A day with not much rain! So lots done in the garden.

Those of you who live in the UK will understand my title!

It had been raining here a lot lately. Unseasonably so. Torrential downpours and daytime temps of 10 C are NOT the norm for June in the Midlands. Having the woodburner lit at night is also not normal.

But today, finally, after 6 days of non stop rain - it stopped raining at lunchtime  and eventually the sun even came out!

My faithful henny shadow, Titch. she is missing her friend Tiny I think

I got so fed up with not getting on with outdoor stuff that I donned waterproofs and got working even though it WAS raining.

I put Tiny Hen into the Broody Ark so she could get some fresh air, eat some grass and generally chill out - because she followed me out of the house and down to the Ark, bless her! She looked a lot better this morning :-)




Cassi Cat standing guard over Tiny Hen


It rained in the morning, so I didn't take "before" pictures of the stuff I was doing - but after the rain stopped I took some " during" photos

Here is the composting area, in need of a lot of work.

Here is the Eglu and Compostman built run - all needs cleaning out and putting back together

So at first in the rain and then later on in the sunshine I got to work.

 A bit tidier, with Titch helping me !

I emptied and refilled all five of the compost bins in the picture - and spread the finished compost I extracted out on various beds.

 Eglu hooked back up to the run, cleaned out and re furnished. the run is re stocked with clean feeder and drinker, ready for the hens later on.




 


 3 Hen houses and runs all clean, sanitised and with clean feeders and drinkers. I love the smell of a clean hen house!

I ached all over after today's efforts, but I must admit I do feel better  for getting all that work done :-)

And Tiny hen helped put all the other hens to bed, and then followed me back to the barn and hopped into the Cat carrier, again - she obviously likes sleeping inside it in the house :-)

What I did on Tuesday, when it didn't rain!

Today it did NOT rain - so I got on with outdoor jobs - Compostman got out the mower for me and I  mowed everywhere, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spread the grass clippings around in the orchard to mulch out the weeds,  and piled the remainder  up awaiting time for me to put  into various compost bins

 

 The hen run and two houses have been cleaned out and disinfected, hen run wood chippings cleared out and composted, ground sanitised and more chippings added into the run, new dust bath areas procured in run from dry compost and wood ash, and the hens have all had a good cuddling session each and been wandering around the garden while I mowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The polytunnel plants are all watered, and I pricked out yet more more kale and purple sprouting broccoli seedlings,

 

Then I went and posted a couple of letters and admired some owl babies in a secret location nearby,
ate a  yummy dinner and now have settled down with a  book  (Catching Fire, part 2 of The Hunger Games trilogy) a glass of wine and and crochet.

Oh and I did some boring stuff today as well - housework-y stuff and bill paying-y stuff and washing-hanging-out-y stuff, but that is not really noteworthy!

It felt good to be working outside without a waterproof coat on, for a change.

Preparing for the new hens

 To get ready for the ex commercial flock hens we needed to sort out a secure run and house for them. As I do not know if they come with the terrible Red Mite attached, I decided to use the Eglu as the hen house - it can more easily be scrubbed and disinfected if the new girls DO bring any Red Mite - a wooden house is harder to get them gone!


So we removed the Eglu run and Compostman made up a link so the Eglu would fit onto his home made run. The Eglu run is not much use with new hens (who do not understand coming to humans for food) as you cannot get inside it to catch them or get dropped eggs etc. So we wanted to use the wooden run with the lift off roof - so if we needed to catch a hen we could do so .

All ready for the new girls :-) We can't wait until Sunday :-)

 

Moving back in to the sitting room...at last!

Cider making 2011

A busy couple of hours

 

saw us turn a lot more apples

into 75 l of will-be-cider-next-year

 

and a lot of pomace for the hens to eat and the compost bins to "convert"

Progress on sitting room refurbishment

So, we left this room with a new hearth and newly plastered chimney breast back in July - and now look at it at the end of August!

A lovely new wooden floor! and paint! and skirting boards! and no dirt!

We are still not back in the room at this stage, but it wasn't going to be much longer :-)

The plastic wrapped object is the new Burley Brampton woodburner, waiting to be installed - it was actually not installed until the begining of September ( a hint as to when we eventually moved back in to our main room)

And today I have been making.....

This!

it was really horrible out there today, but despite the rain, hail and sleet, I managed to make this willow structure, with help from children at the school and other members of staff.

All told we made 3 more today to add to the big one we made on saturday.

A roundhouse and two arbours ( mine is an arbour)

The children all had the chance to make some bit of at least one willow structure and also went and inspected the one the adults made at the weekend.

They can't wait for the willow to green up and be magical and shady.

I am going to make some similar structures in the wood as shelters. All good fun!

Fun filled Friday

I am off to a pre school messy play and environmental themed games session this morning which should be really good fun!

Later on this afternoon

Play session went well, it was for a pre school and toddler group near to me. So we played a run around game, sang a couple of action songs about birds, the children ( and adults!) made dens built with fabric (and imagination) we did some bark rubbing and a lot of painting on BIG sheets of paper( wow some of the smalls were really getting into imagining the "woodland" I had said the room had become...)

and then I told them the story of The Gruffalo (one of my all time favourite stories!) doing different voices AND with some soft toy re-enactment...you should have seen the little faces when I produced from behind my back a large Gruffalo soft toy, at the appropriate bit of the story....They all wanted to cuddle it as well..

I don't blame them as he is a rather lovely soft toy!

I love my work :-)

BUT I am now tired and looking forward to a rest, I have had no dizzy spells since Wednesday so I am hoping it has gone now, whatever it was. My foot is fine now as well, so this weekend I shall do no business work but instead plant seeds :-))

Thursday

Dizzy spells abating somewhat I am glad to report. They seem linked to ear ache so I am really hoping it is just that as I have SO MUCH work to do here, it is untrue. Both "work" work AND garden/hen/volunteer/compost/house etc work.

Am very glad I am feeling less giddy as it is going to be a Manic Day here, I have Eco club this afternoon for a paper casting and paper fabric making session, then when we finish at 5 pm and I help to clean up the mess I am off to the other side of Hereford to do a Risk Assessment seminar until late.

Tomorrow morning I am the attraction at a toddler and pre school session, lots of messy play, den building and bird related stuff will be happening. I have a story to tell them, with all sorts of embellishments and puppets and stuff..

I am having to load up the car for that session NOW, as I won't get time tonight.

All this is, if course, dependent on my dizzy spells staying away so fingers crossed etc

Later on after lunch.
Well have everything ready for this afternoon, notes prepped for this evening...and all the stuff ready to load for tomorrow.

See you all later!

Wednesday wonderings........

This time yesterday I was around for a cup of tea and a long natter to my friend Dandelion, a fellow Master Composter, and to meet Mr D and one of the Dandelion seedlings


In the morning I had been very busy, emptying compost bins and moving finished compost and filling leaf mould bins up, so I felt justified in skiving off for a few hours in the afternoon. It was a lovely day yesterday as well!
Today however it is VILE here, icy, wet and sleety, I have come in to thaw out and take on internal fuel, before venturing out into the polytunnel again...brrrrr

The internal fuel being pancakes for lunch here, not having managed to do them last night...and soup, a huge bowl of veg and lentil...mmmm should warm me up a bit!
 
Later on...( at 4 pm)
 
I have come inside in disgust as it is SO cold and wet outside that, even working in the polytunnel with gloves on, my hands are seizing up.....and it is already dark outside!

So I am sorting out the study instead.....Much warmer inside! I have also signed up to the RSPB Letter to the Future and done a few tweets, just for the fun of it...

Compostgirl is sitting by the fire and Compostman is up in the loft, laying down more insulation.

A day training as a Fire Marshal.....

Off on a Fire Marshall course today.....

Somehow I bet the weather changes and these were the two lovely gardening days, and then, when I am around again, the weather turns bad?
CM doing things in the loft and garden, CG last day at school before half term ( gulp)

Later on....at 5.30 pm

Am back from Fire course, now a certified Fire Marshal, so have a silver star on my chest and am armed and ready to rock and roll with an extinguisher....if this blog catches fire, I will sort it out!

Course was held at Anubis at Eaton Bishop, they are really good and excellent trainers who make all this stuff memorable, in a fun way.

Spent some time putting out pretend fires ( a large stone obelisk obliged by pretending to be the fire...) with all sorts of different types of extinguisher...Simon the Firefighter was brilliant and very kind and patient with those who were a bit concerned........he also took us in small groups into a smoke filled ( synthetic, safe to breathe...) room and we had to find our way out...glad I didn't have to do it for real as it was very unpleasant...

I am even more admiring of Firefighters, tbh...the idea of deliberately going into a building/situation, where you can't see for smoke and burning bits of stuff fall on you...to rescue total strangers...hmmm.......I might be brave enough to do something like that for my loved ones ..but I sure as hell don't think I am made of the sort of stuff to do that as a job....

Priority now is to shower and put ALL the clothes I was wearing in the wash....All my SMOKEY clothes from today smells disgusting, synthetic smoke is much worse than nice woodsmoke....yuck not an alluring smell..... .

Mastercrafts on TVtonight at 9 pm BBC2 Monty Don and heritage Crafts........lovely!

Been out all day, Went to Compostgirl's school for her class assembly, all about Planets, it was very very good and then we had coffee after and a look at their work...

then I went to spend rest of morning walking around Bromyard in company of amazing local history expert, doing another Trail ( similar to the one I was doing in Ledbury last week)

I took some photos and have written some clues, but need to get on with the rest of it and hand it over and get paid!
Then I went back home for a quick lunch and off out to a paper casting and paper fabric making session at Eco Club. The childen had a huge amount of fun doing this as it is not something they have done before. We talked about where paper comes from, it's history and how and why we recycle it.

I got back home about 6.30!

I then ate a meal, and read a book and watched "Only Connect" which we had recorded from the other day, both of us love this quiz and last night I got all the answers correct...perhaps I should go on the show? :-)

I have a busy day tomorrow, doing yet more training...should be much fun!

Sleep, sleep and more sleep!

Slept like a log last night, but felt curiously unrefreshed this morning...just wanted to go back to bed and get some more sleep!

And, as I had nothing scheduled for today and tomorrow, I did just that, for an hour or two.....and was woken up 3 hours later, at lunchtime!

I must have been even more exhausted, than I thought.....It has been a hard few weeks and the last few nights broken sleep plus all the work last week and yesterday, plus all the "normal" stuff here....has left me a bit worn out,.

I need to watch out for getting too low and going down with something again...don't want that to happen!

Later today I had  a flurry of emails about the next bit of the Teaching certificate...and a reminder it starts in less than 2 weeks...( groan) couldn't they give us at least one day off without reminding us  ?

I have had a nice evening cleaning out the Guinea pig, watching Suvivors ( what a load of old tosh...!)
and drinking nice glass of wine. I am off now to bed... early, to sleep some more!
 
Tomorrow I shall be busy in the garden, if the weather is kind.

CW does a happy dance of success!

Dear friends, am shattered, have today spent ALL day being assessed doing teaching AND assessing everybody else while THEY did THEIR teaching...very hard work indeed and had very poor night sleep last night ( fire alarm battery failed, so it kept on going "beep", then cat was sick on bed, then CM got up...)

so am shattered now...(6 pm)


at moment am sorting out what I need to do to finish my teacher training portfolio..if I do it NOW I will remember all the comments etc made today about what I need to do...if I leave it till tomorrow...I won't remember ANYTHING....(rolls eyes)

trouble is, am so knackered.   tired, I can't remember anything, anyway.....
 
later...( 10 pm)
 
It is wine time!
LOTS of wine time!

I have just finished my Teacher training (part 1) portfolio!.( hurrah!)

Today was very hard work, but it is over now and I have finished my portfolio!!! (CW does a happy dance around her study)

I now have 2 clear weeks until I start the next part of the teaching stuff.....so I can get on with LOADS of outdoor stuff ( if the weather gods are kind to me...)

AM a very happy CW, tonight :-)

Sunshine and twiggery

Its been a lovely day here today,

My day started well, with a meeting in my "office" ...a walk around the wood with a prospective client (grin)

I then spent a pleasant hour walking around Ledbury taking photos and thinking up clues for a trail I have been commisioned to write.....so got to have a wander around a historic market town, in the sunshine and get paid for it...my kind of work...!

Then had lunch out in pub with Cm.

This afternoon I have been making twig hearts and stars and writing a lesson plan and tutorial sheet on how to make them, for a class I am teaching next week.

Also let the hens out to have a wander in the sunshine, I stayed close by and kept an eye open for the Fox. The feathery ladies seemed very pleased to be out of the runs!

Catch up post about work in November....

It has been manic here dear friends, simply manic!

I am curently doing an adult teaching qualification and it is great fun but hard work and very time consuming! I have also been very busy with getting lots of paying work to do...which is wonderful BUT all this takes me away from doing other stuff...like blogging!

I have managed to find time to post about really important stuff (the loss of poor Sid puss, for example) but the everyday stuff you all seem to like so much, about hens, cats, garden, work...I have had no time..

AND I have ( sigh) been ill or incapacitited AGAIN..yes, my rubbish immune system has let me down and I have been poorly for weeks after getting swine flu...it is a nasty flu tis true, but no worse than other flu....which means it leaves you feeling terrible for several weeks...I basically "lost" most of October as I was too ill to do more than the minimum chores around Compost Mansions and I had to cancel a number of things I really wanted to do!

ANYWAY...here are a few pictures of some things I got up to in November...

I had several trips to what I am rapidly thinking of as my spiritual home..the Worcester Scrapstore...

This time I got lots of ribbon and assorted stuff to use in my recycled Seasonal craft workshop....which I ran during Novemeber.




10 adults attended and made some lovely wreaths from both recycled and natural materials ,

as well as twig wands and stars and music scroll tree decorations.





I really enjoyed teaching them stuff and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves, which was nice for me! The next 2 courses I am running are already fully booked, anyway, so I must be doing something right.

A very busy half term holiday

As well as having fun with Compostgirl, I spent the half term holiday week leading up to Samhain/Halloween working with groups of children on various seasonal craft activities...mainly involving pumpkins ( now there's a surprise!)







All told I have been involved, one way or another, with the carving of 54 pumpkins, over the last 5 days in October.....



On one of my days off working we went round to see our very good friend M and her 2 lovely children for the day, we had lunch, the children played, M and I chatted and we carved ( you guessed it!) pumpkins!



Here is Compostgirl carving pumpkins with her friends.



The craft sessions I ran also involved lots of glue and glitter and orange paint





And lots of bats and spiders, of course!

I DO like my work :-) (even though it took a very long time to wash out all the glue and glitter in my hair.....)

but I think I will give pumpkin a miss for a few days...... :-))

Visit to the Scrapstore and some things I have made....

I had a trip to the Scrapstore in Worcester last Friday. I am running various recycled material based craft workshops over the next few months, so I needed to stock up on supplies. I went with my friend S, who I run Eco Club with, and we had a very successful time over there!

The Worcestershire Resource Exchange ( aka Scrapstore) is very well run, clean, tidy, well thought out and with loads of really good items for the bargin price of a trolley load for £10 ish, if you are a member. membership is worth while if you go more than once or twice a year!





I got lots of material ribbon and also lots of plastic ribbon







I turn the ribbon into recycled material wreaths or weavings like this



I also use paper packaging strips as weaving materials in my workshops with children, here is something made from paper packaging, which looks rather nice I think?





I also got an amazing whiteboard/A1 flipchart board for only £5!! They retail at about £100!

I am running some Bat and Spider based workshops over the half term break in October, which is the week before Halloween/Samhain, so I have come up with some simple craft ideas for the children to make, on the theme of bats and pumpkins and spiders and suchlike...We shall be playing some games and talking about bats and spiders and why they are so important and such a Jolly Good Thing.











Compostgirl is helping me test out the various designs to make sure they are "do-able" for her age group...

I hope the participants have as much fun making these items as I have done :-)