30th November. (The Final Wedding Of The Year).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the outdoor run. 
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Check and counted.
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round. 
4. Break for tea.
5. Clearing leaves - Swept and carted off leaves from the front drive.
6. Servicing - Prepared the tractor for mowing. 
7. Break for lunch 
8. Mowing - Cut the greens.
9. Packing up.
10. See to the dogs - Put away the dogs (Isobel fed them).

It’s the last wedding of the year tomorrow, here are pictures of the barn ready for the occasion.

29th November. (Erected the Christmas tree in the hall).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Put new shavings in their box.  Left in the outdoor run.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted the sheep.
3. Take Christmas tree - Took the Christmas tree to the hall. Erected the tree.
4. See to the logs - Filled the log box and bucket.
5. Break for tea.
6. Clearing leaves - Picked up some leaves from the rock garden and front drive.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Servicing - Did a mix of two stroke petrol for the leaf blower.
9. Removing crop protection - Removed the netting from the potting shed cherry tree.
10. Pruning - Cut back the Passion Flower growing against the potting shed wall.
11. Packing up - Cleaned and put away the tools.
12. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs.

Passion Flower growing against the potting shed. The plant is actually rooted there by accident through a crack in the concrete after it had been thrown on some compost bins that used to be there.


Notes - I'm very late in taking down the netting, it's one of those jobs that I never got round too.

26th November. (Pavement Cleaning).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the garden until 9.30.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Check and counted the sheep. 
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round. 
4. Cleaning work - Set up the pressure washer. 
5. Break for tea
6. Cleaning work - Made a start on cleaning the paved area by the iron gates between the gardens.
7. Break for lunch. 
8. Cleaning work - Finished off the paving by the iron gates.
9. Cleaning work - Cleaned the paving outside the barn door to the front garden.
10. Packing up - Put away the tools.
11. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs. 

My handy work being inspected.


Notes - We have a wedding taking place on Saturday and the paving was a bit slippery so we thought it best if we try and make it better so as not to spoil the occasion with a broken hip or something.  If I'm going to be doing this sort of thing more often though I will be needing a better pressure washer as it took most of the day to do this.

21st November. (Medlar Harvest).

1. See to the dogs
2. See to the sheep - Checked and counted the sheep. Took across some hay.
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round.
4. Harvesting - Cleared leaves from under the Medlar tree. Picked the Medlars.
5. Break for tea.
6. Greenhouse work - Moved planted from the cold greenhouse. Made a start on installing insulation.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Greenhouse work - Finished installing the insulation in the cold house. Moved the plants back in.
9. Packing up.
10. See to the dogs - Fed the dogs and left them in the garden for an hour. 
11. See to the bins - Put the black bins out for collection.
12. See to the dogs - Put the dogs away for the night.

Timothy - Michael checking over the Medlars.



Notes - A damp and  old day so a good chance to insulate the greenhouses. I still have the hot houses to do.

20th November. (Tidying and Potting).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the day run.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted the sheep.
3. Tidying - As it's raining I did tidying up in the potting shed, Took the barrel planters to the mower shed to store for the winter.
4. Break for tea.
5. Tidying - Did some more tidying in the potting shed.
6. Break for lunch.
7. Transplanting - Potted on the Geranium cuttings taken from the center bed of the courtyard. Potted on some pot plants. Checked over the greenhouse heaters.
8. Packed up.
9. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs.

Some of the rooted Geranium cuttings.



Notes - When the weather is not good the dogs use the outdoor run as there is no good shelter in the garden. In the runs they can go indoors and have a bed to lie on.

19th November. (A leaf clearing day).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the garden.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted the sheep.
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round. Took off some dead leaves and flowers.
4. Clearing leaves - Blew up some leaves that had gather by the iron gates between the gatdens.
5. Break for tea.
6. Clearing leaved -  Picked up the leaves I blew together earlier. Blew the leaves off the banks.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Clearing leaves - picked up the leaves from the banks with the sweeper. Blew the leaves from the front drive. Cleared leaves from the North Front.
9. Packing up - Cleaned and put away the tools.
10. See to the dogs - Fed Blonde, Willow has been away with the boss today so left him to feed her when they got back.

The leaf pile.

Notes -  I will leave the leaves in this leaf pile until after Christmas before moving to a permanent home in the compost area. 

14th November. (Removing Ivy).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels.  Left in the garden for a while.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted the sheep.
3. See to the greenhouses - checked round.
4. Checked over the tractor.
5. Break for tea.
6. Removing ivy - Cut back some branches on the fig tree so as to make a start on removing the ivy from the barn wall in the front garden. There were also some climbing roses that had to be cut back.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Removing ivy - Continued to remove ivy from the barn wall. Clean out the guttering. Removed ivy from the Holly tree. I also had to remove some growth from the back of the Holly tree as it was running on the wall of the barn and the guttering.
9. Packed up.
10. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs.
11. See to the bins - Put out the recycle bins.

Notes - The wall looks a little sparse now but the are some climbing roses at its Base so I hope to train them to cover the wall from now on.

13th November. (Ivy trimming)

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered, Cleaned the kennel. Left in the garden.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted.
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round.
4. Clearing leaves - Picked up leaves from the front garden with the sweeper.
5. Break for tea.
6. Pruning - Pruned the trees and ivy by the back office steps.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Removed some of the ivy from the barn wall.
9. Packed up.
10. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs.

Before and after trimming.

Notes - I think I may have found out who the VIPs are who are staying here at the moment.

12th November 2018. (Lifting Geraniums).

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the garden.
2. See to the sheep - Took across some hay. Checked and counted.
3. See to the greenhouses - Checked and watered round. Took off some dead leaves.
4. Sowing - Sowed sweet pea seeds.
5. Break for tea.
6. Lifting plants - Made a start on lifting Geraniums from the south front wall beds.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Lifting plants - Finished off lifting the Geraniums. I'm going to try and over winter them in bags in the garden house basement.
9. Clearing leaves - Picked a few leaves up from the front garden with the tractor and sweeper.
10. Packing up.
11. See to the dogs - Went to feed the dogs but they weren't there so just left the food out.

Note - We have some kind of celebrity staying at the B&B but I don't know who as no one will tell me.

9th November 2018 Taking away the lambs.

1. See to the sheep - Helped the farmers to remove the lambs from the flock. Took across some hay.
2. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the garden.
3. Break for tea.
4. Clearing leaves - Picked up some leaves and sticks from around the grounds.
5. Break for lunch.
6. See to the greenhouses - Watered round and took off some dead leaves.
7. Packing up.
8. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs. 
9. Note - They delivered a load of sugar beet for the sheep this morning.

The sheep enjoying the sugar beet.

8th November 2018 - Digging over the Dahlia beds

1. See to the dogs - Fed and watered. Cleaned the kennels. Left in the garden.
2. See to the logs - Carried up seven baskets of logs to fill the box and bucket.
3. See to the sheep - Checked the sheep. No hay has arrived so couldn’t feed them.
4. Digging - Made a start on digging over the Memorial Gardens Dahlia beds.
5. Break for tea
6. Clearing leaves - I had to clear some leaves off the borders before digging.
7. Pruning - Pruned the roses growing up the obelisks.
8. Digging - Finished digging over the first bed.
9. Break for lunch.
10. Digging - Dug over the second Dahlia bed.
11. Packed up - Cleaned and put away the tools.
12. See to the dogs - Fed and put away the dogs.
13. See to the bins - Put away the black bins.