J > It’s August 1st, and with the best of summer behind us and autumn waiting in the wings, every manifestation of providence is something to be savoured, both metaphorically and literally.
Continue reading →J & D > Historically, (well, since the 1920s or ’30s), crofters have collected the seaweed from the shore using a tractor : even to this day, many crofters that continue this practice use a trusty old Massey Ferguson. We don’t have a tractor, because we don’t have enough work for it, and we can’t get the tractor to where we need to offload the seaweed. So we use garden forks and wheelbarrows instead of that prongy attachment thingy, our arms and legs instead of a tractor, and we cart it home to in the trailer, then reversing the operation to get the seaweed onto the compost heaps. Hard work, but it keeps us fit!
Continue reading →D > Buff Orpington eggs. One normal, one giant. Could the big one be a double-yolker ?
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J > Now that we don’t keep chickens on the croft, there’s a vacuum that’s being filled by wildlife. Thus are the hollows in the turf-and-rock ramparts of the old stack yard now healing with new grass ; except, that is, one hollow, which has been taken up by a female Lesser Black-Backed Gull.  Whilst her partner patrols overhead, surfing the sea breazes, she has made her nest, laid three spotted-green eggs, and now has two spotted-grey-brown chicks, that are easily missed when they hunker down amongst the bare rocks of the ramparts.
Continue reading →It could be a garden-related art installation : in which case the mass of plastic pots congesting the garden paths would be nicely symbolic of the massive accumulation of pots of various colours, shapes and sizes in the work-shed, upstairs in the storage loft. But if this is symbolic of anything, it’s of the need to liquidate assets in a time of crisis.
Continue reading →D > The last potatoes (roasted) from those we grew last year.  2019’s crop of potatoes wasn’t the heaviest we’ve had, but they stored very well : not a single potato had to be thrown away. Just a short break until the first of the fresh-dug new potatoes!
Continue reading →D > We’ve been lifting and dividing some too-big-for-their-boots phormiums, including a Phormium tenax ‘Sundowner’. When they are mature, the leaves are streaked with greens tinged with brown, red tinged with gold. Young leaves, however, have brighter colouring : the red is nearly pink, the gold is nearer to yellow, and the green has a hint of blue.
Continue reading →A home-grown, home-made lunch that exemplifies our values, and one that’s profoundly satisfying ; though on this occasion there’s a special reason for posting that’s certainly not every day, but is a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Continue reading →J & D > It was back in 2017 that we first made use of material from our Phormium plants [Phormium Tenax – New Zealand Flax] for dyeing wool. The results were impressive – as regards quantity of material available, yield of colour, usefulness of colour, ease of use, and – if tentatively, the all-important colour-fastness, too. But we weren’t sure, then, which part of the plant contained the greatest concentration of colour.
Continue reading →D > Thanks to the coronavirus, we’ll not be selling any preserves this year, so no point in making them. What to do with the fruit? Can you guess?
Continue reading →J & D > It was a long and tedious winter : cold – but never frozen ; windy – but never wrecking ; and never worse than wringing wet. A non-descript, irritating sort of winter.
Thank heavens Spring arrived early, this year!
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