Nothing like getting sick to make you stop ... well, sort of, I am doing this ...
I cannot believe 2013, it's been crazy! My bloggy silence has not been from lack of things to say but more, the lack of time to do them. I don't really buy into the whole "I am so busy" mentality but sometimes the universe just throws you some curlies to keep you on your toes and honestly, I'm getting foot cramps here! It's sort of just been one thing after another and me hanging in there with the "just get to the end of the week, just get this finished, all you have to do is make it past x, y ,z ..." self talk.
To be quite frank, I am surprised that I have made it this far. It must be a good sign that my little body is getting bigger and tougher, usually I would have broken before now! Not that I plan on being broken just yet, either, a day or two off should do the trick, hopefully.
So, enough whingebaggin', what's been going on?
Me? I moved house & we moved the family farm. See the nest? That was a hint. Quite a big deal, let me assure you; moving house is one thing (and not one to be sniffed at) but moving a whole working property is something else entirely. I'm just glad that the ultimate responsibility wasn't mine, I was just helping.
In between, there has been flower farming, so here's a catch-you-up:
There's been digging, rotary hoeing and raking: lots of it.
Darling Phil turned up randomly with some paeony plants for me. That's what the picture of the sticks in the ground is. So exciting. We live in a prime paeony growing region here and the first thing all the locals ask me when I say I'm growing flowers, is "Paeonies?" It gives me immense pleasure to reply "A bit of everything really. If it flowers and you can cut it, I'll grow it."
With the help of a delightful volunteer, Yvonne, we've built and planted the "shade" perennial bed. Hellebores, thalictrum, astrantia, Solomon's seal (just a few to start), heuchera, more hellebores, oak hydrangea, fragrant viburnum, snowball viburnum.... I have to keep reminding myself that they're not necessarily going to be pickable this year, or maybe even next, in some cases. That's going to be hard, man, I've never planned this far ahead!
Discovered angle-grinders.
Discovered how to fix ag pipe once you've rotary hoed it and it's spewing water everywhere. Did this all by myself, was pretty impressed.
Installed a greenhouse. Levelled the ground, dug the frame down into it, laid a compacting gravel floor in it - I was on fire that day. It's just a little one but I was losing the war against the field mice who were eating all my seelings :-( The little buggers (and they are tiny) can get through the tiniest of holes or gaps, bait is not an option to my mind and the traps weren't doing the job. By the time I got this dinky lil guy set up, I had already lost trays and trays of baby flowers. Ahhh, the living, the learning.
The bulbs are all showing green now, the freesias are leading the way.
"Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true."
A Course in Miracles