We have a confession. When we first moved to The Secret Acre we had lots of parties and events, from Wassails and Apple Days to folk dances and birthday bashes. But then came the Covid hiatus, and since then we kind of got out of the habit, until one of us suffered a big birthday last year.
With that birthday restart behind us, and a significant anniversary looming this year, we did our best to rediscover our full-on party mojo.
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Since ditching fossil fuels for our driving six year back, we are now on our third generation Renault Zoe with a 200+ mile range, which does for all our needs, and thanks to the Zappi charger and the Solar Panels our miles are mostly completely free.
But one thing we haven’t in all that time, is take the electric car abroad. Until last month, and a French holiday in La Rochelle, when instead of taking the train as usual, we decided to take the ferry from the beautiful wildlife haven of Poole Harbour and drive down. Queue a return to range anxiety and worries about using an unknown network!
How did we get on?
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No Twin Peaks like mystery here, just the dedication of one man to help reverse the decline in Barn Owls numbers locally.
Long before we moved to The Secret Acre, a neighbour had started erecting Owl nesting boxes in the area, to help the population recover.
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May always sees a flurry of activity, with one eye on the often-unpredictable weather, as carefully nurtured greenhouse seedlings start getting hardened off in cold frames and then planted out in freshly prepared veg beds.
With the early, and always beautiful, Calla Lilies blooming, we started the month, as is traditional, getting in this year’s dubious potatoes in, and not forgetting to keep a record of which varieties are where!
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Sounding a bit like a prog rock concept album’s track listings, The Portents of Spring, has surely been followed by The Arrival of Spring.
The asparagus bed has duly started sprouting, making a delicious addition in the kitchen to the already prolific wild garlic and rhubarb.
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As our wet winter drags on, slightly lighter evening, snowdrops, crocuses and the green shoots of bulbs, all give us hope that eventually spring will be in the air.
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I’m no expert, but I would say the garden tractor tyre has picked up a puncture!
In common with much of the UK, there was an unbelievable display of the aurora borealis in Gloucestershire last night. I never saw it this good when living in Scotland!
In case you missed our own pics on social media, here they are again,straight off Emma’s phone camera with no editing…
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Despite the dry summer, autumn dampness seemed to arrive just in time for a spectacular display of seasonal colour.
The autumn fungi seemed to enjoy it too, with an abundance of edible and non-edible varieties popping up around The Secret Acre.
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If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest… have a really dry year apparently… certainly some things on the smallholding have enjoyed it more than others… and not necessarily the things you might expect.
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The Secret Acre 