Spring & Ringing the changes

 The new orchard:  before & after (below)

 It is highly satisfying, for me at least, to take a piece of rough waste ground that has let Mother Nature loose on it, and lick it in to shape.  I occasionally alarmed my hort. college colleagues with my voracious use of secateurs and pruning tools....this was in the days before my power tools!  Now....stand well back and watch.

It took me just over three hours one Sunday afternoon. The Daddy hero had taken the small girl to a birthday party so I decided to head up to the area we have identified for a new orchard.  It is overrun with brambles, nettles and far too many Salix caprea that have run rampant (aka goat willow or pussy willow).  My trusty mower did the deed and together with a bit of hacking and slashing with my hedgetrimmer it has come up a treat.  I have now defined the edges and mown most of rough grass and nettles.  We can now invite the chainsaw in to remove the unwanted trees and a brush cutter to take down the mostly dead hedge line.  This hedgeline is west facing and downhill across the valley with fantastic views...now we'll see the amazing sunsets once the hedge is down.

The plan is, like this:  we intend to stock fence the area and make it secure for pigs.  We'll get a couple of traditional breed weaners and grow them on for 8 months or so.  They will enjoy turning the soil, rooting up the brambles and other deep rooted weeds and live a happy life.  Then they'll have to go....and come back in shrink wrap with labels for the freezer.
The ground will then be ready for grass seeding and fruit tree planting.  Once the orchard is established we can graze a few sheep there now and again to keep the grass down.  That's that plan...watch this space!  

stump removal in South Meadow

Talking of stock fencing, our fencing contractor has finally been and has completed Phase One.  We now have one whole field totally stock proof.  The only hitch is, this is our most productive field in terms of hay so we most likely won't have any grazing till the autumn....never mind, 'at least', says the Ologist, 'our hay won't run away'.

To get to the stage of being ready for the fencing contractor has taken an enormous amount of physical effort and man-hours with a chainsaw.  The height and breadth of these hedges is impressive, and takes not only a lot of cutting, but even more clearing and burning to dispose of the arisings.  So that's 6 acres down....another 15 to go!  We have half a large barn full of ready to cut and split Ash which is very good news.  Hopefully we'll never need to buy wood again to burn indoors.  We love this poem, it's a great guide to what's what in the fireside basket:-

Beechwood fires are bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year. 

Chestnut's only good, they say, 

If for long 'tis laid away. 

But Ash new or Ash old 

Is fit for a queen with crown of gold. 

Birch and fir logs burn too fast 

Blaze up bright and do not last. 

It is by the Irish said 

Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. 

Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, 

E ' en the very flames are cold. 

But Ash green or Ash brown 

Is fit for a queen with golden crown. 

Poplar gives a bitter smoke, 

Fills your eyes and makes you choke. 

Apple wood will scent your room 

With an incense like perfume. 

Oaken logs, if dry and old. 

Keep away the winter's cold. 

But Ash wet or Ash dry 

A king shall warm his slippers by. 

We have recently been given a most wonderful machine (thanks Dad!)  It has multi uses but the main one so far for us has been the tiller.  It has chewed up the grass that has taken over the vegetable beds.  When we arrived here it was overrun with raspberry canes, horseradish, lovage and of course grass and nettles.

We have done our best to remove as much of the dead stuff above ground, its just getting to the roots that has been back breaking.  Although the tiller was very slow going, it was most definitely better than doing this by hand.  We now have two beds which are ready for planting.  We have kept small amounts of what was already growing here, and added a huge root of rhubarb from the ED's garden.  There are seedlings ready to plant and potatoes, together with packets and packets of seeds that are just waiting to be opened and scattered.  Since removing the enormous leylandi trees that towered over this plot it is now bright and sunny almost all day.  We'll need to fence it in to stop the free roaming chickens pecking our precious seedlings, but apart from that we are just waiting for the last few frosts.

Remember our series of ponds that run down the drive?  The first one has a perfect island in the middle which was christened Duck Island - we longingly hoped to have ducks here one day.  Well just this week our wish has been granted.  We first spotted a lone drake - he doesn't seem bothered by the cars and happily swims about while we drive by.

Just today we spotted a second drake on the pond.  The small girl thinks they are brothers, and are looking for two girl ducks to make a home with them...I like her thinking and hope she's right.  Only time will tell.  To encourage the ladies we have installed a duck house and the small girl has laid it with hay and straw in the hope that the girl duck becomes Mrs. Duck and lays some eggs in the house.  This is nature first hand...and it's great.  So exciting to see life here when for so long it has been overgrown and unloved.

The weather has been fabulous these last few weeks, days of endless sunshine and blue skies.  It has been cold, but not much rain so the ground has dried out somewhat.  We are expecting the contractors back this week to rotavate and plough the field we call Lower East that was so badly overgrown.  It will then most likely need fertilizing, seeding and rolling.  Some of the other fields will be harrowed to remove the old dead grass and rolled to compress and flatten the soil.  The builders are weeks away from finishing the annexe which means the ED can be independent once more and we get our house to ourselves.

Much fun has been had in Westyard playground as the spring has sprung and the days lengthen.  We climb along the Devon banks weaving through the trees looking for fairy evidence, rabbit holes...just about anything that is of interest.  Both cats usually accompany us and have a thoroughly good time.  Then we choose the least rotten horizontal branch and hold our breaths as we inch our way across - hoping not to fall to a cold and muddy ditch of shame.

Iridescent hyacinth

Primula veris aka Cowslip

Muscari - grape hyacinth and primula

more primula

front lawn with a splendid daffodil display

Oh, and I have just become the village's newest campanologist.  Every Tuesday evening I go to church...only it is by the side door into the bell tower.  I am now a bell ringer and it is the greatest fun.  It is highly frustrating although, as to be good you need to be accurate to a sixteenth of a second.  It is a very fine line between getting it right and loosing the momentum and letting the bell come down.  I have been about three times now and have been told I am doing well (yes, yes all jokes aside about being a ringer and going like the clappers and all that...)  I can honestly say I was quite uplifted last week once the real pro ringers came in after the beginner practise was over.  They rang a few changes which was fascinating to observe and hard to understand and follow but I'm sure in time I'll get there.  It is a really unusual hobby for me, I've never done anything like it - the other people involved are so friendly and down to earth.  And it is really big in Devon. Exeter Cathedral...here I come!