Scotland, dead quail and roast dinner.

Good morning 😀 normally I write notes each day as I go along for typing up into the blog but as we have been away this week I am winging it and hope I don’t forget anything.

Firstly, Scotland, what an amazing place that was, Eagle Brae is the most fantastic place I have stayed, the log cabins were huge, made from hand sawn Cedar from British Columbia, the whole place is sustainable and the ethos is very much on local, organic, eco friendly, in an amazing location to boot 😀 I can’t recommend it highly enough if you fancy a stay there, you won’t be disappointed.

As you know Mum looked after the place while we were away and I am hugely grateful to her for that 😘😘 She said she enjoyed it, I hope she did and wasn’t too cold trying to get the Rayburn lit! On the morning we were leaving I found a dead quail in the cage with its neck stripped, I figured one of two things happened, either something had got at it through the bars or it had got its head stuck and de sleeved itself trying to get out. When Mum told me that three more were in the same state I knew it was the first option. The evening we came home Mum had covered them with a blanket and put a heavy lock on the door but in the morning I found two more dead, the remaining lonely quail is now in a small cage in the utility room and I am going to have to find some more. I set two traps, one live trap and one snap trap but to date nothing has been caught, we know it’s there though as we actually heard it squeak while we were stood in there, the cheek of it, laughing at us I reckon 😝 

John spent the weekend cutting down more branches from the huge trees and cutting /shredding them, I helped in between feeding the animals, washing, cooking etc, this task seems to be taking forever but it’s cheaper doing it this way than paying someone to do it I guess. 

We have had an update on the bird flu situation and there are now zones in place for the end of March when the birds should go out, we are on the very border of a high risk zone and so are expected to keep them in until further notice although the situation changes every day. 

I got a piece of beef out for Sunday roast, it’s huge, I think I should have cut it before I froze it but often we don’t have time to do that as the cow is usually killed in the summer and when the beef arrives it’s usually in the evening so we try to get it in the freezer as quickly as possible without re cutting it. 

Not to worry I’m sure the kids will make short work of it when they arrive later for dinner 😀

Apart from the fate of the quail everything else was all in order, the ducks have started laying more eggs, the geese are laying well now too, I spotted the rhubarb shoots pushing up through the ground, we are marching towards Spring thank goodness 🌱🌱🌱

While I was waiting for dinner to cook, I looked through my seeds to remind myself what I had bought, then I decided to make a list of everything I grow to see if there was anything obvious I was missing.

Apples x 3 varieties plus a cooker, Pears x 2 varieties Cherries x 2 varieties, Plum x 3 varieties Grapes Apricots Raspberries Blueberries Strawberries Black currant Gooseberries Rhubarb Blackberry Kiwi

Potato carrot peas beans (broad and runner) asparagus artichoke onion garlic tomatoes pepper cucumber beetroot spinach radish lettuce courgette parsnip pumpkin cauliflower cabbage leeks spring onion sweet corn 

Also trialing asparagus pea, butter beans, chick peas, celeriac and banana squash this year and the edamame again. 

Shout if I’ve missed anything I should be growing 😀