slowly. This weekend would have been a good time to finish a few things, but it's ended up being surprisingly sociable, and our first night away in a hotel for, gosh, I don't even know how long - possibly about five years. Crikey.
So what will May bring? I'll sow some seeds, and prepare the veg garden. I'd love to say we'll move into the new bedroom, but I've been saying that since December so I might just wait and see. I'd like to get the kitchen ceiling finished, but I've been saying that for even longer, so again, let's just wait and see... 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. 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. I've never liked coffee. The whole of my adult life I've been a tea drinker - and some would argue I drink far too much of it. Lately though, I've been finding that something in it unsettles my stomach, and with a helping hand from our favourite local cafe, I've been experimenting with coffee for the first time. I've not progressed further than a mocha and a one-shot latte, but it's a fun experiment, and any adventure that involves swirly patterns on top of your drinks has got to be a good one. I'm drifting at the minute, not really quite sure what to do with myself. Everything seems up in the air. There's so much chaos in the wider world it feels overwhelming, at work we are on strike again, and the list of things to do at home gets longer every day. I'm in high need of a rest. Fortunately, I'm off work for ten days in a row (we'll ignore the lack of pay for now). As usual, two days in and I feel like the time is drifting away from me, and I'd better Make A List before it's time to go back to work and I've done nothing. I do have some plans. A friend's birthday, another visit from the vet. And I do have a bit of a list - swimming, a couple of walks, sorting out the appalling state of the garden, hiring a power scythe (more on that later), sorting out the appalling state of the house. Yawn. At least the weather is nice, although apparently that's going to change this week. I've spent quite a bit of today outside, basking in the sunshine, hanging out the washing, and moving wood, stones, and old windows, detritus of winter projects, so that one day soon I might be able to mow the grass. Some parts of the garden are starting to feel calm, if you look in the right direction and squint a bit. I've gathered all the pallets back into their pile, and the scrap wood that is leftover from fixing the chicken run is all stored away now. I've even started putting some of the woodchip onto the paths in the veg beds. The driveway feels calm, at least. When we first saw this house, it was early August, and I had dreams of planting daffodils down both sides. We arrived in late February, and once the snow had melted, the daffodils appeared all by themselves. Each year there are more, and they make me very cheerful indeed. One thing I do want is to move into the new bedroom. I've had 'oil skirting boards' on my list since before Christmas, and it's still there. The painting has progressed - but I've still got one coat of gold paint on one wall to do. But that's it - once those things are done, we'll be moving in, even though there are no windowsills, and no curtains, and no clothes storage.
And once the bed's moved, maybe I'll finally have a nap. |
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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