Ways to entertain chickens.

Give them fresh foods like tomatoes.

Give them lots of scratch and grit. 

And give them something fun to jump up at so that they have to work a little to get that food.

Ways to make Jopan happy, plant lots of flowers (preferably do some weeding)

and attract lots of beneficial insects into her garden. 

collected my first seeds of the year.

I collected 10 sorrel seeds from my plants today and sowed a couple around the garden. I might sow some at the allotment or somewhere else in the garden. I do love collecting seeds. :)

Can't find any paper.

Well I can't find any paper and I don't have Microsoft office on my new laptop yet, so I'll write this down here.

My made up recipe for a new fruit wine.

Green apple and pea pod wine.

4 lbs of green apples
3 lbs of pea pods
3 lbs sugar
2 lemons
gallon of water
wine yeast.

Now this is just something I'm trying out. I couldn't find any recipes for apple and pea pod so it might be nasty, but I will see.
You'll never know, unless you try, so I'll try.

I'll be washing the pods, boiling them in water until they're tender, straining, adding the sugar and the lemon peel, and once cool adding the yeast.

I'll be mashing up the apples and peeled lemons in my trusty juicer and adding all of the juice before I add the wine yeast. I'll leave everything for 24 hours to infuse with the lemon peel before straining everything and pouring it into a clean demi john, I'll add more water if needed to fill to the top of the container.

I'll leave everything for 2-3 months or until the fermentation has stopped before moving to a clean demi john for a further 3 months before sampling. Waiting half a year to find out if it was a waste of time or not.

Smiling puppy and garden update.

Shes always so happy to be reunited with her sofa.

I removed the spent peas and bolted lettuce. Sowed a new row of peas. They might have time.

My rudbeckia has flowered, and has several more flower heads waiting to open.

I have a few different colours of sweet peas.

Another rudbeckia might open in a few days.

Enchanters nightshade. A really beautiful wild plant. 

globe artichoke with a huge globe, and flies. 

Nasturtiums.

Nasturtium flowers.

My patti pan and courgette. 

I can't believe how big this plant is. No wonder I never got a fruit before. I didn't give them a big enough pot. D: 

My courgettes got quite a few fruit that need picking. 

Poor little pumpkin seems to be no match for the courgettes. (I do consider the patti pan as more of a summer squash)

Little dwarf bean fighting away underneath everything. 

A filled a whole bed with dwarf beans, I am determined to get some beans. 

And another nasturtium. The bees love them. 

A Four hour trip with the dogs but with an hour at the café.

It's been a truly lovely day today, although Trouble has been too hot, and very grumpy.  

This field means a lot to me as it's where I planted my first tree, with school, and it's where I used to go walking with my older brother years ago.

Niche had a really, really lovely time. She is now laying on the carpet covered in mud. 

I love wide open spaces, I am so anti social though and I hate having to share them. :P 

Two very tired doggies and a tired Jopan too. But Trouble did not behave today at all. She's been a very naughty dog indeed. 

Look closely and you'll see a robin. 

Because sometimes you just have to stop everything and have a chew. 

And a very large clump of meadow sweet that was covered in bees. 

A Saint Johns Wort walk.

Over-all walk 1 hour and 22 minutes.

This land belongs to a cow farmer, he's really done his best to allow biodiversity on his land.

I had a look for the saint johns wort that I knew was around this area. I was pretty happy when I found this... That is until I looked up.

All of this is saint johns wort.

So is this. 

Yep. It is everywhere. I wasn't going to collect any petals because I worry about taking too much, but I think I'll be safe taking a few. 

I stumbled upon some wild raspberries in the woods.

And then we visited the lake. Its only a tiny lake but it supports a massive amount of bird life. Where are the birds you say?

Well, they are here...

And...Holy moly! They are everywhere.

With a little nudging from a work friend.

I finally transferred my rhubarb wine to a new demi john.

It should really be put into bottles by now but I don't have any at the moment.  

I picked all of the peas that were ready too, podded the peas, putting the pods into a bag in the freezer and the peas into a zip lock bag into the freezer.

I will sow more peas when I can in the hope that we get one more harvest before the frosts.

 Hopefully I'll manage to get enough pods to make my pea pod wine. As long as I have over half the amount I need I will add some apple to the recipe to bulk it out.

I will see what needs to be done on my one day off tomorrow.