Late post

I was going to write this yesterday but Tristan's pc has gone to the menders, hence we are one computer facility short...so of course my laptop becomes the Family laptop, grrr. Anyway, I spent yesterday morning in bed as I'd had a bad migraine the previous evening which had knocked me for six, so Laura kindly took the children to Home Ed group for me and I did a few more rounds of Tristan't hat. I should hopefully have a ta-dah moment for that later although I must admit it's not as impressive as my hat, which I love. I hadn't realised the joy in making something purely for myself; it's rare as a mother to not have everything one owns appropriated by needy children (see above reference to laptop) so I am loving my soft, warm and very necessary headgear.

I did potter around the garden taking some seedheads and bring in the tender plants:

And move the wormery to the porch to give it some protection from the elements:

I cleaned out the hens and as I once again have an abundance of mint which is looking a bit manky, I chopped it up and mixed it in with the shavings for their bedding:

The rest of the garden is quietening down now for the winter, although my lupins are still pushing up flower spikes - they have been amazing: 6 whole months of flowering. The winter veg have been enjoying the warm autumn and are quite ahead of themselves:

A day off

I'd set the moth trap up again last night in a different part of the garden:

Unfortunately the bulb popped during the night, possibly due to a few spots of rain...or the neighbours throwing stones at it - it is rather bright! Still, we had another good result, though I can't rule out that some of the moths may have been experiencing déjà vu but we did have a few different ones. I shut the chickens in before removing the blanket this time. A particular favourite of mine was in there - the Oak Eggar:

She's quite big and looks a bit like a lion, it was brilliant :-)

We'd thought about going to Nymans but it was really hot and a bit of a drive and Charles had stayed late at the office last night so we decided to pootle along to Middle Farm and have lunch at a pub called the Ash Tree that Charles knew. I said I thought it was called the Oak Tree but we took a wrong turn and ended up at the Plough instead. On the way back we found the right pub: the Yew Tree...just up the road from the Old Oak. Hmm, neither of us were on top form!

Having been to Middle Farm, we came back here for a cup of tea and put the tin bath in for the ducks. Setting our deckchairs a discreet distance away from all the splashing and somersaulting, we had copious amounts of tea and Charles enjoyed some peace and quiet as I was counting stitches in my attempt to crochet a radish, so I couldn't talk. I attached the 3 leaves and showed Charles who said it looked like a pink mouse that had escaped from the lab during an experiment to grow an extra ear.

Treating that remark with the comtempt that it deserved I placed my Viola, Fuschia and Radish proudly on the grass (I found a bit without any duck poo) and took a photo:

Laboratory mouse indeed...

Meanwhile the ducks had finished getting all the water out of their bath and John had found a ridiculous place to go to sleep:

Fresh from my radish achievement, I decided to have a go at a peapod:

Well I think it looks like a peapod anyway!

Sports Day

Today was fun, although I was quite tired having gone to bed late and been woken up by Tristan [sore throat] and Scruff [??] in the night but the evening had been fun as Nicky had brought Loretta over to observe a meeting of the Country Clarft Crub, and we had a very pleasant time talking about stuff and knitting things and eating chocolate. I also revealed Mr Buff-Orpington to his wife but the flash photography was not very flattering so we will get them together for a photo op at some point but here is Bertie:

He looks slightly less Quasimodo-ish in daylight

I am feeling rather wary of posting such a picture on a blog that both my father and brother might look at but I'm hoping my Dad won't know how to comment and Nick will be too embarrassed to admit he's related to me...

The ducks were a bit disappointed with the glorious sunshine/lack of rain that greeted the morning but having been loudly quacked at by John when I got back from walking the dog, I got their bath ready. They were quite keen:

In fact so keen, they couldn't wait and hopped in:

The swirling water out of the hose brought a wave machine element to the proceedings and they were quacking excitedly - the adrenelin rush of surfing white water is obviously applicable to ducks too.

I managed to tear myself away from the garden long enough to take the children to the Home Ed Annual Sports Day which was great fun as usual. They are all so keen to join in, it's great to see.

Strawberry lace eating contest



Obstacle Race

Three-legged Race

I opted out of the Parents Race as a) I was tired b) I have won the last two and c) I was too busy knitting. I finished my coathanger cover last night and stayed up ridiculously late last night crocheting flowers but here it is:

Quite pretty I think

I've started my next one and also cast on 60 stitches for my cafetiere cosy. Oh and crocheted some more flowers for a garland to go round my fireplace.

My garden is looking fantastic. Here's a couple of pics:

Squash

Giant Sunflower

Bit of a mess but all very productive

I'm off to Glyndebourne tomorrow!

Gardening

I wanted to get out in the garden today as the forecast isn't good and I've lots of things to plant out - especially as Charles called in with some tomatoes for me on his way to the office.

So after some homeschooling with the girls and trying to get my head around Cretaceous carbon sinks I headed out before the rain.  Quick check on the bunnies:

The warren is coming along well

Tomatoes on the bottom, squashes on the top
(to stop greenhouse blowing away)

I've got 2 other vegetable patches which I must say have done very well - I have enjoyed a good crop of broad beans and leeks but I need room for the summer veg so it was out with the broad beans (leaving the roots in to provide some nitrogen to the soil) and in with peas, beans and my sunflowers, which I'm growing to hopefully provide some bird seed for the winter:

The peas are from Sarah Raven (I'm a sucker for her glossy brochure) and they really are rather beautiful - they're purple podded and seeing all the flowers, hopefully I will have some pods to photograh at some point!

So I think I achieved quite a bit in the garden.

As an aside, I took the dog out late this morning and we met a tiny lady walking along. Out of the undergrowth leapt an enormous Rottweiler who bounded heavily towards me and Scruff, barking deeply, teeth bared and hackles raised. The lady said "Oh don't mind her - Rotties are always a bit noisy when they're playing..." Playing?? What is it with people and their enormous dogs? However 'friendly' and 'playful' they may be, having a dog the size of a small ox thundering at you looking for all the world like it's going to consume both you and your spaniel in one mouthful is more than a little disconcerting and quite what this bird-like woman would have done had her darling Rottie decided to do just that, I really don't know. She did helpfully point out that my dog would be able to outrun her dog anyway...I'm not sure if I'd have been able to though!

Faith restored

Two people (previous customers) duly knocked on my door after reading the sign saying "If you would like to buy some honey rather than STEAL IT then please knock" that we had put on the stall. I explained that I had used all my jars and one lady said she'd bring me some and another said that she sold vegetables and they had had things stolen from their stall too...we did wonder what the black market value of a marrow was, and imagined hoodie-clad youfs trading bravado stories about the dozen eggs and 3 cucumbers they'd nicked.

Still, at least I have built up a good customer base and met all my neighbours into the bargain :-)

Meanwhile, the hens have not behaving; they had discovered a weak spot in the fence around the vegetable patch and I found them in there, dust-bathing amongst my terribly expensive Sarah Raven purple French beans so I have planted some more seeds in pots and decided to put the now rather leggy lettuce seedlings in there instead. These are also terribly expensive Sarah Raven organic cos Pinokkio so arriving back from work at the bee farm, we see Emily the Speckledy in the vegetable patch and the ground beneath her strewn with lettuce leaves.

So faith in human nature restored but faith in helfulness of poultry still lagging behind somewhat.