Sunday 24 July 2011

Eden

Phew well we have been busy and I also feel like now would be a good time to write about Eden and graduation which I have managed to fail writing about. Well let’s start with Eden as this is in line with the whole WWOOFing blog element.
For anyone who hasn’t been to the Eden Project and is interested in permaculture and where our food really comes from, you must go! It was amazing I spent nearly the whole time in awe, a lot of the information I had picked up from being home educated but still it is amazing to see it all not just hear about it. Their way of spreading the word about needing to know about where our food and energy comes from is second to none. Everywhere were posters about projects they are involved in all over the world, and the biomes were awe inspiring aside from being the biggest greenhouses I have ever seen, the plants and trees that are growing inside them were huge and most of them you wouldn’t otherwise see in England. I didn’t know that we can actually grow bananas here in England! They had a whole row of them outside in the garden as well as in the biomes.
I am seriously looking forward to our next visit! I think I should mention that another reason that I enjoyed my visit was because Matt also proposed in the Mediterranean Biome hehe!
But anyway here are some of the pictures that Matt took there!
The giant bee! hehe!

The most amazing palm like plants, they are huge!

I don't know what this is but it was beautiful.

Part of the big rainforest biome

One of the waterfalls

Me and Carol in awe of the rainforest biome

Again not sure what it is but wow!

Peppers and a mystery plant

This ladies and gentlemen is how peanuts are grown! They are part of the root!

The big waterfall in the rainforest biome

The view from high up in the rainforest biome

These are bananas and on the right hand side is a lot of bananas growing hehe!

This is an Allium flower they are amazing and were in the border round the cafe at the biome

I just loved the sheer orangeness of this flower

This is more of the border around the cafe around the biomes

I can't remember what this is but I just loved the way that it was utilising the architecture as a climbing frame.

These were driftwood pigs surrounded by rosemary from the mediterranean biome.

The most beautiful blossom from the mediterranean biome

A prickly pear

Many varieties of the most beautiful sweet peas growing over lovely steel artwork

Some of the bicoloured sweet peas I especially thought the purple ones were lovely
This is a giant concrete seed which had to built solely at night as the carver had to use laser light technology as a template to carve the shapes

Here is proof that Matt was actually with me



This was the driftwood horse at the entrance to Eden

Anyway I better go as it is very late I shall write about my graduation another time, so byeee for now x x x

Friday 22 July 2011

travel, wwoof, eat, talk, enjoy

hello out there
we have been off wwoofing and i can now tell you it is definatly worth quiting your dead end job moving house and county to be with your girlfriend to wwoof. so if all you need to get the ball rolling to start wwoofing is a little encoragment let this be it you will never regret it as it will give you memorys and experinces you will cherish for years so get you and do it travel, wwoof, eat, talk, enjoy,
there are a few things ide like to metion i reccomend you bring while wwoofing this may change as we contiune wwoofing but hear is a small list followed by photos of our adventures this week
  1. socks. i never have enough
  2. camera. to remeber what you did with out it i forgett
  3. phone. to phone home if you get signal!!
  4. belt. dont know why but its been usefull to hang things off
  5. good knife and secertares. that are sharp you cant complain if yours are blunt
  6. mp.3 times on trains disapear
  7. water proof coat
  8. good quality boots
  9. welly boots
  10. smile dont cost a penny
 this is the mud maid at the lost gardens of heligan in cornwall its such a odd sculpture
 this is sophie and carol our wwoof hostess under train apple trees at heligan
this is miss brown (she has not got married yet) she stalks sophie when she dose the waters at coombe barton house

hear is a selection of fruit we picked in our time at coombe barton i enjoyed them all yummuy

to proove we didnt just go to the local supermarket here is a photo of sophie picking black currents


we were very lucky as in the feed room there was a nest of sparrows hear is a photo of them feeding they have grown so fast and are so big now i will be taking a photo just before i leave to keep a memory of them for the future
hear is a parent taking a breather to have his photo taken before feeding the young sparrows

emilly the goat some how over the last week or so i have turned in to a expert goat scratching post i dont do any thing and she rubs her head and down my leg

eden project we saw last week with the two domes and the "core"

the end

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Weaving, horses and woodland walks!

Haha,
I have just found some time on this terribly rainy day to write a new blog post. Firstly I should say just how much we are enjoying being here still, I am half sad that we are not here tomorrow as Carol is going to Mavis’s again, but I am also extremely excited about graduating. We have been doing so much we have a sort of routine going (that this morning did not entirely happen as every one was so tired we all woke up late. Just to explain the title the weaving is not of the rug kind, but it is Minty he weaves behind me when I walk with him hehe.
So to keep you all up to date:
Monday was a lovely day spent driving around and gardening at Mavis’s. We also met a lady called Josie who is also a WWOOF host who has this amazing garden full of vege, she also gave Carol some plants, a mustard plant (which turned out to be four!) and spinach tree!

Tuesday:
After feeding the animals we went into Launceston to get some bits and pieces and Carol kindly took us out to lunch while we were there in the Mad Hatter cafe!
We needed to go and get jubilee clip to make these fantastic pea drain pipe containers for the poly tunnel. We had to rush back to go and take Minty to the vets for his jabs and luckily he did as he had a huge tick that she removed. We also saw the cutest Jack Russell puppies while we were there. It was nice to meet the vet, Orla, she was lovely (despite what Reaver thinks, he doesn’t like her after she gave him the snip).
Minty
Reaver

Wednesday:



After we fed and watered all the animals we packed a lunch and headed to the Eden Project. This was absolutely amazing (and we even have a ticket that means we can go back within a year for free!) there were some amazing plants in the Biomes. The whole place is so wonderfully laid out, and at a particularly picturesque part of the Mediterranean Biome Matt proposed hehe!

The 'outlook at the outlook' overlooks the whole mediterranean biome, and where Matt proposed hehe!

Me after I said yes!

It was a wonderful place and now it is one that we will have to visit again. There were some amazing plants and we learned a lot about where different plants come from and what they are used for. I may have to do a complete eden blog as there is so much to write about and so many piccys!
Thursday:
This was the day that the rain started, me and Carol weeded the vegetable garden it is now looking even better than before. Matt also dug out a channel for all the water to drain away from the stables as Carol has to soak and drain the horses hay as they are prone to laminitis. He also started the pea containers in the poly tunnel. So that was a very productive day. I even found a lizard and a slow worm while weeding the edges.
Friday:
Me and Carol finished weeding the vege garden in the rain and Matt finished the hanging thing in the poly tunnel. Then we both murdered many brambles in an attempt to reclaim part of the front garden.
Saturday:
We weeded the poly tunnel and removed most of the strawberry plants to move them outside. We also removed a lot of the rocket and took all the flowers off the plants in the greenhouse. We also discovered that there are four baby swallows in the feed store. We also found the frog (that we thought had disappeared) in the poly tunnel and saw the hedgehog and got a piccy of him. I also have been teaching carol how to view pictures on her laptop. We stayed up very late talking with Carol. I also bucked up the courage to cook macaroni cheese and vege.
the baby swallows

Hedgepiggy
Sunday
We did all the animals including wearing out the dogs in the rain. When we came in for lunch I taught Carol some more stuff on her laptop and I have written this blog phew! We are just getting ready to go plant some more peas in the poly tunnel in the new hanging containers. We have also gone for a woodland walk this afternoon, it was lovely I had no idea how much slate there is in Cornwall.
Anyway I better go before this becomes a novel hehe!

Here are a few piccys I wanted to add:

Ginger

Jessica

I was so excited to get there that I had to take a piccy of the sign.


 Byeeeeeee x x x

Monday 11 July 2011

First WWOOFing place yay!

Hehe, Greetings from Cornwall!
We have been having a whale of a time. Carol and Tony are brilliant, they are so lovely to us, we feel so spoilt with the gorgeous food we have been having. They are so interesting too as they have done so many different things, I have thoroughly enjoyed talking about all the things that they have done over the years. Most of the time we have been helping Carol with the garden and animals.
These include two dogs, Minty (a blue marle type colouring Collie. There will be some piccys soon I just keep forgetting to take them) and Reaver (black brown and white Collie), who are the most fun and sweetest of collies. They both love to get involved (including Reaver biting streams of water from the hose hehe!) and follow you around until they are completely knackered! Minty is the quieter of the two and he is a real sweety, he always so happy to see people especially in the morning.
There are also two cats, Ginger and Jessica, Ginger as his name suggests is a big ginger tabby and Jessy is a grey, brown and gingery tabby/tortie and they are so friendly. It’s so funny if you don’t pay attention to them they will sit on the thing you are paying attention to! There are also two horses (Shadow and Rupert) which have been allaying most of my fears of horses, they are so good natured. I have spent both my mornings sweeping around them and giving Shadow attention and cuddles (I can’t cuddle Rupert otherwise Shadow gets jealous and pushes him around).
There are 4 sheep who I can’t remember the names of yet but I will. Emily and Alice are the goats, we have had lots of cuddles and strokes with Emily she seems to love attention and uses you as a scratching post if you stay still for any length of time hehe! There are also loads of chickens! The only ones that I can remember the names of are Mrs Black, Miss White and Jesus (the cockerel) apparently Jesus was named as such by previous WOOFers, due to his miraculous recovery from what looked like his demise as a chick! There are also four ducks who over two days have come to accept me as no longer a threat to their water antics hehe! It is possible in my tired state that I have missed a few, in fact I have just remembered the swallows, and although they are not considered pets we have been watching their nests over the last few days. They have used the inside of the stables as a perfect place to nest and have their babies.
Phew and that’s just the animals! We have also spent a lot of time in the garden. The first day we mostly got to know the animals and where everything was. But the second day we had a very chilled out Sunday, we pulled up potatoes and picked black currants and Gooseberries, and did bits and pieces with the animals. However, today we did a bit more, in the morning we helped with the animals, and then I attempted to poo pick the horses field, I felt like it used to at Nana and Grandy’s! Matt went and picked some more Gooseberries and helped Carol with a few things.
Then we went to help a lovely lady called Mavis with her garden (Carol helps her out as she can’t do as much as she used to), me and Matt weeded and straightened up the edges, which Carol said Mavis was really happy about, while Carol mowed the lawn. We then went to her next door neighbour, who has the most amazing vegetable garden, unfortunately we didn’t have the camera when she showed us around. I was really impressed with Carols garden, and this one was even bigger!
Blimey, I have written loads I had better go to bed but I will write again soon. Carol and Tony have given us permission to use their internet as long as we don’t download stuff, so I am going to ask if I can put some piccys on tomorrow! Anyways good night and hopefully write again tomorrow, sorry if grammar is a bit skewiff I am a bit tired hehe!
Byeeeeeeeee x x x x x x x x x x x