Megan's Hands

Megan has found her hands. Well, her right hand anyway. She holds it up and stares at it in awe as though it were a creature from a distant planet. Meanwhile, her left hand is waiting in the wings. I can't wait to see her face when she finds two aliens - interacting!

This afternoon I tried to take a photo of her complete absorption in this strange, natural phenomena, but unfortunately she is very camera-aware, and any sign of a camera in her vicinity causes her to stop doing interesting things in favour of staring worriedly at the lens. I can't pretend that I am not to blame, I am. For the last month or so I have been showing her photos of herself (and little videos too) on the camera screen, so I think her self-consciousness comes from this. Silly Mummy! It's all my fault!

I have tried turning my back on her to get the camera ready, hoping she'll think I'm doing a boring (but important!) Mummy Thing and go back to her interesting hand. But every time I check on her by peeping over my shoulder, I find her looking back at me with a cynical expression, thinking So this is what Mummy does when she's out of the room, pretending to be busy. She stands somewhere, preferably facing a wall, and peers over her shoulder hoping no one is cottoning on to the fact that she's just hanging around suspiciously.

I shall endeavour to take a sneaky pic tomorrow.

Limiting Awake Times

Megan is eleven weeks old! And I can't believe that the last post I wrote about her was on the 15th October, wow, I am SO SLACK. A great deal has changed since then, and I feel that I have learned a lot (stuff I wish I'd known earlier) and we are all a lot happier because of it.

I was given a book called 'Baby Sense' which features a chart showing the maximum recommended times for each baby age group to stay awake. I was amazed to find that the 6-12 weeks baby should only be awake from between 60-80 minutes, before being helped to sleep. Wow, that's a very short period of time! But when I started implementing these rules, I found that Meg could send herself to sleep if I put her gently down on a fleece on the bed, covered her with a couple of blankets and then lay next to her. The dummy helps enormously with this too. It sounds funny to say it now, but I was really surprised to see her closing her eyes and drifting off, after all the hard work it had taken to get her to sleep previously. But previously I had had no idea about awake times, and she slept on the boob or was rocked and sung to sleep when she became hysterical. Basically, she was a fussy, screaming baby because she was always being stimulated until she was over-tired. The book explains that babies can't edit out the stimulation they are constantly receiving, unlike you or I, so they are overwhelmed by what they see, hear, smell, feel, etc., they can't even block out the feeling of their clothes against their skin.

So now I'm starting to feel more in control of my life, and Meg is so much more content. She hardly ever has to cry anymore as I keep an eye on the clock with regards to awake time, and can see immediately when she starts to get hungry (always bearing in mind what time she last fed). I wish I'd known this earlier, but at least I know it now, and can share the information with all of my friends who have also recently become new mummies. :D

And here are some pics of Megan I took a couple of nights ago, the hat (made by a lovely friend of my mother) seems to bring out some very amusing expressions:




This little cardigan is a bit of an heirloom - my brother and I wore it when we were tiny too, and I think Meg looks quite dramatic:

Sleep vs. Desperate Lullabies

Wow, I can't believe that the time has passed so quickly, it feels like Megan is growing and changing before our eyes! Well, of course she is, but I had no idea things would happen so fast - I've barely had time to catch my breath since the birth, and already she's five weeks old...

It's true what they say about babies - that once you think you've got a routine you can rely on, they go and change it completely... To begin with Megan was sleeping for nice long periods of a minimum of one to three hours or so, and when I put her down, I knew I would have time to have a bath, or do the washing up or put the nappies in the washing machine, or whatever. Now she may sleep for four hours, or four minutes. Nothing is certain! And the same applies to the night feeds - she was sleeping two to three hours between each feed and going back to sleep on the breast, but now she tends to stay awake after her second or third feed - which means I find myself singing desperate lullabies to a wide-awake baby at around 5:30am every night/morning. It's not been so bad, I've had to resign myself to doing nothing other than Megan-related tasks (a decision which has reduced my feelings of frustration and anxiety no end), and I can't be annoyed with her when she's so cute and smiley and playful.

Megan Hunter May

Squiggles has a face! Squiggles has a name! Squiggles has taken over my life since she has emerged, blue and warrior-like from the watery depths of the womb! Introducing Megan Hunter May...

At 42 weeks and 5 days, we were persuaded (read mildly threatened) to go into Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth for an induction after two nights of contractions at home (which had disappointingly amounted to very little in the way of dilation of the cervix)...

I shall share something of that later, when I don't have to type one-handed with a weighty baby firmly attached to my left boob. But for now I just want to update you with some pictures of Megan, born at 7:23pm on 3rd September 2010, and weighing 8lbs 6oz (to the surprise of the midwives):


Phil cried real tears (probably of relief) when Megan arrived, and has fallen head over heels in love with her:


Every day Megan seems to get a little bit more interactive, and we see a little more of her cheeky personality:


Proud mum signing out :D

A Delicious Marrow Recipe

Squiggles is late. Nine days late so far, and I must admit I'm getting impatient! Since the arrival and passing of the due date on 16th August, it feels like I'm waking up on Christmas morning over and over again, only to be told that it has been put off until the next day. You start to feel like Christmas will never come. It becomes harder and harder to believe in Christmas. You start thinking maybe you made Christmas up. Then you get a punch in the ribs (from the inside) and Christmas is real again, it's just not here yet.

Anyway. Why am I thinking about Christmas? Oh yes, because the weather has turned. To begin with we didn't quite believe it had turned for good, but now everyone seems to agree that there's a distinct taste of Autumn in the air, a cold and damp nip... The mushrooms are out (every day I go for a walk and spot at least three new varieties (new to me, anyway) from weird, big, black rotten toadstool things to tiny, delicate, bright red mushrooms. My dad thinks he's found an abundance of Death Caps. Which is worrying. But there are edible mushrooms too - nice creamy white (familiar looking and smelling ones) with blushing pink gills. The only problem is that we already have so much food from the garden that it's hard to make sure everything gets eaten before it goes off.

I've been admiring the developing nuts and berries on the trees alongside the lane (I'm trying to walk Squiggles out, which has meant I've had a good excuse to explore the surrounding area), and looking forward to picking and making use of them when they're ready. We've got loads of hazelnuts (and cobs), rowan berries, sloes, elderberries and acorns, as well as blackberries and wild raspberries by the stream. Being mostly at home (rather than regularly leaving to go on tour) has been such a great change, and has made me realise how over the past few years I've been logistically unable to keep an eye on the wild harvest, it would always be a matter of luck if I happened upon ripe berries or nuts... Now I see them every other day, which is giving me a chance to really get a feel for the turning of the seasons, as well as time to think about what I could make with them when they are finally ready. I'm pretty sure I'll be telling you about it as it happens!

Now, what to do about all of those overgrown courgettes?! OK, marrows. They're massive, and we just can't keep up with them! Yesterday I found myself meditating on the stripey green marrow which has been sitting on the kitchen worktop for about a week now, and wondering what to do with it. I've made plenty of Marrow Provencale over the past month or so, so I needed an alternative to that. I started thinking that I could stuff it, knowing I had half a packet of brown lentils taking up room in the back of a cupboard somewhere... Anyway, I happened to mention this idea to my mum and she gave me a delicious recipe which turned out beautifully - it comes from one of Nigel Slater's cookbooks, but is also to be found online here. Click on the link and go right to the bottom of the article. :D I served us half the marrow each, accompanied by a small portion of lightly boiled French Beans. I couldn't manage all of mine, half a stuffed marrow is quite the mountain of food. Now that I look at the recipe again, I see that it is supposed to serve 4. Yes, perhaps that's what I'll do next time, ha ha!

Right, better go for another walk in the rain. Ah, what a blissful August, eh? Ha ha.
Here's a pic my mum took of me at 40 weeks:

Abundance

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been alternating between making preparations and resting up ready for the arrival of Squiggles. In fact yesterday was my due date, so clearly Squiggles plans to be fashionably late. Aside from that, I've also been trying to help my mum to stay on top of the vegetable garden in all of its abundance! For the first time in my life, I'm in a position of having too many courgettes, and feeling the pressure of seeing them turn into marrows virtually overnight... This could become stressful! Even more than the marrows, we have a glut of cucumbers - especially the round Crystal Lemons - it's making me think 'if only we lived closer to the road, then maybe we could set up a roadside stall...' Perhaps it's time to approach one or two of the little vegetable shops in town to see if they'd like to offer them up for sale?


A couple of days ago, we found ourselves making an assessment of what needed to be done in the garden, with the results showing that every bed needs something doing, whether it be weeding between the sprouting broccoli, digging up the potatoes or harvesting the runner beans. I took it upon myself to gather all of the ripe tomatoes, cucumbers (both Crystal Lemons and the long green Marketmores), as well as the runner beans and French beans. Yesterday I finally made use of a recipe for Runner Bean Chutney which was given to me by a friend who couldn't over-emphasise how good it tasted, but the mixture turned out quite runny so we'll see whether or not it was worth it when it's reached the three-month maturity stage.


I've been feeling quite frustrated with my suddenly slumping energy levels, especially when it comes to keeping the house clean (which I feel is important, as we are planning on having a homebirth!) - it seems like every day I only manage the washing up and maybe a small area of hoovering before I'm worn out, which means I'm only succeeding in staying still, despite all the effort. The kitchen and living room floors are covered in bits which have somehow come in from outside, and the cats are trying to gradually dye the stairs carpet a deep, rusty red (adding a little more colour with each new catch), and the bathroom is somehow coated in dust... Maybe it's always been this way, but the 'nesting' instinct has suddenly brought it into sharp focus? Also I'm afraid that I'm somehow on the way to becoming a housewife (albeit not a very good one) and that Phil will assume more and more that his input is no longer necessary... Hmm, it's not all good in my world right now, I might as well admit it.

July Smallholding Update

The Baby: Yes, the baby has moved to the top of the list as (s)he's been the priority for me this month! :D We've now less than two weeks to go, and are pretty much as prepared as we're going to be (please ignore the filthy mirror in the above photo, ha ha). Physically, I've become quite uncomfortably cumbersome. I find myself out of breath even when climbing the stairs slowly, and have been having what can only be "practise labour" pains! Short distances have started to seem longer and longer, meaning I have to really think twice about heading down to the garden, or up the lane. I've started having a lie down in the afternoon, and even if I can't fall asleep it helps with the slump in energy levels. Squiggles is huge (so it seems to me!) and has very chunky feet which (s)he likes to regularly exercise against my ribcage, but at least (s)he's in the right position and is engaged and ready to go according to the scan we had last Thursday. Speaking of which, the head circumference measurements taken in the scan seemed to imply that the baby was more like a 39 week old than a 37.5 week old, though the abdomen was a little smaller than the average at this stage... We're going to have a baby with a massive head and a tiny body, argh!!! Phil is convinced that the baby will come sometime this week (wishful thinking, I reckon - he's probably just tired of me asking for help with the washing up), and I'm hoping it will come early too - isn't that what everyone wishes for, though?

Going to Aberystwyth for the scan meant that we could pick up loads of the bits and bobs we'd been promised, so we now have a huge quantity of prefolds, fleece liners/wipes, enough washable size 2 nappies to take us to potty training, a door bouncer, some washable breast pads and various other useful baby-related things... I feel ready now. Come on, Squiggles!


The Vegetable Garden: We've continued having our weekly smallholding supper (with extra variety almost every week), and everything seems on the verge of abundance. Phil and I haven't bought a single vegetable for a couple of weeks, and although we've been getting through a lot of potatoes, we're not tired of them yet. They just taste so good! Most of our meals are made from vegetables we've grown, perhaps with a bought addition such as a fillet of sea bass, a cheeky pie or some grated cheese. It feels great to gather what we need when we need it - it's so much healthier, and we're saving money too.

The Orchard: Plans are afoot for a massive cider-making project, as the old apple trees (which looked dead when we got here) are absolutely loaded with fruit now. Phil's been making blades for a machine which will chop up the fruit, and either we'll buy/borrow a secondhand press, or he will throw together some kind of apple press using a car jack or some such...

Drinks: While I'm on the subject of cider, I ought to mention that this month Phil's been inspired to start off some homemade wine - just some grape wine from cartons of juice, but it's great to see him getting excited about his demijohns! :D After I made a good quantity of elderflower cordial last month, I wanted to make a load more (but this time with citric acid so that it would last up to a year) but the rain came and destroyed the flowers, so I'll have to wait until next year for that now. Never mind, I followed the same recipe (for elderflower cordial) to make lemon balm cordial (with the citric acid) and it worked out beautifully, so I have a very refreshing replacement! This is the recipe:


Elderflower/Lemon Balm Cordial

20-30 freshly picked heads elderflower (or a big bowlful of lemon balm leaves)
granulated sugar
4-5 lemons, for juice
tartaric/citric acid (optional, keeps for several weeks in fridge without it)

1. Place elderflower heads/lemon balm leaves in a large bowl and cover them completely with just-boiled water (about 1.5 - 2 litres). Cover and leave overnight.

2. Strain liquid through muslin, gently squeezing to extract all the juice.

3. Measure the amount of liquid, and pour it into a large saucepan. To every 500ml of liquid, add 350g sugar, 50ml of fresh lemon juice, and a heaped teaspoon of tartaric/citric acid (if using).

4. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, stirring occasionally. Bring to gentle simmer and skim off the scum.

5. Let the cordial cool, then strain once again through muslin, pour through a funnel into clean bottles (sterilised if you'll be keeping it) - filling them to within about 2-3cm of top. Seal with screw-tops or corks.

6. To serve, dilute to taste with ice-cold water - at least 5:1 water to cordial.

The Polytunnel: The cucumber plants had been starting to turn the polytunnel into a hazardous jungle, preventing access to most of their hidden fruits, as well as the courgettes. Something had to be done, so I hacked away ruthlessly until we could walk between them and the pepper plants. The tomatoes are doing really well, the fruits are much sweeter than they were in the early stages - much softer and tastier and more like we'd hoped they would be. :D The 'Gold Rush' courgettes are also very fruitful - and as they are my favourite vegetable I've been happy to eat so many.

Pests: With the coming of the rain we have seen a huge increase in the slug population. I don't want to talk about how it feels to snip their rubbery, oozy bodies in half with the slug scissors.

Wild Food: The crab apples are growing (imperceptibly!) but won't be fully ripe until late winter. And we've got our eyes on the masses of hazelnuts in the hedgerows and up the lane, though the chances are that the squirrels will get to them before they're ready to pick. Phil has been bringing back all sorts of mushrooms and fungi from his long walks with the cats, but upon examination most have turned out to be worthless in the kitchen. My dad found some horse mushrooms (which were strongly flavoured), but won't tell us where on the land they were growing!

Baby Legs

Has anyone else heard of Baby Legs?
Here's an example of a website which sells them.
They're great! They cover baby's legs and look cute, and baby stays warm when you change his or her nappy, and did I mention that they look super-cute? I did? Oh. Well, they do.
Another thing about them is that they're stupidly expensive for what they are: socks without feet.
Oh wait! I've got some of those in my sock rug making bag.
If I just sew another sock's elastic onto the bottom, they'll be perfect. First pair:


Oh look, there's enough of one of these socks left to make a quick hat! Ha ha. Second pair:

Beautiful Gifts :)

This week the postman brought packages of wonderful homemade gifts, bringing tears to my eyes :D

On Tuesday two - TWO! - packets arrived, each containing lush presents for Squiggles, and as I set about taking photos, my digital camera was so overwhelmed that it died right there on the spot, thus delaying this blog post. I have since researched and ordered a replacement camera online, which arrived this morning, so here goes...

The first parcel to be opened was from my lovely friend Kellee of The Yellow Lamp, and it contained two delicious crocheted items which I am now totally in love with. The first is a beautifully soft baby blanket in fresh stripes of white, blue and orange (Squiggles won't be chilly this winter!); the second is a Totoro - a Japanese wood spirit which came accompanied by a note which read: "I protect the trees and the grass and all of nature and I'd love to be your friend too!" I'm sure Squiggles will fall in love with both of these gorgeous items: lucky Squigs! Thank you, Kellee! :D


I'm afraid these pictures don't do much justice to the vibrant colours and textures, but alas, what can you do on a dull day?


Just look into those friendly eyes... :D


The second parcel came from she who is always making stuff: Hannah of Outpourings of the Hand, and contained a set of 12 bright, handmade washable wipes. I love stripes, and these wipes have plenty of those! The colours are cheery and warming, and the great thing about them is that you have the option of using the flannel side or the jersey side... I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of them - not only are they handy, but they're lush to look at too! Thank you, Hannah! :D


Hannah is also pregnant, due in November, so I'm hoping to be able to make something for her little bundle before then! Maybe I'll have gotten to grips with my mum's sewing machine by then? Or have acquired my own? Who knows...

As if those gifts weren't enough, on Wednesday, a stiff A5 envelope arrived from London, containing an awesome original piece of artwork by Tammy of The Heartful Blogger, as well as two glossy postcards of more of her work. 'Lotus,' the original piece, is beautiful - I must get a a nice frame as soon as possible so that I can hang it in what will become Squiggles' room. When I opened the envelope and saw the contents it made me cry (in a good way!). I am a bit of an emotional wreck these days as you may already know. I had admired the Moon Tree online, so I'm dead chuffed to have a copy of it, and though I hadn't seen 'Secret Dreams' before, I felt like I could relate to it: somewhat reminiscent of an embryo in the womb, it can also mean so much more... Tammy, I love what you sent me, thank you! :D

Baby Blanket

Yes, I know, it's all a bit "baby this" and "baby that" with me these days, but with only 5 weeks to go, it feels good to be making preparations! Last night I gave in to the pull of the wool, and after dragging my stash out of the cupboard (and dumping it all over the floor to get a better look), I found the perfect yarn for a quick project: beautifully colourful and dead thick (requiring 20mm needles!), within a couple of hours I'd managed to knit up a blanket about 2 foot by 3 foot in size. Instead of straight stockinette stitch (knit on the front and purl on the reverse), I went for a pattern of squares - knitting 4, purling 4, etc., for three rows, then swapping over.


The great thing about this yarn is that it's so soft, so baby Squiggles cannot help but love it. The days have been getting cooler and wetter, and it's starting to feel a bit autumnal (I know, strange for the middle of July!) so perhaps that's why I felt the need to make something warm and comforting for the little one.


In total, the blanket took 4 balls to make. The yarn is called Rowan Biggy Print, and I just did a quick Google search and found prices ranging from £3.50 - £7.25 per ball! Luckily I got the wool very cheaply from the dogshop in Machynlleth some months ago, so it probably cost about £2 altogether. Or less... I know it was a real bargain, anyway!

Sock Rabbit for Squiggles

Last night I made Squiggles a sock rabbit! And I'm really pleased with it, especially the blissful expression :D

It felt so satisfying to sit alone in my bedroom surrounded by bits of collected fabrics, bags of stripey socks, and tangled and colourful embroidery yarns. In total, I probably spent about 4 hours making this, but it was a very relaxed experience and I was watching my Nanna's favourite film 'On Golden Pond' with Kathryn Hepburn.

The rabbit is made from one pair of regular size women's socks. I'd made a trial run using an old pair of holey grey socks a couple of months ago (that one was shaped more like a cat than a rabbit) - so I was confident that my slightly dodgy, inexperienced "method" was going to work out!


I suppose it's a tradition (of sorts) to give a newborn a fluffy little creature when it arrives (perhaps not immediately, ha ha! You don't want to freak it out), a little comforting friend to grow up with. What was weird about this was that once I'd finished it, I got it into my head to measure its length (head to toe, not including ears), and discovered that it's exactly 42cm long, which is what Squigs should measure this week. Of course that lead to feelings of awe at the sheer size of Squiggles, and wonder that my belly could contain him/her at all!

I should let you know that the sock animal was partly inspired by the creations of my friend Citrusgirl (also pregnant! Due in November), who makes the most wonderful things completely instinctively and as naturally as breathing. Her blog can be found here, and you can see lots of the amazing things she has made, except, strangely, her sock animal... hmm. Think I'd better put in a special request! :D

Week 34: Appointment with the Midwife

We went to the birth centre this morning to have the regular check up, and were told that Squiggles' head is very nearly engaged. That explains the spiky, tweaky pains I was getting all of Monday night, and the feeling of being able to breathe a little easier since then. Apparently as the head starts to drop into the pelvis, you get these stretching pains as the head manoeuvres into position. It was weird that I started getting them on that particular night, as on Monday we'd been to the third of our ante-natal classes, which had been focusing on contractions and labour. They'd been talking about how, for some women, contractions start off feeling like period pains... When I started getting the pains I was genuinely worried that it might be the early signs of labour! Ha, nope.

The midwife explained that it would be very unlikely that Squiggles would 'come back up' from the position (s)he's in, and yes, it would seem to be a little earlier than expected, but only by a week or two. I wondered if this implied that the baby was planning on coming out early, but she said it wouldn't necessarily be the case. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but it's getting very exciting!

This is supposed to be what Squiggie looks like by now - 2.2kg in weight and 45cm in length!

June Smallholding Update

It's been a busy month!


The Vegetable Garden: We've started having a special meal every Tuesday night, consisting of only what we have grown ourselves or found growing on the smallholding... So far it's been a huge success! The meals have been simple, but incredibly tasty - the potatoes (although not hugely prolific) are amazing, the salad leaves fresh and flavoursome (especially with the addition of herbs such as basil, chives and parsley), the beetroots rich and sweet. I have started making fresh drinks from lemon balm, mint and elderflowers, which have gone down a treat. We now have 17 fully planted deep beds - the additions this month being: a bed of purple brussel sprouts and turnips; rainbow chard and celeriac; leeks; and a bed containing two spare squash plants and three cucumber seedlings.


The Orchard: The massive, old apple trees (which were here when we arrived) are laden with fruit, by now the apples are about one and a half inches in diameter. I don't yet know very much about fruit trees, but it would seem to me that these are all cooking apples rather than "eaters." I have winter pies in my mind, but Phil and my mum are getting very interested in the idea of making lots and lots of cider!

Pests: Still no major signs of slugs, partly I suppose because it's been so dry. There have been some mysterious scratchings and diggings in some of the beds though, which has resulted in the loss of several of the celeriac seedlings. I wondered if it might be our naughty toilet-making cats, but have been assured that "no poo has been found in the disturbed areas" so we still don't know who or what is the perpetrator.


The Polytunnel: The first red tomatoes have been eaten! I think we've had about seven or eight in total so far, so don't get too excited. The plants are heavy with bulging trusses, however, so we're ever-hopeful that we might at some point be overwhelmed with fruits... The cucumber plants have exploded in size and are climbing rapidly up their supports. Though they look healthy, the fruits have been turning to mush before they really start to develop, so we're not really sure what we're doing wrong. A quick look in The Vegetable and Herb Expert shows that this can be caused by over- or under-watering, so we are none the wiser. The courgette plants have also grown exponentially over the last month, and there are several mini golden courgettes waiting to be eaten in our special meal tonight, as well as a stripey green one.

Water: It's been so dry, we're starting to realise how lucky we are having our own water supply. If we were threatened with a hosepipe ban, our vegetables would certainly die. I have friends who have to carry all of their water up a steep hill to their vegetable plot, and there's not enough time in the day (or energy in the body!) to fully provide for the needs of the thirsty plants. In the house, I've started drinking water from the tap (water which comes from our borehole) as the sulphurous smell seems to have gone away - perhaps both houses making use of the water has cleared out the staleness in the collection tank, and allowed fresher water to enter the system. It's good water, and has none of the chemicals we had to put up with in town - it's a pleasure to drink :D

Plant Feed: The comfrey tea was great, but after a while we started to realise that some of the tomato leaves were curling up at the edges and looking rather ropey. When we investigated the causes of this, it turned out that comfrey is really great for root development, and what we hadn't noticed was the fact that the affected plants had developed ridiculously excessive roots. They had grown out of the bottom of the pots, and along the surface of the soil on the polytunnel floor, and were hating having nothing to cover them. We covered them up with more compost, and set about making a new nutrient tea, this time one full of nitrogen (good for leaves): one made out of poo.


Wild Food: The elderflowers are out, and elderflower cordial has been the flavour of the month! It's so easy and quick to make, yet I've not had time to get around to it these last few years, so it felt really good to be back on track, and enjoying seasonal delights.


Baby: At 34 weeks, I've finally got my head around what we have been given and what we still need. I spent a day researching washable nappies and their components (I have been given some Fuzzi Bunz pocket nappies, but nothing to go in the pockets!), and found a great list of what I'll need. My advert on the Machynlleth Swapshop brought loads of promises of nappy and baby bits, so I'm really pleased. I also spent a day (yes, it took a whole day!) going through all of the clothes we've been given, ordering them into sizes/ages and washing everything from 0-3 months. It felt really good to be getting everything in order, and so exciting to be holding these tiny and incredibly cute garments... I can't wait to put Squiggles in them! Here's how the bump is developing:


Things can only get... bigger, I guess! Er... :D

Garland Gift

My friend Kellee at Yellow Lamp has been spreading her magic again, this time with a Garland Giveaway. These beautiful, soft and colourful felt garlands have been handmade with love, and I was so excited to receive one of my very own through the post! I am thinking about incorporating the delightful string of bright circles into a mobile for baby Squiggles (though it's lovely on its own!) - if it works out, I'll post pics when it's done.

It's amazing how exciting it is (even at the age of 32!) to receive personal post (ie., not bills or bank statements) - a handwritten envelope (decorated in this case!), a letter, maybe something else... I have always loved to write and receive letters and plan to be doing it a lot more often now that I have more time. Though I suppose once the baby's arrived, my time may disappear once more! Anyway, thanks Kellee! :D


As evidence of my passion for handwritten correspondence, I have collected several bags full of letters over the years, some of them must be over twenty years old by now. I've never found it easy to let go of these personal symbols of love and friendship, so they have multiplied and started to weigh upon me... During the dark, rainy days earlier this week I managed to go through most of them, reading them one last time before putting them aside to recycle. Or burn, I'm not sure I want anyone accidentally coming across them and reading them! It felt strange to be getting rid of love letters from French exchange students dating back to 1991, but what need do I have for them now?!


Ah... I feel lighter already!
:D

May Smallholding Update

A summary of the month is in order!

The House Situation: After a very quick sale, we moved all of our furniture and boxes of STUFF out of the house in Machynlleth and over the mountain road to the smallholding. The job took two days, and we were very fortunate to have my parents there to help. My dad helped Phil and my friend Martin to carry the heavy furniture and boxes out of the house, and did a great job of loading the trailer. My mum cleaned the house from top to bottom and offered much needed moral support! The first trailer load was fine, but the second resulted in a tire blowing up, so the process became much more long-winded than it should have been. It was strange to find that my attitude towards many of my belongings changed dramatically as soon as I tried to fit them into our much smaller home. In the house in town, I had found it really difficult to get rid of so many things, but once they arrived at the smallholding I saw a lot of it as excess weight, and the lightening process was incredibly easy - enjoyable even. Phil and I are starting to feel the stress of the house sliding away, selling it has relieved us of a huge burden of responsibility and anxiety.


The Vegetable Garden: It's been a little slower this month in terms of creating new deep beds. Partly because I can no longer help with the digging (due to the fact that my heartburn has been getting worse and worse, and kicks in the minute I bend over, then lasts all day and night), but also because the grass and (more specifically) the docks are growing so quickly that they make the job much more difficult. Last month I found myself taking loads of "before" pictures, hoping that soon we'd be looking at a veritable jungle of healthy greenery, and I'm glad I did as the beds are really starting to fill out now. It's so satisfying to see progress! My parents have done a great job getting the raspberry canes into what must have been the most nightmarishly weed-bound, root-clogged area we've come across yet, and they have been cracking on with more vegetable beds. We now have 13 fully planted beds, containing: onions (white and red), shallots, potatoes (earlies and main crop), broad beans, runner beans, climbing beans (rare Native American Indian 'Trail of Tears' and 'Lazy Housewife'), lettuce (various, including a number of Chinese salad leaves), spinach, parsnips, beetroot, peas, celeriac, kale, and purple sprouting broccoli. There are another two unfinished beds. As of a couple of weeks ago, we've been getting all of our lettuce from the garden - with a little more available every day, it's very rewarding, and unbelievably tasty! :D


The Orchard: Some of the baby apple trees had mysteriously been losing what few leaves they had, and at first we thought it might have been some kind of insect attack. Later it was discovered that a very bolshy lamb had been getting in through the slightly rickety fence which divides us from our neighbour's land. The little scavenger was coming in whenever he felt like it, and helping himself to our goodies! So my dad fixed the fence. No more naughty lamb.

Pests: Incidentally, (touch wood!) we've seen no more evidence of rabbit activity in the garden - perhaps they were put off by the fleece we laid down to cover the parsnips and beetroots, and the cloches and chicken-wire frame we used to protect the lettuces. Perhaps they've heard the rumours about the two black and white killing machines which steal their young and show no mercy. Our cats (especially the female of the two) have been quietly decimating the local rabbit population, regularly bringing decapitated baby rabbits into the house and eating them whole - fur, feet and all - bar the very bitterest organs. Slugs are starting to appear amongst the leaves, so we're going to leave a sharp pair of 'slug scissors' down in the garden. I hate killing things, but in this case slugs are The Enemy.

The Polytunnel: Once the polytunnel was declared fit for use, we avoided it for a week or two - it just looked like it was going to be so much hard work trying to open up the compacted earth, not to mention somehow enriching the pale, lifeless soil. Eventually we realised that we needn't expect miracles of perfection this year, but would make do as best we could. We would make the most of the protected space and awesome heat (the thermometer was recording a reading of 50 degrees most days). We now have plants in pots, as well as some in the ground (planted on top of a generous bucketful of well-rotted manure) - these are all in the left hand side of the tunnel (which is pretty much full), the right hand side has yet to be worked on...

In pots:
Tomatoes (10)
Basil (17)
Peppers (6x Hungarian Hot Wax, 4x Marconi Rosso)
Aubergines (5)

In a bed:
Cucumbers (3x Crystal Lemon, 4x Marketmore)
Courgettes (3x Gold Rush, 1x Cocozelle)
Squash (2x Custard White, 4x Butternut Squash)

Here's a picture of my wacky cucumber supports, three were made out of spare sections of trellis, the others are clearly an experiment in bamboo canes and binder twine, ha ha!


Water: There is a trough set up in the polytunnel with the option of water from the borehole or the stream. As explained before, our borehole water is very alkaline, whereas the stream water is acid, so we fill half the trough with one and then divert to the other - though the results may not be perfectly pH neutral, at least it's an attempt at a compromise!

Plant Feed: Next to the polytunnel we have a large bucket of comfrey "tea" - made by stuffing comfrey leaves into an onion net, then throwing them into a covered bucket of water where they "brew" for a couple of weeks. When the smell becomes disgusting, the tea is ready! We dilute a mugful of the liquid in a watering can of water from the trough and feed the plants as we water them. Our tomatoes are fed every day, but other plants have the tea once or twice a week.

Wild Food: As the trees came into leaf, and then into blossom (some of them, at least!), we were excited to find that we have an elder tree quite close to the house - I can't wait to make elderflower cordial and elderflower champagne! And later in the year the berries are great in crumbles and puddings. There's a suspected wild damson tree down by the river as well, and some other as yet unrecognisable fruit trees dotted about the land... We shall see what they are in due course. The oyster mushrooms have not returned, though I try to check the log by the stream every time I go to collect the post.

The Baby: We're at the 30 week stage, so only 10 more weeks to go! Squiggles is growing so quickly, and loves crashing about in there - it's quite amazing to see the kicks and squirmings. I have started investigating washable nappies and other essentials: we have been given a number of different types of nappies, now I just have to get my head around them and make sure we have everything we need! The hormones have been up and down, as one might expect, and I've been struggling with depression, but I'm optimistic that once Squiggie is out and in my arms I'll feel a lot better :) Phil and I are both very excited (and a little nervous!) about the future, but I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic adventure!

Here's a pic of my friend Martin and I, after we'd cleared most of the house: it serves as a good bump update! :D

An Unsettled Week

The last week has been an odd mixture of satisfying, energy-filled days, and listless days where it feels like nothing is achieved. The weather has been changeable for a start, which hasn't helped, and our focus has become somewhat fragmented. Or at least, mine has!

On Saturday, Phil and I enjoyed being here on our own (my parents were out for the day) and it felt good to be pottering around on our own little projects. It was "a day off" really, and I was really pleased to finally get around to making these ultra-simple cards (just a bit of cutting and pasting!) which have been sitting around for at least two or three years:


Phil couldn't understand why I would bother, but I think that some of the designs from tea boxes are just too beautiful to throw away. There's something sort of retro about them, like those old enamel advertising signs you see in some tea rooms and pubs.

I made a really tasty, "last minute" cous cous dish for lunch which I recently discovered on the back of a pack of sultanas (!?) and which has quickly become a staple.

Crazy Jack's "Last Minute" Couscous (Serves 4)

1. Using a vegetable stock cube, make 400ml of hot stock and pour over 200g of couscous in a large bowl. Add a knob of butter, cover and leave for 5-7 mins.

2. Meanwhile, chop and dice one tomato, one onion, one carrot, a chunk of cucumber and a red pepper. Mix together in a bowl with a sprinkle of sultanas.

3. Blend the juice of half a lemon with 2 tablespoons of good olive oil and a pinch of salt. Using a fork, stir into the couscous. You could add a crushed garlic clove at the same time.

4. Stir vegetables into the couscous.

5. It's ready but, if you have any fresh herbs - mint, basil, or coriander, chop up a really good handful and mix it in.

I have been using whatever vegetables I can find in the fridge, but olives are particularly good in this recipe. Crazy Jack forgot about them.

After the vegetable garden's recent rabbit invasion we have been especially careful to protect the young plants from nibbling teeth. We have had to be inventive! Here you can see some of our makeshift cloches - it's very Blue Peter, but it seems to do the job - not only do these bottles and the corrugated plastic tunnel protect the seedlings from hungry visitors, but they also create a comfortable microclimate which will help the plants to grow. There's some spinach in the tunnel, and individual lettuces in the bottles.


And finally, Squiggles has been growing exponentially, so the point where my tummy has been filling ready to burst. It feels a little less tight today, so I'm wondering if it was Braxton Hicks contractions I was feeling for the last few days? I keep calling them Brixton Hacks, which is very wrong... This isn't a great picture, and I look like I'm wearing a sack, but it's all I have right now!