Poplars Down

On Friday, we had five of the over-grown poplars felled. Before, the garden looked like this:

Before felling (© Ian 2012)

And by Saturday morning, it looked like a timber yard.

And after (© Ian 2012)

We spent most of Saturday and today getting it tidied. The brush wood is now almost all on the existing heap of material for chipping (where the pond, one day, will be), and most of the wood is in four heaps: lots of uncut stuff on the garden drive, and three other heaps where the trees landed.
Poplar isn't fantastic woodfuel, but this is free, so I can't complain. We're seriously looking at getting a biomass boiler, and this would provide some starting firewood. If we don't, it's years' worth of stove fuel!

The three smaller trees were taken down sectionally, but the big two were straight drops (with a guide rope). Watching the biggest come down was quite a sight!

New Potato Varieties

New to us, that is. Our potatoes for 2012 have arrived, and are now sitting in egg boxes in the study, chitting.

We ordered 1.5kg of each of:

• Lady Christl: extra early. We really liked this, last year, and it yielded very well.
• Red Duke of York: early. New to us, but the yield is meant to be good, and I like having at least one red variety.
• Pentland Javelin: early. Not tried it before, but, again, meant to be a good yielder.
• Cara: maincrop. Druid, which we were impressed by last year, we couldn't get, but Cara's very similar.

We're going to maintain the spacings from last year for the earlies, but use the bigger spacing we trialled with Druid for the maincrop Cara. With Druid, doubling the space more than doubled the yield, which we were very happy with, so hopefully the same will apply.

Garage and Shed

A couple of days of sorting around the house. I've started building a store in the back porch, to help tidily store recycling and bin-related things. Almost there, but not quite. We've also had a major tidy up of the garage, sorting and 're-filing' my store of DIY wood, sifting through the odds and ends, and contemplating the shed.

The shed has been leaking all year, and is clearly starting to rot. We don't wish to replace it this moment (not clear what we want!), but it's in danger of letting its contents get damaged (lawnmowers, strimmers, and chainsaws don't like getting wet). So, we've moved a load of 'rubbish' and things that don't mind getting wet into the shed, and put the shed contents in the garage. We've also moved about a cubic metre of firewood out of the old coal cellar, in the garage: it needs splitting, but is seasoned. The divan that was in the garage is now in the study, ready to go into the guest room to replace the bed in there (which doesn't have drawers), and the large supply of rocksalt is now in the coal cellar.

The tree surgeon we've settled on is coming in a fortnight to drop the poplars, whereupon I will have a huge pile of wood to split and stack to dry. I think a new splitting maul might be required!

It's been a really cold weekend, with freezing fog today. For all that, the activity (lifting, carrying, sorting) has at least kept us warm.

Frosty spider's web (© Ian 2012)

Quilting

We managed to spend most of today on our leafy quilt, which will eventually go in our bedroom. I'll find a photo, but it's been nice to make progress. Sadly, it's the last day of our holiday, so part of the day was getting ready to return to work: lunch boxes, work bags, and bikes ready. Ah, well. It's been the longest break we've had in several years—since our honeymoon, we reckon—as a result of taking Friday 23rd off as well as our 'normal' Christmas break of a fortnight.

Roll on 2012...

To-Do List

Several days of working on a to-do list that we'd 'saved' until our holiday...

• The workshop's been tidied up, and I've installed the replacement bolts on the workshop and garage doors.
• We've made another batch of marmalade. This time we used two lemons and four oranges, which came to just under 0.75 pints of juice. You're meant to add 0.75pt of water (and 6lb sugar) to the Marmade tin; I reckon you should make at least two-thirds of this juice (half a pint), and potentially all of it. With this extra pectin, the boiling time was only about 12 minutes (not the 15 the tin calls for). I looks like another good batch!
• Another tree surgeon's been to look at the poplars.
• Our attempt to purchase the hill-side opposite the house has, sadly, come to naught. No great surprise, but we thought we'd enquire!
• It's been raining for about 48 hours, so we've had to put out buckets to catch the drips in Jenny and Philip's conservatory (they're away for another week).
• I've put a ceiling light in the middle of the dining room.
• I've replaced the light switch in the cellar with a waterproof one, as the wall often gets lots of condensation, which didn't feel safe.
• Liz has, with heavy heart, taken down the Christmas decorations.
• We've sorted out the Christmas fabrics (windowsill runners, tablecloths, etc), and finished hemming the tablecloth for the kitchen.
• Crushed and stored a big bunch of applemint that's been drying, ready for making tea.
• Found the divider for the floor between kitchen and utility room, and started thinning it down to fit.

Seed Bed

A number of vegetables need to be sown in one place and allowed to grow a bit, before being planted in their final location. Cauliflowers are one, along with leeks. However, some of them don't mind being outside for this stage of their life, and there are others (like early carrots) which can be sown under cover (but still outside) for an early crop. To do this, we've dug a pair of small beds (about 60cm by 2m) where the shed/greenhouse will one day go, built little brick/stone walls around them, and put glass on top of them. Coldframes or seed beds, whatever you call them, they'll now start drying out and warming up, ready for us to put plants in them over the coming months.

That took a fair bit of the morning, as it's been horrible weather (hail, rain, and wind), but this afternoon we managed to rack the three wines that are brewing: hedgerow, elder, and elderflower. They'll need another month or two, and then they can be bottled.

New Year Tasks

We've spent the last couple of days in Thirsk with my parents, for New Year's Eve and dad's birthday. Lovely and relaxing. On the way home, we found a new Christmas tree at Thirsk garden centre: ours is looking very sad, and has done for months. Despite potting it on, watering and feeding it, and keeping it watered and away from radiators while inside, it's totally failed to thrive. The new one, post-Christmas, was only £15, so even if it only makes it through Christmas 2012, it'll be cheaper than a cut tree.

Having got home, we've got a number of bits and pieces sorted out: I've replaced the wheels on the bikes, and cleaned the garden tools (including, this time, remembering to remove the blade from the lawnmower, so it doesn't get stuck like it did last winter).

We also did a spot of baking, as Cath and Jason are visiting tomorrow, and we wanted some goodies to toast on the fire. More muffins, teabread, and a mincemeat tart (not for toasting...).