54. Sunshine & showers

We've finally had enough rain to fill up the water tanks. The electricity has been a bit unreliable as we've had periods of rain with no wind. As soon as the sun comes out it's fine and comes in really quickly but it got low enough yesterday to switch off completely. With 4 of us here it is making a difference, we've also added another freezer which we have now switched off and decided to do without for a while. Luckily the wind came back up quite quickly so we weren't without power for very long.

We've been working on the pond, all the rain we've had has finally filled it. We've cut the  excess liner from around the edge and replaced it with earth so it's starting to look a lot more natural. I've started to plant some grasses around the edge to help it start to blend in. 

In the polytunnel nearly all the tomatoes are ripe and the courgettes have nearly finished. It'll soon be time to clear the beds and start preparing them for next year. I've planted some more salad leaves which are growing well so hoping they'll be ready in time to eat with the last of the tomatoes. We've done better with our vegetable growing this year but there's still plenty of room for improvement. We're going to have to find somewhere to store stuff over winter. At the moment the onions are in the house but it's not ideal as they're getting a bit damp, we've had a few go mouldy. I'd really like to grow squashes outside next year but we've got to improve the quality of our soil. We are working on it, we've collected lots of bags of seaweed which we're putting on the empty veg beds over winter.

The battle to finally finish the cabin goes on. I now have a storage cupboard which I filled easily. The bathroom is plastered and the unit which is going to hold the sink is roughly in place as is the shower tray. There's so much more work to do but fingers crossed we'll have a shower in before Christmas. We're also trying to work on the garden, we want to clear the gorse and brambles from the field at the side of the house and put some rose bushes in. 

I've started collecting rose hips, calendula flowers, rose petals and various other bits from the garden to dry for teas. It is wonderful to have so much growing around us that can be put to good use.