Neglect

We are very fortunate to live on 3 acres of land.  Much of it usable.  We have a small orchard and quite a lot of garden including a vegetable patch area I developed a number of years ago.  BUT

They have been neglected in the past few years.  The fruit that we pick this year will be a true gift from mother nature because we have given the trees no care, no water and no love.  Sad but very true.

I think that I really struggled with the diagnosis of my condition for a long time.  Even though it is not life threatening - It is life altering and will change what I am able to do now and in the future so sadly I let that get the better of me and almost succumbed to the doldrums but thanks to a good GP and some good meds I think I have turned the corner and am ready to live again alongside my condition and take each day as it comes.

It has been a very dry spring and first part of summer.  Everything is an awful shade of brown and the orchard should have been hand watered but until 2 weeks ago we hadn't done that.  It has been too late for the apricot crop which is tiny and stunted but still packed full of flavour but for these Nashi Pears, the Greengages and the apples some water has been very welcomed and should result in some nice fruit.

You can see the slight tinge of green to the grass around the base of the trees where I have been hand watering.  They are very grateful for some love.

We have about 5 apple trees and all different varieties so hopefully they will crop well.

And the vegetable patch - Oh dear - I am ashamed to show it to you but without the pictures I wouldn't be able to describe the neglect and level of unloving it has endured.  I am not even sure I can resurrect it but I will give it a try.  One of the things I really want to do is to start a compost heap and begin my worm farm again so with a bit of love, TLC and some hard work hopefully we can turn this disaster around !  I am certainly keeping this blog REAL aren't I.  No GLAM photo's for you today.

You can see just how dry the property is.  The land is parched.

Another thing on my wish list is to have some hens again.  This shed and run was originally built for the cats but Dreamer in particular is totally stressed outside and it has had no use except for it being adapted for an outdoor area when Rocky was a puppy so we thought it would make a perfect safe hen house for some little ladies.

It just needs a bit of a tidy up and some nesting boxes put inside.  That is on my list of things to do.

So yesterday I spent some time in the orchard picking what I could and discovered that the birds must have dropped some pips and a Cherry Plum had begun to grow up through one of the apricot trees and was full of fruit !  What a wonderful gift from Mother Nature despite having no care.  I am going to use these in the kitchen today - I have an idea !

And I picked some stunted apricots which I will strew and freeze for pies and crumbles which will be wonderful in the winter.

I'll be back tomorrow with a round up of the week.

Hugs,

Fee xx