Spring

It's been a very busy spring. We planted about 1700 of the 3000 trees before realising that there was a lot more clearing needed to be done before we could plant the remaining 1300. Also it turns out that the grant only requires that they all be planted by February next year, so we plan on getting them in in the autumn. Nothing like putting off a job, ha! Why do today what you can leave until tomorrow? Still, we've not been resting on our laurels, you know (whatever that means). There are plenty of other things to be getting on with.


New beds are being created in the vegetable garden, at great effort. The land is horribly compacted after being used for horses by the previous owners, it's as hard as rock and shot through with thick, parsnip-sized dock roots. Pernicious weeds such as buttercup must be removed. Meanwhile last year's beds are being given the once-over before this year's plants are put in. So far we have several beds of potatoes, white and red onions, parsnips, asparagus, peas, broad beans, beetroot, leaf beet, kale and lettuce.

We've done a good (mostly timely) job of sowing our seeds this year, and have managed to keep on top of pricking out and potting on. Last year's success stories were: potatoes, parsnip, beetroot, basil, cucumbers and courgettes. Surprise failures included: spinach, carrots, peppers, aubergines and leeks. You'd have thought that leeks would be happy anywhere in Wales, being the national vegetable, but apparently not.

I've been trying to juggle Meg and the smallholding projects, and have been feeling quite frustrated by my inability to give my full attention to either as thoroughly as I would like. Megan is flourishing though, so I mustn't feel guilty for sometimes calling "Hang on a minute," as I finish hanging the nappies out to dry, or putting her in the laundry basket in the garden whilst I do some weeding for half an hour!


About a month ago I realised that I was getting stressed again, and that there was a whole host of stressful things hanging over me, needing to be dealt with. My mum encouraged me to write a list (one of my favourite activities) and I focused on sorting stuff out over the course of a couple of weeks. It's amazing how much lighter I feel now, and how much more able I am to face oncoming tasks. A weight has been lifted. :D


And all is well :D

Smallholding Plans

It's been a while since I posted, but don't let that lead you to believe that nothing has been happening here. We have been gearing ourselves up for a very busy year on the smallholding, having meetings and making plans. Our pressing projects include planting 3000-ish trees, which will take place from mid February until mid April (there's a deadline which needs to be met as the tree-planting is being done with the help of a grant), installing alternative energy systems (including a wood-fueled boiler for hot water/heating, solar panels to generate electricity, and passive solar collectors to heat water), as well as digging a whole load of new vegetable beds and hopefully growing twice as much as last year.

There's a good deal of construction work to be done, chiefly by Phil and my dad. The wood boiler will be stationed in one of the outdoor sheds, and will need to be boxed in and insulated so that we don't waste any leaked heat. A trench will be dug from the shed to the house as a route for the pipes. An 'A' frame for the solar panels needs to be constructed on high slope behind the house (due to the large hill in front of us, the houses lose the sun for the four darkest months of the year - the slope, being higher, retains the sun for a little longer).

The sun (shining tantalisingly on the other side of the valley) has not yet returned to our houses

We are planning a cool (but not too cold!) storage area on a mezzanine floor (which doesn't yet exist) for dried goods and things like potatoes and onions. Phil will be adding a foot or so of insulating hempcrete to the gable end and rear exterior walls of our house, which is something which should be done in warmer weather to aid drying. Eventually we hope to construct a conservatory along the front of the houses, as a way of capturing heat as well as creating more space, but I don't think we'll have time for that this year.

My mum has been excellent at taking up the reins with regards to the tree planting project. She has sourced them from a local tree nursery, so they will be well prepared for life at 800ft. Our plan is to start coppicing them for our own fuel needs as soon as they are big enough. Overall we are trying to become as self-sufficient as we can in energy and food, so that we are not at the mercy of volatile market trends and big business. We want to be as self-reliant as possible, it seems to be the only thing that makes sense in an increasingly unpredictable world.

The oaks lining the lane are hundreds of years old

Hopefully I'll make time to blog more regularly again (though it does look like I might soon be rather occupied!), and I really want to share Meggie's developments too, as well as what I've been doing creatively... Just give me a few extra hours in the day, that's all I ask!

I found a Silver Cross pushchair in a local charity shop for £3,
which is a fun way to take Meg out and about :D

Megan and the Moon

A couple of days ago it snowed again, so once more we've been stuck on the smallholding. I'm unwilling to try walking the four miles to town with Megan in a sling - in case I slip on the ice and accidentally destroy her. To save us from cabin fever, Phil suggested we go on a little walk around the land this evening, and I persuaded him to wear Megan (he has really good grips on his boots!) which gave me a break from carrying the stone or so that she weighs (now when anyone tells me they've lost a stone, I am extremely impressed. Before Megan, I had no idea how heavy a stone was). We wrapped her up well in several layers, as well as leg warmers and a Peruvian hat with ear flaps, then attached a fleece blanket around her over the top of the sling. She looked like she was being carried in a royal chariot.

It was getting dark as we left the house and headed up the track, the remaining patches of snow shining out bright white in contrast to the dark wet patches. Megan was happy to be out in the air, and stopped her fretful teething for the duration. Then something strange happened. Phil noticed that Meg was staring at the darkening sky, a look of consternation on her face. We turned to see what it was that had caught her attention, and saw the moon. As you know, Megan loves light fittings, but her reaction to this - the most regal of all the natural light fittings supplied with the earth (save the sun, the Mother of all Light Fittings) - was not giggly and light-hearted. Instead she took the moon very seriously indeed, giving it her full attention. She was very calm and very focused. It seemed like an important moment in her life so far. It crossed my mind that this was the very first time she had seen the moon. How amazing to be witnessing all of these firsts. And somehow it is as though I am experiencing them for the first time too, by proxy, through Megan.

For the Love of Light Fittings

Do you want to see a very happy Meggie? Just switch on the lights...


I was a little bit worried about Megan's love of light fittings until I Googled it and found that she is not alone in this particular fascination. She coos and squeals and giggles and smiles endearingly whenever she sees one of her favourite lights, but only when they are on, of course. This is the one in her room, her dad is treating her to a rare close-up view.

The one below is in my parents' sitting room, and as you can see, it looks a bit like a big-nosed, smiley face. She loves loves loves this one. I can't figure out what the actual lights themselves would be in relation to the face, but he's a jolly fellow, don't you agree?


She loves it so much that when she found it had been decorated with holly for Christmas, she took one look at it and cried. The holly was duly taken down, and peace was restored.

One of the great things about having a reliable smile-making object in the room is that you can make use of it to get a lovely photo like this:


Happy Christmas, and all that. :D

Still Snowed In

Meggie's first snow :D

No chance of outdoor work!

A view down the valley:

The trees are stark and beautiful.

My dad rescues the potatoes from the freezing cold shed:

The holly bush beside our house is bursting with berries:

We've got plenty of wood, and it's cosy inside :)

And Meg's got a very toasty pixie hat, ha ha...

Megan's Hands: Pics

Caught in the act!
(Note my slinky, sneaky, paparazzi approach!)

Are these fiddle-player's hands? That left hand falls naturally into a perfect bow-hold...

Creeping up without Megan noticing, I see her look of complete concentration:

Megan's left hand remains (as yet) undiscovered... How strange to be watching these developments taking place. Everything we (as adults) take for granted has to be learned, bit by bit. It wears me out just thinking about it.

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.

Tangled Yarn's One Year Anniversary!

Horray!

*Sounds of party poppers popping*

Today is the anniversary of my very first blog entry!

*Cheers and whoops of delight*

I just had a quick nostalgic peep at my first posts, and was reminded about the One Hundred Days project (which - alas - seems not to be taking place this year, the old website is no longer there). I was also reminded of my very first (and only so far, thank goodness) bitchy comment, which I have left for the sake of authenticity.

Looking at my attempts to get rid of the clutter whilst unknowingly pregnant (and completely exhausted because of it) reminds me how things have changed over the last year, and how different my life is now. I won't list all of the differences, but in the last year I have stopped touring with Ember (after ten years of travelling and performing with my musical companion), moved to a secluded smallholding, had a beautiful baby, written a novel (ha ha), and started making crafty presents for Christmas... And I've done a fair bit of de-cluttering too, obviously! :D


Anyway, I must leave these celebrations as I'm in the middle of making some felt finger puppets for Megan's Christmas present. Thanks for supporting me and reading my blog! Here's to another year!


*All photos found by searching on Google Image, and rather over-excitedly applied, sorry about that!

NaNoWriMo Winner!

Yesterday I completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge! At the beginning of November (when I couldn't resist picking up the gauntlet, perhaps because I saw it as some kind of antidote to babybrain), I had no idea what writing 50,000 words would feel like, or even if it would be possible. I discovered that it is possible, but only with the aid of the stats page on the website, and a particularly competitive personality. And a baby who will sleep for at least forty five minutes at a time. And by cutting down on washing and feeding myself. And by risking my relationship with Phil by sitting in front of my laptop for far too long every evening.

50,000 words is a lot of words - it works out at about 66 pages on NeoOffice. If I am to actually turn it into something I'm proud of, it will take a lot of editing. I imagine that if I edited out all the crap I might end up with a short story, ha ha.

Here is a Wordle word cloud of my text - giving greater prominence to words used most often (yes, the main character happens to be called Walter - how did you guess?!):


If I were to do it again (would it be possible with a 14 month old? Are there enough naps in the day by that age?) I think I would probably do a bit of planning ahead, rather than just writing what came to me on the day, though I did enjoy the freedom of the stream-of-consciousness method. And I would have to make sure I didn't fall behind right at the beginning as I did this time, 1667 words per day is much more do-able than 3000, which is what I was having to come up with towards the end.

That blip (above) on day 15 was when I was convinced I would be able to write more than I actually did, which shows how optimistic I was feeling at the time!

And that's the last you have to hear about it for the time being :D

Novel: Halfway There!

Yes, I am still very behind, but today I passed the 25,000 word mark, horray! According to the stats, at this rate I will finish on December 10th - which is too late to win the challenge - so I'd better get my act together.

I still feel fairly optimistic (although I'm going to need a new burst of inspiration plot-wise and a few more hours in the day) and I'm looking forward to printing out what I've written and doing some editing. As the NaNoWriMo website says, if you're going to edit your novel, you'll need words to edit, so the writing of 50,000 words is really just the beginning. I'm getting a lot out of this challenge though! I haven't had the chance (or the kick up the whatsit) to write for such a long time, though you'd have thought it would be impossible with a new baby to take care of.

I promise that Megan is receiving no less care than she would have otherwise, my priority is (of course) being the best mum I can be. The novel comes second, OK? :D

Now, I'd better get on with it.