May and June have been a bit cooler than the the previous two years which has been great for us. We’ve had days where we are down to shorts and tee-shirts but also days when trousers and a fleece are needed, but it has rarely been too hot that we have had to retreat inside because it’s been too hot…
Tis the season to be muddy
May has arrived and we’ve had the first thunder storms of the season. We have been really thankful for the rain, the downside is that along with the rain comes the weeds. If only our vegetables grew as fast as the weeds! With the rain comes the mud, but fortunately our paths are holding out under the deluge and we’re…
Spring 2017
With the weather being so nice lately we have been spending most of out time outdoors. We secured the duck pond liner last month to stop it blowing around and we have now added some wooden platforms for them and edged it with some limestone we had lying around, it’s not exactly landscaped but it does the job. The reed…
Spring is in the air
The snow has finally gone and even though this is our 3rd spring here it is still a surprise how quickly the weather the changes, one minute there’s snow on the ground and a couple of weeks later your gardening in tee-shirts. It’s still a bit chilly early in the morning before the sun comes up and in the evening…
Everything is still all white
It started to snow just before New Year and we haven’t seen the garden since. There were a few days where the temperature managed to stay above 0C just long enough for all the snow on the roofs to melt and where it had melted turned to a muddy mess, but the snow has returned so it’s back to digging…
The run up to Xmas and not a very Happy New Year
The weather stayed quite mild for us at the end of November through to mid December, so we did some more work on the walk way making it more weather proof for winter. Joe got the framework, wall and the window installed at the end of the walkway and the rest of the panels installed above the windows and even…
What to make with a whole pig – year 2
This post is a follow up from our first butchery attempts. We learned loads in that first year, and we’ve tried to learn from our mistakes, got better with our recipes and tried a few new things. The first thing we’ve done differently this year has been the timing. Last year it was still really warm in November when we…
51 years young
Today I turned 51, not a milestone birthday in the U.K. but here they celebrate birthdays ending in a one and not a zero. Having a birthday at this time of year has normally been uneventful it was always difficult to plan anything because friends were busy with work Xmas doos so it’s usually been a very quiet affair. Today…