Its been a long time.......

since I was last here, Mr B dying has hit us all really hard and still we have a few moments where its still too sad for words. 

But in the garden life has continued be it plants or weeds and they are all growing at an alarming pace, especially now we have had some rain. Its odd that as a gardener I can irrigate my plot yet in some parts of Norfolk farmers aren't allowed to take water from the rivers and drains and yet we still use clean, drinking quality water to flush toilets.

We have had the best of the strawberries on the plot although the plants in the forest garden seem to be a bit behind and are just fruiting. We have noticed that in the forest garden the strawberry plants have grown taller and the fruit is larger than those in the cultivated plot.
 

Jarvis keeping watch

So much so that they have become a target for the blackbirds, I don't like to use a lot of netting in the garden in case the brids get tangled up in it although I do use it around the peas to give support and protect them.

Luckily we have our own security patrols, see left, in the shape of Jarvis and KC our two cats. They tend to be a better deterrent than netting or any of the flappy things I tie across the plot.

Brutus - as handsome as ever!

Brutus is doing well, his flock now numbers 8 since we lost a couple of hens to natural causes.

The eggs are still coming, but predicting how many we will get each day is a bit like picking the lottery numbers.  There were three today so the chooks have had a stern warning and been told if production doesn't go up there will be redundancies!

We have given the chooks a much larger run, they can wander about quite freely and in perfect safety.  I think this may be the reason the eggs production has dropped.  They get nosing about their run and forget why they are there!

Gooseberries

Cherries

Our fruit trees and bushes are looking good,
we have loads of cherries on the old tree and gooseberries on the old bush in the main garden.

The new gooseberry bushes are a little choked up by grass at the moment but its on my list.

White grapevine

We also have 4 grape vines planted in the plot and these have taken really well and throwing out lots of new growth so posts and wires will be needed pretty soon. 

We have two red grapes and two white so we will have to see how productive they are before we launch 'Chateau Southwellsi' on the wine loving public. 

Peas - the first pods!

Our peas that we started in the potting shed way back in March are now producing their first pods, we have planted some more seeds and these are now peeping through and will hopefully continue the crop for a few weeks.

We will plant another set of seeds in about three to four weeks time.

We have done repeated sowings with a number of crops by way of an experiment to see if we can gauge when we have stuff ready so that we don't get it all at once.

Radish

We learnt from experience with the lettuces not to sow too many at once as we had a whole row go to waste (although the chooks would disagree) because we couldn't eat them fast enough.

The same thing with the radishes.  I am the only one who really likes them but I just can't eat that many and I was pleased to give some away tonight to friends who visited.

I hope to get into the plot tomorrow and do some serious weeding and thinning out but we'll see what the weather has planned first.

Mr Bumble 10th January 2008 - 7th May 2011

Mr Bumble, friend, mate and a gentle soul.

Saturday was a very sad day in the Southwellski house,we lost a very dear and much loved member of our family, Mr Bumble (Berty Way of Delosinga) our Norwich Terrier died very suddenly. He had been unwell with his breathing for a long while, although an operation just over a year ago did make some difference.

Stop thief!

He was unlike any other dog I have ever had the privilege to care for, we didn't own Mr B, he owned us!

Don't get me wrong, we had our fallings out, in fact at times he was a git! But he was our git.  He would just catch the back of my heels as I walked along, and when I turned to admonish him he had that 'Who Me?' look on his face. He could steal like a pro and would then flaunt what ever it was he had taken in a series of skips and jumps.

Lily Perkins ice cream at the Wayland Show 2009, was there for the taking, Lily was three at the time and not best pleased.

Similarly, the chooks were not happy with his removing their bread and other treats!

Mr B's first show

He qualified for Crufts as a puppy, and we had great hopes. We arrived early on Terrier day and were the opening class of Crufts 2009, the ring was surrounded by spectators and I was very nervous as we made our way in.  Mr Bumble, who had beaten every other dog in the class time and again strutted his stuff into the ring, stood to let everyone admire him and then burst into his party piece of rubbing his back on the new green carpet, rollovers, skips, jumps, bounces, more rollovers followed by his impression of a Lipizzaner stallion.  We didn't even get into the last five!

He did redeem himself later in the day when he tried a dog puzzle on a dog supplies stand at Crufts.  "this puzzle will challenge the cleverest of dogs" said the salesman "they have to rotate each level to reveal the treat it keeps them occupied for ages".

By the time the sales rep had finished that sentence Mr B had flipped the puzzle upside down and had devoured all the treats and was looking to pee up the stand.  The sales rep's face went a similar colour to the rosette Mr B could have won had he not been a berk!

Peeing up things became something of an art form for Mr B, his ultimate achievement in this field was peeing up the back leg of a Doberman at the Welsh Kennel club show, as the Dobie went berserk and was dragging his owner towards Mr B, Mr B calmy stood his ground then turned and kicked grass at him.

When we moved to Broadlands we lived in a caravan on the paddock for what seemed an eternity. One afternoon as our dogs were eating their dinners two dogs, a Doberman and a Mastiff of some sort got into the paddock and started to chase after Blossom one of our terrier crosses.  You could see Mr B struggling with the choice of 'Do I finish my dinner, or do I sort this out?'

I am sure he let out a big sigh, before calmy walked towards the marauding dogs who seeing his advance turned towards him.  It became apparent to the Doberman very early on that Mr B was not going to turn tail but in fact was continuing to advance.  The Mastiff also started to doubt his ability to sort out this terrier and stopped in his/her tracks. The Doberman came within 10 feet of Mr B at which point Mr B stepped up the pace to a brisk walk then pulling himself up to his full 10 inch height he saw them off the paddock and then returned to finish his dinner, what a bloke!

Mr B and Nanny Southwellski

His idea of a cuddle was to lie across your throat and push himself onto you, if he had arms he would have hugged you.

We took Mr B and Scarlett to a number of shows and events to represent the endanged native dog breeds of this country, the Norwich Terrier being one of those breeds at risk.







There is a knack to having a dog like Mr B and it amounts to a list as follows:-

1. You don't own a dog like Mr B
2. A dog like Mr B owns you, you are in his pack so know your place
3. His love for you is unconditional, return this love in kind
4. He is the pack leader, trust his judgement, he knows dogs better than you do
5. He will protect you and every other member of his pack with his life
6. When he passes on, don't be sad, be happy he shared his life with you

I have grown up around dogs, I am now 50 and I have never been so priveleged as to have known a spirit like Mr B.

Forest Dweller?

We buried Mr B in the forest garden, why? When he was a very young puppy he resembled some kind of forest dweller.  I think he picked his spot a couple of weeks back.  I strimmed some 'rides' through a particularly wild bit of the forest garden and he came and laid on a bit of scrubby weedy ground I had cleared and lay resting in the dappled sunlight for a good long time.

Today we built an arboured seat over his final resting place, because when we sat outside he always sat or laid beneath our chairs.  We have planted a honeysuckle called 'Scentational' because he was and is sensational.

Mr B has died but he hasn't left us we feel him everywhere.

Into the 21st century!

I need a cushion Grandpa!

It stays lighter in the evening until later and its light in the morning when we get up at about 7.00 for breakfast but there seems to be fewer hours in the day!

No, I don't understand it either.  When we moved onto BST (British Summer Time) I thought 'Great!' more time on the plot.  Instead it's more like losing the plot.

Never mind, we joined the space race today here at Grandpa Southwellski's garden we bought a Westwood S800 ride on mower/garden tractor. Now don't be thrown by the shabby exterior, remember the Delorean in Back to the future 1, 2, 3, 4, ....... 27, 28 etc etc.  I will say no more, other than we have 8.5 horses under the bonnet!

Okay, so it's not new, but it's ours and we bought it from a local church so we know it's fairly legit, don't we?  I managed to break the battery clamps this afternoon and it has no petrol but apart from that it's a beaut!

Cluck,Cluck, Cluck woof! I am a chicken now feed me!

More news from the garden, the chooks have been confined to quarters after unplanting most of our onions and levelling our potatoes, but they are laying 7-8 eggs a day so they have got off quite lightly this time.

We bought a second coop before we got the last chooks but they all insist on sleeping in one coop which is supposedly designed for 6 tops.

The chooks weren't impressed with the fencing but it kept Mr Bumble in!

We have had some stunning sunsets just recently, this (below) was a few days ago. Where we live we are lucky enough to be on the top of a hill and get the sunrise and the sunset all under a wide Norfolk sky.

Even on grey days the skies here are stunning, and the way nanny Southwellski designed the kitchen means we have the maximum light all the time and the sunsets as well.

Its made a difference health wise as well, we were all much more relaxed this winter.

We have worked on the Forest garden and the middle level trees I orderedlast weekend arrived and have been planted.  We have three nut trees, two Red Filberts, and an Almond all of which shouldn't grow too tall so won't challenge the taller fruit trees for light and will offer some protection to the ground cover plants and fruits.

We also planted two apples, one pear and a plum. Our raspberries are yet to arrive and we are planning to split these between the garden and the forest garden.

We have a scarecrow on the veggie plot now, Frosty our long standing snowman is now a permanent resident to keep the birds and animals off our veggies.

The chooks love him and make a bee line to say hello to him in the mornings, and just for good measure they dig up the onions while they are there.

Well tomorrow is fast approaching so it's off to bed, Coco was asleep hours ago so will no doubt be up nice and early.

No rosettes today

We took Scarlett and Mr Bumble to a dog show at the showground near Norwich today.  Came away empty handed but met up with some familiar faces again so it was worth it. Before Coco came to stay with us we did about twenty or shows a year and travelled all over the country.

Last year we did maybe two or three shows, Coco's first show was at the Royal Norfolk Show in July last year and it was a scorcher of a day. We did quite well there with a first for Mr Bumble and a Third for Scarlett.  Now that Coco is a bit older we will be doing more shows this year, fuel prices allowing of course. 

Mr Bumble moved really well today for Nanny Southwellski and he looked a picture.  The judge seemed to prefer leggier dogs and the terrier group was won by an Irish Terrier, in fact in both Scarlett and Bumble's classes the littlies came in the last positions.  Scarlett looked lovely like she always does, but judges generally don't seem to like her very much.  Never mind we love her and are very proud of her.

An Orpington Cockerel

The Norfolk Poultry Club had their show at the showground today as well, so Coco and I had a little look in the building and boy what a racket! Coco was completely overwhelmed by the noise of whole plethora of cockerels all crowing at the same time.

I thought Brutus was a big lad but compared to some of the cockerels there today, like the Orpington (Left) he is a budgie!

We were surprised at how many entries there were in the show, it was packed with cages.  The website address for the club is www.norfolkpoultryclub.org.uk.

Our girls, with only enough feathers to make one decent hen between the lot of them, would have looked out of place there today but they were happily scratching about in the paddock when we got back and they laid two eggs today which seems to be the average for them at the moment so we don't care what they look like as long as they are happy.

We took some photos of Coco sitting in the apple tree in our garden it was meant to have been taken on her birthday but we just ran out of time and never got round to it but we will make sure we take it on the right day in future.

Just to put your mind at rest I was behind the tree with a handful of wooly trousers while Nanny Southwellski took the photo.

I love you.... says it all really

Never look a gift farmer in the mouth!

When Coco and I started work on the plot it seemed the right thing to dig it all by hand.  Uncle Robin, our farmer friend had offered to come and cultivate the plot with his tractor and cultivator.  It felt really good saying "No thanks, we'll dig it by hand".  What we should have said is "Please, please, please come and do it for us!" Ah well, lesson learnt. So today we have been digging the plot for the potatoes to go in.

Digging for Victory (Well potatoes actually!)

We had one plot already dug over and we planted our garlic and onions in there this afternoon.  While we were doing that Uncle Robin and Auntie Angela arrived for a visit, so while Nanny Southwellski and Auntie Angela chatted the three of us started digging the potato patch.

It wasn't too bad digging the plot, it had been covered by our caravan while we renovated the bungalow so all the grass had died off and the digging was easy(ish).

Less click click Nanny, more dig dig!

Coco did really well digging but got very tired and just watched for a little while from amongst the canes which mark the rows of onion sets and garlic.

Nanny Southwellski was busy taking photographs of the progress in the plot, (you can see these on Southwellski on Flickr) and Auntie Angela came and played with Coco they went went indoors to help Nanny  make some tea to have with hot cross buns.

Faster Auntie Angela!

On the way Coco and Auntie Angela took a little detour and they played on the swing for a while.

Uncle Robin and I kept digging until we had finished the potato patch and now all Coco and I have to do is take out the clumps of grass and rake it over.

The chooks were very good at scratching up the grass clumps on the onion/garlic patch so we hope they will do the same on the potato patch.

Stop thief!

We have been taking time to introduce the dogs to the chickens and today we brought Mr Bumble and Scarlett, our two Norwich Terriers, through into the garden.   

They have been through before but today we had more time to supervise them.

Mr Bumble is the leader in our dog pack and felt that he should now have the chooks under his 'wing', however when they first met Brutus had a quiet word and now you can see the mutual respect between them. Except when there is a stale crust of bread about.

Just another chook.

Scarlett is a regular visitor and we are sure she just thinks the chooks are dogs just like her.

Our other two terriers, Monty and Blossom are a different matter altogether, as they are both very highly strung we will take a lot more time to get them used to the chooks.


Blossom managed to clear the dog run fence on Thursday and get in with the chooks but I was able to stop her before any damage was done. In all honesty I was more concerned about what the chooks would do to her than the other way round.  The dog run fence is now doubled in height!

Our two old girls, both cross breeds and both 17 years old are almost oblivious to the chooks although we do keep an eye on Lou as she has previous for killing chickens.

Anyway back to the garden, we have planted 9 bulbs of garlic and about 50 onion sets this afternoon, 8" (20cm) apart in rows also 8" (20cm) apart.  The soil is really good and Coco and I are really pleased with how it has cultivated into a really nice crumbly soil.

We have a dog show tomorrow but when we get back its all hands to the potting shed to plant some more runner beans to replace the ones we lost last week. We also have some peas to get sown as well and as these are Coco's favorite veg they are high on our list of important jobs. Off to bed now, early start tomorrow.

A lovely day to be outside

It rained all day yesterday so we didn't actually manage to get outside, so Nanny Southwellski found us jobs to do indoors. Today was a completely different story with blue skies and sunshine although we didn't really get started until late in the day. You see Coco has new curtains and didn't wake up until 8.30 this morning, then there was breakfast, playtime, toast at 11.00 and then chores to do before lunch and then outside. 

Can I have a go too?

While Coco had her afternoon nap I prepared the new path around the dog run ready for concreting and put a hammock up near the apple tree.  When she woke up, Coco and I gave it a test run along with Blossom, one of our four terriers, she wasn't invited by the way. 

Mr Bumble, our Norwich Terrier just couldn't quite get onto the hammock with us.

You will remember the little bird we rescued, well he left us today and headed straight to the nearby hedge.  He wasn't flying as well as we would have liked but he found a gap and off he went so we reckon he thought he was ready.  We finally identified him as a Dunnock.

See, what you do Grandpa is......

We planted the rest of the privet hedging and started to prepare the beds for the strawberries, here you can see Coco giving them a very close examination in the potting shed.

If it stays dry tomorrow we should get the path concreted and the beds finished.

Great 'Little' Nanny Mero bought us a very special packet of seeds which we are going to plant in our 'Forest Garden'.  They are 'Forget-Me-Nots', to help remind us of Great 'Little' Nanny although everyone who knows her will tell you she will never ever be forgotten!  We all love you 'Little Nanny'.