Saturday 2 July 2016

Time to get this blog going again!

The last time we posted anything to this blog was 2010! A lot has happened since then and just keeps happening! Now with the prospect of PhD student Dominika coming to study here this summer, it seems a good time to get the blog going again.

We've been here at Uncllys nearly 12 years. We started working the land back in July 2004 cutting the hay in the Orchard and then starting to replace all the fencing so we could graze the meadows. We moved into the house on October 24th 2004.

Now we can see and celebrate just what has happened in those 12 years with the meadows showing a tremendous variety of wildflowers and the orchards producing fruit. The little trees planted near the house give summer shade as well as shelter for the birds.

The pond has newts, the edges of the garden are home to grass snakes and slow worms, the greater spotted woodpecker visits the peanut feeder every morning, mason bees love the crumbly house walls, shallows nest in the barn and so on!

Yesterday 46 nursery children from Burlish Park Primary School came and we're excited to see our 2 pigs, 4 lambs, 11 hens and 2 cockerells. They hunted for minibars in the meadow, collected natural colours to make butterflies and saw the 'dark, dark forest'.

So there is an ongoing story to tell here which we will do through this blog. We'll also use it to say a big THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who have helped us along the way.

John and Linda


Sunday 5 September 2010

Rag Rug Course 4th September 2010































Eight of us had a very enjoyable day learning the basics of rag rug making with Jenny Barnes. Jenny is a Companion of the Guild of St. George who promotes the craft at home in York and beyond. The Ruskin Studio was full of Jenny's rugs, an array of coloured cloth and our work in progress. We had a lunch of home-made soup, bread and cheese on the lawn in the sunshine, then continued with our creations in the afternoon, all enthusiastically making plans to carry on our new skills at home and at informal gatherings in future.

Saturday 29 May 2010

Rob's picture of the Studio

This is Rob's finished product which will be used as a post card and for invitations to special events at the Studio - thanks Rob

Rob Taylor paints the new Ruskin Studio

Rob has been our architect for the Ruskin Studio and he is also a very good artist. Here he is creating his drawing of the studio during its construction

Thursday 15 April 2010

Work starts on the Burlton's Field Barn

Our builder Ron Clowes has now started work on restoring this small field barn on the outskirts of Bewdley.

The work is being made possible through an 80% grant from Natural England through the Uncllys Farm Higher Level Stewardship scheme.

The work will include stripping and relaying the roof tiles on new cleft laths, stabilising the walls and pulling the building back into shape.

It will continue to be used as a field barn for the storage of hay.

Our first training course in the Ruskin Studio

Here's Nick Dunn from Frank Matthews nursery in Tenbury explaining to local orchard owners how to plan a new orchard and sharing his life's experiences of managing the production of fruit trees.

James fitting the solar panels

Here you can see the evacuated tubes of the solar hot water panels being fitted by James after he had completed all the plumbing.

They feed hot water into a large (750 litre) thermal accumulator. Additional sources of heat are the Esse woodburning stove and an electric immersion heater.

The heat from the accumulator is used for the underfloor heating system as well as for hot water for wahing.