Mid-January

The ice has finally melted on the fish pond, revealing 9 dead frogs which got caught in the ice, and one dead fish.  We think that that is all of the frog family.  But there are still around 30 to 40 fish swimming around so the fish population is not much depleted.  We are hopeful that more frogs will colonise the pond in the spring.  Still not sure what we're going to do about cleaning it out and repairing the crack at the back, though.

We have severely pruned the "weeping" apple tree in the orchard in the hope that the upward twigs we have left might encourage the tree to revert to a more standard form.  We won't let it set fruit in the next couple of years to encourage this! The rest of our garden clear-up plans have been thwarted by a sudden mild but very damp and windy spell.  Fingers crossed for next weekend!

Must give some attention fairly soon to our fruit plans for the allotment.  We're off to Australia in just over three weeks and it may be getting a bit late by the time we get back!  Although I suppose early spring is OK for planting fruit trees and shrubs.

The chickens continue to lay well.  We have had no days with no eggs and are mostly getting 3 or even 4 a day, with the lowest being 2.  We had 92 eggs in December, as against 120 in August.  The cost per egg as at yesterday was 65p.  So not exactly cheap, but plentiful and delicious.