Silent Sunday

Tumbling Compost

Apparently it's Compost Awareness week this week, so to keep in with the theme I will show you all our lovely compost!! Mmmmm not very exciting maybe but looky we have a new compost tumbler...... These can be bought but seem to be ridiculously expensive, so in true Blue Peter style here's one we made earlier....

We have had a problem with rats in our garden and due to the fact that they are not one of my favourite things in nature (understatement!) we decided to give a tumbler a go instead of the usual compost heap.

We are fortunate enough to have a food manufacturer near to us who get ready made sauces delivered in these big blue barrels and are quite happy for people to take them off their hands once they've emptied them. These make great water butts and of course composters! Dave and the kids  drilled some air holes, put some long screws through some of them to aid the tumbling process and made a stand from an old pallet where it can be spun around like a tombola....voila!   

Every time we have something to compost,we just open the latch door, throw it in and spin the tumbler around on it's stand a couple of times to jumble it all up and in theory this will make us some lovely compost for our veggies. There is some debate whether this process works faster than compost heaps but anything is worth a try and it seems to be working quite well so far... with a little bit of help from some wee of the male variety (a good compost activator so we're told!)

The Dilemma......

Not really relevant but I love Highland cows!!

We're having a bit of a dilemma at the moment... cutting out processed food and eating healthier, more natural foods is great and going well but how far do you go? If you've read our story above you'll know we are pretty much skint at the moment so where do we draw the line between money and good food? To be honest I don't really know the answer!!

The more we read about what goes into our food and how food is produced the scarier it gets, there seems to be critics at every corner, one says to eat only organic, one says to eat only pasture-fed, one says to eat only local, one slams the whole lot and says eat anything you like because you're going to die anyway!! (ok I made that one up but you get the point!) The problem we have is that organic is just so highly priced it's mainly beyond our budget, we are living on very little really and so the dilemma begins......

We spent about ten minutes in the supermarket yesterday (yes we still have to go there sometimes!) discussing the merits and downfalls of cows milk versus goats milk, then organic versus non-organic, then onto local versus not local.....  we'd still be there if I hadn't got stressed and just went for the usual non-organic cows milk we've always drunk!!

So no real decision made yet, this is one that we'll just have to figure out as we go..........

Silent Sunday

Exciting algae!

We are a bit busy this weekend, so you probably won't hear much from us for a couple of days. Tomorrow myself and E (DD) are off to a training day at the Freshwater Biological Association to learn all about identifying algal blooms! Sounds exciting doesn't it? What do you mean No??  Well, it may not sound too exciting but anyone who lives near lake Windermere knows that every year we seem to have a real problem with blue/green algae which can cause illness to humans and even death to small animals like dogs. That means no lake swimming for the kids and dogs alike which when you're sitting by a lovely lake on a hot,sunny day can be a real challenge!! The Great North swim was cancelled last year because of suspected blue/green algae so it's something that's important and needs to be monitored. That's where we come in! We will be part of a team of volunteers who will monitor a small area along the shore of the lake through the year to collect any samples etc so the very intelligent people at the FBA can figure out whats going on with the algae. I'm actually quite looking forward to it.

Then it's off to a friends party in the evening and walking on Sunday.....have a great bank holiday weekend!

p.s. did you know that some algae can look like beautiful spiral bracelets (according to E!)  

Peas shoots and Propagators.....

Our two raised beds

The rest of the UK seems to have had torrential rain and flood warnings today, we have had lovely sunshine! This evening we got on with some of our garden and I'll give you a sneaky peek......

The rescued fruit bushes.

It's very messy and a bit haphazard at the moment but we have two raised beds where all the veg is busy growing and lots of bags (with potatoes) and pots with various things in. We are trying to put up a kind of homemade poly tunnel over the raised beds at the moment as the weather up here is being a bit temperamental, hence the weird contraptions in the picture. We are just waiting for an offer of some covering from our local Freecycle....here's hoping!

Pea shoots - fast food!

Chuppa chups propagator!

One of our pots has some lovely pea shoots already growing, this has to be one of the easiest things to grow (ever!!) We happened to be catching up on a whole load of programmes on i-player and came across the Edible Garden , and in one of the shows the presenter grew pea-shoots just from an ordinary packet of dried peas...... so simple. Of course we then had to try it out .... and it really is that simple, pop a load of compost in a pot, any size, shape pot will do, sprinkle on a handful of dried peas, cover with a light covering of compost and water.....then wait for a few weeks and hey presto ...pea shoots!! They can be picked and eaten as you garden, or used as a salad leaf and taste goooood!

As a bit of fun we also planted up a couple of old chuppa chup lolly holders which the kids had finished with and they have now become mini propagators with lettuce in..... I think the neighbours think we are completely strange!!

Beautiful Cumbria...

Today I thought I'd just share some pictures of a recent visit to Sizergh Castle . Spring has arrived despite the horrible wet and windy weather we're having at the moment.