Filming with The Beechgrove Garden

We have gained another experience!
Watch it on: The Beechgrove Garden, 21st May 7.30pm BBC2 Scotland.

Last Thursday BBC2's Beechgrove Garden came to our place in Glendevon, Central Scotland to show us how to create a bog garden.
We had a fantastic day: the weather was dry, but windy (true Glendevon-style). JP and I even got sunburned! The film crew was very nice and we had lots of fun.

Firstly, George and the film crew went to film the introduction. I have no idea what they have filmed or said, though, they went filming on the path leading up to our house (we stayed at the house).
I guess we'll just have to wait until it's on TV.

Then George, JP and I had to explain what the plan for the day was.
JP and I are creating a five senses garden and the bog area is to separate the vision from the smell borders. So, I was telling George the five senses; smell, taste, touch, vision and hearing. Which, when being filmed for the first time in your life, was tricky. In the end we had to do it again and again, because I kept forgetting the fifth sense (or mentioned 'scent and smell' which of course are the same thing!) And then there was the issue of only one camera, so we had to do everything at least 3 times from different angles.

 

So, that was all the introductions done and we all started digging over the bog area. Our two wwoofers (Nick and Silke) were a great help and were being filmed too.
JP started building a wee bridge in the background.
Because it all had to be done 3 to 4 times, I think I dug the same bit several times. Raking the whole thing was no different.
Camera man: " Could you rake that again?" Me: "Absolutely, not sure what else to do, I've only done it 4 times so far!"
Again planting and moving plants was the same.
First we had to carry the trays with the plants to the bog area, three times.
The camera man would say: "Stop!" And we all froze in mid air. Camera man: "Okay, and walk!" So we walked.

Who knew that for only 5/6 minutes of screen time you need a full day's filming?
George Anderson (presenter), Shiona (director), Bob (sound man), Martin (camera man) and Callum (garden landscaper) and Nick & Silke (wwoofers) came at 9am to help us. And all the excitement was over again by 4.30pm (it seems ages ago now).

I wasn't that nervous to be honest, I'm more nervous about it being shown on TV than I was for the actual filming. Funny thing was, before they all came, I had a kind of impression in my head of how it would be, but didn't expect to get a microphone and a transmitter in our pocket! I suppose it makes sense, if they want to record what we are saying....

The chickens and especially the Hooligan were great. They noticed us digging and came in force 'to help us finding worms' (which they ate of course). I think the Hooligan thought it was all about her...

They are on camera too (as you can see above) and you can watch the chickens (and us) on
The Beechgrove Garden, 21st May 7.30pm BBC2 Scotland.
Or if you're south of the border (or Europe) Sunday 24th May 9.00am on BBC2 London (local time).

One more chicken gone to heaven.

Sadly we've lost another of our ex-battery chickens.

For some reason they all got poultry lice (apparently quite common and transferred by other chickens or wild birds) and the one which passed away was pretty badly infested with it.
We powdered them all on Monday and I even had to pull out some feathers which had the egg clusters on them, but she didn't manage to pull through.

At least I gave her the same length of her life living in freedom and running around as she had in the chicken factory.
Normally when you get chickens from the British Hen Welfare Trust (www.bhwt.org.uk) they are around 1,5 years old, they say because they've stopped laying. Well, the ones we got, kept on laying for another 6 months!
Anyway, we've now had them for 1,5 years and they have stopped laying after producing wrinkly eggs.

Three years is already a good age for an ex-battery chicken and luckily the other three are looking quite healthy.
The one which passed away on Thursday has been buried under the hawthorn tree, so her spirit can live on in the tree!

The average age of ex-battery chickens is around 4 to 5 years old, but I know the Hooligan will live for longest, simply because she is a fighter! (literally!!)

Wrinkly eggs and wine bottling

One of the chickens has been laying very weird eggs lately. They are all wrinkly!

I suppose being retired means you'll be getting more wrinkles, but who knew hens (and their eggs) would get the same problem?! Our 4 hens are now approximately 3,5 years old, which means they are getting towards the end of their lives.
I do wish however that they will live for another half year because that would mean they have spend the same amount of their lives in the fields as they did in the battery farms.
The Hooligan is still shouting at us though, so I don't know if she is the one presenting us with those wrinkled eggs! Maybe she does, just to show us her discontent!

What else do you do in the midst of Winter apart from bottling wine? I know what you want to say. "Drinking the wine of course!"
We made around 9 gallons of wines, ranging from sweet cicely to strawberry to parsley wine. I normally just leave it in the demijohn with a solid bung and bottle it when there is nothing else to do.
Winter is a good time for that.
These are the last of the bottled wines of last year.

 

People who received homemade wines in their Christmas hampers said that the sweet cicely was very tasty. So, that will be the one to make next year again. Luckily we've got lots of sweet cicely growing in the wild next to our house.
Oh, can't wait for the new season to start!
In the meantime, we'll just enjoy last year's wines. :-)

Chickens are fed up with snow (and so are we).

Another day in January. Another weather system brought snow, lots of it.

Couldn't get to work because of a snowdrift 40 inches deep blocking our path to the main road.

Dug a path to fill the birdfeeders. Dug a path for the chickens to walk on (which they didn't!) and dug a path back to the front door to let myself in.

I quite like snow to be honest. After all, we need some snow each winter to notice the change of the seasons, don't we? But living 270m above sea level gives me a bit more of the white stuff than I need to be happy. One year we had lots of snow in Glendevon making driving really difficult and again snowdrifts blocking the path, unbelievably Stirling didn't have any snow whatsoever!
My colleagues keep me up to date with the situation in Stirling and this time they have some snow as well. I keep them updated with pictures of our situation. What else is there to do?!

So chickens, well they didn't have a lot to say about today's weather.
The Hooligan was shouting first, only to pipe down when she saw the real situation. I think they were pretty flabbergasted.
I dug out a path for them to a bit of the lawn where the snow had literally been blown off. Of course they didn't pay attention and just trotted through the deeper bits.
But when the wind was picking up and I noticed two of the hens sitting rather sad in between two heaps of snow, I decided it was time to lock them up in their run.

Did you know you can actually teach chickens to follow you?
When me and my husband were wwoofing (www.wwoof.org.uk) I once had the task to look after the chickens. We were lucky enough to be there when the youngsters were let out for the first time. I think I sat there looking at them for over an hour. It was super fun to watch and some are braver than others. Chickens really do have different personalities!

Anyway, every time I fed the young chickens I said:"Chicky, chicky" and without the farmer knowing I had taught them to come whenever I called out. They never forget! When we came back half a year later with my parents I told them how the chickens came when I said "chicky, chicky" and believe it or not, they actually came!
So, when we got our new rescue hens, the first thing we did was to teach them to come on demand. And it works really well, like today when I wanted to coax them into their run.

All four of them are now locked up in their run. Not that they mind, it's out of the wind and out of the snow (sort of) and they have food with extra barley grain and water with extra vitamins.
Don't want them to catch a cold, do we? That's what I'll be getting for looking after the them!

Chickens don't like snow (or do they?!)

Started snowing the other night. Woke up to a white Christmassy scene.
This is what the chickens (translated from chicken language) thought of it:

The Hooligan (as usual) shouted first:
"What the *****! Why can't we go out yet! They are always late in this place! And why is it so cold??!!
Oh, finally, there you are, what the **** took you so long?!"

The other chickens were quietly listening and muttering to themselves:
"Ooohhh, what is happening? Oooohhh, why is it so cold? Oooohhh, why can't The Hooligan not shut up?"

So, under much pressure from The Hooligan, I opened the hatch

The Hooligan (and the rest) stood still and looked at the white landscape.
"My god that took ages!! What on earth is that??!! It normally is green, isn't it?! Why is it white all of a sudden?! I don't want to go out there! I don't know what that ***** white stuff is!!

The rest of the chickens were getting impatient, because The Hooligan was blocking the exit.
"Oooohhh, why are you not moving? Ooooohhh, what's happening? Ooooohhh, why does it all look differently? Is it safe The Hooligan??"

The Hooligan couldn't make up his mind as to whether venture out in that strange landscape or to stay in.
"I don't know what to do! It looks kind of the same, but it's white instead of green! Oh,  wait a minute over there is a partially green spot! What if I can jump there and see what happens?"

The Hooligan squatted a wee bit and finally made the jump to the partially green spot.
The rest of the chickens took this as a good sign and went outside with no problems whatsoever.

But the snow wasn't as deep near the chicken coop as it was in the rest of the garden, so the chickens all stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the garden.
"Oooohhh, why is it so white? Oooohhh, why are my feet this cold? Oooohhh, I don't dare to go out any further!"

Luckily after a few minutes lingering next to the shed and absorbing the sight of a white garden, they ventured out. Up to their bellies in the snow, but they enjoyed it,  especially hanging around under the bird feeders hoping for titbits to fall down.

 

"Ooooohhh, it's alright isn't it? Oooohhh, I'm quite enjoying this.

Oooohhh, is there any more food falling down?"

The Hooligan was also back to her normal self, shouting and swearing at me while running away to the neighbour's garden.

No time to rest.

Nothing better than creating your own homemade Christmas presents. For the third year I'm assembling hampers for my colleagues (don't tell them though!).

There will be pickled eggs for the ones which love them, there is wine for everyone (don't need to be afraid to miss out myself, since we've made around 10 gallons of the stuff!), probably some pickled vegetables and beer. And if I feel like it, maybe some homemade biscuits or truffles or something else sweet. Feeling peckish myself now...

Soon, I'll be trying out my homemade sauerkraut, I wonder if it worked out just as well as last year. It always smells a bit funny and sometimes there is some mould on top, but that's normal. You can remove the mould, the sauerkraut is still edible. Actually, the mould would be edible too, but it doesn't look too appetizing.

One of my hens is moulting, which means replacing her feathers. This actually puts a lot of strain on the bird, so they won't lay any eggs, until all the feathers have been replaced. I've been giving her extra poultry vitamins to keep her energy levels up. She seems to be doing fine.

Anyway, back to bottling and labelling wine now!

Winter is near.

Hi all,

Winter is nearly here.
Soon we'll be covered in snow or rain or wind and (hopefully) sun.

The garden is resting, so should we really.
Sometimes I wish I could just go to sleep like my hens do; at 4pm they roost and at 8am they wake up again. One of the hens is extremely loud if I don't let her out in time, so we nicknamed her 'The hooligan'. Although she used to be called 'The runaway chicken' because she also has a habit of running away to the neighbour's garden and building a nest there.
We normally don't give the hens names, as they are not meant to be pets. They supply us with eggs and the future chickens, hopefully, with meat too, but because these four were ex-battery chickens, they are allowed to enjoy their retirement. So, they won't end up in the pot!

Although there is not to do in the garden, there is still lots of wine to bottle. I've already bottled about 3 gallons, but there is still 5 gallons left to bottle. I'll better hurry up, because the wines are going to be Christmas presents for my colleagues and friends.