Our last blog night of the year and we’ve rounded up some pics. 23 little trees 2015……
M: I’ve never seen anyone sooo excited about planting leeklets! I spose that is one of the best things about working with Hal this year; revisiting the wonder and enthusiasm I’d lost on the long solo slog…
Hal: The day I fell in love with leeks. The only issue I have with this photo is I look like I’ve been let out of an institution….
Last Sunday we hosted the 2015 Normandy Smallholders Christmas do. Now there’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever find myself saying!!!
For the last few weeks we’ve frequently asked each other, ‘how long ’til the smallholders do?’ As the day drew nearer the lists of things to do grew longer, why did we volunteer to do this we wondered….. Well, why not.
After a bit of a gloomy week we did what we knew we had to do – get muddy!
Mandy protected the rhubarb and celeriac from the cold. The straw from the greenhouse that was snug around the tomatoes and peppers toes was moved out to guard our loot from the frost.
The first celery of the season was cut and enjoyed, tomatoes picked and beetroot the size of footballs were pulled – oops, as were some weeds.
My nearly ten year old is studying sexual science at school just now, kind of perfect timing really as the hormones are flying around Thibois as I write. The pungent hume of boy goat wafts with the breeze and mournful, unrequited bleating echoes around the valley. Yup, it’s that season. And critters with a five month gestation period are starting to think it might be time for some loving…
Apart from the goaty whiff, this is usually a period that passes without much of a song and dance, but this year is Billy-Bob’s first and he’s being just a mite adolescent about the whole thing.
Fleece is my new obsession. Price, colours, thickness shipping costs…..and the reason why is hats, us girls have been making hats and lots of them.
We are going to be sending our hats up to the Calais Jungle and hope they will help keep a few heads warm and they will know they were hand made by a gang of women who just want to help. It feels good to be doing something productive. Solidarity. People coming together for a common cause. Girl power!
23littletrees 