Convert?? Captive Audience?? Mwwhahaha

It’s been kind of a boring week, doing dull jobs that seem to take forever and don’t make much difference because once they’re done, the place looks like it should.

I spent two days clearing and burning the mess from the conifers that came down in Storm Dennis, I then raked the grove and burned all the droppings from the last year or so.  I do love the grove, it was one of the very first jobs I did in the gardens when we arrived.   It was a mess, I spent about a month lopping my way through a myriad of dead branches to reveal something a little magical.

This was what it looked like in September 2015

Before I got jiggy with a rake

And now, all clear like it’s supposed to be.

The storm definitely did a lot of damage, we’re not sure exactly what we’re going to do here, possibly replant with some leylandii.  The logs have been claimed by our local farmer, he’s already said I can put the ponios on his field out the back of our paddock once he’s taken a hay crop from it, so it’s nice to give something back.  He runs the most enormous woodburning contraption I’ve ever seen (I think it might power Thetford) so they’ll get good use.  (The greenary you can see is wild garlic which I’m encouraging to spread to give ground cover in the grove, and also, pesto).

 

Once that clean up was finished I gave the veggie patch and the raised beds a once over, that took 3 days.  I might be chancing my arm a bit, but with the warm weather we’ve been having, I’ve planted most of them up already.  We’ve got broccoli, khol rabi, cabbage, petit pois, brussels sprouts, leeks and carrots in the raised beds (along with a perennial bed of horseradish and strawberries).  In the other half of the veggie garden potatoes are in, the first earlies are already showing (OMG , there is NOTHING as good as new potatoes, dug up, washed, cut into rounds and chucked straight into the deep fat fryer, I can almost taste them, still, not long to wait).  The onions and garlic are all doing nicely, if we get a bit of rain, I think we could be in for a bumper crop.  I need to do a bit of research into storing onions, last year they rotted really quickly before I could use them all, I don’t want any waste this year.

I owe a thank you to my Auntie Carolyn, a few years ago she gave me this rather vicious looking hoe, it’s just the best thing ever for getting weeds up, without this it would have taken me twice as long to get the veggie patch weed free.  Best present you ever gave me AuntieC.

Then I gave the stable a good mucking out.  I do a system called deep litter, as the ponies are not confined to the stable at any time, mucking it out entirely every day would be a complete waste of time , straw and energy, so every day I remove any poos and leave any wet, and top up with straw to give them a nice bed.  Then you clear out the whole lot every month or so.   Luckily for me the local allotments (aka Chelle) are happy for me to muck out into a trailer and they take it away.  Unhappily, the winter has been so wet they couldn’t bring a trailer round for nearly 3 months, it was a little acrid in there when I got down to the concrete…  I’ve chucked a few buckets of Dettol around (as apposed to injecting it, which apparently is a thing now) and they’ll get a lovely fresh bed in there once it dries out in a few days.

I decided that Rosies feather had to go, she’s got feather mites which are impossible to treat with all that hair, she poos down her legs and I can’t get them clean no matter what I do, so she got the chop.  I did not miss my calling as a hairdresser, she’s a bit butchered but now I can get to her scabby bits and give her a proper clean.  She does look a bit top heavy without her hairy legs, but I love her anyways.

For the last few years, we’ve noticed that a beautiful flowering cherry in the cat garden has been struggling, and this year there were almost no signs of life, just a very few branches at the top of the tree with any buds at all.  So MrC has taken it right back to see if it can recover at all.  It’s unlikely, but we’ll give it a year before we fell it completely.  Even if it does have to be felled, it won’t go to waste, we have friends that make beautiful things with wood and cherrywood is gorgeous, so we’ll find it a good home.  MrC is getting very proficient with a chainsaw, it makes me smile when he heads off to London in his suit, I bet his colleagues have no idea this is a man who can operate a myriad of saws, band saws, chainsaws, something called a miter saw (I have no clue, don’t ask), jigsaws and when it comes down to it, the humble handsaw.

 

 

Finally, I got to do something nice, because of the Coronavirus, our little community on Snow Street has set up a whatsapp group and people are picking up shopping and helping out where they can.  One of my neighbours said she was going to make some raised beds and had a greenhouse on order, but was very new to gardening, so I put together a “grow your own” kit for her with lots of seedlings and some seeds and let them have a wander round our gardens to get some ideas.  Gardening is a passion for me, being able to spread it around is not a favour, I’m hoping for a convert I can chat interminably with about weather and seasons and germination rates and other such things that often make other peoples eyes glaze over….

Piriton for everybody.

I sit here writing this, with itchy eyes, itchy face, itchy throat and a cough (not a Covid cough, but a rapeseed cough, the fields round us are in full bloom and it’s making life miserable).

I’ve not been the only one with a cough, poor little Rosie has been coughing like she’s got a 40 a day fag habit.  I noticed she was also a bit wheezy after she’s been running about with Louis, so I asked the lovely Eduardo to check her out (we stayed indoors while she was being examined and bless her she was good as gold with the vets, although whilst she was being lunged Louis was going bonkers and the vet assistant was almost crying with laughter at him).

I was really worried she might have something serious as she usually gets a winter cough, COPD or persistent pneumonia were rattling about in my brain.  Turns out we’ve got matching allergies.  Piriton for all then.  She’s got some horsey Piriton to try for a couple of weeks, and hopefully she’ll improve quickly, I hate it when they get sick, I just want them to be healthy and happy.

When I was researching pony breeds prior to buying one, gypsies were billed as a “hardy, low maintenance breed” well yeah, apart from mine, who gets feather mites and mallenders, is allergic to carrots and now, as it turns out, air….

With MrC’s help, we finally finished the driveway, that was a Herculean task, but my goodness, it looks lovely.  Gives the place a cared for feel.  I hope that it holds for a couple of years, my back is still aching from hours of hoeing.  As part of tarting up the place, the pampas grass was given a haircut, it’s not really the right time of year for it, but it’s impossible to kill a pampas, it will be back to mugging passers by and consuming small mammals in no time.

Most of the trimmings of the pampas have been put in the leaf mulcher, I rather like the way the strata of the mulcher shows what we’ve been doing in the gardens, at the bottom are all the leaves I raked up in the autumn, then we’ve got a layer of miscanthus and then pampas on top.  Give it 6 months this will have reduced by at least half and be ready for autumn leaves once again.  (All credit goes to MrC snr for rebuilding the leaf mulcher earlier in the year)

I can’t be full on all the time, so I had a day off, bit of a BBQ and lashings of Pimms, there might have been some napping too.  It was a little bittersweet as BBQ’s round here are usually a raucous affair, with family and friends, kids running everywhere and overexcited ponies trying to get in on the action.  This was somewhat more sedate, but delicious nonetheless.  There WILL be a family BBQ this year, it may be in December and we’re all in wooly hats gathered round the fire pit albetit 2 meters apart, but it will happen.

My oh so clever hubby got going in the garage and created a raised bed frame and a bench to hold our wine rack in the garage.  This involved using some frankly terrifying powertools with whirling blades and loud noises, I prefer a nice quiet handsaw myself.  The end results are fantastic though, I’m not handy at all (in fact I’m utterly and completely hopeless when it comes to making things), so it’s a good job the hub is a bit of a creative genius.  I spent ages attaching net to the frame, and it’s been partially planted up with broadbeans, sugarsnap peas and petit pois.

I turned my hand to a job that’s needed doing for about a year, time to muck out my disgusting tack room, not my favorite job, there were spiders the size of bloody dinner plates lurking in there, they were persuaded to relocate, I swept up a year’s worth of mice poo and various assorted filth and now I can find what I’m looking for.  I’ve noticed that the ponies have about 14 different types of shampoo, conditioners, stain removers, and detanglers and despite regular baths, they’re both still filthy.   I have 1 shampoo and conditioner and despite regular baths, I’m generally filthy too….

Look at these beauties, of all the fruit and veg I grow, I think the asparagus is my favorite, these went into a chicken risotto and were delicious.

With MrC’s help we managed to get the skin back onto my polytunnel, storm Dennis had completely uprooted it and blown it into the paddock, much to the disgust of the ponies who had a full on freak out session.  I’ll be growing melons and aubergines in here over the summer and overwintering purple sprouting broccoli.

I’ve also sorted out the weedy moss laden path outside the greenhouse and moved my cold frame, time to start hardening off the veggies in the greenhouse so I can get them into the raised beds.

I’m obviously not the only one growing my own  I realised I didn’t have any sweetcorn seeds and I wanted to try growing Hamberg parsley this year (every year I like to try something I’ve never grown before), but all my normal seed suppliers are completely sold out, so it looks like no sweetcorn this year.

So another week in lockdown has passed, there is no denying that life is very strange and nervous at the moment.  I’m grateful to the vets for coming out to see Rosie and all the other key workers out there keeping things ticking over, they are very brave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dick Pics and Hoeing mostly…

Strange times we live in, strange times indeed.

As tempting as it is to grab a bottle of wine and a pair of sunglasses and lounge in the sun while the weather is so fine, Hubby is actually working from home and I think he might murder me if I treat this as a holiday.  So I’ve been keeping busy, stupidly busy, there is always so much that needs doing round here.

For 3 days I ragworted the paddock, one of the most boring, soul destroying, tedious jobs on the planet.  The ponies have half of the paddock to play in, and that is now ragwort free.  The other half is fenced off, full of ragwort and will shortly be sprayed to kill it off.  The ragwort weedkiller is called THRUST!!!  I’m guessing a man named this…

In other pony news, during the day, they’re currently working their way round the lawns (I’ve got far too much to be getting on with, I’m happy to second the lawn mowing to such willing and efficient helpers).  I had noticed that recently, Louis manparts were often a bit descended, not full on swinging free but a bit dangly.  Now I’ve always looked after mares, boy ponies are a new experience for me, and as I can’t do my normal “something even slightly off call the vet” as they’re only attending emergencies, so I had a bit of a fumble, no heat, no swelling, all felt OK, so I snapped a pic and sent it to the lovely lady who bred him asking, “is this normal??”  Yes ladies and gentleman, I sent a dick pic….  This is the sort of thing that happens with horses, or is this just the sort of thing that happens to me,  I really don’t know…  By the by, yes the dangly is normal, just means he’s happy and relaxed (unlike me after just writing this!) and I am very grateful that his breeder, has a sense of humour and actually welcomes dumb questions if it means Louis is properly cared for.

So after I finished the interminable ragworting I started sorting out the driveway, which is a mossy, weedy compacted mess.

I have recently done a similar job to this at work, replacing all their gravelly bits, however, they had nice fresh new gravel to put down, I needed to reuse what we had.

MrC helped me out, he decided to try fire to get rid of the moss, whilst spectacular and somewhat terrifying (the flame thrower doesn’t have an off switch as such, just a “burns out really bloody slowly while you worry if it’s melting the floor” option), was completely hopeless, the moss remained pretty much unscathed, unlike my anxiety levels.  Earth didn’t seem like an option, being as how we were trying to clean things up, so water was the next element to try.  This worked like a charm, moss and the woody debris from trees and hedges floats, gravel sinks, so the worst affected bits were scraped up, dumped in a bin with water and given a stir.  Voila, mostly clean gravel.

Methinks any references to hubble, bubble, toil and trouble are fairly spurious at this point.

Progress so far, is looking good.

 

For a bit of a change from hoeing and raking the drive, MrC and I decided to give the garden furniture a bit of TLC, everything has been given a powerwash, and the bench a good couple of coats of teak preserver.  Then we ran out of preserver, so we’re waiting for some more to be delivered, in the meantime, the chairs and tables need sanding.  I think I prefer hoeing and raking if I’m honest.

I’ve planted up one of the raised beds with some Brussel Sprouts for Christmas dinner (and winter pony snacks) and second early spuds are in (first earlies went in about a month ago).

I had a call from work, asking me if I would like some plants that would otherwise have to be skipped, they’d got a bit leggy and untidy, bulbs that had gone over and were not fit for sale, or things that wouldn’t survive another season in pots and needed to be planted out as soon as possible.  Having considered this for a microsecond, YES PLEASE!!!  Later that day, my bosslady rocked up with a carload of wonderful things, (it was strange, not offering a cup of tea or a hug, talking from about 5 metres away, the new normal is very weird)  As things are at the moment, I’m trying to be a good person, so I divided up the plants and gave half of them to the Bressingham allotment society (Chelle is the chairperson of the society), who also didn’t get a cup of tea or a hug when she collected them.

Among the plants were a pair of camellias that needed potting on, they’ve been given a couple of posh pots and are in pride of place at the front of the house.

The next bit was something that happened about a month ago (before I got writing again and before the world went tits up) but I found the pics on the camera and thought I’d write about it.

I was heading with a wheelbarrow of various garden detritus to the brown bins at the end of the drive, when I noticed a van driving quite slowly down the road, they clocked me (at that time wearing thermals, covered in horse hair and dirt, hair akimbo, business as usual), then a few mins later, they returned and came down the drive.  “Hi, we’re tree surgeons contracting in the local area, would you have any use for a load of woodchip, it’s free”.  As he was still in the van, I was unable to rip his arm off, but said yes I would very much like a load of woodchip pretty please.  They left and returned about 20 mins later with a couple of tonnes of woodchip which I’ve used to refresh the old chippings in the soft fruit garden.

Hmmmm, now let’s see, I’ve got 4 tree surgeons here, with chainsaws, and I’ve got a tangled mess in the conifer grove which storm Dennis left behind and MrC was petrified of tackling.   “Do you do any private work at all?”

45 mins later, the tangled mess has been demolished, mostly logged and all for £20 per chap, plus a free load of woodchip, happy days!

Obviously boredom is always a spectre hovering (sarcasm alert!!) so I’ve signed up to do an online diploma in gardening and landscape design, from what I’ve read so far, I seem to do most of it instinctively, but there are some bits and pieces I’ve picked up that will come in useful.

So that was my week in lockdown.  I am fully aware how privileged I am to have such a wonderful playground whilst so many others are in tiny spaces.  I love my hubby very much, we generally don’t annoy each other too much and I have the ponies and sweet Maggie to snuggle.  So I am not moaning, not even slightly, I thought, being a fully paid up introvert I wouldn’t be affected by social isolation.  I was wrong, I miss my In-laws, I miss Chelle popping round for a coffee and a bitching session about the weather.   I miss the people at work, hell, I even miss the actual work itself.  If I’m completely honest, Boris being sent to intensive care made this very real, and very frightening, please stay safe people, stay at home, stay away from people who you don’t live with as hard as that may be, the virus doesn’t move, we move it.  Most importantly, stay in my life, if you’re reading this, you matter to me.