peace in the valley

Well Its a known fact that I have far too many cockerels and I even though I've killed and eaten a few, I'm still very soft and besides the ones I can't eat have names (unintentional) and characters.

Today I managed to re-home 2 of my favourites (ok so not favourite enough to stay but still I liked them)




Yes my dear blackberry and little frody, have gone to live with a lovely veggie lady (so no need to worry about them ending up in a pot) and her 11 lonely hens.

I know they will both be in chicken heaven and won't know what to do with themselves. They along with Sawyer my welsummer cockerel have been confined in a bachelor pad run away from the main flock. But now its just Sawyer and his 2 new ladies that were acquired at the weekend.

Yep poultry auction season has begun.

Now I wasn't planning on doing much buying at auctions this year but I went on Saturday to sell a big galvanised feeder and have a look around. Loads of birds there they had to open up another section. Hubby was quite worried, but he had no course to as there were a few things I fancied but not enough to bid for. Except some wee little ducklings just 2 little'uns in a huge cage labled as "black and white ducklings 4 weeks old". I planned on bringing these home but they went for £6 (and that's a head). I remember last summer seeing 4 Muscovy's going for 50p the lot. I was quite sad to miss out on them as in the few minutes I decided to bid for them I'd named them and planned where to put them. Also I thought 2 random babies would be a good introduction to duck keeping. However when I saw the chap who'd bought them show his little boy and the look on the boys face I was rather pleased for their fate.
Anyway what did I buy. Well after watching lots of POLs and Hybrids going for twice what you could buy from local breeders, 2 Indian game hens came up, I'm guessing no one really knew what they were as the only interest was from the bloke who was buying up all the unwanted lots for pennies, cockerels and drakes and I have a fairly good idea about their fates. He bid a pound and I bid and won at 1.50.

Bless them they have already paid for themselves in eggs laying every day including in the box on the way home. However they have the worst case of scaly leg mite I have ever seen, It looks like they are wearing spats, but I'm treating the problem and as a precaution treating sawyer too and in a month or two the will be good as new.

I like Indian game birds, the males are good eaters and the hens are so petite in a beefy nightclub bouncer sort of way. They make the funniest little trilling sounds and have a slightly feral attitude about them. These 2 can stay with sawyer until their legs improve then they can join the main flock and sawyer can have 3 welsummer brides of his own to breed with.

I've also been making the most of the sunshine and getting out side and doing some seed sowing in my tiny plastic greenhouse. So far I've sown sweet peas, leeks, lettuce, pak choi and black Tuscan kale. My very expensive heritage red flowered broad beans went in to and I have tomatoes and snapdragons on the windowsills. The baby silkies snuffkin and little my have doubled in size and are now eating a mix of crumb and growers pellets and spending a few hours in the sun running about in alfies dog cage, helping to scracth out the patch of chicken trashed lawn ready for me to re-seed it.

Oh and the duck is still here but his girlfriend comes and goes (the hussy) thinking more and more about catching Sid and buying him a paddling pool.

Right some boring housework beckons.....

Jess xx

P.S the walls have dried out but its still flipping freezing

Birds with peoples names and courgettes a go-go

I thought you might like to see the view from my lounge window (there is a road in front of the field but its not very pretty to include) and this is the view I get to look at when I'm doing the dishes.
if you click on the picture you can get a better view of Tommy (all buzzards are now know as Tommy in my house, all male pheasants are called charlie).

Now as promised ages ago here are some before and after pics of my veg plot.


Before (taken about the end of April)



After (taken Sunday morning)

I've spoken briefly before about the slice of ground my mum gave my when she moved cottages earlier this year. Digging it over was a nightmare as it had a huge rigid swimming pool sat on it (on top of 5 layers or weed membrane, 5 inches of sand and paving slabs) the husband worked out that there was about 100 tonnes of water pressing down on it!! So after back breaking digging and lots of bags of muck and manure I'm really pleased with it. Ok now the observant of you might note the explosion of courgette plants and indeed that is far too many plants to put in a space that size but what the heck. When I got the chance to sow seeds and plant it up I went a bit crazy. Next year will be planned with military precision I'm already sketching plans and browsing seed catalogues.

So what have a got well the Red duke of york potatoes have been lifted and replaced with a green manure the late board beans did ok and will be replaced with some spring cabbage (when I sow it) there's a block of celeriac, a row of leeks. A block of sweetcorn a tiny row of dill, a row of kale and swiss chard and 4 courgette plants, a marrow a mini pumpkin, a summer squash and a butternut squash that popped up from the compost. None of my runner beans or french beans germinated but that's no loss as there was no space for them and I'm bartering eggs for beans with a few friends and my next door neighbour.

Thursdays fave will have to wait till tomorrow as I have a courgette that needs to be turned into a chocolate cake but not until I've had a cup of tea and watched the baby birds (still unnamed but now known collectively as the cheepy cheepies) playing on the lawn and being gorgeously adorable.

small but perfectly formed

I've been late (and small scale) with the veg this year due to giving up my allotment in favour of a slice of my mums huge garden. So I'm really pleased with my modest haul from the containers on my courtyard.

I tried growing spuds in an old compost bag, unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan. It fell over a few times and the rain broke all of the stems so 6 spuds is a bit rubbish, but they tasted delicious. They're Red duke of York and I thoroughly recommend them. I planted a huge sack at my veg plot (I used the 3 leftover in the compost bag) to help turn some of the ground over and they're doing really well, although red potatoes in red clay soil are a bit tricky to spot.

More seed sowing

So I'm busy busy busy in the garden right now, I'm pleased to say that I've pricked out and potted on all the baby seedlings, only for the flipping slugs (or snails) to come along and nibble all the lettuce and basil seedlings, thankfully that's all they seem to have eaten so far (fingers crossed x).
So I've sown more of the above and started on the may seed sowing. I try to be organised with my seeds I have an old small drawer that they live in with dividers for each month, anything that needs repeat sowing like beetroot or rocket can be moved up the drawer for it's next sowing.
Today I've sown courgette seeds I've chosen a yellow and a green one, a small tricolor ball shaped one, and a climber called black forest. I've also sown some pumpkin (jack be little), Marrow (not quite sure why I've sown that) and some gherkins. On the flower front I've sown some nasturtiums and moulin rouge sunflowers.
Because of lack of space and the fact that the courtyard looks like a seedlings waiting room I tend not to worry about later sowings, they all seem to catch up.
Next week I'll start on beans.

Talking of beans (and peas) so far I seem to having bad luck with them, first all the broad beans I did last autumn all rotted off at the base in February, then my spring sowing got eaten my mice so I've succumbed to buying baby beans from the garden centre, something I don't like to do but they were only 20p each I also had to buy some peas for my raised bed only a few though as only 6 have germinated and I need to plug the gaps.

I'm also getting excited for two of my favourite events coming up in a few weeks, firstly It's the chelsea flower show , and for something closer to home, the wonderful Devon county show, I love the county show can't wait.

Ohh some breaking news, so the swallows arrived about a month ago (summers here almost?!)and yesterday not only did I see a swift but I also heard a cuckoo.
And an update on the sparrows, well as I type I can hear the chicks squeaking in the wall behind me.

love jess xx

Rain

Finally it's raining, ok so I've been loving the sunshine we've had these past few weeks everything in the garden has been loving these warm sunny days but I've noticed a few plants looking a bit droopy so hooray rain, no need to lug the watering can around.

But boo, because now I have no excuse not to catch up on all the housework I've neglected. Also double boo because I'd planned on sowing more veg and doing some much needed pricking out of the veg seedlings fighting for space in my little plastic greenhouse.

This year I'm starting a new veg garden in a stolen part of my mothers garden, the area she's kindly donated to me used to hold a swimming pool (one of those giant upright inflatable things) so digging the ground is seriously hard work and incredibly hard soil so hopefully this rain will soften it up a bit too. Hopefully I can post some before and after photos soon (and hopefully the baby seedling will have a home soon as well).

So I'm off to do some boring housework and then plan my summer bedding schemes after having an exciting day yesterday buying bedding plants. Hopefully the rain will stop later or all my tulips will fall over.