Work Less and Live More

I love this little snippet of a famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.  

See here for the full poem and to listen to it being read. 

I take it slightly out of the context it was written in, and it reminds me that we are walking a road less travelled in that we have moved away from over-consumerism.  That we are moving towards being as self sufficient as we possibly can be in many ways, and that what we are doing is considered outside of the 'norm' for many people.

Yes, lots of you lovely readers also have chosen this path too, but by and large the vast majority of the folk in this country and many others are on a path that seems to me to be like a treadmill.

Going out to work, working longer and longer hours to pay for things that they 'should' have.  Striving always for more ... more things, more space, more possessions, more experiences, just more, more, more.

When does it stop, when will it stop?  Will we ever have enough in this consumerist age, when will more people stop and realise that all that you acquire cannot be taken with you.  Most of what we have our children will not want once we are gone. So it will all have been in vain, yes maybe we get momentary pleasure from purchases but then they are added to the stack of stuff we already have and the pleasure is forgotten about and more acquiring of things is needed to get the feeling back.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is how much better it would be to work less and live more.  

To earn enough to keep a decent roof over your head, the bills paid and food on the table and then decide to stop acquiring things and instead to go out and live.  To spend time with loved ones, talking, reminiscing, planning.  To take the time to walk the paths, the beaches, the woodlands or just around the streets of your neighbourhood.  To take the time to get to know the places and the folk around you.  It costs nothing yet gives you so much.

I'm obviously just in a musing mood .... I go off on a tangent occasionally and this time I thought I would share it with you.

Here's a cute photo ... just so you know it's still me  ;-)

Sue xx

A Long Week

Phew .... it's been a long week.  

What with the changeable weather, painters showing up/not showing up, builders picking things up, guys dropping off chippings, non-stop watering in the polytunnel, clearing up after escaping chickens who love to rummage around in the chippings that Lovely Hubby has placed so carefully around the plants, and the general day to day hectic-ness of living with two hyperactive Jack Russells and a seemingly permanently hungry Pug,  and if you top it all off with a cat that keeps bringing in mice for the Jack Russells to chase around the chest freezer, I mean never have you seen two dogs so obsessed with a chest freezer and what lurks beneath it .... I need a lie down and a long cool, very alcoholic drink!!

By the way that's not Suky in the top picture ......

... this is Suky !!

Sue xx

It Says It All Really .......

It says it all doesn't it  :-)

Sue xx

In the Net Tunnel in July

The Net Tunnel in July is a lovely place to work in.  

The over-Wintered things have mostly been eaten,  by us I hasten to add not any pests.  I have just pulled up the last of the onions and I did have them drying in the sunshine ... until the rain came, now they are over in the polytunnel drying off in the heat.

Down the centre of the tunnel I have the Blueberry bushes which are cropping very heavily this year, and hopefully, as the birds can't get in to pinch them, we will get to eat most of them for a change.  In the left hand bed I have a Butternut Squash plant (a trial for this year, with an identical one being in the polytunnel), the Cauliflowers, the Peas and the Lavenders and Borage.

And in the beds on the right hand side are Carrots, Beetroot, and Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

Looking at the same bed from the other end of the tunnel you can see the Tomato plants at the back, with the Cabbages in front and the Garlic is closest to us in this photo, which is lying down and just about ready to be harvested.

Looking at the other side from this end you can see the Pea supports a bit better, and closer to us in this photo are some of the Leeks that went to seed, I decided that as they wanted to go to seed to let some of them remain so I could harvest the seeds for using next year ... and I love all Allium flower heads so they will look lovely when they open.

At the moment resting on the bed that the onions came out of, are the young Lavender plants and some spare Cucumber plants waiting to be added to the sales box when there's some more space.

So that's it ... that's what the Net Tunnel looks like right now.  

It's lovely to work in there with the netting shading me slightly from the sun, although it's little protection from any sudden showers.  Most of the plants love it as much as I do in there, and Mr and Mrs Bunny have yet to find a way in thank goodness.  I do make sure that I open the doors for a while when I'm working in there or in the polytunnel to let beneficial insects in (and out).

And did you notice we now have a lovely thick layer of bark chippings on the floor, so no more kneeling down getting muddy knees   :-)

Sue xx

The View

Our view from home is the view you can see in the header photograph at the top of the blog.   As you travel along the road it obviously changes as the hills follow the contours of the River Conwy.  

Usually I can't capture the changing view as I'm driving the car, and even when I'm a passenger we are too low down in the car or truck to fully do it justice.  But the other day we went to the Tearooms at Bodnant and driving down from the carpark I just had to pull over and snap at the wonderful vista before me.

We're so lucky to have found this beautiful part of Wales to call our own.

Sue xx

What's with the Weather!!

What's with the weather?  Where is the Summer or at least a couple of warm days in a row so that we can know that it's safe to hang out a line of washing without having to keep one eye on the window all the time.

This morning I was sat at the computer with my second cup of coffee of the day, it was needed to warm my hands after walking the dogs round the paddock, cleaning out the henhouse and watering the polytunnel.  The dogs all decided it was the sort of day when a proper sleep was called for and within minutes of me sitting down the snoring began.

It does make it feel cosy in the office with snoozing pooches for company.

Outside it's all looking pretty lush.  The Lavender is growing well in the new flower bed near the road, this is the large transplanted bush, all the smaller ones are flowering too ... just in a more restrained way.  The bees love it although try as I might I couldn't get one in shot for the photo.

In the old bed in front of the house the Hydrangea is coming into flower and is at that just opening stage before going all 'blowsy'.

And the bright pink Rose (I have no idea what sort it is) is flowering again.  Just as it did all last Summer, all through the Autumn and all through the Winter ... and then with just a two week rest in Spring it started again.  I just can't seem to get it pruned and I'll be damned if I'm going to cut off such lovely flowers just to prune it when the book says I should.

Picture from October

So the weather isn't just confusing us, it has the plants all haywire too.  The Dog Rose that I pictured flowering in the paddock back in October is now flowering again, and is a mass of pretty pink flowers ... this time though around the time that they should be there.

Sue xx

Selling the Surplus

For the past three weekends we have been selling the surplus home grown plants at the farm gate.  This year I'm not looking to make huge profits just to get my money back for the compost, pots and time that I've spent sowing the seeds and potting them on.  I'd rather see the plants go to someone who needs them than end up on the compost heap.

I made sure that the plant pots they were sold in were the oldest and most varied,  and I also checked and double checked that we really didn't need any of the plants for ourselves.  As it is I have far too many tomato, cucumber and aubergine plants growing in the poly and net tunnels.

It's a good way to get people used to stopping here for some small sales too, as in the future we are hoping to be able to do this on a slightly larger scale with the things that Lovely Hubby will be producing in his workshop also for sale.

It started off small the first weekend, just like this ... then I added a tray of homegrown herbs, then there were some houseplants, and then this weekend we added a basket of free range eggs.  So it turned into quite a display.  

We are collecting the money with an Honesty Box system and it seems to be working very well.  We thought we had had some plants stolen during the second weekend as four were missing when we got back from the cinema on Saturday night, but then £2 worth of change appeared on our doorstep on a day when no plants were sold, so the person that took the plants either had a guilty conscience or simply hadn't had the right change with them when they called the first time.  Either way the money appearing restored our faith in the honesty of folk.

Lots of people stopped and made purchases this weekend, and some had a little chat with us if we were nearby.  There is a lot of interest in the work we have done to this place since we moved in.  We've changed the look of the hillside tremendously and everyone that we spoke to said it was for the better, which was nice.   One couple stopped, bought six plants and then said they were starting something similar to what we are doing on the other side of the valley and had just got themselves two chickens after seeing our girls suddenly appear on the hillside a couple of months ago.

It's nice to know what we are doing is going down well with the locals and the regular visitors to the area   :-)

Sue xx