January Snow

Expecting a spattering of snow, we made a few half hearted preparations... Getting in a bit more wood in, buying an extra pint of milk. We just about made it home on Friday before the road became impassable and watched the snow fall and fall and fall! On Saturday we woke to 26cm of snow magic. So, a weekend of helping a friend with a new turkey house  and making a wind break for our apiary turned into an indoor weekend with a few forays out to care for hens and to enjoy walking in the snow.

Snowy weather calls for a bit of comfort cooking so made  two stews and a cake. Good old Delia's Last Minute Mincemeat Christmas Cake is a great recipe and I always change it according to how much mincemeat I have left and chuck in all sorts of odds and ends of fruit and nuts left from Christmas.  I think its what a 1970's cookery book would call a Farmhouse Fruit Cake, pictured with a Laura Ashley apron, terracotta pot and wooden spoon. This is the first time I have cooked it in the Rayburn and my official cake taster informs me it's the best ever. Now I am getting used to how to control the heat, I think it is the most amazing oven. The kittens think so too and have their own special place in front of the fire box, the warmest spot in the house!

Our hens got stranded in the field when it started to snow on Friday so they have tended to stick to the henhouse since. Glad the attached run has a felted roof. Photos of paddock and kitchen garden at first light.

Since its not possible to do any gardening I am off to grow some oyster mushrooms!

30th October 2012-13th January 2013

We sold our previous house in August and almost immediately saw Ty Hen Cottage, realised it was ideal for us and after a little negotiation the sale was agreed and we moved here amid much excitement. We had been living in an ex local authority house with one of the best views on Anglesey and reasonably sized gardens where we had a greenhouse, cold frames, chickens, vegetables, soft fruit and lots of flowers but we had outgrown the space and fancied the challenge of trying to grow more of our own produce, keep more poultry and somewhere to keep our bees (the hives are kept elsewhere as we were too close to our neighbours thoroughfare!).

So we now have a smaller house but we have a kitchen garden, flower garden, outbuildings and a paddock with a myriad of sheds! The first few months have passed very quickly and a quick run through will suffice as this blog will be my diary of growing stuff really and there hasn't been too much of that going on apart from tending everything I brought with me and sowing the sweet peas a couple of days after we moved in.

So, 2 months in we have extended the raised beds in the kitchen garden, removed van loads of unwanted items from the field, renovated a chicken house complete with automatic door on a timer (luxury!), learned a bit about cooking on a wood burning Rayburn, killed an enormous number of rats, acquired two kittens, started work on the track to our house, decorating, bookshelves and major hedge cutting and now it all feels like we are moving forward with our exciting project. I shall get the propagator set up  soon and begin the seeds!