All good things come to an end

All good things come to an end - not sure why. Does it mean that bad things don't?

Anyway we have had a lovely weeks holiday, but sadly now it is time to go back to work (not that we didn't do quite a lot of useful gardening, tree massacring and cleaning the horses etc - but also lots of eating, drinking, skiing and relaxing). We had the first BBQ of the year too!

As always I will miss my doggy and my Dougie when I don't see them every day. It was beautiful weather as I left making it even harder.

New blackcurrent, blueberry and some honeyberries

Initially we were intending to clear a separate area to have soft fruit. But over the years we have discovered that we don't have the time at the moment to clear or maintain more area. We currently have rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries that we get fruit from, and a black currant and a blueberry that are not producing yet - they take a few years to get going.

We have added another two blueberries and a black currant and two honey berries (related to honeysuckle but not poisonous - apparently they taste somewhat like blueberries but fruit much earlier). They will take a few years before we get fruit from them so it was good to get them in. Hopefully we can manage to keep them weed free-ish, we didn't manage that last summer with the blueberry and it is a bit stunted now.

Crazy - a pink blueberry!!!

Spring in the vegetable garden

At the start of every winter we mean to put the potager (French for vegetable garden) to bed so that it is easier in the spring to get it going - there is a lot going on in Spring - skiing, mowing, planting etc. This year yet again we didn't fully manage it, but we had mown quite near the end of the summer and Janet had done a very thorough weeding job. 

However it was still a bit daunting, when I went up to look at pruning the raspberries, to be faced with a huge sea of green.

Despite this there are strawberries getting ready to fruit

Some self seeded camomile - it is much better at growing itself than we are (the originals were planted in pots and did ok. It seems keen each year and germinates much earlier than it condescended to in pots)

Some purple sprouting broccoli that I planted last year that didn't grow then.

Rhubarb. There are two of them and the other one is just peaking out too.

Some self seeded rocket

Pruning the raspberries

We have managed to prune the raspberries each year - unlike the apples and cherries. However I have discovered that we have been doing it a bit wrong.

We have two varieties:

This one fruits spring and autumn and grows the canes to fruit on in autumn and spring. So we should either prune it right back after it has fruited each time or prune it in winter leaving the new canes that have not fruited yet

This one is apparently the most common raspberry in the WORLD and fruits once in July on canes it grew the previous autumn. As we have been pruning it to the ground in winter it is not surprising we have not been getting much/any fruit from it. We should prune only the old wood in winter or prune it to the ground in about August just after it has fruited.

They were all crammed in one bed but we have realised they need to be more spread out and put them across three beds now.

Before pruning and transplanting

After. The nearer bed has the Willamette and the next two the Remontant (these got pruned to the ground as they were being transplanted so we won't get the early crop from them this year)

Eggs on to incubate

They should hatch pretty much at Easter.

Every time we do it I never really believe they will hatch as it seems so unlikely that this thing can pretend to be a mother chicken. This one is very high tech and keeps the humidity constant as well as rocking them from side to side to simulate the chicken turning the eggs (the yolk sticks to the inside of the shell if it rests on the same spot all the time).
They will take 21 days to hatch and we will stop them being turned and increase humidity on day 18.
It has been raining quite a bit which means that quite a few of the eggs are a bit muddy. This isn't meant to be great for the hatch rate but we shall see.

Fruit trees and pruning

We planted a number of trees probably 3 years ago. We have been very bad since then and neglected to prune them. I finally got round to it and it wasn't very easy. Partially because they had grown all wrong and more because I have no idea what I am doing - beyond a bit of advice from the internet.

Partially what prompted me in to it was that the Brambley got blown over ages ago in a wind storm and I finally got round to inspecting it to see if it was still alive. It was!

It is now upright again and has had a rather drastic pruning to make up for the several years without. Kill or cure I suppose.

This is a cherry tree which has also got a bit out of control but seems quite happy for it. I gave it a bit less of a drastic trim

The protection we put round them to save them from the sheep hasn't turned out very well really. They get bracken and long grass inside which I think creates too damp and atmosphere round the trunk and on this tree (Red Falstaff I think) it has rotted through the trunk

You can see once I removed the protection that there is a bit of trunk left. Perhaps it can recover, I am hoping one of the little branches might start to grow up the way and take over from the original trunk. Unlikely perhaps...

I had some difficulty understanding how I should prune the trees and have ended up doing some with three branches at the same height as they seemed to have grown like that. Hopefully they can grow in to a goblet (vase?) shape. A couple I did central leader kind of anyway. It was a bit difficult having let them get so out of control. I tend to get panicked and prune too much.
Interestingly (kind of) I just read that Brambley's need pruning in a different way to lots of other apple trees because they bear fruit on the tips of branches. Must remember that!

Fire wood

With wood burning central heating we have to make sure we have a giant stock of logs. They take some years to dry, so we have to plan ahead. It is hard work cutting the trees down and then more hard work cutting it all up.

Chainsaws are dangerous things and I am too scared to touch them, even when turned off, but Doug is doing a heroic job of making sure we will be warm for years to come. We recently bought a saw horse with a chainsaw holder that makes it a bit easier and safer to cut logs to length at least.

This tree was getting dangerously close to the electricity wire that brings the supply in to the house, so had to be cut back quite drastically

Cutting it down isn't really the hard work bit (though the dangerous bit) it is the tidy up of all the branches afterwards that is most work

These ones will be cut to length to suit the fire in the saw horse at some point

I don't use the chainsaw but I do use the hedge trimmer. It is quite scary too but only works with both hands on it, so at least you are unlikely to get your own fingers - maybe a leg though.

Chimney no moore

Chimney no more - is obviously said with Scottish accent like the Proclaimers saying 'Sunderland no more' in Letter from America
We had one of the chimneys capped and it was still leaking a bit when it rained. We were planning on having the other one capped and both repointed and sealed. But in the end after getting a quote from the roofer we decided to have both removed as we won't use them any more (the wood burning boiler has a flue out of the back wall and the stove in the living room will have the same) and they are basically holes in the roof which the roofer says will always leak a little in very heavy rain.

Doug cut the curves in to these tiles making a nice little feature on the point there (it was my idea you know - he is always thrilled when I say 'I've got an idea' or 'I've been thinking')

You can see the house more clearly without the hedge. It looks very sleek now with no chimneys

Actually there is one chimney left on the old bread oven. We don't use this either but have left it as it is not in the house so doesn't matter so much if it leaks a little bit.

Visitors always get to help with super fun things! This is clearing away the bricks from the chimneys and throwing them over the corner of the drive where we are very very slowly trying to fill it in a bit so the turn is a bit wider (really throwing stuff over there makes very little difference but it is convenient way to get rid of things - hopefully one day Doug will have the time to dig out the inside of the bend a bit with the mini digger - 'once the house is done' is some distant date all these useful things will happen at)

Lambs

In the last week the Ouessant flock have had five lambs, three girls and two boys. There is one set of twins which is quite rare for Quessant, they normally just have one. Canna had twins once before so we are thinking of keeping one of them in the hope that the lamb might inherit the tendency.
There is one ewe not had her lamb yet but her belly looks bit so hopefully she will soon.
Mum, lamb and dad

Most of the flock (there are five ewes and a ram)

Gamboling happily

The other flock didn't do well last year and a lot of them died. There is only one ewe of a likely age to have a lamb and she hasn't yet. There are two female lambs (getting on for a year old now) and a ram as well.

Hammock!

I have wanted a hammock FOREVER. We bought one once before, I was SURE it would fit in the living room (when we lived in Southwark many many years ago), but it turned out it didn't by a meter or more. It had to go back to the shop. Boo.
These aren't a proper lie down hammock, but maybe they are BETTER!
The hammock chairs came from Lorna but we needed somewhere to hang them. So I bought two stands. They were a tad more HUGENORMOUS than expected and weigh 20 kgs each. I had to get a taxi to the airport and took the chance of having a visitor to help move them around.

It was a bit of a challenge getting two of them, a huge ski bag and Rich in to the car. But we managed it in the end. 

Here it is in it's new home. The other one still has to get put together.

Lovely view from it - although it would be better if someone cleared away all the branches and mess from the hedge massacre.

Bit more skiing

You might well be bored of pictures of amazing blue sky and white slopes, but every time I look at the pictures I can't really believe they are real so it is worth looking again and again.

This is a new restaurant in the ski area. Amazing view. You have to walk for a few mins up hill to get there.

It is a very cute little building where there used to be the top of a lift. There is no inside seating so sunny weather only really.
The service was a bit slow but hopefully they will get the hang of it as it is an amazing location and we want them to do well.

Bit of off piste.

Ski tour round Le Pain de Sucre

We took lifts up the green bit, walked up the pink bit and skied back down the red bit.

Foot steps setting off up the hill we are about to follow

Doug getting ready to walk up

Rich coming across a steep bit

At the top of the walk up. We didn't use skins, we just walked up in our ski boots with the skis on our back

Looking back down the way we had walked up

Walking just a bit further to have lunch at the peak here

My skis with the view

Having lunch

After lunch we are going to traverse round under this rocky triangle and go over the ridge at the far right of the picture (before the rock band)

Here is the lunch spot far on the right and Doug and me about to traverse round on the left

This is Richard following Doug and me round the traverse. We had to take our skis off in the middle to get over that rocky band. It felt a bit scary perched without skis.

Here is Doug having gone over the ridge surveying what we are about to ski

Looking down where we are going to ski

The village where we had a nice hot chocolate (Doug) and citron presse (me)

Looking back up where we skied - down past that little triangle in the middle of the skyline