When walnut trees go bad, or, that explains the rubbish tomatoes

I was fairly baffled by how poor my tomato crop was this year- I put it down to multiple heat waves, not pruning the tomatoes enough and possibly choosing the wrong varieties for the location…last year I had x2 tomato plants in pots next to the front door that didn’t receive much attention and they …

Autumnal assessment

And voila- summer over, equinox blew by and here we are in autumn!  Right now that means a freezer full of goat, a potager that just won’t stop producing chard and courgettes, and now a nice little pile of pumpkins.  I still can’t find the secret chicken nest- so only 1-2 eggs a day.  Aaaaand …

…and then there were three. Sentimentality in smallholding.

We have had a fairly emotional week.  We returned from our trip to see family in England to find our little fragile White Ears had passed away, peacefully while napping in the pasture.  He was always very small and we had to hand feed him to be sure he got enough to eat, so we …

Water water everywhere…

Except coming out of our taps.  For the last two days we were working off of buckets from the green-tinted swimming pool and bottled water.   And the adventure continues. Tuesday we noticed throughout the day the water pressure was getting lower and lower…until finally, after dinner it was down to a pathetic drip.  Only a …