A Fond Farewell!

Look how much Boris has grow'd! He now weighs twice as much as poor, long-suffering Rosie. She's been in season and he's done his best but doesn't have the "necessary equipment" to help her out. Aaah!





What do you think of this? Not much good as a food source, but stunning, isn't it? David and Jayne have a huge one of these, so I'm hoping it will end up like theirs.

This is my favourite flower in the whole new bed. It's Hydrangea Lacecap called "Zorro". About 2' tall, it's a real centrepiece and is now sprouting new growth from the ground up, and the centre of the flower is full of tiny pale-blue flowerlets (or whatever those little dudes are called.)

Just a daisy, but so pretty! Don't you think they look like Spyrograph?

AAaaaanyway, as you will see from this short update, I have decided to make a new blog with no year in the title. This means that I shall no longer be updating this one. We've done the whole year, and there are so many pictures it would take another whole year to upload them to blogger. I am, therefore, going to put them on a Webshots page with tiny captions, so you won't have to wade thru all the dross and scribble of a random stream-of-conciousness blog. I will post a link when it's all done, and will email you if you're in my contacts list.

I would just like to say how much I have appreciated all the support and how much fun I have had on rainy days sorting thru all the photos and choosing the most embarassing and show-offy ones. So, Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish .....

The Dalai Farmer

Some Bad - Much More Good!

Against my better judgement there has been a new addition to the household; Boris, a tiny Jack Russell Terrier with delusions of grandure and a voice like a klaxon horn. How cute is he? Bless ...

Isn't it lovely now spring is here? We've had blizzard conditions yesterday and again today and it's blinkin' APRIL! Still, as my Dear Ol' Dad used to say "I've known it snow on my Birthday. Any yes, thank you for asking, that would be 25th April." So we are still wet and windy at the Dalai Farm although some progress is being made.

Here's where the little greenhouse used to be. It's immediately outside the kitchen door, but, in my clever way, the door to the greenhouse is round the other side. Gee, I bet you're saying, why would the stupid berk do that? Answers, on a postcard please .... Anyway it's now in a different place all together.
Which is next to this lovely concrete pad made by Percy . Signed, as it is, by the Artist who created it!

You can just see the square for the little greenhouse underneath the HUGE greenhouse frame (Below).

Not only is that now all done and dusted

But The Bloke has dug a beautiful new flowerbed in the place where the swimming pool was (the year before last, you remember, when the sun last made an appearance!)

And I bought some baby planties - like this one, which the frost has got at since. Ah, well.

And, although the greenhouse is not there any more, there is a new L-shaped, Raised Bed for the salad-y-type stuff just outside the kitchen! Better'n'better!

I am totally thrilled with my new bedroom - after the misery of living in the spare room for weeks, The Bloke has come up trumps yet again having finished off the bedroom, constructed all the furniture and put up the new curtain runner. What a star he is!

OK, I've now spent a good hour and a half uploading the photos and sharing my thoughts - how about a bit of feedback, Chaps and Chapesses? Sometimes it feels like I'm talking to myself because nobody ever leaves a comment - I think I've had about four in a whole year! It would be nice to hear an opinion, or perhaps some constructive suggestions? You don't have to join anything, or sign up, you can leave a comment with no name! I can't spell "anon ..."

Please??

Another Year ... Another Bean!

Merry Christmas - here's a couple of shots of Chez Dalai Farmer's spectacular Light Show For Christmas. Yes. Spectacular is the word. Note the chicken in the window.

Well here we go into another horticultural year after sleeping for the whole Winter. First, let's catch up with doings on the ol' rancho; 31 days before Christmas Eve I was given some fertile turkey eggs. These were carefully rested for 3 days, then set in the incubator and the humidity, temperature and worry levels checked each day. At the end of all this all 10 hatched! Success! One dies a couple of days in, but that happens. Another one died, then another, for no apparent reason; they were warm and snug in The Bloke's shed with a nice heat lamp to act as mother. After about six weeks, we decided that he needed to get back into his shed and do some Man Stuff (this is very, very important stuff that Women don't understand, apparently) and so I moved them in the pet carrier (see pic) to the other shed. This had been equipped with a water-drinker, feeder, newspaper carpeting and insulation of various kinds. They were terrified, but I thought, "Oh, they will come out and eat and drink, and it'll be nice for them to have more room. It transpires that turkeys die if the frost gets to them on the coldest night of the year. So they did. All of them. Bugger.

On a more cheerful note; the ferrets, Sharon & Tracey, have moved to the now-vacated canary aviary. They have a huge pile of newspaper, shredded, to keep them warm and an upturned hanging basket frame to make a chamber underneath to sleep in. They also have this rather nifty Environmentally Enriched play area that they really like. Hiding food in the "tunnels" makes for a fun time and they are now nicely winter-furred and looking forward to the Spring.

Speaking of Spring, as you do, I took this picture on 4th of February! 15 Degrees! In the Sunshine! Have I been magically transported to a country with a climate? No! I am still here in Suffolk, where we have weather! It's just one of theose days you get in the Winter that remind you what Spring will be like when it finally gets here.

Let's have a look around the place and see what Winter has left us with:

The garden is looking bare and a bit windswept - but that's because it's got nothing in it and the wind has been blowing a bit over the past few months. It does that in East Anglia! Out in the field, Mary remains undressed, and the mud levels have reached epidemic proportions. It's nice that we have a hardboard stepping stone system over the worst of it. This is so that you don't lose your wellies when out to let out/lock in the chickens. It's even grown a bit since this pic!

This is a shot of just how wet and nasty the ground can become when you let some hungry Christmas Turkeys onto your devastated veggie patch a week or two postdeluvian. We had virtually NO veggies this year from the patch, even the potatoes drowned and courgettes were a disaster. Ah well, onward and upward, chaps.

On a brighter note, Freecycle (Bless 'em!) came up trumps again with a new, bigger greenhouse for which we are most grateful. As you can see, it's 10' x 6' and is to be installed on its own concrete plinth (is that a real word?) just as soon as the ground is dry enough. I plan to use the exisiting 6' square one as a nursery to bring on babies to go on to be adult-food-producing plants in the big one. Cunning, eh?
I have saved hundreds of seeds from the Black Tomatoes I got as presents last year, and have recently found them again. This is a small miracle since we are in the midst of recovering from another (really!!!), mild crisis in the form of The Bloke drilling thru an underfloor heating-pipe and destroying all the stuff in our bedroom. We are currently residing in the Spare Room - together with all our stuff, all the stuff that normally accumulates in a Spare Room, a collection of soft toys, unused clothes and other miscellany belonging to The Daughter, our king-size bed and a chair that belongs in the porchway. It's a bit snug, but there you go. I have chosen some outstandingly gorgeous wallpaper which is now installed and a nice, cottage-y "New England" style bedroom furniture to go with. I might post a picture if it ever gets finished. Delivery date for furniture is currently 12 March - but it's flatpacked so there won't be a pic for about a month!

That's about it, all in all, for the moment. Bearing in mind most of you lot have a gradually reducing attention span, if you're anything like me, I'll quite while I'm ahead!

SAYONARA, EVERYONE!

Bah, Humbug.

Well, it's nearly that time of the year when two days take over the whole of your life! Sadly, we have no children within which to foster feelings of greed, gluttony and nausia (usually in that order!) so we are substituting adults with the self-same aim! The Soays continue to be very tasty - see Pot Roast below, and the levels of extreme storage are beginning to subside - although we are awaiting delivery of our fifth(!) freezer!
Jam has been the order of the day for some time now, here's a shot of the Crabapple and Blackberry Jelly in its earliest form. The colours are truly beautiful - as is the finished article.

Speaking of which, this is what the finished "Gift Baskets" looked like when they went to the Beccles Christmas Lights Switching On Street Fayre. What a shame about the weather! I did do a Good Deed, tho, purchasing a cheap mug with a few sweeties in the top from a lovely young Artful Dodger from the Youth Enterprise group. He was so determined and so VERY wet - it was worth the £5 to see the look on his face! That's what Christmas is about!

As you might notice the stall was a little low for The Bloke, but a fine job was done on the lighting! I feel a little more Point Of Sale Material might have meant a little more in the sales effort, but it was a fun night with So Call, his Daughter and his Fiance turned up to show support. They are now not taking our calls in a most childish and ridiculous manner - and I thought they were grown ups!

Not the most successful business venture - but has solved most of my Christmas Present problems, which was the original intention - and I think they are really nice!

I'm sorry that the updates to this blog are few and far between at the moment - it's merely a reflection of the comparatively slow time of the year. Although The Bloke has spent all day today slaughtering, plucking and hanging huge chickens and a couple of medium sized turkeys, so he's a bit too busy to come to the phone! Many of these dicky-birds are off to new "homes" over the next two weeks, I'm sure they will be the tastiest Christmas Fayre in the county!

Incidentally, since starting this update Waveney Freecycle Yahoo Group has been taken over by Fascists intent on controlling everything in the World. They didn't like the fact that Rachael and I were a bit anarchic and tried our hardest to post things. Apparently, it is a cardinal sin to post something on two Freecycle Groups at the same time - meaning that you have to search every local group before you can let someone offer a wardrobe! Also, you are not, either, allowed to post more than one "want!" a week. So if you forgot to add something to your post, you have to wait a week to do it! Nasty, nasty people snuck up on Rachael and took over her group. May they Rot! In any case, we are going to start our own freecycle-alike group with even fewer rules! Watch this space!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those who's cards have got lost in the post (like those two DVD's) MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR - see you in 2008!

Shameless Self-Promotion - kinda!

What a lovely day! Kind of makes you want to sit by the fire, make toast and put some nice jam on it! Doesn't it? In any case, I have been very, very busy lately. I've been making jams and jellies! Oh, and how! I happened to be in the right place at the right time and came across a supply of Pears, Quinces, Tomatoes (from our garden with the Peppers), Apples and so on. Our little tree has also come up trumps in this dreadful year with about a million crab-apples.

You might be interested to learn that we have slaughtered the Soay Sheep that remained of our original flock. Sad, isn't it. Still, we had pot roasted leg of mutton tonight and it really was wonderful!

One more thing, please boycott anything that will make a profit for those filthy, perverted, whale-murdering, pig-dogs that are the Japanese Government. May they rot in their own private hell for all eternity.

Happy days, only http://mysite.verizon.net/vze201j5/countdown.htm to Christmas!

Cheerio!

Mary is Working At Last

We had cars, diggers, demolished fences, huge spoil-heaps, very large holes, digger drivers, cups of tea and endless ingenuity but it was all worth while. No chicken was harmed during the making of this blog, no dogs squashed, turkeys remained intact and sheep distracted.

My lovely Landlord was not killed, maimed nor damaged in any way and his very tall sons drove diggers, shovelled and stood about making helpful suggestions,all without dying.

The garden has had a little "mulching" with yellow clay that has turned to a skid-pan in the rain showers we had yesterday, but has been "whacked" down to permit the application of topsoil and should recover in time.

Really the only casualty has been my Mint plant, but it was uncovered by a contrite digger driver and will probably make a full recovery - I'm just glad that I harvested and froze all the leaves I am likely to need over the winter!

Mary, as you can see, has been supplied with electricity and lids and is now bubbing away, doing her job with quiet efficiency. All I can really add is, "Thank you" to The Landlord, Landlady, their Offspring, friends and contractors - also the Balmoral Company for their fine product!

It strikes me that there has been little other news here since Mary came into our lives, and that is because nothing has really happened apart from the harvesing of pumpkins! We have 15 Crown Prince - all about a foot across, which is just about the right size and 10 Butternut Squash

that were grown from the seeds in a supermarket fruit. Since we only had four and three plants respectively they have done really well. If you look on my Yahoo! Group (there's a link on the right of this post at the top) you can get my recipe for one of my favourite vegetarian dishes. Please have a look.

The runner beans are finished and I have left a couple of pods on the vine to produce seed for next year and yesterday set some tomato seeds to ferment prior to storage for next Summer. I decided that 31 plants was far too many and so we are only having Black and Marmande (Beefsteak) toms next year.

I'm hoping to get the second greenhouse* up over the next couple of weeks and we are (again!) moving the small one. This time they are going at the side of the house, now that the hedge has grown tall enough to keep the wind away from their fragile bits. I plan to use the little one for tiny, baby seedlings and move them to the big one once they are out of trays and into fair-sized pots or grobags.

* This is the second Freecycle'd greenhouse I have been given! It's 6' x 10' and in wonderful condition, we are planning to put this one on railway sleepers so that it will be higher on the sides to allow for the really big things like melons(!) My "crop" was one galia melon the size of a cricket ball. Ho hum.

Think it's been a bit wet in your garden? This is where the swede are supposed to be growing!!

The perpetual spinach seems to like the wet, tho.

Likewise, the marigolds that were planted near the broad beans (which drowned and were a disaster!!) to prevent blackfly. It worked, too. I shall do it again next year - although I don't expect the marigolds to be flowering in October!

I promise not to mention Mary again,although I shall probably go on at length about the mud problems we are going to have this winter. Still, I have actually BOUGHT some meat! I have ordered a forequarter of beef from Chambers The Butcher in Beccles, which they are hanging for five weeks for me. Also a whole rump! This is being paid for with Pig Money (that's what we raised by selling pigs, by the half, to friends).

I really can't wait, so till then,

Cheerio!