Saturday – I had not realised quite how affected I was by the anniversary of Ady’s adventure until I mentioned it somewhere else. I’d almost been holding my breath for the last few weeks partly telling myself clearly nothing bad would happen but partly almost expecting it to. Â I’d been responsible for the initial idea of a New Years Eve disco at the hall which had evolved and gotten organised and then as Davies particularly didn’t want to even go I was feeling torn about that. We eventually decided the day before that we would all four go down having put the dinner on a low heat before we went. Stay for a while and leave to be home for 1030 to see in the new year back up here just the four of us. I promised I would only have a sensible amount to drink and we all knew what was happening.
It worked really well. I don’t think Davies enjoyed himself as such but he is at that teenage stage of not really enjoying anything anyway I think. A real mix of still having lots of cuddles and sharing many in jokes, views and chats with me but clearly processing his own stuff and being quite private too. No different to how he has always been really. So we went down, had a good couple of hours, did a whisky club, I had a dance about, chatted to some folk and then quietly slipped away at 10ish. It was an amazing starry night so the walk home was lovely. We had our curry and watched Robbie Williams and the London fireworks at midnight, then went outside onto the croft to light the firework we had from last year. We’d bought it planning a new year just the four of us with a firework at midnight and of course that had not happened, so it had sat, stashed in the horse box all this time with us occasionally talking about getting it out but never finding the right time. So this was it.
It was actually a really good firework, made all the better for the amazing starry night, it being ridiculously cold outside, all of the animals going mental when we let it off, it echoing off the hills and it finally not being 2016 any more.
New Years Day – I woke earlyish and despite no hangover was pretty tired so I stayed in bed sort of dozing in a half awake / half asleep fashion which was lovely, like being in one of those pick your own story books as a dream. I got up and Ady and I headed over to Harris to feed the animals leaving the kids in bed to sleep later to catch up. It was a gorgeous day, all sunny and still and beautiful colours everywhere.
I rang my parents – it’s their wedding anniversary on new years day too – 45 years. I spoke to Frazer who was also round there. All seemed much as usual for the time of year… 😉
Venison steaks for dinner which was delicious.
Monday – We’re back to the weekly what’s on whiteboard, have a brand new masterplan for 2017 and having felt I have rather lost my mojo and therefore not been much use at coaxing and supporting other people’s I was feeling very motivated to get cracking with things. One of my hopes / plans for 2017 is a good growing season so I need to sort out the outside area – the polytunnel has not been been inside for weeks, I took one of the plastic covers off the four mini greenhouses way back in the autumn and got called away by something before I did the other three and never got back to it. All three are now ripped 🙁 The cloche frames I built to go over the strawberries all got blown around and bashed up in the gales and the whole area just needs some organising / attention / tidying up ready for the start of the season. I was about to head outside to get cracking when I remembered we needed bread made for lunch so I did that, got distracted by the worktop needing a good clean down (we have various stuff which lives out on the worktop all the time and it had crumbs all around), then started to wipe down the wall as that looked grubby once the worktop was clean, which led to the whole section of wall / faux cooker hood / general area getting wiped down and tidied up. It looks loads better and was a job worth doing but it meant I never got to the outside stuff…
Ady came in for lunch, it started to rain, Dave & Faye (who had arrived on the boat) came over for a cup of tea and that was the day pretty much gone. Instead I did make a start on sorting out my seeds. I have loads. many of them out of date and last year quite a lot of what I sowed failed to germinate. So this year I will sow early and sow everything so that I can start with new seeds for next year, or save seeds from what does grow and if anything I really, really want to grow doesn’t germinate on the first sowing I will still have time to get a late sowing in. That’s the plan anyway!
I made dinner – stir fry and we watched Jurassic Park 3 which was actually quite good.
Today – After Popmaster Ady and I went to the village to post some stuff from post office, get stuff from the freezer, feed Ali’s chickens and collect the laundry. On the way back we saw Dave and Faye who had been doing some work on the Rangerover which has been a non runner for ages. It’s now running again which is great, we’ve missed it. We also collected 10 sacks of seaweed off the beach ready to spread on the raised beds to start a mulch layer on them. Gave one sack to the sheep and the pigs to see if they like it – supplementary feed, lots of nutrients and a good salt / mineral boost for them all. The birds liked picking through to root out the little shrimps, the sheep and pigs ate it while pulling some funny faces. Don’t think it will be anything more than an occasional supplement but better than buying in salt licks etc. One of my other aims this year is to revisit my permaculture ideals and get my head back into that space again. This feels like a good start. Back home to rouse children and have lunch. Ady had seen a trailer for a film he thought I’d like – Captain Fantastic so we bought it, downloaded it and I spent ages making sure it would run on the big laptop to watch this evening.
Then I finally got to the seed sorting out, going through my books and reading the backs of the seed packets to create a sowing plan for February, March and April, both in the polytunnel / greenhouses and direct into the ground. Seaweed mulch on the beds now to start adding warmth, suppressing weeds, giving nutrients to the soil etc. is a great start and I have two large water butts filled with cut comfrey from last year ready to make feed too. We’ll get that seaweed spread and collect more later this week. I am determined to really do better with the growing this season.
So all the seeds are now split into 4 bags – marked Feb, March, April and Flowers (which thanks to freebies with magazines and packets people have given us we seem to have about 12 packs of various flower seeds) with a list in each bag of whether to sow under cover or direct and a master copy of the overview in a new notebook to keep a record of actual dates of sowings and results of germinations etc.
Ady made dinner and we watched the film. I have more to say about the film, probably in a separate blogpost but I found it incredibly moving, both the subject matter, the actual story line, the filming and the music and the overall thing. At such a pertinent time it feels like too. As I say, more on that another time.
On which note I am off to bed!