December sky

On December 27th Angus recorded a gust of 59mph, strongest since January 2009. It has been the wettest December here since 2002. On December 23rd and 27th the barometric pressure fell to 963.

Overall a mild, wet, windy month.

 

Sunset December 17th

Sunrise on December 3rd.

December garden

A quiet month in the garden.

A late picking of straw flowers for drying.

Outside the entrance of the small tunnel.

Tivon planting bulbs.

 A small crop of kiwis this year.

The kiwi in flower in July,

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(Kale in the background).
 Alfie was playing with a little toy tractor while I was digging out the odd dandelion, after a couple of minutes my fork seemed more interesting than his tractor and he spent some time digging with it until....

Having no fork, I went to get my trowel to transplant more poached egg plant under the kale, soon enough Alfie thought he would dig with the trowel instead.

Finding treasure?

Still alpine strawberries in the big tunnel....

.... for Alfie to find....

... and to eat.


The Robin follows us about.

View November garden

Winter crafts.

In November and December while the garden rests more, we enjoy a few winter crafts.

A little knitting.

At last we have an (old) sewing machine again..... and I have willing helpers.

 

We sewed bags.

We had fun with fabric printing.

We had the iron out for the first time in years!

....and of course we made a bag with the orienteering symbol.

Soap making

I made several batches of soap in November and December, here are some photos I took along the way.

 

Organic coconut oil, olive oil and home rendered bees wax are melted together.
Lye is added to make the soap base to which extras can be added.

Adding cream, oats and honey to one batch.

Pouring a batch of poppy seed soap into moulds.

First batches of milk soap curing.

Freshly picked Calendula petals drying.

Dried Calendula petals added to soap.

Zoe pouring soap into moulds, a swirly batch in the foreground.

 Finished Soaps.

Heathers surprise calf

 Heather has had ongoing dry cow mastitis since the summer. The vet checked her in the summer while he was here one day and thought she wasn't in calf. So Angus and I were surprised on Monday, December 23rd when this little bull calf was born out in the field.

Taking in the early morning sun, it has turned much colder. 

Milk & cheese

 We had no calf to share Ambers milk this year so Angus milked twice a day until early December, then he  switched to milking once a day. In mid November there was a cold snap and we turned the fridge off in the shed where the cheeses are maturing. The weather since has been unseasonably warm and the moulds have responded accordingly.

November 9th

November 26th

December22nd

Moulds developing on the cheeses.

The mouldy cloth is pulled back revealing the cheese underneath. 

Cut cheese, the flavor is more developed than the first ones that were younger and less mouldy.

Alfie holding the sieve while Zoe pours.

Alfie loves to help.

A clabber cheese in brine.

Little helper spooning and shovelling.

Spooning in the flour for bread.

Chopping carrots

Shovelling soil.

 

Boys will be boys.

Otters visit the pond.

This morning 3 otters visited the pond, one was a juvenile. It is hard to get a good photo as they spend most of their time under water with a head or tail bobbing up every now and again.

However here are some great photos Angus took this year in the spring.

This otter was feasting on frogs who came to lay spawn in the pond earlier this year.

Otter scampering from one pond to another.

Otter at the edge of the pond.

Today's snap of the otter in the water.