OOOPS

I have been naughty and not updated for AGES. Time runs away here at the mo, but I shall try and rectify things over the next few days.

One problem I have is that not much actually happens round here, and endless posts of " I got up and went to work, came home and ate dinner and then relaxed for a bit" DO NOT make for good reading! I also seem to have trouble downloading pics, but will persevere over the weekend!

I do have some interesting times coming up though. Briefly, I have joined a Druid Order and am busily studying the course material, I have to say it is a relief to find something that REally 'fits' with me at last. I'm enjoying it and will post bits here now and again on how things are going.

I have bought a harp which I am planning to learn to play, if not well, at least well enough for me. It's something I have always wanted to do, and I intend to get to grips with it!

I am also in the throes of preserving as much food as possible, and trying to ensure that IF everything should go horribly wrong with the world, and there is no electricity or whatever for a while, we will manage.

To that end, we now have a sizeable stash of mason type preserving jars, a Pressure Canner is winging it's way from USA so that I can preserve all the veg safely, I have purchased a dehydrator as well. Next on the list is a smoker, we are looking into making one, but it MIGHT take up too much room, so we may just have to go with a small one for the time being.

I have finally cracked bread making, each loaf just gets better and better, and with prices soaring, THAT is a good thing. The chooks are back to normal egg production having been off lay for a while, and my yoghurt making has improved in leaps and bounds as well.

All in all, our drive to be as self sufficient as possible is going very well, and in 22 mionths time, we should be in a positio to leave the city and head Soouth West, hopefully where we can have enough land to be able to do a little more, such as have a couple of pigs to grow on, but we'll have to see on that one!

SO, thta's all for now, I'll try and get some pics on over the weekend, I have some of our homemade sausages to show you, they turned out VERY well indeed.

..And there's more.

Well, I have been busily making jam and baking today, so haven't got down to the allotment. I'm hoping to get there on weds if the weather plays ball of course!

Adrian has gone off down there though, he's planting up some more of our tomatoes, and some peppers and a couple more aubergine plants. These will be going in the poly tunnel, which you haven't seen yet..here it is...



It's not huge, 8 X 15, but it does us at the moment. I have salad crops doing nicely in there, apart from the slugs nicking the tops of my Lollo Rosso! Good job it's cut and come again lettuce or we'd be stuck. I have Spring onions in there, just about ready as well, Iceberg lettuce and various tomato plants, aubergines and peppers. Adrian has some leek seedlings starting off in there and they seem to like that environment and are doing well.

I'm hoping that the tunnel will really come into it's own this year, we have grown a fair amount in there up to now, but this year I really want to try and keep the season going for as long as possible. It will be SO nice if I can have fresh picked tomatoes from the allotment in November.

The plant you can see in the foreground, is a grapevine, and we do get grapes from it. Trouble is, we never seem to get to eat any, I think the birds get more than we do. Anyhow, it takes up a a fair bit of room when it gets going, so it might be on the way to the compost, we shall have to see.

This is another view of the allotment as it is at the moment, thanks to the lovely Yarrow for taking the pics.



The broad beans are doing fabulously, and although some have been flattened by the rain, the pods are a good size and the beans are JUST yummy. WE like to have them raw with our slalds, and we freeze what we have over. Several work colleagues also take advantage of the abundance from the plot, and many now will only eat the veg I take into work from the plot.

We don't just have veg, there is a fair bit of fruit coming along nicely as well. We have 3 Rhubarb crowns that are producing at an alarming rate, and it's VERY nice rhubarb as well. Then there are Blackcurrant, white currants, gooseberries, tayberries, apples, cherries, plums, pears, apricot, nectarine, peach, almonds, strawberries and my Baby, a Kiwi plant. We had fruit on there last year, but unfortunately the weather turned at the wrong moment and stopped them getting to a decent size. I'm hoping things will be better this year.

So far all the cabbages, sprouts and caulis are looking good, the first early spuds should be ready to lift before much longer, the peas are flowering and I REALLY hope to get a good crop from them. We have failed With peas every year before, as ants seem to like eating the roots. This year I put in more established plants, in a place that seemed to be ant free, and so far, so good.

There is an abundance of swedes and turnips coming along, and the beetroot, as usual are off and running. We also have lots of different squashes coming into flower. I THINK I may need a few more veggie recipes before much longer. It really does look as though we will be fine for veg for at least 2/3 of the year, if not longer. I really hope so, it will be SO good not to have to rely on shop bought, that taste so bland compared to food from the plot, and of course, the cost will increase as the price of petrol and diesel keeps rising.

SO fingers crossed for a bumper harvest from the lottie, there will be gluts, there always are, but courgettes are extremely useful, and if all else fails, the chickens will eat them.

Mother Natures' bounty

Here folks, are some pics of our allotment. We actually have 1 and a half one, but technically the half is mine.

We took over our allotment about 5 years ago now, and this is how it looked when we enthusiastically started work on it.


As you can see, it was BIG! It SEEMED endless when we rolled up, unloaded the spade, fork etc and stood looking at it, wondering what on EARTH we were doing!

It had been used as a dumping ground for a while, as you can see from the redundant pond left there.


THAT proved very useful for covering areas to get them weed free and ready to dig. But pond shaped beds don't really work too well, so we needed to sort that out. Eventually, we did, and soon our first bed appeared, helped along by the wonderful Adrian, who dug and dug and dug.




THE most useful piece of information we were given by established allotmenteeres, was to take it slowly, dig a bit at a time, plant SOMETHING in it, and then move onto the next. It is VERY VERY daunting to see all that space waiting to be cleared and dug, and over the years we have seen SO many people come along like we did, unload all the tools, dig and weed furiously for a whole weekend, and then not come back for a few weeks, take one look at the weeds, and walk off despondently, never to be seen again.

THAT is so sad, as the allotment is one of the joys in our life. It is also one of the pains, the flaming weeds just grow and grow, as does the grass, and you HAVE to keep on top of it. The end rewards though, FRESH, untainted, no food miles fruit and veg...well once you try it you'll never want to eat supermarket stuff again!

The other tip that we always pass on, is only grow things you KNOW you'll eat, no point in growing a whole bed of celery if you hate the stuff.

The weather can be frustrating too, this year we got our spuds in late, mid way through April, because it was just too wet, the lottie is slightly below the water table, and though dry on top, it was mud city 6 inches down, can't plant anything in that.

They are coming along nicely now though, and this year we hope to keep ourselves in fresh fruit and veg all year. I have a poly tunnel on my plot and we are hoping to keep quite a few things going throughout the year in there as well.

This pic isn't from this season, but it DOES show the plot about 3 months after the pic of Adrian wielding his spade!



Having watched The 11th Hour last night, I am even more convinced that growing our own veg is the only way to go. IF we had more land, we'd have animals as well, and YES for food. We have the chooks in the garden, but we REALLY do want to be self sufficient in everything.

Until then, we will continue to work on the lottie, to grow our food, to dig and get backache, watch the weeds grow, and est THE best tasting veg we have EVER eaten!

Shires and More

Every year over the May Bank holiday weekend, there is a Heavy Horse show at Southsea. There has only been one year missed, due to restrictions following the Foot & Mouth outbreak. This year it was the 23rd show, and as ever, was delightful!

The picture at the top is of one of the Fullers Brewery pair, this one is Pride, and he's JUST gorgeous! He is 18 years old now, so quite elderly, is HUGE and..he has BLUE eyes. He alos won the obstacle race, with a good time and no penalties, a steady old boy is Pride.


He also works in a pair with Griffin, they are seen below.



As well as the horses, there was a very entertaining hour spent with a shepherd and his dogs. But this was no ordinary shepherd, this guy worked his dogs and explained the method he uses to train them, it certainly works, they were VERY well trained indeed. He also used GEESE and DUCKS for them to herd rather than sheep, and that made for a few laughs along the way as well.


The chap got the dogs to herd the ducks around an obstacle course at the end, and let lots of kids join in, they and we, had a lovely time.

Apart from all the fun and frivolity though, this show raises an awful lot of money for local charities. The guys give their time, and show the horses to their very highest standard, for pride, yes, but also to raise money. Over the years, tens of thousands of pounds have been raised, this year was for the Wessex Cancer Trust, I hope they made a packet again!

Perhaps one other major point of shows like this, is the maintaining of the breeds. These horses are NOT used for working any longer, there are some breeds that no longer exist, and those that DO only exist because of dedicated people like these guys that come to shows like this.

One lady has a pair of horses from Austria, there are ony the pair in Britain, and they are NOT classed as heavy horses, as such, she could not be placed in the race, even though she took part and the horse did well. She brings them to these shows for the fun element, and to keep them in good condition, well trained and in the public eye.

The people who keep the horses and keep them trained up for ploughing shows etc, are preserving our heritage. Long may they do so I say, and long may these giants of the horse world keep us all enthralled by their might and majesty.

The Lost Garden of Milton!

That's what we have here! We USED to have a garden, it was lovely, all green and had flowers, and a pebble pool, even a little wildlife pond! We would sit out in the evening, with our chiminea it, and soak up the evenings with a glass or three of chilled wine, and talk a load of nonsense.

NOW we have something resembling a bog, NO really it IS! The pond is in dire need of cleaning out and refilling, the white gravel that had a lovely medicine wheel in the centre made of super cobbles is long gone, buried under much earth and detritus. There are now NO plants under 3 feet high, and in many places there are round holes gouged out of the earth that USED to be flower beds.

Now, you may ask what catastrophe has befallen our once blooming garden? What has happened to change all this and turn it into a bog? Well I can tell you it was no catastrophe, and the Garden Pixies didn't get upset with us and take it all away. What happened was this...

We rehomed some ex battery hens! Folks this is by far THE best thing we have ever done! I cannot imagine life without chooks ever again. We (well I but then Adrian thought it might be a good idea as well) decided just over a year ago, that we had room for a few chooks in the postage stamp we call a garden. A coop was found, bought new from Ebay, and delivered AND put together by the guy we bought it from, and all we had to do then was wait for Rescue Day. All too soon, we were setting off and collected the first 4 girls we ever owned. OH MY! If only we knew then what we know now!

The first few days were as traumatic for us as they were for the girsl, Rosie, Daisy, Henrietta and Violet. They had no idea how to drink water from a drinker, so we had to show them, they didn't know how to get up the ramp from the run to the roosting section, so Adrian had to crawl in there and help them up till they learned how. I worried constantly that they wouldn't settle, that we didn't know enough, that we would do something wrong and they would die. But they didn't, they thrived!

Slowly their missing feathers grew back, and they started looking less oven ready by the day. Then came the day we let them out of the run to investigate the garden. OH WHAT JOY! I was nearly crying, they very gingerly stepped through the door into the outside, somewhere they had NEVER been! Then they began scratching around, nibbled the plants and started to dust bathe as well. To see them having so much fun and wonderment was TRULY magical.

I can watch my chooks for hours. Each one has a different character, and we have more now as well. We have lost 3 in recent months, and over the year, a couple only lasted a few weeks, and were replaced with more, those cages REALLY shorten their lives, and some just don't seem able to carry on.

So we try to keep our 'flock' to 10, we are down to 7 at the moment, but next week 3 more will arrive to replenish the coop. There WILL be some spats, there always are, and we need to make sure that the new girls don't get TOO bullied and get their share of the food, but after a few days, all settles down, the pecking order is sorted once more, and off they go.

Poultry keeping ISN'T for everyone, but if YOU think you have room for a couple of chooks, and trust me you CAN have them in small gardens, you won't go wrong with rehoming some of these girls. They WILL give you hours of pleasure, AND fresh beautiful eggs EVERY day, but not from every bird every day, we average about 5-7 eggs per day from 10 birds, and we ALWAYS have a waiting list of people wanting to buy them!

So if you DO want more info, just check out this website http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ They do a FANTASTIC job, and you too can have the joys of keeping backyard hens!

I Despair

I REALLY do!

Today I have had to take my car for her exhaust to be mended, and so am subjected to the delights of the public transport system here. Well I can report that it's OK at the moment, the bus was on time, though the driver wasn't English and communication was shall we say, interesting.

That is NOT why I'm despairing though. At the top of our road, on the corner, opposite a school, there USED to be a lovely Edwardian house which was used as a Nursing Home. Recently it was demolished, and we have been waiting, not hopefully, to see what would be put in it's place.

Thanks to walking past it, I was able to examine the small print on the planning papers. NINE FLATS!! Nine more families in a small space, with no parking due to the school, so the rest of the road will be even more clogged up with cars.

This is happening all over Portsmouth at the moment, every available space is having flats built on it, many of the old local pubs have closed and been demolished....for flats, causing a great deal of concern with regard to jobs and general socialising facilities, not everyone likes the cold impersonal aircraft hangars of the big chains do they?

I have joked that it's NOT global warming that will sink the city, but the weight of thousands of empty flats. DO they not realise there is a credit crunch? People CANNOT afford to buy these flats!

Then there is the issue of the local infrastructure. Schools around here are already crowded, Doctors are now refusing appointments of more than 10 minutes unless it's soemthing very serious. NHS dentists are a rare species, and more and more of those are turning to private practise. The police and emergency services are already stretched to their limits, and the local fire station is likely to be closed due to cutbacks.

SO what will there be available for all these people they expect to buy all these flats? NOT good quality services that's for sure, and that is no reflection on any of the services mentioned, it's simply that they only have so much in the way of resources.

This outright rape of our country has got to stop, and stop soon, or there will be nothing left but huge sink areas, blocks of flats that no one can buy that will either be turned over to social housing (which we DO need but not at the expense of everything no matter what!), or left empty, and attracting all the crime and violence that seems to stick to those empty uncared for areas.

There are not enough jobs to keep people employed here, thus they have to commute, and we all know what that can do to the environment. Not to mention that this is an ISLAND with TWO roads off it, the congestion is bad enough as it is! Not everyone will be able to use bikes or car share to get off the island to their place of work will they?

We have already become a city of one way streets and 20mph limits, so the traffic that IS here is crawling, or the drivers become impatient which leads to more road rage and accidents. Pollution is also high, mainly in the centre of the city, but it's not good anywhere else either. Our children are breathing in all the diesel fumes etc, every day as we walk them around in their buggies.

I despair for this city, for the people living here, and for the businesses here trying to keep ahead of the supermarkets. I HOPE there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I fear not, and it's a very very long tunnel as it is! No wonder so many people are trying desperately to escape!

Wrens' Big Adventure: Part II

OK, where was I? Oh yes, arriving at CJ's. CJ had omitted one VERY important fact though, she had not told me, that she lives on the steepest steep hill in Dover!!! I was in shock, as I TRIED to parallell park without ending up rolling to the bottom of the hill and taking several cars out on the way! The guy driving the car that was coming down the hill had tears rolling down his face as he laughed at my terror stricken expression and sigh of relief when I finally parked!

Once safely settled with a cuppa, I was introduced to TWO, yes TWO more cakes! A Carrot cake, made for me by the lovely Mr CJ, and a choccie cake, YES another one, which the delightful Miss Cj had made for me. I could see the way things were going, and was despairing of my waistline. It would however have been VERY rude NOT to eat any, and I managed to devour a fair bit of both cakes!

Then I met Cj's fur babies, and OH how delightful they all are. There are four, Scout the only boy, then there is Cluney a long haired bundle of fluff, Beast, who is REALLY caled Phoebe, who decided I was her new best friend and my lap would do for now thank you very much, and Tilly, a siamese cross with the most wonderfull personality. I have taken pics, which show how completely smitten I was with them, and I think, they with me!

There is also a visiting cat, who is as gorgeous as CJ's and we met in the garden, he came for a big fuss and was very friendly, but Cluney had followed me out, and seemed a bit peeved that someone else was getting HER fuss. He went off about 2 feet away to complete his ablutions, at that opoint Cluney came running over and sat about 1 1/2 feet away, glaring at him as if to say "STAY there, she's MY friend and NOT yours". She trotted in behind me when I went in, with a very smug look on her face.

Mr Cj came home from work to find me and CJ nattering away, and we opened a bottle of wine as it was 6 pm and perfectly acceptable, he said so! He was NOT however, impressed with how CJ had iced his cake, he was mortified, but he soon calmed down when he found that it tasted lovely and I was very taken with it. Cj's teenogres, are JUST fabulous! It's a long time since I've met such polite and positively charming youngsters. CJ1, a 17 year old lad, is wonderfully friendly and approachable, holds fabulous conversations, is very very polite, and gave up his bed for me. CJ2, is a poppet, and absolutely adorable young lady, very gracious and charming, and both are a credit to CJ and Mr CJ, who should be very very proud of them indeed.

We also had a phone call from another forum friend, the Lovely Jelly B, and it was super to chat to her for a while as well.

We sat talking and laughing into the night, and Mr Cj seemed to find a new bottle of wine each time one emptied! Eventually we headed for bed, very happy, very full of cake, and veggie lasagne and wine.

In the morning, we started off with tea and a chat, then we both had a super surprise, when Brigit Strawbridge rang for a chat. It's ages since I've spoken to Brigit and it was lovely to hear from her. Cj then took me off to see the cliffs.

When we arrived, I looked over the harbour and realised, that when CJ had said a walk along the cliffs, she meant just that! I thought it wise at that point, to mention my chronic vertigo!!!! As a result, Cj had to walk on the outside of me all the way. She has now found out two new things about me. I DO NOT like hill starts on VERY steep hills, and I DO NOT like cliffs! I'm glad I saw them though, and got pics, I HAVE been there, REALLY!

I didn't leave Cj's empty handed either, Mr CJ gave me some gifts from his Mum, a jar of Tomato Chutney, and some Runner Bean Relish, so I was laden with goodies!

All too soon it was time to meet Mr CJ for lunch, which he paid for bless him, and then head home, having discovered that the Hill start wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, and that all the innards of my exhaust had escaped onto the ground! We said our goodbyes, and off I went, into the wide blue yonder, and the delights of Rye, Old Romney...Dymchurch etc etc tec.