Has anyone missed me?

Potatoes ridged up! - Lovely!

At the beginning of 2012 I said I wasn't going to get locked into religiously doing my blog.

It would be done when I was good and ready!

Now that I am finally good and ready, I have found it's been such a long time since I was last here that it would take me hours, nay days to cover everything that has happened so I thought that a pictorial re-introduction to our garden is in order.

Except, or maybe that should have been a 'but', it should now be called a 'Grandpa Southwellski's smallholding'.

Read on all will be revealed.

The polytunnel getting stocked up

 The polytunnel has been a hive of activity and here it is in early May being prepped/planted for the summer.

What you see here has now been and gone, and has been replaced by other crops also since departed to the kitchen.

The evening skies - spectacular!

A thing of beauty

There have been a few additions to our livestock/poultry numbers since my last post, in fact there have been 23 new additions. They come in the guise of, 2 Goats, 2 Berkshire pigs, 2 sheep, 9 Silky bantams that Nanny Southwellski hatched out (in an incubator of course!), 3 Khaki Campbell (white) ducks, 2 crested ducks and 3 laying hens. Now add that to the 12 various chickens and cockerels we had, 4 dogs, 2 cats and you have a menagerie of 41!

So lets meet a few of them.

Big and Small

We bought our three Khaki Campbell's from a local smallholding in something of a hurry as Blossom our scatty rat catching terrier had consumed 3 of our 'Miniature crested ducklings' on the day of their arrival after they escaped from their box.

The one remaining duckling, 'Small', was very lonely so we thought get some ducks and he'll be fine.

They didn't want anything to do with him so we contacted Melsop Farm in Norfolk and took an orphan black crested duck.

As time has gone on it is quite clear that despite having a crest, Small is anything but a genuine pukka Miniature Crested Duck.  He is more like a Crested Indian Runner! (is there such a thing?)

The Three Ducketeers!

The Khaki's were just that when they got here, a dirty Khaki brown but once they'd got the hang of the pond they soon cleaned themselves up.

Their first encounter with a pond was not an auspicious occasion as they hadn't a clue about swimming and it was only by accident that one got out of it's depth and started swimming backwards!

Burpy burpy sheep sheep!

They have since been banished to the paddock to live with the rest of the critters
 since they turned our lovely pond emerald green and ate all the plants!

Our lambs/sheep have the greater part of the paddock to graze and live a life of luxury.  We supplement their diet with ewe nuts and despite being a bit nervous when they got here they are getting to be a bit more friendly.

They are very gentle and allow Coco to get right up to feed them from her hand.

The pigs

The Berkshires, well what to say about them really?

They have given us such entertainment since we got them, I now see why people say they are some of the most intelligent animals around.

It's hard trying to stay detached from them as they are only with us for a short period of time, but already I notice that come morning they are the first ones that Nanny and I head for.

They are our first tentative steps towards producing our own pork and likewise the lambs are also destined for the freezer.

Simone and Aisha

Our goats came with names and are here for the duration as dairy goats.

Simone and Aisha are very affectionate British Alpines and Simone currently provides us with 3 litres of milk each and every day.

Nanny Southwellski then filters and separates it for cream and semi skimmed milk and uses it to make cheese, butter and the most amazing ice cream you are ever likely to taste!

We have a licence to walk them round the block should we choose to do so.  We had a visit from the State Veterinary Service who walked the route (in a car) we wanted to use in order to see if there were other bovines on it.

Not that it matters if there are because as long as they are 2 metres away from the other animals that's OK.

And.....................

Even he said it was a farce dreamt up by the politicians in Brussels.

Incidentally did you know you can feed your pigs eggs in France but not in the UK?

And did you know, (oh no, here comes Meldrew!) that you can pick an apple off your tree and give it to the pigs, if you bring it into the house first and wash it they can't have it because it then becomes catering waste!

Anyway, he gave us our permit so when we want to take a playful goat or two out we can :)

Not that Aisha will need the exercise. she loves climbing (see left) and chasing the sheep around the paddock.

Silky bantam chicks

The last members of our cast are the silky bantam chicks.

There are only 9 of them but sometimes when you look for them you find 5 in with the sheep. 4 in with the pigs, 7 in the veggies, 3 in their run, and at least another 20 in various parts of the plot.

However they're are soooooooooooooo cute they can go wherever they want.

Well, that's it kind of up to date so see you soon!