It's been so mild that last weekend we cleared the veg patch and planted more onions and garlic to over winter. In clearing, I realised that considering we had decided to buy no new veg seeds for the garden, we did quite well this year.
The Herb patch
Green Tomatoes for chutney
Chillies
Tumbling Toms
Greengages - A revelation to me
Nigella has seeded all over the place from the Roydon Road garden
Apple Trees are not really ready to fruit yet, but give it a year or two
Another herb I'm encouraging to self seed all over the garden
Not grown by me, but I'll be planting a quince tree in the garden next year without fail.
And of course, what else does one do with all this bounty, but eat, eat...
So, I am very excited for next year, when we are officially getting stuck in on the garden. I've already planted native bluebells and wild garlic along the fence by the river for the bees. I've not included the bees in the list of this year's bounty - but then we didn't get any honey this year. The chickens, have been great though, 4 eggs a day and I'd like to increase their number and add ducks and grouse or quail to our menagerie.
Much of the fruit we planted this year was left to get established so, there is some pruning to do before next year when I'm hoping we might get more of a harvest. The tomatoes did well in the greenhouse, but not so well in the veg plot itself. So, our old greenhouse from the allotment needs to go up for them next year. With two greenhouses I'll be able to germinate and raise young plants whilst also allowing tomatoes, chillies and aubergines to thrive under glass.
And we also had a fabulous crop of potatoes this year. We broke our rule and bought seed potatoes as they were to help us to turn the soil on the new plot. They were quite neglected, so I am impressed with how well we've done, 4 sack loads.
In Ash cottage there is only one door that usually remains closed. It is my workroom, Mrs Fox's Workshop. Not only is it shut, but it has a key in the lock.
Before moving I wrote a post called A Room of Ones Own: The Studio. I looked forward to how my new work space would be integrated into my home rather than a shed in the garden. As it is, my work space has become a junk room and the door remains closed. It's a mess in there, and I just don't want to look at it.
This last month I've had a bit of a creative break through and I'm starting to work again. The door is slowly opening, but, the key is still there in the door.
This year we had our first Mrs Fox's Craft Day at our new Little Hadham HQ, just east of Bishop's Stortford, in rural East Hertfordshire. The children signed in to the craft party with a white hand print that we later used to make a spooky ghost bunting.
Paper Jack O'Lanterns
We had loads of fun creating paper Jack O'Lanterns, which we lit with little battery operated tea-lights. They looked beautiful, all hung in the shop window as they dried.
Paper Bat Sweetie Cones
With children ranging in age from 5 - 8 years old we were soon having great fun making a mess of the old butchers shop where Mrs Fox now resides. We had only 8 children in the session so we were able to allow children to go at their own speed.
The children seemed to enjoy the crafts as they explored their own creativity, developed simple crafting skills, learning to use templates, cutting round simple shapes, gluing and colouring.
I learnt something too; I need to get some children's left handed scissors and I think I will try and do multiple examples of some of the crafts to give the children more confidence to do their own thing and be even more expressive and creative.
There was quite a bit of creativity demonstrated in some of the costumes, I have to admit Finlay's was my favourite.
I will also admit to being exhausted by the end of our hour and a half crafting, but, I had a great time and I hope all the children did too.
At our next kid's crafting day will be making Christmas crafts. If you are local and interested in joining us go along to the Facebook page and sign up, or if you can't make 5th December but would like to know when our next event is, sign up to the newsletter below to keep up with all our news.
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