Diary

June 2009RSS feed

Update w/e 6th June

Monday 8 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 8:00am in Anything goes 1 comment Comments closed

Well, we've sure had the rain I was wishing for last week. The vegetable garden is now growing away nicely. The “plan� has been amended to include purple sprouting broccoli and kale. Normally, we don't grow this because our fleece arrangement doesn't cover it properly but our new hoops should be high enough to accommodate the plants.

The direct sown runner beans are through the ground and all the peas are showing – two more rows to sow this weekend, then we can stand back and wait for the harvest. And the weeds.

Update w/e 13th June

Sunday 14 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 3:41pm in Anything goes Comments closed

We've had the most fabulous growing week - warm and sunny, with some decent showers of rain. Dan's been busy in the garden, potting on and planting out. Weeding should be a daily task at the moment as they seem to grow faster than the plants. Tomatoes, peppers and cumcumber have been potted on and more herbs and salad sown. The purple sprouting broccoli is coming slowly; we don't need many - we haven't got room for many, to be honest. They weren't on "the plan" you see.

Update w/e 20th June

Sunday 21 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 8:50pm in Anything goes Comments closed

We've had another good growing week and the weeds are coming on a treat. We've had our first strawberries, though, which is very nice indeed. The gooseberries are also coming on well and the biggest are now ready for picking. The peas and broad beans are podding but the beans are still very small. I must try and find a good recipe for broad beans to get Dan to eat them - he suggested wrapping them in bacon and / or deep frying.

The Hubbard chicks are now outdoors. They seem to like the grass under their feet and are happily pecking away. The soil tray is still favourite entertainment though. I've topped up their mencore bed with straw - I do worry if it's a bit chilly. A further five have gone to a friend, leaving us with eight, as we had a dead one this week. I think it may have been trampled by the others as they have all been very healthy.

Goodbye Egypt, hello Greece

Friday 26 June, 2009

by Dan at 11:00am in Pigs 1 comment Comments closed

We were due to go to Egypt on holiday in October. We'd booked into a plush hotel in Sharm El Sheikh and were looking forward to a week of pampering, sun, sea and good food.

Then the Egyptian government responded to the outbreak of H1N1 in the worst possible way, ordering the completely unnecessary destruction of over 300,000 pigs, and carried it out in the worst possible away, inflicting unbelievable suffering on these animals.

So we cancelled our holiday to Egypt, rebooked for Kefalonia, and donated some of the money we saved to Compassion in World Farming who are presuring the Egyptian government to introduce animal welfare legislation.

Update 27th June

Sunday 28 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 8:33pm in Anything goes 5 comments Comments closed

Following our first strawberries last week, they are now ripening at a rate of knots. In fact, I think the jam pan will be on tonight! The gooseberries are being picked - Dan eats them raw, which gives me the heebie-jeebies. I prefer mine with a nice oaty crumble topping. We've had a real problem with sawfly, on both the gooseberries and the red and white currants. These little blighters can strip the leaves off a bush overnight. Sometimes, they can be controlled by hand stripping, but in bad cases, derris does the job.

Grass sickness

Sunday 28 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 8:39pm in Equines 2 comments Comments closed

One of our local RDA branches has lost four horses in one weekend to grass sickness and one of the horses at the yard where I keep Smokey seems to have it too. He's currently at the Dick Vet after being unwell while competing at the Highland Show. I hope he's OK but grass sickness seldom seems to have a happy outcome.

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