7th of the month Following a tree link + other stuff.

Joining up with Lucy at Loose and Leafy blog to follow a tree through 2014. My tree is our pink flowered  Horse Chestnut. Someone planted a conifer hedge behind the tree and it's also near the hedge boundary with some Ash trees on the third side, which have been cut back frequently because to the right of them is the fruit cage where we have raspberries, red currants and gooseberries.

Pink candles from a distance

and closer

A shady spot underneath

I think lichen shows we have lovely clean air here on the edge of Suffolk

I've decided that after I've saved up for my new Roberts Red Retro Radio, I'm starting a new fund for a digital SLR camera. I just don't get on with the little Canon digital. I'm old fashioned, I want a camera I can look through. I had a cheap Russian SLR camera way back in the 1970s and it took lovely photos until it got sand inside.

Now onto today's news
Both of us had more energy today so C started the day loosening the soil on last years Brussel sprout bed and then after an early coffee he went to our neighbours for grass cutting. I did the ironing then wheel-barrowed some compost onto the bed, ready for him to rotovate in.
We then  got 10 courgette plants out, it's quite windy today so we've put an old tyre round each plant until they get established. Wind can do them a lot of  damage - twisting the stem.

Later he prepared the bed for the climbing French beans and got some canes up ready. The beans have been moved from the conservatory to the cold-frame to harden off but we will still wind a bit of fleece round them when we plant them out in a few days time.

It's going to be a bad year for bugs, caterpillars and other nasties. I've been checking the gooseberries for sawfly caterpillars every couple of days and there are lots and greenfly too plus we've already destroyed one wasps nest this year and it's only May. If you have gooseberry bushes it really is worth looking for any half eaten leaves which will usually have a caterpillar underneath. Varying from the size of a dash like this - to about a centimetre long they can eat their way through the leaves on a bush in next to no time  I usually squash them by folding the leaf around them and squishing.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Running to catch up? Not today

3 days spent at car boot sales, working outside and watching the snooker on TV and I needed to be running to catch up all week.

Then last night C had bad chest pains and we were worried that all the heart things were starting all over again. Hopefully it was just  caused by really bad indigestion, but he got very little sleep and what with one thing and another we are both tired today. By coincidence he had an appointment  with the doctor this morning anyway so was checked out and all is OK. He has to increase the tablets that he already takes which are supposed to stop the other tablets upsetting his stomach. The joy of getting older!

I managed to get the bread making done and some hoovering plus all the chicken and egg things of course but then we both had a rest.

The trouble with this time of year is that there are always so many jobs that need  doing soon  and  I suddenly remembered that I owe letters to two penfriends. Hopefully full energy will be restored tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and welcome to new followers on Bloglovin'.

Back tomorrow
Sue

More boot sale bargains

2 more Car boot sales this morning. Another big one same place as yesterday and a very small one in our nearest village. They only have one a year on this Bank Holiday Monday.
Today I crossed two more things off my list.

Here was my list  on 4th April before the car boot season started, with the things I soon found crossed off.

2 Toilet roll holders for the new Gents toilets on the campsite.( We looked in B & Q - some were £18!!)  bought at the first car boot for 50p each
New Tea Towels as long as they are less than 50p each
Card making bits, although they have to be cheap and I must be really choosy as I have shelves full already.
Wine glasses that look like this Found exactly what I wanted (after looking for about 3 years) for £2
Things that could be Christmas presents.
Books from my "looking for" list............. these have to be cheap.
Books not on my list but look really interesting.......they need to be even cheaper.
A Hosta that has green leaves with yellow edges. Love Hostas. Ahem! 'seem' to have bought 3 Hostas!

Then I added a few  more things to my list

New cheap ( less than £2) T shirts.
An old ( but decent) rug with a traditional pattern in beige and reds  for in front of the wood burner
A large old fashioned square shaped mirror  Found for bargain price of £2  on 21st April


And today I found the rug  - as it was exactly the  colours that I wanted I decided it was worth  the £10 I paid.

Polly approves of the new rug

 And the man who is sometimes at local boot sales with  new T shirts was there, so I got 4 for £5.


Then we called in at Friston where I spotted one of these for sale for £10, brand new, never used but with a little bit of the cover broken in one corner. I've been managing with a small window sill propagator for the last couple of years but with my new shed on the way before next spring this will make life easier.
That means I spent even more than yesterday. Thank goodness the money for the things today didn't have to come out of the housekeeping purse as I could pay myself back from the garden, clothes and house virtual envelopes. If I go on at this rate of spending there will be nothing left in my purse for the Roberts Radio fund, which seems to be taking ages to reach it's target. I may have to do something drastic next month - maybe I'll jump on  the frugal food challenge bandwagon!


C has been really busy here over the last few days with preparations for the concrete base of the new garden shed. ( He is always busy but rarely here several days in a row). I'm very excited  * small excited dance!* I have all sorts of plans for the colour, a small patio area at the front and displaying pots on an old wooden ladder in a vintage shabby chic sort of way. ( Have you noticed that anything for sale labelled vintage, retro or shabby chic has £10 added for each word used!)

Back tomorrow- when I must get back to normal housework/bread making mode.
Sue

Spending too much at the car boot sale!

It was the first of 3 local car-boot sales I hope to get to this weekend and it was huge and I bought some things I didn't really need, they were NOT on my list and  I spent more than usual. Oh dear.

Two more Hostas, colour combinations I've not seen before, a pot of sempervivum, these are the outdoor cactus things that spread like mad - I hope - and need virtually no soil to grown in. I've not had any of these since house number 3 ( 1983) where we  had some growing in gaps in a wall. A very old willow patten jug, I love jugs and this in good condition outside - though grotty inside- and will make a brilliant vase. A Charlotte Watson salt keeper. The salt keeper I have at the moment has a chip on the opening, which is sure to break one day. A Henry Watson pottery lemon squeezer. The original Watsons pottery is across in West Suffolk and although they don't make their pottery there anymore they still have a shop which we've been to a couple of times and never been able to afford their stuff new. ( The salt keeper currently sells for £20.75) I really didn't need a lemon squeezer. But this is nice. A sign for the upstairs bathroom door. Certainly didn't need this - I know where the bathroom is! A Miss Read book that seems to have some things in it that I've not seen before, although I may be wrong in which case I wasted 20p and finally an interesting looking book, which I could have noted down the title of and borrowed, from the library saving myself another 20p.
My total spend was £15.40p. 

Meanwhile C was  finding  man treasures.

A metal step ladder/extending ladder, to replace our one which is falling apart. A metal set square, he hasn't got one as big as this apparently. A door/window clamp, he's never had one before. A pack of  plastic ties for fixing bundles of things together. A hosepipe connection - always handy as they don't last forever. And last but not least 6 anchors for fixing wooden posts down onto concrete - for our (sometime in the future) veranda - the Best Bargain at 50p each when they are £ 8 each new. His total spend £19.50.

Luckily we are not doing any bank holiday trips, excursions, meals out or visits to stately homes etc so the only money spent over the weekend will be at car boots and I quite expect to find nothing at all tomorrow, because it will probably be the same people there all over again!

Back tomorrow
Sue

A Year in Books Link April/May

Linking up with The Circle of Pine Trees for a year in books.

These were the poor selection of books brought home from the library van to read in April. Only two were read. I don't count cookery books as 'reading' but did look through A Girl Called Jack and copied down a couple of recipes. The Yard was rubbish! and the other book pictured here is Confessions of a Failed Grown Up which I read part of but couldn't be bothered to finish.

The Elly Griffiths book is the 6th in her series about Ruth Galloway, an forensic archaeologist who lives on the bleak Norfolk Coastal Marshes and works at a fictional university in North Norfolk. I enjoyed it but found it slightly predictable. It is best to start with the first in the series if you want to read these well written crime books. ( The Crossing Places published in 2009 is the first)
To the Edge of the Sea by Christina Hall is a memoir about  growing up on the Hebridian Islands of South Uist, Benbecula, Barra  and  then to secondary school in Fort William in the 1940s and 50s. My Library copy is in the Large Print Isis Reminiscence Series, but it isn't necessary to be short sighted or an OAP to enjoy their books!

I shall be reading some of my own books in May although the library van will be round on the 16th so there might be something in the books I've ordered  to tempt me away from them.

Thanks to Laura at Circle of Pine Trees for hosting this link, it's very interesting to see what people are reading and always useful for ideas.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

First new potatoes and beetroot

First of all welcome to new followers - bojanpr and weekend windup who have clicked the Google button ( now at 168) and Sam and Sandra who are following by Bloglovin' ( now at 140). Hope you like reading about the Simple Suffolk Smallholding. Many thanks to Sue, Jean,Gill,Paid in Chickens, Out my Window, Laura, Karen ,Pat, Weekend Wind up and Shirley who commented yesterday. Pat said that writing a list of positive things must make us feel satisfied with the way we live - and yes it's nice to gather together all the good things that happen in the month. I just hope it doesn't come over as being a bit smug about our lifestyle. I think it is Shirleys' first comment  and she said she enjoyed reading the blog which is lovely to know.

Yesterday stayed fine just long enough for us to get the path between house and poly-tunnels finished. Since we had the kitchen extension, our back door is in a different place and  the path along the back of the house is narrower  so we've had rough rubble and a temporary bit of path bridging the gap. The new path is two slabs wide and looks a bit  straight and stark at the moment, although we are using old slabs, but when we get the new herb garden planted up on the left  and maybe some shrubs on the right it will look better. We know from experience how annoying it is to have a narrow path with things growing close so that every time it rains you get wet legs walking through.

What a treat it is to grow some potatoes and beetroot in the poly tunnel and to eat them as early as the first of May. We only needed 2 roots of spuds to feed 4 of us easily. The variety are Rocket and they were planted as soon as we got back from the potato day on the 8th Feb. Growing and eating your own food is just SO satisfying.

Which means that from our garden and poly tunnels yesterday we had potatoes, mint to flavour them, beetroot, radishes, lettuce, salad leaves and asparagus. Apple and gooseberries from the freezer in a crumble. Fresh eggs from the hens and home made bread.

With drizzley rain all afternoon yesterday C decided it was just the right weather for washing the 2 poly tunnels that haven't had new plastic this year. It makes such a difference. The plastic needs to be damp then a long-handled brush and Ecover washing up liquid gets the green off, then a bucket of clean water chucked over to wash off the bubbles.

This plastic on the big tunnel was new last year but you can see from the back half which has not been cleaned how green it was and how much more light is let in after it's washed

Today has turned much colder and we are planning to cover as much as possible tonight because a frost is forecast . How to cover the twelve foot high Apricot trees - that is the question.

Today  C has been at home again and able to get some more things done. Two more beds cleared and weeded and the old  overgrown herb garden has been dug out and leveled. I shifted the last few slabs of the old patio by sack barrow and potted up a few more self sown herb seedlings and a couple of young Ash trees - or they might be Rowans - that had appeared in the garden.

For most of the winter we have had 3 of the big 1000litre IBC tanks here waiting to be sold. They've been advertised in the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter each month, then suddenly we had 3 phone calls from the May ad and they've all sold and C will be visiting the place that chucks them out to see if we can get some more.We've also had some income from the campsite with people arriving for Bank Holiday weekend.

It's a good job we have had income as this months shopping was more than I wanted to spend. But several things  on the list  were reduced so I ended up buying two months supply. I also had to buy onions for the first time in 9 months as our home grown finally ran out. I'd been stretching them by using leeks instead wherever  I could but the leeks have run to seed so that's the end of them.

I think that's it for today
Back tomorrow - I might get the new herb garden planted up.
Sue

Review of the Month - Looking back at April

Here is my regular look back at the ups and downs of the month on a simple Suffolk Smallholding.

1. Our income was enough to cover the budget for May.
2. Food spending just under budget
3. £5 left in my purse for the Red Roberts Retro Radio fund ( now at £95)
4. Lots of lovely cards and books for my birthday
5. A lovely surprise in the post of card making stuff from a fellow blogger
6. Our son and girlfriend are now living back in Suffolk ( although right at the other side of the county)
7. The campsite was busy over Easter
8. Poly tunnels are almost planted up
9. The new flower garden looked very colourful all month
10. A couple of small cheques have been saved into the ISAs
11. Our Eldest daughter fixed a wedding date ( June 2015)
12. Local Car boot sale season started and a lovely big mirror found  for £2
13. 60 new hens laying well
14. Main-crop potatoes are planted
15. Front fence repaired
16. Eating asparagus all month
17. A good day out visiting friends
18. Our missing Mabel cat is definitely still around and eating the food we put out for her.

On the not-so-good side of the equation
 

1. Very little fresh veg available from the garden
2. We both caught colds - first we've had for at least 3 years

That's about it  for April, I wonder what May will bring us.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

PS. Welcome to Penny, Margaret, Laura and Val who are all new followers on Google friends or Bloglovin' . Thank you for clicking the button and  I hope you enjoy reading about our quiet Suffolk life.