I'm getting quite excited about the idea of camping next spring.

I'm sitting watching youtube videos of people gardening in the spring and summer. I'm just waiting for winter to be over. I'm counting down for the shortest day. Just 2 days to go.

I've got lots of camping stuff on my Christmas list, I'm determined I will sleep better the next time we go camping. I've also bought myself a lovely purple allotment/camping chair with a pocket in the arm rest for a drink.

I really, really want to spend more time at the allotment this year. I also want to get the home garden sorted out as well. I have no idea how I'm going to manage it all but I'll do my best.

"Day off" today.

I set off at 8am with Troubs and I walked her for about 95 minutes. I got home dropped Troubs off and walked Niche for 50 minutes. I also picked up an undelivered parcel from the post office. 

 I had my breakfast at around 11am and then I fed the chickens, washed the pots, did laundry and at 1pm I set off for the allotment. I walked to the allotment, weeded my lavender bed, planted my garlic (I know its late)

 and I dug over my potato bed. weeded it... Mostly, and broke up the soil. That beds going to have leeks and maybe onions in it 2018.
 After everything I'd done today I was knackered, so I walked back home and now I'm on the sofa with one dog and the cat. I have a cup of tea and very sore feet.

So its 3 o clock, I'm now going to "rest" on my day off. :P

I just spent three hours cleaning the house.

Working

Well, I started my new job two weeks ago and I do not enjoy it, it means I am out of the house far too long. I am out from 6:15 am when I walk the dogs, get back at seven, eat my breakfast and then go to work. Then after I get back home at 6pm I'm out with the dogs till 7pm. (sometimes I am just too tired but it's what I try to do) I eat my dinner, have a shower and go to bed. And that's my day. My miserable, unhappy, unsatisfying day.

I don't know how people can stand it. Its fucking awful. I pay a lady to walk the dogs while I'm at work or I get family to come and let them out. At least my dogs are happy.

I left the pumpkins as long as I could.

Well, I picked the home garden squashes 21st October 2017. I can't say that they amounted to much of anything thanks to the shade cast by next doors tree.  He has promised to cut the tree back quite a bit over the winter but I've mostly lost interest. We're hoping to move house next year. 

If I remember correctly I have two different types of squash in the picture and obviously some that aren't even old enough to be considered squash, but I'll cook with them anyway. I think they've done better than the allotment squash though as we barely even got leaves with those.

I did however get to buy something I've wanted to try for absolutely ages. Red bean Mochi. :) I bought it from an Asian supermarket near Nottingham along with some other stuff. (noodles, miso, radish etc)

Update: I have tried the mochi and I liked it. It's got a very subtle taste the red bean paste is mildly sweet and once you get over the texture (which is a little odd) It's nice. 8/10 :)  

Wind swept chooks

The wood chip that we added to the run about a month ago is really darkening and is starting to rot down now that the wet weather has arrived.

 This is dippy. We got home a little after dark last night after visiting my dad to watch the BFG and when I went to put the chickens to bed I could not find her.  I could hear some worried clucking around the compost pile but I just couldn't find her.

 Eventually when I moved a chicken fence that I'd saved to enlarge the compost, I saw her, right at the bottom of the compost pile, right in the corner. I climbed in and ferried her out and back to her coop. The OH thought I looked like a compost pile myself when I came back into the house. 

The babies are really happy with the big chickens now, although they still like to stick together. 

I bought them their own little coop to hide in if they need it. Although it's been dippy laying her eggs in it every day that's been giving it its most use.

 Poor Yellow is too fat to fit through the door very easily.

This is a collection of nasturtium and mashua. The nasturtium has the larger orange flowers and the mashua the small yellow trumpets and smaller leaves. 

I'm really happy with how well the Mashua has grown.

Lancashire.

I've been home from my holiday for about a week now but this is the first minute I've really had to write about it. We had a really, really lovely time. Lancashire is a really beautiful county. We followed the lives of the Pendle witches. We stayed at Barley, a tiny and beautiful village in sight of Pendle hill. We visited the Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford on the first day, very soon after we arrived at our tiny but perfect little apartment. We investigated Barley and its wonderful pub The Pendle Inn. I lost many a game of pool in that building. :) 

The air in Barley is so beautifully clean that I came home feeling fabulous. You can see all of the moss that grows on their walls. (a sure sign of clean air)

There was lots of running water.

After we visited the heritage museum we visited Lancaster city and the castle where the poor Pendle witches were it is alleged held and tried. Although we only spent three hours in the city (we bought a three hour parking ticket) I feel like we saw quite a lot. The castle tour was great fun :D The OH got locked in a cell and the tour guide was very witty and well informed about the history of the castle and of England in general. 

We visited another small museum in the city centre which was full of interesting facts and very friendly staff, although unfortunately I've forgotten the name of the museum. The city of Lancaster itself is beautiful and very nice to walk around, I have to say that I was happy to find a place that was flat in a county of very steep inclines. I even managed to scoff a quick pub meal before running for the car before our parking ticket ran out. 

Although its hard to tell in the photo, this is the extremely beautiful view we had from our little apartment window. That is the start of Pendle Hill. It was such a quiet, peaceful and wonderfully restful place. I truly loved it, and I shall hopefully be going back some day. 

I've got a week off work this week.

We've left the dogs with the OHs parents, we've arranged cat and chicken sitters and we're setting off on holiday for two and a half whole days in a hotel today.

I really, really need this holiday. I'm so stressed at the moment that I broke out in hives over a week ago and my eye won't stop twitching. I'm going through a huge transitional period of my life, I'm leaving my relatively new job for another new job that will suit me better and hopefully the hives and eye twitch will go away and I'll be much happier.

The back garden is a nightmare, so hopefully in the time I have off I'll be able to address that.

The babies are now outside chickens. :D

They're still a bit scared, keeping their distance from the older girls and haven't figured out bedtime yet but they're doing well. :D 

Just cleaned out the chicks.

It seems like three days is the longest I can leave the brooder now before it desperately needs cleaning.

 I guess three days is better than everyday. I already have to clean the drinker/feeders twice a day. Messy, messy chicken babies. 😞 

Does anyone know when pekin bantams are fully grown? I'm getting worried as they are still really small and might not do well with the big ladies.

Rainy day

It's been raining for most of the day and I'm waiting in for a delivery so I've been cooking/baking and cleaning the house. I made a chicken, chorizo and bean stew. And a lovely little milk loaf to go with it.

I'm also going to start repainting the downstairs loo. How glamorous. :P

We took a trip to the allotment yesterday.

I walked the dogs over with me. Trouble managed to cut her nose through her muzzle (she's dog aggressive) which was upsetting but once we got to the allotment and I took the muzzle off she was fine.

Niche is always happy to be outside. :)

I dug up some potatoes as they'd all died. I'm hoping it wasn't blight that killed them. It didn't look like blight. I really, really need to do some digging, weeding and mulching but I'll have to wait until its a bit cooler and I have transport.

My lavender are looking nice. :) I'll be giving them a trim soon. The strawberries are also looking good. All it took was to completely replace the soil in the beds. 

Stilton! Seven weeks old!

Allotment.

 This is the new site for my poly tunnel at the allotment. I'm keeping the white box raised bed and beyond, but the cleared bed on the left and onto part of the path will be enough if I remove a hoop and only build 10x8 feet of the poly tunnel instead of the 15x8 feet.

The soil in the bottom bed that currently has the beans in it is looking beautiful this year. I'm really happy with it. I still need to add compost to all of the other beds and I'm going to start changing the bed sizes and positions in the autumn. I'm building a small pond and a large double compost bay in the next few weeks/months too. We're finally getting cracking with it all. :)

We're finally getting somewhere with the allotment.

Please ignore the state of me. I am aware I don't look great. We finally got all of the buildings down at the allotment and so should be able to get my poly-tunnel built relatively soon. I'm hoping to reduce it to eight foot by ten foot and put it on that bed in the centre of the photo. Exciting, exciting times. 

We have a poorly yellow.

Three days ago it looked like Yellow was going to die overnight. Today she's much brighter and I will be putting her back with her friends tonight. I very much doubt she'll last very long. She's almost five  years old, which is old for an ex-batt and she struggles to walk well, but at least she's clawed back a bit of time.  Don't tell the others but she's my favourite. :)

Three weeks ago I hatched some pekin bantam chicks. :D

This is the second chick to hatch We named him/her Stilton.

This is the first one born, this one is Brie. We didn't get a photo of the third one (cheddar) being born because he/she had some difficulty getting out of the egg.

First few days

first 10 days

three weeks old. 

Cheddar is the only chocolate brown chicken and the other two are lilac. :)  

Today I start a new job.

With full time hours.

Strawberries.

I did an hour of weeding at the allotment today. The weeds have gone nuts and I was a bit shocked by the amount of weeds I had to work on. I'm going back tomorrow with the strimmer for another hour or so of weeding.
Right before I was ready to leave the allotment, my OH arrived to drive me home, I did ask him to bring a container for picking the strawberries but he forgot. We got them home in a washing bowl that we found in the shed... And don't they look beautiful.  

Never take anything for granted.

I made these lovely little bunny rabbit shortbread cookies this morning around doing some intensive gardening and chicken maintenance. 

As you can see a mishap occurred just minutes after I took the top photograph. I pulled the baking sheets out of the cupboard and unfortunately a tin fell out, smashing the lid to my tea bag container and destroying my bunnies.  :(

They taste really nice though, even if they are in pieces. 

Good news and bad news.

The good news!
I've sown my squash seeds today. :D

Volskaya grey winter squash
Musquee de provence
Anne swartz hubbard squash

All from Real Seeds. :D

Ok. The bad news. I've been working double my normal work hours for roughly six months now and with everything else I've had to do I've screwed my feet up. I've barely managed to go to work, never mind do anything else. Anyway. I've got three days off now, yesterday I just rested and today I've sown some seeds and pottered around doing a bit of weeding. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the garden has gotten away from me...I'll show you.

I mean, its got some nice stuff in there. We have jack in the hedge and goose grass. But it's mostly stuff I don't want there. :/

I don't want the brambles or enchanters nightshade obviously.

I want the sorrel (red pom pommy stuff) I have a lot of work to do.

This is how much I did so far. I've found strawberries, oriental poppy and geranium pretence. 

poppy

strawberry

geranium. 

I planted this foxglove last year from my dads garden. 

The lilacs doing well

So is the red chard

yellow chard

 the second oriental poppy. 

Even if it is growing between the garlic. 

The parsnips are well and truly in seed now and i'll be collecting the seeds from them, if I can reach. They're a good seven feet high. 

The compost pile is HUGE!

And has a potato growing out of it!