Kind Of Sums It All Up

The Dreaded Summer Flu

 I have it.
 I can't believe the weather is finally sunny and beautiful and I have the flu!  However I think I'm on the improve after my fever last night.
I think I may have been slightly delirious as I have vague memories of pestering The Farmer with such questions as why were paintings always being confined to a rectangle canvas and in my fuzzy brained state I decided I was to become an artist painting only on interesting geometric shapes....hmmmm.   I must say I am feeling much better today, mentally at least!    I have however managed to catch up on a few garden progress photos, so without further ado....

 Our biggest strawberry yet!

 Muffins made from homegrown spinach, can't wait till I'm using homemade feta too!

 Cottage garden, colourful chaos 

 I HATE an unmown lawn, its like having unvaccumed carpet, however since I have been sick it has remained uncut....

 Unexpected surpirse, the cottage garden is full of lots of baby polyanthus!

 The Huntaway amonst the Zinnia heads

 And two more unexpected surprises, self seeded Zinnia and another little pretty blue flower, possibly lobelia??

 The pumpkins are growing fast

 As are the second planting of broccoli

 Artichokes are currently being harvested, delicious!

The first planting of broccoli are almost ready for harvest, hurray!

Everything needs a good feed of seaweed tea this weekend, I also need to collect some more seaweed for mulching, I can't believe what a diffence to the foliage it makes, its magic stuff.

To spay or not to spay that is the question

At 21 months old The Huntaway is going under the knife.  We've decided to get her spayed, but it is not a decision we have taken lightly.

We are not going to breed from her, thats for certain.  We've discussed it sure.  But at the end of the day, there are enough puppies in the world.  The Huntaway does not need to be adding to that population.

There is the argument that when a bitch goes through her first heat there are hormones released that help support the rest of her growth, so we decided to let her have  at least one heat before we spayed her.

I have to say I hate putting her through an operation she doesn't "really"need. But at the end of the day I guess The Huntaway called it.  Its not that her heats bothered us, they bothered her.
When she goes through a heat she becomes a miserable, stressed out, unhappy dog and if we aren't going to breed from her then why put her through it?

So next Wednesday is the big day, and I am trying to stay calm for her sake, but boy oh boy I can't wait till this is all over and she is home safe and sound

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Well actually it was the chook house.

The Farmer has been working his little butt off to finish Chooky Manor for me as a christmas present, and it is nearly done!  Despite being forced inside by a few cloud bursts, we have pretty much completed the inside of the house, the back doors, the perches, the front wall, all we need now is the roof and we will be all ready for our little feathered friends to arrive!

Let the photos commence!

                                 The farmer attaching his specially designed sliding back door

   The leadlight window, inside looking out

                 Random geranium growing out of our compost heap, in my favourite colour, hot pink!

    The Huntaway doing what she does best - supervising

 Back doors are on

           Entrance

My specially designed ladder in the entrance

          January mud

After all that hard work The Huntaway needed a snack

As you can see from the pictures, the mud is back, we have had so much rain lately, great for the gardens,  and the grass, the lambs are growing as fast as the pastures at the moment.  

But I have to say the farmer and I are over it! 

Bring on the sunshine January!

First Past the Post

Well, first things first I guess, this being a first post and all, welcome!

Introductions are in order of course,

I'm a wife, first and foremost, to an amazing husband who is a farmer of course and a jack of all trades.   I'm a gardener (mostly organic, very experimental!) a lover of animals, especially horses and dogs.  Being a mama to 2 temperamental miniature horses, 4 troublesome orphan lambs,  pack leader to 1 challenging huntaway and a servant to two moggy cats.  So in short I guess I'm a native tree planting, mud stomping, quad bike riding, weed killing, sheep wrestling, cow mustering, lady of the land.

Who loves to scrub up and wear a cute dress and high heels.

So thats me, in a nutshell,  

Welcome to my adventure.....