Wednesday 28 December 2011

Time

We all had a great Christmas: my parents came over on Christmas Day for lunch and my Mum brought home made crackers


and the children had the usual present-fest that started ridiculously early - even Tristan said he didn't know why he'd woken up (he got an iPod for his birthday so I hadn't budgeted for anything extra!) but I think they all had fun. I was rather stricken by a migraine in the evening which was gonna happen given all the sorting out I did the previous day :-/ my housework allergy again. Anyway I felt a bit better quite quickly so was able to recover sufficiently to knit my socks during the Downton Abbey Christmas Special. These socks are from a pattern Nicky gave me rather than the gumboot ones and I'm using a beautiful 4 ply wool, again from the Natural Dye Studio, called Sweet Pea:


It's such a doddle after all the stranded things I've been knitting recently although I've fudged the reductions a bit so they'll probably be wonky when I stitch them together. I'm ploughing on with the Encompass circular scarf and I seem to be getting the hang of it, luckily - I'm now on to pale yarn and it's easier to hide mistakes in black!

I had some lovely presents too, including a new Moleskine diary and a Passions Garden journal which is brilliant - I can't wait to start filling in all the sections. Fab pair of leather boots too which are completely waterproof, as it pays to be practical where I live.

Charles and I made a quick trip to Arundel WWT yesterday as my parents kindly offered to have the children for a couple of hours. We saw snipe, teal, a kingfisher and had a cracking view of 2 male bullfinches on a bramble bush only a few feet away from the hide. Unfortunately the peregrine didn't make an appearance, although the teal and all the other ducks probably appreciated that fact.

Nicky put me on to a good website, Devon Fine Fibres, who also have a good blog so will add it to my list. I am looking forward to getting on with things in January now as I find it difficult to focus during this week-in-the-middle. I feel I should be tidying up and planning things for next year but I don't have the sightest motivation for either :-D

Thursday 22 December 2011

Party Time

Today was the day of the CCG Christmas Party! It was a select gathering but all the members of the Guild attended - and as the Country Crafters Guild consists of Me and Nicky, it meant we could have 3 Heston Blumenthal pine-sugar dusted mince pies each :-)

Yum. We also discussed the projects and crafts we'd like to complete/try/attempt. I'd like to have a go at needle felting and Nicky is contemplating knitting an Afghan throw, and of course, there will be the seasonal produce to preserve. We decided to press on with the Sock-a-Month challenge by casting on our January socks!


I am absolutely loving the yarn - it's British blue-faced Leicester wool from the Natural Dye Studio and feels lovely and soft. The colour is gorgeous too; I am really in to my greens at the moment!

Earlier on in the day I wanted to make the most of the mild weather and try and split one of my lupins as I need some space to fit other plants in and also need to do some dividing so I can populate my new border. I took out one of the smaller ones but it was still quite a whopper:


However, I took some tiny plants from the base, a bit like this one:


and potted them up in gritty compost and trimmed the leaves right back. I have no idea if they'll take, but I've put them in the greenhouse and I'll see if they produce some roots.


I love seeing a tray full of cuttings! So full of promise. The greenhouse is also being used for another purpose; I had lost Ida the hen earlier in the day and eventually found her in there having a bathe in the slightly drier earth. Mary also took advantage:


So as you can see they really appreciate my recent purchase of a fancy dustbath and perchery station with oven-baked sand :-/

The bees enjoyed the relative warmth too and I thought I'd give them a feed and use up some old waxy honey cappings that have been sitting in a tupperware on my worktop since the spring. I diluted it with hot water and popped it in a dish with a bit of sponge so they didn't drown, then placed one in the sunshine near the entrance of each hive:


I did also get round to giving the bathroom a thorough clean and Rosie said it looked much better and not so haunted...a reference to the cobwebs!!

So, it's now time for a podcast and a few more rows of the socks :-)

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Shortest Day

...and it's been a gloomy one outside! Still, at least the nights don't get any longer from a theoretical point of view and we have been fortunate here in my part of the world that the good weather started in April and seemed to go on until mid-November. My crocuses are poking up through the rain-hammered soil and if/when the grass dries out a bit I will go and out finish trimming all the scrappy bits of foliage from my lupins and snapdragons. I might take some cuttings too and I ought to mulch or lift my blue salvias as the seeds were really expensive and they aren't terribly hardy!

I didn't have a Midwinter party this year but I did make a gingerbread house:

I made gingerbread chickens and ducks rather than people and Amber added a couple of bunnies so it's remarkably authentic. I would like to tackle another gingerbread creation before the weekend...

I ought to tackle tidying up my study - it's getting quite difficult to get in the room at all now. I do try and tell myself that once spring comes I can put the beehive/frames/nucleus box in the garden (they are quite big things to store) and I need to give Nicky back some books and a big box of Fimo, and the eggboxes should probably live somewhere other than the in-tray on my desk, and the demi-johns could be put somewhere else too I guess :-/ My aunt came round with my parents on Monday and she commented that I needed more storage; I had to admit that I have plenty of storage but I am rubbish at putting stuff away. My commitment to housework is similarly lax - I think I'm missing a gene sequence or two.

The circular scarf that I'm knitting is going ok although I realised I'm all out of kilter with my charts but the layer I'm doing is in black yarn so it's pretty forgiving. Do I work on through with the wrong pattern and pretend it's meant to 'drift' along rather than be in nice blocks or do I stick resolutely to the charts and not mind about the sticky bit in the middle where I have gone wrong? Will the recipient even notice??

Luckily, in the face of such knitting and housework inadequacy, I got our home-ed report which was so glowing and positive and chock full of compliments at my brilliant educational provision I had to sit myself down and bask in the praise for a few minutes. It is soooooo wonderful to get that affirmation from someone whose role is to check that I am doing a good job: it would appear I am :-)

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Frosty Morning and Fancy Dustbath

Well, it was beautiful yesterday morning. Cabbages can be pretty unimpressive but then Jack Frost calls and, well:


I also took a picture of all the plants we rescued from their tumble in the greenhouse and rehoused in the cold frame:


Roll on spring, I can't wait to plant them all out :-)

The other part for the new dustbath arrived and after a lot of bad language and misplaced screwdrivers, ta-dah!


I bought some play sand to put in the dastbath itself but it's sopping wet so I am drying it out at the moment. For anyone else in the same situation, don't cook it, it doesn't work but does create a lot of steam...

The ducks are still enjoying their compost-spiked mudbath:


Ah, I am very fond of my ducks.

A couple of years ago I collected some seeds from the Scots Pine trees in the copse and planted them. They are doing really well:


When they first germinate they are the tiniest little thread of a trunk with a fan of half a dozen needles on top, just adorable. I really recommend growing them for their miniture perfection! Growing tree seeds is so full of promise, I love them.

I have finished the mitts! But they are wrapped up and I forgot to take a photo so you'll have to take my word for it.

I'm now knitting a circular scarf for my friend but with lighter-weight yarn and smaller needles so I've added on another 30 stitches and am hoping for the best.

It's Jamie's Christmas on tv and I'm absolutely starving, it's not the best program to watch as I am drooling...

Sunday 18 December 2011

Pictures of Perch Hill

I wanted to post some pictures of our trip to Perch Hill, so, here they are! :-)









And thanks to Laura and her phone for the pictures!

Having seen the above example of how tasteful and classy certain plants and candles and natural foliage can look, it's probably not the best time to post a picture of my attempt to bring a little Christmas style to my dining table but anyway, I pruned some holly berries and found some pine cones so here is my lovely candle:


Amber brought the bunnies into the lounge this morning which was quite fun - no prizes for guessing where their favourite place was:


I think there are a few needles left on the tree. After washing the tomato pots out in the duck's bath yesterday, it was full of compost and rather disgusting, with lumps of dirty ice floating around in it. My lovely mallards didn't seem to mind in the slightest though:



Saturday 17 December 2011

Amber has been pestering me for a hamster for ages, despite her having two rabbits already and my dislike of small rodents...I've got enough of those in my chicken run. We looked after our neighbour Camilla's hamster when they were away last year - he was called Point, presumably as he didn't have one otherwise. He spent the time gnawing the bars of his cage and smelled of rather pongy feet so my opinion has not improved since I was bitten on the thumb by somebody's hamster when I was about 8. Amber however appropriated a box and made a nest in it and after a couple of failed attempts, I managed to come up with this:


I know, it doesn't exactly look like a hamster, more like an Ewok, but Amber is thrilled and has called it Pippa.


Rosie's guinea pigs needed cleaning out so I gave them to her to look after while I did their hutch. I knew she had taken them into her room, but hmm...


I'm sure there are a lot of health reasons why the guinea pigs should not be allowed in her bed but they all looked so happy :-)


It's no worse than the dog sleeping in my bed surely? My poor children, they have such a schizo life as when they are with their dad there is no mess, no mud, no animals and lots of white clothes. I don't know how they cope with the extremes!

Charles came over to help me sort out my upturned pots and trays in the greenhouse as I felt too despondent to tackle it on my own. It has been cold today and it's pretty squishy underfoot but at least it wasn't raining. We managed to salvage most of the sweet peas and 3 of my lupin seedlings. I also finally got round to eviscerating my gro-bags and putting the contents on my plant-less border where the ducks were. We also planted up lots of bulbs and I Sarah Ravened my semperviviums and put them in a shallow terracotta dish. Rescuing some fallen Scots Pine branches from the woods, I was able to prettify my new candle, although I need some holly berries for contrast. So I now have 15 hyacinth bulbs on the go and 5 more paperwhite narcissi. The house should smell lovely once that lot comes in to flower.


It was so lovely to spend some time outside in the garden, very therapeutic. We also mended the cold frame so that is now stocked to the brim; I hope the slugs don't find it.

Ooh Strictly Final Results!! Seeya!

Friday 16 December 2011

Exciting Stuff

It was our home-ed Christmas Party at the hall today which was, er, loud but anyway, after a soothing cup of chamomile tea on arriving home, there was a knock at the door and my new feeder arrived and...the covered dustbath! I have put my electric screwdriver on to charge ready to assemble it tomorrow. I think the hens will love it, and they certainly need a place to bathe - Peggy especially looks rather filthy, mainly because Henry doesn't wipe his feet, if you know what I mean :-/

The treadle feeder looks really good and I put it out for the hens to try, with the treadle-y bit propped down with a plant pot so they get used to feeding from the hopper. Once they've got the hang of it I can remove the weight and they should learn that when they stand on the ramp, the flap lifts up and exposes the feed. I'm aware this assumes a certain level of intelligence that I'm not entirely sure my poultry possess but they were certainly intrigued:




So I hope they get used to it as it will save a lot of wasted feed and fat rats.

Then - great excitement - Laura took me out to Sarah Raven's place in Perch Hill as the Christmas shop was open. Dangerous, even with the 10% off. But we had a lovely time drinking in the stylish homewares and garden accoutrements, although we agreed that gorgeous though everything was, one had to place it in a realistic fashion given our lifestyles; the huge vase with mophead hydrangeas looked fantastic on the enormous wooden dining table in Sarah's conservatory but would probably look less so surrounded by cornflakes packets, bottles of Calpol and toast crumbs. Ditto the candlesticks/vases/tasteful trinkets....

I put my camera on charge before we left so that it didn't run out halfway round our visit but then forgot to take it at all. Laura has said she will email me some photos but it was very inspirational and I reckon I could pull off the sempervivs-in-terracotta-dishes-with-gravel that Ms Raven had placed on the table, and I did invest in a large pillar candle in a beautiful green that I think will work well for both Christmas and spring. A couple of seed packets did make their way in to the bag too - the cup and saucer plant, Cobea scandens and Tithonia 'Torch' (which are a bit like an orange Cosmos) so I am looking forward to sowing those. I also bought some hyacinths for forcing as they were in the 'reduced' bucket and £8 for 15 bulbs seemed pretty good.

What fun :-)

Thursday 15 December 2011

A December Day Off

We had thought of going to Arundel WWT today but the forecast wasn't great and although we have a voucher for a free book (as we recently joined) it would have been a bit of a rush as Tris was off to his friend Joel's house at 2. We went to Middle Farm and bought Garvo layers mash and duck pellets, half a sack of which I am going to give to Joel's mum in lieu of payment for board and lodgings for T...

After a stop at Harper & Eede to look for a rake, which we didn't buy, and a fleecy-lined shirt for me, which we did, we went to the Green Man for lunch. It does great food and big portions so Tristan went off full and happy, even though he is struggling to get used to the button fly on his new jeans.

On the way back from delivering Tris, we went to Martins Wood Farm and had a look at their chickens as they stock hybrids, not that they've got a lot in stock at the moment.

My yarn from Jamieson & Smith has arrived:


It's very 'wool-y' after the cashmerino I've been working with! - but I want to have a go with knitting something and see how it goes. I've been asked by Amber to crochet her a hamster so I'll start that shortly...

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Inspeciton Day...and a new mug

The home-ed inspector called in this morning and despite a frantic and unsuccessful search for Amber's file of work, we accumulated quite a bit to show him what we'd been up to. He was, as usual, duly impressed at our planning (!) and how happy the children were. The girls have also had their Stagecoach reports and they have settled extremely well and seem to have kept up with the regime even though they didn't start until almost half term. It's so easy to get nit-picky with children with what they do and how they are, so it's always nice to get someone else's opinion to achieve a little perspective!

After lunch we resumed the quest for winter footwear for the girls so a trip to town was necessary. I can't bear real shopping but there are only so many things that can be effectively accessed online or in charity shops. Rose found a fab pair of boots that were reduced, then we braved Debenhams, and - I can hardly bear to remind myself - Primark. The girls found some clothes and I got Tristan some jeans but I would rather buy howies! After such an experience I felt I really had to treat myself to a new Le Crueset mug which I had seen in Steamer Trading the other day. They didn't have the green one which was gorgeous but they did have the volcanic orange :-)


I might have to start collecting them! I have a huge fondness for Le Crueset as my maternal grandmother used to cook with it on her Aga and I have amassed some of the orange and yellow saucepans and dishes. Lovely.

Knitting-wise, I am still finishing off some Christmas projects - I'd started knitting some mitts but realised I'll run out of yarn so have unravelled them and will start again in a slightly more yarn-thrifty manner! I'm waiting for my Shetland wool to arrive and I really want to get on with some socks but I'm resisting until my Christmas presents have been completed. The mulled wine jelly is straining as I write, so I will get that finished tomorrow, and Charles has a day off so hopefully we'll be able to go out somewhere if the weather isn't too awful. I also need to confront the mess that I found in the greenhouse and fix the coldframe so I don't lose all my sweet peas that I grew from my saved seed.

I will pick up the knitting needles now and sit with the children and the guinea pigs who seem to be occupying the sofa....

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Stormy Nights

I hardly got a wink of sleep last night as it was blowing a gale and the rain was thudding against the windows. There is a particular level of darkness at 4am during a winter storm that feels so horribly claustrophobic and never-ending, so after sleeping fitfully from midnight to about ten past four, I got up, made tea and sat blearily with pen and paper furthering the home-ed plans for next year, whilst leaping up periodically after a hefty gust and shining the torch on the duck runs and rabbit shed to check they were all intact.

They all survived the night though, and the ducks were thrilled with the mud and standing water:


I had bungee'd up the door of my little plastic greenhouse so it didn't blow away but unfortunately the plants inside were trashed:


Oh dear. Luckily I have some sweet peas and hollyhocks in the cold frame, although that is also in 3 pieces now. I have planted the strawberry in the chicken run  but everything else is beyond saving :-(

The girls and I went up to see Kit and his wife who were planting trees in their field. I gave Kit a swarm of bees back in the summer and he has kindly said we can go and help him with their permaculture project. It was a bit sloppy but the girls got stuck in:



I have a couple of knitting projects on the go at the moment, but they are Christmas presents and a bit bodged, both of them. I spotted a pattern for a jumper I'd like to knit but I'll wait for the new year for that. I'd also like to knit a tea cosy, so I think I need to spend some time choosing a pattern...

Sunday 11 December 2011

Rats

I was treated to a lovely Christmas lunch by my parents today at their local pub, the Royal Oak. We are having a scaled down, minimalist version on the day itself but we thought it'd be nice celebratory roast at some point...and we didn't have to do any washing up. My supermarket delivery yesterday contained the first batch of cocktail sausages ready for the day; I've got 90 so far. I bought my parents a mini Nordman fir tree for their house and gave them a few knitted decorations to embellish their own collection:


Cute huh? I am making another Christmas pud from the Mini Christmas Knits book and I think I prefer it to the crocheted one, although like Nicky I have incorporated the top into the base rather than made an icing top for it. I'll post a pic tomorrow as my camera is a bit rubbish in dark conditions. I do have lights in my house, obviously, but they are all low-energy bulbs which are pleasantly 'muted' but not very good for photography.

I went to listen to my brother, father and niece perform their Christmas Concert with their local community orchestra. It was great fun and reminded me how much I enjoy classical music. I dug out my old clarinet which I learnt to play at school when I was 8. Our school was very keen on music and I also played the violin, very badly, for a year or so too. I can remember all the pieces I used to play but have had to download an app to remind me of the fingering! :-D I am sure my music-reading skills are pretty rusty as well even though I tried to learn piano a little while ago. I'm hopefully going to give the orchestra a go myself when they start back in January.

I picked more crab apples on my way back from the pub as I'd like to make some Mulled Wine Jelly as seen in the December issue of HomeFarmer magazine.


It's basically crab apples with spices and a tot of red wine, but I bet it'll be delicious with the cheeses and home-made bread we'll have on Christmas Day, and the mini sausages, if there are any left after Tristan's taken his portion.

I have a rat back in the compost heap. It is so difficult: I bring all the poultry into one area to save my lawn and it becomes a rodent restaurant. I am going to invest in a treadle feeder for the big hens as in addition to the rat family, the dunnocks keep helping themselves to my expensive Garvo Layers mash. Henry doesn't help either as he tips the bowl over to spread the food far and wide in his desire to provide sufficient food for all his ladies, which the feeder will put a stop to. There is a tunnel into the duck runs too so I am having to keep the water bowls empty overnight and I am sluicing the run as well to remove any traces of rat piddle.

Anyway, it's now Countryfile and I need to make myself a cup of tea and pick up the knitting. Happy Sunday evening everyone.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Changes

Rosie did her Brownie Promise last night, which she was thrilled about. She has lots of activities and badges to work towards which will keep her busy. Speaking of keeping busy, I will hopefully be back working at the bee farm next spring as I have been asked to look after the WBCs in the rose garden, and I have a number of projects I'd like to do in the garden with the children.

With the Home Education inspector due imminently, I have been wanting to put together a plan for next year as the children's needs are very diverse now and rarely does one subject or lesson fit them all. T has announced he wants to take GCSEs after all, so it looks like we'll be tackling English, maths, history, the three sciences and possibly Latin over the next 18 months. I have decided to put my studying on hold for now as the children need my focus and at least their level is easier than mine! I also need to devise some sort of agricultural studies curriculum for Amber, although I was speaking to a lady who works at a dairy farm yesterday and Ams might be able to go round and see it all in action which would be good. Luckily Rosie loves workbooks and is still young enough to enjoy the simpler things so hopefully I can concentrate on the older two for a bit while she carries on exploring and having a more holistic approach.

It has been incredibly windy here and the gate to the poultry run keep blowing open, mixing up all the hens. Luckily I got to Henry before he properly er, introduced himself to new Maud and the chicks. I have tried to steer the ducks towards their tub so they can have a proper wash but they hop in and hop out again, not that I blame them. I gave the mallards calls some water in a planter; they were in heaven:


Rose brought the guineas in and even Tristan got involved:





Ahh, they are very sweet and seem to induce a surprising amount of sibling harmony.

Monday 5 December 2011

Home school/making/baking

I had a phonecall last night from the Home Ed inspector, who has arranged to come and assess us on Wednesday week. It's worth having him round just to see the look of panic in the children's eyes when I tell them ;-) Anyway, I thought we'd better tidy up the bookcase:


I wouldn't want him to think that such a chaotic mess was in any way indicative of the way I home-schooled...

So, after a good deal of sorting and numerous trips to the recycling bin:


Ta-dah!

We decorated the tree yesterday evening to the not-remotely-festive background of the X-Factor semi-final [not my choice] but anyway, it looks jolly nice with all my handmade trinkets and baubly stuff:


I got some solar lights which are really pretty for the 20 minutes they are on for but I have some back up, plug in ones too.

I made banana bread as per Slow Living Essential's blog recipe - it's proper bread rather than cake, and it's really nice, not too sweet, and even Tristan (who can normally detect banana in anything at 50 paces) ate a slice without realising it wasn't actually cinnamon as I'd let him believe :-)


Rosie loved it:


That's Molly the guinea pig tucked up behind her head, not some strange hair extension thing.

I also made bagels, presuming that Tristan would not touch the banana loaf and perhaps it wasn't the best thing to make a ham sandwich with.


So, it has been quite busy, and I am in real danger of being able to mop the kitchen floor this evening! We did do some home-school work too, although T is finding the Biology GCSE textbook extremely dull, and I wimped out of going through the section about puberty with him :-/ but Amber is writing up her farm research and Rose picked out an English workbook.

The Christmas arrangements continue to be a bit of a problem, although I must take my hat off to my ex-husband for coming up with the best nonsensical comment yet: the children have to go to him before lunch on Christmas Day, and if they go at 4 in the afternoon (as they want to) it's too late. Why? Because, and I quote, " Christmas finishes at half past 3..."

Priceless! :-D