Clearing, Cake, and Compost

After seeing half a dozen surveyers, and speaking to dozens of companies, we've settled on a solar panel installation. It'll be a 4kWp installation, taking up about half of the roof, and should be installed at the end of the month. Now we just hope there's no snow.

The decision process has taken up a lot of the last few days, along with surveys and so on, but it's been worth it (I hope). Nonetheless, we've also managed to do a first pass of leaf clearing, bagging them up into bin liners for now (after being unable to make more chicken-wire cages). I've turned the compost heaps, and added a large quantity to the first pile, as we've now taken down the top-growth of the peas and beans.

We've transplanted the dozen winter cabbages ('Frostie') to their final location, and done a bit of weeding. Unfortunately, we've not had a chance to repair the fruit cage nets, which should probably be a priority for the next few weeks.

All of the elephant garlic, garlic 'Germidour', and over-winter onions ('Summer Gold') have now come up, and seem to be doing well. The strawberries appear to have attracted a deer, and have been a bit trimmed: hopefully they'll recover. The sprouts are ready to start, which is fun; however, the frosts did (as expected) kill off the courgettes.

We also managed, yesterday, to make our Christmas Cake (bit earlier than last year), as well as a pumpkin pie (conversely, a bit late!).