This is as far as I intend to go with the raised beds this year. If its a success, and I think it will be, I'll build another four full size and two half size. I have planted onions, shallots, garlic, runner beans, asparagus, carrots, parsnips, swedes, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.
There is still lots of space for scallions, lettuce and salad stuff, maybe some herbs.
Biggest success is the garlic. I planted about forty cloves and most were up in a few days. There are also onions and shallots starting to burst through. Its still a wee bit cool at night but hopefully no more frost. The garden centre has six types of tomatoes so I intend to buy some this coming weekend for the greenhouse. I had to replace four panes of glass which were broken because of recent strong winds. Once the temps go into the high teens I will plant some chilli and bell peppers, cucumber and melon.

Loch Oich and more wood.

Went to Loch Oich at the weekend but the fishing was not very productive. Four of us made the 150 mile trip but only one small fish caught, a wee jack pike of about 2 lb.

When all is said and done its still a wee bit cold as yet, another few weeks and the temps should rise and the fish will start feeding again.

My grandson Josh was with us and had a wee accident during the night. He had eaten 2 Pot Noodles, a beefburger, chilli and potatoes, lots of juice and chocolate. Well, he was sharing Dougs tent, and I was sharing Craigs. At 3 am he decided that he was going to barf, but could'nt find the zip and ended up vomiting all over the tent, Doug, the sleeping bags, the jackets etc. What a goddamned mess. Doug just cleaned it up the best he could, and they went back to sleep.





Took a day off work today so I could catch up on some well needed sleep. It was nice being able to turn over and have another couple of hours.


Had a nice breakfast of free range eggs, bacon, tomato, toast and a caffetiere of espresso before going out to the workshop and servicing the Husqy's.


I've been working on another fallen tree. This one is a beech. Its not a whole tree, just two branches, but both of them are 3 feet across at the thickest point.

As you can see one of the branches is laying across the other. I managed to cut the top one on the point of balance without crushing myself between them. Very scary!!

Cant beat a day in a hardwood forest with a chainsaw. Best way in the world of getting rid of your pent up agression. More on this later in the week.

Traditional Scottish steak pie.

Traditional Scottish steak pie was originally a peasant dish using the cheaper cuts of meat ie shoulder or shin. Shin is a very gristly cut but when pressure cooked for about 40 minutes or so makes a nice filling for a pie. I use aprox 2lb or 1 kilo of shin of beef for this pie.
Start by coating the beef in seasoned flour and fry/seal in a small amount of corn oil a hot non stick frying pan, a handfull at a time till its all done. Transfer to pressure cooker and add 3 chopped onions, 2 large sliced carrots, 3 cloves garlic, 3 beef stock cubes and a pint or so of water or stock. Nothing to stop you changing the basic recipe to suit your own taste/culture.
Pressure cook on blue for 40 minutes, or if you dont have a pressure cooker, a large pan with a tight fitting lid for about 2 hours

. Once the meat is very tender, save the liquid and put the beef in a pie dish.
Top with rolled puff pastry. Using a pastry brush give the top a coat of seasoned egg wash.
Put the pie in a medium hot oven for about 40 minutes or until baked.
Meanwhile add some cornflour to the gravy and season to taste.
Traditionally served with roast potatoes and seasonal veg.

Thanks to Max Campbell for the original recipe.

Raised beds project under way.

Spent the weekend in the garden as opposed to fishing. Weather forecast was bad again for up north so stayed home. Managed to get four of the beds in position as you can see.

The two on the left have each one hundred onion sets. The nearest one has French yellow, the other a French red. If I can get some shallot sets I will do a bed for them also. We love shallots.

I plan to have eight of these beds and a few traditional furrows. Other veg we plan to grow are cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, some beans and peas, swedes and salad such as lettuce, spring onions, Pak Choi, beets and maybe try some exotics depending on the weather.

Last summer here in Scotland was a non event with average temps of about 10c. The previous summer saw average temps in the high 20's.

This is Meggy, our ESS, had to nail her paws to the ground to get her still for a pic.

The daffodils are coming through.

And that big beech tree might even have some leaves on it soon.

Snow and strong winds.

Now you see it.







What tree?













This was the view from my living room window this morning.







Never got to the fishing this weekend as the weather forecast was so bad. Snow, storm force winds, sub zero temeratures, not the best for going out in a boat!













Had a call from Roy, my buddy up the road saying that a big old ash had came down during the night, and that we should go " tidy it up", for our wood burning stoves.






So I loaded up the old Husqvarna 266, put on the safety gear and met him at the woods. He brought a tractor and trailer so we pulled the tree into a safe position, and removed the stump.


You have to leave a wee bit of the stump because, as a tree grows it pulls odd bits of slate, gravel etc into the tree, and this can seriously damage the cutting teeth of the chain.





I cut it into ten inch slices while Roy loaded it on to the trailer. Roy has a wee Stihl chainsaw and started cutting up the branches but he hit a stone and lost the edge off his chain, so got the shitty job. Unlucky Roy!! Best way is to cut three quarters of the way through, then roll thetrunk over and cut the last quarter from the top.
We will have to spend a couple of evenings splitting it into burning size pieces. Ash is the best firewood you can get, as it contains only 35% water, even less at this time of year as there is no foliage. Beech is also a good burn, but at 55% water needs a summer of drying before use.


We hauled about three tonnes down to Roys woodshed. Once its processed we will share it out, between our woodstores.


This is a great start for my fuel for the coming winter. A start like this means I can spend more time fishing this spring and summer as opposed to collecting wood for winter.. Can't rest on my laurels though, because most winters we use about 3 tonnes.

Raised beds.

This year I,m going to try Chinese Permaculture. This involves gridding the veggy plot into raised areas held in place with wooden batons attached to stakes. I have fed the soil with over half a ton of cowdung, chickenshit and compost so hope for some spectacular results. I have'nt used the mechanical rotovator this year because it kills the worms, and worms play an important part in this type of horticulture. This is a no dig arrangement for up to five years.

You use the grass cuttings for mulch, which keeps the weeds down, and also to feed the worms. The worms, in turn keep the soil aerated and workable. This is a crude first attempt at Chinese Permaculture so wish me luck.....