Why is it that no matter how prepared I am for the weekend I never get all the stuff want to get done done? Time always defeats me. Well at least this weekend I was in the country! The snooker Masters did prove a bit of a massive distraction, but I figure everyone needs a little wind down time at some point right? (I have to confess, I wasn’t hardcore enough to stay up for the final last night, but I’m delighted that Ronnie O’Sulivan won) and I did multi task, sort of. I managed to finish Sam’s birthday present, which is mostly homemade and matches something that I made and gave to her a while ago (pictures to come after the event as I’m pretty sure she reads this blog, foiled again…). Finished writing my lead article on pancakes for work (I found some pretty yummy fillings which I’ll be posting on here a bit nearer to the day itself). Finished a baby hat and a scarf for a young lady for my friend Olie (you may remember he took the knitting group photos in exchange for knitted goods 🙂 Did some serious gardening of the indoor sort, re potting, planting cuttings, feeding the orchids and finally got round to planting my wild sweet chestnuts, bringing my seed to trees total to 6 sweet chestnuts, 12 normal chestnuts and 12 oaks, if any of those come up I will be a very happy lady indeed 🙂
I also got a seed catalogue through the mail, I’ll be buying all my veg seeds in person from the garden centre as I find a random selection seems to be the best way of doing it. As disaster struck with my Joe’s longs chilli’s last year these will be coming from the experts at the Devon Chilli farm who guarantee theirs will fruit (most excellent) which leaves only orchids and bulbs to be bought from the seed catalogue. I’ve been very good and limited myself to just the one orchid, its a new variety and has flowers that look like white flying birds which are lovely. One of my best (but most terrifying) Christmas presents was a garden planner from my aunt and I feel that pretty soon will be time to start preparations for this years harvest.
Speaking of preparation I think a decision has finally been made on the chickens. My dad has very kindly offered to come down for a weekend and help me make the garden chicken proof (they will be in their run most of the time but this is just an extra precaution). We have had terrible trouble trying to track down baby Arucanas and so an alternative breed has been chosen in the form of the Cotswold Legbar. These were apparently bred from crossing a Cotswold breed with Arucanas and as a result they also lay blue eggs (I must admit I do quite like the idea of having a breed that orientates locally). The next step is to contact the breeder and also get the run finished. Exciting times ahead!
