Far Lands

1 One man went to dig, Went to dig a cordon-line, One man and his trug, Doug, Went to dig a cordon-line of fruit-trees. 2 One man (still) went to dig, Went to dig a cordon-line, One man and his trug, Doug, Went to dig a cordon-line of fruit-trees. 3 One man (still just one man) went to dig, Went to dig a cordon-line, One man and his trug, Doug, Went to dig a cordon-line of fruit-trees. 4. One man (still just one man, quite tired now) went to dig, Went to dig a cordon-line, One man and his trug Doug, Is still digging. The details of the digging . . . I am digging 3 new cordons for fruit trees and currently I am halfway through the second. Eventually there should be space for about 50 trees. Each cordon will be11 metres along, and I am digging them in 1-metre sections, one per day. After removing the turf I remove the top soil (putting it in the trug). Then I dig out 3 or 4 half-sacks of stone and very poor subsoil (which gets disposed of - ie dumped behi...

Like a doctor doing his rounds, I have started on the pruning. First, a month or so ago, the raspberries and then over the last week the blackberries, tayberry and blackcurrants. Gooseberries can also be done now or can be left until March when it's time for the red and white currants. With our blackberries I decided on an easier plan this year. Cut down and out anything that has fruited, and then tie back in this year's growth. The photos (same plant) show my beloved Tyn Dwr blackberry (see previous blogs) which has grown up to three metres this year.

Snow fell for the first time this here, and I overheard the turkeys discussing it:- 1st turkey: 'So that's what Miss Smilla has been going on about.' 2nd turkey: 'Both her and Pamuk.'

Last week we almost lost the turkeys. I came home at dusk to find only 2 turkeys (we should have 6) still in the paddock, in the bottom corner next to the gate. When I walked down to them I saw that 2 more were just the other side of the fence. They had flown or jumped over. I climbed over the fence, caught 2 of them and put them back into the paddock. I then heard a flapping noise, and I turned to see, incredulously, that one of the turkeys was on the far side of the river. Somehow it had waddled down to the riverbank, jumped / flown the six feet down to the river, waded / swum the river and climbed out onto the other side. I followed it, waded the river, and somehow managed to capture it. That made 5. As I herded them back up the paddock, head-torch now on, I spotted the 6th. It had settled down for the night on the ground and was rather annoyed at being disturbed. So, we still have 6 turkeys. At the weekend we clipped their (right) wings for a second t...

Winter is now here. Early. We are breaking the ice on the water for the chickens and the turkeys, we are burning our log burner hard and snow is forecast tonight. We decided that a duvet would be a good idea for the bees. Our main colony is in the National beehive (LHS) which is single-walled; the WBC colony (you do the math) is very small and not viable to last until the Spring. Of course, sod's law, they are camped in the double-walled WBC hive.

Summer Pudding with its raspberries and blackcurrants and redcurrants and blackberries is well known, and to a lesser extent so is Autumn pudding (crab apples, sloes, blackberries and elderberries). S'autumn Pudding is even less well known. I invented it a few weeks ago, a hybrid between the two and a name that sounds like you would want some! Anything really goes, but in this one I had blackberries, crab apples, a few elderberries and redcurrants and blackcurrants. I'm hoping it might take off - on the scale of Marlon and the ketchup sandwich (he invented this during an episode of The Perishers if you go that far back).