Sweet, savoury and super stretchy...

Well, winter is most definitely making it's presence known! Cue wellies, bare branches and frozen eggs to collect first thing in the morning...

My wellies are particularly fabulous this year (thanks to D being far too generous for my birthday) - they are honey bee themed Joules wellies and some of the cost went towards the National Bee association.

With the days almost as dark as the nights it's hard to feel the motivation to do anything much and work in and out of The Keep has slowed dramatically now that we only really have the weekend daylight hours to utilise. Can't say it's looking too shabby round here anymore though -  even managed to collar a window cleaner last week, so the old house is looking far more polished than she has in some time.

I've taken to making things during the long evenings. Not just any old things ofcourse, I'm doing a lot of sewing in order to stock pile lots of craft-type-bits with a view to hit the craft fairs next year and sell my wares and, if you follow The Chook Hook on instagram you will know, I have been experimenting with some recipes too.

These are a few of the 'christmas pockets' I've been putting together - they all get strung together to create a bunting that you can put little treats in. Ofcourse ours will probably have dog treats in them rather than the chocolates most people would shove in there!

Vegan Mushroom risotto:

1 cup Arborio rice
1 pint (ish)Vegetable stock
1 table spoon Garlic oil
Woodland mushrooms (yes they are worth the money)
White wine - a good glug
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegan cream if you feel you need it extra creamy (I do!)

Beetroot Hummus:

1 tin chickpeas
2 cooked beetroots
1 clove garlic
a drizzle of oil

Blend it up and you've got hummus for a whole week.

Spiced Pumpkin and Sweet potato soup:

Half a small pumpkin (roasted)

2 decent sizes sweet potatoes (roasted)

1 1/2 pints vegetable stock

1 small onion

chilli powder

Paprika

Black pepper

Salt

(seasonings all to taste)

A short while after making the soup using my new blender, I was gifted a soup maker by my mother-in-law-to-be and, honestly, it cuts out pretty much all of the hard work. Smooth soup in less than half an hour - you just bung all of the ingredients in. When I've racked up a few good recipes I'll list them on here for you to try.

It has been a few weeks of really finding a rhythm to life again. No more just getting by, but rather gaining some ground and having time to invest in the small things that, inevitably, make the world of difference. For example, we've switched from driving several miles out of our way to the nearest farm shop to get our usual supplies to ordering in bulk online. I know, 'what a travesty!' I hear you cry. And to a certain extent I do agree... I am a big believer in keeping things local and supporting local people providing local goods. However, common sense stepped in and the money we now save warrants the move to an online provider. Not only that, but the bedding and food we now get for the chickens is better quality than the more expensive stuff we were running through petrol to go and collect. It comes right to the door - it was a no brainer. 

Another investment, that I think is going to make coop cleaning much, much easier is this bad boy...

200 feet of stretchy hose!! That astroturf is going to wish it spat chicken poo from it's own surface once it gets the 'magic hose' treatment. 

It is what most people would call 'the run up to Christmas' now and it can often be a real burden if, like me, you are the designated gift chooser/buyer/wrapper/sender. This year though I've decided to take a more standoffish approach to the season of tinsel, over spending and turkey-with-everything. For starters I'm vegan now so turkey is well off the menu (I will post about the whole Vegan thing at some point), Presents will be absolutely minimal with as many handmade ones as I can make between now and the big day and I've seen some beautiful tinsel up for grabs in my favourite charity shop... Don't get me wrong I LOVE Christmas. My dad and I spent many a freezing cold, super excited, December weekend putting up lights on the outside of our house when I was growing up and I have only ever had one job (for one miserable year) where I had to work during the Christmas break ( honestly it's just dreadful, they should close all shops/ factories etc for atleast 4 solid days!!) 

It's a time of year I really feel should be valued, a time to consider the people and places and 'things' that make you truly happy and grateful to be on this planet. When you really think about it those things very rarely come wrapped up, or cost money or need a honey glaze... I for one will be celebrating Christmas with an incedibly thankful heart after the support we have received this year and safe in the knowledge of my plans to pay it all forward over and over again in the years to come. I've got lots of volunteering lined up and plenty of plans to live and promote a much more economical, ecological way of life. Just like a good Christmas dinner, it's all in the prep!

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

28 years old and weirder by the day.

So, it was my birthday this week. Of course my birthday is in October - you didn't expect any different surely? And spoilt I have most certainly been with an amazing pair of honeybee themed Joules wellies that will get plenty of wear over the coming months, some beautiful designer chicken cups and money that I have spent most of buying a blender. Odd maybe, but I can't stop thinking about making home-made (and eventually home-grown) hummus, so there we go.

Twenty eight... too young to be taken overly seriously in many of the circles I'm trying to edge myself into and yet too old to not take what I want to do with my life as seriously as possible in order to get somewhere close to achieving my urban farming dreams. Therefore, I guess I will just carry on doing things the only way I know how - my crazy, make do and mend, lets get more animals right now, yes of course we have room for a cow, eating raw veg straight out of the ground, I'll just help myself to this thing you chucked out 'way'!

The girls have been treated to some seasonal treats this week - if i get to indulge on pumpkin flavoured everything then so do they.

I always think birthdays are a time to reflect on the year that's passed and think about the year to come. In my case that has generally meant analysing what grew well where on the veggie patch and what didn't so that I can change it up next time where it might be of benefit. This coming year is a little different though as, amongst all of my plans for my backyard farm, I'll also be preparing for our wedding... We finally decided to tie the knot! In October Of course!

I tracked down a fabulous lady based in Derbyshire that creates the most stunning vintage hairstyles and knew from the moment I saw her work that I wanted her to do my hair for our special day. I was lucky enough to have a trial run on my birthday.

When I did sit and think about the last year, all I could think was that it's the hardest and fastest I've ever moved forward in my life. Always one for clinging to the past, old ways and habits, ideals and a love for all things 'back in the day', I've never been one to want to move on all that much... but in 12 months I've moved counties, moved jobs twice, bought and renovated a house, I've got more thoughts and plans for the future now than ever before. I look back and see it all as humble beginnings to my now overwhelming ideas for the months and years to come - it was a rocky but good start, now lets be serious and do something worthwhile, let's make an impression, create something awesome and healthy and good. That my friends is why we are here surely?

With my new blender waiting to be used for the first time I hope I will get chance to post a little recipe this week - even if it is just hummus. I'm toying with the idea of hurrying up getting the second chicken pen up before winter gets here - Smallholder magazine reports this is the best time of year to add to your flock  (not that I really needed another excuse!) so i may be posting about some new recruits before too long.

I'm entertaining family this week, so will finally get to showcase how far The Keep has come since it was floor-less wreck. I wonder if they'd like hummus with their tea... have i mentioned hummus?...

Come rain or shine it'll still be mine.

G

The settling in period...

It would be wholly stating the obvious to say it has been a very long time since I managed to post anything,. So, let it be known that there shall never be such a long break between posts going forward - the internet is now live, I have atleast one room in which I can sit comfortably and I'm starting to gather some 'free time' amongst all the sorting out going on, so there it is, no excuses!!

Given that it has been a while since I last bought everyone up to speed, I'll try to make this one as juicy as possible and then keep it as regular as an old lady on the old prune syrup from now on!

The Keep itself has shaped up like quite the homely little home. The living room, or snug as I like to call it when I have my snob head on, is pretty cosy. OK, the log burner is yet to materialise in the fireplace and we still have newspaper for curtains, but now that Autumn has arrived I've managed to enjoy some evenings wrapped up on the sofa with a candle or two burning and a complete lack of moving boxes in the way of my peaceful moment. Amazing what a bit of leg room can do for the soul...

One of the things that has made life feel a bit more 'real' again is finally having a functioning oven. Five weeks, yes really, 5 weeks we were without an oven or even a hob so the first time I got to turn one of the knobs and watch the gas ignite I was mesmerised. All hail the burning, oil spitting, alarm sounding, terrible, fantastic thing that is fire!!

Still no working extractor though I hasten to add...

It shouldn't be too long before I start posting some of my favourite recipes with any luck.

While we have been busy working on the inside of The Keep, my girls have been busy making the outside their home and getting the job done while they have been at it. I got an egg the very first day they came home from their stint at the chicken hotel - can't complain at that.

One of the Orpington cross's got in first with this little beauty.

A lovely gift from some good friends - a worthy egg basket if I ever did see one.

I've made some changes already to their new home and I'm sure I will keep making them as they let me know what isn't working for them and I work out what will make my morning routine a little easier.

Inside the house I've put high and low perches in - as my girls are a mixed bunch I found that some of the less flighty ones were sat on the floor at night as they didn't want to flap up to the higher perches. I've got some buckets that cost me just £1 as nest boxes at the minute but I hope to trade them in for a proper nest box eventually.

A big old plant pot on it's side is playing the role of a dust bath currently - again it will no doubt get traded in for a better model.

I invested in a new feeder and drinker - both save me time, are more hygienic and save any waste should it rain.

I put some logs from the old tree in as day time perches for preening - just to add a bit of something to the coop really. I hang cabbage etc off these as treats - seems to be going down a storm with my little flock.

The one thing that is not living up to expectation is the astro-turf we laid in the chicken coop. Yes it is keeping things far more dry than ever before, but cleaning it is becoming a real chore. We initially intended to 'blast' it off every other day with a hose, which I still think will work well and allow me to keep things clean. However, our current hose is no where near long enough to reach the coop and, on calculating, we need one that's around 120 feet long... It's left me no choice but to brush it off as regularly and as best I can until our budget allows for a new hose. The jury is out on this one - I'll update as we go.

I have big plans for the coop - adding atleast one more and really showcasing them as 'urban farm' prototypes. Hopefully we'll make it work and get it set up in a more workable fashion.

I'm still like a magpie - constantly picking up things that nobody wants anymore and making them work for me. Just this week one of my neighbours left out an old ottoman, so ofcourse I couldn't help myself, I bought it home, re-upholstered it and it is now our bedding store!

I must be getting a name amongst our neighbours - one of them knocked on our door the other night saying they had noticed me admiring a vase outside their front door if I wanted to help myself to it... I guess there's worse things than a thrifty mind and artistic eye to be known for.

One thing I really wish I had posted about when it actually arrived  is Autumn. My very favourite time of year. A time of harvest and chilly air and fires in the back garden and beautiful scenery... it's just magical - on par with a snowy Christmas (if they even exist anymore!). Our new home has not failed to provide all of the above and I find some of my most cleansing moments are simply walking the dogs on the park or by the canal and taking in all the lovely sights and sounds. They seem to enjoy it too.

With plenty still left to do inside the house before my own personal deadline of Christmas, I'm sad to say the garden has taken a sorry second place in the priority stakes.With the nights drawing in, I don't get many daylight hours in which to really crack on with it. I've taken to mentally mapping the vegetable patch, working out where each raised bed will sit, what will go in it and what it's neighbouring bed should have in it to compliment it. I know I want to pack as much into that little plot as humanly possible and this time next year I want mental mapping to be long forgotten and carrying my edible garden, still producing, through the winter to be the reality. Having unearthed a lot of my most inspirational books - the likes of 'The Thrifty Forrager' by Alice Fowler or ' The River Cottage Cook Book' by our Hugh, or Even an old little book called 'First Buy A Field' that my mum knew I would love when she gifted it to me - I am brimming with ideas and motivation, I just need a new year with which to nurture every single one of them.

So, while all at The Keep continue to settle in, I do hope some of you get to enjoy everything this stunning time of year has to offer. It is the years' last hurrah before what is often a very miserable and soggy winter. I for one adore these days every year and fill them with chilly morning dashes out to open the chicken shed door, evenings in with a good book and as many pumpkin spiced anythings as possible!

With a promise to post far, far more regularly now that we are achieving some sort of normal again, I bid you a delightful start to the beginning of the end of the year.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

In, out, in, out, shake it all about...

Total nightmare!! We have had no internet for the better part of three weeks!! I go around thinking I have a very old head on young shoulders and that modern conveniences, like ordering online and looking up 'how-to' videos on You tube, are merely things I use to fill my day when I'm not doing far more important things like cleaning out chickens and watering plants. Apparently not...

Even more tragically, it has meant that I have been unable to update you all on what has been going on at the Keep for ALMOST A MONTH!! Furthermore, you will have to wait a little longer for a photo-based update as I am currently sat by the broad side in Norfolk enjoying a well deserved holiday and not at home in the chaos of the The Keep. Let me explain...

Over a year ago we booked our annual holiday to Potter Heigham in Norfolk where myself and D join my Dad and stepmum by the river to get some R and R and do a spot of fishing. Back when we booked it we obviously had no clue we were going to take on a big renovation project and cut it right down to the wire regards a moving in day. Several times over the last few weeks we were certain we would have to pull out of the as The Keep was reaching new heights of disaster-dom and time away felt like an impossibility.

Fast forward to a cancelled house sitter, a desperate search for somewhere for all the animals to stay, an incredibly stressful late night move-in, a five hour journey to our riverside-rental cottage and all I can do is sit here, chocolate oatcake in hand and wonder how on earth we actually did any of it.

I suppose the most important thing is, we are in. Properly, officially in with all of our worldly goods piled high and our bed squished in amongst packing boxes. IN. And for a moment it was fan-bloody-tastic - we were home after 18 months of not having one of our own.

Ofcourse, things are never that simple are they... After a manic few hours after work making sure everything was out of the half way house and in at The Keep we looked forward to finally getting to use our beautiful new shower and settling down for the night. The dogs and I gathered in the bathroom to witness D go first and share in the glorious moment we had gotten all giddy about. Glorious, however, is not the word I will ever use to describe that first evening. The water shooting with great ferocity out of the shower head only ran either freezing cold or scalding hot (picture D dancing about in the shower cubicle trying miserably to find some sort of medium heat). It then coursed down the glass side panel and straight out of the entry to the cubicle and on to the new bathroom floor. To add insult to injury, the down pipe of the shower was pulsing out water too, so after we'd cursed it all and messaged the bathroom fitter I reluctantly ran a bath. I'd so wanted to savour my first big bubble bath, I've wanted a roll top bath since I was little, but needs must and we both had a quick rinse in it filled just half way up.
Wanting nothing more than to fill our bellies and get some sleep, we padded downstairs to put some tea together. Which is when we discovered that the shower had also leaked into the freshly plastered and decorated kitchen ceiling.

I didn't care what we had to do we were going on holiday after that.

I took the chickens to a local poultry breeder who hires pens out at £3 per pen per night with food and bedding - Pages Poultry in Burton on trent, she's a lovely lady and welcomed my girls with open arms should anyone else require the same service.

D's mum has been brilliant, especially considering she has two dogs of her own, and had both of ours for us while we are away. I've had daily 'dog diaries' with videos to show me how much they are definitely not missing us.

More carpets are being fitted while we are out of the way and of course the shower is being fixed, which means we should go back a slightly more liveable situation.

When I think about it now I realise it should be no surprise to anyone, particularly me, that I have gone on to buy a house by some sort of water - I've been coming to visit the Norfolk broads my whole life and always love it. I'm going to use our time here to regroup, work out a priority list for when we get back and remember why we took on The Keep in the first place. Life sort of starts again when we get back and intend to make that a life I rarely feel I need a holiday from.

Come rain or shine (or leaking shower) it'll still be mine.

G

The last mile home is always the longest...

So, I'm not going to bore you with further apologies for my lack of posting over the last week or so - I'm just going to make up for it with a super-duper picture-full update post to get us all back up to speed!

I'll start by letting you know that my new day job definitely has all the promise of a good decision - hurrah! There was a little 'hiccup' with my start date though and it meant I was a week out of work... not good for our pockets, but good for making unexpected progress at The Keep. I got up every morning as if I was going to work and got on with the multitude of little jobs that had begun to form a job mountain towering above us with no view of the top. 8 hours a day, every day for a week had an amazing impact on the 'to do' list and come the weekend I had cleared the way for bigger jobs to take precedent.

One of the 'little jobs' that took up what felt like most of those hours was finally painting the main chicken shed that lovely duck egg blue colour I chose all those weeks ago.

The unassembled but finished article.

As the shed was originally that delightful shade of burnt orange that is most popular with cheapo shed owners the world over, I did have to undercoat the whole thing in white emulsion and then paste it with three coats of the duck egg blue... Needless to say, should I ever have to paint anything this particular shade of blue again I might have a paint induced breakdown. 

In between the drying stages of each shed panel, I cleared the area where the main coop will be.

Before I set to work...

Once I'd got it cleared...

Now that the posts have been put in.

The area is about 15ft by 12ft. We are installing a simple 'gutter' system around it's perimeter as we are laying astro-turf over concrete slabs for the coop floor and want to be able to hose it off regularly to keep the area nice and clean for the girls. Astro turf? I hear you cry - well yes. After years of watching all of our chicken coops be pecked down to bare earth, boggy to the point of becoming ankle deep sludge and down right stinky, we've learned the hard way that conventional methods don't work for small time coops. So for aesthetic purposes and for the health and happiness of our chickens we're opting for astro turf. I guess 6 months from now I can update you on exactly how good that decision has been...

While I did my best to do everything that nobody had either the time or job spec to do, the decorator, builder, bathroom fitter and carpet fitter went to town on the house.

Our all but entirely finished bedroom including carpet!

Though our spare bedroom lacks the carpeted finish, we think the fab bookcase wall paper makes up for it!

All that's left to do in the living room is give the newly sanded floor a lick of varnish, then add a sofa, two snoozing dogs a crackling fire and hey presto! 

Though our kitchen is not being fitted for several weeks yet, we've at least had the oven surround installed - so overjoyed to come home to this masterpiece this week.

Does anyone remember the dark hovel that was the original bathroom? Flip back a few posts and you should see some pictures. THIS Could not be further from it, just look at it....

Just look at it...

JUST LOOK AT IT!....

Honestly, these pictures don't come close to doing the transformation of the The Keep justice. It really is incredible and we have a lot of really hard working people to thank for it. Everyone we have hired to work on our new home has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make all the little details just right. As soon as the hot water is back on there is not a power on earth that will keep me from that stunning tub!!

We only have a couple of weeks to get as much finished as we can before we have to move in. The rental agreement on the half way house is up, our fellow house mates are shipping out to Cornwall to start their own adventure and the bottom of the money pot has officially been scraped. The time has come for us all to find our rightful places. 

My chickens can rest on their perches safe in the knowledge that their swanky blue shed awaits, my dogs can snooze dreaming of walks by the canal and nights in front of the fire, I can lay my head on my pillow and cast my mind ahead to days of sowing seeds and posting recipes from my own edible garden and D can rest his weary, weary head and know that he gave everything he had to create himself a home and, in turn, create his queen her castle.

We are so very close. This last mile, the last push, is going to be the most testing but transforming of times and I just know the days are going to be gone in a blink.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: "It always seems impossible until it is done".

Come rain or shine it'll still be mine.

G

,                              

There's a monkey on my wall and other first world problems...

Firstly, I must apologise if you tuned in last week only to realise I hadn't posted anything new - it's no excuse, but 'busy' doesn't even come close to describing the schedule we've dealt with over the last 14 days. Amongst everything else, I've also been trying to secure a new job... Thankfully I got the one I was rooting for, so let us go forth with a renewed sense of achievement and confidence in the next steps.

It's been a horribly sweaty couple of weeks hasn't it? Even if I hadn't spent an inordinate amount of time steaming off wallpaper and painting walls and scrubbing floors I would have felt the oppressive humidity that has enveloped Britain of late. I know it's so terribly British to complain about the weather - particularly hot weather! - but it really has been sleep-deprivingly hot and sticky... I like to drink water not breathe it in! It has just made a very busy and trying time even more frustrating.

Some of the friendlier chickens got to clean up and cool down in a nice bubble bath...

Bubba found the coolest spot in the half-way house... bathroom floor was it apparently!

Things are coming on in leaps and bounds at The Keep though, so much so that the decorator has been in and we have some entirely decorated rooms! I admit I did argue the case for not having a decorator - I've painted enough walls in my life to think I know what I'm doing enough not to entirely mess it up, so when D suggested it I poo-pooed it straight away. He persuaded me though and I am entirely glad he did. Our bathroom is now stunning, that's the only word for it. What was a dark hovel-like room with a hole in the floor is now a fresh but dusky grey sanctuary, it has a beautiful soft 'shabby-chic' floor and is having the new suite fitted this week. I honestly could not be happier with that room.

A sneak peak before the bath and shower goes in...

Our bedroom has also been completely decorated, including a vintage inspired, wallpapered feature wall. Or at least that was what it was supposed to be... As with everything at the Keep, the paper was pondered over for some time, many samples were hustled out of DIY stores and colours were matched with tester pots and material swatches. In short, we thought long and hard about what we wanted the last thing we see before we close our eyes at night to be. So, imagine my reaction when, after all that forethought, we finally get to see this masterpiece installed on our bedroom wall and there's a monkey, yes seriously, a monkey in the pattern!! 

Monkey say, monkey do...

Peeved. I am somewhat peeved. It laughs at me every time I curse it's little face, it says 'silly girl, you should have stuck to growing veg and fannying about with chickens, you know nothing of interior design...' Damn monkey...

It has a point though. I am good at growing veg and raising chickens and I want to be getting on with exactly that. There's very little in the house for me to do other than clean up after workmen and the decorator, so I have been promised that the next few weeks can be more focused on the garden. My new job should mean more time to spend on my back yard farm project and I hope to start posting more regularly on what this blog was really meant to be about - the life and times of a backyard farmer. The truth behind what it takes and the struggles you encounter. But, most of all, the utter joy I get out of it. 

I feel, at least, like I have taken some pretty big strides forward since I last posted and that I have made some sound decisions that should benefit our future at The Keep. D is tirelessly doing everything the contractors don't do and I pick up the pieces around him. Money's tight, time is tight and there is a sense that we are really suffering for our cause at the minute - but it feels good. The roots are taking hold.

With plenty of change afoot, I feel strangely cool and confident, sure that things are taking a turn for the good. You know what they say, chop your own wood and it'll warm you twice.

Now to get that monkey off my back...

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

Reap what you sow...

My seeds arrived!! Those satisfyingly tiny pips are my first investment into my new back garden (if we excuse the fence) and they have unleashed a flow of excitement in me that I just can't seem to stem. I am woman, I will grow things!

Funny, for the first time in the history of me growing things, that I should get so excited over flower seeds - I am definitely on 'team veg' when it comes to the world of horticulture, only really choosing the seeds or bulbs that promised the biggest, brightest or craziest of fruits. Given, however, that I am going to have a bee colony on my backyard farm I thought it best I get to grips with flowers and try to recognise that they are just as important to this new edible garden as any purple sprouting broccoli may be.

Of course I've opted for the most exotic, intricate looking blooms I could find... they're something I can't even pronounce but they have vivid dark petals and lovely, protruding yellow trumpets burgeoning with nectar, so thought they would be a good start. There was method in my madness too though - they're hardy perrenials so should, with any luck, come back every year without much effort on my part! I like a lot of 'bang for my buck' so what I've bought plus some luxurious looking peonies should get the ball rolling in the right direction.

It's all these little decisions that are taking up most of our time at the minute. What colour should this wall be? What type of flooring shall we have in here? Papered or plastered? It's right what they say, the devil is in the detail. With things moving way too fast for our income to cope, we're making spur of the moment decisions and I can only cross my fingers and hope that they are the right ones. We are so focused on doing The Keep Justice and making sure our own stamp is well and truly marked on it that I sometimes wonder if we should dress up like war veterans and paste ourselves on the walls -vintage, quirky and an expression of ourselves - exactly the look we are going for!

We made the decision to collect some of our things from the lock up and move them over to The Keep so that, when the actual move in day arrives, we wont have that much 'stuff' to shift. We collected the vegetable trugs, some garden gates we'd (thankfully) had the forethought to keep and of course the all important chicken shed. The item that really struck me though, as it was hauled through the doorway on what was an incredible rainy day, was our new oven.

The oven was gifted to us by my old employer, it's a modern range and I fell in love with it the minute I started working for him. He closed his doors one sad day last year but he gave me the oven as a farewell - I know, what a legend. It has been in storage ever since. So to see it even near the kitchen in it's untouched glory was a bit mind boggling. I, G, the woman who has spent the last 18 months living with family and in half way houses, has an oven, a real life oven with which to cook and it is pending instalment in a brand new kitchen which is also mine... It was one of those moments where something twigs and you think 'oh crap I forgot I'm an adult' and I have a mortgage and I do adult things like own an oven'.

I can't imagine what I'm going to be like when I get to buy knives and forks...

With so much going on I think I may start posting in picture form - mad snapshots of the daily craziness that this project provides. One most assuredly should be of myself and the plasterer dancing to his odd Romanian music with wall scrapers held aloft in place of cans of beer... It's definitely been educational this little journey!

Have a pleasant week all.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

Inspiration and installation...

I spent this weekend over at my mums. It was a lovely break from the constant stream of goings on at The Keep and an inspiring one at that. We spent most of Sunday having a tea and cake filled snoop around other peoples fabulous gardens thanks to the 'open garden' events that the NGS organisation put on. They are charitable events and you basically turn up on the doorstep of the advertised addresses, pay a few quid to step through the gate and off you potter around someone else's back yard creation - genius really.

Having, rather ashamedly, never done it before I wasn't sure what to expect, but got a genuinely pleasant surprise. In a way it takes quite a lot to open your garden to complete strangers - it would for me anyway, I'd worry about the critics who'd want to comment on what I was getting wrong... - but these gardens were just amazing. Truly, they were... well maybe the pictures show you a little of what I'm gushing about.

One particular garden was how I always imagined 'the secret garden' to be - lots of little nooks and crannies and hidden bits that just had to be discovered. Another was a continuous festival of smells, it was like the owner had made it their mission to give you a different scent at every turn. Roses flowed into honeysuckle then into lilies, nothing overpowering it's neighbour, just complimenting each other perfectly. Then there was a vegetable patch Monty Don himself would have envied... The whole event was a feast of inspiration and started ordering I seeds as soon as I got internet connection again.

While I whiled away my weekend taking note of every flower, fruit and fern that caught my eye, D kept the ship sailing back home and I returned to a house that now has rooms I hardly recognise. A stunning new fireplace now sits proudly in what will be our living room, complete with an aged sleeper mantle and space for a little log burner. Our Bathroom, having been re-plastered, has it's brand new suite waiting to be installed. We now only have one room left to strip and skim before the whole house has been taken back to the brick and made good. At one point last week you could stand on the earth that was beneath the old kitchen floor and look all the way up, through the holes in the floors and ceilings right into the rafters of the roof. The Keep has no secrets from us, we've seen it's bare bones. Moving in has become an idea based firmly in reality now rather than in pipe dreams and I get butterflies just imagining it.

So, I've promised myself that, when we are fully established, when I've got the garden the way I want it, OK maybe not fully matured but a clear, beautiful work in progress, I'm going to make cake by the shed load, put a £2.50 entry fee on my gate and invite strangers round to have a look at what we came up with! Just because maybe someone like me will pop round, they'll ooh and arrrr at the flowers and run their fingers over the leaves and take from my garden something they might imagine in their own.

Inspire others to install something beautiful on their own little patch... I like that idea.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine (really soon too!)

G

In or Out...

It would be hard to post this week without at least mentioning the result of the EU referendum. Whether your vote was for In or Out I think most would say they were shocked by the outcome. As someone who’s new home lost 10% of its monetary value overnight I felt somewhat abashed by the result and wholly guilty when talking to my lovely Romanian plasterer - lets face it most people voted with immigration issues at the forefront of their minds.

 Under different circumstances I may well have voted out, I get that Britain could be stronger as an independent unit and it certainly might cut some of the red tape that surrounds farming and animal rearing, but right now ‘Brexit’ is a wasp at my proverbial picnic and it has stung.

Anyway, onwards...

Far more important to me are the changes to our little slice of the pie. As I type this our builders are laying our new kitchen floor – an actual real, solid floor that you can actually walk on!! We have smooth, glossy, freshly plastered walls in our bedroom and bathroom simply awaiting a coat of well-chosen paint. A whole portion of the garden is now weed free and it’s genuinely starting to look like something we can live in. We are there so often now that the dogs turn in straight through the gate rather than carrying on up the street to go back to the ‘half way house’ when we go for a walk. It’s nice, it’s like we are already settled to some extent.

With our countdown to move in day still ticking, I find myself getting frustrated with the day to day running of the here and now. I noticed a leak in the chicken house last week and hastily retrieved some unwanted plastic sheeting from work to patch the roof - really?? It couldn't hold out just a few more weeks??! My car needed new front tyres before they got so bad I was heading for an accident - £60 we could have used elsewhere! I'm all too aware the dogs are due their boosters and annual check up next month and MOT's are on the horizon too. In short, though our little world has been put on hold to focus entirely on The Keep, the wider world keeps on spinning and demands to be obeyed and paid. Annoying, but grounding.

With things really taking shape we are contemplating starting to bring some of our belongings out of storage. First will probably come the chicken sheds and outdoor stuff so that it's all set up for the girls on move in day. Following that it will be wardrobes and bookshelves and tables. Then the time will come to rediscover all the little niknaks I have forgotten I packed so carefully away almost 18 months ago - I'm wondering now where my somewhat huge collection of ornamental chickens is going to go... 

With the future of the country (and my well loved ornaments) in limbo, I feel a certain resolve to roll up my sleeves and push on. We didn't take The Keep on for the money, help will always be gratefully received by us no matter the country of it's origin and tomorrow will no doubt bring a new challenge, a new turn of events. Either way, I'm IN.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

Digging in the dirt...

A wise woman once told me that to plant a garden is to believe in the promise of tomorrow – and she wasn't wrong. The minute you put a fork in the ground you are preparing it for a different future.  No longer bogged down in weeds and host only to bugs and parasitic vines, it becomes the starting point for seedlings, the foundation for anchoring roots and new shoots to appear and then before you know it, a few weeks or maybe months have passed, and you’re eating the fruit that has grown from the tiny seed you popped in that freshly dug earth, because you dared to hope it would grow.

There’s something that runs a little deeper though that seems to wake up when you grow things. Some throwback to when we had to grow food ourselves just to survive triggers and suddenly you feel way more connected to actual life. All of the issues you have as someone living in the modern world seem to shrink to the tiny foibles they actually are and you realise that, while you’re running around like a headless goose trying to make money and buy things you’re told you need, making sure you satisfy all the right people, life, real life, is going on all around you and to some extent you’re missing it. It is the ultimate lesson in patience, no plant can be rushed. I am obviously biased, but I think if we all took the time to plant something, invest a small amount of those precious minutes, hours, days that we have into nurturing some ‘real life’ we’d all be that bit happier. Or at least less chaotic.

So, yes, you've probably guessed that I have been in the garden this weekend. I dug over what will be our little herb garden. It surrounds the greenhouse and is nearest the kitchen so it seems the perfect spot. Admittedly there were bulbs and roots and bugs of every description in there, some of which will no doubt come back if left too long again, but I've managed to get it looking something like a prepared plant bed.

While I cracked on with that, my dad and D happily sat at the canal side enjoying the ‘father’s day fishing fest’ (as I had so poetically named it). ‘Fest’ is probably pushing it a bit... my dad caught several fish but none that anyone would call big! 

We all ate a thrown together BBQ (the first cooked meal at The Keep!) and, when we had a moment, myself and my step-mum measured the windows throughout the house so that she can begin work on the blinds.

Things are still moving forward. D and I have more conversations about how much concrete we need to order and how low our funds are running than we do about, well, anything… As our move-in deadline creeps ever closer the need to see big advances in the building work weighs heavy on us. It’s a time when you regret every new pair of pants and pack of crisps you've bought on a whim over the last 18 months, because right now every penny counts.

Beans on toast for tea anyone??

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G

Good things come to those who wait...

It’s been a rainy old week, with a subdued mood to match. Thankfully we finally got the roof fixed, so for the first time in a long time the house has stood up to a good downpour. The fixing of the roof means everything inside can now be completed without the threat of becoming water damaged – so here begineth the choosing of colours and wallpapers and tiles and carpets and and and… Exciting and a little daunting all at the same time. We’ve put so much effort into making the house sound we want to make sure we do it justice with the décor.

Of course, me being me, I have chosen and bought the colour for our new chicken houses rather than (the far more important) wall colours! They’ll be duck egg blue! I know, I know I need to get my priorities straight, but I can't help it, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. The dividing wall in the kitchen is out, the floor is coming up this week and once the plastering is done it will just be a case of decorating and moving all our stuff in, right? So I’m looking even further ahead to when I’m cooking home grown veg at my lovely big oven and rearing more chicks with our trusty incubator (though I have promised my current broody girls a go themselves next year). My thoughts have turned to soil PH’s and composting techniques, to the positioning  of the bee hive and which breeds of chicken I’d like to have a go with next. I can see BBQ’s by the canalside with family and friends and cosy nights in front of the log burner. It’s a frustrating mix of pushing forward while being held back at the minute. All will be resolved eventually – let us start the 10 week countdown to actually living at The Keep.

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

These pictures make even my toes curl with their stark reality check of just how far we still have to go, but we're positive the next month will see massive change and it should start to look like something inhabitable.

The Keep has already become a place to celebrate in and gather with the people we love. This weekend is Father’s day, so we’re having my dad round to do a spot of fishing off the back. I’ll make us some lunch – probably just sandwiches on paper plates as we have no means to make anything more sophisticated than that right now– and it will be the first of, hopefully, many celebrations at The Keep.

With most of the work left to do needing to be done by professionals, I'm hoping for a weekend cracking on in that garden of mine. If I want to be ready for the season next year, I need to rally. With over 200 concrete slabs to shift before I can even put  a fork in the ground, I'm going to have my work cut out for me and I don't just want it to 'work' I want it to be beautiful too. Espaliered fruit trees and well fruiting bushes, greenery everywhere you look and swathes of blooming flowers. I want it to be the edible garden I have dreamed of, while being really beautiful to look at. Of course that's a while off - no good food garden ever happened over one season... I did say I was looking ahead!...

Right that's enough day dreaming, time to get the hard stuff done.

Come rain or shine, it'll still be mine.

G