summer shade

This week has been gloriously hot and sunny.  I say glorious – I mean in a factor 40, hat wearing, fair skinned, avoiding the midday sun, good for barbecues but not ideal for the garden sort of way.  Watering has taken forever and we have had to plant out the last of the plants in the evening so the poor things didn’t have to take the full blast of the sun.

But it has been enjoyable too, with social gatherings around the barbecue, and evenings sat outside after the sun has gone down still enjoying the atmosphere. What I wish I spent more time doing is sitting in the shade of our pergola.  The clematis has smothered the southern side and is marching to take over the rest – which is great since I worried we had killed it when we put the pergola up and had to cut the clemmie back hard only last year.

Inside is a delight – sitting on a lounger amongst the hardy geraniums and granny’s bonnets, with bumble bees busily working their way around, and the flowers of the clematis glowing with the sunlight that I am shielded from.  I promised myself the next spell of good weather I will spent more time lurking in there!

And it must be summer because the elderflowers are out – I have started my first batch of elderflower champagne, ordered a lot of citric acid for cordial futures and we had our first elderflower fritters of the season,

Rain promised over the next few days – which the garden desperately needs, so no summer shade for me for a while.

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it’s all go

It is that busy time of year when everything is hatching and growing and the sudden warm weather means all the plants came out of the greenhouse and want to go in the ground, and we find ourselves outside still watering at 10pm

We had a hatch at the weekend, this time a mix of Vorwerks and French blue marans. The Vorwerks were a bit of a whim when I was having a bad day – they are striking looking chicks, with reverse colouring to their future adult plumage.

We snuck them under a broody hen and she is a very proud mum.

Thankfully we booked the shearer with perfect timing and he came at an unearthly time on Sunday morning and sheared the sheep, and they are now cool sheep.

The ducks failed us, and the second hatch only gave us two ducklings.. we may have to pop duck eggs under broody hens at this rate.. but one of the ducks is laying again so we live in hope.

Mostly though, it is about the veg, trying to compost and plant and all of the plants want to go in at the same time.. ie NOW! The cold weather suddenly passed and it all became a bit urgent and late too. However we are getting there.

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cooking on wood

Nice weather at last, but the air is still very cold – and so we have been doing our outdoor eating at lunchtime.

With new chicken plans afoot, we are making new pens, and adapting an outbuilding to be a hen house. And it is nothing, whilst there pootling about, to light and tend a wood fired barbecue. It does need a little more planning – perhaps a couple of hours from lighting to cooking, but it works so well, the taste is great and the wood is a resource we have.

Seating and table arrangements made out of scrap wood and logs, and we have some food in the sun.

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january driftwood

Today, finally, after days of snow, rain, hail, ice, rain, snow, sleet, rain etc, we got some sunshine. Cold sunshine, but the dry kind nonetheless. So this morning we made a flask of hot chocolate (oh how middle aged that makes us sound.. but hey we were the smug ones holding mugs of hot choc in our gloved hands) and went to the beach. A few other people were out, and their dogs, and there was plenty of room for everyone.

We picked up lots of driftwood, aiming for the interesting twisty bits that are good for frames. This inspires us to get on with making the driftwood mirror. We made one as a present for himself’s sister, but had trouble letting it go, so promised ourselves we would make our own one.. but of course not got around to it. Why is it easier to do these things for other people? Always a lack of time.

Anyway here is a shot of the gift one, and hopefully we will make the time to make our own too

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the big reveal

Back along himself and I  decided this year we would concentrate our efforts on home made presents for each other, and so now I present the results:

Also – not shown in this photo heavy post – an oven glove, bath salts and rebatched soap. a yarn bowl an an organiser (that sadly split but I’m promised replacements), a paper mache bowl, a glass made from a bottle, and a set of dominoes (charity shop purchase) complete with lots of different versions of the game, a calendar, some wooden spoons and a heart shaped wreath.

As you can see, himself concentrated his efforts on round wooden things – not bad given he is new to wood turning..  And we definitely hit the descriptions of unique, rustic, has patina etc – but made with love.

I’ll go into more details over the making of some of these items, but that covers the big reveal promised, and now we can go back to less pressured craft activities. We definitely enjoyed the process and the results.

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hedging window closes

Since Autumn we have been hedging in earnest.  And we are not talking a bit of clipping here, but small tree felling.  The hedges had been let go for some years before we came here, and we are slowly working our way around, cutting out the overgrown trees, laying the smaller stuff, and trying to get the hedge back.

It’s quite encouraging, to see the work we did a few years ago, how much growth has appeared, although it looks like it needs redoing – and we haven’t had a first swipe at the rest of the hedges yet.

We have 2 acres here, but it is arranged long and thin, apparently because it was medieval strip fields, so there are a lot of hedges. And we only have hand tools.

And the mild winter means the window of opportunity is shorter than ever, and it is pretty short here in the westcountry anyway.  The elder is sprouting, honeysuckle is in leaf, and we have spotted birds flying about with nest material in their beaks.  So, that’s it. Time up.

Good job too, as the orchard and the top of the big field are strewn with branches and trees.  Time to start the clearing up, bean pole and pea stick harvesting, and the log pile grows.

They say it is better for wildlife, to only do a small proportion of the hedges at time, and this year we did more than ever, but probably only 25% of the lot.  Still, just think, we might be bored otherwise!

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autumn equinox

I was saying to himself, over a munched lunch of freshly picked sweetcorn, that last year we were eating the corn in the sunshine in the garden and what happened to the weather eh? it’s like autumn etc etc.  Then we remembered the date.. and perhaps the weather is not unreasonable after all. And our sweetcorn is late.

Most of our veg seems to be late this year, and it has been an odd year for growing, with a drought in April, hot weather early, bringing out the elderflowers weeks earlier than usual.  And August, bar a couple of days, forgot to happen.

But Autumn it is.  Thoughts turn to getting wood in, and the last of the harvesting.  Even the animal numbers have peaked, and are going down again, no more births, purchases or hatchings, but the fattened and knocking on making their way, with a little help, into the freezer.

Today we culled two of our older laying hens, and one was one of the first chicks we hatched here. Sort of sad in a way, but mostly just the natural passage – she has had a longer than average free range life, and her place will be taken by one of this year’s hatchings.

The harvest is brought in and stored, as we prepare for winter.  Yep, everything is progressing as it should.

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new old table

You know how it is – you go swimming, and come back with a table. and fortunately we had a lift back from the pool.. did not have to take it on the bus….

Fortunately himself is tolerant.. I did describe it.. and he rashly said he trusted my judgement.

We have been looking out for exactly this, and when I walked through the market.. there it was.  An old bit of furniture – I love ‘pre loved’ – I like all the dinks and marks, but best of all the solid wood.. and the fact you dont have to worry about it. We wanted a drop leaf table, so we can have the space when we want to, extra table when we need it,  - but one that did not shake much.. as we make a lot of pasta with a hand machine, and need it to cope,  and  it needs to be strong enough to cope with home butchery and ..well lots of abuse.  And it has drawers and a cupboard too.. great – somewhere to stash the pasta machine!

I even haggled a bit (I hate haggling), with the whole “your breaking my heart with an offer like that, routine ” and banter, and got it at a good (cheap) price, we are happy with.

Now, after lots of looking for the right one, we can play musical tables, and the big pine table can move upstairs and become my craft and sewing table.  Luckily himself  thinks its just right too.

Ok so the new table I am excited about doesn’t look much, but with  some sanding, polish, and one day a paint job on its lower half to match the rest of the kitchen (also one day), it will be ace.

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