Sorry Delia, it's over!

The end :(

Yes it's over between Delia Smith and me, I have had a long relationship with the lovely Delia and in our many years together she has never let me down.

We've baked bread, made goulash, pavlova, Yorkshire puddings not to mention her luxury fish pie, I could go on.

Hugh's new book

But it's time for a change and in the Southwellski household we now love Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall.



Sorry Delia.

Today he brought a magical new dough to our home, we used it for perfect pitta's and froze some of the dough for a loaf in the future.

He has made us revisit our need to eat meat with his book on veggies and how to prepare them in new and exciting ways!

We had roasted peppers, tomatoes, red onions in fresh warm pitta's and with a bit of cucumber, more fresh toms, pak choi lettuce and a dollop of mayo and they were a feast to behold!

Nigella

 Actually if truth be known I love Nigella, but wouldn't admit that in front of Nanny Southwellski.

However if I was pressed on it I would have to say it's because I actually rated her Dad as a chancellor and politician.

No, to be perfectly honest there is another chefette I rate far more than Delia, Hugh and yes even Nigella.

She has sparkly eyes, quick hands and gets right into tasting the food she prepares.

Maybe not as well known as Ainsley or as outspoken and temperamental as Gordon (although she has her moments!) she is as animated as Jamie and is not afraid to mix her foods in new and exciting ways.

Celebrity chefette to be!

Who is this genius I hear you ask?

It's none other than my sidekick and partner in many adventures - Coco!

Just look at the enjoyment on that face and the laughter in those eyes, who wouldn't want to cook at 7.15 in the morning with her?

Say chocolate!

Coco could show them a thing or two about cooking and eating I can tell you!

Whilst on the cooking theme and before we head into the garden, we have been baking our own bread just lately and it's actually a lot less hassle than I thought it would be.

We prefer a loaf with seed and grains and are currently using Allinsons yeast and flour and haven't had a bad loaf yet.

Coco and I spent most of today in the garden before visitors and a heavy downpour put paid to our plans of tidying up the veggie patch ready for the winter greens to go out.

Fowl play!

On the subject of visitors we seem to have an unwelcome one, one with a liking for tomatoes and who is tall enough to reach the ripe ones.

Today however the culprit left a tell tale sign, a trail of footprints that lead along to tomatoes and across the leeks and ended at the fence to the chook run.

His biggest mistake was to revisit the scene of the crime only for me to confront him and offer a chastisement.

I don't think Brutus was that phased by it to be honest he just turned around and went in search of his girls.

Dew on the Leeks

Fennel

Finally, it was a wonderful dew laden morning this morning and after Coco had gone back to bed for her nap I had a wander around with my camera.

And with an almost clear blue sky a shot of the Fennel flowers was just too much to resist.

Who knows, maybe tomorrow the winter greens will get planted!

(No Delia Smith cookery books were disposed of or harmed in the production of this blog)

Congratulations Brutus its a Chick!, and another and another and.......

'Daddy!'

Brutus became a father for the first six times on Monday and the little ones are doing well.

We hatched six of our eggs and have a brood of beautiful fluffy chicks.  Nanny Southwellski has named them all as Spot, Zorro, Amber, Easter, Patch and Copper.

It was a stressful time watching them 'pip' and then break out of their shells, Spot arrived first and the second chick arrived as we were at the official opening of Wideham Farm Equestrian Centre.

Bless their little fluffinesses!

Nanny Southwellski then had concerns that they might have different birthdays as the hours of Monday passed and the last chicks still had yet to arrive.

However all was well and the final chicks arrived while Nanny was talking to her sister Julie in New Zealand.

So technically Julie knew about them being born twelve hours before they arrived.  Oooh too confusing!

We have to do it all again this weekend with 5 Buff Orpington's due!

Spot

It's 4 days since they were born and their rate of growth is incredible, it is possible to just sit and watch them for hours on end, indeed one of us does!

Coco is very gentle with them and knows how to 'call' them by scratching her fingers on the floor.

There will be many many more photos of them on Nanny Southwellski's Flickr page just google 'Southwellski' and it will be there.

One of the many cucumbers!

On a more gardening centred note we are experiencing a glut of cucumbers, be nice to have a few ripe red tomatoes to go with them and perhaps a crisp bit of Pak Choi as well.

The tomatoes are still not ripening either indoors or out although I am sure one of them is starting to change colour.

 I have even hung a ripe banana in amongst the tomatoes, just to give them a little idea of what they should be doing.

Chilli? - put a coat on then!

Our peppers are looking very healthy and we also have the first of our little chilli's making an appearance (its in the middle of the photo).

The bell peppers are growing as you watch them, and we have yellow and green ones, not sure if any will turn red, if they're like the tomatoes probably not.





Outside is quite busy too with the pumpkin plants dying back we can see the pumpkins themselves and we have twelve football sized fruits just starting to turn (tomatoes take note).

We also had two cucumbers as well, not sure where they came from, although Coco was a nifty one for pulling the labels out of the seed trays.

Nanny Southwellski is not sure if she likes pumpkins or not so we will try one and if not the rest can go on sale at the front of the house.

Our weeds are doing exceptionally well especially the nettles, but there is a reason I am not pulling everything up wholesale, well two reasons really.

The reasons are Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal.  They are the joint authors of 'Hedgerow Medicine' a book about just that, remedies from the plants (and weeds) we find in and around our gardens.

However, unlike many other tomes relating to the topic, this book not only tells you the properties of each plant but how to harvest, prepare and use the remedies. I will expand on this in later posts.

Finally, I should say a big hello to Tony and Linda in Tasmania, and to Julie in New Zealand of course.  Who'd have thought Grandpa Southwellski's Garden would go global!

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!

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.

Tyred and tired!

My M10 Tank Destroyer

The lighter mornings and evenings have meant that Coco has changed her clock and our day now starts at anything from 6.00am to 6.45am.

So when Uncle Robin came over for modelling club last night (not that kind of modelling, miniature military modelling! See right), we arranged to meet him at Listers Farm this morning and collect a tractor tyre to use in the play area of our garden as a sandpit. We thought it would make our morning go quicker.

So we got up nice and early, did our chores of letting the dogs out, feeding and watering the chooks and feeding the cats before getting our breakfast ready. Now at just over thirteen months old you will probably wonder what Coco's role in all this is, well, she strokes the dogs and cats, puts the chicken food in a cup for me, (some of it actually gets in the cup as well!) and tells Brutus the cockerel to be quiet by giving him a really loud "Ah!".

Waiting to go

After breakfast we set off in the van and went along a very bumpy dirt track to get onto the road to Uncle Robin's farm at Southery.  Coco was jolted about in her car seat like jelly on a plate and she laughed and chuckled all the way.

I need a cushion!

We got to the farm and had a look at and in all the tractors, Mr Bumble our Norwich terrier came with us and he was soon searching for rats around the farm buildings, he didn't find any though.

Coco had a sit in the cab of Uncle Robin's tractor and wasn't phased at all, even when Uncle Robin sounded the horn. When we look at Coco's books at bedtime we call every tractor Uncle Robin's so this probably prepared her for seeing them.

Piece of cake!

We didn't get to go in the biggest tractor because that had been used for spraying and we didn't want little fingers getting into contact with it.

We then went to choose a tractor tyre for the sandpit and found one that was nearly as tall as me. The tyre only just fitted in the back of our van and was very dirty but with a wash we are sure it will make a fine sandpit.

Once we got home we had toast and it was time for Coco's nap so I did a bit of potting-on in the potting shed and put my plants out to harden off.

My Morning Glory plants were a picture of health and vibrant green happiness and sitting there in the sun they made me feel very proud.

When I came back about an hour later there were fourteen leafless stems sitting in moist compost and one very smug looking chook! I explained the process of stuffing a chook prior to cooking and the smugness disappeared, she'll not do that again! I should add that no harm was done to the chook in any way what so ever, however that does not mean it wasn't thought!

With that I worked on the fence between the chook run and the front drive.

It's a real joy to be outside and again I thank the stars that I am lucky enough to be able to do it almost whenever I want, jobs for Nanny Southwellski permitting of course. Having said that as we are planning to increase our level of self sufficiency it is important that we get the work done outside.

Faster Grandpa

I mentioned our turf disaster well it's starting to come good, I think, or is it wishful thinking.

In the picture you can see the turf,  it looks worse on the photograph than it actually is, honest!

Coco and I had just come through the forest garden from the bottom veggie plot where we had just put the canes in for the runner beans and prepared some ground for our parsnips.

Our veggies are looking good and the seeds in the potting shed, which I also use as a greenhouse, are coming up nice and strong.

It's truly amazing to spend an hour or so in there of a morning and then return later in the day to find that the tray of compost that has sat there for two weeks is suddenly alive with green shoots.

I recently planted two plastic barrels with Charlotte potatoes, and they have since yesterday sent up strong dark green leaf clusters. Never tried this method of growing before and as the previous occupants here have left a number of tatty grey plastic barrels around  I thought recycle and re-use!

On the note of recycling, whilst Coco and I were at the farm this morning Uncle Robin said we could have some old car tyres as well, I said "No" initially but something he said last night about worm compostors and tyres being good for that purpose has made me rethink and I will be looking around the garden tomorrow to see where we could put them.

It's the Royal Wedding on Friday so we are having a few friends over for a wedding watching and a barbecue. It's almost beyond belief that some groups asked for permission to protest outside Westminster Abbey on the day of the wedding, how do they think that will help their cause? Ah well, it's a funny of world innit!

Hopefully it won't rain, although we desperately need some for the garden, especially the turf I laid this week.

Sunset over the weaves.

I took the dogs into the paddock this evening for a game of ball and found myself just watching the sun slowly sink and leave the most beautiful sunset, suddenly the Morning Glory plants weren't that important after all.

Green side up! Do's and Don'ts of laying turf!

Well here we are again, back at the keyboard and 3 weeks since I was last here, I just don't know where the time goes. I have to start this post off with this pic, its exactly how I want the garden to make us feel.

Just chillin' Grandpa

Wideham Farm

Recently we visited some friends of ours, Leigh and Jane, who are setting up an equestrian centre at West Stow near Bury St Edmunds (www.widehamfarm.co.uk) and have started to take a serious look at becoming self sufficient.

They introduced us to an author (not in person) called John Seymour who is an authority on self sufficiency and has two books in circulation, 'The NEW complete book of self sufficiency' and 'The NEW self sufficient gardener'.  They are worth searching out either to buy or borrow from the library just for the illustrations alone!

 Leigh has to be one of the most remarkable people to see working alongside horses, a genuine whisperer, he demonstrated some of the things he does with his horses and it was amazing.  It was also Coco's first experience of horses and she just took it in her stride.

One of the things we talked about was how will most people manage if we have to start moving away from being totally dependent on being consumers and have to produce some of their own food?


My school had its own Rural Science department where we grew most of the vegetables used in the school kitchens and plants were also sold and the department was self sufficient as far as seeds and plants were concerned.


Many of the skills we used to take for granted that school would teach us have sadly gone and whilst the younger generation is undoubtedly talented, is it in the right areas?

That's it, my grumpy old man moan is done!

All work and no play, well not too much work!

Its been all go in the garden the past three weeks and we have invested in yet more new fangled machinery.  Well its hardly new, but we now have a rotovator found on eBay and collected and put to use straight away, its at least 10 years old give or take a few years but the engine is new and runs like a dream!

When I started this blog I thought it would be about the veggie plot but then it went on to include the forest garden, which is taking shape, and now we need to add Coco's play garden which has taken most of my time during the last week or so.

Anyway, we decided to turf an area at the back of our bungalow for Coco to have as a play area, adjacent to the new decked area and in view of the kitchen so that Nanny Southwellski and I can keep an eye on her. So bring on the rotovator! It churned up the rubbish and old grass a treat and being very dry it was a cinch to rake it all off and put in the compost bin.

Our friendly farmer, Uncle Robin has put a tractor tyre to one side for us to use as a sandpit, Nanny Southwellski found this link which tells you how to prepare the tyre to use as a sandpit. http://www.ecostreet.com/blog/eco-friendly-parenting/2008/04/02/eco-diy-recycle-a-tractor-tyre-into-a-childs-sandpit/

Its a bit of a long link but there is some good stuff on there.

The turf arrived on Thursday last week and I started laying it straight away,  I had rotovated the ground and removed all the rubbish, big stones and what have you before it arrived.  I levelled it out with a rake and rolled it before raking and rolling it again. The joints were staggered and yes, it was laid 'Green Side Up!'

Friday was a scorcher as was Saturday so I decided not to lay any more until today, what a mistake. As I started to load the barrow with the turfs and noticed they were not just warm but very hot!  The further into the pallet I went the hotter they were, steaming in fact!  They had started to go into meltdown and on some it was decidedly slimy in the middle! Now we are waiting to see if they are going to survive.

The ones laid on Thursday are lovely and Coco has already ventured onto them.

Now, I have been building my compost heap for several months now, layers of green between layers of brown, turning it, covering it in the cold days, keeping it moist and heaping more love on it than a compost heap deserves and it isn't anywhere near as hot as the pallet of turf got in three days. Now what's that all about?

The chooks are doing nicely, we get 7-8 eggs a day on a regular basis, Little Nanny Mero takes some of them to the place she lives in and sells them to the residents there, she says she can't take too many because it affects their cholesterol.

Best of friends

Coco and I have chores to do before breakfast and feeding the chooks, is one of them.  Then we let the dogs into their run and then we let the two old girls, Meg and Lou into the garden, only then do we have our breakfast.

Our youngest terrier cross, Blossom (right) is a real nutter until it comes to Coco where she is a gentle and affectionate little dog. If Coco is around you can be sure that Blossom isn't very far away.


We want to teach Coco that animals are a responsibility not to be taken lightly and that they are to be respected.  In return the benefits, enjoyment and affection we get from them more than makes up for any inconvenience we might experience.

Coco has been helping to pot on some of the seedlings we have grown, she takes the rubbishy bits out of the compost for me, and then tries to eat them!  Mmmmmmmmmm!

Working term times, and I have to say being lucky enough to only have to work a couple of days a week gives me plenty of time to do stuff in the garden, and around the house although my indoor job list isn't getting any shorter with the nice weather.

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.

Go Girls!

We made another trip to Little Hen rescue on Sunday and collected another 6 hens to add to our flock.

It would be good to say they all got on famously from the minute the new arrivals stepped out of their crates, but that wouldn't be the truth.  In fact poor old Brutus aged about twenty years in the first hour from running around stopping fights, rounding up the ones who were wandering off.  It was hard work, this I know because as Brutus was stopping one fight I was stopping another!

But I take my hat off to the boy, he knew what he was doing and did it very well, and very calmly until one of the new hens went under the trailer at which point he just gave up and walked back to the flock.  Mr Bumble helped to shift the reluctant hen from under the trailer and got a peck for his troubles.

Two days on and I just went out to lock the coop doors and all 10 hens and Brutus are crammed into one coop and very contented noises they were making too.

Egg production is up as well we have rocketed from 2 a day to 7 a day and very nice they are as well.

On the downside I have replanted my onions at least twice now, and in the case of the poor little onion closest to the hen houses, at least a dozen times!

Nanny Southwellski suggested that we introduce the dogs to the hens and I thought she was a little premature but I followed her instructions and the dogs have developed a very healthy and wise respect for the beak.  Mr Bumble has had a couple of pecks on the noggin and that was more than enough for him.  He now keeps out of reach.

The plot is taking shape very nicely now and a handful of corn scattered in the right place means I get the grass stripped up by the chooks leaving me to turn the soil over. The sunsets have been beautiful these last few days although a bit of rain, more than the few drops we had today, would be very welcome.

Our strawberries are in and under fleece cloches now, to keep the chooks away as much as protect them from the weather. Our potatoes are also in and the runner beans that didn't get frazzled are almost ready to go out.

I ordered the middle level fruit and nut trees for the forest garden at the weekend there are some good offers out there at the moment if you look for them.  I used D T Brown, I bought my hedging, strawberries and potatoes from them and was very pleased with the quality and prompt service they provided.

I also finished the deck at the front of the potting shed so that Coco and I don't have to tiptoe across the bearers anymore and it gives us somewhere dry to stand as well. While I was doing that Coco dismantled all of my neatly stacked pots and emptied my compost all over the floor, bless her!!!!  It looked like we had been burgled.

If the good weather holds it will be more digging tomorrow.

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.