POLKADoT Farm

Getting ready for the trade fair

My New Christmassy plate range!

A short but sweet post, and the first post for ages, but I have been so busy! Between the farm, baby, decorating, gardening, and of course painting, its been a pretty manic summer! I have at last decided to do the Autumn Trade Fair at the SECC after much humming and ha-ing!

I am in no hurry to go back to my previous job (I would have no work life balance at all...and would just be working to cover child care) I decided that I needed to turn my little hobby business into something a little bit more, and to do that, I would have to get my bits and pieces into more shops... so thats when the big decision came on whether to do the fair or not!

Suddenly the fair is this weekend, and I am actually feeling quite organised, which can only mean one thing...that I am missing something pretty major off my 'to do' list!

I have created a new website www.tartanhearthome.com . Please have a wee look, and let me know what you think!

Harvest begins

Its been a hive of activity here on the farm. The hay is all baled, and stacked in the shed ready for winter, and for selling...so its now onto the harvest. The first field of barley has been cut, and we are going to crimp this. This is a process where you bruise the barley in moist conditions then store it in a 'pit', which is covered and sealed with black plastic. It turns the barley into a high quality feed for the cows in the winter, and they just love it! We have started to combine the oats (above) They will be sold to Quaker for porridge!

Apart from the farm, I have been busy gardening, painting and stewing & puree-ing lots of food for my wee mans huge appetite. Every night I seem to be glued to Anabel Karmels babyfood recipe book looking at new recipes to try!! Chicken, apple and sweet potato seems to be the big hit!!

I have made one huge decision this week! I have decided to take my plates to Scotlands Autumn trade fair at the SECC in September!!! I did it many years ago with my glass, and it was a success! So fingers crossed it will be the same with my plates!

I have made a new website for my plates. It is www.tartanhearthome.com.  
 

Our little holdiay

We're just back from spending a lovely few days down in Galloway at my Mums, where I grew up. We had a super time, and it was so nice to spend time together. We were originally wanting to get away to somewhere hot, but with baby D still being so young, we felt that we might save that for the Autumn, and just holiday locally,be 'local' tourists. We packed so much in! We went to Cream O Galloway, The Glasgow Girls Exhibition in Kirkcudbright, Port Logan fish pond, Portpatrick and Drumlanrig.

The life of a bale...

We have only 1 field left to bale into hay...so its been a busy couple of days!! We have also been making silage. There is so much hard work that goes into making silage, even after it has been cut and baled. It has to be brought from the fields in the large 6 bale spike, then a contractor wraps it in film to help the grass ferment into silage. It then has to be neatly stacked, until it is opened in the winter for feeding!!

Another wee thing I must note is my window boxes this year. I have filled them simply with begonias. They have never looked so fresh, healthy and colourful. I am really chuffed with them, so I will definitely be using them again!

Barby in the Hay Field

 
We are getting on with the hay which is great. We took a bbq down to the hay field tonight which was a nice change. Why does food always taste better when you eat it outdoors!?! Baby D has been getting very involved as well. I have been driving a tractor with him 'papoosed' round me, and he has also been paying lots of visits to the fields with Daddy's lunch!

My pretty pretty dasies

It's so lovely when the sun shines brightly, and livingston dasies open up their pretty little faces! I love the colours that they come in, they bring lots of happiness to the garden!

This burst of sunshine has also meant we have started to get on with the rest of the hay & silage. We have cut the hay, and tonight, we had a contractor in wrapping the silage bales. SO its all go!!

Rain rain go away

 

This photo was taken a month ago, when the weather was wonderful. It's sickening to see how the weather has suddenly changed, and on a farming front, we are wishing for dry sunny days so we can finish the hay. Unfortunately we just cut the head riggs of the field in June, as we were expecting dry weather to follow, but this has not been the case! Fingers crossed we get a good few dry windy days very soon before the crop of grass is ruined, and the quality of it drops!

 

Once all the hay is done, we're hopefully off on our hols down to Galloway for a few days before the start of harvest...its all go go go!

Raspberries galore!

Tis the season of raspberries! I am so delighted with how my rasp plants have performed this year.They are full of the little juicy jewels! This evening I made a delicious meringue roulade with them!There is nothing quite like the taste of home grown fruit! This little man was quite taken with them too!

It has been ages since I have blogged. I keep thinking..oh I must take a picture of this, and go and blog about it...but as you can see, its been over a month. My time has been mostly baby baby, though I have managed to paint a few jugs, and exhibit at a wee gallery, and fit in nice cups of tea and cake with friends. I have started another blog. This blog is for me more than anyone. It is called 'babies and wellyboots'. It is a diary of my days, weeks, months with baby D, and a way of logging all his developments and little adventures next to the hundreds of pictures that I take! I am still going to keep this blog going too! 

 

The return of the Wilsons...

It has been ages since I wrote a post, but this month seems to have flown by. We have done so much, taken so many pictures, and been on many many walks... but my evenings seem to have been taken up with steaming and puree-ing fruit and veg, as my wee man is now on solids! He is growing so fast, and turning into a right little boy, and developing his own little character.

 Since my last post we have been walking on St Ninans beach collecting and skimming stones. We have spent many lovely days down on my Mums farm in Galloway. We christened D in a family robe, dating back nearly 100 years, and finally we are enjoying watching Spring turn into Summer, and spending lots of time in the garden.

To get back to my blog intro "The return of the Wilson's"... the Wilson's are a swallow family that we named (for a laugh) last year, as they became very much part of our daily life by building their nest above our front door!! Once they vacated it in Autumn the nest disintegrated and broke away. When the swallows returned last month, a family of swallows, that we like to think are the returning 'Wilson's',   started to rebuild their nest in the same spot as the old one. Over a week, we watched them build their little mud masterpiece. Returning hour after hour with more mud, the walls gradually grew taller and taller until their house was complete! They are now moved into their new home, and I'm sure they're now waiting for their new arrival...

My favourite month

 

May is my favourite month:

Because the evenings are alive and light

The trees burst into crisp lime greens

grass cutting commences, and ooh what a wonderful smell!

Cows graze in the fields instead of their sheds

Birds sing in the sky, and enjoy dust baths on the farm

The air becomes warmer, and layers of clothes get lighter

Colour blooms in the garden

These are only some of the reasons I love this month, and some of the reasons I chose to get married in May, and why we have chosen to christen Duncan in May too! In my eyes its a 'good feeling' month!