Fancy a workout?

From the middle of February through to early May I spend at least two hours a day digging or hoeing.

With 19 large vegetable beds, two half acre fields, a quarter acre field and an assortment of herb beds, soft fruit beds and young trees to prepare for the growing season, there’s a lot to do but little and often is the best approach.

The work is hard, but in the right conditions—sunshine, cool but not cold temperatures and little or no wind—I can easily blast through six hours or more of digging in a day.

Get lost, Pa!

I’ve been working outside in the cold and the wind for a couple of hours while the boys lounged around inside, so I thought I’d give them a nice cuddle when I came in.

Their response?

“Get lost, Pa! You’re a stinky minger.”