Well, today was all about Hawthorn really. It's out early this year, so trying to get as much as we can. Some people don't really care for the smell of the flowers, but these were so fragrant and the structure of the flowers are so beautiful when you see them up close.
Also found some Lamium album, so we tinctured that too ! It was a great bank holiday weekend and we got tons done, so roll on to the next one!!!
Continuing in this glorious weather, today's activities were mainly building work on the straw bale roundhouse, a bit of digging in the herb field and rescuing the feverfews that were damaged in the incredibly wet months at the beginning of the year. We lost a few things to the wet, so will have to replace them, which means reduced yields of those herb tinctures. But, that's the weather for you. Nature has informed us that raised beds are the way to go so that's what we are doing.
A big shout out to all friends and family for the spontaneous assistance in moving and carrying all the wood for the roundhouse, including the youngsters.
At 2 o'clock, work ceased, and the play commenced, with family and friends. There was an Easter Egg Hunt for the youngsters, and much sitting around chatting, eating, drinking and generally chilling to the Reggae playlist put together by Steve and Jacqui!
Today in the sweltering heat, most of the team worked on the structure of the wooden roundhouse. Much sawing and preserving of wood. Everyone is getting very coloured by the sun.
Jacqui subjected herself the the heat of the polytunnel, whilst pricking out some more seedlings. Why pay money for an expensive health spa??? Just come into the polytunnel and sweat off some excess weight !! She could only stand it for about an hour, and then went off to start the Hawthorn harvest, with some help from friend Jo. Hawthorn is very early this year due to this magnificent weather, in fact we think a lot of things are goiing to be early, we have already looked at the elderflower and it won't be too long if this weather keeps up !
Mark, Ian and Steve continued with the barn floor with the help of Jo. It was time for spreading concrete type mix onto compressed hardcore base and levelling it. Its looking good and now we have to wait for it to dry before sand and slabs go down.
Jacqui spent her time in the polytunnel with her seedlings in the intense heat, but enjoyed herself very much, playing assorted tunes to the plants via her I phone!
Big shout out to Jo for refreshments and Jacqui for late lunch/early dinner and home made hot cross buns!
Yup...more dirt. Steve learnt to drive the dumper truck. Mark, Ian & Steve fiddled with clutch on said dumper truck (blokey stuff...blah blah clutch cables). Endless trips, transporting dirt from barn floor to a big pile to build a raised bed somewhere. Towards late afternoon, once the floor had been dug out to required depth, hardcore was required !
Jacqui played with the mugwort!
Today, work on the barn floor commenced. It had been too wet, even in early March to attempt this, but as things have dried out sufficiently its all go!
Mark was on digger duty and Ian drove the dumper truck and Steve dug out the awkward bits that the digger could not reach with his own fair hands.
It was quite funny because Steve did his digging from a kneeling position, so when you came round the corner and saw him in the barn, it looked as though he had dug down to Australia !!
It was very much manly blokey type work...so we left them to it. Dawn & Jo did the refreshment bit and as usual Jacqui played with the herbs !