Change over day

The Gunns and Satterthwaites have returned to their homes, so we have one day to change the beds, do the washing, stock up the pantry and fridge, and line up the next lotn of jobs for the lucky visitors... next up Michelle and Mark, due good friday

The pond takes shape

James Pond has had many hands to help shape it. It is a huge nature pond,in Field One, near the poly tunnel and the 4711 orchard.
First David dug a rough outline with the miniture digger ( more playing than planning I think !), then James, Mar3k and Anna dis a bit more shaping, shelf building,forming Tuffey Mound,( a raised shaped area seperating the deeper end from the shallower end, and so named because Anna made the mound and her surname is Tufffey ) and turf removal to make the edges level. Then Michelle and her friend Mark, lined the pond floor with one tonne of soft sand, placed the underfelt ( did you know pond liners need an underfelt ?? I didnt ) and the liner in position, and started filling it with water ( from the mains, still havent got a pump working on the well). Then I managed to buy some water plants, aquatic soil ( ordinary top soil has too many nutrients and will soon turn the pond too soup )and planting baskets on a visit to a garden centre in Basildon, while I was visiting Mum and Dad). David and I managed to plant up the baskets, covering the soil with pea gravel, and then had a challenge to place the water lily in the deepest part of the pond, which just happened to be in the middle. Neither of us was too keen on wading in, though we were not going to own up to this too each other. We decided that it would be tempting fate if we walked on the liner, so had to devise a crafty method, involving threading the plant basket on to a very long piece of twine, walking to opposite ends of the pond, with the basket suspended over the water,then gently lowering the basket to the floor of the pond,and pulling the string back to land. Great fun to work out, and neither of ud got wet or fell in. We have done a bit of tweaking with the levels, by raising some of the edges with more sand under thevegde of the liner, so we have made an area when the water will over flow, making a bog garden. I have put a plant called a Gunera here, it has two leaves each about 6 -8 inches across, but has been known to grow leaves as large as 10 feet broad. Unbelievable, we will be watching and measuring the leaves with interest.
Jackie and Alan ( Not farmer Alan ), who live across the road from us, have some land that runs down to the banks of a river in a village called Saron. When they heard we were busy building a pond, the collected a whole load of water irises and a bucket of water, containing tadpoles and other water beasties, and left them on our doorstep for us. I cant believe how kind people are to us. Any way the tadpoles have been added to the pond, along with a frog that David found swimming in an ols animal trough near the piggery. Jackie needed her bucket back, and David was just busy cleaning the bucket before returning it. Jackie said "the bucket did not need a wash and set", and rushed off with the bucket before he had finished cleaning it. Laugh out loud !!. Anyway, I managed to leave them a bottle of Plum Jam on their doorstep, as a little thank you.We have found loads of plants that are very over crowded on the garden, so have been moving some of them down to the pond, to help it look a little less like a hole in the ground. I guess in a year or two it will look more comfortable in the land.

James and the Giant Plait and Lorraine posts a letter.,

While visiting, James mentioned that he had made a very nice bread plait at school. Well that was an opportunity not to be missed, so before you could say Jack robinson, I had the bread maker busy making a batch of dough, and James was soon enrolled on Penboyrs version of master chef, and was helping to plait a giant bread plait, which he decked with poppy seeds. Once it had proved and was almost climbed out of the tin while it was baked, the tribe set to sampling, and within a few minutes the whole loaf had dissapeared !It was really tasty. Come again soon James.

Lorraine was desperate to post a letter in the post box on our gate post, so first we had to have an expedition to Newcastle Emlyn to find a post card, and a stamp, and then we had to record the moment of posting digitally. Michelle and the Gunns senior were the lucky recipients. After all that excitement and hard wotk, the Gunns were happy to return to civilisation AKA Gidea Park. Funnily enough, they have not yet made another date for visiting. Chickens !!

Dinner at The Blue Bell Inn, darlings.

We decided to have dinner out on Tuesday night with the Gunns. Problem was, being new in the area and not great diners out, we didnt have a clue where to go. In a near by village, Cwnwyl Efford ( pronounces Quin Ell Ef Ord), I had seem a pub called the Blue Bell Inn, and we decided this was going to be the lucky establishment that would be providing dinner for eight. Unfortunately when I called by in the afternoon, the pub was shut, but a sign on the door promised it would be open from 5pm. Yippee. It was about 8pm by the time the rabble were all washed and dressed to go out, so we decended on the Blue Bell. The fact that there was only one dim light burning, and only one bloke sitting on the floor assembling a chair should have warned us that on Tuesday nights, the Blue Bell does not rock.The nice chair assembling man turned out to be the landlord,Mark, and he and his friend Karl, were quite happy to provide us with dinner, and free entertainment. We were presented with the menu, told that there was no gammon, there was only one portion of pasta dish left, and found that the sirloin steak had to be rump steak as there was no sirloin left either.Groceries were due to be purchased the following day. Apparently Mark had told his local supplier of potatoes and carrots that they "stink,really stink", so he might be interested if we can produce saleable produce , sometime soon. Anyway we all managed to find something to eat and drink, and Mark the landlord managed to keep us entertained by telling us all about a gig he was doing at a local hotel the next Sunday. I never really worked out if he did his act dressed as a woman, or as a man pretending to be a woman, or maybe even something else. He was rather proud that his frock for the occasion was covered with sequins.which he assured me he had sewn on himself ( ??) I was too nervous to ask what colour in case he wanted to show me. As always, when you are having a great evening, the ladies needed the loo, so migration en masse was planned, and directions were sort. Mark told us to" wait a minute , darlings " while he minced off to put the lights on in the loo, so we could enjoy the ambiance. Well, what atmosphere! When we arrived at said facilities, it was to find the loo had its very own screen of fairy lights on the wall, and the top of the cistern ( which was sort of beige/brown originally ) had been given a lovely shiny coat of glossy lilac paint . Such style !!Unfortunately the stratigically placed tea towel to dry your hands on spoiled the effect. Not to be out done, the boys shot off to view their facilities, and reported back that their place was covered with saucy postcards.Boys will be boys.
Well it was a great night out, the food was OK and I would definately go again, but not on Tuesday night.

The Big Chop

Well, I can never cease to be surprised. I was wrong about the Tree Man, he was back within a week, to sort the poor old tree out. With a lot of noise of chain saws, a great big shredder, and two good looking blokes in braces and helmets, and the bloke who owned the company, our poor old tree was sorted out. It was amazing to see what a knot the tree had wound itself into over the years. Species still unidentified, age ?? probably at least 50 years by the number of ringd in the trunks. If anyone would like to confirm this for themselves, there are plenty of logs that can be moved to the wood store, where you could count rings in relative comfort.In the end about 2/3 of the tree was removed and shredded, then dumped into field number 2, to make lovely compost. The remaining 1/3 of the tree is still large, and not too bad looking considering the drastic surgery it has undergone. We also have a huge area( about 10m x 3m that hasn't seem day light form a long long time, and might well turn into a shady seating area. Theres also an area of bank that needs covering with plants. I have an idea for this that involves burying planting baskets half way into the bank and planting up with 'self caring', low maintainance plants. I believe the local pound shop does a great range of plastic flowers and foilage. ( Just joking )

The Gunns descend from London

Graham, Lorraine James and Catherine are visiting for a few days... What can we get them to do. Well, Graham was able to help loosen the soil at the bottom of a couple of raised beds for us... no easy task as the ground seems to have baked hard in the sun. Seun was on hand to supervise, and make sure the job was well done. (see photo below).
Lorraine and I were able to fill the raised beds as they were dug, with the turf I removed from the same piece of ground.. feels like that was a waste of time and effort, though no doubt good experience. I could put that on my C V now, quailfied Turf Roller ( read that correctly please) and Mud Crawler.. guess that doesnt have the same ring about it as a mud fighter, but think I am better suited to being a Mud Crawler .After a layer of turf came 6 bags of well rotted compost,then about ten wheelbarrow loads of topsoil. ( did I mention that these are BIG beds, 5m x 1.2m , or 5yards x 1,5yards ( Sort of rough conversion, for the oldies ).Then it was time for tea and cake. Praise the Lord.
James meanwhile was seconded to pond shaping duty. This involved the making of several shelves to rest the water plant baskets on, and a lot of throwing of the ball for Ruby, who dose not seem to recognise the inportance of the task. The pond has been named James Pond (not 007) in recognition of James effort . Catherine was relaxing after several heavy nights out ( in London , before she came to visit) and was making sure the conservatory looked attractive.
After lunch ( 3 pm in Wales ), the comittee of David and Graham ( with a lot of nagging from me ... as I was worried that David would leave the cover for the poly tunnel until we were on our own again) decided that we would " go for it " ie: put the cover on the tunnel frame. A Huge piece of plastic (21m x 39m )was moved into the field and allowed to warm up in the sunshine. Another stalling tactic by the men I feel.Luckily Mar3k and Anna then arrived from Fareham, just in time to have a glass of cool drink, and get a move on with helping us. ragging the cover over the frame was the easy bit, then came the stabilising, the starghtening, the repositioning, the cursing, redoing the stabilising, fiddling, measuring etc etc. Did you just hear a fog horn booming ? I think it said "Boring ,tedious necessary."
Finally, the boys declared the job was done for the day, and we could get back to it tomorrow, Joy.

Back on the Blog

I can't believe that its the middle of May, and I haven't written one word. If I had time, I would give myself lines. Luckily, no time. Now to see if I can update you on all the news and goings on at Llaingof, in the right order. Out with the calender to give a few clues as to what happened when, and the credit card statement to help with what was bought and when. Here goes........