New Blog Shop

After much deliberation I have decided to close my Typepad Blog and move my little Blog Shop onto Blogger which I find much easier to use.

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It is called Lavenders Blue 2, the second re-incarnation of my lovely little shop in the Ulverston, Cumbria. In it I will be selling a selection of the lovely lavender and associated items that I currently sell at the Farmers Markets and Craft Fairs that I attend here in the leafy lanes of Oxfordshire, England.

The Original Lavender's Blue... in Ulverston, Cumbria.

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I will strive to keep all postage costs as low as possible and will also use this little shop to offer special offers and 'last of lines' to all my lovely readers.

A lot of the items that I sell are handmade and unique to Lavender's Blue and although I do not mind in the slightest you copying any item for your own use I would prefer that you did not mass produce to sell in this area. If, however, you live abroad or at least outside of England......feel free to be cheeky!! (In fact email and ask for help if you need it!)

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I will add to the shop on a regular basis and leave items for sale until I have no more stock, so please scroll back to find older posts to order from. Once stocks are gone I will post on the relevent page to let you know.

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As a special offer to start my Little Blog Shop off on the right foot, I am offering a free Goody Bag of Lavender Lovelies to the fifth Follower to sign up to the shop.

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Thank you for reading this interruption to life on the farm, normal service will be resumed on Monday.

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Have a brilliant weekend.

Love Sue xx

RIP Mona

Today another of my lovely ladies went to meet her maker.

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We're not sure exactly how, whether it be a fox or one of the many Red Kites that have been circling the farm so low each day looking for food. Her body was left behind so there is more reason to suspect a Red Kite swoop, she would have been a bit too heavy to carry off I think.

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Whichever way, she is gone and now there are 7 White Girls, already they are staying closer together and close to the house. Tonight there will be a gap on the perches.

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Missing you already, my Mona, the noisiest and most complaining of the chickens, so glad that you spent so many happy days here on our farm.

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Sue xx

Autumn Days

The days are shorter now,. and soon to be even shorter when the clocks go back tonight. My mornings are now taken up by the feeding and cleaning out of the chickens and the feeding of the pigs. It seems pointless to go in and get cleaned up straight after this so while I still have my muddy wellies on we wander the fields the dogs and me. Noticing in detail the changing colours of the leaves and the different light in the sky.

A few last blackberries cling to the brambles but these cannot be picked, for according to an old tradition, they have been 'wee'd on by Satan'! No, I hadn't heard of that one until recently, very strange, but I'm sure the birds appreciate us leaving the last of these lovely fruits for them to feast on before the winter rolls in.

I am having a mini Blogging break for a couple of days as Jason is home from Uni for the weekend and my lovely folks are heading down the motorway to stay for a few days from tomorrow. We intend to have a relaxing time, catching up on news, maybe a spot of tidying in the polytunnel, definitely a bit of retail therapy and most certainly a few good meals.

Have a lovely weekend...back soon.

Sue xx

Raining Apples

What do you do when everytime you go out you get rained on by apples........you make apple and pear puree.

Our inherited apple tree is SO prolific at the moment, the apples on the uppermost branches, that were way past our harvesting reach, are now being thrown with gay abandon by the tree on to the heads of anyone daring enough to wander too close.

Mum had given us some lovely pears on my last visit and there were three left in the bottom of the fridge, so together with a basket of windfalls (jettisons) from the lovely old apple tree that is near the chicken house, I got stuck in and made a huge pan of Apple and Pear puree, some of it was consumed that same night with a crumble topping and the most divine toffee and vanilla icecream.

Mmmmmm.....................calories!!

The last jar (of this batch) is to be saved for a repeat pudding when my lovely Mum and Dad visit next week, if I can resist the temptation long enough!

Sue xx

Guest Blogger

Hi, my name is Archie and I used to have my own Blog, called Archie...Shop Cat, but it seems to have vanished. So my Mum says I can have a go on hers today.

I used to write all about my adventures from leaving my pussycat Mum to moving in with Mum and Hairy Human. But now I am older there are some things that Mums are best not knowing (especially when it makes Mum cross, like when I catch and eat the tasty little birds), so I didn't go to my Blog very much and now it has gone.

Now I live on a farm with Mum, Hairy Human, Big Dog, Little Dog, Toby the Big Black cat, 8 Big White birds, 4 Big Brown Birds and 3 Big Pigs, it's always busy and always lots of fun. I have my own little door that me and Toby use to come in and out of our own room where our food dishes and little beds are.

Today I went on a walk with Mum and Sophie (Big Dog) and Rosy (Little Dog). It was wet in the long grass and the sticky things got in my tail, like they always do, so Mum kept pulling them out......OUCH!

We run together and sometimes roll in the wet grass, Little Dog vanishes into the ditches and Big Dog likes to chase the sticks that Mum throws. Me, I'm happy to walk with Mum, sometimes I run on ahead so I can have a lie down and wait for everyone to catch up.

Sometimes I climb high into the trees, I've heard wussy town cats have to get the Fire Brigade to get them out of trees but I can get to the very top and then STILL get down.

When we get to the end of the track around the field we turn around and head back towards the house.

Big Dog usually runs ahead, she likes to get back first the round up the Big Brown Birds, me and Little Dog stay close to Mum and we play chase, and stick fetching. Little Dog finds lots of things to sniff at, but me I listen for the little birds in the hedges and sometimes I go to see if I can catch any.

Sometimes I get in front of Little Dog and have to watch out for her running up behind me.

Then we are home, and it's time to go in for milk and Gravy Bones......I love Gravy Bones!

The Big White Bird comes to tell Mum that there are eggs for breakfast, so we go and get them before coming in for a warm and a snooze.

Archie

(was Shop Cat - now Farm Cat)

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Take one man...............

Take one man and a barrow load of tools...................

A brilliant days work went on yesterday we both just got stuck in and went for it. It was a crisp, cold, but lovely and sunny day, the ideal weather to do outdoor work, you don't get hot and sticky but you don't feel the cold either as long as you keep going and keep going we did.

Lovely Hubby managed to get all the fence posts in along the house side of the orchard and round the corner to the gate, with stock fencing and two strips of barbed wire fitted at the top and bottom to make the orchard nice and secure for the pigs.

He even managed to get our nice new gate that leads into the neighbouring field hung and working. And whilst he was doing that I planted 240 over-wintering white onion sets in one of last years potato beds and made it chicken proof. Now just a similar of red onions to plant.

Today I am going to sit and draw plans of all our beds, both the raised beds outside and the polytunnel beds and even the tyres at the side of the house so we can list what we have planted and what we plan to put in them next year. I think it's time we were slightly more organised, so we intend to have our own growing book and write down what we plant and what it cost us and what return we get out of it.

Should make for interesting reading in a few years time!

Sue xx

Fencing and Trees

100 trees to go down the lefthand side and bottom of the orchard.

The main job today for Lovely Hubby is to do the final bit of fencing for the orchard, once that is done we will have the option of letting the pigs out of their enclosures and into the whole of the orchard. Once they can do that they will be able to forage all over the orchard and supplement their pig nuts with whatever yummy goodies they can find.

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After he has completed this he will get on with planting some more of the trees to help suck up some of the excess water in the orchard and screen the pigs from the winds that can howl across the from the paddock.

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The big new gate to the orchard is now hung and I just have to get used to not being able to cut through whichever trees I'm nearest and head to the gate to gain access to my lovely piggy friends.

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The White girls (chickens) have now moved into their new luxury accomodation with the Brown girls, although one, Latte, forgot which direction to head in last night and went to sleep on top of the old chicken pen. Luckily LH's ladder was nearby and he climbed (in torchlight) to reach Latte and put her securely to bed in the right place.

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My jobs for today include planting my winter onions in the old potato bed and clearing out the veggie tyres of the last of their crops, there are a couple of remaining courgette/marrows that can be turned into some more Courgette and Tomato sauce, and I spy a good handful of lettuce leaves that can be added to rocket from the polytunnel to go with tonights salad.

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It's very good this feeding yourself from the garden lark, it opens your eyes to all sorts of possibilities with food and makes us much more experimental, who knows what we'll be trying by next year!

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Well I'm off out now that the temperature has risen slightly, I'll have lots of little helpers, chickens and dogs mainly, who always like to see exactly what I'm doing and in the case of the chickens as fast as I plant something they pull it up for a taste and a closer look!

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Hope you're enjoying your weekend too.

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Sue xx