Birthday celebrations and a visit to my old home.

It was my brother's birthday on the 23 August, so today we went over to where he lives and went out for a meal.

Happy Birthday J!

After an excellent lunch in a pub in our childhood village of Kempsey, nr Worcester, we drove up to Kempsey Common, where my family lived from 1969 - 1996

This was the view I had from my bedroom window, looking out over the Malvern Hills.

And this is the house I lived in from the age of 6 until I was 16. A lot of memories were released from both my brother and I, happy and sad ones but all good to feel.

I showed Compostgirl the old hollow oak tree where I used to hide and read all day and dream.
A good day out

Some things we have been up to in September 2. Archery

#archery

Some of you may recall we, as a family, started Archery during the summer. We are all very keen and enjoying it immensely and have been practising several times a week at various sites. We are members of Lugg Valley Company of Archers and Bromyard Bowmen and last week were asked if we wanted to join in with an official County Archery event

We are complete beginners and it seemed a big thing to do, so soon, but we were reassured it would be painless and fun (lol).  Compostgirl was keen to have a go so we said yes we would join in.

Conveniently it was being held at Ledbury Archers site which is only up the road from Compost Mansions, so was handy for us :)

It was a glorious hot and sunny Sunday and the event started at 10 am and carried on all day. Compostgirl did the whole event, starting at 9.30 and continuing until gone 6 pm, shooting a total of 144 arrows. That's a long day!

Compostman and I had various back and neck problems so decided to just join in the National round in the afternoon, shooting along with Compostgirl.

the last end we completed we all three hit gold, a number of times :)

Compostgirl won a medal :) She was very pleased and proud of her achievements, as were we, of her :)

We had such a great time!

A huge thanks to Ledbury Archers and the Blandfords for arranging the shoot and providing the beautiful site; to members of Lugg Valley for suggesting we join in, as we are still very much beginners but yes had a really good time! Also thanks to our other club Bromyard Bowmen for our initial training and for renting us the equipment and giving us general support and help.

All the archers we have met so far have been so friendly and welcoming and helpful to a trio of very new, nervous beginners who had never done an event like this before :)

Go Team Compost!

A typical busy Sunday - chickens, compost and cats.

I started off doing two loads of washing on Sunday morning as well as a general tidy round  - I was going to give the sitting room a major tidy up but it got too difficult to manage with all of us in the house so I decided it could wait until tomorrow - also the weather was quite nice in the morning so I wanted to get on with some outside jobs.

I went out to clean out the hens and found the blasted rats had tunnelled inside the hen run AGAIN! We have traps and bait boxes down but the wet weather has meant a rise in the numbers actually trying to get into the hen house rather than just quietly living in the wood and around us ( but not bothering us) They upset the hens and will take an egg if they can.

So we moved the hen house and dug out the rats nest - no rats inside but a nest and lots of tunnels. As always hens came to investigate the digging.

 then Compostman dug a hole and we put weld mesh vertically so it went about 12 inches downwards .

We also laid weld mesh under the hen house before putting it back in place - lets see if the little so and so's can dig through that!

I then (finally) got on with cleaning out the hen houses and the run.

 

All the dirty straw and paper went into the new compostbins.

 

And a fresh load of bedding put into the houses and the Mega Hen Pen walk in run. As always - the chickens were investigating what I was up to!

I filled up one of the new bins completely and the other one is 3/4 full - I need to get on and build the rest of the new bins pronto I think :-)

While I was doing this Compostgirl cleaned out her guinea pigs and then we all went inside and because it turned dull and wet we had a relaxing rest of the day with crafts and reading and computer work .

After evening animal rounds  we had dinner and settled down to our Sunday night family viewing of  "Countryfile" and "Call the Midwife " in front of the woodburner with the cats sitting on top of us - one for each of us.

Gifts

 Lovely books :-)

 A tall lamp to help me with crafting :-)

A lovely Amber necklace

A hand made beeswax candle (smells lovely!) and a fab pair of crafting shears for cutting material :-)

Slowly getting back into our routine

Yesterday Compostman and I went to Ledbury - he had a physio appointment and I had stuff to take to the Red Cross charity shop to donate - I came away with two craft books as well for the princely sum of £3.

I also got a 15 mm crochet hook, as I am in the process of turning a lot of old cotton T shirts into yarn to crochet a rug and needed a larger hook to do so. I have spent the last four weeks doing a lot more knitting, crochet and other fabric related crafts and have enjoyed this, although I didn't like the fact that I had *no choice* but to practice them. I have improved a lot, though!

We had an £8 off £80 spend voucher for the Co-Op, which expired today so after a bit of discussion we decided we would spend some extra money to save some. I had done our normal household shop last week in the Co Op - and got 10 % off that time - so really did not need much everyday household stuff - but we decided to spend on stockpile items to get the maximum discount this time. We bought extra stuff - packs of tins of cat meat ( to be stockpiled in the garage)  - some alcohol (to be stored away for Yule and for gifts) and reduced free range pork joints (which when cut up to make lovely chops which went straight into the freezer). This plus some normal household sundries came to £82, so I was pleased to get 10% discount on stuff we would have bought at some point soon.

With the colder weather coming up I like to have at least four weeks worth of food, loo rolls, etc for us, the cats, the guinea pigs and the hens. We have previously been frozen in here for nearly 2 weeks   so I am not taking any chances! And oh how useful it has been recently ( with us being virtually housebound)  to have a good stockpile of provisions!

We then went for a treat - an early (noon)  lunch at a local pub in Much Marcle - they do very good lunches sourced from local ingredients and they do a lunchtime deal which is really good value. We have not been out together for a very long time so we really enjoyed our treat.

We came home and as it was warm and sunny we decided to do some work outside on various gentle tasks - both of us found we were as weak as kittens after less than an hour of very light work - it is amazing how rapidly one can lose fitness from an illness or injury!

But at least we got some wood moved into the log store and some compost moved into a raised bed and I managed to clean out a whole hen house by myself ( for the first time in 5 weeks!)

When Compostgirl came home on the bus from school at 4 pm that was the signal to retire to make tea, light the woodburner, sit down and have a chat and a rest.

Compostgirl and I enjoyed watching "Wizzards vs Aliens" on CBBC - a Dr Who ish programme from Russell T Davies and co. And after food and homework for her we watched "The Simpsons" on C4 plus 1 (as usual) - something our family have enjoyed together for several years.

Compostman and I later ate some homemade soup and bread for supper (as we had eaten a main meal at lunchtime) and watched "Only Connect" on BBC 4 - a quiz show we love and  which I would like to appear on.

Slowly we seem to be getting back into our normal routine of work in the day and family life in the evening. Which feels good. Fingers crossed we can keep up the progress!

"Meet the Masters" event at Garden Organic, Ryton

I spent today at Ryton, the HQ and showcase gardens for Garden Organic

Throughout the spring and summer Garden Organic have been running a series of events called "Meet the Masters" where Master Composters and Gardeners are present at Ryton on a Saturday or Sunday, to answer queries and talk about composting and gardening to the public.

I had offered my services this weekend and, as Compostman and Dear Daughter have never been to Ryton, we all went, along with a friend of El's.

The journey across was a bit long as there was some terrible traffic through Worcester, but we arrived in glorious sunshine ( which lasted all day!)

My fellow Master Composter and Master Gardener had already set up our stall, in the new Home Composting area and I was very pleased to see this had a nice shelter for us to stand under - most of the summer we have been hiding from the rain but today we were sheltering from the hot sun.

The rest of the family went off to join in a garden tour with one of the volunteer guides while I got on with answering questions - lots and lots of questions - from the public!

There was an Exotic Food Fair happening as well, so we had a lot of visitors who had not been to Ryton before, and were not Garden Organic members, coming in to see what was happening. We had some really good conversations and I think we helped a lot of people with their queries about gardening.

There were all sorts of attractions going on, Alpacas being the most popular outside I think! (They were very lovely)

An Indian cookery demonstration, a talk on seed saving, demonstrations of various exotic foods which can actually be grown in the UK ( although you might not have thought so!) and tours of the new Exotic Garden at Ryton.

We had lunch in the excellent cafe and later, some very welcome tea (and scones for the two children)

I think it is a mark of what a terrific place Ryton is, that two 11 year olds were occupied and had fun for 5 hours there. They really enjoyed wandering around looking at the gardens, they LOVED The Vegetable Kingdom  and stroking the Alpacas, they thought the food was really good and the whole place was excellent. They did have electronic games with them which they played with towards the end of the afternoon for a little bit, while sitting under some trees waiting for me to tidy the stall away.)



Compostman also saw some of the things I have been talking about incorporating into our gardens here at Compost Mansion and, while he thinks most of it would cost too much/be too much work etc  - he CAN see the merit in some of what I have been saying so that is good ;-)

I had a chance to look around, with my family, during my breaks - and stroke an Alpaca :-)

Home for tea time having spoken to 45 people on the stall and handed out a lot of leaflets with advice and ideas.

A good day out - so please go, if you are in the neighbourhood - Ryton Gardens is open every day except Christmas Day, and admission is free if you are a Garden Organic member.

Next event is Apple Day on Oct 13th.

A visit to Wroxeter Roman City

As is traditional, August Bank Holiday Monday was wet. VERY wet indeed. So we decided to go out for the afternoon. Being members of English Heritage we decided to re-visit Wroxeter, a Roman city in Shropshire, near to Telford.

This was the reconstructed villa as seen is " Rome wasn't built in a day" on C 4. We saw it being built, on our last visit back in 2010 - the day we also went to Acton Scott.

This time, when we went the reconstructed town house was inhabited by re enactors " in period" and very good they were.

We had a really good day out at Wroxeter, despite the (traditional on a Bank Holiday in the UK) dreadful weather! We even sat in a shelter, eating our packed lunch and drank tea while the rain poured down outside. Ah traditions!  This reminded me of many an August Bank holdiday as a child, sitting with my parents and brother in our car or in a cafe, looking out over a deserted Welsh beach which was being lashed by Atlantic wind and rain :-)

The rain did stop though and we had a look around the rest of the site.


El looking through part of the Forum wall

The Baths

The sunken Calderium

After we left Wroxeter, we all went and had a nice meal in our local pub before heading for home. A good day out for all of us :-)

A walk in the woods.

 We decided to go for a wander around our woods to see what was happening in there - it has been so wet recently that we have not been doing very much in the wood, so when we had a nice sunny day we decided to have a trip "out" into the wood

We found lots of ferns growing, enjoying the extra moisture no doubt!

A very overgrown log circle! It is just cow parsley, but the wet weather has made it grow everywhere!

Compostman soon cleared some space with his scythe

while Compostgirl had fun up a tree :-)

I sat on a log and listened to birdsong

We then went a bit further down into the wood, and found this. It had been a bumblebee nest, sadly ( for the bees ) a badger had taken a fancy to it and dug it out. A solitary bumblebee was flying around, trying to get back in to the underground nest.

More ferns

Going back home

I love our wood

Sunday musings

Glorious weather here today, we got up a little later than usual ( we were all tired so had a lie in) Compostgirl made tea for us ( a first - she has made other hot drinks but tea is quite tricky with the kettle even with supervision) and also insisted on making me toast -I have not been very well and she wanted me to have breakfast in bed,  so who was I to spoil her plans?)

and we did a lot outside in the garden and also had a visit from some neighbours who buy eggs from us - they stayed and chatted about this and that for a bit.

Compostgirl cleaned out the guinea pigs and very proudly showed them off to our neighbours - the piggles are definitely getting friendlier with people!

We obviously stopped at 11 am to stand, and bow our heads and keep silent - thinking about all those who have died fighting.

Some interesting discussions with an nearly 11 year old Compostgirl about wars and morals and suchlike - some very interesting ideas came up!

Halloween/Samhain

The end of the old year and the start of the new year.

I have walked in the wood today and watched the leaves as they came whirling down, broken free from the tree by the wind to land on the ground and slowly return to the soil.

I caught a leaf as it fell through a shaft of sunlight and made a wish.

I spent today outside, tending to my plants and animals and family, weaving the threads of love and nurturing around them all to make them comfortable and secure.

I shall sit by the fire tonight, with candles lit, and think of all my loved ones, my friends and family, animal and people. Those I still see in life and those who have gone on before me.

Wishing you a thoughtful day.