Daybreak to Sunset

Sunrise

It seems to me that the more tired Coco gets during the day the earlier she wakes up the next day.  We've tried an 8 o'clock bedtime a 7 o'clock bedtime and half past 6 as well.  The result?


We are still up at about 6.15 in the morning.  Even a trip to Banham Zoo with Auntie's Angela and Sarah didn't make a difference, up bright and early this morning.

Never mind, if I'm honest I do lay there waiting some mornings for her to rouse so its really no hardship at all.

Levelling the compost!

That, in it's own way was an explanation of how we came to start this post with a sunrise picture instead of a sunset.

Anyway, we have been adding to the structural stability of our poly tunnels ; and in doing so have started to incorporate some raised beds.

It didn't take us very long at all, we screwed 4 planks of left over decking together filled it with compost and dug it into the soil below.

Firming the compost!

Coco took on the levelling job with gusto and initiative.  Having started with her rake it quickly transpired that this was neither fast enough or hands on enough for my little assistant.

The only answer really is to launch yourself onto the bed and push the compost around with your hands and then walk up and down to firm it all.

It worked a treat!

Teamwork

As you are aware we always like to bring glimpses of some of the creatures we get visiting the garden and here on the caravan wheel are a couple spiders who seem quite happy sharing a web for their evenings hunting.

We also get numerous bats flying around  the property at dusk and we could sit and watch them for hours, (except it gets dark and we can't see them) as they remove countless mozzies for us.

Now I was told/read/or heard somewhere that if you stand very still and then clap your hands slowly and rhythmically above your head the bats will fly much closer to you and you will attract more of them.

So, having checked it was September not April, I found myself a quiet little spot in the corner of the paddock which was under their main flight path and not in view of the house (or Nanny Southwellski!) and away from prying eyes.

I stood very still then slowly raised my hands up and started to clap rhythmically (Nanny Southwellski will tell you my sense of rhythm is not great and in fact seldom has any rhythm of its own, its more a random selection of steps/claps/toe taps etc.)

I tried for about 5 minutes and only succeeded in attracting Blossom, who looked at me with pity in her eyes and then wandered off.

Did it work? Did it Charlie, I doubt they will ever return.

Yellow Winged Darter

Never mind, this little chap on the left is a Yellow Winged Darter, a member of the Dragonfly family who landed on the deck fence at lunchtime.

We have quite a few of these and other Dragonflies floating around and I do mean floating around, they are incredible exponents of flight!

Sunset

And finally, tonight's sunset.  It seems only right that as we started with sunrise we should finish with sunset.

Blow the wind Southerly, Easterly, Northerly and Westerly!

The UK has been blasted by South Westerly gale force winds, except for Grandpa Southwellski's Garden that is.

A bit of ventilation!

Here, upon reaching the garden some of the gusts took a sharp right turn (South East) after the bungalow,  took down our poly tunnel and  then rejoined their South Westerly buddies and went on towards Feltwell.

It was a bit of a blow (excuse the pun) because everything was looking lovely in there yesterday and was the source of much pride for Coco and I.

But hey ho, it will be again once we have fixed it, and if the wind drops overnight that will be our job for tomorrow.

Trevor and the boys!

Our tomatoes are at last starting to turn and I sampled the first ripe one today in a sandwich with our own cucumber and home-made bread, it was delicious and needed nothing else!

Remember Trevor and the boys? Well here they are in out of the wind and safe and well, for now anyway haha haha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

We are still busy preparing and preserving our produce and the next batch of fruit for preserving arrived in the kitchen earlier in the shape of a huge basketful of pears.

It always amazes me how much fruit you end up with once it's actually off the tree.  There never seems to be that much when its growing.

Moon rising over Hawthorns

We also made our fist batch of Hawthorn Syrup which is good for circulation, heart problems, hardened arteries and anxiety and restlessness.  So if I suddenly fall asleep on the keyboar.........
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...d you will know why.

This will go alongside our Rosehip Syrup which has already proven its worth with a cold circulating at the moment, it certainly makes a difference.

A peck of purple peppers

In the poly tunnel we have (had?) a good crop of peppers and chilli's coming on and one plant has peppers that are a beautiful purple colour.

I've not seen these before so whether they will turn red at some point I am not sure.

Now as for the melons, well I am not sure if its was a cruel joke on the part of Focus or if it was the mix up in labelling when I was being ably assisted by my small partner in grime but the melons we planted are now sporting some really healthy looking Cucumbers!  Not a melon in sight!

Never mind, peeled, chopped and put in a bowl with some grapes, cherries and a splash of cream and no one will know!

One of the chicks

The chicks are doing exceptionally well and we have 6 of Brutus's offspring along with 3 Buff Orpington's which are about 5 days younger that the first brood.

Blossom is beside herself and is waiting for the chance to get in the cage with them.

We moved the chicks into the utility room and when I put the dogs to bed Blossom sat there staring into the cage, she was still there the next morning in the very same spot!

She was exhausted all day and didn't even bark at passing dog walkers.

Well that's it for tonight, hopefully tomorrow will see the poly tunnel rebuilt, plants retied and everything back to being good in the garden.  Now for some more Hawthorn syrup!

Goodbye Lou

Lou

We had been treating Lou our Rottie cross for what were essentially bedsores on her elbows and wrists for the last three weeks. Sadly during that time she lost mobility in her back legs and we made the very painful decision to have her put to sleep yesterday.

I have never experienced having to make that decision before and Nanny Southwellski and I  talked long and hard and with many many tears before deciding that it was unfair for us to keep her living as she was for any longer.

It was for us that we didn't take the decision sooner and selfishly we had kept going with washing her wounds, packing them with honey and dressing them daily.  It must have been awful for her as they were down to the bone but being the sort of dog she was she didn't complain at all, just gave a gentle wag of her tail when she saw me coming with the bowl of iodine and the dressings.

The final moments were very peaceful, Jeremy the vet came to the house and climbed under the desk so as not to move her and gently trimmed the fur on her back leg before injecting her.  She died peacefully without as much as a whimper with her head in Nanny Southwellski's lap.

In all honesty, I think had we seen Jeremy the first time we took her to the vets three weeks ago we would have made the decision then and she wouldn't have had to go through any of the unnecessary treatment.  But, we saw another vet who said she would recover eventually and that despite her being 18 she had a long time left.

I suppose the moral of this tale is get a second opinion and take a step back and look at what is happening to your dog (or cat, horse, pig, hamster or whatever it is you have) and ask, what about them?

Lou was a rescue dog who was extremely nervous and would bolt upstairs at any sudden sound. If you went to grab her collar she would squeal like a stuck pig even if you hadn't touched her.

Her nervousness subsided as she became deaf after which she put on weight and never reacted to anything.

She was incredibly gentle and never so much as bared her teeth at anyone with the exception of 3 travellers who were intending to come onto a building site we were running.

Lou came to work with us and sat in the back of the van during the day.  I heard some shouting and a deep barking and on going to investigate I found Lou, hackles up standing her ground and refusing to let the unwanted visitors in.

That was a one off, but from then on I always believed that if her loyalty to us were to be tested she would not let us down.

She was a regular visitor to our training centres and had a natural affinity to our students who had learning disabilities and one young man in particular, Jonathan, had a great affection for her and would always take for walks and make sure she had water and toilet breaks.

He loved the responsibility and I have no doubt that Lou was responsible for starting the process that made him the confident young man he was when he left.

Our home is an emptier and sadder place without her but we are glad she is no longer suffering.

We love and miss you Lou. x

It's a funny old world

Moody or what?

It's also a very beautiful world if you take the time to have a proper look at it.  I never tire of looking at the sky when I am in the garden.

Tonight it was definitely moody and although I never actually caught sight of the sun, it was making it's presence felt.

Daytime or night, there is always something to see, be it the stars, the sunrise, the sunset or just the clouds.

Last night the Milky Way was there for all to see in all it's glory.

There are of course so many things of beauty in the garden all year round.  I discovered a Deadly Nightshade plant in with the potatoes tonight.  What a beautiful plant!  It's in the incinerator now ready to be disposed of.

Runner beans are one of my favourite crop producing plants flower wise, I love the contrast between the calm green leaves and the vibrant red flowers.

Our beans have not been great so far, but as Terry on the Radio 2 allotment said his are all behind as well I don't feel so bad.

Our dinner this evening was home produced with the exception of the meat.  I made an apple sauce from our Bramley windfalls.

I know, throw your hands up in horror. You shouldn't eat the windfalls!  When I was a kid going round the fruit farms of West Norfolk with Great Grandpa Southwellski in his lorry, we used to get given bag full's of windfalls which Great Nanny Southwellski turned into pies and crumbles and I'm still here.

I was pleased it rained today, quite heavily at times and yet when I was out in the garden around 8.30pm the soil just below the surface was bone dry and that's after 6 - 7 hours of rain!

How to stay dry Scarlett style

Never mind, I find watering up quite therapeutic.

You will, if you've read my blog before, know how much we love our dogs and how much they mean to us.

Lou, our 17 year old Rottie cross has aged rapidly in the last 3 -4 days and both Nanny Southwellski are preparing ourselves for the inevitable heartache when she goes.

She has always been a very nervous dog and has only really relaxed in the last year since she went deaf.  Now sudden noises don't worry her and she has started eating normally even during bonfire night and thunder storms blissfully unaware of anything.

We have had a bit of a love hate relationship with Lou over the years but she is very loyal and always with us despite our shortcomings.

She has had her moments such as when she refused to let 3 travellers move after they tried to come in through the back entrance to one of our building sites.  That was at the height of her nervousness, but she was showing none of that on this particular occasion.

We have to help her in and out of the house now, it's no problem and she seems happy enough just to be with us in the study or laying out in the sun and while she is clearly not suffering she will remain part of our family.

 Our apple tree is laden with fruit and I mean laden.  They are also ready and Coco and I have now replaced our morning constitutional to the peas with a trip to the apple tree, scrummy!

We went to the opticians today, our eyes are healthy enough apparently it's just that we can't see.

I saw an advert a while back for a national chain of opticians where a young boy is running round the house like a looney and bouncing on the sofa.  His father then comes through and finds his mangled specs down the back of the sofa. Off to the opticians.  Now why would anyone choose the same glasses as Brains on Thunderbirds?  Does he not know what a berk he looks? Did he do it for a bet?

I chose a simple pair and as long as they don't fall off my head and people don't point at me they will do fine.

When they arrive next week, who knows this might start to make sense.

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

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.

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.