Polytunneling

It's arrived - piles of galvanized hoops and rolls of polythene, plus a plethora of other bits and bobs. It's like a giant mechano kit - hooray! Tom and Angelika arrived last night to wwoof for the week, and are currently in the sunshine digging out the couch grass roots that the pigs left behind. And there are alot of them, especially up the latrine end - those tidy Tamworths were careful not to dump and root in the same areas. So, one more going over and it will be time to build the frame.

There are suddenly a thousand other things to be getting on with now the spring has finally arrived. Amy, another wwoofer planted a good many seeds last week (lettuce, cabbage, beans, sprouts, some flowers) but there's more to get going now. We also got most of the trees planted last week - two sweet chestnuts, the wonderfully named hawthorn 'Ellwangeriana', a Shipova (a cross between a rowan and a pear, with a plum-like fruit), some honeysuckles and a fuchsia with edible berries, a holm oak, and optimistically, an almond. In fact I am being optimistic in planting many of the above at 225m in central Scotland, but with our favourable micro-climate, and a bit more global heating perhaps we'll get some exotic fruits for a while before meltdown.

Other jobs include finally ridding ourselves of the last of the roaming feral cocks, who's competitive adolescent crowing begins a little after 5am now. No neighbours have complained as yet, but I can't help but think someone must be grumbling angrily over her porridge.

The holding is alive with life - buds are bursting, birds are singing, and I'm away to be a part of it all.