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Self-Sufficiency in Style

april 2002 diary

The crazy time of year.
As the days lengthen, the work increases to fill the time available.

The orchard begins to come into flower.

We watch anxiously to see if we have lost any trees over the winter.

The last laggard apple bursts into bud - and we have made it.

Almond Blossom.

This horseradish could have yellow pom-poms.

We started the year with a long list of things that we wanted to grow.

Some were surprisingly difficult to find. Horseradish was the final item. "It grows wild everywhere", we were told. But since neither of us could recall seeing one growing, we didn't know what it looked like. It is also illegal now to collect plants from the wild.

Finally, a kindly David Hill sent us some...and it was duly allocated its place in the herb garden.

It was only later that we realised his business is Dahlias - www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk, so knowing a Welsh sense of humour, we await the results with extra anticipation

Frost in April devastates Kiwi plants. So we cover them on any night that looks likely to be frosty.

Old sheets do the job well .

Gypsy Encampment?

Heavy work to finish

...and suddenly the walled garden in completely finished.

The end of two and a half years work extending the cottage and creating a garden.

This time Mrs P's favourite Blackbird that sings so prettily from the roof-top caused trouble.

The onions grown from seed this year were being methodically lifted from their bed and thrown down - every single one - over 50 plants, several times.

The cat was thought to be too unmethodical, and the dog would have left more trace.

Eventually, the Blackbird was caught in the act and sent off with a pebble. Defences are in the process of being organised.

Defence in depth

Waiting planting.

Hard work too, normally we would rely on the pig to have churned the ground, but we have been pig-less since Swine Fever hit the area, and the subsequent Foot and Mouth caused even more concern.

So potato growing is down to hard work even with a motor cultivator.

A Tayberry went in one side and an Oregon Blackberry the other.

We have plenty of wild Blackberries, but the occasional large berry from a cultivated bush livens up late summer fruit salads.

A cane fruit on each side for a small area of wall.

Strawberries with asparagus below.

We have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and melons in every available heated space.

We will start by filling the unheated greenhouse, then the polytunnel and finally, one or two items into the garden.

The strawberries will soon be able to jump the queue, they are pretty resilient.

Then, yesterday, the unexpected happened.

We started to lamb a little earlier than we had anticipated.

One of the ewes gave birth to triplets. We arrived on the scene just as the last was being born.

She had licked the first born dry, but it did not look good - it was alive, but not showing much enthusiasm for life.

We made the decision to take it indoors. We were not hopeful.

The ewe plus two, in the chill spring sunshine.

We let the Rottweiler loose on the lamb in front of the fire, and went for our dinner.

The dog (bitch actually) had clearly decided that its maternal instincts were called for and got stuck in with enthusiasm.

Not very lively, is it?

...and you complain about my behaviour?

The lamb struggled to its feet to the obvious delight of the dog.

A feed of warm milk and some very special milk called colostrum, hand milked from the ewe, and the lamb is just fine.

Mother won't take her back, of course, partly, no doubt, because she smells of the dog.

Now we have an orphan lamb to bottle feed for the next five weeks. 

She will escape at every opportunity to join the dog, who will be delighted to romp with her.

The Swallows and House Martins have yet to arrive from Africa to nest under the eaves and in the cowshed.

 I did try very hard to get a picture of a real cuckoo, but it saw me coming.

The weather is unusually dry, and very warm.

Always another job to be done.

But, we have been coming into a hearty cooked breakfast - all from our own produce.

Buckets galore

The work is getting done.

The buckets are full of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and cape gooseberries. Holes have been drilled in the bottom for drainage.

As many different varieties as possible. Red, green, white and yellow tomatoes for example.

The fellow in the middle is an olive, in bloom now, so we hope for some fruit if we are lucky.

Around here they say.. "Put your earlies in late and your lates in early."

This year we were struggling to get anything in. The theory is that the pig digs the potato patch, but since Swine Fever, we have no pig, so the writer had to do it.

Bare earth, but with the staple of our diet underneath.

We hope this will give us a good long picking season.

Mushrooms were apparently not to her taste

The evidence.

A cross of Freedom against a threatening sky.
Even that is forbidden.

It is almost certainly against some by-law or other, but who cares?

We are so sick of our government's disregard for the Laws of England and civil liberties, it is about the only way we can show our utter contempt for the bureaucrats  that infest rural England and seek to destroy our ancient freedoms.

We have been fighting a battle every day to keep operating against a tide of illegal restrictions against smallholders keeping farm animals.

Mutiny in the air at

  the rebelliously named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.