Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
Life here on the edge isn’t ideal for gardening, sand instead of soil, eternal winds, salt-laden air and mole invasions all try to thwart our gardening attempts, but we haven’t given up yet and actually have quite a nice garden despite the challenges.
It’s been the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures at the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station reaching 28.8°C, and it could get hotter yet. The long days are really helping our solar production too — it’s been a record-breaking year on that front so far, so let’s hope it continues. The bees...
And so the amazing weather continues — sunshine, more sunshine, and then yet more sunshine. I heard on the news the other day that we’ve had more sunshine this spring than we had throughout the entire summer last year. That’s been reflected (well, absorbed actually) in our solar panel stats, too, with record-breaking months throughout...
I’ve been growing this juniper for about 20 years. It started off as a tiny little plant with no real place to call home. Over the years, I moved it a couple of times to temporary spots—always with the intention of giving it a proper location, but somehow never quite getting around to it. Now...
Things never seem to calm down — it’s just busy, busy, busy all the time. Last week was a hectic one at work, as IBERS was hosting a big conference and I was involved in helping it all run smoothly. On the plus side, I got to sit in on the talks and presentations, and...
After a busy couple of weeks with a trip to Fuerteventura and then a week at a conference with work, the spring garden was looking a little overwhelming. Things—namely the goosegrass, dandelions, and stinging nettles—were getting out of hand, and I’d yet to get Hector, our robot lawnmower, up and running. Robot Mowers Harriet, the...
What a lovely day today. Spring has finally sprung! The garden has another new shed as well, and there are lots of new gardening tools on the way. Hopefully, if I find the time, I’ll get the garden looking nice again. There’s certainly plenty of signs of life out there. The bees are busy, the...
It seems as though the start of the garden chores gets earlier every year. It was the first day of February at the weekend, and I was out working in the garden before the sun was up. The first job was to finish off some edging around the new shed. The wooden edging wasn’t high...
Seeing as it’s now been just over a year since we decided (on somewhat of a whim) to create a pond in the garden, I thought I’d update you on its progress. It was always intended as a ‘wildlife’ pond. That’s an excuse for letting it go a bit wild, leaving it to do its...
Just a few photos of some garden colour to cheer things up. Oh, and a silly cat!!
I managed to go the entire Easter weekend without turning my computer on, hence the lack of blog posts. I thought you wouldn’t mind waiting as turning my computer on would only mean that I’d end up working. Staying away from it and out of the office was best. That said, I did of course...
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