Sitooterie / Hedging / Heathers - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 9 December, 2024

by Rosemary at 8:51am in Smallholding No comments Add your own

Monday 2^nd December

Rain overnight; damp and cold this morning. Jings, it was 13C yesterday. It’s maybe half of that today, with a significant wind-chill.

The sitooterie has arrived. We love it.

The sitooterie is here.

Wormed the ponies this morning; it’s a once a year job, and both were very good. None landed on me or the floor, so that’s a huge win.

Roofer Jim was here; we need some gutters replaced. That’ll be in January. Meanwhile, he cleared out the gutters on the house and the West Range and replaced two slates on the house that had slipped.

Tuesday 3^rd December

Frosty first thing, no wind; warmed up to cold from freezing. The barn water was frozen this morning but running by 4pm.

Dan and Murdo cleaned out the dozen or so nest boxes, then ringed the ivy growing through various trees. We like ivy but this was too much of a good thing and it was sure to damage the trees.

Dan pulled out most of a perennial sweet pea that was competing with one of the Blush Noisette roses. Poor wee rose. A top dressing of manure should see it right next year.

Wednesday 4^th December

When I went to feed the ponies this evening, I discovered I’d forgotten to let them out. Oh dear.

Sunny but cold, so plans to weed the carrot bed were postponed. Instead, I started to clean the kitchen.

Our kitchen’s never unhygienically dirty, but this was shelves and jars and windows. That became cleaning all the windows in the house. Then the spindles on the stairs. I do them regularly. Every year before I put up the festive garland. And to top it off, I scrubbed down all the kitchen cupboard fronts. To be totally honest, we’ve got a bloke coming to clean the ovens on Saturday and I want to be sure he thinks it’s worth it.

In anticipation of the carrot bed, I put long johns on this morning. Phew, must have sweated off a few pounds.

Dan was chained (not literally) to his desk.

The putting up of the festive decorations has started. Or at least the boxes are down. I may be gone some time.

Thursday 5^th December

Finally did a bit of weeding in the carrot bed. More in there than I thought. Terrible weeds though. It’s not going to be a quick job.

Friday 6^th December

Milder, about 5C, but overcast for most of the day. Dan was off to Edinburgh for his work’s Christmas lunch. I loafed about; did some chores, walked the dogs, practised my speech for tomorrow. Gulp.

I had a sneaky wee trip to the garden centre but didn’t buy anything. I think we should incorporate a heather bed in the garden. And they had some lovely Cornus in different colours, so I think a stand of them would be lovely.

Saturday 7^th December

Off to Party National Council in Perth. My first time speaking. I was very nervous, but I think it went OK.

And we had our first trip to the ice hockey in Dundee – Dundee Rockets v Aberdeen Lynx. Dundee Stars also play out of Dundee Ice Arena, but in a higher league. Might try them next time. It’s amazing how quickly we become tribal.

Sunday 8^th December

Still windy, but less than it was. Dry, sunny and cold – so everything is drying up.

Poo picked and cleaned out the hens. Still getting three or four eggs a day.

Dan was on the soup – stilton & celery, and spiced butternut squash & lentil were the two today.

We’ve decided to put in a heather bed in the front garden. This decision will be followed by intense debate. We’re also going to have a stand of dogwoods in various colours, to give some winter interest.

We’ve fallen heir to some purple beech, which were delivered to us in error (our hedging plants have also been delivered to the wrong address and we HOPE replacement ones are now being sent from the supplier. We’ve used them before and they’ve been fine but they’ve been shocking this time.) Dan’s just working out where to use them.