Hedgelaying, storms, wool dyeing and permaculture have all featured in the past couple of weeks.
We have been running some amazing courses on our holding and in the surrounding countryside, at times in extrodinary circumstances! On a beautiful warm unseasonal January day several people met to lay a hedge. It was a typical hedgethat had been left to grow up but had had the sides trimmed. The hedge was a double one in that there were actually 2 hedges on a very wide bank, the one on the far side belonging to the adjacent landowner. These shots show the hedge before it had a manicure from the trainee hedgelayers! Well 6 people who had never laid a hedge before tutored by the expertise and skill of Pete went on to produce a very nice result 6 hours later as shown in the photo of some of the proud hedgelayers here! One can hardly believe what can be achieved until looking at the before and after photos.
On the day of the great storm a dyeing for the terrified course took place and some beautiful colours were produced, not only with chemical dyes but with madder, onion skins, logwood and sandlewood. Unfortunately the power was cut off half way through but in true pioneering spirit we battled on over the rayburn using a torch to see what we were doing as the storm clouds rushed across the sky outside!

I am just completing a Permaculture design course and fantastic it has been too, I will update next time on the course, the venue and how we will be incorporating permaculture principles more fully into our lives and our smallholding