Broke(n)back mountain...

Got a phone call from the local hardware merchant to say he had some turf from last year's harvest to shift to empty the warehouse for this year's cutting.
The price he quoted us was a reasonable discount on last year, and seeing as its our main heat and hot water source we decided to grab it while we could.

For anyone who wants to know what 5 tons of turf looks like when its dumped on your yard...



The only problem being the design of our turf store. Turf is quite solid and heavy so can't be shovelled or forked by hand. Each brick has to be picked up by hand and thrown into the shed !!

2 days later and a lot of back strain....



Suffice it to say that by the next delivery we'll have sorted out a better system with the shed so that it can be tipped straight in. Or hiring a digger.

We are considering solar water heating at the moment as well in an attempt to cut our fuel bills even further. The size of the grant application form is astounding...perhaps we could just burn that !!

Mowing the lawn....

With the meadow reaching knee-height, drastic action was called for.

When we asked Joe if we could borrow his lawnmower, we were chuffed to bits when he lent us 3 !!

Meet our new lodgers Benny, Feather and Winnie

Good news

For readers who can remember back to the forestry inspection and subsequent tree planting, I'm happy to report that our forest passed its inspection and we were awarded the grant money... probably to spend on Ralgex and knee-replacements ;-)

It's finished

The pergola / hammock-stand was finished today

Planting up the trellises is clematis montana, jasmine and honeysuckle

Asparagus !!!!!

When we tidied up the garden last October I found half a dozen or so asparagus crowns.

Having always fancied an asparagus bed, I decided to replant them in a dedicated plot.

A couple of weeks ago, having a weed around the plot, I discovered some small purple shoots emerging - and look !!! Our first asparagus stem !!


OK - it's got an amusing bend in it - but nothing's ever 100% perfect.

Coming to life again

After what seems like a long winter, it's nice to see the trees beginning to show a haze of green again.

A sad day

Today's the first day of summer.
Turned out to be a sad one for us.

The hens were all let out as usual this morning after breakfast... I did some gardening and came in for a cup of coffee. A casual glance out of the window and I noticed something not quite right so ran out to look.

There was a little mound of ginger feathers blowing about on the front field meaning only one thing - something had taken one of the hens.

I brought the rest in and shut them in their run, based on the likelihood that if a predator finds a source of prey it's very likely to come back. It's the first hen we've lost to predators, and despite the fact that we tried not to get too attached to them , it was still very upsetting.