waiting for rain

The forecast had given dire warnings of heavy rain for today, so it was with surprise that we woke up to sunshine. We rushed out to make the most of it before the rain came – and that is how the day went.
Himself finished digging  over veg bed 8  (only 8 more to go then!), [...]

Read Full Post »

not much damage

So far…
Lots of small branches and debris around, and it seems most of the leaves are off the trees now, but we came out relatively unscathed.  The roof of the growers coup flew off sometime after the early morning check, and ripped the netting we have over the hen run, but the hens were unhurt [...]

Read Full Post »

stormy

It’s horrible out there – really windy and rainy.  There are severe weather warnings in place. The worst will be overnight into morning.
It’s always worst when it’s dark – as you can’t see whats going on, just hear it howling around the house.  Our roof is old… the 90ft leylandii trees from next door are swinging [...]

Read Full Post »

I won a prize

I won a little photo competition on the self sufficientish forums, and my prize came today, this lovely little woollen bowl.
Ann from Snowdrops and Daisies makes them: using wool from a local mill, she crochets the bowl, then felts it.
The theme of the competition was ‘keeping warm’, and I submitted this photo of my cat, [...]

Read Full Post »

rain, reclaim yards and rogan josh

What to do.. a miserable day, so we went to the reclamation yard.  I love it there.  I just love all those made to last old things – the  cast iron fires, aluminium watering cans, mangles, doors, gothic window frames, granite slabs, foot scrapers.. and so on.
Officially we are table shopping – our dining room [...]

Read Full Post »

badgers and bTB

I’m sad to read that the attempts to stop the  proposed cull of badgers in Pembrokeshire has failed.
Ironically, they plan to vaccinate the badgers in England, starting next year with injectable vaccination, and following in 2014 with bait.
I know how tragic it is when a farmer loses animals to bTB – but they don’t keel [...]

Read Full Post »

bonfire night again

And by some weird imbalance in the universe, we managed to do the bonfire/firework bit between showers.
I think, left to myself, I would happily forego fireworks, and not having other people let them off at other times would be a fair swap, but nothing is going to stop my Dad from enjoying them. 
The usual crowd of [...]

Read Full Post »

november

It just seemed to sneak up on us – I suppose the good weather making us forget it was autumn, then suddenly it’s November.  And blustery and raining.
I’ve stripped the last of the tomato plants, and picked my last tomatoes – a few more batches of roasted tomato sauce for the freezer, and some jars [...]

Read Full Post »