The English Paysanne

A moment the week at La Singlarie My tomato plants got rot on the bottoms of the tomatoes. The old sows tomatoes are doing really well in her enclosure - I cant believe a pig can grow better tomatoes, she doesn't even do anything to them or eat them. May have to give the veg patch over to her next year!

This is the year of getting rid of the brambles that grow so well around the farm. Like weeds you turn your back (probably for a year or two if truth be known) and your left with a jungle of vicious lengths of brambles that have wound their way round trees and bushes. So we have trimmed, secateured, sheared, pulled, machete and chainsawed (the later two by farmer J not me, not really allowed sharp objects as a few years back i managed to cut through the electric hedge trimmer cable (and live to tell the tale) so best if i stick to secateurs. It is beginning to look a lot tidier, yet to have a bonfire to get pay back for all those thorns that implanted themselves in our skin and scratches left. Farmer J's arms look like he has done a bit of self harming, unlike me who wears long thick suede gloves that come up half way to your elbows, which sadly now have a hole in one finger which i am reminded of each time i wear them he has a girly white leather no...

Most mornings have been frosty with the weather getting colder and staying until March my motivation to get in the veggie patch is nil. I must start soon as there is a lot to do with a new rabbit proof fence to be erected major clean up and putting down manure including emptying the compost heaps which hopefully have amazing compost inside them. Seeds need to be ordered and a plan drawn up - in time all will be done.  It is the time of year for the inseminater to come along for each cow when she comes into season. high tech stuff is in the boot of his car frozen bulls sperm, no need to go into details but his very efficient. Each insemination we get loyalty points, farmer J has just put in an order for new overalls with our points, you can never have enough clean overalls. Breakfast time gets the pigs up, not for long as they often go back to bed shortly after. Each have their individual bowls. It starts off calm then goes very wrong when one finishes first, usuall...

A moment from the week at La Singlarie I got a bit carried away with the weeding this week.

This weekend we had both master C and miss F and her partner Flo back for the weekend, Master C left Sunday afternoon and Miss F and Flo this morning but before they did a bit of work was completed. All over the farm we have brambles growing, some are good that give us blackberries, although these  are now beginning to get a bit out of hand and are in need of a harsh cut back the other brambles we have do no give fruit only hard work and torn arms from removing them. They grow to a certain point when we can stand them no longer or they get in the way and look unsightly this is the time we say enough and start to cut them back. Monday morning farmer J started to hack away with his machete the brambles along the road side near our barn to recover an electric cable which they had grown over. In doing so he unearthed old metal farm machinery. Bearing in mind we have now been here ten years this is the first time it had been seen buried under earth (there is a lot...

In between our top driveway and the small road that cuts between us and our top fields and woods we have a stone bank which since we moved in nearly ten years ago has been left to its own devices. Slowly over the years a few changes have been made, daffodils being planted, a large tree falling down, a pampas grass dyeing after a very cold winter two years ago and with brambles taking over a chunk of it it was time for drastic cut and tidy up. Slowly over the years ivy has started to take over enough to hang over the wall and take hold on and in between the stones, a trailer full was cut and pulled off you know when you think a job won't take to long it always takes a lot longer! Finding a photo from the spring of 2006 was a bit of a shock and embarrassment that we have left the wall so long before a trim. Now it the stone has been exposed with the feature in the wall, which we are not sure what purpose it was built for, it has a ledge in part of it...