Smallholding
Bridge / Equinox / Fires
Monday 23 September, 2024
Monday 16th September
Beautiful start to the day and the week, with a good forecast for the week that will end with the Autumn Equinox.
Apart from tidying the garden, the next five weeks will be about the Scottish Smallholder Festival. My last one. Hope to make it a good one.
Dottie found a box to sit it. To watch Dan weeding. It’s perfectly Dottie-sized.
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Dottie's box.
Frost / Harvest / Anniversary
Monday 16 September, 2024
Monday 9th September
Feels very autumnal now; cool this morning, then warm and sunny, fading to cool, pretty breezy and a bit of drizzle just as I took the dogs out this evening for the “Big Sniff”. They’re out most of the day with us or in the garden, but they do like a daunder along to “The Green” where many local dogs are walked, for a sniff. Gwenna does every blade of grass; Bryn’s more a “sniff, pee and go” dog.
Paperwork first thing, then off to Balgove Farm Shop to meet my good friend, Carol, for lunch and a chance to put the world to rights. I may have bored her with my new found love of economics and Richard Murphy.
Jungle / Yarn / Land Justice
Monday 9 September, 2024
Monday 2nd September
Rain overnight and most of the day. I’m less tired from the weekend at our Party Conference than I thought I would be. But since it’s raining, we’re having a restful day and doing some Festival stuff. Dan is knitting his sock entry for the Festival.
Zoom meeting tonight with the Festival livestock Stewards.
Tuesday 3rd September
MUCH nicer today; wet underfoot this morning but broken cloud and warming up nicely as the sun got out. We have so much grass.
Turkey / Socks / Winter preparations
Monday 2 September, 2024
Monday 26th August
Cool and a heavy dew first thing, but no wind. Sun out by 9am. Lovely sunrise.
Beautiful sunrise.
I weeded half the brassica bed before my chum Tara arrived. I was going to pull out this parsley that’s gone to seed, but it was moving with pollinators.
Parsley and pollinators.
Collision / "Ermintrude" / Harvest
Monday 26 August, 2024
Tuesday 20th August
Home again. Thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with family; it’s been too long, and I hope they feel the same.
The trip didn’t quite go as planned after a camper van ran into the back of me in queuing traffic on the M6 on Sunday. Thankfully no-one hurt and our car is driveable, but a bit scary. Now to sort out the insurance.
I had a lovely breakfast in the Westminster Tea Rooms, on Lord Street (Southport) – all dark wood, 1920s music, silver teapot and strainer, and waitresses in black and white. Highly recommend.
Peas, Berries, Gages and a Bunny Belly
Thursday 22 August, 2024
Monday 12th August
Very oppressive and stormy first thing; the ponies were all spooky. Rain started in earnest maybe 9am and kept up until about noon, with some heavy peals of thunder. So we all had a relaxing morning. Well, the dogs weren’t THAT relaxed.
Cooper, Diesel and Gwenna, snoozing.
By 2pm, it was roasting. No visible sun, but so warm and humid. We did some housework – well, it needed doing – and some paperwork.
Summer bounty
Monday 12 August, 2024
Monday 5th August
We’ve had a good fall of rain overnight and that’s continued into morning. Dan and Murdo took a load of rubbish to the skips first thing, then moved the fencing materials for the new fence in Home, into position. The hedging plants are ordered, so the fence needs to be up before they arrive in November.
It’s been quite overcast and I’ve felt really tired today. It’s quite oppressive. I think if Murdo hadn’t been here today, Dan would have been asleep too.
First harvest
Monday 5 August, 2024
Monday 29th July
Dan and I measured Mickey’s feet today, took lots of photos, in preparation for ordering his boots.
I started muck tea; I’ll let it soak until tomorrow. Then I weeded the polytunnel; with so much planting, t’s impossible to get to the outside edges, but I pulled the worst I could see. I’m loving having the calendula and basil – loads of insects.
Dan cut comfrey in the fruit garden and I put some weedkiller on the path; we bought pebbles to resurface it years ago, but the brick edges now need reset, so that will have to happen first before we put in the pebbles. The cut comfrey will make next year's comfrey tea.
Summer, Sweet corn, Seedlings
Sunday 28 July, 2024
Monday 22nd July
Bit drizzly this morning. Dan went off for a run (Why?) with some of the blokes he plays football with.
Alistair took a second blood sample from Mickey yesterday, to see if the Prascend is working at the current dose. Mix is a terrible tenderfoot, so I’m going to get him some boots – slippers – for when he’s in on the track. It is a rough surface, right enough.
Favourite flowers? I love the catanache with the candytuft. And the salvia. Not loving the penstemon, but it's in the wrong place.
Roses, raspberries, and redcurrants
Monday 22 July, 2024
Monday 15th July
I was dreaming that Dan had given me a big choux bun filled with chocolate mousse; I was just about to take a bite and my alarm went off. Happy birthday to me lol
Today is St Swithin’s Day; whatever the weather shall be today, so it shall remain for 40 days. Mild; close and a bit muggy.
Cooper was “playing” with the hens again today. Maybe we need a big, feisty cockerel. He also helped me to hang out the washing.
Cooper, helping.
