Its a sair fecht, on the Orkney good-life 'croft'

OK, its not really much of a sair fecht here and its not really a croft, but I do love that scottish phrase. I can't complain today, windy, yes but not raining sideways. However, maurading chookies in the stripey household first thing, isn't really what I'd expected to see when I ambled through to the utility room of doom (its very big which equals very messy). I should have known of course the chooks were lonely - needing company and wanted to pop in for a cuppa - however, their 'gate' was closed - so I was a bit perplexed as to why they were out, or rather IN the utility room.............waiting for breakfast maybe?

Peedie, the guard dog extraordiare, looked on unsympathetically. He reckons the chickens get more food than him, so if there are chickens around, he's not too bothered, it might mean a bit of extra nosh for him........

OK, having told the chickens to get out - and believe me they are intelligent, they now know the command, 'out' and finger pointing towards the door, appears to work with them, I've had plenty of practise...........The gate was closed - but a rung had fallen out........providing a handy 'chicken flap' to the world outside.

Now, who else would lead but Karyn the chook, she doesen't even look bothered does she - this chicken has adventuring blood in her, I think.

Now, when I say gate, I mean recycled gate, made from an old pallet, cut to fit the gap, the gap made cunningly big enough for a wheelbarrow to go through, but only just. The hen coop is largely fashioned out of recycled 'stuff' we find lying around here, or readily available in Orkney. Pallets are readily available, old fencing stabs (posts) are often kicking about, hen wire we bought, but you often see it on local freecycle and of course trusty baler twine (agricultural string) is put to many a good use in most households in the countryside. Here I used baler twine as a temporary gate hinge, um, over a year ago, it worked very well - baler twine rocks!

The gate clearly needs a bit of attention................to keep the mauraders at bay. I don't mind them being free range during the day, I'd rather they didn't come in for brekkie and they do wreck areas by the house if they are left to thier own devices - the dig stuff up - like the edge of the house bed with the ladies mantle newly planted in it last week.....................

Nothing else for it then, out with the hammer and the nails (in a trusty recycled tin can, excellent for holding stuff like this in)..........................now whilst Mr Flowers is currenty newly arrived back from his travels, DIY really isn't his thing, neither is gardening or many 'croft' like activities, he has his own interests and talents which I appreciate him for and thankfully I love this kind of work, so we make a happy pair, each doing what we love.

Once the rung was fixed, I thought about it and found a bit of an offcut of chicken wire, 'just in case' and made the 'gate' even more secure.

Ta, da, a new gate for the chookies - I love the practical side of having a go at good lifing - using recycled materials is grand but it does make you think - OK I need a gate, what can I make it from........a pallet makes a brilliant gate. Now as I work away, you'd think the maurders would be off exploring - um no, they took time to watch me from their coop, under the elder tree as if butter wouldn't melt in thier little beaks. Irony of taking off the gate, they prefer to stay in there...........I'll never understand the workings of a chickens mind.

Whilst I'm out there being all things in chicken management and diy - I decided to clear out their beds too, which are in the shed through the window - which is hidden by the tree in their coop.

 Each week they get a full maid service - cleaned out nest boxes and each one rebedded by straw.

In the summer its not too dirty, in the winter it can be worse - but they get this spread out in their outside coop - one clean out will cover about half the area outside, not that I get a look in to spread it out, the minute it goes in there - they love it start squaking and scratching around in it - maybe they think there is buried treasure with it all?

I think chicken keeping is getting very much more fashionable and rightly so. However, if I was starting up I'd be a bit daunted by the expense of a coop and houses for them etc. However, if you are willing to give a bit of lateral thinking a go, keeping hens doesn't need to be very expensive and you can make alot of what they need for next to nothing. Living out here - we did look at a fancy house for them, the cost to get one here was as great as the house for them - so we put our thinking caps on and make alot of their kit from recycled stuff we had here...............in the byre its the same, all the hen beds/nests are free and recycled  - we've one old rabbit hutch converted to a hen roost/nesting box.......

One old cheese/meat store from our old house, which we were given, painted for outdoor use, currently indoors in the byre.............

In between these two is an old TV stand on its side (are you still with me?) and the straw is tucked into it - again free, we found this in a shed..................

 An old drawer is an excellent nesting box......................

 And an old wooden wine box........................

 And an old crate...............luxurious recycled beds for some very well pampered hens...............

 An old pallet and an old bedstead allow the chickens to get out into their coop, or into their beds - they tend to sleep in the tree at the moment, hens are naturally woodland birds, so nesting in the tree is second nature to them.....

 I love the view out of that window, through the tree - the only one here at our homestead..........

The byre also holds the bale of straw we got for free from work, being old and mangled, it was free if we could pick it up, so we picked it up, amazing what you can fit in a transit van when you need to!

 Of course give hens a comfy few houses and beds and stuff - and without doubt - they'll clamber up like acrobats and lay eggs on the bale - I'll never fathom chickens!

 Pretty lovely eggs though, seven today - these hens have laid all year, and through the winter, every day. Worth a bit of work I think, to keep them happy!

Time for lunch.....................not eggs today, these are earmarked for a pal, I sell my eggs at £1 for each half dozen, the money from the ones we sell pays for the extra hen food we buy each month. Extra bought in hen food costs £8 a bag - which lasts my ten hens about 2 weeks they don't need extra food being free range, but I do like to make sure they get their minerals, keep them healthy for all those adventures!

Its not really a 'sair fecht the croft'! Its really quite fun, baler twine, pallets, straw and recycled boxes just add to the variety!

A cunning plan in process of germination

On the very positive side today - I had my very first 'do you have a small number of cucumber seeds for sale' enquiry on this here blog - amazing huh?????!!!! There is the original packet on the left - my peedie (smaller) packet I've done for the lady on the right. I've put some of my own packet of cucumber seeds into a smaller packet for the happy person which is now in the mail. Both folk very happy. Not everyone has my level of interest in veggie seed or this level of addiction. I'm happy to send out a small packet of a few seeds if that is what a person wants (or alot if required!). This means I can try more varieties and get rid of my excess seed by selling seeds and plants when they are ready, and a very happy lady didnt' have to buy a whole packet of cucumber seeds when she only wanted a few. And I do have more than a few - and an online list which is nearly finished. Then I can put a web-link up there and see if anyone wants large or small quantities seeds/plants and it might actually work!!

Now this is the other related thing that happenned today, which is either good, or bad, or a disease depending upon how you look at it. Clearing out the work bag from the veggie gardening evening class which I help out on - I might somehow or other have found a bag of seeds from the class that I bought earlier last year (used for demo of what each thing looks like and how to sow). I find demonstrating the actual seed much easier - very hands on - I'm a very visual learner and talking about the difference between say sowing a pumpkin seed to sowing tiny poppies can be difficult to grasp if you've not seen alot of seed. Anyway - to my surprise I have found (50 or 60 or so) packets of mixed veggie seeds - don't ask what that brings my total to, I'm too ashamed to say. I appear to be planning to feed the entire of the north of scotland.

Anyway - I think its a good thing, I've been planning on venturing into selling both seeds and plants online and this is my stock. Therefore more stock is a good thing. Right?

Fingers crossed or you are all invited to tea if I have to grow the lot!!!

It's blowing a gale here, time for ninja headgear to make killer sushi

This scene is nicer than the sideways rain we've got at the moment!

Now I realise that wind and rain are the winter norm here, to be honest despite the horrible driving conditions I'm really missing the snow. It at least looks quite nice doesn't it? Unlike today which is wet and fierce, rather than being battered in the face like a wet angry kipper. Or a flock of sardines with tiny angry tails (do sardines flock?) - there's just too much wind action to be just one tail flapping and slapping your chops in this type of weather. I really wonder sometimes what on earth I've done to put myself through this. I think perhaps a balaclava maybe in order - just to add to my normal everyday glamourous wardrobe. I wonder if you get stripey ones? Or just ninja style black ones?

Perfect hen feeding headwear?

As I ventured out in pj's to do the hens (clad in glamourous wellies, fleece, hat, scarf and head down) the hen food managed to try to set itself free by flying out of the slow cooker filled pot of tasty treats and home made porridge - needless to say the hens were in the byre all snuggled up together. There were tentative glances out the door of the byre as I arrived with food, the lack of hens flurrying toward me lent me to think that they'd rather have their food indoors today thank you very much. Hens it would seem are not a fan of this weather either. And, of course being a sap I obliged! For my efforts though I was rewarded with 8 eggs.  Thier little plastic bucket fits nicely into the sturdy slow cooker pot - which saved them being clattered about the place and I slowly made my way, almost horizontal in strides against the wind, back into the house.

Home-grown egg with Nori, home grown beetroot with pepper and Nori - a few of the delightful little mouthful from the kitchen!

On a much happier note, its nearly light until 5pm. We had a few lovely bargains in a local charity shop, my son got a pair of brand new jeans for 80p (levi 501's) which he's really chuffed with. I managed to make some sushi, which having only made once before under supervision, I was happy to say worked out quite nicely. I even made a red pepper and egg omlette for one of the toppings which looked quite nice. And, beetroot and pepper too, which worked very well. I might see if I've enough photos to put up the easy recipe I have and maybe have a go at making it again. And, best of all I got all the ingredients locally in a wonderful shop here.....which I found an old photo of from 1940 - how cool!

'Picture of Victoria Street Kirkwall showing the old shop front of William Shearers' date c1940, photo Craig Taylor

However, on a different note, but weather related - when my lovely son read the 'vegetable garden guide' chart on the wall for January - he chuckled informed me that swiss chard and perpetual spinach can be harvested  from the garden at this time of year - UM not in this climate - if I had any growing - I'm pretty sure by now it would be over the sea in the land of Norway or Canada - depending on the wind direction. But, we did have a little laugh about it. Winter growing outdoors here of any kind, veggie or flower, um I don't think so - that's stuff of fairytales and dreams!

Forecast of significant snow.........but sadly our visitors have gone

Parson Brown the snowman

Well the news tonight is telling us that there is a 'significant' chance of alot of snow again - maybe enough for another snowman like Parson Brown - who welcomed our winter holiday house sitters when they arrived on the 22nd December to look after the homestead to let me go 'sooth' - very cheerful he was too - and he did look wonderful in his bowler hat! I'm hoping the snow might be kind and come - but not block us in too much - be nice if my otherhalf actually managed to visit this month! We'll see, won't we?!

A Peedie puppy in the quadrat - I'm writing this work up now, but I won't mention the puppy's help!

Today has been a day of writing up in the office (more significant values, but of a different kind!) and a bit of a walk with the doggie around the block at work - alot of gardens looking a bit sad and soggy - but nevertheless nice to hear the birdies and have a little plod with the puppy. The birds are still mobbing the bird table at home, a few pheasants as well as many, many starlings!A glum looking kind of a dark day, but on the positive side the day length has started to increase and we're seeing a change everyday. Couple minutes in the morning and in the evening will soon make all the difference here.  I just can't wait - slowly things will get a bit lighter and then we'll be overwhelmed with day light!

A few casualties in the garden - looks like the Hebes I planted earlier in late autumn have not survived - but I'll leave that a while and see what actually pops up if anything.  I've a few runners of mint from my friends garden in Linconshire to propagate later - for now they've gone into a fishbox of soil outside - with more alpine strawberries and we've been given a beautiful purple Hazel seedling which is now tucked into a wardrobe cold frame outside. Apart from that - not much out there at all, no winter colour, no bulbs coming up yet - just a very soggy garden. Which until a wee while ago hid under the snow - which disrupted our poor visitors on thier way up - but thankfully they got here eventually!

Chickens do like being looked after, these ones were spoiled when we were off over the holidays! Thank you guys.

The hens are very happy and loved being looked after by our lovely house-sitting-fellow-blogging visitors - who were very kind to them and kept them well fed, warm and very wonderfuly looked after (Thank you Daffy!). I'm looking forward to seeing some of her photos! The wonderful visitors did seem very taken with the clever chickens, who are now being very well behaved, they've trained them well during their looking after our home holiday!

Thank you Daffy!!

Happy New Year...........

Happy new year from Peedie pup and all of us here!

Hey there a very happy new year to you all! We've been a bit awol, off seeing family and catching up on the mainland - we're home now - just said a sad farewell to our lovey cheery house-sitting visitors who've made a good job of spoiling our chickens and watching the weather whosh past the house here!

A very happy new year to you all and lovely to have all the lovely messages of good cheer when I was off. Taken alot of lovely pictures and hope to put some of them up soon. The garden has turned from a winter wonderalnd to a slushy wet soggy scene.

A few plans for the year:

Finish thesis

Develop garden to be able to eat from here 365 - watch out for the new challenge post thesis

Find an income (!)

Put up a polytunnel

Do up the (often unreliable campervan)

Get the budget down to the minimum

Become as self sufficient/green (the two can be compatible) as possible

More cooking and green living in the good-life lab

Read alot of books - about anything

Get children through the school year - a busy year for both

Have a few good adventures family, self, friends - maybe join a house-swapping site (?)

Catch up with friends more - I'm often terrible at not being able to fit them in when off 'sooth'

Make more friends to cheer life here up alot - we love having friends to visit (old and new) 

Live life rather than worry about it - I hope you find 2011 amazing!

Einstein and a peep of chookies

Almost all of my 'peep' of chookies

Well I thought it was about time I got some photos of the new hens out there to let them say hello to anyone reading. I've had a 'peep' (the collective word for a flock of hens), of 6 chookies (hens) from the early summer (the 6 brown hen bums on the far right in the picture!) - My original hens arrived off the ferry on a summer morning (by a haulier you understand they didn't travel all alone) and they were in their new homes by lunchtime the next day - we get these kind of hens in once a year at the local builders merchants. I don't know why the builders merchants orders point-of-lay hens as well as things like bricks, but I'm very glad they do. They have very funny personalities and one especially keeps having her own wee adventures - Karin the explorer!

 (I can't help but sing at them when I see them) 'Black bottomed girls' ........... you make the rocking world go round' (Misspelt Queen lyrics - but very appropriate, I think)

The new hens (another 5) are slightly different to mine, they've all got black bottoms like they been in the coal heap - it does make me giggle. These new hens had far less distance to travel, they came from my nearest neighbour, down the field, for free as they moved house and couldnt take the hens with them. Thier bad luck is my good luck, we've an understanding that should they decide they can have hens again, they will come and have a few of our flock in the future. I think thats a nice arrangement.

The new cockeral - Einstein, he looks very smart doesn't he?
The real Einstein was dyslexic, did you know that?

The 'peep' of chooks they gave me were a dad cockeral, a mum hen and 5 young birds (3 girls and 2 boys) - we've rehomed one of the boys already and are looking for a home for the other young boy - if you're in scotland and want a free cockeral do get in touch and I'll see if we can work a cunning plan. I've never owned a cockeral before with his funky bottom tail feathers (!), I have always only had female (laying hens). I'm not interested in growing hens for meat - so I've no need for a cockeral. But this chap seems to care for his ladies very much and I think maybe we might get along fine, good old Einstien!



Having a bit of grub in the snow

I'd recommend hens to anyone, even in a small garden you can have one or two in a little run - they are very interesting creatures and alot of fun to have as pets a bit of Chicken  information here. They are brilliant with children too and it teaches them about looking after your food (eggs) and how we care for them is a reflection of how we care for where our food comes from. Here is our first ever egg - collected by my daughter at our last house, a few years ago now - she had the honour of finding the first egg!! Its been that brilliant to own hens ever since that day.

Hens are the perfect family 'pet' to teach children about where their food comes from and for looking after animals who provide lovely fresh grub for us.

Very egg-citing (groan sorry!) we often can have alot of eggs and we try to barter with them, sell them to friends or we freeze eggs  if we've alot in the summer so we can have eggs in the winter time when the hens might not lay as well.  In terms of other great things they provide - well, they do provide alot of material for the compost heap from their bedding and thier poop is an excellent fertiliser once its rotted down a bit - which I can reycle into the garden. Hens are a real all-rounder!

Lots of lovely eggs which we can eat, swap and sell to friends to pay for the hen food - we all win!

There you go then - the new girls and boys are all settled in now, 10 happy girl hens means lots of happy eggs, they seem to be at home and everyone seems to be getting along quite well, brown bottomed, black bottomed and funky tail feathered bottomed! Only my original hens are laying at the moment (normally 6 a day still), sometimes less but I'm hoping Einstein will encourage them all to lay once they are settled in, he's bound to be a very clever chap with a name like Einstein!

Einstein the cockeral, having an explore.

Einstein once said [about Nature]

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

What a clever chap.

'Why don't we' go hunting for treasure

Barrier number 3 beach - how beautiful!

I love the beach almost as much as I love flowers.

*Almost*

I've not been to the beach in a week, unheard of in my life - can it really be that long? This beach is called Barrier 3 - where they built the barriers across the little islands to the south of the mainland of Orkney they are called the Churchill Barriers and they are lovely to go and look at or head onto the beach I thought I'd go maybe tomorrow but the time of year  its dark in the afternoon, dark before work and only get to go to the beach at the  moment during lunch - and I've not managed much of that lately. I must try and go at the weekend if I can - I'm working alot at the moment and that doesn't leave much time for anything else - I must try harder! Boy do I miss it, I love living by the sea. I think we'll just go now if that's OK? Apart from the garden or maybe as much as the garden I love the beach. 

 We like to come here to collect a tiny little shell called a 'Groatie Buckie' its a type of northern cowrie shell Trivia monacha - I love them and I always go and look for them - its a special thing to do - we even managed to convert our lovely lodgers at the last house to come find them too! They are as small as your pinkie nail and just so pretty. I love them almost as much as I love flowers - I do like beach-combing - I'm always after a bit of treasure on the beach. There are jars of shells all around the house, we never take too many - but Groaty Buckie hunting is very competitive - and they're lucky, so you'll have great luck if you find any. We never find alot of them - just a few and thats enough - don't want to be greedy!

And Peedie is always happy to help out! He loves it too, that little peedie monkey dog. Not much good at getting the little ones he prefers to scamp and find sausages from peoples barbeques - sometimes he's even lucky enough to find one - normally covered in sand - but he doesn't care.

I love beach treasure - so beautiful - what a pretty little stone, it lives in Darwin to remind me of our walk!

I miss the beach - we must go at the weekend - there I've said it now - so we'll have to go!

My kitchen table

After alot of talk about talking, laughing, joking, cooking, writing on the kitchen table - I thought I'd give you a look at mine.

What about you what do you get up to at yours?

Vegetables don't always need to be in prison.



It's official, I heard it from an old school gentleman vegetable gardener, it's definitely OK to grow your veggies in your flower border or wherever you like! They don't need to be imprisoned in straight rows only in a vegetable garden, if you like them like that then great - but you can grow them anywhere! I've been yibbering on about growing veggies anywhere there is a space in the garden for years - as long as you grow some, who cares where - gardening is personal - not a dictatorship - we can grow veggies in buckets, flower garden, as ornamentals, in a window box, etc.  Good article about it here - urging you to be adventurous in your vegetable gardening.........

At the moment I'm making a new garden (picture at the top - two new borders) - some of them are for veggies and some of it for flowers - BUT - I'm going to mix them up a bit (flowers and veggies) and grow alot of things together. However, when I've voiced this before in our vegetable garden class, I've often been met with very wry looks from people and more than one raised eyebrow in my time. Cabbages and Calendula side by side in perfect harmony - surely not................! I think its about time more vegetables need to be set free and grown in any available space.

Calendula officinalis - English pot marigold

To make the point, last year, at my teaching garden, I had onions dotted in groups in between marigolds, with cut and come again salad plants in patches here there and everywhere. I'm a big fan of mixing and matching - flowers with veggies - if you've limited space it makes alot of sense to not only dot veggies in where you can - or even grow them with a selection of edible flowers/seeds (e.g I grow in the veg garden,  Poppy seed for bread making, Nigella for that too, Nastutriums for adding to salads etc). You can also plant your veggies in an ornamental way to get the benefit of both looking at them and eating them. The possibilities are endless I do mention this at my class with more than a few quizzical looks from folk there - no I'm not bonkers - it really works and the complimentary planting can often help with reducing pests and diseases. And they look pretty too......................red and green salad bowl lettuce - worthy of any bit of the border.

Lettuce - colourful edition to the garden.......and good to eat.

Anyway - I'm off on a tangent again....................... we had asked this chap in to our class the other night as a 'guest speaker' - he is the kind of 'professional' amateur veggie gardener that I'm truly in awe of. The kind of guy who you need your notebook for and do alot of writing notes - he has cabbages the size of basket balls, leeks that could prop up a building - perfect carrots and grows, well a bit of everything really really well. He so reminded me of my grandad - was lovely to see him and hear him talk. He was really full of hints and tips - many I'd heard before and a few new ones too. Anyway, I was really chuffed when half way through the visiting speaker expert chap was bestowing the virtues of sneaking a few carrots, beetroot, cabbage, well any veggies really into your flower borders, as he gave a talk to our gardening class (for my sins I do help teach a veggie garden night class). 

Brassica oleracea - The noble cabbage

Anyway,  I took from him was that in a very small area he was able to eat something fresh from his garden (even here in Orkney) for about 10 months of the year - the other two months he had freezer reserves of peas, beans, neeps (*swede) and so on.

• He barely bought a vegetable, which he told with great pride - brilliant!
• He grows a bit of a variety of things that he liked to eat - (seems sensible) and not too much.
• He only grew 1/2 a dozen of something - ie 1/2 doz one type of cabbage, 1/2 a dozen of another - a short row of this and a short row of that - variety he argued was the way to do it for grow your own.
• He knew what kept well or freezes well - and makes sure he grows a bit more of that than he can eat fresh - picking a bowl for eating and a bowl for the freezer each time he harvested
• All onion/shallot/garlic sets are easier if started in seed trays/yoghurt pots prior to planting out - then the birds pull them up. (I do that one already)
• Carrot root fly can only fly at 18'' above the ground, so grow your carrots in a raised bed/box above that level - easier to pick too! (Great idea)

I wish I'd thought of that before I planted my carrots - which did get a bit of carrot root fly - but mainly they were very edible...........if a little variable in size - I didn't thin them out - so was happy with the results.

As this chap continued to talk, to my delight he was telling the class quite out of the blue:

 'Ye ken, many o' these veggies mak a richt good job in the flower border, especially the root crops. You dinnae need a big garden and fancy stuff to grow your own food, even a bucket will do. The main message I'm giving you is to have a go - start small and see what you like growing'

Makes alot of sense I suppose - try to do a little bit, then try a bit more. I love the fact that he recognised that many of these plants are 'bonnie',  like carrots and beetroot especially, have very attractive spreading foliage which wouldn't be out of place in the flower garden - complimenting your other perennial plant nicely and would do a good job of keeping the border full and the weeds down - no reason why all the veggies have to be grown in straight lines like little soldiers - no reason at all. Variety is the spice of life after all, when I grew the chillis this year - I was surprised at how pretty they were as house plants - and productive! 

Chilli jalepeno grown on the windowsill of the living room - no greenhouse, but that didn't stop me......

I think, well I know that the idea of growing veggies is very appealling to folk, no more so than nowardays - but its a daunting prospect digging up a patch of garden, or building raised beds to commit to a veggie plot in your own patch. On the other hand the idea of planting a few 'ornamental eating plants' (veggies to you and me) in a tub - or putting a few into the garden (or on the window sill) - seems no more onerous than putting in a bit of annual summer bedding, but you can eat it too. And if you've them dotted about the garden rather than sitting thier in rows staring at you - there's less chance of you losing face if you can't get out there for a week or two to week/look after your patch. Growing things in pots is great too - when you've little garden/room or in the case of my chilli plants - no greenhouse and couldn't grow them outside - so they were happy on the living room windowsill.

I'm a bit wary and scared (personally) myself of overcommitting myself with a big veggie garden. I've all respect for those folk who can fit in work/life/family/etc and also manage to get along to an allotment on a regular enough basis and put a real big effort into being able to grow their own food. I've been stung too many times before my work/life balance often is not really what it should be. However, the idea of having a 'few' bits of veggies dotted here and there in the garden - in pots/tubs/borders etc - would probably suit me and my garden very well.

The garden here is quite new and many of the borders I'm carving out of the grass have only a few plants to put in them over the next year - I really do need alot of fast growing vegetable type things to fill up the spaces....................that's a great plan!  I can grow food in the gaps and keep the weeds down. When I think about it, for this good life notion we've got, I do need to grow alot of veggies for our home and with that in mind I did put a plan together to grow some of our veggies in a big raised bed (see the picture below) which I do find very scary - if it gets overrun with weeds or I can't keep on top of it - then I know I'll get overwhelmed quickly. However, I'll do my best and to help that I can make myself have more chance of success by growing a few veggies in the new borders too.

Brilliant - I love when you hear someone like that gentleman gardener speak about something with passion - it really inspires you! Lets hope I can keep on top of the garden I'm just trying to make new this year.



The new raised veggie bed - just filled up with horse muck - a fair bit to do yet!