THE BOTHY at GARDEN COTTAGE

October

Nearly at the end of the summer season and our visitors seem to have enjoyed themselves, despite the weather not being of the best.  We are now looking forward to picking the apples for the annual cider-making sessions.  The crop is not of the same quality as in previous years – the indifferent Spring and lack of sun in the summer has meant that the apples are individually smaller than expected. Given we have so many trees however, that will not affect the crop too much and we should be looking at maybe three gallons of the amber nectar, as well as having as many as you can eat/cook with. 

The 2023 crop turned out very well and we currently have a lot of cider (and meadowsweet/elderflower wine) on the kitchen window cill – should move it to store really, but it looks quite attractive!

We have been busy cutting chopping and stacking firewood for next year recently.  We had a cherry tree down in July which gave us a lot of wood to cut and we also bought a load of unseasoned stuff from our local tree surgeon. Charlie set to with the chainsaw and reduced it to a lot of rounds which David and he have been gradually chopping into logs and stacking in the pend.  It is strange how what seems like an unfeasibly large amount of wood actually stacks relatively small and neatly.  We do not have enough for this winter, so will still need to order some ready-seasoned stuff this month.  Given how the electric prices are going, we shall be looking for more places to store wood.

The meadow still has room for more woodland trees.  We have a load of birch saplings in the Bothy garden and will moving 20 or 30 of these to the meadow through the gate.  The area should start looking grand in another three years or so – we wish we had planted this out ten years ago, but better late than never.  David is formulating some plans for a mown walk around then trees – you need a good imagination to visualise what it could look like. 

The raised beds in the growing field are built and covered for next year – it’s all looking good and most definitely unusual that we are ready for next year’s growing season this far in advance.  The uncovered beds will be built and covered gradually over the next months, depending on how cold it gets!