New year and 2019 in pictures and a silly movie

“To a bright New Year and a fond farewell to the old; to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.” “May you have a prosperous New Year.” “Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year.” “May the new year bless you with health, wealth and happiness.”

12th night gone by, it´s the end of the Christmas season. All decoration is taken away and the house is cleaned up. We had a delightful time, got many Christmascards and some surprising gifts. 

A whole new year lies ahead of us, many new ideas to try and continuing on our path to self-sufficiency. 

We are halfway through the winter now and the loft is still full of hay, the pantry filled with many cans of canned food, and in the root storage is also enough left. Maybe it´s not as diverse as we should like, because of some crop failures of last year, but we can eat our stomachs full of delicious meals.  I like to search through wartime ration meal recipes from the UK. They use often the vegetables I have available, like potatoes, carrots, onions, and are healthy and very filling. Although eggs were on ration at that time, no egg ration for us. With only 4 laying hens, almost every day 1 egg and sometimes 2! It´s the first year that we have eggs in the winter. Very useful if you like vanilla pudding... ;) 

These photos are my 2019 in a glance 

 January, just finished my new woolen winter coat in time before the cold arrived

Baking small homegrown cornbread on the stove

 In April it was lovely weather for a bicycle tour with a picnic

In May we started on renovating the south wall from our house and had lots of rhubarb and eggs

 It´s on the 6th of June! A national holiday!

Because we are renovating our house we had, unfortunately, no time to dance with our folk dance society on this big day. But because we love to dance, we made our own dance party in the backyard.

Reading a book in our garden, the old rose variety smells lovely 

In June, haying, haying and more haying

First time for our little pony to draw the haywagon

In September we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary 

and the year ends with the same it started, snow! 

x

A glimpse of the hay harvest

This morning, with the scythes on our shoulders and the little old border collie by our side, we set off again to the meadow we are mowing. The mist was hanging in thick clouds on the fields. The sun could not prick trough it yet. When we reach the meadow we already have harvested, two deer are greezing in the field. The remaining haystacks are covered in the mist, it´s almost like a painting, so perfect and bright. Then the deer are scared upp with our presence and galop away into the woodlands. Mowing with the scythe is hard work but working together it´s pleasant. It´s not really difficult, so I think it´s always a nice time to meditate about one thing or the other. Mostly we work in silence, just side by side. The only noise you hear is the scytheblade cutting through the grass, the birds singing, the crickets chirping and the crowing of the rooster att home. It´s very peacefull out here. Every now and then we sharpen the blade and off we go again. Swish, swish, foot for foot the grass is cut. Around trees and stones, every inch turns into hay. It´s not only grass but also lots of weeds and herbs, tistles and even small trees. Even a wild mint grows here and there, it´s the most lovely smell when it is cut but also when you, in the dark wintermonths, are filling the hay trough, it smells like summer.

Everything is blooming and booming in the garden. The calendula is on it´s best, orange and yellow flowers everywhere. Peas, beetroots, potatoes, carrots and loads off other stuff it´s just ready to be eaten. Many jars are already filled and canned with various berries and now the time will soon come for making various pickles. 

sommer pictures

'the season now is all delight,

Sweet smile the passing hours,

And summer's pleasures, at their height,

Are sweet as are her flowers;

The purple morning waken'd soon,

The mid-day's gleaming din,

grey evening with her silver moon,

Are sweet to mingle in.

How sweet the fanning breeze is felt,

Breath'd through the dancing boughs;

How sweet the rural voices melt

From distant sheep and cows.

The lovely green of wood and hill,

The hummings in the air,

Serenely in my breast instil,

The rapture reigning there.'

Clare

I have not that much time to writhe right now but I like to share some pictures with you. I made the pictures a couple of days ago and actually I should have taken some new ones. Everything is growing so fast! But it gives you an idea how the kitchen garden looks  right now.

Two weeks ago arrived some new livestock on the homestead! Seven small wyandotte chickens. They are so cute

The haying season has arrived again. How strange it feels that it is more than one year ago I wrote about haying and making haystacks and now where doing it again. Look how the hay is drying on the field!

How to get aphids away

It's  half June already. After a very dry May month, rain has come and everything is growing fine.
Now we are preparing for the haying. Sander is already mowing with the scythe on the lawn between the house and the barn. Also needed he to cut  all grass away under and around the electric fencing. That is now done.

Every day I work a bit in the garden, for not only our crop is growing nicely, the weeds also....
In the broad beans I discovered some aphids. They sat in the young top leafs. It's very common for broad beans to get aphids, unfortunately. To get away with them you can just pick of the top, the rest of the plant is not tasty to aphids so they will stay away then. But my plants were not that big yet, so I was looking for some other methode to get away with them. I find a methode by squirt them away with water but we don't have running water and therefore also no garden hose, how can I do this?? While thinking about it I went on with some other chars and I needed something from the barn when I spotted a high pressure spray bottle. Maybe that will do the job. I cleaned it and filled it up with water and it does the job excellent! I'm very happy now!

glimpses of the spring

The first of may, the time is flying! April was very cold with snow fall and not that good weather for gardening. Last year I did sow a lot of seeds in April, but now it was still to cold.

27 april....

Today it was very fine weather, so I sowed som lettuce, radish and turnips. I hope the weather stays fine for some more days so I can plant my potatoes also this week. In the poly tunnel are the radish almost ready for eating and my strawberry plants are selling very well.

Yesterday we did eat our first rhubarb pie of this year, yummie!  

Last month we bought a pear tree. For years we talking about to buy one, but I don't know why but there never came one.... But now we have! Because we have many deer and rabbits around, we made a protecting cage around it. Until now it works very well....... I hope this tree will produce many pears and live a long and healthy life!

The best time to buy a fruit tree is 3 years ago.... and the next best time is NOW. 

and in the evening hours I finished my new coat. 

The pattern is original published 1858 a "spring paletot" and the fabric I used is hand woven by a friend. The fabric lay already for 2 years in my sewing basket. It was a very special fabric and I want to use it for something special. I think it fit very well to made into a coat.