Comments from the the Coop

Lulu - too cold for 2 feet!

Despite the recent cold snap and the loss of Amelia a couple of weeks ago; egg production has been eggsellent (sorry!) all winter long and sales have boomed - well relatively speaking!  The flock is now reduced to 4 and only Black Betty remains as one of our original girls.  Even so, frequently we are finding 4 eggs daily.  Given the short days and low light levels, we reckon that's pretty good.

Of course our girls are very spoilt. On the breakfast menu is warm mash with a sprinkling of mealworms and generous handfuls of mixed corn.  They also have a block of mixed grain and molasses suspended above their outdoor perch to peck at all day as well as layers pellets in their hopper.  Surplus greenery from local farm shops and bruised apples are always demolished with great relish.  Grit and oyster shell along with fresh water are always on hand and each morning their day old Daily Telegraph is delivered and spread on the floor of their house.  All droppings are wrapped up and composted.

Funny how very satisfying it is to find a pile of perfectly aimed fresh hen's droppings on the smug face of some idiot politician/celeb!  A good start to any day.

All round Poultry Paradise you might say.

Drive Widening & Hedge Narrowing

The original wide hedge

Digging out the roots and stumps

We had been giving much thought to the old drive hedge which consisted of ever browning Leylandii and much neglected Hawthorn.  We noted the extent of die back in the Leylandii and we looked at its vast width.  Mrs. Carwood from whom we buy our hedging plants has decided to retire at the end of this season and so we had to make our decision fast.  We weighed up the pros and cons.  So late in the season meant that any decision to buy bare rooted hedging plants had to be made fast.  It was now or never.  We couldn't contemplate buying from elsewhere.  The other considerations were soil levels and the ditch on the far side.  We would definitely need some form of retention for the higher soil level and with all that's going on - what would we use and how long would it take?  Chris builder came up with the solution: residual stone (from our day's quarrying) used on its side.  Did we have enough left over?  He thought so.

So it was all go!  Chris set to work with a chainsaw and then a digger. He had the digger for 3 days and even dug out the ditch.  His bonfire burnt for 4 days.  When all the digger work was finished, we spent a day putting up the new posts and rails with rabbit wire and when that was done both Chris's spent a day building the stone retaining wall, finishing off the rails and levelling the soil.

The 2 Chris's building the stone retaining wall

A trip to Mrs. Carwood's on Saturday to pick up the new Laurels - all wonderfully healthy plants with well established root systems kept moist in bin liners, kept Chris and I busy for the rest of the afternoon.  Three Hawthorns (Cratageous laevigata Paul's Scarlet) were also placed along the line of Laurels so, in a year or two's time, we should have a dense evergreen hedge with pretty pink May blossom in spring and - much more room on the drive! 

All finished and 4' of drive gained by the garage

More Herb Garden Progress

A milder afternoon meant that the new Herb Garden could be cleaned out, the borders filled with soil and - yes!  Planted! We now have (Scilly) mint, Oreganos, Parsley, Fennels, Lavenders, Sages, Rosemary, Marjorams - nearly of which I had already.  As the water feature remains unfinished, a bowl of Primulas temporarily adorn the top!  Still to do - paint the stone star burst with brick acid to remove mortar (which will define it much more) replace the oak strips in Chris's absolutely splendid cast iron seat and erect fencing on top of the wall and metal trellis by the verandah.  Hopefully this will give it a more enclosed feel.  Undecided - what to do in the 2 quadrants either side of the Draycott gate and also on top of the brick piers which, for now, have Androlia shells.  I dare say something will spring to mind.  All sensible suggestions welcome!  When the herbs put on some growth; hopefully, they will tumble over the border edges and soften the whole appearance.

It will be useful having the old oak barrel (top right) so handy for watering.  It will be linked to the down pipe allowing it to collect rain water from the Cedar tiles on the verandah roof. Any excess will drain into the land drains Chris built beneath the stone paving.

Global warming kicks in

The fernery path

 Time to sneak off...........

Frost on the dogwoods

......and take a few photos in a very frosty garden with a temperature at -7C.

Prunus buds waiting for some warmer weather

https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/PTCFeb2012?locked=true#5707668906225904978 

For more wintry photos

Tiles above and below

Using stone off cuts

A happy tiler!

The date in tiles

Life at PTC is still as busy as ever and there has been little time for blogging these past couple of weeks.  Despite freezing weather conditions, snow and a continued lack of plans, drawings or blueprints; creations continue to roll off the Chris Genever production line.  He has been built a veranda with a fab shingled roof, a new greenhouse path and now a wall. He has also finished the paving in the new herb garden - complete with its star burst central feature (an idea to use the stone off cuts)

See https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/TilingBothRoovesAndPaths for more photos

COBBLING PROGRESS

Studio Path

Setting the 'Landing' date

Yes- it does say MMXII

There's no stopping Chris just cos the temperature has plummeted! Today was even colder and greyer but, after cobbling around the landing date, he ploughed on with the greenhouse path and digging the sump hole for the Herb Garden water feature.  I nearly froze to death - just helping to set the date tiles yesterday!  A hot bath was the only way to defrost!

The studio path has 3 diamonds each made from 4 tiles and have been inset with the smaller sized cobbles. The greenhouse path is a combination of York stone flags and cobbles.

The Draycott Gate

Caught on camera again!

Brian and Maureen's gate is given centre stage as entrance to the new herb garden.  It seemed the perfect spot for such a lovely old estate gate. The gate posts were of course made by James at Lane's and we haven't yet decided on how to finish the curves between the posts and the brickwork.  The gate threshold is a row of granite sets - some of which also came from Draycott House!  More thought has been given to the centre feature and we're leaning towards an old salt glazed pipe topped with a terracotta bowl filled with industrial glass.  Of course, you have to imagine water bubbling over it and  all the glass being lit from beneath and the movement of the water over the glass etc etc etc!  Well that's today's idea!  We'll see what actually transpires.

What to do in those curves????