I am blessed, today I have received a (her) belly floof (my) face snuggle with Maggie which actually resulted in a purr rather than complete outrage and a withering look, Little Louis gave me a cuddle for about 20 mins and even my aloof “I don’t do cuddles” mare presented her nose for a kiss without bribery or coercion. They are my life these fluffy idiots, the first thing I think about when I wake and the last thing I think of before I sleep.
I finally have a plan to reduce Louis exploding bum from defcon 5000 to hopefully a nice place to be around again. Hayledge, as it turns out, often turns ponies into shit missiles, so there’s an add(ative) for that and I’ve 10 bales of hay to pad out the hayledge until he adjusts. The hay was delivered by my local farmer, whom I adore, and he allowed me to snap a pic of his ingenious use of old tarp and baler twine to share with you, I’ve used baler twine for many many things, but this is just fabulous and I can only stand in awe at his ingeniousness.
Last time I wrote about the work to clear up the poor willow tree that had fallen, and Roger did an amazing job, however, there was still the enormous trunk to be dealt with and Roger felt, that needed a BIG chainsaw, so our reinforcement, called in his reinforcement, Howard, who has a, frankly, terrifying large chainsaw. Sadly I wasn’t here when he came in to clear up the last of the debris, but Mr C has taken some pics of the work he did, which was amazing. The area is now clear and it’s been seeded with grass, rolled by Mr C snr and after we have a massive bonfire to clear the left over bits, we can plant some of the branches we’ve saved and get a new willow tree (or 3) going.
The really large pieces of trunk have been turned into a nice socially distanced seating arrangement round the fire pit, with little tables for your glass of wine and baked potato. It’s not rubbish, it’s rustic, that’s my story and I shall be sticking with it.
The rest of the logs will be collected by our local farmer for his eco burner heating thingamajig. We try not to waste things round here, which is why the garage looks like an extreme episode of hoarders…
Elsewhere about the place, the veggie garden has been adorned with large amounts of pony poo, the muckheap is almost at manageable proportions again. This lot will be raked over, left over the winter for the worms to work into the soil and rotavated in the spring ready for next years potato, onion and other assorted crops. Thank you to MrC snr for digging out and ferrying this lot from the poo pile.
As often happens in village life, there is a certain amount of barter going on, I had grown (because my friend gave me a free plant) a huge pumpkin, which I had no idea what to do with, it has been sat in the greenhouse for a month getting in my way and it’s finally found a home, my neighbour (a few doors down and up the road) loves them, so we traded some plants for a pumpkin, she gets soup and I don’t have to step over the bloody thing anymore when I’m working in the greenhouse. Win win…
The In-laws have made a start on a job that will last a few months, gathering up leaves for the leaf mulcher, I used the last of my leaf mulch last year, another year to wait before I can start harvesting this lot.
As for me, I’ve been sitting around eating bon bons and sipping wine, not. I’ve been weeding, today I finally finished the gate bed (this bed is approximately the size of our entire garden in the previous house). Looks empty now I’ve weeded it, I shall be keeping a close eye on the rescue section at work for some plants desperate for a bit of love and a new home.
I’ve also noticed some unusual things going on in the garden, this ceanothus is in flower, it really shouldn’t be until April next year, I appreciate it’s efforts but I worry what will happen to it in the spring.
And then there is this teasel, I think these are seedlings, actually in the old flower, I will be taking them out and potting them on to overwinter in the greenhouse, never seen this before, but hey, free plants!
This lockdown doesn’t really affect Tim and I, the garden centre will be staying open (quite how a tray of winter pansies or a box of shortbread is a necessity escapes me, but at least I’ll be earning enough to pay for vets bills and fodder) and Tim has worked at home since March so nothing really changes for him. If you’re struggling and need a chat, don’t call me, I’m hopeless with phones, but message me and I’m totally there for you. And my advice, if you’re bored or frustrated, grow something, chuck some parsley or basil seeds in a pot and watch and wait for nature to work her wonders, it never fails to lift my spirits and my cooking!
countrysideinsanity 