Tess Is Much improved.

13:12pm

I am pleased to be able to report the Tess is returning to her normal self. We took her to see the vet last night and she seemed to think that she had caught a bug from somewhere so she has prescribed some tablets for her although she hardly seems to need them to be honest as she is back to eating and bouncing off the walls.

Tess (Taken 24/08/2013).

17:48

Most of today has been spent raking up leaves. I'm a bit behind with this job due to the leaves hanging on for such a long time this year. 

19:36

Just watching the last episode in this series of Ripper Street. This has once again proved to be good if a little violent at times viewing.

Sent from my BlackBerry® PlayBook™
www.blackberry.com

Sheep Culling

8.00am
First job this morning was to meet the farmer and his workers up at the sheep field in order to round up the sheep and then pick out the old and the male lambs to be culled from the flock.

 

09.50
Unfortunately Tess still isn't eating and doesn't seem to be quite herself so we are taking her to see the vet today sometime.

11.10

I have Tommy working in the garden with me this morning, he isn't so mobile these days but he still enjoys coming in the garden with me.

15.48
Tess has to be at the vets by 17.15 so we will hopefully have news of her problem by then. I thought maybe she was a little better at lunch time as she was wanting to come to work with me but when I tried her with some food she made no attempt to eat it so I've left her at home.

11 Dec

11 Dec, 2013
08:05
Rating: ----- Category: Business
Seeing to the dogs. Fed Blondie, put the dogs in the garden, cleaned the kennels,
freshened the bedding, put down fresh water, prepared the meals for later. Bumped into Adam so had a bit of a chat with him. He asked about what time I was having off plus how much Christmas bonus I get, I got the impression he was quizzing me on half of someone else.


08:40
Rating: ----- Category: Business
Fed the sheep. Took across some hay, checked and counted them.


09:16
Rating: -----
Category: Work Book
Making some markers for the four new trees up the narrow baulk so the person cutting the hedges can see where the trees are and so no cut off their tops.
10:08
Rating: -----
Category: Work Book
Got some Parsnips and Apples for the hall.
11:34
Rating: 4
Category: Work Book
Made a start on laying new gravel in front of the garden house.
15:35
Rating: 3
Category: Work Book
Took Tess and went marking the trees with the markers I made this morning.

Tommy & Tess

A morning walk with Tommy and Tess.

Sent from my Windows Phone

To Big

It looks like someone needs an extension to their home.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Parcevall Hall

http://www.parcevallhallgardens.co.uk/

Sent from my Windows Phone

Forced Rhubarb

A few posts ago I showed you the old chimney pots that I am using to force some Rhubarb so in this post I will show you the results. So far I've harvested two lots like you see in the picture.

Spring Daffodils.

The past few days have been very Spring like with lots of warm sunshine which has shown the Daffodils in all their glory. The whole garden has been coming on a treat over the past two weeks - there is still no sign of the apple blossom though. In some ways that is a good thing as the nights are still chilly and close to being frosty. Because of this I am having to cover the Peach and Cherry trees which I have growing against a brick wall. I think the bricks probably hold enough heat to hold off the frost but I cover them just in case.

Quite A Way Behind.

As some of you know we have had one of the coldest Spring times for many years and  I think the pictures below show what the result has been on the garden.

This picture was taken earlier today.

 

This picture was taken two years ago almost to the day. It will be interesting to see how long it will be before the apple tree is in full blossom this year.

Things are actually starting to warm up now and already things in the garden are starting to move which has resulted in me making a first cut of the lawns in the courtyard.

Chimney Forcing Rhubarb.

In the picture I posted yesterday you probably noticed a chimney pot on the border. This is my attempt at forcing rhubarb which apparently tastes better when forced. You can get properly made pots for such a purpose but I managed to acquire a couple of chimney pots last year when they were refurbishing the chimney's on the big house. The makeshift top is a clay tile that I found lying around the potting shed yard.

As you can see there isn't a lot of action just yet but I'm sure that now the chimney pots are in place things will soon start to move.

I was asked yesterday how Tommy is doing, my initial reaction was to say that he's doing fine but on second thoughts I'm not sure he has ever been doing just fine. Anyway he is still as cantankerous as ever, still barks when I leave him for any length of time, still has stiff joints, more recently though he has become deaf as well which in someways is a blessing as he is no longer terrorised by bangs and such like. His latest affliction is to suffer a stroke, I'm not really sure what effect this has had on him, there is nothing that really stands out. Having said all that he seems happy enough and like to come out in the garden with me although I only take him now when the weather is half decent as I don't like him to lay around in the cold on wet ground. Of course he has competition now as Tess has also discovered the delights of gardening, she thinks it's all about playing ball, to her a garden is not a place of relaxation. As much as I like to take Tess I feel that in favourable conditions that Tommy should get the first choice because he has done some good work in the garden in the past and I don't think he has that much time left to spend in the garden so best to make the most of it.