Happy as a pig in sh*t!

Well, manure to precise!

It's a sad day when, at age 32 you get all excited about a truck load of sh*t being delivered, but I'm sorry to say that was me on Sunday morning!

Via the wonder that is freecycle I managed to obtain a load of horse manure absolutely free of charge courtesey of a lovely lady called Sue and her partner, who delivered the muck in the back of their horse box - here's how it arrived:




There were around 40 bags (my sore hands will testify) which I then had to barrow up to the other end of the plot. After emptying all the bags I ended up with a right old pile!



That's what it looked like about halfway through - I was surprised how much there actually was. Sue said that she used to deliver it to some dude near her and he used to dig it in straight away - but I think I'll let it rot down a bit over the winter and maybe use some of it in the spring.

Isn't it lovely?

Anyway other than that, there isn't much to tell.

I bought a little bird roost to attach to my now pruned apple tree:



It's a bit blurry, but it was getting dark and my phone doesn't like the dark!

Also bought a little hanging bird feeder (I plan to make a bird table in the new year - using the old trunks of the conifers that we cut down last year).



That's about it for the plot. I'm looking forward to a more productive 2008 and have just purchased a heated propagator to help get things started.

Have a great New Year - see you in 2008!

If I had a pallet - or six.

It's been on the cards now for months - I obtained a number of pallets from work (cheers Spence!) and they've been sat waiting to do something useful for ages, so this weekend I pulled my finger out and got to making a compost bin of the most rustic variety.

I had some fence posts left ovr from when Dad and I made the fence earlier in the year, so I simply laid out the pallets and hammered in four fence posts to keep them from falling over. They're not tied or nailed together, jus all propped against each other with the posts keeping them upright.

Before and after:



I also had a bit of a go at doing a little apple tree pruning. At first I was a bit tentative, but cut quite a bit off after all.

The tree: The bits:



The JCB tracks aren't mine, I promise - Stuart next door had a massive load of horse muck dumped on his plot - I think he asked for it personally.

It's only a quick post today, but before I go have a look at my latest cauliflower (you know you want to) - I'd say it's my best yet, but then I would.



The plate on the right (that's real steam too by the way!) is what it looked like after Lady ayWayne had turned it into a Cauliflower Bhaji for dinner one night - t'was yummeh, thank you please!