Tonight the sun was still bright and high at 4 o’clock – a noticeable change from the darkest days of December. The chickens don’t want to be locked up until after 5pm, which takes the pressure off if we’re both out in the day. On the flip side, we are greeted with a scolding of squawking and cackling if we have a bit of a lie in and don’t let them out until 9am.

We had our first 100% day last week – 8 eggs from 8 hens – pretty good for January! Dave’s making a helpful dent in our egg stocks by testing cakes recipes for the nursery for the summer. Home-made was a bit beyond our time and energies last year, but if we can get a system going we’ll try and do it.

The nursery reopens in 8 weeks so I’m getting cracking on renovation and improvement jobs now – I don’t want to be digging the place up when the new plant stocks start arriving in January. The display beds have been rearranged, we’ve created an outside work area so we are on hand in the nursery when customers come in and we’ve built a nice smooth, wide ramp into the nursery to make access easier, especially for those on wheels.

And I’m hoping to get a coach parking area sorted before the first groups arive in April, but the budget may not stretch to that.

In the garden we’re pretty much on top. Pete has cleared most of last year’s herbaceous growth and the apple trees are pruned. We’ve created two new borders – one in the grasses garden (which I’ll redesign completely next year) into which I’ll move all the hellebores from the veg plot (I did start digging them out in autumn, but the border wasn’t ready and then everything froze – I promise I’ll do it very carefully!).

We’ve also moved a section of hedge which had a funny dog-leg in it and created a new border at the entrance to the garden. So lots of areas for me to plant up, which I’ll thoroughly enjoy.

Finally – I need to finish creating the new veg area below the chicken shed, for which I have a cunning plan….. Goes by the name of Jools and likes digging, chickens and veg. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

No pics this week – got my new camera lens as the old one broke, but haven’t got round to taking using it yet.

January 25, 2009  
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