Wow!! What a Weekend.

We have had SUCH a productive weekend. 

Thursday night was spent planning out the planting for the Polytunnel, at first normally and then later by candlelight, as we had a power cut just as it was going dark. So the chickens were put to bed early, baths were had by the fading light and we sat completing the PT plan and then talking until bedtime, then guess what just as we snuggled into bed the power came back on, oh well, an early night did us the world of good ready for the hard day to follow.

The front doors of the PT.

Up bright and early on Friday we took the dogs for a long walk and then got stuck in, me with planting the PT and Lovely Hubby with making a cover for the water trough to stop the leaves falling in, after that he made me a lovely little pathway into the PT so we don't walk too much mud in. He also filled  the two beds outside of the PT with manure and topsoil 

Then he went off to play with Boys Toys ... more of that tomorrow.

The view from the front doors.

The beds were marked out with string to follow the plan so that we could fit in the maximum amount of plants, seeds were sown, watered in and then with only one bed left to do I ran out of time. Still I will be able to complete that sometime this week. We have planted melons, cucumbers, carrots, parsnips, leeks, radishes, spring onions, cabbage and cauliflowers up to now, with more to be done in the last bed.

Cup of mint tea anyone?

A herb garden was planted, including rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, coriander, lemon coriander, chives, basil, apple mint and ordinary mint, with the mint being planted the giant teacup to stop the roots invading everywhere.

My lovely little pepper plants were planted at last, they have been living on the kitchen windowsill for weeks waiting for their new home.

And at the end of a long but fulfilling Friday we had baths, put on clean clothes and went for a lovely civilised supper at our new friends house in the village, and over a gorgeous home produced and cooked meal and a bottle or two of the finest wine we put the world to rights.

My reward for such a long day planting ... the appearance of our very first tomato!!

Sue xx

Flowerpot Man

My lovely little Flowerpot Man is currently sitting in the polytunnel with only a solitary grapevine and twenty one tomato plants (and their friends the French Marigolds) for company. Soon he is to be joined by vegetable seeds galore, for tonight I am sitting at the kitchen table sketching and deciding on a plan to fill the PT with as many seeds as I can possibly fit in.

There will be a herb bed, another planting of peas, cucumber, peppers, oooh ... the list goes on and on, if my sketch is readable I may put it on here, if not you will only see the list.

Lovely Hubby has cleaned out the horses water-trough that is positioned just outside the PT so we are ready with the raised beds, the manure, the earth and now the water, so planting can commence.

Oooh the excitement, and the anticipation, whatever the weather tomorrow I can be out planting and in a few weeks more lovely homegrown food will be on the table, well either that or I'll have wasted lots of seeds, time and it will all have gone disastrously wrong, time will tell!!

I promise I will be honest and let you know if polytunnels are really worth it, gosh I'm hoping they are!

Sue xx

I've been tagged......

I've been tagged by the lovely Sal at that gorgeous blog Sals Snippets.

I have to admit to my five currents obsessions and pass it on to five more of my lovely readers.

Well here you are (in no particular order) my five current obsessions.

1. Rosy - the lovely little puppy.

2. Books, magazines and reading material in general. I seem to be acquiring the most amazing amount of paper stuff at the moment. I am in love with charity shops, Ebay and Amazon, they have been giving me such fantastic bargains and stacks of books and mags are building in corners everywhere. One day when the cold weather arrives I will curl up in the corner of my lovely big squishy leather sofa and work my way through them.

3. Blogging - I now have three to do and loads to read, and every available minute I sit down with a cup of coffee is spent either reading them or updating mine.

4. Gillian McKeith - I know a VERY strange one, but I am determined to get healthy and clear my mind of lots of little troubles that have been bothering me recently and a lot of what she says is very good,  I am watching re-runs of 'You Are What You Eat', I have joined her website and I have ALL her books, (waiting to be read when I'm not reading blogs). This will also explain the private blog that is not open to readers (yet?).

and lastly -

5. The most important current obsession is Lovely Hubby, we have been together almost five years now and I'm as obsessed with him as he is with me, when you find true love at our age you realise what you have, and you make sure you make the most of every minute and I am sure he will be my biggest and most enduring obsession ever.

I would like to tag the first five people to leave a comment on this post, please feel free to copy the little picture and tell us your 5 current obsessions, whether they be serious or funny. Have fun, take up the challenge and keep this little tag going.

Normal blogging will resume tomorrow.

Sue xx

Oh Woe is me.....!

Oh woe is me ... my little band of helpers is no more! 

They have packed up, hopped in the car and gone home for a relaxing end of summer stint on their allotment.

"No ... I promise I won't put that picture on my blog!" 😄

Ooops....sorry it just slipped on!

On a more serious note ... THANK YOU ... Mum and Dad, your help over the last week is much appreciated and thanks to it things are moving on in leaps and bounds.

Lovely Hubby making adjustments to the doorway at the back.

 

The polytunnel is now (almost complete) just final fixings at the front door, door handles and catches all round and then it's time for serious planting. The tomatoes have taken up residence already, and thanks to my Mum and Dads' magic green fingers might even offer up a fruit or two in the next few weeks.

First residents.......tomatoes!

The first new plant purchased for the tunnel is the white grapevine.....mmm.....perhaps wine next year! Who knows. This has to have its' roots outside the tunnel and the greenery inside so had to go in place before we finished sealing the edges.

The old peas were dug up and after being snacked on by the chickens are now in the compost bins, and brand new plants are in their place, giving us the chance of another crop before Autumn.

New pea plants in place and pea seeds planted further along the row.

 

The new chicks are relishing their daily freedom, although they are slightly fed up of being herded into a tight little bunch and they spend a good section of each day hiding in the bushes from the exuberant Sophie.

Little Rosy, the newest addition to our family is slightly bemused at the family shrinking so rapidly overnight and is looking for the missing members. 

She has now learnt to 'sit' and is doing it not just for food but also on command. Her next lesson is 'fetch', and we are half way there. This is an important one because Sophie loves it so much and it only seems fair to get Rosy understanding the game too. She came for a long walk with us today (Archie stayed at home for once) and was very good on her long retractable lead and didn't trip me up once!! She is now having a long afternoon snooze to get back some energy for mischief tonight.

Today work has started on the piece of land at the back of the house, it is to be our little 'allotment' area, with nine more raised beds, with numerous pathways in between the beds and leading to the shed and the compost bins.

  The land had been filled with all the rubble from the house build many, many years ago and the renovations from more recently, with a layer of large stones covered by another layer of small shingle like stones, so we have a lovely man with a little digger and a big lorry relocating all the stones to the back of the barn for us. Up to know it has taken him all day to get us to this stage, but by the end of tonight we should be more level.

 

Of course every time Ian leaves the digger to drive the truck to the barn the chickens rush out to dig for worms in the newly disturbed earth.

We are truly moving forward in this little enterprise, helped greatly by Mum and Dad, so a massive thanks to you both for last week we truly could not have achieved what we did last week without you. I keep telling myself that every little thing we do is a step forward in this new and interesting life. (I don't always believe it....but I keep telling myself anyway!!)

Until next time ... keep busy, and more importantly keep happy and always take time to smell the roses.

Sue xx

Neglected blog...but a puppy getting lots of attention!!

I've been told off by my Mum, she arrived on Sunday (with Dad) and rushed to greet the sturdy little dog she thought I had. I think I forgot to mention the sturdy little Jack Russell/Miniature Pippin cross is actually only six inches tall on her little tippy toes!!

The photo on the last post (my Mum says) makes her look big and sturdy. I keep trying to get her to pose next to things that will give a true perspective (the puppy that is, not my Mum), but you know puppies, by the time you have clicked the camera she isn't even in the shot anymore!!

She's settling in well and joined in on the walk this morning with Sophie and Archie, although she had to be carried for two thirds of it as the wet grass was taller than her.

 

Progress is being made on the polytunnel now that I have a little band of helpers, the raised beds were assembled on Monday and most of them filled in yesterday morning before I jetted off to do my stint at the charity shop. Tuesday saw us all going to the Farmers Market in Aylesbury and a lovely day it was too, although fighting with a tarpaulin on a breezy day makes for a stressful start!

Today we are dependent on the weather, it's beginning to look quite promising with the sun peeking her face out from between the greyish clouds, there is blue sky in the distance and therefore hope for the onions that will be again freed from their blanket of weeds.

The new chicks Nutmeg, Bourneville, Fudge and Coco have settled in well, last night they had their first taste of freedom. We decided to let them out of their run an hour before dusk so they could have a quick explore before bedtime. It worked brilliantly and they tucked up themselves safely in bed in their little Eglu as soon as it went dark like the good little chickens they are. Today they are having their first full day of freedom, being bossed about by the Big Girls and rounded up on a regular basis by Sophie, could be quite a stressful day for them!!

Have a good and productive day, we will ... hopefully!!

Sue xx

Everything's Looking 'Rosy'

Yesterday we went to pick up the latest addition to the family - Rosy. 

She is a cross Jack Russell/'Pippin' and is just nine weeks old today. She is booked into the vets later for her first jab...but shush.....don't tell her!

Mmm ... all this for me?

She enjoyed her journey home from Southampton, sleeping most of the way with just a pit stop for a drink of water and the toilet. She quickly made herself at home, exploring everything within reach and meeting Sophie and the cats for the first time. Had a yummy meal of puppy food and then sat with us watching television.

Trying Sophie's' bed out for size.

After trying the big dog bed she sensibly decided the little doggie bed was the cosier option and settled down to a full nights sleep. She woke at 5am had a drink and a mad half hour and then dragging her bed over to be closer to ours she quickly fell into another deep sleep and let us lie in until 7.30am, (a rare occurrence in this house).

Trying out her bed, later moved to our room.

Now she is fast asleep at my feet after a morning of exploring the house and the garden, she's met the chickens and strangely they are scared of her!  They must think she's a little rat. Sophie is quickly getting used to her and Toby thinks she's just another little animal for him to watch from the distance. Archie is unsure, he's never known a dog smaller than him and is just baffled!!

Back with more pictures of our new cutie next week, in the meantime have a lovely weekend.

Sue xx

Weather ! !

Two little helpers, Cappuccino and Mona.

What unseasonal weather we've been having this week. The chickens were huddled together under their little house one minute and basking in sunshine the next, then they were soaking wet, then thankfully the wind got up and blew them dry.

That's when they decided to help me tidy the side of the house. I weeded and cleaned out between the flagstones and they unearthed all the little creepy crawlies and turned it into a little picnic. I swept all the gravel off the path, and they dug it out and flicked it all back onto the path.

Between us we managed to get the back of the house looking like this, a bit bare but tidier and much safer to walk on. The two cast iron bench-ends are a bargain Lovely Hubby picked up and are awaiting some new slats of hardwood to make us a lovely seat to sit on at the back of the house......we have BIG plans for this area.

Sue xx