Winter Solstice 2024 - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 23 December, 2024

by Rosemary at 1:50pm in Smallholding No comments Add your own

Monday 16th December

Windy overnight and a bit breezy during the day, but a nice day with some sunshine and showing 11C on the car. I took Linda to Ninewells for an appointment – all good news.

Dan made great progress plating the hedge in Home.

I thought Mickey looked a wee bit footsore last night so kept them in today – hay and water – and he’ll just get chaff for his feeds (no beet pulp). Hopefully, he’ll be fine. I switched to feeding them twice daily for the winter but didn’t think about the possible impact of a double amount of beet pulp.

Tuesday 17^th December

Damp and quite mild this morning, turning to rain through the day. I shot out this morning because the farrier was coming at 8am. I forgot to let the hens down and remembered about 2pm. Poor things. Gave them a tin of sardines and extra corn as compensation.

The oven is working!!! Turns out the fan wasn’t broken, just gunged up over 14 years of use. Thanks to Alan, now working fine, and a batch of mince pies finally made.

Farrier here this morning; lots of growth on Mickey’s feet, not so much on Smokey’s although it’s been twelve weeks since his were done and only six weeks for Mickey. Turns out Mickey won’t eat chaff on its own, so Smokey had extras.

Dan carried on working on the hedging. I nursemaided Dot. It’s seven years since we brought Thomas home. Thought we’d have him longer, but he had a good seven years, I think.

My replacement on the Festival team picked up the boxes of “stuff” today. The end of an era. In another era-ending move, I transferred all my contacts from my Filofax (some 33 years old) to my phone. Quite a few didn’t make the transfer. Dan also expects me to start using the electronic diary – may be a step too far.

Wednesday 18^th December

Today is the anniversary of bringing Penfold home.

Mickey is a bit footy still. Aaargh.

Thursday 19^th December

Dry, sunny, cool, light breeze. I even hung washing out. And got it dried.

Dan took himself off food shopping for Saturday and the days beyond. Turkey to pick up tomorrow then we do not plan to be near any shops until the 27^th. At the earliest.

I’ve kept Mickey and Smokey in. Before turning them out this morning, I walked round the fields, shutting the gates to keep them in the two Ditch paddocks and there was an amazing amount of grass. And given the weather, it’s probably flushing. So in they are, in the meantime. I’ll try and get some bute into him, but he’s a fly wee bugger.

Finally put the marzipan on cake, followed swiftly by the icing. I bought ready rolled and had to ask a Tesco staff member where it was. She showed me and said she didn’t understand why the ready rolled was so much more expensive than the block. I asked her if she’d ever rolled icing. She said she hadn’t. I rested my case. Next year I’m going to do the glazed nut and fruit toppings.

Since the marzipan was out, I stuffed some dates. Covered in dark chocolate, these are a favourite of Dan’s.

An order of three plants – Geranium “Elke” – arrived, so I got these potted up. No idea where I’m going to put them yet.

Friday 20^th December

Mickey is much better but I’m keeping them in still. He’ll only take bute in his feed if there’s sugar beet in it. A conundrum. We put a new bale of hay – the last one went in on 22^nd November. This bale will go down quicker.

New bale.

Dan split the last of the wood with Alistair’s splitter. Never seen the wood store so full or so tidy.

Tidy and full woodstore.

Dan and Linda set off to collect the turkey and to do some shopping at M&S. I made tiramisu and another batch of mince pies.

I know “small, far away”, but Dottie is probably half the weight of Cooper.

Cooper and Dot.

The festive season has officially started. The advocaat bottle has been breached.

The stove was lit – only that would induce Diesel and Bertie to get this close and not fight.

Diesel & Bertie.

And Much Fiddling now has a hearse.

Much Fiddling's hearse.

Saturday 21^st December

The Solstice; the shortest day, when we welcome back the light as the year turns. Dan cooked a fantastic meal; roast turkey, gravy, roast potatoes and parsnips. Braised red cabbage, using about ¼ of the 6lb red cabbage I grew this year.

Six pound red cabbage.

Peas with shallots, garlic, lemon and thyme. Panfried sprouts with Marmite butter (delicious). Parcels of sausage stuffing, wrapped in streaky bacon The only thing that didn’t quite hit the mark was the Yorkshires with sage, but the hens loved them.

I made prawn cocktail to start and we finished with tiramisu. There are two Christmas puddings in the cupboard, but they’ll keep.

Before dinner, Lorna and I had a walk along Carnoustie front. It was bowing an absolute hoolie, but the swing park was full of children, all wrapped up, and there were lots of folk out walking. And there were two folk WIND SURFING – in half an hour, they could have been in Norway!!!!

Windsurfers.

Sunday 22^nd December

A relaxing day; we swapped presents. I think my favourite was my new socks – love the pattern and the colour, and the merino mix yarn is so soft.

New socks.

Dan played football; I built a Lego harbour, the creation of which kind of fundamentally changes Much Fiddling. It’s now a harbour town so I need to look again at the overall layout. I am determined to complete the sets with bits missing or at least make up an order for the missing bits.

Harbour.

Six eggs from six hens. They really are a remarkable little flock.