Even more stunning views from The Fellowship of The Farmy

Posted on May 24, 2013 by cecilia

You guys are the bestest, you are superb at stepping up and into challenges. Here are a few more views from the back porches of the Fellowship. As much as possible I have put on the links too, and usually there are more shots on those lovely pages if you want to see more!

Charlotte in Milan, Italy and her lovely winsome blog The Daily Cure. I adore Charlotte and named my pig after her! Just kidding!! Pure coincidence! She has some startling city views.

Now into the time machine and zoom over to South Africa (I think, am I right Mandy?) This is Mandy’s fern tree right outside her back door. Gorgeous.

Philosopher Mouse has a toad in her dog house right outside her back door!

And below are a few of the email people. From left to right and down, Grammom, Claire (from Promenade Plantings in Bristol), Then below is where Maggie has her breakfast in the mornings, across to Lyn’s fantastic glasshouse, she is right here in the US, then below that is outside Eha’s back door, and Claire’s garden again!

But some people have no cameras so there are few beautiful descriptions here is one:

An Embarrassment of FreedomMay 23, 2:46 pm

From my back porch(Ontario, Canada)….the wooden yard swing under the maple trees, the arbour covered with bittersweet, soft lavender lilac bushes, some overwintered multicoloured geraniums blooming away, a tiny patch of my flowerbed for my one tomato plant, a cucumber plant in an old galvanized tub, close to fence so it can climb, a beautifully made white doghouse, sadly…. now empty…

Oh look Claire from her Promenade just sent us a blog page with this! Such a modern view. Wow. Thank you darling.

Linda from Colorado has a camera though, we know that because she shows us her farm most every day too and her blog is called Life on a Colorado Farm and here is the view from her back porch. And Linda, your cold weather came here. Yesterday I was back in the clown suit!

Joanna who bakes wonderful bread in England has a rather delightful dog called Zeb (her blog is called Zeb Bakes) so I chose the scene from her back door with Zeb in it.

Virginia at Bel’Occhios blog lives way over yonder in Canada. She also looks out onto a corn field! Now I can see why she empathises with my big views!

Deb looks out her back door every morning and sees a family of raccoons having their breakfast! Amazing!

How about we zoom back to Italy . Living in Italy the Blog. Exquisite. Clive and Damaris live in Umbria. Roses. Sigh. Oh, I miss growing roses.

Gerry Wilson ( below) is an author and this is what is outside the door where she works.

There is a very cool shot of two geckos on the same page and I was Torn.

Spain!!! Let’s go and look at Tanya’s mountain!

We will close with a New Zealand back-porch photo from my sister. She took this on her yesterday morning. Sunrise in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

Good morning. I do apologise if, when I push the special Publish button, the text appears creeping up the sides of the shots. I have run out of time and I have company coming today and don’t have the where-with-all to fast-fix this. Every shot has been sent in a different size, I know I should be able to adjust them without losing resolution but .. sigh. Remember to send your email images in nice Big packages. Now there are a few more, even more from New Zealand - how exciting. Keep them coming! So I will collate those and after a break with the farmy and friends tomorrow, (Daisy and Queenie need to tell you about possible developments) we will return to your fantastic back steps in a day or so!

Doesn’t this just open up our world!

Have a lovely, lovely day. Must run!

your delighted friend, celi

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged back porches from around the world, blogging, group photography, travel | 10 Comments

A Flood of delightful back porch views!

Posted on May 23, 2013 by cecilia

I am so excited at the response to the back porch challenge. Here are the highlights from yesterday and there are more coming in! So we will have another post of back porch views tomorrow too. This is fantastic!

Charlotte on the other hand is practicing keeping her head in the sand I mean muddy waters. Trying not to notice that June is coming!

Nancy wakes up to this! How glorious.

Garybuie in Scotland. This sits on the North side of her house and Christine says it is freezing outside her back door.

Marie has a barn swallow building a nest above her back door in her Little Corner of Rhode Island. I am sure this will keep her little people engaged for some time. Maybe an inspection ladder is in order?

Mamapurl (US) lives in the country sometimes and other times she is in her Tower. This (above) is what she sees out her windows!

Misky (UK) is doing renovations in her garden soon but for the moment it looks like a wee oasis of calm from her back porch.

Mike and Missy who live right out in the country with a whole horde of beautiful children look across this scene with their morning cuppa.

Our darling Jean who farms with her punky Kiwi husband and lives in France raising grass fed beef has no porch but looks out the window. Her page today is full of the most divine views, including this one:

Look at all that grass.

Cat lives in Tel Aviv in Israel and though she longs to have a little farm one day for the moment her back door is this beautiful fertile little balcony.

And nuts for treasure looks out the back door and sees an enormous wild turkey staring back at her, every morning. Every Morning! Can you imagine.

Barb from Passionate about Pets looks out onto her neighbours farm.

Fantastic.

Viv who also lives in France has many glorious views, this is my favourite one.

And now I must away to do some work, then later I shall collect some more of your views. What a great day it will be!

But before I go here is what our darling Eha from Australia sees.

I must stop now and get out for the milking.

You all have a wonderful lovely day and now I can see what you see I can think on those views as I work.

You can still send yours, it is never too late! We are developing an awesome collection.

Love your friend, celi.

Posted in Life, Photography | Tagged celi, photography, The kitchen's garden, View from your porch | 59 Comments

What I See From my Back Porch – A challenge

Posted on May 22, 2013 by cecilia

I have a challenge for you. What do you see from your Back Porch or Back Doorstep? This is what I can see from my back porch. Sitting on the step.

I can see:

The unDaily View (it looks a little different because I have another lens on, the 50mm).

Sophie’s Garden.

The orchard … well it will be an orchard when it is all growed up.

Not everything is pretty though miss c, says Queenie. You have to show them the view to the North too!

Thank you for that Queenie, I was just about to do that.

And no more sitting on me.

But Queenie, you are such a comfy rest when I am grubbing thistles in the field.

Well, I don’t like it.

But you never move.

That’s because I am too tired. And anyway you are putting on weight. So you pin me to the ground.

That’s a lie, Queenie Wineti.

Just sayin’. Now go ahead and show The Fellowship the other view from the back porch.

So here is your Challenge! Show us what can you see from your back porch or back door or balcony door or even front porch. I want to see what you see! Can you show me? If you have time you can take a shot from your back porch and put it on your blog pages and link it back to me so I can share the pictures with the Fellowship. We want to see real backyards, views from the balconies of apartments high in the sky, farmland stretching away , rubbish bins in a line, tiny city gardens, the allotment across the road, the neighbours brick wall, a garden heaving with growth, the beach, a park across the road, a telegraph pole. Tons of Views from the Back Porch from all over the World. From your Point of View. The mundane and the beautiful because they are the same you know. What do you think?! I would love to see what you see when you sit on the doorstep outside your door and think about nothing.

Whether you have just joined, or are one of the Oldies, or have never commented, or always comment.. go for it! Show us what you see.

I know that there are plenty of readers in The Fellowship of the Farmy without blogs to link from/to but I bet you would like to join in too, so you just go ahead and send me your shots by email! Most of you have the address already I think. I will pop them on my pages for you so you can play too!

Good morning, now for another view, the front of the Farm cottage with the Coupe adjoining, from the field. It changed a little yesterday and will change dramatically (fingers crossed) today.

Life is grand. Being alive is grand.

I do hope you pick up the challenge, I am looking forward to it!

your friend on the back porch step, celi

Posted in Farming, Gardening, Photography | Tagged challenge, gardens, orchards, photography, the back porch | 66 Comments

Birds get busy

Posted on May 21, 2013 by cecilia

It blew a gale all day yesterday. Hot and wild. Typical prairie weather. I have a problem with weeds growing in the new fields so I put Minty and Meadow in the middle paddock to do a light graze.

But like everyone else they found a tree to rest under.

Here is the flaw in my piggie plan, they got as far as the winter dung heap and lay their fat selves on it. So I will finish clearing that away today.

The Peghorn Leghorns still take shelter in their small cage in the big coop. They have two tiny doors in and out that are only big enough for a tiny chicken so they can go out into the chook house run but they know exactly where their safe space is and spend the majority of their time in there. I still feed them in there too. Big chickens don’t share very well. This system has worked very well.

Corn is coming up..

The inside of the coupe has a cover of undercoat.

And look what they found as they were working under the new verandah. A beautiful soft downy nest. The birds work very fast. No eggs yet though so the builder brought it very gently down so they could cover the rafters.

Good morning. Last night we had Spring rolls with all the greens out of the garden from TasteFood. Absolutely divine. Followed by a Spanish Tortilla from Hot Cheap and Easy. Both of these recipes use good fresh home grown food and can be made with whatever you have on hand. Lovely.

In the night we had a massive storm, very loud, thunder and lightening and high winds and an inch of rain came down in a matter of minutes. But nothing compared to the terrible tornado in Oklahoma City. This is such a harsh continent. So hard on its people.

Well I had better go and see if everything is OK outside though it seems fine from the windows.

You all have a lovely day. And do take care.

your friend, celi

Posted in homesteading, Photography | Tagged birds nest, little chickens, pigs in muck, sheep under tree, The kitchen's garden, tornado | 44 Comments

I accidently took a photo of my foot

Posted on May 20, 2013 by cecilia

You see it was hot. Lovely-delicious-hot not dreadful-out-of-control hot. 96F (35C).

I gave the pigs a fan. Thank you Missie!

Sheila thought it was just lovely but would not share so Charlotte went to stand in her water container.

Smug pig. I swear if that pig stood up on her hind legs she would be taller than me. Their outdoor pig palace has been modified. Today I will finish installing their new gate so they will be able to wander at will from the barn to their summer palace and back during the middle of the day when it is hottest. It will be interesting to see where they spend most of their time, outside in the mud puddle or inside in the straw.

Blue spent some time with the hose yesterday. Trying to ‘Tame’ it.

And I weeded, I have weed-fed chickens, every basket full is lugged out to the chook house. This is why the yolks are so orange.

Then quite by mistake, it being Sunday and all, I lay down in the hammock, just for a few minutes you understand, and accidently took a photo of my foot.

And that was the last thing I saw for a little while.

Good morning.

I hope you all have a lovely day!

love your friend, celi

Posted in Farming, homesteading, Photography | Tagged farming pigs, gardening, hammock, how to keep pigs cool, pigs in the heat, weeds for chickens | 55 Comments

Peacock and Dog herd as a team

Posted on May 19, 2013 by cecilia

The Duke of Kupa and TonTon were caught on film herding the guineas through the pens behind the barn. It looks to me as though they are working as a team. What do you think?

Poor guinea fowl. Being herded to and from by those two.

They were being quite vocal in their protest too!

Daisy was much better about the milking by yesterday evening. I think it may be getting close breeding time for her. I will call the vet this week.

Yesterday I began to thoroughly clean out the middle pen. This will be Charlotte’s nursery. It is big and cool. When the roof was delivered a number of the heavy smaller metal sheets and trim came in a very long, very strong open sided box. Naturally I asked the men not to break it when they got the iron out.

And realised yesterday that if I placed it in the Charlotte’s nursery room it would be a perfect little hidey shelf for the little pigs to play under. With a few minor adjustments it will take up one wall of the 13 foot square pen. The piglets are due June 17.

Good morning. I worked in the blueberry patch again yesterday too. I have been amending the soil around the plants with coffee grounds and they are growing well now and a few are even flowering. After close examination it appears that the bushes have been eaten by rabbits sometime in the winter months. So the ground is now covered in a deep mulch, to keep the weeds down (the back gardens always end up with the worst weeds) and the roots cool and I am going to give them cages to keep off the rabbits while the new growth matures.

Today after the chores and the weeding I am going to make an all out effort to visit as many of you as I can. I do miss my visiting. This is a frantic time of year but I think we are winning. I mowed the dandelion walk yesterday so I am even ahead of the grass which is a rare occurrence. Oh and John helped me finish fence Number Two, so now two of the three big fields are divided. This fence I made with a special electric fence that looks like rope and is SO easy to manage. I am never going back to wire! I hate working with wire!

I hope you all have a lovely day.

your sunburnt friend,celi

Posted in homesteading, Life | 46 Comments

One and a half fences

Posted on May 18, 2013 by cecilia

I worked like crazy yesterday, successfully fencing in those naughty wandering lambs, I started another fence but did not have enough time to finish it as I had to get on to the evening chores and milking the cow. When I was done I came up to the house and there were people everywhere and kids and noise and loveliness.

The day was not without its challenges. The power was out for most of the afternoon (someone hit a power pole with a tractor believe it or not) which sent the builders back to hammer and nails. Then it rained, in fact it poured on and off which was lovely but not ideal for drinks outside in the sunshine. But that’s OK because we had lots of roof to stand under. The home-school children and I set up a chain at the kitchen table and made the roast beef sandwiches. After I had gone to find a glass of wine they set up their own chain and made honey sandwiches until the 8 little loaves of home made bread had been chomped up. I do love children who will eat.

Of course I forgot to take any photos of the gathering.

But that was OK I had taken a few ‘in case of’ shots earlier of the rain. The rain was just wonderful, we got a couple of good heavy showers.

And now a new day is dawning. Misty and soggy, with the kitchen bench covered in litter and Daisy standing at the gate. Daisy was strange yesterday. She would not walk into the milking parlour without being firmly coaxed. She was craning her stretched neck around peering into the ceiling taking cautious tip toey steps through the doorway with her long long legs. The barn swallows have returned and they always nest in that ceiling but surely that enormous cow is not afraid of a tiny bird. She refused to eat and just stood to be milked – her head turned to watch me, eyes wide. I took her store vegetables outside and she ate them there then went back to grazing the back of her dairy mistress paddock. She is very clean from the rain though which is nice.

The painter is coming back today to undercoat the inside of The Coupe as he could not use his sprayer yesterday (no power) . So I had better get going. Though I am feeling a little, um.. tired.

You all have a lovely day.

Love your foggy brained friend, celi

Posted in Farming, homesteading, Life | Tagged farm party, fencing, homesteading, rain showers, roast beef sandwiches | 40 Comments

A Dandelion Walk and the Roof Shout

Posted on May 17, 2013 by cecilia

Blue the Mouth is big enough for the longer walks now, and like a child he needs a good solid walk each day, so TonTon and I took him on the Dandelion Walk to the bridge this morning. We mow a little path through the wild grasses along the creek bank. Blue was excited on the way to the bridge and quiet and puffing on the way back and slept the rest of the morning. Perfect.

Walks work for us all in many ways. You can see the farm right out in the background.

Today we have the roof shout. It is a tradition in New Zealand to shout the builders a few beers when the roof is finished. I have cooked one of our own beef roasts and today I will bake some bread and caramalise some onions. Then I will make roast beef sandwiches with lettuces and spring onions from the garden, home made mustard and home grown horse-radish and the last of the neighbour’s pickles from last year because mine were such rubbish.

The fridge is filled with very cold beer and a few bottles of home made wine and cider. I will drag chairs through the rubble of construction under the big tree and we will all sit down and admire our beautiful roof and talk about nothing terribly important at all.

Good morning.

I hope you all have a lovely day, I am up an hour early because there is just so much to do today and I want to be done in time to sit down for a glass of something cold with the men too. As well as everything else, I am shifting the electric fence into the sheep’s paddock today. Those two naughty lambs will be doing their own version of walking the corn shortly. It pops up very fast. So I need to retrain them not to crawl under the fences.

You know that feeling when there is too much to fit into your day, but it just has to be fit in. I have that feeling today.

your slightly frantic friend, celi

Posted in Farming, Photography | Tagged farming, homesteading, photography, roof shout | 60 Comments

Charlotte and Sheila have some time out

Posted on May 16, 2013 by cecilia

After their walk in the grass yesterday morning Sheila refused to go back into the pen, she passed the pig pen gate, and walked right to the barn then stood there and refused to come back. Apparently she and Charlotte are having a trial separation. Practicing for when the babies come.

After a while I shut the gate on her and left her to lie in the dirty straw in the yards. She and Queenie engineered some kind of break out and later in the day Sheila was seen loafing about in the field with cows.

Charlotte ignored all the fuss and lay in her puddle. She has been quite snappy with Sheila of late so was happy not to have to fight for her water bath. Yesterday evening Sheila waited at her winter gate to be let into the barn for the night so I just let her in there and left her burrowed into the straw, sleeping in solitary splendour. Already there were two cats waiting on the gates for me to leave so they could all cuddle up.

Speaking of misbehavior Little Miss Butter would not Melt in her Mouth, Tilly, has been sighted rampaging through the asparagus. Nibbling on the heads of the stalks. She had taken a Murphy out with her. They go down on their knees and shoot out under the fence.

We shooed her back but she just waited until I was out of sight again before popping back out like a cuckoo for another munch. I wondered why the asparagus was growing without tips. I thought maybe I had mistakenly cut a whole lot too high. She is going to grow up to be a very healthy ewe.

See this opening, this is for the last Red Door. This is from the POV of the kitchen bench. You can see why I wanted big open doors right there. (On the left of that field – to the right of our lane – is the GM free sweetcorn by the way, planted very handily.)

OK now we are crossing the line and standing in the field, in the sweetcorn rows, looking back to the front of the house.

If you look very hard you will see the red doors on the far right. Getting their finishing touches from the Kiwi Builder.

Good morning. Isn’t it great that this tree survived the excavation. The tree is a very important part of this space. Landscaping this area will be interesting, I am thinking of building a HaHa - a kind of raised lawn with a little supporting wall. That could be interesting.

Anyway, I am thinking out loud now, we are still a ways from a new garden. I have enough to do weeding the existing ones. It is 6 am and time for me to get busy.

I hope you all have a lovely day today.

your friend celi

Posted in Farming, Life | Tagged escaped pigs, farming, GM free sweetcorn, homesteading, pigs | 32 Comments

Hot right to the bones

Posted on May 15, 2013 by cecilia

So hot in fact that I took off my farm trousers half way through the day and dug out my short farm skirts. It was delicious to free my legs again.

Daisy made no comment, other than politely asking for sunglasses to protect her delicate eyes from the blinding white of my pale legs.

The shadowy areas of each field were once more populated by panting sheep.

And the barn flock sought the shade of the big mulberry trees.

Charlotte smothered herself in suntan lotion.

And the Big Dog retired to his favourite cool sheltered corner in amongst the drying firewood under the cherry trees.

And the peony began to bloom.

Good morning. The old people tell me that the pioneer women brought the peonies across in the wagons. This root is so hardy that they would wrap a plant in damp fabric and it would survive for months in the back of a wagon. What they carried in the wagons was only what was absolutely essential so I have always smiled at these beautiful scented cherished plants being carefully carried across this vast landscape by those courageous women. The plants are very hardy and once established will last for years and years, decades. I have seen quite a few planted in the very old graveyards around here. In the old days the woman’s relatives would bury her and then plant her favourite peony from her own garden beside her. Every single one I have is from someones garden and can be traced back through the generations.

Good morning. When I was a young woman my aunt gave me a root of rhubarb that her grandfather had brought out to New Zealand from Yugoslavia, I grew his rhubarb in every single house I lived in (shifted along with all my roses) until I left the country. If I were to smuggle something out it would have been that plant. The rhubarb I have now comes from the garden of an old lady who died in a town close by. I heard that the new owners were going to get rid of the garden and did not mind if I came in and took what I wanted. I dug for days, as you can imagine, bringing home buckets of treasure. So I don’t know the story of the rhubarb I have now. But it is delicious. And I often think of the old lady I never knew who left it for me.

Have a lovely day.

your friend, celi

Posted in homesteading, Photography | Tagged animals seeking shade, peony, the origins of the peony | 62 Comments

thekitchensgarden

A Flood of delightful back porch views!

Love your friend, celi.

What I See From my Back Porch – A challenge

Birds get busy

I accidently took a photo of my foot

Peacock and Dog herd as a team

One and a half fences

A Dandelion Walk and the Roof Shout

Charlotte and Sheila have some time out

Hot right to the bones

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