It’s like having a child who insists on walking along a wall and refuses to travel any other way.  And just like a recalcitrant child a basset hound can sulk for hours to show his displeasure.

So like the home spoiled bassets I have now a rooster who is living the life of his namesake – HM George III.  Yes, George of the madness kind!

It’s been a while since I posted an update on the garden.  It’s still packing some punch for our table although we’re getting through much of the winter vegetables now and all the time I’m learning the critical path of how to have a sustainable backyard pantry all year round.  I’ve also been experimenting with some mini tunnels – a fleece tunnel and a shade tunnel both of which still allow rain in but keep the plants protected from wind and frost.  I’m tempted to invest in some industrial size tunnels for next winter and may even grow my tomatoes under poly until they get well established.

The start of Spring beckons a new beginning for my growing adventures.  I have more packets of seeds than you can imagine and will be starting planting this coming week.

There is plenty of harvest yet to anticipate.  The leeks and broad beans are doing well as have the cabbages (including those that are more ornamental value now they’ve gone to seed!). I’m already gathering a hord of recipes for leeks.

Little Basset was my deputy inspector in the garden.  He likes to get up close to all that I’m up to.  Offering a helping paw and snout even if they aren’t strictly speaking required. I can tell you that basset paws tip toeing through the garlic patch is not a dainty action and can be life threatening to the garlic sprouts.

Thankfully he hasn’t worked out the entertainment value of sneaking through the cloche tunnels.  It is of course only a matter of time.  I’m experimenting with rocket and salad leaves under one and protecting my cauliflower and cabbages under the other.

The good thing about when little basset is preoccupied with other things is that I can sneak up on him and take some portrait shots.  Admittedly it isn’t long before he knows what I’m up to and he goes all camera shy and starts to try and hide.

For the first time this year I’ve eaten swiss chard and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how tasty it is.  Since it’s easy to grow and gives the garden a lot of colour I can see that this will be a staple for our winter crops from here on in.  The bassets are also partial to a little raw chard self harvested from the beds themselves.  Pesky dogs.

If you read gardening books you’re left with the distinct impression that growing over winter is for hardened experts.  Here where we have a more temperate climate there is still plenty that can be grown all year round.  That is of course if you get your planting timing in sync so that’s the challenge for next year with of course some close supervision from the bassets to make sure there is plenty for them to scavenge an illegal snack.

Last week I watch hours of another online photography course.  Free to air I watched Jasmine Star (J*), an American wedding photographer internet rockstar preaching her business ways to a swooning internet audience.  This woman is definitely larger than life itself with a self deprecating style that is equally matched by a steely determination to achieve and deliver great results.  Part of this course was to see her photograph a wedding live – that takes guts and she pulled it off with real panache.   I admire her for putting herself out there and being a leader in her field sharing what she knows to benefit others.

J* is primarily a natural light photographer with a gift for spotting light and working with natural reflectors to bring life to her photographs.  The changing light was one of the biggest challenges at my much more down to earth photography workshop – you can see my earlier posts here and here. My models were less open to posing for the camera so it was most definitely a case of looking for the story and those moments in time. At the end of the day it was the sheep that were the stars of this show.  Doing what do sheep do naturally – roam the fields and eat.

But not before they’d been put through their paces by Blue and Greg to give the photographers something interesting to point their cameras at. Shame that they were on stage with the sun straight at us as it started to set behind the hills.

Those sheep were determined to have it their own way.

And who could blame them after having their Sunday disturbed. Although I did sense it was them that had the upper hand for a while.

But not for long as the true leaders stepped in to control things.

Ultimately Blue was called off and it was time for all to go home.

With the recent immersion in photography I’ve started to get my mojo back.  I’ve dusted off the camera manual again and started to tinker with some of the more sophisticated settings that give you much greater control over the focus and exposure.  Now all I need is some new subjects to model for me.  That or the bassets are in for some more serious internet exposure!

Daffodils are abound although we only have one so far – I snapped this early this morning with the morning dew still clinging on. With our turn about seasons, I can’t help but still think of 1 September as the southern hemisphere equivalent of 1 March with all the memories of St David’s Day when I was a child living in Wales.  Then, as now, the daffodil was symbolic of that special day.