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!