Wednesday, July 7

Woke to a sunny sky and held hope for a sunny day! Alas, the wind and rain began, which later turned into a reasonable day with interspersals of sun and rain. Conner got off to work, Mickey is content, and Rosie has been a great companion on walks to Laig beach and Singing Sands. Daily chores (watering tunnels, tending chickens, feeding fish, watering piano plant, walking Rosie, feeding Rosie and Mickey) went as normal. Enjoyed leftover stew with rice and salad for dinner. Also:
• Fertilized all of the plants in tunnel and glass house using seaweed tea. It looked very much like pure water and I wondered whether it had steeped enough.
• Dethistled and weeded two more rows of potatoes (8 down, 7 to go!)
• Weeded and edged the bean field
• Shredded one boxload of paper
• Picked ¾ of a colander full of strawberries—more than a pound, if I correctly read the scale. Will eat and freeze what we can’t finish.
• Gathered about 16 eggs. Still not mastered the art of chicken under-reaching, but working on it!

Tuesday, July 6

Spent this rainy day dethistling and weeding two rows of potatoes, picking black currants (perhaps one quart), and weeding beans and carrots. Made a salad dressing using the black currants and tossed it with fresh leaves and the leftovers from Monday’s dinner. Delicious! Conner used rhubarb and the remaining syrup to fix a wonderful crumble, which topped off a delicious meal of sweet potato-pepper soup (also prepared by Conner) and bread. Took Rosie for a second long walk after dinner and was delighted with Singing Sands, despite the wind and the rain. Went online after dinner to respond to email and wish my daughter a happy 24th birthday via a Skype phone call.