Living the dream!

Quick weather update . . . piddling down!  I've got socks and jeans on again for the first time in about a month and we've had to switch the immersion heater back on because I don't think the solar panels are going to do much today.  Still, won't have to water the plants tonight!

Having finished the steps and unearthed a patio for the chickens, we have now moved on to making a patio for ourselves although the chickens think it's just for them!   These are biggest of the old limestone pavers which we have collected from all over the garden and we have enough for just around the kitchen door.  We then have some smaller bits, but they don't go very far though and we'll have to use other things for the rest of the area and the paths going off it to the lean-to, log stores and off up the garden.  The possibilities are cobblestones which we saved from one of the
barn floors, bricks, some sort of gravel or a mixture of all which might actually be best.  A neighbour gave us some new paving which they were going to lay in front of their house, but as they have now split up and are planning to sell their house in its half finished state, she wants to get rid of as much of the junk that surrounds it as possible including these stones.  They were a bargain from the local builders merchants a few years ago and are cut to make a circle pattern.  Not really what we'd choose, but we can't argue as they are free.  With some corners knocked off they should be OK.  So here are some of them - not the square one with a hole in the middle though.  When we took the cooking range out of the inglenook in the kitchen this great big lump of stone was underneath and is a complete mystery to us.  I am sure that that wasn't its original place or use and that the people who put the range in re-used it from somewhere else.  It was a single piece of stone (although it is broken into three) and has a very precise rectangular hole in the middle with an equally precise groove around the edge of the hole.  The inside edge of one of the short ends of the hole is worn very smooth - maybe it was a little well cover and this is where the rope rubbed the stone smooth and the groove locates some sort of lid?  Whatever it was, it took an awful lot of work to chisel it to shape when it would have been easier to have several smaller stones.  Anyway, it is a talking point for in front of our bench.  A chicken fits perfectly in the hole and one did try to use it as a bath when the sand was dry.  We are going to cut some slates to fit and then pack them in on edge to fill the hole so no-one twists their ankle falling down it. 

We had another steam-bending session when I got home from work on Sunday.  Last time was really just a practice session doing some bits and pieces - very gentle bends with small pieces of wood.  This time it was the arm (5' long), back bow and crinolin (the curved bit between the chair legs) and some slightly curved sticks for one chair - yes we finally have the Ash from the farm woodyard in the hills.  All went well although Bob was a little worried that we might have forgotten something and was mightily relieved when we hadn't.  This picture illustrates the ancient steam-bending celebration I told you about a while ago and shows the newly bent pieces still clampend into their formers.  This was one of pictures we had in our minds all those years ago when we were planning our move and what we'd be doing after.

And this is another - although I was wearing a flowery skirt in our imaginations I think . . . I might even have had a big floppy staw hat on too, but maybe that's just too 'Country Living'!
We have had loads of blackcurrants this year - plenty for the birds, the chickens and us.  So, I've made a batch of jam (probably one of my favourites), two jars of blackcurrant vodka (like sloe gin but . . . erm . . . with blackcurrants and vodka - you could probably have guessed that couldn't you?) and we have some just frozen as they are, some frozen having been lightly stewed with sugar and some in the fridge for mixing with yoghurt and there's still more on the bushes.  All this vitamin C!  Elsewhere around the estate we have lots of green bean plants which are up to the top of their poles and bushing out, neat rows of leeks, our two cut-and-come-again lettuces I showed you a while back and some newly planted rocket.  There is a tub of carrots and another of beetroot and some garlic growing in pots.  The blueberries are just starting to ripen, the herbs are all doing well especially the bay plant that we thought we'd lost when it completly froze.  The little apple trees have plenty of fruit on them, there are three pears on the pear tree, a few plums on the plum tree (makes sense doesn't it), about four damsons and about the same number of sloes.  So some things clearly didn't mind the bizarre weather we've had and others got buried in snow at just the wrong time.  Our two indoor chilli plants have suddenly sprung into action and we have lots of little green scotch bonnets which will hopefully get bigger and turn red.  We have already used some and chopped some into olive oil for future use.

~~~~~~~~~Living the dream!!~~~~~~~~



There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza, dear Liza . . . .

We forgot to re-fill this oak whiskey barrel after we moved it and
the staves dried out leaving gaps between them (you are supposed
to keep them wet so the wood stays swollen and tight).  So, each day
we've been filling it a bit more until the leaks outdo the hose pipe
filling it.  Each day we can fill it a bit more and we are now just about
up to the top and so can now leave it until we are ready to put it
into place as a water butt.