Well the snowbomb hit the South West yesterday and we are snowed in again. Being 750 feet high here, we are above the snow line. We watched it coming down thick and fast yesterday evening and woke up to the silence of the snow this morning. Makes lovely photos though!! We were snowed in last March and now its the 1st of Feb, so that’s twice in a year!
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We woke up this morning to a blanket of white. It had been forecast so we were forewarned and had stocked up on groceries.
The UK never copes well with snow. Schools and airports are shut; workers have not gone in today; roads are in chaos. I’m jolly glad we didn’t have to go out in the car today. I think the UK just doesn’t have enough snow ploughs or snowblowers, so every time we get snow the country grinds to a halt.
The hens were not at all happy, never having seen snow before they didn’t want to venture out. We tried to tempt them with food but only a couple came down the ramp.
The Fruit cage has collapsed. The weight of the snow on the nets has pulled it down. That’s going to be a big job to mend that.
We donned our hats, scarves, coats and boots and went for a walk, crunching through the newly laid snow. It was not so nice with the snow blowing onto our faces, but envirgorating to be outside.
I love making footprints in the snow……
Not much traffic had been down our lane.
We must have had at least 4 inches of snow, more in some places. It’s beautiful the way it sits on gates and hedges.
Walking back up the lane towards home, we got a view of our house in the snow, a welcome sight, knowing how warm it is inside.
Luckily we don’t have any B&B guests booked in at the moment, as I think they would struggle to get here today.
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Yesterday it didn’t stop raining, all night and all day. We had 2 inches of rain, it was non stop. In the morning we went down the hill from Buckland St Mary towards Bishopswood. There is a river there and we went to see how it had swollen. To both the right and left of the road are fords, which had completely overflowed. The water was gushing at a tremendous speed and I wouldn’t have liked to try and cross either one. This is the one to the right:
The Ford at Bishopswood
And this is the ford on the road to Marsh, which is left off the road to Bishopswood. The water was coming down in such a torrent!
Anyway, today Monday, the rain has eased at last, so hopefully this water will die back. Our last couple of B&B guests left in the rain yesterday, but they were braving it to go visiting other places. I think I would have gone straight home!! Visit us at www.lodgehousebandbsomerset.co.uk
Like most of the UK we have been experiencing a lot of rain in the past 2 weeks. In fact we have had 2 inches of rain in the last couple of days, as well as hail. Down by the hens it is just mud, it is so wet. The hens don’t seem to mind too much, they still spuddle around in the puddles and even drink from them. They do look a bit bedraggled but are still producing eggs, – we got 13 eggs from 14 hens today, so not too bad.However, for us humans day time rain, although needed as many parts of the UK have drought conditions and hose pipe bans, is just a nuisance as it stops us from getting on with the outdoor work that we want to do. Unfortunately I don’t have a green house yet, so getting seeds started means either sowing direct into the ground, and it is just too cold at the moment, or sewing indoors.
For ages now we have been collecting the cardboard inners of toilet rolls or kitchen rolls. The toilet roll inners are just the right size for me to start off seeds in, but the kitchen roll inners I have to cut into 2, hence they are different heights. I find an old roasting dish and fill each cardboard tube with compost and then sow one seed into each tube, and put a little more compost on top. In this way I have sowed Courgette, Sweet Corn, Squash (Petty Pan) and Runner Bean seeds. The runner beans I put 2 seeds into each tube. Then I water them. So here they are:
Then I moved them onto our south facing window sill in the dining room. You can even see our wedding photo on the window sill, which we still keep there, although we have been married for coming up 18 years now!!
Seeds on the window sill
The beauty of this method is that without a greenhouse I can still bring on seeds indoors. When they have germinated and sprouted and the weather is a bit warmer, I will plant the cardboard tubes into the ground, thus not disturbing the roots, and then the plants will grow on from there. So all in all a good afternoon’s work, and all tidied up before our B&B guests get back here. visit us at www.lodgehousebandbsomerset.co.uk
Last Monday we had snow. Not the thick sort, but the watery sort that settled on the grass, hedges and rooftops but not on the paths. Then it was bitterly cold all week, going down to minus 7 degress C. Thursday and Friday the sunshine was lovely, inspite of the bitter cold, then Saturday we had light snow which turned to rain and in the course of that one day the temperature went from minus 6 degrees in the morning to plus 4 degrees by the evening. Elsewhere on the East side of the UK they had 4 to 6 inches of snow on Saturday evening. My Dad sent over some pictures of where he lives and it was thick with snow, so here in the southwest we were lucky to escape that. And today it is a mild plus 7 degrees C, so back to suitable weather for working outside again.
The spring bulbs have been pushing through, confused by the relatively mild weather we have been having until last week. There are carpets of snowdrops all over the place. This is just by us.
We have 2 half moon baskets by the front door and they have crocus coming up. It’s really too early for crocus, but this is a sheltered spot that faces south and gets the sun when it is out.
We have got wallflowers in bloom and the daffoldils are in bud so will be out soon.
Also our Hellebores have been flowering for a couple of weeks now.
We have been putting food out for the wild birds all winter, but last week we were diligent in keeping it topped up as it was so cold. Mr Pheasant discovered that there was always lots of dropped seeds on the ground under the bird feeders, so he regularly pays us a visit. This picture was taken through the kitchen window so not the clearest.
The chickens havn’t seemed to mind the cold weather too much. We have had to break the ice on their drinking water every morning, and take down warm water. The mud in the hen run has frozen over but they seemed happy to continue to spuddle about. We have been getting between 10 and 12 eggs a day out of 15 hens, even in the cold weather, so can’t complain at that. We stew up potatoe, apple, carrot and other vegetable peelings for them and feed them that for breakfast, which they love, but the other day my neighbour gave us some cooked peas and chips that were left over and they loved that. You should have seen them picking up a pea and running off to eat it then coming back for another one. They are funny!! They have layers pellets on free demand all the time aswell, but we just use the veggies to supplement their diet, and we do get lovely yellow yolks from them. There is nothing like a freshly laid egg from a free range hen!!
Can hardly believe the weather at the moment. To think yesterday was Midsummer’s Day and I was sat here in a jumper with a cardigan over the top. Our neighbours lit their woodburning stove. I looked out over the back of us and all I could see were the rain clouds, see below.
rain clouds on MidSummer's day
Today didn’t start much better. It rained all morning, and about lunchtime the rain eased off and the sun peeped out for a while. I went to a Strawberry afternoon tea at Stapley today, but luckily we sat in a marquee so were sheltered from the wind.
