Busy busy

My, the cricklet season ended five weeks ago with me thinking I could get on with mountains of website work catch up and I’ve hardly stopped! Luckily a fairly high percentage of this has been enjoyable.

A visit to Wales

Last week I spent Tuesday to Friday with my good friends John and Val Harrison at their Smallholding in north west Wales. With a view of the Irish Sea at the front and a vista of Snowdonia at the back, this appealed exactly to my scenic tastes.
One place I’ve said I would visit for about the last 35 years is Portmerion, the backdrop of the famous and cult series ‘The Prisoner’ and Val kindly drove me there to fulfil my ambition.
Like many thing’s you leave for a long time before doing something, I had a slight fear it would not be how I thought it was and maybe feel a bit let down, but this certainly was not the case, I totally enjoyed it and wondered with the character and the vision of it all. A bit like a Rolling Stones Concert, there were people there to see it because of the TV series who weren’t even born when it first came out!

Portmerion on the left with John, Val and myself on the right

John and Val, who between them run the Allotment Growing Site and write books on Vegetable Growing, Jam / Chutney Making, were as active as ever. There’s a very good Book deal at the moment and you can view it here.

Working for extra money

I’ve spent a few days at a very large property building a patio base to put a wrought iron folly type thingy on. This is another example of hope for downshifters. It’s work I have never done before, but have found I can do it! Something else for the CV so to speak.
After I’ve finished that this week, I’m digging a Pond. That’s not so bad, it’s erecting the 7 feet high fountain system in it which could be the challenge.

These two jobs will hopefully see through the Christmas spend which is not far away.

The Garden and all that’s in it!

I’ve done quite a bit of clearing up in the Chicken Run, basically getting ready for the winter and colder month’s ahead. After last Christmas Day’s disaster and the fox climbing over a ‘leaning weighted down by snow fence’ and taking all 6 chickens, I’ve double checked the security more.
Although I’ve found that chicken’s survive better in winter than in summer, we must remember the detail like freezing water supply and a bit of extra comfort for our Hen’s. There’s a very helpful Forum thread about this. See here.

Two night’s of frost soon saw off the greenery of the Runner Bean leaves and Courgette plants. Luckily all had been harvested before this. It was interesting read in various Newspaper websites and seeing last weeks Gardener’s World that Squash and Pumpkins have had a bad year, mainly due to early hot weather followed by a wet and cooler summer. This has happened with my Squash and I’ve had to cut them all off about three inches into the Stem and put them in the Greenhouse to hopefully ripen.

Otherwise, I’ve still plenty of Apples to be had, I have a load of Quinces being used in Crumbles then frozen plus I’m hopefully going to find a use for the Medlars which in abundance accross the Lane.

A day out in Hastings and on the right, two of my Cats as found each morning when I arise!

Yet more social activities

Beside going to Wales last week, I’ve met up with family in Hastings for a day, this involved general ‘kiss me quick’ type duties which once in a while, go down well with the system!!
Just before that I had a family meet up in London and have another one coming up this weekend in Sevenoaks (what I call ‘Posh Kent’ !!).
After that I’m off to Southampton for a few days with the family and their plethora of Pets. I enjoy walking around Victoria Park in Netley and having a dog to walk does make for feeling a little less conspicuous. It’s a shame, but understandable situation that a bloke walking alone is treated with awareness.

Outside of Kent, this year I’ve gone by train to John O’Groats, cycled to Land’s End, come back home on the train and now travelling to Wales and back makes my total mainland UK mileage not far off 3,000 !! A feat in itself maybe, but what it has done is showing me that by going off the beaten track a bit and meeting all the wonderful characteristic people out there, this Country of ours still has much to offer, even on the occasional rainy day!

I’ve just looked in my November Diary and I have one day planned – I wonder how many that will end up as! Viva life!!