Like now and in the past, a bit of snow can be great fun for the children. For those staying in the cottage it proved to be so this week as the family made a snowman for a special little person called Pheobe.
It would have been much the same in the old days when the family lived on the Farm. We know that the farmers family lived a demanding and yet happy life. Much of the time spent with the children would be with the Mother as the Father spent most of the day working in the fields whatever the weather. Simple pleasures like playing in the snow would have caused a lot of fun during the snowy winter season. The snowman would have been dressed with carrots (for the nose) and potatoes (for the eyes) from the cottage garden. An old cap and pair of gloves from Dads collection would have completed the figure.
Recently, when travelling in the Arctic with Ray Mears I was taught the importance of the snow ‘doughnut’ to the travellers. I wonder if you know what this is? Water is important and to be able to obtain fresh water in a harsh environment is a great skill. One of the skills you can learn on our Country Tours !
Excellent news regarding Bumblebees. Coldharbour Farm has been selected as an ideal place to reintroduce the short- haired bumblebee. This bee was last seen in the UK around Dungeness in 1988 and a special project led by Dr Nikki Gammans visited the Farm last year. Following which we were invited to an detailed field visit and open day on the marsh around Rye to discuss this exciting project and how we could help. Apparently the environment around Stone is ideal for these special types of bees. Nikki is now in New Zealand overseeing the breeding of these bees and soon will be transporting them back to the UK and so once again they will be seen in England. We are pleased to get involved in this activity, not only do many of you staying in the cottage find it interesting but it is a very worthwhile cause to be part of. Lets hope it all works out !
Further information and literature is found in the cottage and on www.bumblebeeconservation.org/subt_project.html and before anyone mentions it, the photo is a swarm of wasps which I saw on the Farm in 2006, they are not bees !
This is a busy season for the farmers. With over 300 sheep now on the Farm constant watch or lookering is required on a daily basis. With the added problem of the snow the sheep can’t reach the grass so have to be fed with hay. To balance the diet the farmer also feeds the sheep some small protein pellets in the troughs spread out over the farm. The severe weather has bought on a shortage of hay which is a worry. Farmers usually store hay over the winter but with the deep snow stocks are often used very quickly creating a supply and demand problem. In the old days the hay was stored in stacks and bought into the old barn for winter storage. This was very hard work and remember, in those days the farmers didnt have the luxury of tractors to lift those huge round barrels of hay which fit into the circular feeding bins !
This morning many of us in the South of England woke up to grey, gloomy skies and a blanket of snow. This causes the farmer more than a few problems, especially dealing with his stock. But in the old days the immediate farmyard used to be the responsibility of the farmer’s wife. She was the one who woke very early in the morning (usually 4am), stoked the fire, boiled the water for washing, collected the logs from outside and cooked the breakfast. Then she had to brave the elements to open up the poultry houses, refresh the water and feed them with the daily allowance of corn and scraps from the kitchen. But the lady living in the cottage was smart, she kept an eye on the weather the previous evening and could see the storm clouds gathering and so took all the water drinkers inside to stop the water freezing. She covered the feed boxes from getting damp and would have a larder full of preserved pickles and even smoked bacon for use on cold, windy days like this. On top of all this she had to make the cottage ready for Christmas. This included making the holly wreath for the front door, Yule logs, pomanders and homemade crackers. In the morning, the farmer would have walked up the track past the Coldharbour sign to check all the sheep in the surrounding fields. It was a long and lonely walk and it must have been bitterly cold. These were brave folk. You can learn all about the life of the farmer, his wife and young family by reading all the historical notes displayed in the cottage.
When I was turning out all the leftovers in the old Barn and I found this. It is very old and rusty and not a lot of good but it does give us an indication of life on the farm in the old days. Its a traditional cast iron pig feeding trough. The bars on the trough stop the pigs stepping into it and tipping it over. A new one of these would be anything up to £200 at todays prices. On one of my visits to the Archive Office in Lewes I found a very old document by estate agents called Vidler & Son who used to be well known in this area for agricultural sales. In this little booklet there was a very interesting list of all the items for sale on the Farm when it was sold in the early 1900s. As well as old wagons, milk churns, stepladders and many others items of interest, the sale involved some livestock. Sheep, poultry and a few pigs. The pigs would have been an essential part of a small farm holding in the last century. They would have been fatten during the year using scraps from household waste and spare vegetables from the the cottage garden. Often farmhouses had curing rooms to smoke the pork and preserve it for using in the winter. It is been very interesting discovering these items and figuring out how the old farmer and his family used to live on the Farm years ago.
Its the time of year and all of a sudden there are lots of mushrooms in the fields. The ones in this photograph are in the field by the Barn and are called Parasol Mushrooms or Macrolepiota procera. They start off short and stubby with a compact cap like the shape of an egg and then as it grows the edges fall off and opens out into a large flat mushroom. It has a distinct chocolate brown centre that is leathery to touch. It only takes about 3 or 4 days from the immature cap shape to form into quite a large flat mushroom. It can be eaten and is delicious cooked in butter, they have a pleasant nutty smell. Always be sure to identify mushrooms before you attempt to eat them as some are poisonous. Happy hunting.
This is Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, one of the most exclusive golf & fitness centres in the UK. This was the Venue for the Tourism South East ExSEllence Awards 2009. Dress was very formal, black suit and bow tie !. Drinks at 6:30pm and a sumptuous dinner at 7:30pm. There were over 500 people at the event, travel industry experts, journalists, media outlets and of course the few nervous ones who had been shortlisted for the awards. The awards presentation started at about 10pm (I had to have a short walk outside beforehand to calm down a bit, I was sooooooo nervous !)
Gyles Brandreth hosted the night and the winners were announced by category. It soon came then to the SELF CATERING HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR CATEGORY and the winners were announced in reverse order. (agony or wot !) The Highly Commended Winner went to receive their certificate and then a sudden silence. This was the big one ! Obviously as soon as the Silver Award winner was announced everyone could work out the Gold winner ! The Silver Award was….. not Coldharbour Cottage and then everyone round the table gasped and said you have won the Gold Award ! I couldn’t believe it, the second time in 3 years, it was fantastic. Then the floodlights came on and I couldn’t see a thing ! When the Gold Winner is announced there is a 3 minute video clip of the property so everyone was looking at that as I stumbled my way to the stage to receive the plaque and certificate. As soon as I was finished on stage I was rushed into the media room to do radio interviews.
I needed a drink after all that.
Occasionally trees fall over and crash into the stock fences, like this one. This is an Ash which is great for log fires. We cut up and use the branches as well as the logs and store them in the log store by the cottage ready for the guests who like to have a warm fire in the Living Room of the cottage. Its surprising how much wood you get from one tree – this one we think had been struck by lightening and had fallen over within the last month or so. In the old days wood would have been the farmers primary source of heat and every spare piece would have been used. It would have taken the Farmer a long time to cut a tree down into logs by hand saw. Nowadays with the aid of chainsaws we had this one all done within 2 hours.
Soon after I bought the property in 2005 I went to the British Library in London to see if there were any old maps of Coldharbour Farm. Interestingly enough, there was and on all the maps I found a ‘cottage garden’ next to the farmhouse. In the old days the farmer and his wife would try to grow some fruit and vegetables for their family. Fruit in particular was used for making jam and stored in jars for winter time. In the garden there are damson trees, a pear tree (conference), a quince and even a cherry tree. With the help of a local fruit expert called Ken we are gradually bringing these once overgrown trees back into shape. This year we have had a bumper crop of damsons. Damsons are not very popular in the shops these days because a lot of people try to eat them before they are ready. The velvety skin needs to be very soft and you will find they are quite delicious. This week a very kind lady who stayed in the cottage made me a damson tart – it was delicious !
During the last 2 months there has been very little rain on the land. Deep cracks are appearing in the earth in numerous places. The grass is no longer green but a dried out sandy brown colour. Its a worry for the farmer and we have to be very careful to rotate the stock into different fields on a regular basis. The sheep don’t like the tall spindly grass (called Robin grass, I think) but like the shorter, greener sward and clover. But because this is not growing as fast as usual careful pasture management is necessary. It is also important to provide shelter for the sheep when the sun is very hot and a good supply of fresh water.The shepherds keep a particular eye on all the stock this time of year checking for signs of exhaustion and weight loss. Some have to be taken in and fed supplementary feeds.
