Drum Making

Since we haven't had much snow to shovel (well apart from the big storm which is falling right now leaving snow up to my knees on the drive way!), I've had time to get creative. I spent a wonderful weekend making my very own hand held drum with Nova at Red Tail. Woohoo! this was something that I have been wanting to do ever since I was taught the Reiki Drum Technique back in the UK. The whole weekend was totally amazing as we honoured the stag whose hide was being used, and honoured the hemlock (whose wood is used in the hoop). Had a lot of fun kind of tie dyeing my hide with a natural dye made up of black walnut and the result is awesome (if I say so myself). The drum is just about dry now and ready for activation, slightly worried that it might not be tight enough but I can't face the idea of re-stringing the hide because that was a real challenge. (couldn't have done it without the help of Carlina and Nova actually and encouragement from the other fabulous women).

Crunch Time

Well the first crunch happened about a month ago and involved a collision between our much-loved (non-backed up) lap top and the hard, filthy pavement of New York City. Whoops. Sadly the damage was as bad as it sounded and we were left stranded all alone without technology to connect us to the big wide world.
So we merrily glided through more festive markets, Winter Solstice, Christmas and into the New Year without our own pc to play with until a couple of weeks ago. I hope this is a good enough excuse for not blogging.
And now more crunching is upon us...the sound of frozen snow outside and the buzz of the cogs in our small brains turning as Jamie crunches the farm figures from 2012. Yikes. So much for down time, this is crunch time!

Falling Leaves

Well whoops a month has actually flown by since our last update at Thanks Giving and so all those beautiful pictures we took of autumn colours and bright leaves are now totally insignificant because as far as leaf coverage goes, it's now looking pretty bare out there.

Thanks to a frost in the 2nd week of October the flower growing season is officially over at Oliver Farm and although that is a huge relief to us workwise - it's amazing how much tidying up and prep work remains to be done before we settle in for the winter. So there is no putting up our feet just yet.
However, at the first whiff of garlic planting season I made my annual escape to Europe where I enjoyed an indulgent week in Rioja and Ribera del Duero with a wonderful group of clients, some outstanding wine and the fabulous MW Derek Smedley, if you ever want the heads up on wine then check out his website.

My absence meant that Jamie and the dogs were left to their own devices for 2 weeks and faced with planting all that garlic himself for the 2nd year in a row, this year Jamie developed a cunning garlic clove-sized hole-making tool. Think it would have worked excellently if our dopey doggies hadn't decided that digging in the dirt was their favourite activity also.

Now that I'm back and the garlic is planted, with the weather turning cooler, we have turned our attention to our loose leaf tea business. Many of our herbs are dry so are being blended into all sorts of tasty infusions. I have also been busy grinding up a wonderful concoction of spices for both our black tea and Rooibos Chai blends. We spent a long and enjoyable day at the Valley Tea Festival on Saturday and they were a great success so all that grinding was worth it. For me it's not quite the same as tasting wine but it's the next best thing!