Seven random facts about our Min Pins
Berry and Basil (world renowned American gardening Min Pins) wrote a post on Sarah’s great blog Gardendogs and I have been inspired to answer from the perspective of our three UK Min Pins: Dr. Quito, The Contessa and The Lady Midnight Amber (Inca). We love yapping and scaring the postman. We can hear his van driving up the road and can bark for a good five minutes before he hits us on the head with the mail through the letterbox on the front door. We also enjoy yapping at the bank manager next door when he is scratching about in his...
read moreWe have rats in our chicken run
Poultry and rats go together. The rats are attracted by the supplies of food and fresh water. We live in fat rat country. The village is surrounded by farms and studs that are a haven for rats. Rats carry disease, in particular Wiles Disease. This is a killer. The disease is spread through contact with the excrement and urine of carrier rats. A garden pond can attract rats as they need access to water. The disease can infect the tiniest scratch. So I always wear decent waterproof gloves when dealing with the chickens or pond and wash my hands...
read moreAutumn
I need the summer sun. When September came and I hadn’t had my fix, I felt cheated. The past six weeks have made up for it. Despite the last few days of chilly mornings, I finally feel that I’ve had some sort of summer. But there are no memories of eating by the pond or even a barbecue to fuel me though the winter. Bizarrely I even began to worry that the trees were not dropping their leaves. This morning there was leaf dropping evidence when I drove to work and when I opened the back door, first thing, there was a misty autmny...
read moreCottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. Update; our guinea fowl are now 15 weeks old and flourishing.
Back in June 2007 Sara at Farming Friends sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post to put under our broody hen Mrs Boss. Five eggs hatched out. Sadly, our favourite and the only snow white keet, Lightning, died. The remaining keets are doing well and are now 15 week old. They are now grown up and are young adult guinea fowl. I am besotted with them. They have started making the raucous guinea fowl sounds when they hear the grain bin opening. Hearing their call, Inca throws herself at the wire of the chicken run. They are passionate about their...
read moreGilbert’s grape liqueur and grape wine update
We fancied a nightcap last night. I tootled out to the barn and spied the large Le Parfait jar of grapes in grape liqueur. Perfect. Danny’s face lit up when I carried in the bounty. I poured out two sizeable glasses. We nearly knocked each other in our rush for the sink to spit it out.It was vile.D challenged me to pull it around, firmly believing that you cannot convert sulphuric acid into honey. Oh yeah? Last year we were given loads of grapes from a local vine. Having made some wine, I converted the remainder into Gilbert’s...
read moreFlowers from the garden: October
It’s the tenth month of flowers from the garden. Last January I decided not to buy flowers for the house for a year. The benefits would be two fold: I would save loads of money but also I would be encouraged to focus more on our herbaceous borders. It has been an absorbing challenge. When I started gardening here (fifteen years ago), I concentrated on flowers in this garden. Slowly, edible produce has diverted my attention and the herbaceous borders have declined. Since I made the decision not to buy flowers I have planned and planted...
read moreMike Murphy’s Spicy Mexican Coffee Syrup recipe
I must admit that if I’d heard the ingredients of Mike’s favourite childhood café Saturday morning breakfast, I don’t think that I would have tried his spicy Mexican syrup in my first mug of Sunday Saffron Walden coffee. Luckily chill con carne omelette hadn’t been mentioned at that point. Mike has a small chic espresso making machine that makes coffee to kill for. He usually makes an espresso in a mug for me, tops it up with water, sugar and milk. Yesterday he gave me a sideline glance. “You usually have sugar,...
read moreThey bought the farm
I spent the day with Mike Murphy in Saffron Walden. I’m decorating his house in small bursts. Usually Anna is assisting but she couldn’t make it today. Mike is from San Diego, was married to my friend Clare and has lived in the UK for years. He is different, coming from another culture. As I sipped an excellent coffee spiked with a spicey dash of his patent chilli cinnamon syrup, Mike discussed lunch. “I want you to see my park. I have adopted it. We’ll picnic on lunch of Jamie’s potato, avocado and spring onion...
read moreGreen Bullace gin recipe
I worked for a few hours today. Saturday. Sometimes it’s worth doing some time at the weekend when the builders are not there. It’s peaceful and I can crack on. Two hours usually seems to drift into four hours and suddenly I see the sun getting lower in the sky. I shot home at 4.30 pm, desperate to catch a couple of hours in the garden before dark. As I passed Broad Green I noticed the footpath to the bullace hunting ground. I had checked the bullace situation a few weeks ago. Hedge trimmers had ripped along the hedgerows, chopping...
read moreThe best way to ripen green tomatoes
Danny loves guzzling our ripe tomatoes straight from the vine. This is partly why I grow them. It’s great to see my tomatoes savoured and relished. Now the evenings are drawing in, I often see him out with a torch when I swing in from work, searching to see if any have ripened in the autumn sunshine. The ripening process is slow at this stage of the season. We have managed to keep the tomato blight at bay by removing blighty leaves, stalks and fruit as soon as they appear. This has to be done daily and the blighty bits burnt. We...
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Recent Comments
{ I was thinking the same as Magic Cochin but then like you I don't have my phone attached by an umbilical cord wherever I go.... } – Wed 8 :47 pm
{ Good point but I don't tend to take it about with me everywhere 
} – Wed 7 :25 pm
{ Doesn't your mobile phone have an alarm setting? C x } – Wed 6 :32 pm
{ I would put it towards a bbq, it's just a shame you can't purchase some sunshine from b&q } – Wed 12 :04 am- { Hi Lesley The clucking means that she is brrody also plucking her own feathers is a sign too. } – Tue 11 :58 pm
- { Hi Lesley They have to stay in the broody coop 24/7. Could you put in a garden shed or garage? } – Tue 11 :57 pm
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