Winter pastime

Winter has finally arrived, although thanks to our microclimate we haven't had any snow, unlike the rest of southern Scotland and the Central Belt. The weather has been pretty atrocious but at least no flooding. We managed to see the New Year in with aurora borealis. That just has to be a good omen.

In the greenhouse, the salad, spring cabbage and cauliflower seedlings are coming along and a dozen or so peas Douce Provence. I hope the lower temperature will spell the death knell for the aphids still remaining in the conservatory.

Winter greenhouse

Outside we're giving the chickens the freedom of the top paddock since they've grazed down their entire area and we figure they can't do much damage at this time of year. The hand-reared chickens have a much more varied diet than the ones we bought. They graze a lot more and especially like dock leaf and ground elder. They seem to love exploring the new area, but unfortunately seem more drawn to the front garden (where I had spread some mulch, which they love to throw around) than the lush grass. Soruss usually gives the game away by crowing loudly outside our kitchen window. Then one of us goes out to herd them back again with a stick. It's a bit like herding cats.

We're just about to run out of onions, despite planting about 400 last year, but the rest of the alliums are still plentiful.

Leek Musselburgh bed

The Egyptian onions have spread a lot

Other veg are beginning to appear:

Rhubarb, rhubarb

Garlic shoots

Broad bean Aguadulce

Any visitors will have to take away some neeps since we've got so many:

Swedes Marian

And the purple-sprouting broccoli looks ready to eat already:

Purple-sprouting broccoli

Because of the bad weather the DIY has been progressing apace, but we are heartily sick of it. Bring on the hedge planting of February and the polytunnel installation of March.

Wet, wet, wet

Thankfully, the monsoon season seems to have come to an end. We got off lightly during Storm Desmond (which only took the sand off our beach), but the whole last month has been extremely wet and windy, with water lying in the fields. A few days before Desmond our little burn had turned into a raging stream after a particularly rainy day and one of our wee bridges was underwater. This was also the day I could check which of our land is potentially water-logged, but luckily everything drained away the next day.

Back to its normal calm self

It doesn't feel very Christmassy around here yet. Temperatures are still very mild, some roses are in bloom, the grass is green and nothing has gone dormant yet.

 

 

December rose

Green, green grass, almost looks like a lawn now

Because of the wet weather, we haven't made as much progress on the log pile as we would have liked. But progress is being made.

The wood stacks are growing

Soruss has not wasted any time in amalgamating the flocks. He seems to be quite the disciplinarian, much to the chagrin of his mother Amber, who's probably regretting her harsh treatment of him when he was little.

Grazing under Soruss' watchful eye

We're slowly working our way through the large Pink Fairy pumpkins and are currently on number three of six (the freezer is filling up with pumpkin, too). Pumpkin ale is planned. In the veg garden, the garlic has shot up and everything else keeps growing slowly. The first of the winter broccoli is starting to appear, while we're still harvesting a couple of the summer broccoli plants. Amazing.

Our one red cabbage this year - earmarked for Christmas

Celeriac - lots of these guys around this winter

December veg garden - still looking quite busy

With all the bad weather, the season has turned from gardening and harvesting to DIY. Three rooms are on the agenda. Good thing Domino is helping out!

DIY cat strikes again

Loaves and logs

The 25-tonne log pile

The time has come at last to tackle the mountain of logs from the Forestry Commission. For this job, Christmas came early and Jim's got himself a nice Swedish chainsaw. Much as we love hand tools, this one did require power!

All tooled up

Already the woodshed is full (always a reassuring thing) and next we're going to fill up the area next to the garage with stacks and stacks of wood. Next year, we'll hopefully get around to roofing this bit over to create proper wood storage. The little shed really only holds enough for six to eight weeks.

The weather has gone a bit unpleasant at times. We've had plenty of rain and a little bit of hail:

Hail stoned patio

It's been a good time for indoor jobs, baking, cooking and eating. 

Cosy dinner

Friends of ours have kindly given us a sourdough so at last we can bake the kind of loaves we really like. The bread baking is Jim's domain and he's made some fine loaves so far: Borodinskys (a Russian rye with coriander seeds), wholemeal sourdough rolls with linseed and even sourdough tea cakes. Our bread consumption has almost reached French levels!

Borodinksy and sourdough rolls

The winter veg are doing well in the veg garden, but it's just not looking its best at this time of year. I've sown the overwintering broadbeans (and peas and sweet peas in the greenhouse), weeded the overwintering onions and spread the Egyptian onions around a bit, but other than that there's not much doing gardening-wise.

Leeks, cabbage, swede, parsnip and celeriac

The muddy-looking broadbean area with the garlic bed in the foreground

Spring cabbage coming along

Looks like there'll be sprouts for Christmas

The conservatory's had a major autumn clean, and the greenhouse is awaiting the same treatment.

Cleared-out conservatory, just the overwintering plants left

I'm afraid it was time to say good-bye to old Russell this month, before he and his son would start fighting. He made a couple of very tasty soups and a casserole. He served us well in death, as in life.

Russ was not a friendly animal, but did a great job keeping the flock together and safe. He loved a good fight with us and our visitors and is survived by his five children, Soruss, Magnolia, Brown, Charcoal and Ash. We'll always remember him. The cock is dead. Long live the cock!

Russell RIP