Lavenham Farmers Market

First stall of the year at Lavenham farmers market very cold but no worse than being outside weaving.
I almost sold out and so enjoyable talking to people about willow and gardening. There was also loads of goodies inside to tempt me but contented myself with some daffodils, samosas, a curry for dinner and some baking potatoes all I have left from my crop are about the size of golf balls.
Hope to coppice more willow this week. I have added more workshop dates and will put them on the blog in the week. The ground is finally beginning to dry a bit although the temperatures are still below freezing most days. As my dad said "February is full of promise" I didn't used to believe him but he was right.

Moving the willows

A rare day of no snow or rain so decided to move the willows to Clayhill.

Some are just too big to move but with kens help we dug quite a few and still had the rods which I left on some of the plants to use as cuttings.
The ground at Bungeons is much kinder than Clayhill ,the name says it all!
It felt good to be planting at Clayhill  a step towards the future , we shall mulch them well with the rotted straw in the background to take advantage of all this wet weather and hopefully they should soon establish themselves here.
I still have some spaces available on the willow weaving workshops on March 9th and march 16th Please contact me for more information.

Willow weaving workshops

The dates for the willow workshops are:-
Saturdays 16th Feb, 9th March, 16th march.
Please contact me if you would like to arrange a week day workshop.

We had a rare sunny day at Bungeons and cut right back the wild garden . It is a haven for birds and small creatures but we felt that most of the seeds have been eaten and a bit of control was needed.
it now looks like this :-

Roll on spring ,It is a bit bleak to look at.

House with land for sale

Well Bungeons Farm here in Suffolk is still for sale. We have had quite a few viewers but the people who want to make an offer are caught up in housing chains. Apart from the house being very tidy life carries on.We now have 2 calves and soon we will move all the cattle (except one who is staying in Suffolk) to Norfolk for the rest of the winter.We  have had a few very welcome frosts so hopefully  we can get on the land without causing too much damage. We had 59.75mm /2.35 inches of rain in November.  I can begin to harvest my willow and maybe return to other osier beds that I cut last year. If you are interested in willow to weave with, plant or create a living willow structure now is the time to get in touch.

Barn owl, bats and Fieldfares

The weather has changed and the animals are moving in for shelter,
We have had 104.5mm /4 inches of rain in October.
A barn owl has started roosting in the day in the pole barn, when disturbed it swoops round screeching.
I disturbed a bat in the timber barn it was incredible watching it fold itself in backwards back into its small gap in the beams,I watched a Jay behaving like a green woodpecker, very confusing until I learnt that they bury acorns for winter food. The field fares have arrived. I hope the starlings return to Lackford Lakes soon it is an amazing experience watching and listening to them come down to roost.

Suffolk smallholding for sale

This is where we are now and this is where we are going...

We have finally won planning permission after going to appeal to build a new Eco home on our farmland at Clayhill Lavenham. So we need to sell Bungeons Farm to enable us to build.
Until then Bungeons life carries on we have a new heifer calf- Angus x blonde d'aquitaine and another due soon. It is still very wet 49.5mm in September, 491mm  year total at end of Sept.
It is the time to make chutney, empty compost bins, deal with the previous years leaf mulch, and put the garden to bed for the winter.

Bungeons Farm Beeswax hand cream

I have finally got round to making some more hand cream. It is a great barrier cream as well as helping to heal  the inevitable nicks and knocks.
The hand cream is made from an infusion of marigold and lavender in oil, beeswax from our bees , and a small amount of honey.
The beeswax is either the the lovely white light bridge comb collected in the spring or the cappings saved  while extracting and put through my prototype small solar extractor (another use for a washing machine glass door)
The different oils and waxes give each batch of cream a different feel and purpose.