Christmas potatoes

In the late Autumn, to make use of one of the newly made raised beds, we planted Charlotte seed potatoes, 9 in all, although one was small and did not thrive well.

Due to the warm weather the greenery grew fast and high and outstripped my efforts to earth up the sides. Once the colder weather came along, the potato growth was covered in fleece to help protect the plants.

By the time we had arrived back from China, the growth had all died down, some taken by frost and some died back naturally.

Today I thought I would see if any potatoes actually grew from the seeds- the first plant (the runty one) yielded a few small ones, and as I worked my way along the row more and slightly larger ones came to light.

By the end there were enough to have a meal of new potatoes with the family over Christmas.

                                                       Trug of potatoes fresh from the garden.

So the experiment was worth it!

Scenes from China

A few key pictures from the China trip.

The route we took- 21 days in total

The weather was expected to be cool to cold, instead it was warm and humid in the South, Cooler in the Middle and very cold in the North of China by the time we got to Beijing.

Guillin featured in the HSBC advert with the Cormorant fishing - it was a misty day when we sailed down the Li  river. The river was very shallow as the rainfall in the rainy season was not as much as normal.

Some of the Karst scenery on the Li River

We had a delightful time in Yanshuo the town at the end of our Li river cruise. It is a backpacker mecca and many westerners have settled there.

Chengdu is the home of the Panda sanctuary, where Panda numbers have been increased by artificial insemination as Pandas in the wild breed very rarely being very solitary animals.

Panda without a care in the world.

The highlight of Xi'an is the Terracotta warriors. Part of a mausoleum built for the first Emperor of the United China, Emperor Qin, the warriors are his army in the after life. When first discovered they were vivid in colour with lifelike painting on their body, armour, faces and hands etc. but this faded quickly. Once this was discovered then excavation stopped and it is estimated there are another 6000 or so to still be found. All of them are damaged by a destructive peasant revolt, a fire and the ravages of time, so none are complete and have to be re-built from fragments. Every face is different and so far about 1600 have been uncovered.

Just one of the many warriors found.

In Beijing came Tienanmen square, the forbidden city and outside the city, The Great Wall- first started by Emperor Qin.

Tienanmen square and Forbidden City gate picture

Great Wall and the final tower on a long climb- took 1.5 hours to get this far- only 40 minutes to get back- would have been quicker back but very slippery.

There were many other amazing sights- took 1700 photo's and some video, so plenty still to work through.

Back from China

No posts since November 11th as we set off to China for 3 weeks and no Internet access. What a great place to see- Travelled 5000 km from Shanghai to Beijing passing through Chengdu and the Panda sanctuary and Xi'an , home of the Terracotta warriors and ending on the Great Wall neear Beijing. Just started to download the pictures , so a selection will appear soon.

Memories - make sure you write them down.

Today is a day of remembrances. Both E's and my fathers served in the 2nd World War, mine at sea on an air-craft carrier as a meteorologist, E's was land based in the medical corps. Both of them ended up in similar places, one from the sea and one across continents, Asia, Africa and Southern Europe.

Both came through uninjured, but not unscathed.

E's dad had constant nightmares, so routine that it took a stint away from home for E to realise when she got back that her dad did have nightmares nightly, as he would call out in his sleep.

Mine refused to talk about his experiences- he would answer direct questions like "did you have Kamikaze dive bombers attack your aircraft carrier?" "Yes" was his reply and that was all he would say - he did not collect his campaign medals after they were issued, and eventually my mother made him write in the 1950's and ask for them to be sent to him. I have them now- but I never saw them until he died in his 70's, and my mother passed them on to me.

A curious heirloom we do have was from my paternal grandfather, who fought in the First World War and did a stint in Africa, building roads and bridges. He had a photo of him sitting in what must have been a tribal chieftains grand chair, with two native Africans, in costume, standing either side of him that was taken during this period.

He died when I was twelve so I really did not hear anything much about his experiences, but again when my mother was in hospital before she to passed away, she gave us a silver pocket watch which my grandfather gave to her for safe keeping, reckoning that she would look after it better then the rest of the family. It actually was not given to him directly and we don't know the story behind it, how did it come to him, although through genealogy channels and a regimental archive, I have tried to find out.
The watch is very identifiable as it is inscribed "To the best shot in the Regiment" dated 1899 and presented by the Colonel in Chief of the regiment, and had the name of a private engraved upon it. It turns out this was during the Boer War era and finding the privates service record in The National Archives, it was whilst in South Africa that he was awarded it. The trouble is , we don't know how, or if , this private was related to us. It remains a mystery even now.

My maternal Grandfather had what is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder now, but was called shell shock after the First World War. Mother would tell of how, if there was a loud noise outside, say a car backfiring, he would shout "down, under the table" to them, and they would all have to dive for shelter under the table- it so affected him that he eventually took his own life in 1933.

What I would dearly have loved to do was know something about all these men's experiences, and my mothers and grandmothers experiences- it is only when you realise how little you know, or not remember if you were told in the first place, that you realise it is important to record the memories, on paper or tape/film, so that future generations have access to them.

I have in the last few years been researching my family history as best as possible, and found links to relatives all over the world, who are willing to share information and pictures etc in return for what you also know that they did not, so I have more idea of what they did and where they went, but not the stories that go with those recorded facts.

I was fortunate to not be called to do service for the country- National Service was phased out when  I was still at school, so I don't have any idea what it involved myself.

The upshot is that I will be recording my life in some way to pass on as well for others to have (if they are interested to know that is!)

Don't delay- preserve your Blogs and other online stuff as it disappears from the web if you stop contributing, also get you life story down on whatever media works best for you.

Been busy..

Busy time since last posting. Working on developing my mosaic project- on the fiddly stage now, background fill in.

We need an area in the garden for a cold frame and storage that is out of the way, but easy to get at. Decided to put together a honeycomb layout using some six sided paving stones that were the old path stepping stones- will be making a new path in a different place at some time.

Began the preparation of the area ear-marked, it is where four leylandii were before getting the chop, and partially dug over- so many fine and not so fine roots to dig up, and four stumps to deal with. Decided to leave the stumps but grind them down a bit using the chainsaw, which worked, but was quite an effort to do.

Then came the final dig over prior to levelling and I came across a hard object a few inches down- another rock/stone I thought as there were plenty in this area. However it turned out to be a sewer drain cover right beneath the area I was going to cover over.

Over the years this had disappeared under the Leylandii as they grew, and subsequently got buried with debris from needle fall and soil movement and was now 4 or 5 inches below the current soil level.
So next task was to reveal the drain cover, prize it off and inspect the inside for possible root intrusion.

It was a bit corroded but luckily once opened up , no internal damage was done by the trees, but one of the stumps was hard up against the drain.

Decided to raise the sides of the inspection chamber, duly sourced some ready to use mortar, some bricks recycled from the garage wall when we removed an in situ oil tank many years ago. ( I knew they would come in useful one day!) and added another layer of bricks- two layers would have been to much, one was not enough.
After a day to set, installed the frame of the cover - sat on a generous layer of mortar and left to set. (Also covered over with a board to keep the dog out- she is very nosy!).

So after several days of unexpected industry, got to lay the slabs, but not in the pattern originally envisage, had to work around the drain.

Looking out the window just now I can still clearly see the old path outline as there are a series of half metre wide areas of bright green where new grass seed was used to re-grass the leveled holes left by the slabs- it looks quite cheerful. The rest of the lawn is mostly moss and native ground hugging plants- due to the hedges blocking out sunlight, parts of the lawn died back and the ground huggers crept in.

A bonus to that is less grass cutting, the downside is it dies back quickly in summer. But that's a job for next year.

Broad and dwarf beans are now popping through in the raised beds, need protection from the munchies brigade, so fleeced over, but had to resort to slug pellets in the end, as a few mysteriously disappeared overnight.

Potatoes are snug in a tent fleece- looks like a huge moth cocoon on top of the raised bed- shades of the body snatchers! Hoping they will last till Christmas.

Just finished the Village Newsletter- it is a joint production between E and I with a committee setting out the content- got delayed waiting for some info- it should have been out prior to 1st November, but is being handed out to distributors toady so not to late thankfully.

Pea sticks and other animals

A few weeks back we planted winter pea plants, variety Twinkle, and with this warm weather recently, they have started growing well- so well in fact that they are twining themselves together. According to the label that came with the mini pea plants, they are self supporting if planted in a block together.
This certainly seems to be their habit from observation, but they are also pulling each other over, so we decided to put in pea sticks, which are tall twigs, to allow the peas to climb- they should reach 50cm in height when fully grown.

We were going to go to a local hedgerow and see what we could scavenge, but remembered that the hedge at the edge of the green, which was cut in such a way that the stems were bent over in an interwoven style, by being  partially cut through, and this allows side shoots to form and grow upwards.
Normally these shoots are trimmed back by the local authority to maintain a neat height, but not been done yet, so these became the source of our pea twigs.

Now we have a little forest of twigs sticking up from the raised bed, looking like they are ready to repel any invader. Hopefully the peas will begin to climb these instead of each other.

Whilst walking to the hedge, we had to stop and pick up more walnuts. The last few weeks or so has seen many of the walnuts falling off the trees (four of them) at different stages. Each tree has a different walnut size or shape. Currently we are finding mostly large walnuts, but another tree is dropping very small smooth shelled nuts, and another has medium sized nuts with an orangy tint to the shell.

We collect them  to use for cooking - to make cakes to raise money for the local church, but we especially collect them to prevent the squirrels burying them in our lawn and flower beds. We have had a squirrel invasion twice in our roof before now- but I have worked on plugging the gaps over the years to stop them getting in- seems to have worked in the last few years. They hang around our area precisely because of the plentiful supply of food.

The squirrels have poor memories, so often don't dig the buried walnuts up- some are found by rooks and crows, but many start to sprout and grow and if they get a toe-hold, can be very difficult to dig up as they throw out a long tap root which makes pulling them or digging them up a chore.

Rosie had a pleasant surprise this morning on her walk- a cat ran across her path, that always get her excited, followed closely by a monkjac deer- not sure if the two were connected, or just both spooked by an approaching dog. Luckily she was on her lead, as she pulled me along in an attempt to get to one or both. The deer must have jumped the gate to the cemetery as it was long gone, and the cat did what cats do and disappeared.

Also in the garden today, was covering the potato plants with fleece in an attempt to stop them getting frosted- they were supposed to grow and be ready for Christmas harvesting, but the warmer weather has made them grow rapidly and despite constant earthing up, the growth has exceeded the capacity to protect them with soil anymore.

And to round it out daffodil bulbs have gone in to the front garden beds ready to give a show of colour next year.

Cave Canem

Means roughly, "Beware of the Dog".

This is the subject for my mosaic project- all the lessons are learnt, now to make something of my own choice.
First saw Cave Canem in Pompeii, in an early spring holiday to Piano Sorrento, in the south of the bay of Naples. Using the Circumvesuviana train, Pompeii can be reached quite easily.

Whereas we would put up a sign on our gate to say beware of the dog, the Pompeians and other Romans, had a mosaic depiction of a dog and the Cave Canem warning, in the entrance to the property.
I chose to use as an inspiration, a similar, but easier to construct mosaic from the Isle of Capri.

here is a picture of the dog - made of pre-cut marble tiles, ready for the background tiles to be laid and the words to be created and grouted to finish it off.

As you can see - it is a stylised dog. I did not know until using marble for the first time , that although you can cut the tiles using the nippers we use for other tiles, it takes more effort and the resulting cut tile shape is unpredictable as they shatter easily. This meant that I did not cut many of the tiles (also had just about enough to make the shape so scared to waste them) just laid them in as flowing a way as possible, so in some places there are some weird gaps. Still it should look OK when grouted.
The dog is wearing a reddish brown collar and will have a lead attached as well.

We have next week's session and a follow up session after half- term if needed  to finalise the mosaic.

Today finished the mowing strip around the lawn, so that was good- the lawn looks neater in having the edge, and also a more defined shape as when it was seeded in the spring, we made it a little wider than the original lawn that this replaced, to allow for trimming later.

Lawn edging update

As we are struggling to find a fence colour we like to re coat the now much longer fence and then find enough of the one we chose (it is end of season for this type of thing so shelves are de-stocked) the Lawn Edging has begun.

The blocks I brought home a few weeks back were accusing me of neglect, and as the days looked to stay mainly dry where I am, the job commenced.

Following the advice of the interweb, I bought sharp sand and am using up the rest of the weed suppressant cloth (used on the raised beds earlier in the year) to line the mini trench that needs digging for the sand and then the blocks to go on top. The trench was dug 10cm or so deep and filled to about 8 cm or so with the sand. Blocks placed on top were truly embedded, level with the grass surface, using a wooden mallet - using a nylon cord and pegs to get a straight edge.

However, the OH indoors came out and told me the line looked a bit off straight and asked if I had measured from the edge of the drive when I set out the nylon cord. "Of course" I replied, but on re-checking I was a centimetre out at one end- it is interesting how we can notice such a small deviation from the straight line!
So a quick lever with the spade was enough to line the blocks up to both our satisfaction.

Doing it in stages as there is a lot of kneeling down to do - however as with all things it is getting quicker to do each stretch as a routine begins to develop. The lawn is roughly square, but has a rectangular protrusion in to the soil area in it to allow access to a fruit bed and also at another  point there is a gentle curve where the lawn runs around some existing trees and shrubs. The straight bits are fairly OK, (once they are set out correctly!) and just on to the curved bit now and so far so good.

As I mentioned the fairly dry weather above, it started to rain, the sort of mizzly rain which soaks you through as you work, so eventually come indoors to write this -it may not stop until tomorrow if the forecasters have it correctly predicted.

Spherical Balls!

No not that sort - but three dimensional objects to use for a mosaic exercise.

This weeks mosaic lesson was on how to create a design on a three dimensional object - we had a clay flower pot and a polystyrene ball to cover.

As part of covering the flowerpot we had to provide a plate of some sort to break and use as some of the covering tile work. If there was a small design on the plate, it could be cut out and used on the flower pot. Not too easy as it was a crude hammer job to start off with and then the finishing cutting could begin.

Of course being mostly flat the pieces from the plate could not be to big as they would stand proud of the curved surface, shame I did not realise that before nearly finishing!

Grouting this next week will be very interesting, lots of sticky out edges to make neat (hopefully) Still I departed from my usual line everything up properly approach that I have been doing and left big gaps between the pieces and a random layout.

Our other challenge was to cover a spherical surface with tiles or beads- this time it needs to look neat or it will truly be a mess.

We started the lesson by looking at the mosaics from last week, sorting our pieces of now fired glazed ceramic  and learning the new techniques.

We had all been to enthusiastic with the clear silicone adhesive to stick our last weeks glass pieces, so all the gaps were filled with the adhesive and no room for the grout.  The solution, pick out the excess rubbery adhesive with a dentists tooth pick. Luckily we could take this away and work on it at home( and very tedious it was to)

Then it was back to the concrete slab we made and a chance to remove the sand from what is now the top surface of the piece and grout the article. Then they were wrapped again to continue curing for another week.

As usual I was a bit behind some of the others and only just started the first row of the ball - you have to start at the circumference , which on these balls is easy as there is a mould join line all the way around.

As soon as the lesson was finished it was off to Birchanger to meet up with some of my ex colleagues as one of them was leaving the company. As they had been there since about 12-15ish  and I couldn't get there before 1pm, it was a short greeting and meeting time, as they, unlike me, had the pressures of work to drive them back to the office and calls or other tasks to get back to.

I definitely don't miss that aspect. However there may be a little, or not so little task for me to help with , so I should see them again soon one way or the other.

Over the weekend, worked on the ball again to make it ready for grouting as below

Blast from the Past!

It is funny what a simple reminder from the past can do to conjure up memories.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from an ex work colleague from the 1980's/1990's telling me his daughter had found in an old box in storage a video tape labelled, caution X-rated film- with my name on the label. Naturally she was curious about it's content.
The e- mail was copied to the POKS group which was an acronym for Pride of Kent Society - a loose association of colleagues and ex colleagues derived from the days we all worked in West London and a local pub was called The Kent, and they served Fullers London Pride beer, which we imbibed sometimes.

The video in question was from an outward bound team building week in Betwys Y Coed in Wales  in the late 1980's and as part of the team building we carried out certain tasks one of which was to make a video. We were given two expensive video tape cameras, of the over the shoulder size, and no instructions, so we had to figure out how they worked as well as make a film.
The problem was that if you stopped the recording and then started again, the camera re- wound the tape a fraction and the last part of the previous shot was lost. One of our scenes involved a dramatic rescue from the river but the pesky camera kept cutting off part of the shot. One of the team had to plunge in to the river 6 times before we got a good shot of the rescue.

As it was March the river was very cold, so once on the dry land he stripped off all his clothes ( he was a bit of an exhibitionist) and this was caught on film- so it was kept on the video.

This video when complete was circulated around the team for them to take home to show the family/partners etc when we returned, and I was the guardian of the tape- as it turned out is stayed in one place since then and as we all went different ways it was forgotten about.

Of course these days the video presents a problem, many of us will have gone to DVD or Blue Ray players and probably got rid of the video tape equipment - so one of the team will get it transferred hopefully- it will be strange to see what we were like about 20+ years ago.

We did all sorts of things that were given as challenges, some by the course leaders and some as individuals challenges within the team set by the teams themselves. Such as  bursting in on the local village school and taking over a class ( the teacher was very flexible and let us do it -  would we get arrested these days?) and a story reading session ensued.

One night we had to sleep on the top of Moel Shabod, a small mountain, in just survival bags, no tents, and were woken up by a herd of sheep that were a bit annoyed that we were on their grazing patch- this was before dawn, so we had the lovely view as we came down off the mountain of the sun rising and driving off the mist in the valley, as we walked down for a great and welcome cooked breakfast.

It was a very memorable week in many ways.

Mowing strip

We created a new lawn which earlier in the year to rejuvenate the front garden after house extension work last year.
A neighbour suggested putting a mowing strip around the garden edge to define the lawn edge and make it easy to mow the lawn to the edge as well.
Good idea we thought.

Just returned from Wickes with 130 driveway style blocks and some sharp sand to bed them in.

Using the ancient trailer (that has been on various camping holidays in the past when our children were children and not adults,  has had three paint makeovers to match various car colours, and has had all the wooden sides replaced and extended upwards once, and had "new" rubber indespension units fitted about 20 years ago) I managed to get them back home without mishap.

Looking up lawn edging / mowing strip on the InterWeb I came across a helpful guide at www.pavingexpert.com/edging4.htm which shows how easy it is to do.

I will do this bit by bit as other projects allow- such as the lean to shed.

Once started on the roof replacement, I decided to replace the cladding. I had used some thin cladding about 8 tears ago as thicker was more costly, but it was a false economy really. The cladding shrank and warped, so let water in at times, and it looked poor. So off to my local hardware store to buy new cladding. They had slightly fewer lengths of T&G wood than I needed, but I bought all they had. So assuming they would have more, went back after a few days to find the stock had not been replenished.
As I had used up all I bought, I tried searching other sources, a local timber merchants was closed on Saturday afternoon so can't ask them until Monday.

The Wickes I went to has something similar, but not in long enough lengths, so went back to original hardware store and asked if they were getting more in- "try later next week" came the not very reassuring reply.

Oh well. will keep looking and hope one of the possibilities comes off.

Apprentice piece and garden update

Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.

Last week attended the first of a one morning a week mosaic/craft course lasting 6/7 weeks (depending on the speed of the person in producing the finished articles)

Last week involved cutting up shapes from a clay sheet to be used in a future project, and making a small mosaic piece. The subject was compulsory, it had to be a heart on a wall tile base.

We all had different skills and knowledge, so some completed the preliminary design and some, like me, had to finish off at home.
The picture below shows the mosaic at the point of taking it home.

A week later allowing for an interruption to re-roof the lean to shed at the rear of the garage due to UV induced plastic fatigue, you can see the finished article.

I could tell I was a bit short on practice as I had difficulty cutting tiles in to even squares to fill in the background area.

This week it was glazing the pieces of bisque fired clay so that they could be fired again to produce a transparent glaze seal so the pieces could be used later.
Also a chance to use marble tiles al la roman mosaics using the reverse method, tiles are laid face down and using a frame to act as a mould, concrete is poured over the back of the tiles so that when released and turned over, the image can be seen.

Also a quick and cheerful small reverse mosaic using colourful small glass tiles and clear silicon adhesive to be stuck on to a glass pane, again when turned over the final image is revealed.

We have moved forward on planting up the raised beds.
The potatoes planted for a hopeful Christmas crop have shoots just peeping above the soil level. once grown a bit and before any frost, they will be earthed up progressivly so they occupy a bed of their own. We found at the local nursery, overwintering peas- initially it looked like a dozen or so, but once tipped out of the plastic tray they turned out to be nearer three dozen little pea plants. These have gone in staggard rows about six inches apart and are sharing with the rhubard plants.

Meanwhile the slugs or snails managed to eat all but a few brassica plants, so new ones were acquired and are firmly under a mesh covered cloche with slug pellets around them ( no birds or other animals should be able to get to them as the ends of the cloches are firmly sealed and the mesh pegged down.)
They are sharing the bed with the leeks and chives.

This leaves one last bed that will have dwarf french beans and also broad beans sown from seed to overwinter for next years crop - the planting is imminent..

Hotter update

Well, discovered yesterday that draining the central heating system also turns the boiler off- DoH!

I should have figured that out beforehand- it was only when E said that she had to re-adjust the manual shower to get more warmth that the penny dropped - The low water level detector had shut it down.

So hastily turning off the power to boiler and pump I switched the "Water Otter"  (immersion heater) on to give us hot water. Luckily both washing machine and dishwasher are cold fill only.

Today started to fill the system again, spanners, hose for emergency system drainage etc. to hand in case of leaks. I was pleasantly surprised that neither radiator sprung leaks- considering there were nine new joints per radiator that could have leaked, I was lucky.

Will restart the boiler today and hope no damage was done.
Addendum 14th Sept. Phew- boiler had a secondary overheat trip switch which needed re-setting and off it went, heating side Pump tested as well to check for air blockage, needed bleeding then nice hot radiators emerged!

Next job, replace a leaking fitting in the caravan water syetem, new piece arrived yesterday.

Thursday sees me off to a new mosaics/ceramics course which I booked back in May- time flies!

Hotter still.

Over the weekend I  purchased two replacement radiators and new valves for two cold areas in the house, one in the bathroom and one in a now larger hall since the house extension was built.

The bathroom on cold wintery nights can get cold quickly as it is partly in the roof space, i.e. in a dormer window situation, and there is only a layer of plasterboard to prevent heat loss. I did put loft insulation at the back of the plasterboard and that helped, plus loft insulation under the bath as well which helped again. However, you could be sitting in the bath and below the waterline was nice and toasty, but above that the air could get distinctly chilly with goose bumps on the arms.

The new entrance had a radiator in it, but was not giving out enough heat to keep a reasonable temperature.

Having drained the water from the system, I proceeded to remove the radiators, take off the old wall hangers and replace with the new ones and hang the radaitors in position.

I thought I would be clever and buy double radiators to replace the single ones. However this gave two problems, one, the fittings did not line up with the old pipework on either radiator as they were wider , and two, the entrance hall door bangs on the new radiator which is thicker than the old one so the door does not open absolutly wide as it should.

"We" decided we could live with the door not quite opening, but I had to go back to the DIY store and buy extra fittings to try and line the old pipe up with the new radiator by making an "S" shaped  joint assembly. This meant I had to dig out my old gas brazing kit and try and remember how to solder to get a waterproof joint. The first one I forgot to coat with flux so that two of the three solder areas were fine, but the third leaked when I pressure tested it (hose pipe and a removable cap over the assembley to fill with water under pressure.)

The next four fittings ( a pair per radiator) went OK once I remembered the flux!

I am joining the pipework today and waiting until tomorrow to start re-filling the system with water again. Hopefully by fitting new valves etc. I should have a leak proof system, but just in case I want to make sure that it is daytime in case an emergency dash is needed back to the DIY store.

More news anon!

"Slogin"

On our recent caravan holiday break we came across a really bounteous discovery of a blackthorn tree, absolutely loaded with sloe berries- more than we have ever seen in one place.

In a lane only used by golfers and caravan owners there were blackberries and sloe berries , the former were eaten with local cooking apples and the latter picked to turn in to sloe gin (or "slogin" as it is known in our household.) or maybe sloe vodka.
I fancy also fermenting some of the sloes as I understand that also makes a grand drink when mixed with higher strength alcohol.

The picking of sloes, which would normally take me some time to do locally to my own house, took mere minutes in this case. I only had to brave a guard of stinging nettles and avoid being tangled in bindweed as well, and I had probably a kilo of berries.

As I finished picking I thanked the tree for its bounty and left plenty for other pickers, feathered, furred or not, to enjoy.

Back home now, so Plan A) sloe gin is about to commence, Plan B) the fermenting of some sloes will follow, and if enough sloes are left, Plan C) sloe vodka!

This break was near the sea and Rosie's first experience of the seaside.

On her lead she was a bit wary of the water lapping at her feet, but once we were on a permitted dog beach and let her off, she charged in and attacked the sea at high speed, before running out and bounding round to go back and bite it again.

She liked running after stones thrown for her, but did not like the sand in her mouth and kept dipping her head in to rock pools to rinse it out!

As Rosie is a Springer Spaniel and Staffordshire cross, she can accelerate rapidly and dash off at high speed, so we made sure she was in a safe area, free from other dogs and people,  so that she could run freely and not interfere with others.

Back at home, we carried on planting up the raised beds, the green manure that was dug in, has completely disappeared in to the soil apart from a few harder mustard stalks, so it was easy to work with.
Two rhubarb crowns went in, one a rescued crown from a nearly dead plant- this is the granddaughter of one we bought and grew about 25 years ago, and has been moved from Buckinghamshire to Perth and Kinross and now to here- it was down to a spindly root, the rest had rotted away due to competition from shrubs and weeds.

 It was a prolific plant in the past with giant sticks of sweet and tender "fruit" but the original name has long been forgotten by us, we also bought a new plant just in case the rescued one did not survive, luckily both are OK so we have two varieties to choose from next season.

Also planted are some potatoes hopefully to be eaten at Christmas- they will need some TLC as it gets colder.

Some leaks and a divided clump of chives have gone in - unfortunately the brassica plants have succumbed to slugs/caterpillars when we were away, so we will have to obtain some more plants and make sure they are better protected in future.

I am determined to sow some autumn hardy vegetables, so will be doing that very soon- I think carrots can be successfully grown and their are others that grow quickly as well- so here's hoping!

Hedgerow Bounty

I feel the touches of Autumn in the air today. This could be because it is damp and overcast, or it could be that nature is in advance of itself this year.

As part of the walk pattern for Rosie, one route takes us down Church lane which peters out in farmland and a bridleway which leads over to the next community.

Along the first part of the pathway is a mixed hedgerow that contains all sorts of fruits, flowers and trees.
Elder, which yields two bounties, the elderflower in late spring and just now, the elderberries.

There are stone fruits such as wild plum and most years a few hop vines have worked their way in amongst the trees and bushes but I have not seen any this year.

Blackberries/bramble berries are just ripening now and sloe berries are turning a purplish blush colour. These last two and maybe the elderberries will be used to make bramble jelly, sloe gin or sloe vodka and the elderberries may end up as juice, a flavouring for gin or vodka or fermented in to wine.

If we proceed a bit further up the path, there is an opening in the hedgerow that leads along a short path to the edge of the river Lark. (Rosie likes to splash in the shallows, but does not like to swim!)
Here, on a bend in the river, schoolchildren used to bathe in times past as part of the school day, and grain was transported upriver to be offloaded here to take to the Malting along the same dog walk path, which although over grown now, still shows traces of its former track width.

There are all sorts of wild creatures about this area, swans, ducks, moorhens on the river, lapwings, skylarks, swifts swallows and house martins and the usual more common birds flying about. A Red Kite was spotted a few months back, and Rosie and I bumped in to a Monkjac deer one day- they are small deer , usually timid, and have an unfortunate habit of dashing across the road without looking, which causes a few near accidents with cars- this one ran off at a rate of knots.

A few weeks ago I was visiting Cambridge and used the Newmarket road Park and Ride site to catch a bus in to the centre. Around the perimeter of the car park is what looks like an ancient hedgerow as it  contains a mixture of trees, shrubs and bushes, but this was planted when the car park was constructed not that long ago, and here there are sloes aplenty (blackthorn bushes) so I might foray there at some time for sloes as well.

A hedge to far?

It was time to tackle the second hedge in the garden- if anything more overgrown than the first one, and bounding the neighbours garden.
Duly bought a large board as per earlier post to mimic the professional technique of working forward on top of the hedge using the board as a support. It worked for about three feet, then came the gap with just a few spindly branches, before the next thick trunk.  Not a safe system- so the board the professionals used must have been very big indeed to span the gaps.
Went back to old system, ladders braced against one side, a bit of praying to ensure no slips, and the occasional lean over the void with chainsaw in hand to get at branches beyond normal reach. In the end managed to get everything cut down to the old height and only dropped two pieces of cutting over my neighbours boundary.

Well I said all of it, except for the bit that had what looked like an old abandoned pigeons nest in it (hard to tell when they are haphazardly built in the first place). Having done a visual check for absence of any baby pigeon I proceeded to hack the branches away to be surprised by a pigeon flying in and landing on the nest and settling down.

I proceeded to cut further along, she flew off and I checked from a higher perch (pun intended) and spotted a single egg. At this point there was little remaining of the top growth so I thought it might be abandoned, but not a bit of it, once I had done with the last of the hedge, the pigeon was back, settled down and has been there since, so the hedge top is flat except for two long upright branches with a contented mother sitting in it. Hopefully in about three weeks I can finish the job on both hedges ( 10 day old baby in the other hedge awaiting its fledging also)

Then came the fun bit- transporting the debris to the recycling center. As most of the cuttings were 6 to 10ft long, they had to be reduced in size to fit the trailer- a case of tendonitus later and I was ready to take it to the center, however the weather had other ideas- after the second load it rained very heavily so I decided as I was already wet I might as well carry on, so after the 4th load I was wet to my skin and needed a good warming bath to recover.
I am mightily relieved it is done and aim to keep it well trimmed in the future- looking to get an extendable hedge trimmer to do the job in future.

Fan club of Rosie

As a break from hedge cutting  E and I decided this morning to go to the Heavy Horse and Country Show on Rede Farm near Bury St Edmunds raising money on behalf of the Millennium Farm Trust.

This was after waiting for a Bosch engineer to call (we were told anytime between 7am and 3pm) to look again at our dishwasher- it was part of a recall notice a few weeks ago, when it had a new control board fitted. Since then it got progressively worse at cleaning.
It turns out that some of the internal pipework was clogging up and the fault was probably unrelated to the original recall. However as a goodwill gesture Bosch did not charge us for the call ( and we got the blockages cleared as well).

The Millennium Farm trust was founded in the Autumn 1996. With the aim of providing adults with learning disabilities work and training opportunities in farming, conservation and rural skills within Suffolk. Initially the work was on farms in Suffolk, but since 2004 has been based on a section of Rede farm and also at Old Hall near East Bergholt from 2003 to 2008.

Wherever we go we come across members of the Fan Club of Rosie, and this was no exception. As she is a staffy/springer spaniel cross she has an attractive chestnut coloured coat which is short haired and gleams in the sun. She has a friendly face and attracts everybody's attention. Of course with the cross of staffy and springer, she is full of bounce and likes to jump up and lick everyone if allowed.

At the show were heavy horses (as per the title) who were mostly in their fields or in stables. One was pulling a cart to offer rides, and one was waiting patiently to have new shoes put on. He had one new shoe on, and when I asked the farrier, he said he would do the others as well, but a job that takes under an hour to do, had to last all through the show so that everybody had a chance to see it.

There were craft stalls and food stalls and guess the weight of the horse (several tonnes I would imaging) .
We spotted a candy floss and popcorn stall , and E cannot resist freshly made floss. Sadly it was pre-made in tubs, but they had a machine to make it - Hurrah. However both the teenage stall holders were unsure how to operate the machine, so a quick call to mother and an online tuition course materialised.

After some experimentation with the sugar amount, and then finding out the machine was not plugged in, some floss was duly made.

The teenage girl said it was her brothers stall really, but he wanted to go to the "V" festival near Chelmsford, so had pre-made the candy floss in the morning.

We had a good walk around the surrounding fields and met an ancient tractor also pulling a cart, wending its way around the boundaries.

Rosie found a snakes skin which had been shed at sometime, so a good time was had by all.

One down, one to go!

One cupressus hedge is scalped and the branches cut up and  transported to the recycling center. One of the bits of growth cut down was nearly 10 feet long, which meant in total the top was about 19ft from the ground before lopping off.

The green manure is now of a size that it can be dug in. Tried several techniques to dig in after first cutting the growth down with garden shears. We have four raised beds to dig. Firstly tried digging over with a small fork. That was OK, but took a lot of effort. The second experiment was with a small spade, and this was more successful as a "lump" of soil could be lifted and turned, burying most of the greenery.

I gave up after two raised beds, will return to that tomorrow- arms and back a bit weary from all the cutting and ferrying of the hedge remains to the recycling center. Took three runs and our poor trailer was complaining about the weight of stuff it had to carry!

Rosie has found a treasure. On her walk with E, she discovered a chew bone that another dog must have dropped. She proudly carried it home without once letting it go, and is now roaming the house, not sure what to do with it.

Not looking forward to dealing with the second hedge as it is in and around a shed, a greenhouse and a lean to off the garage.

Will probably have to adopt the technique that a professional tree surgeon did when it was last cut, which is to cut a flat ledge on top of the hedge, place a large flat board on this and use it as a platform to move forward. Apparently with an old hedge this is quite a stable way to operate as the trunks are at least four or five inches thick, it should support the weight.

Time will tell!

House invasion- or how to entertain the grandchildren

Since the last post we have had a houseful - both my son and daughter have been visiting bringing two grand kids each, which is very nice, and is a diversion from the garden activities and other stuff.

In the middle of this the dishwasher also started to play up. It has just been subjected to a recall and has had the control board replaced as their was a risk of a fire starting. Initially all was well, but progressively it cleaned less and less well, and now works sporadically. Have checked for simple things like blockages etc. but nothing seems to help. So- looks like a call out is needed- not sure if it is coincidence or a fault with the new control board!

We have two age ranges in the grandchildren- 9 and 11 years in one (boy and girl)  , and 2 years and a 6 month old in the other (boy and girl), so one pair need exciting things, the other pair need toys and lots of input.
We have variously been to Newmarket horse museum, Go-karting, Horse riding, Cambridge museums, many games of Wii on the tv and games on the carpet for the younger ones- wooden train sets etc. Both older children are in to cross-stitch in a big way, so shopping in John Lewis haberdashery was also a must!

Resumed the great cupressus reduction task. Starting to lop the tops off the hedges to get to a reasonable height without looking like a butchered mess. E and I agreed to a 9 foot maximum height- this will allow me to keep it under control, still give some wind protection and give us time to gradually cut down the hedge(s)  whilst replacing with a less vigorous hedging/shrub areas.

Spent yesterday with tree and shrub books to find ones that grow to 6 ft or so, were evergreen and needed minimal attention- there aren't many that fit this description! Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Wet day blues

Left a job for today expecting it to be dry this morning, but forecasters were wrong, and it was raining about 4 hours earlier than predicted. Yesterday new chainsaw chain arrived, fitted it and it was like chalk and cheese.

In the instructions it said, to tell if your chain needs sharpening or replacing you will notice the following:-

1) The chainsaw produces sawdust when being used (Check)
2) It needs a lot of effort on your part (Check)
3) You will have to force the blade through the wood (Check)

A new or sharp chainsaw should:-

1) Produce shavings
2) Take little effort on your part
3) Will draw itself through the wood.

Had a trial cut with the new chain fitted-it did all the things a sharp chain was supposed to do!
Zipped through cutting the branches off the next cupressus tree and then cut down the trunk.
This is where I went wrong- I left the branches and two chunks of trunk to be further cut up for transport to the recycling centre  today.

 Yesterday the sky darkened and looked about to pour down with rain. My chainsaw is electric, therefore not good in the wet! So packed up early before cutting pieces down to size.

Naturally although we had thunder and lightning, almost no rain fell.

Neither E or I felt inspired today as it was dreary outside, so late starting jobs.

I eventually worked on a new loft hatch cover as the old one is a bit battered and does not fit well. I need a turn latch to complete it- the sort of thing you have on a caravan door- just a simple handle on one side, that turns a bar in to a slot in the frame on the other side. I know, I thought, go to M&M Leisure in Mildenhall ( www.m-mleisure.co.uk/ ) they will have one- no such luck- they had bits of one as repair items, but not the fully working kit.

So fitted the hinges to the cover board, took the old one off and marked and drilled holes for the new hinges, checked it fitted OK in the space, removed it and put the old one back until I can figure out a replacement catch (the old one is a jury rigged device which looks like it is as well!) Put a first coat of paint on the hatch cover and left it to dry.

Spent a frustrating afternoon trying via Google to find the turn catch I have envisaged in my head- lots of alternatives, but a little pricey, so will keep looking!

Rosie hates the rain- her coat is very short so rain quickly soaks her to the skin- she has spent the day looking for the door in to summer - i.e. a door that when opened gives way to brilliant sunshine, but so far no luck.

Tomorrow looks to be a better day so fingers crossed.

Find the root

Waiting for a new chainsaw chain, as I have worn the current one out. I could sharpen it myself but need the right files etc. to do it, and end result might be debatable.
To pass the time after the rain had stopped, I was digging around the remaining trunk of one of the cupressus trees that was cut down (see to cupress or not to cupress) with the aim of trying to remove the stump and all associated roots - in the course of doing this I found the end of the flower bed that had disappeared under the hedge and three buried breezeblocks as well. That makes five that I have dug up from this area - I'm not sure what they were there for, but they were deliberatly buried in a row.

This pm, E and I started to replant some of the perennial flowers that had to be moved during the extension build last year in to the newly dug flower beds in the back garden.

We are hoping that Rosie does not do her usual flying leap through the beds when she thinks it is time to chase away the pidgeons or other birds, or have a bark at next doors Alsations. We had to fence off parts of the front garden until quite recently as she wanted to use the new fledgling hedge as hurdle training in preparation for the doggie Olympics.

Rain again stopped us finishing this job, but 80% of the plants are now in- we managed to split some of the clumps in the hope of increasing the number of plants, and after nearly a year in temporary containers, the root systems of some of the them were quite extensive.

Once the chain for the chainsaw arrives, two more trees are coming down to open up the part buried flower bed and allow us an area where the trees were, to use as a cold frame space for hardening off plants and also overwintering any that might need it. We will have surplus paving slabs when we reshape the path- currently there are hexagonal "stepping stone" slabs, so once dug up, they will probably form a base for the cold frame area.

Green Manure

The raised beds have come to fruition in our garden and are now sprouting their first crop, a green manure from mustard seeds. The seedlings are now big enough to see from the house, a few days ago, you struggled to see them.
In our garden revamp E and I decided to grow more vegetables- trouble is our garden subsoil is pure sand, dig about 18 inches and the "soil" turns a bright yellow. (Once, when digging a hole for a gatepost, I did not have enough sand to make some concrete, so used some of the sand from the hole- worked a treat!)

So this makes growing vegetables and almost anything else a bit of a struggle, especially during very dry spells of weather. This lead us to thinking about raised beds. We ended up with a plan for four of them, and after careful searching local timber yards and on the internet we decided on 4ft by 8 ft (1.2m by 2.4m approx) beds, and the wood chosen was 7cm by 26cm high. (3 inch by 10 inch approx) which should last a fair while. One of the beds is double height, 52cm (for long tap rooted veg or ones that need to be buried deeply such as leeks or potatoes) and needed about a tonne of topsoil to fill it.

Of course being so thick and wide, the timbers (2.4 m long)  weigh about 40 kilos each, so our venerable trolley/porters barrow, was pressed in to service to wheel them in to place. This was the ultimate sacrifice as the small castor wheels gave up the ghost and shed their bearings and the main wheels started to wobble a lot. We have had the trolley at least 20 years and it cost us all of £10 to £12 I think. So a replacement was ordered from Amazon, this duly arrived (now costing £22) and needed hand assembley which was fine.

First used yesterday and I struggled with it to haul some small paving slabs. I was very surprised when comparing the new trolley to the old one, discovering it was about two thirds the size, and the handle was considerably shorter than the old one, which was why it was hard work.
So its not just Waggon Wheel biscuits that have got smaller over the years!

So a revamp for the old trolley is planned - the new one will be used as a sack barrow for compost and bird seed bags, and the old one will once revamped go back to being the workhorse.

Once the green manure crop is big enough, it will be dug in and we will then plant up with either quick growing crops or overwintering ones as we have missed part of the growing season already.

To Cupress or not Cupress

Today has started in the garden with a large tree lopping tool and a garden saw.

We are blessed (!) with two cupressus hedges either side of our back garden that were out of control when we moved here a decade ago. Through borrowing a (not very sharp) chain saw from a neighbour, I managed to get the height down to about 8 to 10ft tall, for both hedges, and continued to trim up the sides on a regular basis.
The problem is that cupressus don't stand still- you blink and they are 15ft tall again. One hedge faces on to a green with walnut and horse chestnut trees, planted by the original householders when this small estate was built, so it only causes a nuisance to the local authority grass cutters who wizz around on large multibladed powered lawn mowers.

The other hedge bounds on a neighbours garden, and was heavily lopped and trimmed a few years back before the present neighbours moved in.

Last year we had an extension built on the side of the house in a largely dead space and some of the hedge had to come down (hurray!) to make way for the scaffolding, but because of the building work and (also to save money we fitted out most of the interior ourselves) the garden took a back seat.

Of course aformentioned cupressus hedges have taken full advantage of this and have outdone themselves in growth and because they are so wide , I can no longer safely reach from either side on ladders or platforms, to cut the top growth down, so the decision is that they will have to go!

Now this in itself is a mammoth task , and there are some garden hazards - sheds, oil tank, greenhouse, existing flower beds , dog - yes Rosie likes to help or get in the way depending on your viewpoint -and also I had to recently construct a new higher dog proof fence to keep her in the garden on the green side (she can leap 5 ft in the air from standing, no need for a run up for her) so this needs protecting also.

                                            Rosie sitting still for a change.

We are reluctant to remove the hedge in many ways- it does provide sound proofing qualities, and cuts down the wind, it is a haven for birds, not so much for nesting, but as a shelter and transit point from garden to green, but it also badly shades the lawn - we have the best moss for miles around - and sucks up all the water from the soil underneath, so nothing wants to grow.

So today I started to tackle two trees who's branches had overgrown the oil tank, and also encroached severely on an overgrown  flower bed. This has just been dug over for re-planting and I discovered the bed  had been much wider originally than it is now, by maybe 5 or 6 ft. , as the edging continues under the hedge.

Having cut/lopped the side branches off, I am about to bring out the trusty chain saw (mine, not the neighbours) to progressivly cut down the trunks.
At least it's pleasant out and not raining, thats something to be positive about.

It will be a stage by stage gradual lessening/removal of the hedges so more at a later date(s)

Whats in a name?

Racing Thrush came about a few years ago as an idea and was used for a while as a web name for genealogy research in to my family. The name derives from the first year in our current house after planting raspberry canes in the hope of getting fresh fruit straight from the garden.

The thrushes knew better!

Each morning at breakfast time we watched the thrushes and fledgling thrushes searching through the canes looking for the freshest fruit-each one acrobatically leaping a few feet off the ground and grabbing a piece of raspberry,consuming it and leaping for more.

If we wanted to pick the fruit before the birds we had to "Race Thrushes" and get there first. It has been ever thus- we still have to race thrushes, sometimes they win, sometimes we do.
I could cover the plants in netting, but I want the birds to enjoy the garden as much as I do, so it's a case of live and let live.