What a difference some doors make...

Our barn is looking super duper fabulous! After weatherboarding the second half of the barn, our friend Joe (or, "no show Joe" as we like to call him), constructed a lovely Oak frame for our new wooden barn doors, and then to prove us that calling him "No show Joe" wasn't really fair he knocked up some doors and returned to fit them in record speed! If my mum shows him this he may never return to do the other door...whoops! :) It looks FABULOUS though. The wood will colour to a duller tone and then next year we will possibly wood stain the doors and frame. We're so happy though, it all looks so different! 

I know, I know, I know. We still need to replace the broken glass, paint the window frames, paint the roof, clear the front and add new grass BUT it is a huge improvement. I'm now going to try and dig out the photo of it before....

....all I have discovered is that I have A LOT of photos of my babies, hmmmm, I know there is a barn picture somewhere but at the moment I just can't find it.

Anyway, other things we have been doing lately. Weeding. Yuck, if I had to list things I HATE then stinging nettles and other such disgusting weeds come very close to the top. The horrid little idiots grow everywhere. Cue me and my super killing weed spray and DD (my step dadda, who we lovingly refer to as DD as a shortening of Darling Daddy Dookums, I don't know why but it stuck) and his shovel. Oh yes, they learnt a lesson, we will win, you're not liked so buzz off and inhabit someone else's home! Or, just buzz off full stop! So, hopefully once the spray has set in we will be starting to get rid of them. Horrah!


Also, DD has been getting great loads of fertiliser (please see previous post about the joys of living on a farm) and spreading it over all the areas left to be grass seeded. This in itself makes such a huge difference, the ground is so dry and clay like it looks like a desert when it's dry, so just seeing some brown out there is better and fingers crossed we can start seeding once its all been harrowed/rolled etc within the next month or so. Oh how I long to see more grass! Sad aren't I?!

Lastly we went to the Wealden Times Summer Fair last weekend for a little nosey at all the lovely stalls. I could have spent a small fortune but I restrained except for a couple of plants. I am a sucker for flowers but managed to be quite good and just picked up a corn flower, lupin and another little lovely called "Cherry on Ice" I have no idea what it is but it's really pretty. So we spent the last rainy Sunday in the garden raising up the neglected flower beds and then planting them. It's brightened up the garden already :) The roses in the garden are pretty lovely though so they are deffo staying put. I had a nice surprise on my last walk in the meadow when I saw some bright pink poppies on the island - I'm not sure my iphone shows it in great detail but they look so sweet!

Poppies on the Island

Poppies on the Island

Corn flower

Lupin

Cherries on Ice

 

 A happy note to end on  is that my lovely Dalmatian Perdita has just given birth to 7 gorgeous puppies! We have 4 boys and 3 girls and they are the sweetest things ever. I can't wait for their Dally spots to come through - they are a cross breed with our collie and this is her second litter so we know how stunning they will be! Here's a pic just because I'm a proud Mummy!

 

Thats all for now. Nighty night xx
 

Update

It's ridiculous. We get set back 6 weeks due to snow and rain, and now we're getting set back due to all this fabulous heat!
It doesn't take a scientist to figure out when you're planting lots of trees/grass seed/plants that rain is a must. Have we had any? Not a drop. Cue numerous visits to hardware stores to invest in A LOT of hose pip, sprinklers etc. So our days have been spent watering and watering all of our baby trees. Neil our fabulous landscaper came to see us and warned that no more planting can take place (cottage garden, wild flower meadow etc) until we get out of this mini heat wave. We honestly do not have enough hours in the day. Each tree needs 1 full hours worth of watering, and we must have near 100 of the things. Of course once they have all had an hour long soak we need to start again, needless to say, I'd LOVE some rain. It's all OK though - the trees are looking healthier than they previously did, so our efforts are paying off.

The same goes for our grass seed, it is impossible to get seed to take in super hard soil. We had been seeding/watering/stomping/watering/seeding/stomping just hoping we'll see some new blades of grass pop up through. It's been pretty exhausting. So, after a lot of thought we finally had the brains to realise a little fertiliser might aid the process. Now, living on a farm with lots of animals we have a lot of poop(!) and for once its been very useful. We have now spread/raked/shovelled rather a large amount of fertiliser all through the woodland area for the little grass seeds to live in. So, fingers crossed the little seedlings will be growing in full glory in a month or so. Needless to say we will keep watering!

Lastly, we've also cleared the main avenue ready for top soil and seeding. This area has been my nightmare for so long so I am sooo happy it's finally being tackled. It's made such a difference. Take a look for yourself...

Finally. 7pm, my favourite hour in the meadow - and why? Because everything has such a golden sheen to it. It's such a gorgeous sight out there in the early evenings and for all of you getting married in May/June - good choice! It will be picture perfect this time next year :)

We've got another photo shoot planned for the end of July, so we'll keep you posted on that but for now thats our little update over. Please please please do a rain dance for us :) xcx