We are Martin and Amy and we live in a cosy Warwickshire market town where we enjoy growing our own fruit and vegetables on our allotment and we also keep chickens in our garden. We both love cooking and especially baking bread. Welcome to 'our good life'..
I know I haven't blogged for a while, but what better way to get back in to it than a live post from my Grandparent's house whilst collecting a swarm.
I was down the allotment just about to put my sweetcorn in and my mobile started ringing. It was my Grandad
'Martin, your grandma wants you'
'Ok. Hi Grandma.'
'Martin there's a swarm of bees outside the back door do you want them.'
'Yes please. l'll be there in 5 minutes!!'
So, I put the sweetcorn in the she ready for planting tomorrow morning. Dashed home, got my veil and off I went. This is the 3rd year in a row that a swarm has congregated by/at my Grandma's house!! However this is the only year that I've had an empty hive to house them in!!
They were congregated on a wall so I scooped as many as I could in to the bucket before turning it over and waiting for the rest to follow on in. I'm just waiting for the last few stragglers whilst having a coffee indoors. Here's a few pictures, I'll let you know how it goes and maybe I'll even make an allotment blog tomorrow!!
Wow! It's been a whole year since we started blogging again and if I might say, we've done rather well in my opinion. I did have the urge to do a review of the year in January like so many other bloggers did, but that would have actually been a review of the last 10 months as opposed to a year. So waiting until our blogging birthday was definately more suitable.
Every year, it is nice to go back and look through the blog posts that have accumulated. Having made around 150 posts, averaging about 3 per week, it can take a long time to look through them all. However, it is really beneficial to refresh your memory of what you should be doing now and also remind yourself of the things that worked particularly well and then of course.. those that didn't!
April
This is where it all started again. A spontaneous trip to a local garden centre resulted in us returning with a bag of early seed potatoes and some courgette plants...
These courgettes were a fantastic success, but the potatoes which we grew in bags were not so great. After giving up my allotment 2 years ago to concentrate on studies it was definately nice to get my fingers dirty again...
May
This was a very exciting month. Amy who had never grew anything before was witnessing tomato plants shoot right up and we also saw those two measly courgette plants burst in to a jungle of foliage. This month also brought our first pickings of courgettes too. Simply delicious..
The above photo show our measly patch turning in to a green canvas of leaves and growing produce..
June
It was nice to get the bees back. After 3 years of beekeeping I have still not managed to harvest a good deal of honey. I only ever intend to take what the bees don't need and with the bees being quite a small colony they have never produced a great deal. I'm hoping for a much more vigorous honey crop this year. The first inspection of Spring is upon us!
July
My highlight of the year was adding the Bantams to our ever growing very, very, very, very small holding. Having had 2 hybrids for eggs already in an eglu classic, it was nice to add some more chickens to the menagerie. Lesley and Geraldine our two original hens were rather shocked to see the impecably beautiful bantam trio of Margot, Barbara and Mrs.Weaver pitch up across the path in another eglu. These young, point of lay ladies came to strut their stuff and takeover the ruling of the roost.
There was some sadness to this story. Who can forget when one morning a 'cock a doodle doo' rang throughout the house, and upon very close inspection we realised that Barbara was more of a he than a she. No wonder there was a short term lack of eggs from these 'point of lay' pure breeds.
Here is Barbara in all of her 'cock-a-doodle-doodlingness'...
Anyway Barbara was replaced with Barbara II or Barbaradeux as we like to call her. The Bantams have been laying better than expected through winter and have been putting Lelsey and Geraldine to shame at times.
August
Our first green pepper came this month along with plentiful amounts of courgettes, tomatoes and mange tout. The potatoes however were a bit of a damp squib, with the potato in bags experiment being less successful than I had hoped it be. A lovely sunny month full of fresh produce on the table, what could be better?
September
A new academic year saw our blog posting tail off slightly, but good things still happened in our good life...
This month saw us doing lots of nice things inside rather than out. We got our Christmas cakes baked and I also helped Amy bake her first loaf. It is certainly a taste to savour, fresh homemade bread. We also went foraging in the park for crab apples which made a splendid jelly. Christmas things started to appear in shops and our countdown really began..
October
One of Martin's favourite times of year and not only for the soul reason that it is his birthday. October is a month of Orange. Orange leaves on trees and of course the wonderful pumpkins that emerge on doorsteps around the world at Halloween. We had an extra special Halloween this year with our trip to Disneyland Paris. A truly magical month, but food produced in the garden started to dwindle..
November
Our only post in November was an introduction to Barbaradeux. It certainly started to feel like Christmas in this month. Barbara was definately glad she wasn't a turkey...
December
We had a very merry family christmas this year, which was splendid. With the bees sleeping for the winter, and the eggs starting to come to a stop we weren't up to too much in our good life venture but we did get crafty and make some homemade cross stitch cards for our nearest and dearest..
January
A very happy new year! Christmas seemed to have flew by without stopping and it was time to sit exams for us both. Not the best month from the 12. Roll on Spring!
February
Amy's Birthday was celebrated for what seemed forever. With such a large family we had birthday meals here there and everywhere but she certainly wasn't complaining..
I taught Amy how to make perfect bread this month and I think you can agree she is a quick learner..
February is such an important time for vegetable growers and gardeneres. The seed potatoes are ready to start chitting and it's time to think about early broad beans and garlic. Tomatoes and Chillis can be started off too, a small taste of things to come..
A late Christmas present came to us at the end of February in the form of our new allotment. Initially being allocated Plot 16 brought so much happiness, but when faced with the decision betweet Plots 16 and 114 there was only one clear winner. Plot 114 became our new home and definately ensured next month was going to be a busy one..
March
Like I stated earlier, Plot 114 ensured March was a busy month for us. Clearing the site and getting it ready for planting took some time but we are sure that it is going to be worth it come harvest time..
What next?
Well here's to another year of blogging for a start. We have really enjoyed giving an account of our good life and sharing it with all of our 54 followers and those who don't follow publicly aswell. We have really enjoyed reading everybody elses blogs too and we always try to publicise others blogs as much as our own, so I think that this month I will start featuring our favourite blogs in special posts. You can learn so much from every blog you visit.
For us, Plot 114 is such an exciting project. We can't wait to get things in the ground and start picking them soon. Martin also fancies some new chickens, but that is something we will have to see about, and we really hope that we get a honey harvest this year no matter how small.
One thing we are really keen on is improving the readability and graphology of the blog. So all of your feedback will be appreciated. We hope to include better quality photographs and more posts sharing hints and tips as opposed to just accounts of our days. We've already taken your feedback on board to remove the word verification process when posting comments.
Last but not least we really, really want to thank all of our followers and readers. Our site has been visited over 10,000 times in just under 12 months and from all corners of the globe too. Thankyou so much and we hope you continue to visit throughout the rest of 2012 and beyond.
I love going up the narrow path to the beehive, it's discreetly tucked behind the shed, and can't be seen from anywhere in the garden. If you know where to look you can see it from the bridge which the main road goes over. I don't feel a threat from vandalism or anything like that because it looks like a pile of old boxes on the side of a slope.
I didn't don the whole outfit yesterday afternoon, I did that in the week. But sometimes I just like going up the path to take a look at the bees flying in and out of the beehive.
I've gone video crazy these last few days, and there is another one to follow tomorrow too.
You can just about make out the flighty bees as they come home...
I appologise in advance for the 'WHAT!' in the middle. Amy was shouting me from down the garden because Barbara thought it would be nice to eat the freshly sown grass seed.
Grab your popcorn now and sit back...
Have a good weekend.
I realise that this weeks post has been mainly chickens, and now bees. How about some fantastic, exciting and amazing vegetable news on Monday? Definately stay tuned!!
I mentioned in yesterday's post that we were going away overnight to visit 'The Venice of the Cotswolds'. Bourton on the Water is only 30 miles from where we live, but there is so much to see and do. In fact, we've only been back home for just over an hour, and we have already planned to go back in three weeks time for a few more days in order to fit in everything that we missed out this time.
If you haven't been to Bourton, then you really should go. The buildings are made of the most georgeous Cotswold Stone and it really is the most pituresque town.
The reason it gets the name 'The Venice of the Cotswolds' is due to the beautiful river that runs through the middle of the town. The only way to get from one side of the river to the other, is via a gorgeous series of stone bridges. I absolutely love the river in Bourton. We stumbled upon Bourton by accident last year and spent an hour or so there and we couldn't believe how beautiful the place was, and this sort of place needs at least a day's devotion to even cover the surface of the town. The water is so clear, and the quantity of different species of wild waterfowl is amazing. You can also see the trout swimming in the water, and apparently the Christmas tree is placed in the middle of the river each year.
This picture shows a) Amy posing b) how clear the water is c) how beautiful the houses are and d)how you get from one side of the town to the other...
If you look closely you can just about make out the trout...
Just a tip, for if you do go to Bourton. Go for a walk by the riverside at 9am. It gives you ample amount of time to walk along the river (and even time to dip your toes in or just feed the ducks if your prefer), also it's not too long before all the shops open, but because the shops don't open until 10am, you will be some of the only people out and about. The atmosphere was so tranquil and relaxing.
Here are a collection of photos of the river and those bridges..
We saw some horses crossing the river this morning, it was quite a sight. We just about managed to capture some photos...
I decided to paddle my feet in the water this morning, and we soon attracted a group of ducks. What an idealic location this spot is..
The number of ducks was getting bigger and bigger, so we gave in and bought some duck food. Here is Amy lobbing the food at the ducks(and pigeons, and starlings, and blue tits and crows)
There are so many birds around, not only in Birldand (one of Bourton's main attractions) but on the river. So many, that for the first time in ages I saw one of these signs. BEWARE OF THE DUCKS!
The BEWARE OF THE DUCKS sign is the red triangle in the background, the sign in the foreground is for the Model Village, another one of Bourton's attractions. We visited the Model Village, which was quite expensive for the short amount of time it takes to view it, but nonetheless it was very pretty and very cleverly done too.
Look at the minature bridge..
The Church was the centerpiece of the exhibit..
I thought, it wouldn't be suitable for us to make a blog post without a hint of grow your own or do it yourself. Here is the minmal contribution (but still a contribution). The minature village was equipped with a small vegetable plot at the back of somebody's house..
There was an observation... bridge. (You guessed it) Therefore, you could view the whole minature village from a more aerial perspective...
The picture of the river and bridge in the minature village shows how accurate it really was. But for further comparison here is a picture of the town's war memorial..
Minature version....
Even all of the really small details encapsulated in the model village.
The next tourist attraction was definately up our street. It was called 'The Living Green' it was a lovely show garden with a shop which was 100% self supporting with it's water, energy etc. It had lots of nice bits and bobs in there, and when we get paid in a few weeks and revisit we will definately pop back in. It even had a grass roof! Amazing!
It even sold some nice beeswax candles..
If we hadn't just made our own, I definately would have bought some.
Bourton can definately rival anywhere for cream teas... Delicious!!
We had such an enjoyable time, and like I have said we are going again in three weeks time to fit in the other attractions and nearby attractions such as Cotswold Wildlife Park, The Bourton Motor Museum and a chilli and herb farm we had never heard of. The campsite itself was really nice, and the camping and walking write up will appear on the blog tomorrow morning.
I've just notcied how long this post is, so if you've read it all I can only appologise.
On the 17th June, we removed two old brood frames from the bee hive. These frames were quite old, and were currently not being used. The wax in the frames was really off coloured, it was a very dark brown, almost black.
I had read about candle making, but had thought it would be really hard to do. But let me tell you this, it is the easy thing in the world to do.
First of all we cut the wax comb out of the frames, and popped the frames in the sink for a good wash and disinfect.
Then we needed to take the wax and break it up in to bits. The original foundation was wired and therefore we needed to take the metal wire out of the wax before it could be heated.
We broke the way in to small square pieces which were about an inch in size. We then put them in to a jug. The beekeeper at Gardener's World told us to use a microwave safe plastic bowl, but we didn't have any of those so a glass jug had to suffice...
It's all then so easy.
We put the wax in to the microwave for 30 second sessions at a time. Each time we would give the wax a prod (early stages) and when it was starting to melt we gave it a stir. The liquid was black, and I started to envisage the worst candles ever created, and then have to face the humility on here.
You can make wax sheets to roll up in to old fashioned candles, but the easy way to do it is to pour the liquid in to those rubber cake moulds. We had some heart shaped cake moulds to use.
For the first one we cut the wick down to size and then I dangled the wick in to the mould whilst Amy poured the mixture in, and we reversed roles for the second attempt. I then stood like a lemon holding the wick in place until it began to set slightly.
We filled two moulds with our 2 frames worth of wax. We did think we would get a couple more with so much wax, but I suppose that it is hollow and looked like there was more than there really was. Never mind.
When both moulds were filled and beggining to set, we popped them in to the fridge to speed up the process.
It then came to the time to remove them from the moulds and we were pleasantly surprised. With the frame that used to contain stores of honey, the candle had set to a georgeous deep honey colour. Whereas the brood wax candle was much darker and almost an olive oil colour on the sides and at the bottom.
The only problem we encountered was that some debri and bits that weren't removed from the wax seemed to burn in the microwave and sank to the bottom of the melted wax, so the bottoms of the candles is black. However, this does not bother us at all. But in the future we may use a more precise filtration/debri removal technique.
Amy is so thrilled with the end product that she says that we can never, ever burn them. Which of course slightly defeats the object of the whole task. They are nicely sat on the bedroom windowsil now and are nice decorative ornaments.
Has anybody else tried making their own candles? We would love to hear about what you found good/bad and easy/hard.
Thanks everyone for reading, if you have access to your own wax, or know someone who keeps bees then this is definately worth a try. Good luck if you do try it!
You'd have thought I'd met the Queen, I was so happy. Well, it was not her majesty as such, but Mrs.Queen bee!
It's the first time I've tracked her down since we got bees again. I am useless at spotting queen bees, there are so many bees in the hive and they are all jiggling about so it is very difficult to spot her for more than a few seconds.
As soon as I saw her I reached for my queen marking pen, only to realise my pockets were empty and the pen was in a drawer inside the house. How frustrating..
You can see why it can be difficult to spot her, I don't think I even managed to capture her in this shot!
An iphone is the beekeepers must have tool for the 21st century.
I took a couple of frames out of the brood chamber that were full of old wax which is currently not being used. I have some new foundation to put in them and they will go in tomorrow morning. We are going to be making our own beeswax candles with the wax, which is obviously very special and exciting.
I hope you enjoyed reading parts 1 and 2 of this report. If you haven't seen them yet, then they should be directly under this post on the home page.
I mentioned in Part 2 that beehives and chickens featured prominently throughout the show. Not only was there a large presence in the show gardens and displays, but there were plenty of stalls inside that were selling or advertising related products etc.
This stand was by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA).
It really is a step in the right direction for promoting the hobby, it was one of the most bespoke and outstanding pieces in the whole hall. As you will all probably know, numbers of honey bees around the world are in serious decline following outbreaks of viruses and bacteria that thrive on healthy colonies. This stand really went the extra mile. There were many beekeepers on hand partaking in different activities. Some were taking apart hives and demonstrating to potential newbies. There were other beekeepers demonstrating candle making, which is something we hope to do soon and there were others manning stalls with honey and beekeeping products. There was a display hive too. It is basically a glass window with two brood frames in so that people can see how the bees go about their business. It is always interesting to see the bees even though we have our own, but because Amy doesn't go near the hive (yet!) it was great for her to see them up close. They also had 2 bee hives in the outside area with live beekeeping demonstrations taking place throughout the day. It did make me laugh how clever they were bringing two hives and plonking them in the middle of the show gardens. Think of all that amazing honey they will get now!
Before we move on, we will take a look back at the other gardens or displays with beehives on them.
This was one of the edible patches designed by local schools and charities.
This show garden was called 'Working with nature' it was a very tranquil looking garden.
There was also the show garden which we awarded the 'Our-good-life' silver medal.
Well, I suppose you are all bee-hived out. Well, here is a selection of gardens and displays which were based on the 'grow your own' theme.
The above display by 'Robinson's seeds and plants' was a breathaking mass of colour and texture. It was different from most other displays because it was a display of harvested vegetables and fruits rather than growing plants. It still scooped a Gold Medal, and we bought the lovely Filius Blue chilli pepper plant which was photographed in Part 1 from here. You can also see the 'Turk's Turban' squash in the bottom left corner, we bought one of these plants too because Amy was amazed with the shape and colour of them. The plant has now been planted in the squash and pumpkin bed. They had this display of beans too, I am very envious of them...
This next garden was very vintage. It had a cute little chicken coop/adapted rabbit hutch in the foreground and the whole plot was in 4 segments with the greenhouse in the centre. I thought the 'Dig for Victory' post was a really nice touch. This garden had lots of good information published on small placards strategically placed throughout the garden. Great idea!
In the past I've been to talks by Paul Kelly, James Martin, Jimmy Doherty and Carol Klein. But this year we went to see good old Alan Titchmarsh doing a talk about growing your own veg. Amy wasn't keen on the idea, but I dragged her by the hair all the way to the stage. (joke). She did buckle and came along, and we were both surprised at how funny he actually is and his whole talk was adapted around growing in smaller spaces which was very relevant for us. He did a questions and answers session at the end, which was good of him. The picture doesn't show a lot other than Alan and some stranger's heads...
We got a bit closer to good old Monty though who was filming for Friday's show...
Anyway, away from the gardeners and back to the gardens. Or displays as like to call this next lot.
The UK Bonsai society always make me laugh. People queue up to talk to the experts and their conversation always goes like this.
Person: ''I had a bonsai tree''
UK Bonsai Expert: ''..and it died''
It always makes me laugh at loud, the same thing happened again yesterday and Amy gave me a nudge in the side. The bonsai trees on display always look amazing, like minature pieces of precious woodland. But, if you have ever owned a bonsai tree like I have, they die, and fast. I've had four or five bonsai trees in the past and not a single one lasted more than two weeks. As soon as one leaf falls off the whole lot seems to go, the conditions your provide are always too hot, or too cold, too sheltered or not sheltered enough, too much light, or not enough! No matter what book I have read or what I have done, the same result is always impending doom. What sort of witchcraft and wizardry do they use to nurture these beauties....
Amazing aren't they!
Well, I have to admit that I am pretty bad when it comes to flowers, my knowledge is not as extensive as my knowledge of fruit and vegetable growing. I often forget the names of the flowers like with the following displays which are actually rather beautiful...
I can just about say that either side of these flowers there are some alliums. But I'm not sure what these are. I like the white and pink ones near the top.
Here are some more outstanding flower displays..
Some foxgloves...
Amy liked the display by the company that provided the trees for the Royal Wedding on April 29th. A couple of the trees from the wedding were on display...
I have been writing this post since 9:30 am and it is now 11:39 am. Time flies. There are a lot more photos left, so I am going to do a fourth part to this report called 'Best of the Rest' It will got live at 9am tomorrow Friday for those of you who are interested.
We had such a good day, I really envy all of those people who have been today too. Can't wait for next years show, Amy did joke that we should do a show garden because she recons I could do a better job than some of them.. Don't even want to think about all of the work that goes in to that!
I was really unsure how Amy would react to a whole day at a gardening event, and I am really pleased to say that she absoutely loved it as much as I did. The whole enjoyment of the day was helped by the favourable conditions. Nobody wants to be looking around the show gardens when it is really gloomy and raining at the bucket load. So thankfully the skies were relatively clear in the morning, and it was a bit overcast in the morning. The only time that the heavens opened was when we were walking back to the car with armfuls of newly acquired bits and bobs, typical. I'd rather it rain as we were leaving rather than as we walking around the amazing show gardens.
The Royal Horticultural Society and the Gardener's World team did an amazing job of allocating the gold, silver and bronze medals to all of the exhibited show gardens. However, we had our own personal favourites too. We are going to share with you our top five gardens from the show. There were some outstanding 'displays' too, but you will see in part 3 of our report where we draw the line between 'show gardens' and 'displays'
In reverse order....
5th
Heart Healthy Garden designed by Paul Baines and John Woods Nurseries is inspired by healthy and pro-active lifestyles. The garden was sponsored by 'Flora Pro-active' and had a very modern and comfortable feel to it. The main features of the garden were the georgeous seating arrangements and this gentle pool on one side. This garden was a real celebrity hot spot, we spotted lots of famous people browsing this particular garden.
4th
They say you always remember the first and the last and this is true in the case of 'The Edible Classroom' by Hannah Genders as it was the first garden we saw at the show. Hannah is a local desinger and her last show garden which was for received a gold medal at the Malvern show is permanently on display at a local farm shop. 'The Edible Classroom' is a burning desire to roll out a nation wide use of allotments and growing spaces in schools. This show garden was a real novelty with fruit and vegetables being grown in old style desks and the show garden had chickens too. The ladies were a real hit....
3rd
Bronze medal time now. Our third favourite garden was the 'Grow Your Own' garden which was also the 'Grow Your Own' stage. There were many talks on growing fruit and vegetables during the day, and we attended one hosted by Alan Titchmarsh. The garden had two stunning green houses, and a row of delightful raised beds with some great demonstrations of companion planting and natural pest avoidance techniques. The varities displayed were very colourful, with sunny yellow courgettes, red cabbage and purple runner beans.
2nd
Our silver award goes to a garden which for me would be idealic. Each night before we go to bed, we are currently watching an episode per night of the Good Life TV series from the 70s. This garden really did look like it belonged to Tom and Barbara. It had a georgeous light blue chicken coop with a white fenced area for them to free-range in. It also had a WBC bee hive in the middle of 8 or so apple trees. At the end of the garden was a small vegetable patch. The garden was perfect. It was quite romantic in a really odd way. I just loved everything about it. If that was my garden I would be so proud. It is not the most practical thing, but being self-sufficient is not always practical. If you had an allotment in conjunction with this garden then you really could be on your way to self-sufficiency. Delightful!
1st - Gold Medal
This garden called 'Gorilla's Plight' was compiled by Birmingham City Council. It was simply amazing. People were on their mobile phones saying 'it's like something we've never seen before' and 'it's breathtaking'. To be perfectly honest it was all of those things. We can give it the prize of 'Our-good-life Top Garden' but you really need to see this garden to believe it. There was so much going on, you didn't know where to look at any one time. A huge waterfall and pond was incorporated in to the centre of the garden, and the exotic foliage was breathtaking. There were recycled metal animals too, including Gorillas (obviously) and turtles and beetles. This was the most deserving winner. Not only a RHS Gold medal, but ours too. Congratulations!!
You can probably see some sort of theme in our selections. Fruit, vegetables and growing your own! After all this is what we are all about, and this is why our blog exists, so it is only fitting that these were the gardens we enjoyed the most and took the most from. The other mini theme was water, Amy loves water features and anything to do with water in gardens. She could be the next Charlie Dimmock! In reality there was no chance of anybody beating 'Gorilla's Plight' it was unbelievable, so she didn't need to twist my arm on that one. But we agreed that 'Healthy Heart Garden' did fit in with 'Our-good-life' theme as we do strive to be healthier and more pro-active in everything we do. The Cabbages for Classrooms idea is lovely, I remember that anything to do with gardening in science at school really made my academic year more worthwhile. Beehives and Chicken Coops were really 'in' at this years show. I remember that in the past only ornamental chickens and beehives have been used, but now there are real hens, cockerels and buzzing bees in 'live hives'. This must be a good sign of the population's trends...
We have so many photos and annecdotes to share, so I will be busy writing the next installment during the day and it will be published at 5pm, so be sure to check back.
