I took possession of my new buck, Samson, today – he was bred by a very knowledgeable backyard rabbit breeder friend of mine who was thinking of keeping him on for herself, but kindly allowed me to beg and blandish him out of her rabbitry. He’s a good, solid, typical NZW with plenty of room for meat on that big round back end, he’s been well handled and has a calm, friendly nature. In fact, I had trouble persuading him to not come and talk to me when I was trying to get a photo with the phone!
Samson, investigating
I got a much better one a few minutes later when he went to explore the rest of his hutch.
Samson settling in
Trudy seemed to be eyeing him up from her cage and Freckles was nearly hanging out of his door to see who the new neighbour was! Samson seems to be settling in well, he’s eating and drinking cheerfully and he’s demolished a carrot. I suppose, given that I know how healthy the stock is that he came from and how well they’re kept, I needn’t put him in quarentine but I will anyway…. it’s the principle of the thing.
On the allotment front, today was a fairly brief visit to put in some plants I picked up the day before yesterday – a blackberry, Merton Thornless, which is now being trained up the south end of the dog run; a couple of periwinkles (Vinca minor) for ground cover on the steep southern slope that edges the plot, and some lavenders in the perennial/herb patch. Yesterday we moved 5 mint plants from their pots in the garden at home and planted them out in bottomless buckets in the herb patch, too. I also put in a row of fennel seed and a row of radish seed – the soil’s still quite cool but who knows?
At home we’ve been putting in raspberries – 30 canes of 3 different varieties (we like raspberries!). There’s another blackberry waiting to go in here – Bedford Giant – and a redcurrant to go with the 4 blackcurrants already here.
Generally speaking, we’re trying to keep a separation between foods that don’t travel or need to be eaten as soon as they’re picked – mange-tout peas, spinach or soft fruits, for example – which are being grown in the garden at home, and the foods that will travel and don’t suffer from sitting in a box for an hour or two before they reach the kitchen, like apples, pears or roots. Those crops are going on the allotment.
Then there’s a few things going on the allotment as well as at home, because I’ll enjoy nibbling on them while I’m working on the plot, like the blackberries, radish and the white alpine strawberries.
Adapt, Mitigate, Survive 