I know, it’s been a month since I last updated, but this time of year it’s pretty dull reading..
Weeded some stuff, trimmed some shrubs, weeded some more, did some weeding, planted bulbs, planted seeds, raked up some winter debris, did some weeding… That’s when it’s not snowing or so wet you need a pair of flippers to get about.
I’m not entirely sure how we went from having a foot of snow to baking summer in the space of 3 weeks, but now I’m not ankle deep in mud I’ve managed to get a few non mundane things completed.
On the pony front, it’s shedding season and I remove about a bucket full of hair off the pair of them every day and it’s still coming, everything we own is covered in horsehair. Rosie did a post stretch shudder in the paddock a few days ago and a massive cloud of white hair was slowly carried away in the wind. It’s got to stop sometime, doesn’t it?? Before we all drown in pony fluff?
Carmella had a visit from the farrier and had a good trim, she was not impressed and it was 3 days before she’d let me catch her again. Then just when she’d settled down from that, she had more trauma as it was time for a visit from the horsey dentist Mike. This guy is so brilliant with the girls, even before he started on her teeth he got down, nose to nose with Carmella and spent 5 minutes making friends. She was terribly naughty at first, a whole bunch of rearing (with the whole raking the air with her legs at the top of the rear, she made a very nice shape) and bolting round the stable. She’s such a tiny little thing it would have been easy for Mike to just bully her into submission, but he was so gentle with her and by the time he’d finished she was standing nice and calm. Hopefully the next time she’ll remember it’s not so terrible and there will be slightly less theatrics. Again it was a few days before she’d let me put the headcollar on her, but she’s utterly incapable of resisting extra strong mints, so we’re friends again now.
Poor Rosie has feather mites again, so she’s had a course of injections from the vet, fingers crossed this will work, otherwise we’ll have to shave her feather off again and treat her legs topically, she’s spent all winter growing her rather magnificent feather and they look so lovely now they’ve got so long.
My friends Anne and Kev came over for a visit and Anne helped me give Rosies disgusting tail a good wash. Her tail, even though I chopped a substantial chuck out of it, is really heavy, and she doesn’t or can’t lift it very high when going to the loo, so it’s covered in all sorts of unpleasant things… I did some research on how to get heavily stained tails looking a bit whiter and so we mixed up a concoction of whitening shampoo and bicarb of soda into a paste, massaged that in and left it for 20 minutes. Then we rinsed it off with white vinegar, shampoo’d again and then conditioned it. It’s not exactly gleaming white, but it certainly looks a whole lot better than it did before.
The sudden hot weather hit the ponies hard, they’ve both still got winter coats, but Rosie was worse, under her abundant mane she was drenched in sweat, so she spent a few days rocking a really ropey set of braids to try and give her a bit of relief. I definitely didn’t miss my calling as a hairdresser… And why is it, that a pony that doesn’t even notice getting rained on has a nervous breakdown when I try to pour a bit of water on her to cool her off a bit???
The good news is, they’ve definitely bonded, they graze and sleep together although I’ve not yet seen them grooming each other (would save me a job, but they’re probably worried about swallowing half a ton of horsehair).
I found a buyer for my old car and she’s been hauled away to have an overhaul and a new lease of life with someone who’s head over heels in love with MX5’s. Apparently she’ll be heading over to Europe in July for a bit of a holiday, I’m just glad she’s gone to someone who’ll have fun with her.
Out in the gardens, the trees are finally blooming, especially the magnolia which is utterly magical.
I have a new toy, as MrC won’t let me shoot the local wildlife in the face and the local wildlife insists on eating my overwintering veggies, with the help of Mr and Mrs C snr, we erected a smallish polytunnel. Unless the pigeons, squirrels, rabbits and deer develop opposable thumbs, my broccoli should be safe next winter. I’m also going to use it to grow melons and chilli’s over the summer as they love heat.
The asparagus beds we planted last year are bearing fruit, so to speak… You’re not supposed to crop until the third year, but I might snaffle a small taste.
Life is bursting forth in the greenhouse, soon I shall be potting on and planting out like an insane person, I figure for every plant I put out, that’s room for one less weed (please don’t disillusion me on this one, it’s a life raft for my brain when faced with the tonnes of weeds we get round here).
The first potatoes of the year are in! MrC snr brought them round and planted them, I can almost taste them already. A big thank you to MrC snr for mowing the lawns for us and Mrs C snr for her renewed war against nettles.
I have finally completed a project I’ve been looking forward to, had to wait until the weather had cheered up a bit before I could start it. When we moved here, the back wall of the garage looked like this…
Since then we’ve cleared all the rubbish away and painted the house (not much I can do about the window, it’s broken and rotten and needs replacing). I’ve sanded and painted the facia boards and used up about half of the massive pile of rocks we’ve got cluttering up the place to create an alpine rockery type garden. I’ve managed to do this really cheaply, the rocks we already had, the plants I’ve been collecting for ages, mostly from the “rescue” section of the garden centre and have nurtured them over the winter, I ordered a set of tiny plug plants in the autumn and have brought them on overwinter and some I’ve grown from seeds. So although this does look a bit Alan Titchmarsh instagarden, I’ve been planning this for some time. I think it cost about £65 including the compost. I’m really pleased with it. Although hauling all that rock was back breaking.
MrC helped me out with my compost, he got his sieving gadget out and we got about a third of a tonne of compost out of the bins that I’ve been brewing for the last 2 years. Won’t last long…
My next project is to overhaul the veggie patch. It’s just too big for me to keep weed free and actually have time for anything else, such as eating or sleeping. So, I’m going to cover half of it with weed membrane and create eight raised beds, which we’re going to make out of railway sleepers. But before I can do that, the veggie garden is bit uneven, so I need to move soil about until it’s level enough so that the beds don’t look drunk when we construct them, MrC has made a start on this and has rotovated the ground to loosen it up a bit. Time to get me shovel out!
This Sunday we had the most epically biblical storm I’ve ever seen. In just a few minutes storm clouds rolled in over what had been an lovely sunny day, then in the space of 15 minutes the storm dumped about 2 inches of rain and hail. Then it left and we had bright sunshine again. The aftermath was a bit eerie, the ground was warm from the sun and everywhere you looked there was mist rising from the ground. Is April monsoon season in the UK now?
Misty and slightly battered ponies after the storm (you can tell the rainfall was huge, Rosie looks clean).
Sorry about the time stamp thingy on the last photos, I’ve accidently turned it on and can’t for the life of me figure out how to turn it off.
countrysideinsanity 