Flower Power - a fun way to spend a few hours

The arrangement for today was to create a spring arrangment in a basket. Here are some of our group at the end of the afternoon with a table display of the arrangments.



We are all different abilities, but do it for fun. The red carnation spiral arrangement and the white spiral arrangement were made for a church flower show, so are a different design.

Some of the arrangements contain summer flowers like gerbera and roses and others due to the lack of spring flowers in the shops. Some of the ladies did get tulips, daffodils, narcissi, and irises from a store in Thetford - too far for me to travel to - it would cost me far more in fuel than for the flowers.



Brenda out tutor is the lady in the blue cardigan - she is a NAFAS National Demonstratot too, so we are really lucky to have her for our group.



This is the photo of mine taken at the village hall.



This is my arrangement at home - not a very good photo. It looks a bit washed out. The colours are farm more bright and vibrant, the daffs more yellow, the hellebores are speckled with dark read and the others lower down are a lovely deep pinky colour that match the speckles on the green and cream ones.

The contorted willow stems have lovely lime green leaves which will soon burst open more, and they extend in and out of the arrangement which I had to crop out but look lovely they way they twist and turn creating nice shapes.

There were so many lovely arrangements - very professional, but I quite like my effort and it was mainly from my garden and the daffodils I used cost 50 pence as I used half a bunch. So a spring arrangement for 50p has to be a bargain! Apart from the daffodils, all the other flowers and foliage were from my garden.

The arrangement will be placed on my low coffee table in front of the patio door - which is a classic design so will suit it perfectly. I only took the photo against the cream background so that it was easier to show the design.

The daffodils I had left over I popped into a container and made a quick open arrangement - will post a photo tomorrow when the daffs have opened in the warmth of the room.

I got sidetracked by the chickens- not my main post!

I went out into the garden to pack my car and Freckles heard my scrunch crunch on the gravel path and kicked up so much racket - she is so incredibly loud and never gives up, so I went into the garage and got some chickweed - that shut her up eventually!


Dilly plonked herself on the bantams chickweed and shrieked, 'Its mine'




Freckles started barating her - not that Freckles needs any excuse to kick up an earpiecing racket, and Pumpkin just didn't want to lower herself to their standards and went into ostrich mode trying to shut out the noise!



Even Dilly got fed up with all the shrieking and gave in in the end, and let her take a little bit.



I intervened and spread it out so there was some for all.


Adelaide, KoKKo, and Ginger act altogether differently


Ginger did her impression of a headless chicken in the hope that she could get a crafty mouthful first - but she was being watched closely.



Adelaide and Ginger got stuck in, and KoKKo decided to take the photo opportunity for a shot of her best side - to show off her glowing red comb and wattles to their best advantage

I need an injection of energy from somewhere today! Hours up the allotment 3.5

Norfolk Lasses Eggs Total to Date: 356 Day:155

KoKKo 119 Personal best egg weight 86grms 29.11.2005
Adelaide 119 Personal best egg weight 80grms 26.02.2006
Ginger 118 Personal best egg weight 80grms 27.03.2006

London Ladies Bantam Eggs Total to date: 34 Day:23

Dilly 12 Personal best egg weight 36grm 27.03.2006
Freckles 13 Personal best egg weight 37grms 28.03.2006
Pumpkin 9 Personal best egg weight 35 grms 01.04.06

An early morning, and very very warm egg was awaiting me at 7.30am a gift from Freckles, almost white and slightly pointed. Still getting a buzz when that happens.

All six chickens made a dash for their grass cuttings as soon as I let them out. No shrieking from Freckles at the moment - she is busily doing what the others are - head down,petticoats up and scratching around in the grass for goodies. All of them having had their breakfast when they got up and went out in their runs. I put it in last night for them as usual, and as the runs are covered and locked, nothing can get in to nibble it!

It was a dark grey cold day when I let the chickens out first thing, but after having breakfast as usual in the conservatory, the sun is promising to break through, so as Pat is off to play golf, I will probably go up the allotment.

I am all behind with my seed sowing as there was not point in starting them off in the cold weather we have had, as I do not have a greenhouse - let alone a heated one which I would have needed. It was my intention to sow seeds as rain was forecast first thing today - but if it stays dry I had better make the most of it and do a bit more up there.

No sign of the chap that was coming to deep rotorvate it for me with his big machine - he will come when he is ready, you can't rush people where I live.

So I will get my big 5hp machine out and get it right down the bottom of the lottie to go over the long bed where the sweet williams were and where the rest of the chrysanthemums are going.

Best get things sorted, although I haven't get the energy at the moment but no doubt I will get a surge once I am on the move.

3.30pm Update

I got a number of phone calls so got delayed a bit, but by 10.15am I was on my way to my allotment. Boot full of grass cuttings and twigs and chicken stuff all destined for the compost bin.

It was still grey when I pushed open the farmyard gate, but I felt a stirring of energy as I looked at the line of daffodil's along the track where the trees have recently been cut done.

Yanking open the next heavy metal gate, my spirits soared and the familiar sight of the allotments and fields beyond.

After driving through and closing the gate behind me, I realised that I had left my camera at home - what a blow - but there is always another day to catch up with the photos.

As usual not a soul was around. Most of the puddles in the ruts of the track had soak away, so I did not slither and slide and drive up the bank to get to my plot.

Joy oh joy. Lush green grass, sun peeping through the clouds what is that saying about the sun shining on the righteous - just joking!

Despite freezing winds - sunshine appearing is like someone flicking on a spotlight as it catches the fresh leaves, the daffs and narcissi, and the lots of foliage on my plot.

The energy was now coursing through my body, as I donned heavy walking boots, knee pads, wooly hat, and gardening gloves. The usual tug of war with the old shed door, but jubilation as I won and gained access to my big rotorvator.

But first some of the boring things had to be done. The dumping of waste into appropriate bins, the digging up of dock plants before I rotorvate - no point in chopping them up into tiny bits or burying them only for them to reappear in a few weeks time is there.

That done, and weeds dumped in bottom weed dumping giant compost 'bin' that I created especially for the purpose, then up t'end to yank the heavy rotorvator out of the shed.

Just go it out and ready to push the 330 feet to the bottom when Geoff called out. 'Can you get it started?' 'I hope so' I called back. 'But thank you - I will give you a shout if I can't.' I didn't see him again until almost 2pm when I was going and he was coming back! He often just pops up there for 10 minutes for a look see then off he goes and comes back again for a little while then off he goes again.

So there was just me. Firstly I rotorvated between the strawberry rows, only three long rows now since the first got buried by Pat when he helped shape the edges of the path. Still they might grow through. I have my work cut out weeding the clods of grass that the threw over the bed though. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Still once I had done that it looked great, so I went on and did either side of the remaining rows of broad beans, then I had to stop and there were too many dock weeds for me to tackle in the rest of the bed which is about an area of 30 feet by 40 feet. That can be done another day.

My main task was to tackle the long bed in front of the dividing fence that runs horizontally in front of my 'meadow' area where the Norfolk lasses will go for their summer hols.

I pulled up all the membrane, dug out the dock weeds and got it ready for rotorvating. There were a few perennial plants that I had to avoid, a cranesbill geranium, a huge one with the most wonderful blue flowers - whose name I can look up, but which escapes me now in my worn out condition. There is also a lovely yellow Achillea, which I just love in country cottage flower arrangements.

I carefully rotorvated the bed, a few times, until it was soft and crumbly. Then I went up to the entrance of my allotment to shovel a barrow load of well rotted horse manure. It didn't seem very heavy as I shovelled it in with my ladies spade, but it nearly pulled my arms out of my sockets when I went to lift is and propel it all the way back over bumpy grass paths. I had to stop for a few times to give myself a rest!

I then had to go back to dig up the remaining chrysanthemum and carried them down - about 30 or so, - in evitably some of the labels got muddled up, but as I am not into showing my plants it doesn't matter. White ones, bronze ones, red ones, yellow ones, sprays or pompoms, I care not, or what order they are in. Just give me a flowers all shapes and sizes that'll do me.

My next job was to dig out a border edge along the grass path. I couldn't be doing with the long walk back to the shed to get a line and cane, so it is a bit wibbly wobbly - no not wibbly wobbly, it is artistically rustic.

On went the horse manure, raked then dug in. Then it was on hands and knees replanting the chrysanthemums - after all this work I do hope I am well rewarded.

I had several phone calls between all this. No.2. son was deciding which washing machine and fridge freezer to buy, so I was called in to explain some things - benefits of one sort to another - advantages or disadvantages. He has made do with my cast off things first, then his brothers, but now is in a position to have had a new kitchen fitted, and to get new 'white goods' which these days are aluminium or silver coloured.

After finishing the flower bed, I thought for once that I would be sensible and stop whilst I could still walk upright, so took a walk around the beds and looked at the cuttings border and delighted in see signs of life. Dumped yet more weeds, packed the barrow up and as usual got side track enroute to the top of my plot. I cut some wild ivy from the old hawthorn tree in the hedge and spotted a nest but no inhabitants, so will keep and eye on that. I then looked at each plant and noticed yet more 'friend' poking through - I will have a wonderful show of crocosmia this year, and flag irises, and those fat bulbs I photographed, turned out to be really fat headed daffs just about to burst out of their paper sheaths.

I had a peek at the rhubarb bed - 7 plants poking through and another inch or so on the forced plant under the bucket.

The 5 rescued for near death gooseberries that I have pruned, and nurtured with devoted love look really healthy, so I am hoping again for a reward.

The blackberry/boisenberry cross plant that I bought when I was on flower club outing to Cambridgeshire last year, has come alive. It was a sad little stick bought late in the summer, but having tasted boisenberry icecream in New Zealand on a wonderful tour we did staying on farms etc - I just could not resist buying this plant when I saw it. I don't think that boisenberry plants are very conducive to our climate or soils over here. My fruit bush cuttings by the asparagus bed that the gooseberries edge, are also doing well. Not sure that I will get a crop from them this year but maybe.

Through the gap with the barrow loaded up, then slide the corrugated iron across and pull up and wedge the white plastic chair to stop the wind from blowing it down.

A stop to admire Sundays labours and marvel again at the amazing spurt of growth. Then a survey of the broccoli cage - and the leaves are really turning purple and I have 25 really healthy looking bushes, if only they would come up with goods and sprout. Still lots of meals for the girls if not.

Thought I would just stop and remove the fleece tunnel in readiness for and in the hope of Richard coming with his machine one day soon. A tug of war ensued with locating and pulling up the tent pegs that held it down together with the filled water and milk containers. Pulled out the blue water pipe that I had used to make the tunnel cloche with, to reveal three more lovely cabbages, and lots chickweed looking fresh and green and in flower. Normally it would have got rotorvated in, but now I just had to harvest the 30 foot row of it and half filled the huge green bag that came up with the composting rubbish. - The chickens will be overjoyed.

Another phone call from Pat his time asking me if I was at home - he had finished his round of golf and it was 1.45pm heavens how the time had flown.

I had to get my skates on and couldn't dally daydreaming and examining every last inch of land.

Just time to pack up, tidy up and head off home. Bumped into Geoff just coming back as the sun was just going in. Has a bit of a yarn then Pat turned up - he was worried that I might have had yet another flat battery or something as I wasn't at home when I said that I was on my way!

Back home, we pulled in simultaneously into the driveway, and a neighbour had taken delivery of parcel for me - my new chicken fencing from Omlet - I only ordered it yesterday. 25 metres so that they can do some digging for me up the lottie on the veggie beds - and not escape across the fields or other allotments. I don't know who is going to enjoy that the most - them having a scratch about for worms or me watching them.

I asked the neighbour if she liked cabbage or parsnips - and she said that she just loved cabbage so I let her choose one of the ones I had just dug up. No slugs, lovely and green with a red edge to the leaves, and perfectly clean where they had spent their entire life under cover of fleece, and the few old leaves around the edge are in the compost bin up there.

I just had to fill up the little cage feeders with the chick weed for both sets of chooks, and they dived on it with excited shrieks. Then silence as they tucked in.

Two more eggs in the nest from Ginger and KoKKo and one from Freckles this morning, and Dilly got off hers when she heard the commotion. By which time I was starving. So as today is Thursday, you will now what we had for lunch won't you. This time we had 2 bantie eggs each with the wedges and Gloucester Old Spot bacon, and were surprised yet again how filling they were - the yolks being virtually the same size as the large eggs - will just a little white.

Off for a rest now - I think that I have earned it.

Sunshine on a frosty day

Norfolk Lasses Eggs Total to Date: 353 Day:154

KoKKo 118 Personal best egg weight 86grms 29.11.2005
Adelaide 118 Personal best egg weight 80grms 26.02.2006
Ginger 117 Personal best egg weight 80grms 27.03.2006

London Ladies Bantam Eggs Total to date: 32 Day:22

Dilly 11 Personal best egg weight 36grm 27.03.2006
Freckles 12 Personal best egg weight 37grms 28.03.2006
Pumpkin 9 Personal best egg weight 35 grms 01.04.06

It was like looking out on a winter wonderland scene again early this morning - thick, hard, cold frost.

The water in the bird feeders was frozen solid, so too in the chicken water peanuts. They didn't seem to mind though and were out and about and bright and chirpy. Particularly Freckles who has been shrieking all day. For absolutely no reason. I kept going out there to see what was up and nothing - she was just doing it for the sake of it. I never knew that such a loud noise could come of out such a small body and she didn't let up!

I picked her up and gave her a cuddle and she quietened down, then as soon as I put her down she started again. Then Pumpkin joined in. It was a really dreadful.

I thought maybe that she wanted to rejoin the big chickens so took the fencing down, but that made no difference she just ran off shrieking when no one was near her. I checked her over and there was no apparent reason for it.

She did dive in the other Eglu and plonk herself down in the nest much to their annoyance, then Pumpkin ran in after her, and seemed to be making a pip pipping noise and paced up and down worriedly - so I took Pumpkin out and put her back in her own Eglu nest.

By this time Ginger had run inside the London Ladies long run and plonked herself down in their dust bath which is in a red square washing up bowl. She sat there dusting herself and flicking all the dirt out over the run, and was there for over half and hour - looking blissfully happy.

When she eventually came out she chased Dilly, the only one not inside, so I put the fencing back up. I checked on Freckles and she had finally laid an egg and settled down, enjoying a cuddle and being made a fuss of, then I put her back with the others. This was just after lunch. Pumpkin too laid an egg and Dilly had laid one first thing.

Adelaide, Ginger and KoKKo did too, so another bumper day for eggs. A neighbour from over the road came to ask for some, so he had half a dozen of the big ones and I gave him some of the parsnips I dug up. He went off to his wife a happy man.


Adelaide and Ginger eating grass - or insects in it


Ginger off to check out the dust bath - having already bathed in the banties dust bath bowl!


Adelaide decided to have a bath and then just relax in the shade - Ginger with the curly tail feathers decided one bath was enough after all.


Pat decided to give the lawn a mow - it was gloriously sunny this afternoon. The smell of the lawn's first cut of the year on a sunny Spring afternoon is wonderful. Another favourite smell of mine is rain on dry ground. You just can't beat nature's own perfumes.

I decided to give the girls a treat and gave them some of the fresh grass cuttings to play - and sat and watched them for ages.

Pumpkin was on egg laying duties when this was taken - Freckles had finally laid her 32grm egg and stopped shrieking!


I then spent time wandering around my back garden and front gardens looking for foliage for my flower arranging workshop on Friday afternoon.

We went into Attleborough this morning for me to get some flowers - we are doing a Spring flower arrangement in a basket. I needed narcissi, iris, tulips etc. I looked in the supermarket and apart from two bunches of daffodils - the last two - all the floweres were summer ones. Roses, chrysanthemums, lilies, carnations, that sort of thing - they must be grown in glass houses!

I then went to the only florist in town and a small bunch of ordinary tulips were £6.99 can you believe! Outrageous. So all I have got are the daffodils. My narcissi in the garden and up the allotment will be too far advanced by Friday, so I will have to do an arrangement with mainly foliage I think. Never mind. I might take a few of my helibores, but I really don't like to cut my garden flowers if I can help it, that is why I am growing them up the allotment.

Pat had a spurt of energy and cleaned out the gutters on the front of our bungalow so plenty more for composting up the allotment. I might take a trip up there tomorrow as there are the grass cuttings and I also cleaned out the chickens again.

I took some photos of the back garden, as well as the chickens.

On a hot sunny afternoon in the summer, I like to get a chair and sit in my gazebo hidden away in the corner in the shade. Well it is hidden in the summer with all the plants grown up around it.

Last year in the bird box on the silver birch tree we had two lots of blue tits nesting and rearing two families

New mown lawn - the garden looking bare in the spring - but packed in the summer!

Just one view of the back garden. So you can see the garden through all seasons.

A lady like Monday to give my bones a rest - ish

A wonderful perfume greeted me when I went out to feed the chickens today. And here is the source. The clumps of bluebells in between the daffodils and narssisi under the patio door are coming into bloom. One year I picked a bunch for a flower arrangment and did it in my conservatory on the table - only to find seconds later, the table was covered in tiny black shiny beetles. Hundreds of them. I now leave the bluebells outside - and the beetles.

Norfolk Lasses Eggs Total to Date: 348 Day:152

KoKKo 117 Personal best egg weight 86grms 29.11.2005
Adelaide 116 Personal best egg weight 80grms 26.02.2006
Ginger 115 Personal best egg weight 80grms 27.03.2006

London Ladies Bantam Eggs Total to date: 28 Day:21

Dilly 10 Personal best egg weight 36grm 27.03.2006
Freckles 10 Personal best egg weight 37grms 28.03.2006
Pumpkin 8 Personal best egg weight 35 grms 01.04.06

Two eggs so far from Ginger and KoKKo, but none from the others. They seem to be laying later in the day now - maybe it is all the rain we are having so it is darker in the mornings and it was very cold when I went out before 7am

I ventured into my garden studio and unwrapped and cut up the block of soap that I made.



The dark spots are the orange zest. It smells wonderful, and I understand that it goes paler as it cures and dries. I rather like the big chunks, which I made by pouring it into a goats milk carton so it set into a block, then cut them into chunks.

I am going to have to invest in a variety of essential oils so that I can make all sorts. It probably is a hobby for the winter months, but I want to make more before then as the soap takes 4 - 8 weeks to cure.

I have been looking up lots of recipes for all sorts of creams so will grow some herbs to go into those I think.

As I can hardly move due to hip pain today, (serves me right, but it was worth it, well maybe not), I have got a big batch of bread on the go, and want to sow some seeds but that is a standing up job too so I will see how I go.

It is a great feeling to have got all that work done up the allotment though and torrential rain yet again in the night, will have watered everything in nicely.

Off to search the net for some supplies I need for my soapmaking whilst the bread is rising - back later.

Update
I ended up with all girls laying eggs today - so I was a happy bunny. More so because I have spent time late afternoon changing the pen around.

I now have one Eglu facing one way and the other the opposite way. I have decided to split the run in half and to let the hybrids have one side and the bantams have the other side.

There was no serious bullying or pecking, but the past couple of days the Norfolk Lasses have been chasing the girls when there is food about, or maybe it is just when I am about. I read a poultry forum recently where a person's hybrids had suddenly attacked the bantams and killed them, after seeming fine for weeks. So that worried me, and I was not prepared to take the risk. I would rather that they both had their own space and lived happily in it, without any niggles or stress from each other at any time. I am probably over reacting, and the banties were very cheeky and used to pinch food, so there was a risk that if they invaded what the Norfolk Ladies considered their territory, they might not tolerate it one day or perhaps not.

Ginger was getting a bit fed up with them, and then Adelaide - haven't a clue why, and the banties did not seem scared and would crouch and get a tap on the back then get up and run off. Perhaps I spent far to much time watching their every move.

But they all seem very quiet and calm and happy this afternoon, and laying their eggs in their own Eglus for a change - rather than each others and arguing about it.

I have ordered some more special fencing off Omlet, so that I can let them free range on the lawn in the summer. Separately. The pen is plenty big enough for them all to have a lot of space, and run around, but I like the idea of them getting to run around on the grass for a change - and it will be good if I take them up the allotment on my little meadow. That was another thing on my mind. If I take three of them up there for a few days, would it upset the status quo, so best to have them separate so that it made no difference.

P.S.

When I made the bread this morning, I did it on auto pilot as I usually do, no recipe to read as I know if off by heart. BUT the little old plastic measuring jug that I normally use, I comandeered for the soap making so did not like to use it again, instead I used a big white plastic jug. The measurements were hard to see, even with the water in it. I filled it to the amount I wanted and just poured it in as usual. It was not until my fingers plunged into a pancake type mixture of lots of water that I realised I must have got the measurements wrong.

So not being one to waste food - especially organic wholemeal flour, I threw in some more flour - another pound and a half actually, and another pack of dried yeast, mixed it and kneaded it and hoped for the best.

This is how it turned out!


The loaves are rather larger than I usually make - in fact they were really large, and rustic looking.

Pat cut some for tea, and he just kept saying - 'This is fantastic', 'perfect', 'brilliant' and other nice comments!

I didn't tell him that it was by pure accident, but nice when it does work out don't you think.

Now don't go asking me for the recipe - as often happens, because I have no idea of the volume of water I used!

I also forgot to add that during the morning I spent a lot of time 'daydreaming' looking at the fish feeding and the ever increasing frogspawn. Examining all the new plants poking up and marvelling at their rapid appearance through the deep mulch I had put on the beds. Now the dark brown 'blanket' is turning into a wonderful patchwork of familiar plants.

As we are back to freezing nights and frost again, I decided to sow my onion sets in a couple of white polystyrene fish boxes I got last time I bought my fish.

I thought that they would appreciate their bottoms tucked into nice damp shallow compost rather than being stuck in brown paper bags, in a cold garage.

They can start growing their little roots ready for when they go out into the big wide world - or I should say allotment.

Don't they look sweet. (I can hear all the male viewers groaning and going 'yuk' - even cringing, but I did warn them when I started my blog that it might be a bit girlie - and it is, because I am.

Allotment news for Sunday 2nd April - 7 hours today between us.

After breakfast, it still wasn’t raining – so you can guess where I headed after all. Yes I know I ached, but if I ache anyway, I might as well do something I really enjoy
doing whilst I ache, rather than sitting down , thinking oh dear me, I do ache - if you see what I mean.

Pat crammed everything I had to take into my little car and he came with me to barrow some muck for me to spread.

Before we set off, I popped a pheasant into the oven to cook. Well I did do a few fiddly bits first like chop it is half lengthways, brown it in a pan, with some garlic, put it in my big Le Crueset oval pan, which is donkeys years old but they were such a good investment as they are all I seem to use! I added some red wine, a chopped up orange (I only used the peels yesterday in the soap making), and got some thyme, rosemary, sage and a bay leaf from the garden, and left it to cook ‘til we got home.

We got so much done, it was wonderful. I know I keep saying it, but I find it just wonderful being out in the middle of the field, messing about with the soil, and my plants etc. It really makes me feel happy and alive. The wind was blowing quite fiercely and we soon warmed up.

The clouds were racing by over head and a couple of fighter jets flew over in formation. Pat was impressed with the amount of work I have done already, and says that he is amazed at what I achieve on my own – and he never even saw the transplanted chrysanthemums or the extra fence I put the other one.

He noticed the amount of muck that I had already shifted, and saw the filled trenches of it where I had been putting all the kitchen waste all winter in my bean trenches, which had rotted down, and it is now covered in lovely black composted muck. It looks really neat.



This is the big area that the potatoes will be going in. I weeded and spread 10 barrow loads of muck. It was hard work but you would never think it to look at it all down. I could not stop to take before and after photos as the weather looked ominous. You can see a couple of the bean trenches in front of the compost bins where the posts are.



So down from the last photo, I dug up the row of parsnips that ran alongside the white fleece tunnel. In there are the last of my January King cabbages that I am leaving until the last minute to dig up.

Then there are the covered areas that I weeded and rotorvated late autumn and covered over for the winter to keep it clean. There is the argument that it encourages slugs, but it was a risk that I was prepared to take. My allotment is so huge that I have to manage it an a way that I can physically cope with. At least if I do not have the strength to do an area, if it is covered at least I know that it is weed free. If left them the deadly docks and thistles would soon take hold and I would be back to square one.

Next in line is the temporary brassica netted 'tent' that I live in hope that the purple sprouting broccoli does eventually sprout. If it doesn't, then I will not be spending this summer picking caterpillars off brassicas on my hands and knees for hours on end. I will grow sprouts (yes I know they are brassicas, but at least I know that I will get a crop).

Today I wanted to concentrate on one of my fruit areas, next to the patch that I had rotorvated the other day.


I planted some onions and shallots, and dug and raked a pathway which I will sow with grass seed, when I buy some.



Pat brought down the wheel barrow with the muck and I shifted it and spread it around the summer fruiting raspberry canes, which should produce their first proper crop this year. In the autumn I cut them back to leave just 5 stems as it said in the book, and today I dug up all the runners, and also the weeds and dug it all over before laying a mulch of about 10 wheel barrows full down this one strip - I hope that it makes it easier to weed in the summer months, as well as absorbing the rain, as we get very little here usually, and providing wonderful nutrients.

I know that the 'tractor boys' think that I am mad. Each year they plough theirs up, more than once often. Rotorvate it with big beastie machines, plant it with broad beans, potatoes, and sometimes cabbages. And mainly leave it to do its own thing.
Often bemoaning the fact that the rabbits have eaten most of their crops or they have blight etc or their beans aren't much good.

And there I am spending hours digging, adding muck and compost, weeding and weeding and weeding, growing fruit and flowers and all sorts of things, and creating lawn and grass paths which I have to mow each week! But then they come up and wonder why my beans are lasting such a long time, or my potatoes are a good crop. I do believe that you have to be kind to the soil, so that you get lots of worms and nutrients, and that you can't grow two good crops all together - like weeds and lettuces - something has to be weaker and usually it is not the weeds.

There I am toiling hour after hour, and they are up there a few hours a week if that with their machines. They even have ones the make drills for the potatoes and they just literally drop them in, whereas I am on my hands and knees with a stick or trowel as a measure to space them correctly. They must know what they are doing as they have been doing it for more years than me!


I weeded most of the area around the autumn fruiting raspberry canes, which are cut right down to the ground, and dug up the runners. These too should be brilliant this year, as they only went in last year but I did get a nice crop albeit in dribs and drabs which I froze, rather than a tub full at a time.

The wooden bottomless tub is protecting a thornless blackberry that I bought last year. It is only wee, but you never know, I might get a few berries this year. In the future it will save me the long walks down the lanes looking for them and getting my arms ripped to shreds by the thorns and my legs stung by the stinging nettles - won't be half so much fun though. But I am getting too old for all this foraging lark!

My currant bushes I grew, I hope will bear fruit this year, and the jostaberries are looking just fantastic. It gives me such a nice glow inside to see all the things I have ‘created’ from little bits of dead looking stick. Mind you, you have to be patient, this is my third year up the allotment. I did not have the finances to do everything like they do on television gardening programmes. Buy proper fencing and erect it. Make proper raised beds from new wood. Buy fruit trees and bushes and plants etc. But it is much more rewarding doing it my way.


Jostaberries are the big ones, and currants are the smaller thinner ones. The piles of muck are where the autumn fruiting raspberry canes are now cut to the ground.

I did buy a red currant, white currant and blackcurrant and took cuttings from all of those. I got some gooseberry bushes that were destined for a compost bin, and were half dead, and I never really thought that they would live, but they did and are, and this year I am expecting great things of them too after all the nurturing I have done.

So three and a half hours of hard labour was spent digging up the dastardly dock weeds with roots that head down to Australia. Digging up and removing grass that has managed to appear and grow a healthy thatch through out winter right where it should not be growing!

I still have a bit more weeding to do as you can see. But it is back breaking work and we were shattered.

So from these photos, it won’t look much to you, but it does represent many many hours of work for me over the past couple of years and now this one. And you will see the difference in a few weeks time and in the summer!

And we shifted 30 wheel barrows full of muck and these were piled so high that I could not lift the weight of them myself. But my body can testify to the exercise!

We were so glad that we spent the morning and early afternoon up there. It was three thirty by the time we sat down to lunch. The pheasant was melt in your mouth wonderful and we couldn’t eat it all between us so have some for another day. We had home grown mange tout, carrots, peas, runner beans and parsnip that had been in the ground a few hours earlier. It is so satisfying – hard work for sure – but you just can’t beat the feeling of growing your own.

Sunday 2nd April Chicken and hobbies news

Norfolk Lasses Eggs Total to Date: 346 Day:151

KoKKo 115 Personal best egg weight 86grms 29.11.2005
Adelaide 116 Personal best egg weight 80grms 26.02.2006
Ginger 114 Personal best egg weight 80grms 27.03.2006

London Ladies Bantam Eggs Total to date: 25 Day:20

Dilly 9 Personal best egg weight 36grm 27.03.2006
Freckles 9 Personal best egg weight 37grms 28.03.2006
Pumpkin 7 Personal best egg weight 35 grms 01.04.06

The night time and early morning rain has finally stopped and the sun has come out. It think that it will be far too wet to do even muck spreading up the allotment today and my old bones are making a fuss, but it might be that it is morning and they need shaking and jiggling up a bit so I well see how I feel after breakfast.

But I still have so much to do at home if that is the case. Seeds to sow - hundreds literally, bread to make, a pheasant to cook, and of course this afternoon you'll be wanting to see how the soap turned out won't you. Well so will I. I am going to wait exactly for the 24th hour - normally I ma impatient but today I will be good.

I put it out in my garden studio out of temptations way. It would be nice to have a little kitchen in there, but I would need planning permission for that as a change of use - plus the expense of plumbing etc.

The chickens were quite quiet when I went to let them out, no early morning eggs today, but I don't need them yet.

Off for breakfast in the conservatory where hopefully the sun will shine on me. Bliss

Update at 5.30pm

Well I did go up the allotment after all - so that is on a seperate page, as now that spring is here, it is best that I divide the pages into allotment and the chickens and everything else on another.

I know that some of the men that read this did so because it was an allotment site, but over the winter it turned into a foodie, hobbies and chicken blog - but they were warned in advance, as you can't write much about an allotment in the winter when nothing is happening up there!

You haven't seem much of KoKKo, Adelaide and Ginger lately, so I thought it was about time that I amended that.


Having fun and games on the logs I got the other day.


I keep mithering about the little banties as the big girls do chase them now and again, and although they don't pluck out any feathers or do any damage, I do feel for the little ones.

But they don't seem to mind, they just crouch, get a tap on the neck, then get up and go on their way, or stay and pinch bits off the big ones and risk the same treatment.

I am sure that they are fine though, as they are laying eggs quite happily. Three again today from Freckles, Dilly and Pumpkin, weighing 35gms, 33grms and 31grms which are good weights for them. Two eggs so far the Ginger and Adelaide. Yesterday there was a late one, but it is tipping it down with rain so it does not bode well for a late one from KoKKo this time of the evening.

I have just got drenched going out there to give them their mixed corn. The banties wer having fun scratching about in the long extended run of the Eglu, so I threw their portion in there and shut them in to eat it, as it is getting late.

The big girls were happy to scratch around in the rain for theirs, but I put some undercover in the Green Eglu run, and dashed into the garage to get a choc ice out of the freezer for Pat and me as we have earnt it today. They last two in the packet. A trip into town might be called for. I could do with some grass seed methinks.

After the trip up the allotment and late lunch, I finally got to have a peek at my soap that I made yesterday. I put had put it in my studio on the garden. It was a tad be difficult to get it out of the moulds even though I had greased them thoroughly. Perhaps I should have left them another 24 hours. The book said 24 hours though, but some another book I was reading said 24-48 hours. It was still quite soft so maybe that was the problem, so I have left the big block until tomorrow to turn that out and will show you a photo then.

So here we have St Clements Soap. It smells divine of oranges and Lemons and is a bright yellow colour from the yellow palm oil. The recipe called for adding some tumeric, but although I know this colour will fade over the next 4-8 weeks that you have to leave it, it can't imagine it will fade that much.

I finely grated orange and lemon zest into the mix and you can see lovely little spots of it. I have added the dried orange slices to some of them, which, when the soap is cured, I will glaze with melted beeswax to give it a shine. It is purely for decoration and will be able to be lifted off, once the soap is used.

In other recipes they have actually encompassed dried fruits and flowers within the soap - large pieces not just tiny grated bits.

I have recently used one that had rose petals or pot pouri stuck in the surface, and it just gets all over the sink and your hands and is a bit of a nuisance,and has gone slimy and doesn't dry out, so did not fancy that - but that is purely my taste. It did look wonderful though and had a great texture.

So here it is...........................



It was still quite soft, and as I said a real bother trying to get them out of the moulds so I had to smooth them out and mould them with my hands (wearing thick protective gloves as it is not cured).

If you could smell it and see it in reality, it is very pretty with a wonderful aroma. As I said, the colour fades with the curing, so it will be lighter and the tiny flecks of the zest will show up better.

It is laid on an old hand towel and in a drawer; in case you are wondering why that is, it has to be wrapped in a towel and put in a cool place for 4-6 weeks to cure. It is cool in my studio and out of sight is out of mind otherwise curiosity will get the better of me!

I think the big lump that I will unwrap tomorrow and cut up into big chunks will be good.

Still, the whole point of the exercise is to make things, and they will look homemade and not perfect. It is what goes into them that counts.

Anyway, after this first go, I am eager to make some more - all sorts - and I am also so thrilled with the cream I made a few weeks ago, and the tremendous effect it has had on my skin that I shall be experimenting with making some more.

But firstly the allotment takes preference - so that we can eat this year and next winter!

April Fools Day - but I really did make soap.

Norfolk Lasses Eggs Total to Date: 344 Day:150

KoKKo 115 Personal best egg weight 86grms 29.11.2005
Adelaide 115 Personal best egg weight 80grms 26.02.2006
Ginger 114 Personal best egg weight 80grms 27.03.2006

London Ladies Bantam Eggs Total to date: 22 Day:19

Dilly 8 Personal best egg weight 36grm 27.03.2006
Freckles 8 Personal best egg weight 37grms 28.03.2006
Pumpkin 6 Personal best egg weight 35 grms 01.04.06

The first day of April and it has dawned with rain. April showers are the order of this month according to folk lore, but not the torrential rain of last night and this morning. It might well be a soap making day. I ache anyway after all the manual labour, but it is a great feeling to have got so much done.

Just hope that it warms up so that I an get my onions and potatoes in next week. That would be brilliant. And it Richard came with his great big rotorvator and the furrow attachment that he is making for my rotorvator that would be the icing on the cake.

There was an egg from Pumpkin for me in the nest today. Stone cold at 7am (which would be their 6am as the clocks went forward but their body clocks remain the same). I was the purest white and weighed in at a new personal best of 35grms.

I guess they must be happy if they are laying eggs even though they get chased a bit now and again. I think I spend too much time observing their every move!

Must 'get a life' as the saying goes. LOL.

Evening update.

4 Eggs in total today - 2 from the Norfolk Lassies and 2 from the London Ladies - they are matching one for one at the moment - I am very impressed.

Well the rain stopped play out doors allotment wise but I did make my first batch of soap.

St Clements

Here are some photos giving a step by step (almost) account. It is absolutely necessary not to have any distractions, or interuptions - so next time I make it, I will make sure that he is miles away! Nuff said!

Firstly you need to assemble all your ingredients and materials.



These include protective gloves, safety goggles and mask, thermometers and various bowls, saucepans, something to use as moulds, scales - well you can see what was involved if you click on the photo to enlarge it!

I have wanted to do this for ages, but (a) couldn't get all the ingredients locally so had to order some off the internet, the last of which arrived a couple of days ago, and (b) I was a bit wary of doing it as it sounded like a science project.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, will know that I have a bit of a cavalier attitude to recipies and tend to make a lot of them up as I go along. But when making soap, you can not do that. You have to meticulously stick to the correct weights, and ingredients to the letter. It didn't say why, and I am not brave enough to find out by doing it wrong, so I followed all the warnings and obeyed.


Here we have various weights of palm oil, sunflower oil, cocoa oil, and beeswax, which is melting on a very low heat.



Here we have the caustic soda and water mixture that the safety equipment was for - goggles, mask, long gloves for hand and arm protection and I had vinegar standing by in case of splashes.


And here are the melted oils - note the thermometers in each - both have to cool to the same temperature before mixing together.

Then you have to keep stirring until it reaches trace before adding the other fragrance oils, then pouring it into moulds. And as that was a bit tricky and I kept gettiing interupted I did not take any photos - BUT - that does not really matter and the next step was to wrap them in towels for 24 hours then to take them out of the moulds. So tomorrow you will see how they turned out - the next stage is to store them before you can use them, but more of that tomorrow!

So once finished and washed up it was lunch of a chicken and vegetable curry (that I had cooked and frozen) with rice, as I needed an easy meal after a morning up the allotment which did not materialise.

Just after lunch I got a phone call from someone who had sent me an email first thing wanting to view my Eglus.

It was a bit of a shock to learn that they wanted to come straight away - I was thinking in the next week or two, but remembering how keen I was I agreed.

An hour later they were here, the sun was out, and I was shattered so didn't look my Sunday best no doubt.

Still they were a lovely young couple, and we had a great chat about all things chicken and Eglu related. They had a brochure, but until you see one in a garden it probably is difficult to actually imagine. I know that I would have loved the opportunity to see one in situ and to talk through all my questions with someone. So I was happy for them to visit. I put KoKKo,Adelaide and Ginger in one of the runs, as with all six of them underfoot I thought it might be a bit overwhelming, especially as my girls just get so excited when I go in to see them clamouring around me to see what tidbits I might have.

So it was left to the more genteel London Ladies, Dilly, Freckles and Pumpkin, to strut their stuff and wow them. And boy were they wowed. They initially had the idea of having two large chickens like my Norfolk girls, but once Freckles and Dilly worked their charm, and happily cuddled up to them, and soaked up all the stroking and attention, they were soon won over. Freckles even started to doze off!

Once they had seen exactly 'in real life' what the Eglu and run look like, how easy it is to clean out, the size of it etc and where it would be sited in their garden, they decided that they would definitely buy one - just had to decide on the colour and they are going to get four bantams - they just need to find a breeder near them.

So we had a cup of tea and discussed more chicken related things, and they got to collect an egg that had just been laid by KoKKo, which was compared with the tiny bantam eggs. (Samples of which I gave them to take home to eat of course), then it was outside in the sunshine for another cuddle before they went. This time they picked up the girls themselves.

Pumpkin, was a bit aloof and did not want to be cuddled by strangers, but they liked her the best, for sheer looks and colour. But Dilly and especially Freckles just won them over to bantams.

After they went, I let the big girls out again, and threw them their evening meal of mixed corn and they all gathered together to eat it - no chasing, no squabbles - it was a lovely scene.

Off to watch a DVD. Hope you all have a great weekend.

More allotment photos - just so that you can see the 'before' views.

This is the new long bed - doesn't look much does it for all the time it took, it is only about 15 or so feet long. It has more chrysanthemums in it and a stray iris. It is where I have the willow fence (if that took) and where I have added another layer of fencing - which took me over and hour and ruined my nails.

Another view of the same new bed. I know it looks a bit of a mess at the moment. The black membrane is to conserve moisture and cut down on the weeding, and the wood is to hold it down as it is so windy and exposed it would fly off. If the willow hedge takes I will weave it in and out and it will be a thing of beauty, and if not the chrysanthemums will look lovely anyway.


This is one of the beds alongside the fence that runs the width of the meadow area and where there are rudbeckia plants, that I tie to the fence - hence the bale twine. They are yellow and tall and majestic reaching 8 feet sometimes more. I love their cone centres and use those in flower arranging for texture. In front of them is the bed where I planted Yellow Cricket chrysanthemums, (if the labels did not get muddled up).


This is my 'spikey' flower bed, with plants with sword like leaves, like the irises and phormium, the middle bed of three in a row which you can see in the following shot beyond the fence.


This is a view standing in my little 'meadow' that I seeded last year, looking up to the top of my plot. There is a piece of my plot behind me, so from where I am standing to the metal compost bin, next to which are the rhubarb beds and gooseberries and currants and more asparagus, and in front are the strawberries with the plastic cloches hanging on for dear life by one spike (which I have now removed) and the broad beans where the canes are with cd bird scarers. This is about a quarter of my plot which goes right up to the farm buildings at the top in the distance.



This might not look much, but it is special to me. I did a college course a couple of years ago - Floral Design, which included all sorts of things including botany and horticulture, as well as design, flower arranging, history..............

It was Christmas time and we were doing our big arrangements, and I rescued out of the rubbish bin some of the rose stems - just small bits about 4 inches long that has been snipped off the bottom of the posh dutch roses. This is one that grew. I nurtured it, and it go one flower on it last year, but put on growth. It is protected by a square wooden planter without a bottom in it. To save it from browsing deer and rabbits and anything else that is likely to take shine to it. It seems to have survived the winter, and is looking good. I am really hoping for an abundance of wonderful red roses this year - so watch this space.


This is part of the rhubarb bed, and these are performing well without any extra help or protection. Hope they are going to produce a good crop. I have plans for those.



It really isn't trying hard enough even with a nice warm bucket on top of it!


The forced rhubarb is a bit slow, does NOT want to be forced even though it is destined for a vodka soak!


More flag irises have survived the brutal winter - boy are you in for a suprise in the summer when they flower!



A battered little primula, used to being tucked up in a woodland bed, protected by other plantes, not stuck in an open windswept plain. I should take pity on it and move it back home.

Here are those allotment photos that wouldn't load

These are the only photos the blogger will let me load - off to try again on a new page.


Those poor broad beans, but they look like they might be rallying. I am debating whether to bother putting more in - I am not keen on them, so I only really grow them for Pat - but I do eat them - I was brought up to eat what was put in front of me!


Another mystery plant that has burst through the ground full of energy and life - it will be pretty that's for sure.




At the front of this bed the asparagus will appear in a while, which I grew from seed. Along from that, so 'above' them in the photo is the newly deep dug section with all the pig muck dug in with the chrysanthemums - six footers and red (if I haven't get those muddled up!) Beyond are all sorts of things that you will see when they grow. The grass paths I created late last year and they are looking really good.



One of the 'mystery' bulbs I planted up the lottie last Autumn. They are short stemmed but with a bud that looks out of proportion. The leaves are a bluey green - maybe alliums? Or just fat narcissi - a surprise awaits. Its this getting old business. I keep forgetting the names of what I plant where in the flower borders. But no way do I forget that in the veggies department. Guess it is not important with flowers as I don't eat them - well except some of the calendula - so as long as they are pretty I remember them when they get bigger!