RIP BLUE 13th December 2010

Sadly Blue past away on the 13th December  2010 he was 2 years old

Barbara was taking the dogs for a walk along the drain when blue chased a moor hen and went in the river after it  but he could not get back on to the ice Barbara tried for 45minutes to get him out but had to leave him to ring for help when she got back blue was gone we believe he succumbed to the cold water as when Barbara left him he was exhausted, Barbara is heart broken and nothing any one says to her will help .

Toffee the other dog is sad and knows that somethings wrong he keeps looking around when we are out in the yard. 

I have been down twice a day most days looking for him I have notified the river authority and dog wardens just in case he got out but I don't think he did.

Blue was 2 years old and has had a good life here with use It was a tragic accident he was a little character

 .

God bless you Blue xxxx

Snows early this year

I have had the week off to use up my holidays before the year end and the other morning took the dogs out

The snow was about 25mm .

Toffee has a thing about camera's he always appears when I start taking photos. The snow started to stick to his legs

The ice on the river was thick at the sides so blue decided to give it a try until I shouted at him he was soon off and running about under the bushes putting up lots of ducks on the places where the water had not frozen.

The snow has got deeper today about 100mm deep but the roads are clear its just the back roads so we have not been down the river today.
anyway back to work tomorrow I was just getting used to the time off .

The Fenland Wood Turners November competion

This years November competition was a Box with a lid there was 25 entries and very good they were.

Each one has a ticket with a number and every member has one vote so they write the number they feel should win.

The bell is a box with a lid which is a surprise  very good idea.

 The box with the white pattern is in fact a bit of lace behind a glass window.

 The photos are not very good as the turnings are far better than they look with screw lids and patterns in the lid or in the box.

 The boxes in the photo above are from left third middle is first and right is Second.
First was Vic Stone Second Barry Cummings and Third was Doug Thompson.

Prizes were given for all three winners.

The items above are just items that people have brought in for the table these are recorded and at the AGM one name is pulled out the hat and the winner gets a free membership for next year.

Norfolk Break 19th November 2010

Barbara decided we needed a break so she booked a cottage in Dersingham next to Sandringham in North Norfolk.

On the Friday we left it was thick fog and you could just about see 50meters by the time we arrived at Hunstanton on the north Norfolk coast old Hunstanton has cliffs and you could not see the sea as it was so foggy so we had a walk and set off early for the cottage as we could not get in until 3pm.

We found the cottage OK and the heating was on so we made a pot of tea and made our self's at home.

The owner came round as it got dark just to show us how the heating worked and to let us know how to take the short cut to Sandringham visitors centre through his garden and then through the woods.

The next morning it was still foggy so we walked to the visitor center through the garden next to the cottage and through the woods which came out near the Large Gates at Sandringham house the queens holiday home.

We had the dogs with us and could not go in the cafe so we stood out side at one of the tables and had tea and scones as the seats were soaking wet.

After walking around the woods and looking for chest nuts we walked back and missed the turning in the woods so we came out about 1.5miles from were we were stopping it was just getting dark.

We would have gone out for a meal at night but the fog just got worst as the night went on. 

Sunday we decided to go to Wells on sea the building above is the life boat Station you may have seen it in Steven Fry's  Kingdom which was based Norfolk. that side of the place faces the town of Wells how the life boat gets launched I have know idea.

This side faces the North sea and the channel soon gets filled with water and is very dangerous a lot of visitors have got cut off from the main beach.
we had a great walk with the dogs along the beach but you cant take the dogs on the beach in front of the beach huts which is fair enough as we clean up after our dogs but some people don't.

this is looking from the bank near the life boat station towards the town it is a mile from this point to the town we had to go into town because the cafe at the bottom car park was not open and there were lots of people they could have made a lot of money.
It did not stop the car park from charging 5£ for the day it used to be a pound in the winter but now its the same all year round watch out next year it will bound to go up as the poor old council need the money.

above is Sandringham visitors centre which we called at on the way home on Monday we had a hot drink and bought some of the queens apples .
opposite it is the gates where you see the royal family going to church at Christmas

No its not a kangaroo its a squirrel carved out of wooden  tree trunk looks good  we then had a walk with the dogs round the woods and this time never got lost.

This was the long walk which takes you back to near the car park. By the way the parking here is free make sense so people visit the shops its a shame some of the councils don't take notice.

The weekend was good apart from the weather but I did miss the bus trip to the woodworking show and a days beating on a shoot.

Weekend walk 14th November 2010

The wind turbines were just going round very slowly on Sunday different than Friday as they were all going round fast and it also rained a bit.
The wind in the fens blows most of the time and only when it blows you over do you notice it.

The electricity was off a couple of times on Friday so we got the candles out ready it never happened again after that.

Saturday toffee and I were beating on a shoot near Boston left Blue with Friends Barbara Bought a Good bottle of wine for them as she was working in a super store that we will not name begins with T.

We had a good day Saturday 64 Game birds, Hares and Pigeons. 16 guns  3 beaters 20dogs.
and a lot of tall Brussels sprouts that had water in the leaves from Friday.

No mushrooms about I think that's the last for this year there were about 30 ducks on the drain on Sunday when we walked along the bank.

The wood turners are going to Harrogate next Sunday to the woodworking show and this months meeting is a competition night which is a Box with lid I hope to remember my camera this month.

Thursday the 18th November the CLA have a show at Springfield's at Spalding I hope to go for a look around the show most of the lads from the 2 shoots will be their.

I have all the apples in and most of the fruit sorted just some green tomatoes to make green tomatoes chutney left in the green house.
I bought some garlic to set today and lemon grass seeds for next spring I must make a not of when to plant all my seeds next year.

I have another booking from the WI in the next village to give a talk on hedgerow foraging Next October 2011 .

well look after your self hope not to be so long next time.

Still sorting the harvest

Hi sorry I have not posted on here as much but I have been busy turning the harvest into things .
This weekend I was steam juicing the apples that I collected from off the plot I have not been down the local lanes as yet but one of the Wood turners (Trev)  said I could harvest his if I wanted I will have to see if I have the bottles and space.
The freezer is full so I was making fruit leathers with the pulp I have been looking at buying some bottles or using beer bottles to see if they work to keep the apple juice in..

The shooting season has Started and I was beating on Saturday near Boston on Wack and Jays shoot.
I brought a Brace of pheasants home I must say that only 27 lots of game were shot and a lot of them were pigeons and a few hares.

I am off on one on Saturday but I will take both dogs I just hope blue behaves his self.
I have this Friday off so back to normal  I have been in the office most of the week  but out first thing tomorrow at Frithville near Boston then in the office paper work who needs it.

I have picked all the pears off the trees on the plot and in my garden they will be next for the steam juicer and dryer.

The pears don't keep too long and soon go soft I like them hard .
Still finding the odd mushroom on my walks but have hardly dried any this year so I will have to keep my eye on the market and super markets for offers.

The garage needs more shelving so I can spread into there with my bottles and Jars.

A trip to Fulstow brewery at Louth

The lincolnshire smallholders and self sufficiency Club had a visit to Fulstow Brewery at Louth today, Barbara said it was not her cup of tea so I went on my own and had a half of IPA before the tour the beer was very good .

As I was driving It was tea for the rest of the afternoon.

The brewery is run by a very nice husband and wife team and is small scale but makes some nice beer I brought some bottles home with me.

There is a small pub on site that the owners are making out of part of the building .

The beer is sent out in 9 gallon casks or you can order 4.5gallon casks for party's at home.

I am having Friday and Monday off this weekend it makes a break and at the moment I need a break from work as last Monday we were told we had a meeting from 8.00am, so as not to be late I left early when we were all there the company had decided to test everyone for drugs and alcohol now this is OK but I have worked for this company for 6 months and now I have lost all trust and have no loyalty to this company.
Now as a professional person to treat me like that I find that disgusting.

And on Saturday I received a letter tell me I had passed all tests and thanking me.

They will when I hand in my notice as I have not been happy with the way they treat the staff.

My colleague was told on Friday that no one fail any tests.

Any way rant over so much for the simple life.

I have had a booking for next year at the WI in the next village so who knows, So look out Mr Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall .

I have decided to call it a night as I hear a bottle of Fulstows Village Life. calling.

Mushrooms and fungi in October

This is a selection of fungi that I have found along the river bank while out with the dogs.

This is yellow through all of the Fungi I have no Idea what sort it is/

There were 4 of these large brown ones down the Ponds these were found in around 6 silver birch trees they are called LECCINUM SCABRUM (brown Birch Bolete ) I think and as the books say it is edible but the colour would put me off.

Some were badly eat on by Slugs but this one is not to bad.

This photo below is a good example of Fungi.

I gave a talk at the local WI the other night GUERRILLA HARVESTING or Hedgerow foraging

It went down well and I have had enquires about next year.

The homemade wine went down well and the chili dipping sauce.

I have been dehydrating Pears to day with all 9 trays full.

and picking the last of the crops off the trees on the plot over the road.

wet weekend

I went out Saturday with the dogs wrapped up in my water proofs on the way back we came through a village where the trees where over the lane I had to stop as in the middle of the road were 3 pigeons well I thought they were all pigeons but when i got near i realised it was 2 pigeon's an a hawk.
The hawk was pinning down 1 pigeon and the other was pretending to be injured to distract him from his mate the hawk managed to get to the side of the road with his catch and I drove on and left nature to get on with life. Now some people would have intervened but I felt that was wrong.

On Sunday we were down the drain (river) and I had my camera with me when some plane were flying down a long the river and when they were near they banked off towards the Lincoln direction it was the red arrows so by the time that I had got my camera out of its case they were like dots in the sky. so no photos but it looked great in formation.

Monday I had to be up at 5am to catch the transport from Sleaford to Leeds for work it was a long day by the time I got home .

Barbara has bought me a new book called The complete Guide to edible wild plants,Mushrooms, Fruits,and Nuts. By Katie Letcher Lyle

It looks a good book I will let you know later.

Jam making in a bread maker

I have been busy since my last post I have harvested plums,Blackberries, Apples, Elderberries,
and Pears, then turning them into Jams and chutneys, Wine,syrups, cordials and freezing any spare in the freezer.
The freezer is now full so it will have to be Wines,syrups,jams, chutneys,and dehydrate and store in airtight jars.

We have had shelving put up in the back toilet so we can see all the jars and bottles as when we had them in a cupboard we could not see what we had and some got over looked.

The jams in the picture below are from left to right Nectarine and mango, Strawberry, both made in the bread maker, and finally chili pepper jelly made on the stove.

To make jam in the bread maker I put in 2 cup full of Fruit which has been squashed with a potatoes masher or food processor the colour stays and doesn't go dark like it would when its been cooked on the stove.

recipe for making jam in a bread maker.

Fruit 2 cups full of fruit mashed or blitzed in the food processor.

3 cups of sugar with added pectin.

If you cant get sugar with added pectin then use 3 teaspoons of lemon juice.

Put in the bread maker and set to jam program. my bread maker takes 1hour 20Min's.

Still picking the odd Field mushrooms when out with the dogs but not enough to dry in large lots.

Barbara is at work tomorrow so I will take over the Kitchen after taking the dogs out in the morning and wine bottling in the afternoon.

I have a recipe for tomatoes jam from a friend I have lots of tomatoes so I may have a go at making some.

I hope not to leave it so long before I post.

The kitchen beckons

I have been busy in the kitchen in the last 2 weeks this weekend I had the steam juicer going and made 4.5pints of Apple juice I bottled 4pints and put the .5 in the fridge for breakfast.
It keeps well if you leave the bottles on the side and put in the fridge when you open.

The steam juicer I have was made in Sweden and i use it to make juice it is easy to keep in bottles and saves room in the freezer.
apples, blackberries, any fruit that is spare you can always add apple and blackberry and sugar to make a jelly, Blackberry will make a nice syrup if sugar is added.

The basket will hold 11pounds of fruit just wash and chop apples leave the cores and pips and all you are left with is a cooked pulp.

I found my first field mushrooms of the year this weekend and tonight I found a lot more it may be a good year this year.

I had a day Bottling wine 18 bottles of Dandelion flower and 11 bottles of Parsnip of course I tried the half bottles just to see if they would pass the test and they did.

The parsnip is on the left and the dandelion is on the right.

These are dandelion I made 3 gallon this year and i must say its very good. these six bottles are the first to be bottled.

For a simple life I find it hard to find the time at the moment with making things in the kitchen and wine and things but it will get better when I start to fill the freezer.

on the way out of work tonight Kaz gave me what i thought was 1 marrow but it turned out to be 3 so Barbara will have to see it her dog walking friends will take 1 each.

Combines are working overtime to bring in the harvest

The walks have seemed to have run into each other just lately the last 2 weekends and a few nights the combines have been working long hours where ever you look the fields are alive with the farmers hard at work they have been working day and nights with the lights flashing away on the combines.

I went down to the wind turbines last Saturday for a change the sunshine reflected on the turbines.

This is what it looks like standing under the blades of the turbines above your head massive lumps of blades coming round and they don't look very high above the ground when you stand still.

The combines are no sooner out of the field and the balers are baling up the straw ready for the crew yards for winter bedding for the cows.

The fields will soon be ploughed ready for the next crop.

The river board have been out with the weed cutters these 2 were moored near the new concrete steps that were built in the spring.

Mind the teeth toffee as they will cut dogs as well as reeds and weeds.

One is a cutter the other has a scoop for clearing the weeds each one is man by one person.

The dust rises as the combines work away to bring in the harvest.

The other Saturday as I walked the dogs 2 men in a boat passed I never got the name but it looked so relaxing and later when we came home the 2 gents were just coming back from lunch at the pub.

They looked happy and relaxed what a life away from the rat race it will be better when this credit crunch ends. Ha ha

Tonight when we went down the drain bank the hares were running along the track they must have come out of the fields because of the work going on with combines and balers I counted 6 on the track .

On the way back a muntjac deer came out of the long grass and wandered across the track and into the woodland and near the farm yard small rabbits as well as hares were running all over the place.