January sky.

January was a mix of windy days, cold days, beautiful sunny and calm days and a couple of storms. On January 9th we recoded a high of 17.3C,  but overall colder and drier than normal.

Sunset January 22nd.

January garden.

Alfie has begun several January days with the proposal "I have an idea, let's go outside and dig!".

 Angus dumped a mound of soil here a year ago and we are finally moving it.

 

It is all fun and Alfie does as much as he enjoys.

It really is surprising just how much soil a little man can move!
There will be great disappointment when there is none left to dig.

Some days Tivon helps too.

Brothers in harmony?

Alfie looking out for a stick floating under the little bridge.

We have had some beautiful clear still days. This Robin in Singing on the Viburnum × bodnantense 'Dawn.

We had a couple of January storms too. This old oak near the back of the big pond has lost another couple of branches.

We made more room and light for the Prunus serrula as well as space for more intentional planting around the big pond. Now that it is clear, the Tibetan cherry needs a good rub to smoothen the bark.

 Coppicing the willow and hazel led to piles of logs to go to the woodshed and branches to go for shredding.

I have been shredding almost every day, using the shreddings to mulch the paths in the vegetable patch....

and using the straighter branches to make a very rough temporary fence outside the big tunnel.

The criteria being, to be good enough to keep the hens out. It is a lot easier to keep hens out than it is to keep hens in!
There are also piles of smaller willow for another project another day!

The Autumn flowering cherry, Prunus × subhirtella 'Autumnalis Rosea', has been flowering non stop. Every season has it's stars.

Yacon and the January polytunnel.

Alfie with a freshly dug yacon January 5th.
The polytunnel is quite bare, save a little overwintering spinach and lettuce, a few brave spears of asparagus and lots of overwintering plants in pots.

The harvest from one yacon plant dug up earlier in the month.
The inca name means 'water root' and the taste hasn't won me over yet, but Wendy tells me that they are sweeter after storing them for a while, so I will try that this year and see if they improve. It was certainly no trouble to grow, it was in a shady polytunnel corner and received no more than the odd can of water when I thought of it.

This is a photo of the propagation roots from which the edible tubers grow. These are stored in a cool shed (like dahilas) until planting them out again next spring.

For an early start to the year we have been busy planting seeds in the warm kitchen, January 7th

Alfie is sowing sweet pea seeds.

I love to see little busy hands and as Alfie wants to plant all the seeds, my hands are free to take photos!

After 3 weeks the sweet peas are strong little plants with their tops pinched off to help them bush out. They will go out to the polytunnel in the next mild spell.

Home made yogurt

 We make yogurt every couple of days throughout the year, one day I got the camera out!

Alfie holding the sieve, Angus is pouring.
The milk in the pot is for yogurt, the rest goes in the churn for drinking.

Milk needs to be about body temperature (38C is what I aim for if I use a thermometer but a couple of degrees over or under and it still works).  The starter, a small quantity of the previous batch, is mixed in to the warm milk. I use a medium glass / cup full for a pot of milk. Then with the lid on the pot, I wrap the pot in a small blanket and leave it in the warm kitchen for 8 to 12 hours. Our kitchen averages about 22C most of the year.

After 8 to 12 hours it will have set to a curd and I put it in the fridge to slow the process. It becomes a little firmer after being in the fridge.

With fresh cows milk the cream rises to the top. As it is January there is very little cream from the winter grass. Amber, our Kerry cow feeds on grass for 12 months of the year with just a little hay in winter, also she is still feeding her calf.

The yogurt sets as a curd and the whey will separate a little when yogurt is scooped up, or, it can be blended with a whisk to make a smooth yogurt.

 We make kefir now too and it is even simpler to make as the starter grains can be added to cold milk.

The Hens and the fox.

 A story as old as time...
 Our hen run that surrounds a small orchard (a dozen fruit trees) is well built, 6 foot high chain link fencing. Usually the hens have free run of the whole garden (excluding the veg. patch) and the hen run is used as a quarantine area or a temporary enclosure when the fox is hungry. This is usually in mid-winter when other prey is scarce or in late spring/ early summer when there are hungry cubs to feed.
 Over 15 years of keeping hens we have found that for most of the year the fox leaves us alone.

 We have lost our old cock and this white boy is having a trial run as the new chief.

Last year we had a dozen cockrels running in the woods, all summer and autumn. We were, ( I was), late culling them and the fox decided to help, he took 2 before we kept them out of his reach in the barn, the rest of the hens were confined to the orchard . He had a taste for chicken though, enough to somehow scale the fence. I went in with a torch at 7.30 one morning to open the nest boxes ... and as I opened the orchard gate I was greeted with feathers, the torch then lighted on a body, and then another. All told, we lost 5 old hens. Miraculously the turkeys and 10 hens, including all the young layers, were spared.

 This photo is from last October. The big white eggs were laid by the turkeys, they lay eggs in the spring and autumn.

We (I) eventually dealt with all the cockrels, You are spared photos, as I had both hands busy all the time! This is Tivon starting a dry pluck, although I do a wet pluck as the feathers fall out so easily after a dip in hot water. The chickens went into the freezer for future roasts, which will be followed by meals of chicken curry and of course wonderful chicken stock.

We have also been getting through the pork mince, making sausages with herbs from the garden and a pinch of salt.

 Tivon is eager to help make sausages even if he is not so eager to eat them.

Early January flowers.

Today it is lashing rain and windy! I have brought some seed trays into the kitchen and have been planting seeds, with help from Alfie. Now for a few photos, mostly from yesterday.

Hellebore January 6th.

 

Hellebore January 6th.

The first crocus are up, January 6th.

Rose January 6th.

So hard to cut back the roses when they keep blooming!

Camellia January 2nd.

Honeybees collecting pollen from Viburnum.

After the cold weather last week we recorded 14.9C on Thursday Jan 1st. On Friday (yesterday) it was sunny and the bees were all out in the sunshine, even though it didn't get above 10C.

Honeybee collecting pollen from Viburnum × bodnantense 'Dawn.

 The pollen can be seen collecting in the sacs on the back legs.

This is a wonderful viburnum, flowering all winter with a lovely scent too. The long tubular flowers are well suited to bumble bees who can be seen foraging on the viburnum during any reasonable weather.