Getting fitter, but still raining

I have joined a local gym, golf club and swimming pool. I have done some Pilates classes, been swimming and today I had a lovely time swimming with Compostgirl  (athough, we might just as well have just stood outside, in terms of getting soaked to the skin!)

On a more serious note, it is STILL raining - apart from a few hours of sunshine on a few days this week we have had rain every day for more than 2 months and mostly overcast skies. I am SO fed up of mud. As are the chickens.

I cannot get out to do ANYTHING on the land or in the wood as the ground is so sodden ( standing water on the surface) ; the Seramas spend most of the day hiding in the polytunnel; the big hens hardly bother to leave the Mega Hen Pen and if they do - they leg it to the shelter of the barn and hide in there all day, moaning. This meand I find eggs laid in very odd places some days!

Roll on Spring.

Season's Greetings!

to all my friends in Blogland. Wishing you the very best of everything you want, both for Christmas and in 2016.

with love from all of us here at Compost Mansions xxx

Visit to New Brewery Arts Cirencester

Cider making!

Bumper harvest this year. We picked hundreds and hundreds of pounds of apples.

This is just a selection!

I washed out loads of bottles

and apples ...

and then started to chop

Then we got busy with the scratter

 and the press

End result - 70 l of cider

and some pasteurized juice.

Hard work, but well worth it :)

Tidy up time in the Polytunnel

So, it is that time of year, again. Where the plants in the polytunnel are beginning to look sad and there are hardly any fruits left to pick. Or where the shorter days means dampness and humidity and botrytis and moulds.

So ...time to pick the very last of the green peppers and tomatoes, to ripen inside the house on a sunny S facing windowsill.

And to have a good old clear up of the polytunnel!

I also washed a load of plant pots ready for 2016 growing season

While Compostman got busy using up some solar electrons cutting wood with the new electric chainsaw, He reports it is very handy and a lot easier to use on small stuff than the big petrol chainsaw.