And this is relaxing??!!??

I've read all the books and Coco and I have had long conversations about gardening and if it really is relaxing.

Now Coco will probably tell you that her idea of gardening is having a ride in the wheelbarrow, trying a freshly picked carrot or peas straight from the pod or having a go on her swing or a chill out with Uncle Luke in the hammock.

Uncle Luke is back from Aberystwyth for a few weeks, he is studying Genetics, poker and alcohol at University there. We are all very proud of him and probably don't tell him enough but then that's what parents, especially Dads do. 

Uncle Luke

Great Grandpa Southwellski would always tell me how well my brother Colin was doing and tell Colin how well I was doing and it was only after Great Grandpa Southwellski passed away that Colin and I spoke about it and realised that he was equally proud of us both. 

So Luke if you read this I am proud of you and all that you are doing and Coco has a very cool and chilled Uncle, even if you are a tad untidy!

Anyway is gardening relaxing?

The argument against.

I have developed a very individual war dance for when the dogs and cats stray onto the veggie plot, it would strike fear into Cochise himself.  

And when it rains from absolutely nowhere just as I am watering the peas which I stupidly placed as far away from the tap as I could and have to carry a watering can to them because the hose isn't long enough I go a decent shade of puce!

Monty

When my parsnip seeds on a strip (that are impossible to sow on a windy day and I resemble a gymnast doing a ribbon dance) only germinate every 6th seed I tend to feel a bit miffed.

Or when Monty creeps up behind me and barks just as I am removing that trickily placed side shoot just below my very first tomato of the season, which I have called Trevor by the way.



 The argument for.

Nanny Southwellski and Monty all smiles!

When Coco and I get up in the morning and let the chooks out and the birds are singing, the sun is shining and all the veggies are standing proud and glistening with early morning dew it makes me stand and look and feel good.

When Monty and Nanny Southwellski smile in unison it makes me feel warm inside and when Coco points at the carrots and peas and says 'This' as only she can, it makes the carrots taste so much sweeter. 

Trevor

 

And when our plants that we have nurtured from tiny seeds, battled to protect them from the chooks, dogs, cats and birds, watered religiously day in day out, talked to sung to and encouraged from the very start, when they start to produce the hard work is forgotten.

We have called our first tomato (left) Trevor for no reason other than it begins with 'T'.  Trevor is an Italian plum tomato who will end up in a pasta sauce of some sort.  You won't feel a thing Trevor.

Pea processing Southwellski style!

We harvested our first peas today, expecting a heavy crop we took our largest trailer (right) down to the peas and commenced picking.

Coco quickly took charge of quality control marking each suitable pea with a tooth mark, just to let me know that she had checked them all you know.

We seemed to have about twice as many pod shells as we did peas, I suspect I will trace the missing peas in tomorrows first nappy!

Our potatoes are the sweetest new potatoes you could wish to eat with just a hint of our home grown mint added at the end of cooking they are divine and the hard work in the cold of digging the plot, planting and then replanting after the chooks had dug in a fashion Time Team would have been proud of, being hit by a late frost which took them almost back to the ground, all that seems a dim and distant memory and well worth the effort.

So I guess I have answered my own question really, the fruits of Coco and my labours are more than enough to make us forget the stress and toil we have gone through to get here.

Yes, gardening is relaxing!

All things bright and beautiful

Coco and I were up at 6.00am this morning and as always we did our chores, letting the chooks out, feeding the cats and letting the dogs out before we had our breakfast.  And, as I tell Coco each and every morning, we can get our own food but the animals can't so we have to look after them first.

Monty

Blossom

It's not all one sided though in return we get fresh eggs every day, the cats keep the mice and rats from our veggies and foodstuff and the dogs guard us and make us laugh.

Seeing to them first is a very small inconvenience in comparison to what we receive in return and all in all I think its pretty fair.

Mmmmmmmmm!

 Anyway, onto more things bright and beautiful.  We have a very old cherry tree in our garden.  I believe it was planted around the time that Broadlands was built about 60 years ago.  We missed the cherries last year as they were ready just before we moved in.

This year though we have a bumper crop of delicious bright red cherries.  We are busy picking, pitting and preserving them and I think a batch of cherry wine may be in order too.

Nanny Southwellski took a stunning picture of the cherries (not this one, Uncle Robin took this one) and this can be found on her Flickr page under 'Southwellski'.

Our veggies are doing very nicely thank you, and we may even have enough carrots for a meal.  Coco is very partial to a freshly pulled carrot first thing in the morning, rinsed under the hose with the top still on. She is also very partial to freshly picked cherries, gooseberries, peas and some of the herbs we are growing as well.

 Our flowers are doing brilliantly, this is a short stemmed lily (right) we grew this year. How vivid is that orange, it makes me smile every time I see it.

Our sunflowers are doing very well despite being uprooted twice by the mole, attacked by the chooks and getting hit by the frost.

Having done all thing bright and beautiful it seems only right to move onto all creature great and small and here is a bit of both.

The butterfly on the sunflower (left) is, I think the first one Coco has seen that she actually took notice of and it warranted a point with a chubby finger and an 'Oooooh!'



Coco seems to have a real interest in things that fly be they planes, birds, butterflies or bugs. She can pick a plane out of the sky long before I can.

Female Ghost Moth

We also had a visit from a Female Ghost Moth which I initially thought was a leaf.

It gets its name because it used to be associated with the grassy areas in churchyards and the male moths have a funny courtship flight where they flutter above the grass - looking like little white ghosts.

Impressed with my Moth knowledge?  I cannot take credit for this.  Tony Pritchard from the Suffolk Moth Group  identified this for me in a matter of seconds!

You can contact him at: Countyrecorder@suffolkmothgroup.org.uk

Another visitor was this little hairy legged chappie/chappette who appeared in the bathroom last night.  If he/she gets rid of the mossie that was buzzing round our bedroom last night them they are most welcome.

Finally I will leave you with the sunset we were blessed with two nights ago - enjoy

Sunset over Feltwell