Smeg and vino at the Cwm March 23, 2007

Horray! I have managed to acquire a fine and very lovely smeg fridge freezer for a completely bargain price, thanks to the local paper! I have wanted one of these for years, but the slightly excessive price tag has always put me off. Now, it stands proudly next to my smeg cooker (a post selling my first flat treat to myself several years ago!), and finishes off the kitchen beautifully.

At the other end of the kitchen, we have our wine making area, where we have 3 demi-johns maturing, following second racking, and one still fermenting. We decided to try some of the fruit juice wine recipes in the book we were given for Christmas, after the success of our first attempt of a kit wine. So, currently we have cranberry and raspberry wine, tropical fruits wine and grape juice wine maturing, and a kit red wine still happily bubbling away. This evening I shall be starting the next kit wine, an elderberry one. All we need to learn now is the art of brewing fine ales, and then we shall be set!

Welsh Dressers February 7, 2007

Well, its been rather a quiet week in the Cwm, owing to visits to family and friends last weekend and the on-going lack of light in the evenings. Roll on spring…

But, of particular excitement to me has been the delivery of the antique welsh dresser that I bought off t’internet, and the associated redecoration of the kitchen. Horray, its no longer a rather icky shade of yellow! I’ve only painted half of the kitchen so far, but it looks so much better. Pictures to follow this weekend, when I can figure out how to up load them!

 This weekend promises to be one filled with digging, manure shifting and possibly some planting in the propagator, as well as a spot of cooking and painting, oh and wine making! We are venturing into the realms of wine production, having inherited demi-johns from Steve’s dad. I have bought one of those packet wine kits to start with, but will hopefully be making all sorts of delicious beverages using vegetable gluts and fruit (marrow wine has been particularly recommended…sounds interesting). Any pointers gratefully received.

 First, we have to brace ourselves for the deluge of snow promised this evening.

Cwm Cottage January 25, 2007

We moved into Cwm Cottage in autumn 2005, having decided to rent it without even having been inside the house! The garden was just exactly what we wanted – a challenge! Fortunately the house was lovely, if a little neglected - it had been empty for about a year, and had clearly not been loved for alot longer. The garden was a jungle of knotweed (eek) and other 6ft high weeds, and Steve spent many evenings with a machete hacking through the undergrowth before we were even able to see the full extent of the garden.

 Gradually we have tamed the wilderness, although the knotweed is still a big problem, and harsh tactics are having to be resorted to. We started by trying to break its spirit – snapping it off at ground level every time it sprouted up, but alas this proved to be a pointless waste of time that just exacerbated the problem. For every one stem we snapped off, 10 would sprout in its place! It really wants to grow, this stuff….. So, having borrowed some evil chemicals, a safety suit, goggles and thick gloves from our neighbour Mark (who has an abundance of the weed in his field), Steve set about spraying where it wouldn’t cause damage to other plants, and painting leaves where it would. It seemed to die, but, knowing how tenacious this stuff is, we will be keeping a very close eye on it in the spring, and zapping any shoots that dare to sprout! In everything else we do in the garden, we try to be as organic as possible, particularly with the veg. But with the knotweed we reluctantly realised that we would have to resort to chemicals.