Gratitude Sunday

Joining in with Taryn today for a gratitude list!

*My family, my wonderful husband, and our three magical children. I love seeing the world through their eyes and thinking about every small wonder.

*Having such a lovely birthday. My children always seem so shocked to hear that I have a birthday! I don't know why!

*My harp. I had it made just for me, and it's made from Maple, with walnut inlay, and a poplar sound board (more eco friendly than spruce). I still delight in it, and the beautiful sound it makes after all these years!! The children go to bed and I play as they fall asleep during that quiet time before cleaning up the kitchen.

*Worms. I love the way our children always look for worms under any stone they find, or while I'm digging in the garden. They are great friends of ours.

* A bit of sun in between the rain...

*Bread yeast - fantastic stuff!

* Morning dew. I love taking the children outside in the morning and just looking. Today we saw lots of slug pathways on the tiles by the front door. Other days we find webs.

*My health. Just got to be grateful for that!

Thanks for the idea for a list Taryn. Such a good idea!

Pleasures.

I delight in the small things, the simple things, and the quiet things these days!

One of my greatest pleasures is being able to feed my family with good food.

I try to grow as much as I can on our little patch, and use our compost, and only my hands to grow, and weed and care for our plants. I think this is the way to go. No sprays or other nonsense.

So here is one of my first pleasures of the day, eating our own muesli..

I use whole oats, linseeds, sunflower seeds, bran, wheatgerm and coconut, then add some oil heated with some honey to coat all the grains.

I then toast the lot at for about 15 mins, and we then have good fresh crispy muesli!

I like mine with some raisins, milk and maybe a banana if we have any.

Keeps me going all morning, I love it!

This year I've planted some oats in the garden. Hopefully we'll have our own oats too, if the birds don't find them first!

Some pickling, some marmalade, and going out.

The weather here is getting cooler, and I know that my last chilli plant will only last a little while longer, so today I went out and picked the ripening chillies, and some of the best looking green ones. I pricked them with a knife, and pickled them in a 50:50 vinagre and water solution with salt too. In the pot they looked so vibrant, and all the different colours remind me of the sun that ripened them.

I also bought some oranges a while back, and they were really sour, so I left them to ripen a bit, but they are just too bitter.

So I thought they'd be perfect for marmalade, and they really are wonderful marmalade!

Also started off some mixed lettuces, and a pot of basil for indoor use. Can't have too much basil!

Also today I went out, and had a fairly rubbish time. First I felt the need to dress up. I hate dressing up, but found that people treat you differently if you don't look the same as everyone else. I find you get better treatment if you wear fashion clothes, and look neat. Sad isn't it.

Anyway, immediately I felt uncomfortable.

I also had two of my children with me, and for some reason here people are rude to others who have their children with them. Children have a fairly raw deal here regarding all the abuse statistics, and the general attitude is incredibly negative towards them. I find it is always other women, or female shop workers here who just can't help having a go at children.

So my children were told off by two different women while they were standing really patiently waiting with me, just in case they might "do" something. They always do it when my back is turned, or I'm having to talk to someone else. Drives me mad.

Then I had to deal with a fairly abrasive woman in a shop to have my sunglasses fixed. Why should such an easy task become so difficult? I felt really drained when I got home.

Anyway. Tonight I'm making pizzas, and I'm just about to ice my cake too.

I love being at home with my family.

All is good when we are together.

Maybe I should be a hermit.

Around the Garden on my birthday

Broccoli trying to survive the slugs.

Today is my birthday. It was a lovely dawn, a bit cold, but a lovely new day.

I received lots of love, some cards and a metronome. Love the metronome.

So here's my garden this week.

Firstly I'm really glad to have started off a new worm farm. Just a handful of worms, but hopefully there'll be more as time passes..

I Have been trying out a few methods for enriching the soil in our tiny beds. I love the idea of the no till method, so I've tried a few similar techniques.

First I dug up some of the clover that is spreading all over the drive, and laid it roots up on top of the soil of the bed. Then I tried various coverings.

Black plastic bin bags were not too good. Somehow the plants and weeds were still going after three weeks, but the area that I just laid an old paper flour sack on top weighted with bricks was wonderful. I had been hoping to allow the paper to rot down too, but when I saw the quality of the new soil underneath i just had to plant my strawberries in it!

It's all broken down, no hint of a weed, and the soil looks like a huge pile of worm castings. Which I'm sure it is! Just wonderful..

More beds now covered in old paper sacks!

This is the clover on the drive that I have used as a green manure.

Here's to lots of good soil!

My seeds have arrived, and I'm now just planning my bed rotations.

Back to the family!

Around our patch...

I'm joining Sara with her walk about the farm posts, so join me for a little look at what's happening this week....

In the summer when I harvested our garlics I managed to lose about two short rows. I kept digging, but those bulbs were nowhere to be found.

Then, one day as I walked past I noticed a whole load of garlic sprouts in big bunches! Well then I found the lost bulbs, which were really deep, and separated all the little cloves, planted them and hoped for the best. Luckily they are growing well. Not as strong as the ones I planted properly, but hopefully they'll grow better now they aren't squished together.

The new garlic patch....

Here are some of our hens. The black one is an araucana cross orpington pullet, and yesterday she produced her first egg! It was quite large, and blue.

They love the long grass..

Here's our fairy garden.

We made this last spring, and used chia seeds which swell up like frog spawn when wet. The children loved to play with the seeds, and when they were allowed to touch the soil grew these beautiful chia plants that have blue flowers....

The broad beans are growing well. I love them. Proper beans on toast!

And thats about it really.

I ordered seeds this year rather than buying lots of little pots of seedlings. It seemed expensive at the time as it was a lump sum, but really I'm certain it will be economical in the end.

Can't wait for them to arrive. I've tried to buy organic, and mostly heirloom seeds. Hopefully I'll be able to save some this year.

Bye for now!

Sweater update

I've pre drafted the roving, and all set to spin.

All I have left of the yarn!

Growing nicely....

So here is how Edward's sweater is coming along.

The scale of it is quite difficult to picture, but I think its down to his belly button now.

Sadly I have only the smallest amount of yarn left, so back to spinning some more super soft merino.

I've missed the spinning! I love to spin when either Edward or one of the children are playing the piano. I keep the wheel next to the piano - its quite safe there, and I love company and music to spin to.

Considering the yarn came out quite chunky, it looks quite delicate when knitted up this size!

Dinner from the garden

So here's what we're having tonight. A tortilla made with our potatoes, happy eggs from our hens, and an onion...

Soon to be pancakes, and also a bowl of soon to be scrambled eggs too! They'll go with our homemade bread...

And a salad from the garden, with various lettuces, our peppers which have finally turned red, onion, rocket that keeps popping up all over the place, basil, and tomatoes.
Looking at this photo reminds me that I need to pickle those chillies..

Mmmm getting hungry....