Sunday, 18 April 2010
Small, Far Away
After the giant egg of the other week, we've now gone to the other extreme. Blue delivered this tiny little egg for us this week. I didn't want you to think that this was just a normal egg from a distance (an easy mistake to make!) so I have put a normal one next to it for scale. It's the size of a quail's egg and soooo cute:
Floral Dance
My post this week is going to be mainly flower themed, just because I have been so overwhelmed by the sudden burst of colour everywhere! Our garden is really coming to life now and, after a lawn cut and some new bedding plants, it looks just lovely (if you ignore the patches where we need to re-turf!).
Here are a few of my favourite flowers from the garden:
The greenhouse is also full of seedlings waiting to become vegetables (you can see courgette, peas, cabbages, lettuce, sweet peas, leeks and celery in this photo):
And one of our apple trees, Gavin (that's the actual name of the variety and the reason I chose it. Brilliant!), has some blossom:
The blueberries are also looking really promising, with masses of flowers about to burst open, fingers crossed they will all become berries!
On the allotment, our peas and broad beans are doing really well and the fruit cage (sans cage at the moment, but it will have by the time the fruit appears) is bursting with life - the blackcurrant that we've had for a few years so is well established has tonnes of buds. Our work on the allotment this weekend has been mainly maintenance but we have fashioned this rather lovely greenhouse to protect the peas from our unpredictable weather/dust!
We also had a little trip out today, just down the road to Broadview Gardens at Hadlow Agricultural College (like Sparsholt for the Hampshire readers!). The early and late Spring bulbs have all come out together because of the hard winter so there was a riot of colour to behold:
Here are a few of my favourite flowers from the garden:
The greenhouse is also full of seedlings waiting to become vegetables (you can see courgette, peas, cabbages, lettuce, sweet peas, leeks and celery in this photo):
And one of our apple trees, Gavin (that's the actual name of the variety and the reason I chose it. Brilliant!), has some blossom:
The blueberries are also looking really promising, with masses of flowers about to burst open, fingers crossed they will all become berries!
On the allotment, our peas and broad beans are doing really well and the fruit cage (sans cage at the moment, but it will have by the time the fruit appears) is bursting with life - the blackcurrant that we've had for a few years so is well established has tonnes of buds. Our work on the allotment this weekend has been mainly maintenance but we have fashioned this rather lovely greenhouse to protect the peas from our unpredictable weather/dust!
We also had a little trip out today, just down the road to Broadview Gardens at Hadlow Agricultural College (like Sparsholt for the Hampshire readers!). The early and late Spring bulbs have all come out together because of the hard winter so there was a riot of colour to behold:
Monday, 5 April 2010
Egg-citing news!
Sorry, I just couldn't resist the pun...it is Easter after all...and don't our girls know it - today, for the first time, we've had 4 eggs in one day! Well done girls! It's the first evidence that we have that they are all laying and we are very proud parents.
We aren't 100% sure who lays what but we know that Blue lays lovely dark, caramel coloured eggs (bottom left) and Hythe lays very light ones (top right, I think).
As we've reached the end of the month it is also time for an egg count and, again, the girls are doing us proud. 65 eggs this month compared to last month's 41 - wow! Luckily I have found some buyers at work so we actually have a waiting list but if they keep this up I should have no problem fulfilling all of the orders!
With the long weekend we've also finally been able to get down to the allotment - it was once again a complete quagmire so we still haven't planted anything else but we did get some soil added to some beds and finished our cold frame (made from the old kitchen cupboard) which looks great!
The allotments are a hive of activity and so much is being done by everyone so we are spending next weekend trying to fill the rest of the beds to get them ready for planting out some of our seedlings in the not too distant future.
We also went to the auction on Friday - it was absolutely packed and Heckfield village hall, where it's held, is tiny. This meant no real bargains but we did get two boxes of "stuff" - highlights being a load of kilner jars, some baskets, and some mixing bowls (including one from TG Green like my mum's which I have been coveting for a while!). Matt also got some Victorian oil lamps - one of which we are keeping and the rest are being sold on. Photos to follow of these at some point soon.
We aren't 100% sure who lays what but we know that Blue lays lovely dark, caramel coloured eggs (bottom left) and Hythe lays very light ones (top right, I think).
As we've reached the end of the month it is also time for an egg count and, again, the girls are doing us proud. 65 eggs this month compared to last month's 41 - wow! Luckily I have found some buyers at work so we actually have a waiting list but if they keep this up I should have no problem fulfilling all of the orders!
With the long weekend we've also finally been able to get down to the allotment - it was once again a complete quagmire so we still haven't planted anything else but we did get some soil added to some beds and finished our cold frame (made from the old kitchen cupboard) which looks great!
The allotments are a hive of activity and so much is being done by everyone so we are spending next weekend trying to fill the rest of the beds to get them ready for planting out some of our seedlings in the not too distant future.
We also went to the auction on Friday - it was absolutely packed and Heckfield village hall, where it's held, is tiny. This meant no real bargains but we did get two boxes of "stuff" - highlights being a load of kilner jars, some baskets, and some mixing bowls (including one from TG Green like my mum's which I have been coveting for a while!). Matt also got some Victorian oil lamps - one of which we are keeping and the rest are being sold on. Photos to follow of these at some point soon.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
We apologise for the disruption to your service...
...but time just seems to be going at a million miles an hour at the moment - I can't believe its April! So, quite a few updates from me:
The garden is coming to life at last - we have loads of little daffs dotted around the garden and we have got some new willow edging - it was from the 99p store so it's not the best quality but once the grass has recovered from the wet winter and the plants have grown up I think it will look nice.
The veg has also started growing - peas an broad beans on the allotment and these super fast growing peas in the greenhouse. We have also put up a second mini-greenhouse so will be sowing lots more crops over the Easter weekend.
The front garden is also starting to look good:
The helebores that we planted last year have established and there are loads more flowers than last year. They look great:
I haven't managed to get to the allotment for a couple of weeks - we had a wedding last weekend and I have been working lots in between but the weekend before last I had a friend to visit so we took her down for some hard labour and we rustled up this bench:
The chickens are also doing well. the two new girls, who have now been with us for a couple of months, are much more like chickens now and are both laying. We think it was one of them that produced this monstrosity, poor love must have been in agony:
Blue, who we were so worried about when she first arrived, has really got bold and has developed an unhealthy obsession for corn. Here she is feeding from my hand:
The most exciting update though is in the house. After ripping off our wall cupboards we have FINALLY got around to putting in the shelves. The walls aren't quite finished in this photo but the shelves are up and they look brilliant. I don't think this photo does it justice but you'll just have to take me word for it - brilliant!
I think that's all for now but we're off to an auction tomorrow so I'm hoping we'll have more to post later in the weekend!
The garden is coming to life at last - we have loads of little daffs dotted around the garden and we have got some new willow edging - it was from the 99p store so it's not the best quality but once the grass has recovered from the wet winter and the plants have grown up I think it will look nice.
The veg has also started growing - peas an broad beans on the allotment and these super fast growing peas in the greenhouse. We have also put up a second mini-greenhouse so will be sowing lots more crops over the Easter weekend.
The front garden is also starting to look good:
The helebores that we planted last year have established and there are loads more flowers than last year. They look great:
I haven't managed to get to the allotment for a couple of weeks - we had a wedding last weekend and I have been working lots in between but the weekend before last I had a friend to visit so we took her down for some hard labour and we rustled up this bench:
The chickens are also doing well. the two new girls, who have now been with us for a couple of months, are much more like chickens now and are both laying. We think it was one of them that produced this monstrosity, poor love must have been in agony:
Blue, who we were so worried about when she first arrived, has really got bold and has developed an unhealthy obsession for corn. Here she is feeding from my hand:
The most exciting update though is in the house. After ripping off our wall cupboards we have FINALLY got around to putting in the shelves. The walls aren't quite finished in this photo but the shelves are up and they look brilliant. I don't think this photo does it justice but you'll just have to take me word for it - brilliant!
I think that's all for now but we're off to an auction tomorrow so I'm hoping we'll have more to post later in the weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)