Heaven Preserve Us

We have had a good crop of blackcurrants from one bush. We also had lots of redcurrants but they were raided by some wily critters who managed to circumnavigate the net!

Jam was the order of the day. It's not my best, the fruit is a little chewy. I didn't soften them long enough I expect.

But the flavour is good nonetheless.

New Arrivals....

...eight point of lay 17 week old warren pullets arrived yesterday.

They are very shy, never having been outdoors before today.

There has been a bit of squabbling.

Some of the resident matrons are positively sulking...

What was really amazing was watching a couple of the new girls enjoying a dust bath for the first time. They have spent their entire life in a barn but an innate instinct took over. The wonder of creation.

Speaking of which, there has been a positive proliferation of plum blossom in just one week...

I hope it means a bumper crop of plums. The tree is just two years planted in our garden and was a young sapling. There were approx five plums last year. So here's hoping.

Another arrival this weekend is eldest daughter home from uni for five weeks.

Eleven year old daughter made a lovely spring flower table decoration..

Here it is displayed on a recently purchased rather jolly charity shop tablecloth (£2.79.)

And  just the excuse we needed to bake a big cake to welcome her home...

Also managed some seed sowing, a bit of weeding and quite a lot of leaning on the fence enjoying the bird song. All the brood back under one roof, happy days.

Harvest

Tonight we enjoyed our first cucumber. It was not too big and a bit spiky but when peeled and sliced it was delish. We each had a piece of a shop bought one followed by a piece of this and God was it good in comparison. I only wish I had a few plants now and not just one.

We also shared a bowl of strawberries, (approx 2 each) Royal Sovereign from DT Browns. They are beautiful, glistening and just the right size. They are sweet with a hint of sharpness. I have never tasted a strawberry like them before.

The peas are coming on too and the french beans scrambling up the poles amongst other things. Growing at home has been much more successful for me than at an allotment. It is easier to keep on top of and whilst I have only a miniscule amount of space in comparison I have far fewer weeds and my plants are much healthier too. I have not been overwhelmed as I often was in the past.

Here is bigger son helping to water the garden

...as well as his little brother.

On a sad note, Reynard has paid us a visit twice in the last week and we have lost four of our hens, Edwina, Bunty, Dorothy and Maud. Maud was my favourite. Nature can be vicious sometimes.


P.S. My nephew (who is wearing the red shorts in my banner above ) has been poorly for several days and finally, after a lot of messing about, had his appendix removed the early hours of this morning. Have a good thought/prayer for him and his mum, my sister, who is expecting and has had several torrid nights with little if any sleep. Plus he has to stay in for several days for IV antibiotics as it was seemingly pretty bad.
Thank you in anticipation.

New Additions

We have two new additions to our little flock.....

Henrietta above and Hermione below...

They are light sussex and quite large hens compared to our regular brown Warrens and, great excitement, Henrietta is broody. Pictured above she is sitting on five hopefully fertile eggs provided by a friend who has a flock running with two cocks. So fingers crossed, in approx 18 days from now we may have some chicklets!

Meanwhile the garden is beginning to flourish. Just look at my little applets above. Aren't they cute?

This is a clematis called Graham something-or-other planted in September and looking lovely at the moment.

Here is our biggest strawberry "Royal Sovereign" just ready to turn hopefully.

Pea pods they are a plenty...can't wait to sample them.

And the boys have had loads of fun chasing bubbles. (Just look at my view, aren't I lucky?)

Hope you all had good weekends too.

Weekend Catch Up

My little flock saw a gap in the fence and made a bid for freedom.....

Oh the lure of a neighbouring dandelion leaf. They love em.

For those who don't keep hens, they very quickly turn a patch of green into bare earth (which they love scratting around in by the way) but they do love a nibble of a bit of greenery. Especially newly planted veg seedlings! We give them greens to eat as well as household scraps and layers pellets of course. But they are in 7th heaven in a patch like this which is my neighbours end of the garden composting/garden rubbish area. I think I may fence a bit of their own patch off and sow a fast growing green manure type plant to give them a bit of a change.

My 9 year old girl cub (much more fun than Brownies) has done her chefs badge. Three of them went to "The Warren" cub/scout HQ and prepared a lovely roast dinner for their families with delicious stuffing cooked from scratch as well as a choice of three sweets. It was great.

Inspired by Alys Fowler's Edible Garden we have planted some salad amongst our flower/shrub beds.

Not a very good photo I'm afraid but you get the idea.


And finally a lovely  lemon cake for tea, reluctantly made by my 12 year old...

but she was glad she made the effort later when she was eating it. Wouldn't have her picture taken though.

Hope your weekend was good too.

Weekend: The Story So Far.....

Friday evening letting off a bit of steam...

Saturday morning sneaking a sip of Mums tea....

Saturday afternoon a spot of potting on.....

and planting out.....




and admiring the show so far.....



It's going quite well thus far. Hopefully more tomorrow.
Happy Saturday one and all.

Where Has The Last Week Gone?

It's Sunday already and back to school in the morning. I do love the school hols and the house full of people, lots of cooking and playing and crafting and noise.

We did manage to plant the fruit trees at last. The apple and pear are to be trained on a wall, fingers crossed. The "Lizzie" plum has has been banished to the hens patch as not enough room in the garden....

...the girls were suitably impressed with the digging and managed to completely disperse the composted mulch.

Roller skates have been the bringers of much joy...

...I think she would wear them in bed if at all possible.

My favourite butchers, having sampled my legendary (in these parts) scones, requested the recipe to bake and sell in their shop. They have been a success and yesterday I was rewarded with a bag full of fresh lemons from the butcher's wife's Mum's lemon tree in Spain....

...they are the juiciest, zestiest lemons ever. Tonight we had a delish cheesecake from Sam Sterns cookbook...

...made by my 16year old daughter.

This is a fab recipe, click on the link above, but I am sure the luscious lemons made it even better.

A spot of gardening...

Inspired by the lovely Alys Fowler in "The Edible Garden," we have made a wigwam for the sweet peas from coppiced hazel and spent phormium leaves. Aren't we clever girls eh?

And finally, the weather has been lovely here. Even managed to sit out some evenings and enjoy the sinking of the sun....

Hope you all had a good holiday week. Just sending a few thoughts and prayers for all those stuck in the air traffic chaos, including my youngest sis on a two day work seminar in Copenhagen. She should have been home Thursday and has two little children whom she is missing desperately. Texted today she feels helpless, I want to cry for her. I once left mine for two days to go on a hen weekend to Dublin. I pined for them and was desperate to get home almost as soon as we arrived. My heart goes out to all those separated from loved ones.

Fruit Trees

My fruit tree collection arrived today from DT Browns.

I am hoping to espalier train them on a south facing wall.

I have a buerre hardy pear,

                                                                                   

  a plum Lizzie,

and an apple Pinova for which I cannot find an image.

I have just heeled them in for now as I want to put the training wires up on the wall first and I was working this afternoon/evening.

Will I get fruit this year all you experts out there?

First Day of Spring

Today the 1st undergardener and I started our seed sowing in earnest. Toms and salads and caulis and peas and peppers and onions and marigolds and rudbeckia and rhubarb planted and clematis planted and  raspberry canes planted and dahlias coming out of our ears. Mr. Lidl has a lot to answer for.

Interspersed with plenty of  tea. (The shadows are the washing on the line, bliss.)

Dearly beloved turned the compost bless him. And we noticed the catkins on the hazelnut for the first time..



 My brother and his wife and lovely family came for tea, so it has been a good day. I hope yours was happy too.

Mothering Sunday

In medieval times this was the day folks visited the "mother" church of their diocese. It wasn't till mid 17th century that it became a day for honouring human mothers. Lady Day on 25th March celebrates the mother of God and so they all become intertwined. Those in service were given the day off half way through Lent to go and visit their mums. It was also a brief respite from the fasting and abstinence of the season with an excuse for a good feed. Traditionally, bunches of wild flowers like violets or primroses were taken home along with simnel cake.

I didn't bake a simnel cake today but I did go to church. My own mum who died 2 years ago didn't like us to make a fuss and was always delighted with the school made cards. Here is my breakfast tray with 3 lovely homemade cards and daffs in a jamjar.

And here is a bit of bling made by my 3 year old at nursery school. Everybody elses were full of big bright beads, his teacher said mine was minimalist and colour co-ordinated too! My boy does love the colour orange.

My Dad came for tea and brought a hot cooked rib of beef with him so all I had to do was the veg. And I had a great day planting strawberries, a new climbing rose "compassion" and having a general old mooch about in the garden. It was good. Hope you all had a nice Mothering Sunday too.

A Grand Day Out

Yesterday I had a lovely day out at RHS Harlow Carr garden. It was organised by a new local group trying to inspire the public to "grow your own." I discovered them quite by chance whilst reading a free local paper in the butchers queue earlier in the week. I logged on to their website to find out more and lo and behold.... they were running this FREE trip yesterday. How lucky is that?

It was exceedingly cold and a bit grey, and unfortunately my camera battery ran out before I would have liked. But it is a beautiful garden, over 58 acres with woodland as well as formal planting and a lovely water area.

Here are a few pics. Look at this great big teapot leaf mould container, right outside Betty's outdoor tea shop.

These snowdrops were delightful on the edge of the woodland.

This is what I am aspiring to with my own fruit trees!

And this with my greenhouse!

Cacti for sale in the plant shop were so colourful, they reminded me of  a sweetshop.

My veg bed will soon be looking looking like this (in my dreams.) The bed surrounds were made from recycled plastic milk bottles apparently.

The cornus (dogwood I think) was so vibrant it looked almost artificial.

Some of the trees were stunning.

They also do lots of willow weaving and sculpture. This is a whale tail. The beech hedge in the background was magnificent.

The whole structure and  form of the garden is just so pleasing.

It was very inspiring to see such richness of colour and shape in a garden in the winter, when my own looks so bleak.

The alpine house was outstanding but my camera had died by then. And it's worth a visit just to buy from the plant shop. All the specimens were so well presented and vigorous.  I can't wait to visit later in the year when everything will be in bloom. Heartily recommended.