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!