Hairy Happy Christmas

The last full week of attendance has passed and next week we start to dwindle on crew as the week goes on. We managed to get a fair amount done, but the to-do list seems to be getting longer rather than shorter. The tree surgeons left on Tuesday having tidied up the skyline beautifully, leaving us piles of lovely woodchip to spread around the nursery and stacks of logs to season. They are going to pop back soon when they get a spare day, just to finish off one untidy area and then we have to wait until after next year's harvest is completed before we can get them out into the field to tackle the last remaining trees. The bulk is done which is the main thing and the results are very pleasing. It is like having a haircut after a long break, everything feels light and refreshed and you can't quite believe you let it get so unkempt. Well that's how my haircut goes anyway.

The turbines received their annual service this week, and all was reported ok until the very last decent of the day when it was noticed that the anemometer was not reading correctly. Too late and dark to do anything about it on this trip, so back next week to fit another if it hasn't cured itself (apparently it does happen). It was also noted that we had well over 20 power cuts through the year as opposed to the usual half dozen. This is what caused the wing tips to deploy more than usual, resulting in Caroline having to climb towers to reset them. She did manage to avoid a climb early this week when one tip went, when we got Tom the tree man to go up in his cherry picker to reset it. He thoroughly enjoyed it and was reminiscing that he got married at the college next door and remembers the turbines being in the backdrop of a lot of their photos. It was a super quick fix but it did take 20 minutes to drive the cherry picker to the top of the hill, so Caroline is still the favourite option.

I have spent most of the last two days trying to chase up SSE (our electric distribution network operator) to find out some details about our supply, so that the solar panel planner can get on with designing a suitable small installation to compliment the output of our turbines. After months of trying to get the info needed he handed it over to me to see if I could make some progress. I have been passed from pillar to post, ,from one department to another, as they try and sort out what is going on. As far as the 'connections' department are concerned we don't have any turbines, just 3kW of solar (which we don't have). The latest supposition from them is that we haven't made a G99 application to install the turbines and we would need to do this first and until this is cleared up we can't look at doing anything else. I checked we actually had a 'connection for embedded generation' contract with SSE (we do) and then Googled when G99 applications were introduced. That was May

2018 and our turbines started generating in 2011, so real no surprise they didn't have a G99 from us. On phoning them to update them with my findings I was told they couldn't help me and to contact yet another department who had no telephone number only an email address. So another long email later to the southern arm of their micro-generation department, I await the latest update. Is it just me?

Christmas decorations are up, my old homemade tree is adorned with ancient paper chains and little baubles and the blow- up Christmas cake is slowly deflating on the table, all is as it should be. The visiting and eating plans are made and social events booked up, we are ready to celebrate. Made a fantastic start on Tuesday night with the first Christmas Ball at the Winchester Guildhall since 2019. 4 dance halls, each with their own DJ, and wall to wall dancing from 8.00 till midnight. It was a cracker, 350 dancers all very happy to be back at this fabulous venue and all out for a good time. My feet are still aching. We struggled to get the Guildhall to let us back in after Covid, they wanted higher paying corporate custom, but the newly appointed manager now seems really keen to get us all back on a weekly basis, which would be such a boost for the group. We need some young blood coming through to take over from us old farts. It's a similar story on nurseries!

Prices for 2024

The last couple of years have seen some explosive cost increases. Labour remains by far our biggest cost and wage rates rose significantly in 2023 and will rise another 10% in 2024, but we are hopeful that other costs are beginning to settle down and are not rising quite as quickly. However there will be a price rise for 2024, but we are keeping it to 4%, at 10p per pot. Availability list.

Cyclamen coum pink and white forms are already on the list and showing the flower and bud. These will usually flower from

October through until well into Spring, with a tasteful sprinkling of flowers rather than being drowned in them. There are already a few flowers on the Helleborus niger varieties so Santa can't be far away!

New varieties of H. orientalis for us are Halcyon Early Dark Red and Halcyon White Spotted which have both surprised us by

showing a few buds already, especially now the white one.

A few of the spring bulbs are starting to poke through now and Erysimum's are already looking perky with bud showing on some. A can't believe I'm thinking Spring is on its way.

Happy Christmas from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.