River Carnival and Blossomtime

Spent the weekend being very busy at Hereford River carnival  I had an excellent day - weather could have been kinder but a lot of brochures were taken and many people made various craft items

 emotand Algy and Mrs the Serama chickens were admired 

This child really enjoyed leaning how to stick weave.

and then I was at The Big Apple Blossomtime event at Putley on Sun and Mon. 

http://www.bigapple.org.uk/

This is just over the field and up the lane from me and I love doing it.

Weather was cold and wet and there were a few less people than previous years but despite that it went well. Algy and Mrs A the Seramas wowed the crowds as usual and sales of my tomato plants went well. I have repeat customers who come each year for unusual varieties. Lots of brochures for all the things I offer here at Moors Wood were taken away. I love local food events 

smile emoticon 

Small boy having fun with Hapa Zome

And this is what he made :) 

Morris Men!

Moving raised beds, planting potatoes , Forest School meeting, WI quiz. All in one day!

Fab day today

Lovely weather here so we got lots of gardening done in the sunshine. Planted lots of seeds and pricked out toms, aubergine and pepper plants. Also moved one of the raised beds around ( as you do!)

Finished bed planted up with 25 of the  1st Early Rocket seed potatoes :)

Then I came in and did lots of paperwork stuff as well, but good paperwork involving progressing stuff I love to do

Then I went over to Garway to a Forest School FEN meeting which was fabulous, at Garway Primary School - made me wish I were teaching there! So good to meet with like minded people and we made a willow tepee and drank tea around the fire.

I drove back home with the sun setting behind me from Garway back to Ledbury to take part in the WI Quiz as part of Putley WI quiz team - and we are into the final! 5 teams will battle it out next month and we are one of them!

Tired now though :)

Looking forward to the Eclipse tomorrow and the Spring Equinox. Hope it will be fine :)

Ludlow Medieval Christmas Fair

On the Sunday of Compostgirls birthday weekend we went to Ludlow. We knew there would be loads of people trying to park in the town so we parked outside  and had a pleasant walk in through the streets














 Lots of street entertainers were there - this lady was an Ice Queen statue - and very good she was! Until she moved, which was a bit of a surprise :)

 

 Lots of stalls in the Castle square, but we wanted to get into the main event which was being held in the Castle proper.




 Fabulous displays by re enactment groups, and loads of people demonstrating living history.

Compostman and Compostgirl went up to the top of the tower - I don't like heights so I went shopping :)

 At the end of the day we had fun watching Knights of Plantagenet re enact a fight between the English and the French. Very realistic fighting and I bet they had bruises on their bruises that night!

 

We had a good day out but I was jolly cold at the end and glad to get home and light the fire.

Charity auction at blue-ginger gallery, Cradley

Last Sunday I had such a great day :) After archery in the morning I set off to Cradley to a charity auction at blue-ginger gallery in aid of Acorns Children's Hospice appeal.

I was delayed by traffic so was really pleased I arrived just in time to bid, and win a wonderful drawing of dancing squirrels by ceramic artist Eleanor Bartleman. I also successfully bid on some wondrous drawings of a swan and a penguin by Jackie Morris and a fab drawing of a chicken by ceramic artist Elspeth Soper

Hard to choose a favourite but I think the best bid was for the baby Sloth Bear ( from the Jackie Morris book 'Something about a Bear') made by my friend Karin of Celestine and the Hare. I am so very very pleased that I won the ( rather tense!) bidding war on that item :)
 

Unfortunately she seems to have picked up some very bad habits from the Norty Weasles with respect to any choklit lying around.

Naughty Betty Bear!

Not yet sure how much money was raised for Acorns by the auction but it is several thousand pounds I would guess and it was a wonderful afternoon. Sue Lim the gallery owner put on a really good show and the donated artwork was all wonderful :) If you are near Cradley do pop in and have a look at the gallery  - it is a lovely place with a very good cafe as well as lots of wonderful art for sale and on display :) 

Wassail!

Wassailing this year at Hellens, to see in the New Year and bless the fruit trees for the coming season. Compostgirl and I went - Compostman sadly did not come as he felt unwell and it was VERY cold indeed. We met up with a friend, Angie and then saw lots of other friends there :-) it is a big social occasion around us :-)

 We gathered in the courtyard and ate and drank,

 

then processed to the orchard, some carrying flaming torches. I had one :-)

We made a circle around the  centre tree and small bonfires and the Morris Men danced and sang, the fires were then lit from our torches and there was more singing and dancing, libations and food were offered to the tree  and noises were made to scare away evil influences which might blight the harvest.

A day out with fellow composters....and a really good talk!

Back from a lovely day out at a social gathering of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Master Composters held at Worcester Woods Country Park. We had a fabulous talk from a member of the Countryside Services, Senior Greenspace Officer Wade Muggleton, on his amazing recycled garden

Wade is a local award winning gardener and writer. His talk was titled "Gardening like a Womble! a talk on permaculture and gardening"

Wade has travelled extensively in New Zealand & Australia, visiting and working on organic farms and permaculture projects. He “walks the talk”, having spend the last 7 years developing his own small garden into an intensive food producing plot that contains more than 23 kinds of fruit and about 20 types of vegetables. “Grow It” magazine awarded him their coveted “plot of the year” award in 2009 and he writes for Permaculture magazine.

It was a really good talk, as Wade said, “if we use small garden plots and allotments we reduce carbon emissions, waste, transport and pollution.” He is the most amazing skip diver, vegetables and fruits were flourishing in an amazing variety of containers and raised beds. As you might expect from an audience of Master Composters, we then had a lively question and answer session .

We had some lovely lunch, followed by a workshop, again headed up by Wade, on making willow structures such as obelisks and hurdles. We all had a really good time and, as always ,I came away enthused and energised by these gatherings with like minded folk.

Wade demonstrating how to make a willow obelisk

Also no hens were killed today and it was lovely weather.

So all in all a good day!.

Master Composters cutting willow.

Finally, if anyone reading this lives in Herefordshire or Worcestershire, the Waste Management team are looking for some more people to train as Master Composters? So, if you are interested, give me an email and I can give you more details?

Me and my lovely willow obelisk.

Michael Chapman played a gig at our local pub...

we actually went out JUST Compostman and me earlier in the week, to a gig! We went to see Michael Chapman, an amazing guitarist singer songwriter....who was appearing at our local pub, The Walwyn Arms ! Compostman first encountered Michael back in the very early 70's when he played at a folk festival Compostman was doing the PA for...and we have been to see him a lot over the last 35 odd years...(eeek) but since we had Compostgirl we have only been out together 4 times in total. ..and not to see him... :-(

so we really enjoyed ourselves on Tuesday :-) especially as Compostgirl went on a sleepover with her best friend from school!

It WAS fun! to be a grown up again, to get dressed up( a bit, I put on clean jeans and a nice top and some lipstick!) and go out somewhere with lovely Compostman..and talk about grown up stuff :-)

Eco Club plant stall at Blossomtime event

Sunday I got up early ish and did the hens, watered the polytunnel plants etc before starting to load up the car with plants.



Lovely trees waiting to be bought!



Mmmm salads, tomatos, beans, peas, aubergines, peppers, herbs...all waiting to go to new homes.

I did 3 trips to the village hall and then set up my table, along with a trestle table kindly provided for me, outside the hall and laid out the stall.





Sue joined me at 1.30 and we made ready for the flood of people coming for the start of the cider tasting in the hall. We had the plants to sell and had designed and written a Family Nature trail as well to sell. This was a sheet with a map of a walk across the fields from the village hall to Aylton Church and the wonderful, newly refurbished Court Barn, with 20 things to spot along the way. We had all had fun the previous Sunday doing this walk and getting the clues sorted out!







Business was very brisk on the plant stall, we sold lots of plants and I was very busy giving advice on how to grow the various veg plants to people who hadn't grown much stuff before but wanted to start growing, which I found very encouraging! We had grown a lot of heritage varieties and these went very quickly, especially the tomato plants and salads.

We also had a lot of general interest shown about Eco Club and Gardening Club, and of course lots of children from the school live locally so came up to look at "their " plants! A good number of families bought a nature trail sheet and had fun.

Much cider was also drunk ;-)Well the event in the hall was the tasting of the winners (and all entrants) for the Big Apple Cider and Perry awards.

Compostman and Compostgirl came over later, Compostgirl spent most of the time playing with her friends, although she did walk the trail and pronounced it "fun"
Compostman took a turn on the plant stall while I went and got much needed tea and cake from the Tarrington Brownies.



Plant stall after an hour, not much left!

We sold everything in the 3 hours we were there, apart from a few big trees...which have now also found a home.


And we raised nearly £100 for Eco Club, which I think is a good total :-)

Compost Awareness Week

Grow your own this Compost Awareness Week 3-9 May 2009

Compost Awareness Week is all about learning how to make a difference with compost. We can do that by composting our own household kitchen and garden
waste or making the ‘Greener Choice’ of peat-free composts containing recycled materials.

If you want to know more, have a look at the recycle now website about composting.

I have done a few (!) posts on here about the wonders of composting, as well ;-)
I shall be out and about this Compost Awareness Week, I shall be in Hereford High Town on Fri, so if you are nearby, come and say hello :-)

Beltane!

A bright May Day to you all

I didn't get up and wash my face in the May Day dew this morning, I have done so in the past, but not today ....I don't feel so good and so stayed in bed this morning!


However, I don't have time to be ill as am very busy at the moment, we will be taking part this weekend in Blossomtime. This is a festival of apple blossom and all things cider-y, held every May in these parts as part of The Big Apple. Twice a year The Big Apple Association organise Blossomtime in May and The Big Apple in Oct. Thes are events where the seven parishes of the Marcle Ridge in Herefordshire celebrate their heritage of apples and pears, cider and perry.

This year we are not entering any of our cider for the competition ( want to keep it to drink ourselves!) but instead spent last Sunday walking and writing the clues to a nature trail for families. it was a lovely day and we all three enjoyed the walk!

So in addition to the usual daily tasks here, I am busy today and tomorrow potting, labelling and generally preparing plants (grown by the children and me, as well as donated by other parents) to sell at the Blossomtime event up the road on Sunday at Putley. I will be womanning the plant stall and selling the nature trail sheets to raise funds for Eco Club at school.

BUT I expect I shall get round to having a Bel fire later on today :-)

Monday I shall be having fun with my family, drinking cider and watching Moris dancers do their stuff. And playing in the wood, if I am lucky :-)

Have a very good weekend, all of you, and Beltane blessings to you all.

Coincidences, Freecycle and the power of love.

I answered a post on Freecycle Hereford which popped into my inbox a few days ago offering a roll of weed suppressing fabric and I was in luck!

Both I and the person offering the fabric have been having email issues, so on Tuesday I got an email from another person, who turned out to be the wife of the offerer.

At the end of the message telling me how to collect the fabric she asked "how are the hens" and signed the message "Kim".

I wondered for a bit, then thought maybe the lady was "Kim from Hereford" who sometimes leaves comments on here....so would know about my hens...as I couldn't think of ANYONE else called Kim who I know...

I called her number and it WAS! She had recognised my email address and thought it might be me!

So I went into Hereford with Compostman and Compostgirl on Wednesday, to have a family medical appointment and then we walked across town to a lovely little craft knitting and fabric shop called Badder, where I met the lovely Kim and got my weed suppressing fabric and handed over some eggs from "the girls" as a thank you. Compostgirl was enchanted to meet a 9 month old Labradoodle called Bruno ( who was SO cute, just like a big sheep and so friendly!)

We had a good old chat with Kim and then we left, to go back via High Town. Compostman went off to collect some AV kit ( more on this anon) and Compostgirl and I walked through the very lovely Hereford High Town to look at a Council run Safety fair, Safe, Sound and Sorted, with advice on car seats and bullying and fire safety and all sorts of things...Compostgirl got given a very nice rucksack and some traffic leaflets and stuff, I got an anti bullying t shirt, we both had a go at plate spinning, then we met up with Compostman and all three of us had our photo taken by Wyvern FM look at number 323 in the gallery for a bigger image!





and we admired a stilt walker....



So despite it being a very sad sort of day for me, we all DID have a good day...and being with my family made me feel much better about everything ...

Love....as I said in my last post, that is what it is all about. I love my husband and daughter very much. I treasure the time we spend together and the small, everyday things we do. I love to see Compostgirl laughing at a ridiculously tall stilt man, and see her delight at a circus trick. I love the smile I see on Compostman's face when he spots us in a crowd, when he has gone off to do something and then come back to meet up with us somewhere.

Love....the best thing in the whole wide world and something to be said to our loved ones and to be shouted about.