Far Lands

This is a leap year, and today is the extra day! Radio 4 have been running a great article about doing something different to mark the occasion; as Eddie Mair writes "It's a sort of free day - an extra day in life - and we think we should all use it to do something unusual, rather than just let it slip by until the next leap year in 2016". Have a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw So, are YOU leaping today? Possibly even, have you leapt? I have decided to plant a walnut tree! I have planted a lot of other trees recently, but a walnut is very different. It takes such a long time to grow and bear nuts (possibly 15 years), and even longer to reach maturity. Admittedly, I could have cheated by planting a nursery tree, but this is one I have grown from seed (that I brought back from the Pyrenees last year). So, this tree is not really for us. It's part of our understanding that we do not really own Farlands, we are only here temporarily. We see ourselves

Spring is coming. Not only is it much warmer, but I have spotted snowdrops, some emerging garlic and also a handful of bees. I have been increasingly worried about the bees; I keep reading that it is not uncommon for hives to die in the Winter. This was their first Winter, and they will have been unused to the cold and damp - so it's great that at least a few of them have made it. Warmer weather means I can now start developing the smallholding again - I have both the physical but also the mental get-up-and-go! I am still contemplating some major jobs, but in the middle of two: building steps down to the bottom paddock, and replacing the grass in the vegetable garden with chipping.

Farlands is hard during the Winter - and we go away occasionally so I can take off my second pair of trousers and we can go to bed without water bottles. We went back to Cambridge for a long weekend - to celebrate 14th February 1993 when we started going out ! 19 years! We marked the occasion by returning to Brown's restaurant, and also by re-immersing ourselves in student culture - we saw a play, endured an awful comedy Smoker and chatted up some freshers. We returned to Christ's where we took up our dining rights on top table for a splendid evening, and we also investigated our new interests - the famous mulberry tree and the College bee-hives. In fact we did a bit of everything - walked along the Backs, visited the Boathouse, went to Kings evensong and got horribly horribly drunk. Well, not so drunk - I am Captain Sensible these days!

Well not exactly here, but next door. They are v cute, but everyone will have to get over that. Their names help; I keep calling them Bacon, Egg and Chop. Officially, they are Bacon, Sausage and Chop (but they just do not roll off the tongue so well). Ideally (I am hoping) they should be called Black Pudding, Heart and Trotter.

It's a bit warmer here (plus 7C), so yesterday I finished planting the hazel coppice (20 plants in total). It was the first time I had worn only one pair of trousers for about six weeks. If you are wondering, that's inside or outside. The exception was Xmas - we went away. I am reading Jude The Obscure . Enjoying it, partly because every time I pick it up, it makes me think of my nephew, Jude, who is fantastically smiley and blows kisses during Skype calls. But also, because it's Hardy - how about this for a fantastic self-sufficiency simile? (Referring to Christminster, a University town) "...they raise parsons there like radishes in a bed...".

Its grim here today! The temperature is hovering at zero, we are shrouded in low cloud, and there is freezing rain (FR) (last night Eno (BBC NW) got v excited about explaining this phenomena; we blamed it on her being a regional broadcaster, but then Darren Bett (BBC's weather anchor also got v excited). The view from my window looks like this:- Very unusually, I have not yet ventured outside. And the FR means that I'll probably be insulating the loft this afternoon. We might have FR, but we also have BT Infinity, ie very, very quick broadband. I researched this last week, and not being that techie (I am so not techy that I am not even sure how to spell it), I almost fell off my chair when told we could get it, and how fast it might be. Its the result of the big fibre-optic rollout that is occasionally in the news. So, our exchange (New Mills) is now connected to Hayfield via the new fibre-optic cabling, and from there it's (still) copper to the house. I

Quite a big week! Its been cold (-6C on two consecutive nights, and on Friday morning we woke to ice on the inside of our bedroom windows; it made me wonder how eskimos reproduce. Is there a special section of the Anne Summers catalogue?) To combat the cold, I could turn on the heating like normal people. But being on v v expensive oil, and being the only one here, I tend to fight it. I chop a lot of logs. I DSW (see earlier post), I repair fences. And on Thursday I acquired (from a neighbour) about 25 bags of chipping. Lots of spade and wheelbarrow action! My plan is to remove all the grass from our fenced veg garden and replace it with chipping. Had a problem with moles. But, I spotted a cat lurking near our beehive, and the next time I walked past the molehills, I found this:-

Heading this Dry stone walling or DSW (as it's known...perhaps) sounds quite impressive, and suggests I have done some and know something about it.  Well I have done some, but when I showed my efforts to Sarah, she almost fell over laughing. Reminded me of when I built a cupboard at our London flat, and it was so flimsy we could only store toilet rolls in it. Why am I doing DSW. I like moving rocks from A to B? Am I fed up with insulating the loft? No, I've been planting more trees; hazel hedging on the bottom bank where we had the 13 (dying) sycamores felled. We have been having pyschotic sheep climbing up the wall and jumping the fence. Hence, a bit of fence-repairing and DSW.