Beltane / Patio / Yurt / Split hive / New bakeware
Posted: Tuesday 16 May, 2017
Monday 1st May
So today is Beltane, one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals and traditionally the start of summer and the day the cattle would be turned out.
One ritual associated with Beltane is to drive the cattle over or between sacred bonfires to protect them and to encourage growth. Cattle were also decorated with yellow flowers.
None of that happened here but I did give the cows and Ace a brush after they were fed.
Tuesday 2nd May
Sunny, but windy.
Moved cows to Far Ditch; moved steers to new paddock too.
Sowed carrots and coriander; admired the greenhouse – even celery. And spotted a potato pushing through.
Patio underway.
Patio base prep.
The patio plan (in LEGO)
John harrowed Home paddock
Wednesday 3rd May
Beautiful day – light breeze, full sun and warm.
Patio finished apart from putting soil back; and Dan made a brick edge on a flower bed.
Bryn on patio quality control duty.
Cleaned out three hen houses and pressure washed the shed at Astwood.
John harrowed Sheepfold and Near Ditch.
I used my new mini loaf tin to make Coffee and Walnut cakes – they are delicious.
Thursday 4th May
Another lovely sunny day but back to windy.
Focused on getting the TAS end of year accounts and the VAT return done – and they are! Yippee! It feels like a great weight has been lifted off me.
Friday 5th May
Dan and I played hookey today and had a day out in Perth at the excellent Pig Halle restaurant and Brick City LEGO exhibition.
Moved the cows to Far Top and put out some hay – which they ate. Which is good and bad.
Gratuitous photo of Mickey.
WE NEED RAIN.
Saturday 6th May
Rearranged the freezers so that the air flow and access was better.
Planted some decorative plants in containers and Dan moved the leftover patio slabs, a pile of turf, a pile of soil and the cement mixer, all of which have been features of our back garden for quite a long time.
Our garden is now starting to look like a garden!
Yurt construction is progressing - Paul and Gemma started assembling the walls and roof supports today, and it looks stunning.
Yurt under construction.
Yurt roof ring.
It's going to be a lovely area.
I made mini baked vanilla cheesecakes. They aren’t quite as the recipe because I didn’t read it properly – but they are very nice anyway.
Sunday 7th May
Smallholding Scotland steering group meeting today.
I made scones and more Coffee and Walnut mini cakes; Arnot brought the savouries, which were delicious.
Eight of the ten on the group were able to attend and we’ve cracked the use of Skype (pretty much) so it was a useful meeting and we’re moving forward.
The breadth and depth of experience in the group is extremely heartening.
Dan and Paul split one of the bee hives today. It's burgeoning and there were queen cells being built. So the queen with three frames of brood/stores have been moved to a nuc box, and all the remaining queen cells bar one removed from the hive.
Hopefully a new queen will hatch in the hive, have a successful mating flight and establish in the colony, and the nuc will become a viable colony in its own right. If there's any problem we can re-unite the nuc with the hive at a later date.
