Far Lands

A real coffee table! Just back from a week in Guatemala. A lot of jet lag for some coffee. Coffee is a step too far for Farlands, but out there it is everywhere and it often seems as if it is raining beans. This is largely because their dropping to the ground is magnified by hitting the many corrugated iron roofs. At Farlands we would be thinking hail stones!

Our chimney stacks should now be waterproof. They have been encased in lead by a chap who usually works on churches. We were a low-rise for him! And the new wood stacks are growing; faster than the government's house-building programme. Do they know about the ever-versatile wood pallet?

It's been a good Summer for our walnut trees - the photo shows both whips that we bought. They have been in the ground 18 months now. The ones I grew from seed are much smaller but growing. What is really heartening is that when Mum came to visit a month or so ago she found a couple of walnuts growing on a tree only two hundred metres from here. So, walnuts at Farlands are possible! You can see the four turkeys if you look closely; they are (turkey)-lurking in the background.

It was very windy here on Saturday. At about 5pm I was in the bottom paddock looking for the turkeys; I was about 20 metres from the huge and dead ash tree in the bottom corner when... ...suddenly I heard a mighty crack, and I saw the ash begin to topple. Only to about 60 degrees, but still quite scary. Sunday morning revealed this:- Paul, our fab tree surgeon, came to help. A v tricky felling due to the tree leaning on the BT wire (which you can see above). It's down now. The noise so shocked one of the bantams that it laid an egg. Its first (their first) for 8 months. Taking into account their food, the egg is for sale at £19.50 if anyone's interested.

Cheeky! But at least they are putting on a little weight...

What, or more accurately whose, is this? (On top of the turkey house.) Incidentally, a couple of people have asked if they can have an email when I make a new posting. I tend to post every Tuesday, and if you would like an email update then please let me know.

We have been picking and storing our apples in our new cupboards. Hope Monty Don would approve. Having joined the Northern Fruit Group (NFG), I asked about storing apples with potatoes and tomatoes. Neither is great but storing them with tomatoes is a definite 'No'! Tomatoes give off ethylene and degrade apples significantly (almost as much as storing them with bananas). Sarah has been making jams. Under a pseudonym (Jemima), she entered the village competition with a jar of blackcurrant jam. She won first prize, and insists that there were at least 5 entries. Jammy!