Struan Farm

Time for Cutbacks

Not financial, rather of the gardening kind. It's that time of the year, when I gird my loins and grab my secaturs and loppers to start the cutback of the hydrangeas and roses in the gardens at Struan Farm. 

I started this week between rain storms, and managed to get through a good part of Hydrangea Hill with Ella's help. Last year I tried to count the total number, but lost it after 80 hydrangea and 30 roses. So let's just say there are a fair few, and the annual haircut requires many trailer trips to the burn pile and lots of time.

We'll all be happy when they bloom beautifully in the spring/summer, so I will stop whining right now and get stuck into it!

New Ewe on the Block

Farmer John recently delivered a new black ewe to join my flock of coloured sheep at Struan Farm:

She has been christened "Licorice" by the girls, and joins Sooty and Oreo. (Note: we only name the black sheep, not the rest of the mob.) Although she doesn't seem to associate with Sooty and Oreo, not sure why! 

The deal with Farmer John is a bit of genetic roulette: if they have black lambs they're mine, white lambs they're his. The odds are definitely in his favour!

Trend du Jour: Rainbow "Loom Bands"

Good thing we have kids in the family, who clued me in to the latest trend: making "loom bands." Catherine sported a band during her recent tour of New Zealand with Prince William, and now most school age girls here are swept up with this craze. Read more about it here.

Ella brought along some of her basic supplies to show me:

 

 

Basically, little colored rubber bands that can be woven a bunch of different ways to make bracelets, hair ties, necklaces, etc. etc. 

If you didn't know about this, you've heard it here first!

The Jelly Bean Brigade

Two of the four members of The Jelly Bean Brigade were at Struan Farm over the weekend to install the Jelly Bean Table in the Tree Hut, also to celebrate Daniel's birthday. 

I made a chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese icing for the birthday dinner, topped by (what else?) pink jelly beans.

I improvised on the icing, using 250 gr. softened cream cheese, 100 gr. butter, 4 cups of Chelsea Rich Chocolate Icing Sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla. To cut the sweetness, since I didn't want this to be too sickingly cloying, I added about 1/3 cup of lemon curd. This worked really well, everyone loved it!