Squilver Meadows

28/06/2020

Sadly the whole Covid situation has taken its toll and in spite of all efforts, Squilver Meadows with not be opening the small groups private camping site and community interest company this year. Long planned for and nearly achieved in spite of all the obstacles this year has brought . This is something that we have been working so hard to achieve and feelings are pretty fragile at the moment as i am sure people will understand. Time is needed to come to terms with the situation and make decisions on the way to go from now.

So I am closing this page for now so I can focus on Squilver and my gardening business. Hopefully this is a temporary set back and we will be back soon with some good news.

16/06/2020

Hope here!

I feel a massive sense of achievement, one year on and i have a functioning garden patch which is still growing and still expanding in ideas and concepts.

This is a no dig garden; this is done with card, muck, compost, woodchip and many years worth of muck thrown onto the land. The soil here is really quite something.. The w**ds pull out with out struggle and it is such a fine texture but very weighted and vast.

I love the garden patch. As lock down starts to lift and we are abit more able, come join in, come help, hopefully we can share some of the harvest 🥰🥳

If you want to see how i got this far so quick check out the 'Hopes Harvest Garden Album' it will explain. 💖

15/06/2020

Hello Hope here!🌹

Lock down has impacted alot of our lives and lots of changes have happened.
One change i am enjoying is how much time im spending up at Squilver! 🌱💖

Its so breath taking up here, you really feel at one with the force of nature and all of the elements. You wake with the rising sun as early as that may be and settle too the down of the sun and the rising of the moon. Its a beautiful experience being so connected into the elements and the cycles and the rythems of the earth.

When you live in a built up social environment, the busyness can take you away from experienceing these natural rhythms and elements and we miss out on this intermate connection with the power, that is our earth.

Each day i wake, im dependent on what the earth provides with weather, this allows me to plan my day, my garden is heavily dependent on our earths weather and being on the hill has made me so truly aware of the importance of climate, the importance of the elements and the rhythms that flow around us.

Its something quite spectacular.

Here is a beautiful morning photo with the sun shining and the weather sweet 🥳🌞

A storm that created the most stunning rainbow 🌦🌈

And the moon shining so bright it was like a lantern 🌝🌟

(Add on: i am working very hard with squilver and it's hard to find time to post, i wish i would do it alittle more, i am about to update 'Hopes Harvest Garden' album, check out some of my progress)

22/01/2020

(Hope Here)
Hi guys!
i've been working hard on squilvers garden patch for just under a year and would love you to take a look.

if helping is something your interested in please don't hesitate to get in contact with us, we love help!

Arrangements can be made to pick you up.
We have a people carrier with 6 seats.
Come get stuck in

Hope has been working in squilvers garden patch since may 2019, progress is slow, but little progress is better than non.

11/12/2019

Hello, hope here.

This is very powerful 😊

30/11/2019

Hello!
Hope here,
One of squilvers volunteer land handlers,
becoming a whisperer of land :)

I've been working with squilvers land and presence for 9 months now. It is a truly breath taking feel. All around you, having living land, living life, living environment... Truly vibrant, healthy, growth thats total creation, inspiration, and overflowing with potential and power.

All that under your feet..🥰

Its vast and its raw.

it really is just it's own feel. A powerful heart warming one.

I love being here. I find it recharges me. Enchants my instincts, egnites my senses, steadys my mind, focuses my time and im there, in balance within natures harmony's. The best meditative state.

There is alot to do and some days its hard work. Your toes and nose goes cold and its consistent, but it's the most rewarding work.
You really feel the land,
you are aware of its cycles,
aware of its breath,
aware of its flourish and with that it's low level death.
It's light, warmth of sun, it's dark, cold of night, with a shard of moonlite spark...
Its mild sing of russles of the plants; trees, flowers and grass, insect song and wind thats the under tone, the low level chime that can be felt as well as hurd.

Feeling the song of the land is one of the best feelings. 🔯

There are lots of cheeky animal energy up at squilver and im not just talking about its human assistants 😋🥰
We have such beautiful animal energy that adds to its uniqueness.
▪We have our silly, but o so smart goats, that eat every thing and are real ninjas when it comes to jumping fenses and escaping.
▪Our cats that all have such wonderous personalities and quirks. Ill introduce you soon enough.
▪The dog, that's got such high energy, he just doesnt really know where to use it.
▪The gease, hes a real beauty, the foghorn of the farm, lets everyone know he's around and deffiently is very self-aware and established and he wont hesitate in highlighting this to you.
▪The ducks that have their own systems, if you choose for them they may just drop your plans and do their own. Very inquisitive these ducks, always sussing out the situation.
▪The very small chickens that arrived a few months ago that follow you around under your feet, needy little things that love to eat 🥰 but are so cute you cant help but smile at them.
▪the big cockril........... Adds to the dynamic, thats for sure!

Squilver is under energy shifts with adding potential new land handerlers to our mix and ideas are flowing, but its got its base energy and thats produced from all the life that is within squilver.

Here are some lush photos I've captured of the animals and their quirks.

▪mr duck is very inquisitive. He follows you about always, never lets you touch him but will always be around to see what your doing. Here we are planting some rescued bushes in the pond area, where the ducks should be but haven't been for months, and here he comes to see what we are doing.. He's such a funny duck.

▪the cats love to come and see us from time to time when we are working. Here they are all lined up on the compost bin, yinyang, custard and coco:)

▪yin (black and white cat) is one of my favorites out of the cats. Shes the best hunter and is fearless.. She follows us every where when we work and always approaches me when i first arrive or where ever i am around squilver, she will appear. she loves being apart of the adventures. She came to help when we were doing the dead hedge and also while we were putting fence posts in.

Every time i come up to this place i fall in love with its endless possibilities. I can't wait for another 9 months with you squilver 🕉🥰💖

04/11/2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBLKuYDh5S8&feature=share

Hello! Hope here!

Have a watch! The systems we could build to keep sustainability of our natural earth are out there and are very much a real thing that could be embrased by lots of people.

Here at squilver we are trying to and are working hard at planning and implimenting simple but effective permaculture systems to help our land thrive. A balance of inputs and outputs. A regenerative cycle that gives back as much as it takes.

A short film narrated by Bill Mollison and David Homgren reveals how Permaculture began from one simple question about agriculture and developing into a sust...

16/09/2019

Hello hello, to all the gorgeous souls who may be reading this.
Im hope! I am a young enthusiastic woman that has a lot of care for the world and the environments i come across and are apart of. I love love love helping people, helping the earth and helping spirit. It comes naturally to me.

A few months ago i was on a mission to find a little garden patch to call my own, even though i have lived in shropshire all my life i still have little to no knowledge on how to grow my own food and that saddened me so much..

Back in February i approached millie about helping her with her patch to then discover that time and everyday human life can become a massive hurdle when trying to manage a piece of land and that it was evident that some help was genuinely needed and very much welcomed....

Well im in love with helping, so i guess, i fell right in love with this whole thing... This whole beautiful fulfilling place that is squilver and how much of a life line this 5 acres of land is.

Millie has helped me massivly but so has squilver. Its become a place of refugee for me and my soul and im so so so so so happy i found it.. Words could never describe. This is deffiently one of them right time right place moments.. An "a'har yes!" Moment.... This place is where i need to be, where i need to invest my energy.

Ive not done a massive deal of things on the grand scheme of things but slow progress is better than non.

I have been learning the importance of maintenance and what systems are needed when looking after land.

Over the last few months ive, planted 20+ trees, helped create a wormery, cleared the green house to a usable standard, built my first DIY pickited fence, multched the grow beds, planted seeds and watched a few grow, wood chiped half the patch.... As im all new to this, getting the systems going, i was unable to keep it up as much as i should and the seedlings that grew soon died as i was not maintaining it.

BUT i tell you what, i managed to plant some and that was carrots and courgettes and look at my first harvest! "A'har yes".

4lb monster courgette that was ALMOST a marrow but had a marrow escape from that fait as i picked it just in time.

I tried to show it off with the scales beacuse even though its not a massive harvest this is still my harvest and im super proud. You can also see my carrots that i grew that taste so great!

So i decided to start cooking with my little monster harvest.

I made a free range egg(from local butcher's), ground almond, flax seed, chai seed pancake.

Got some free range bacon( from local butchers) GRATTED the courgette and the carrot and added them all in a pan with garlic and the tops of the carrots. I cooked it for a few minuets then cut the middle out of the courgette and stuffed it with this lushus mix... I then baked that courgette..

I used the rest of my pan mix on my pancake and had that with lettice and roast beetroot.

This courgette was still 3lb after this cook off..

My partner made a beautiful veggie Bolognese with some of my courgette and carrots and we still have half the courgette left... I think courgette burgers are the next thing to make.

Im so pleased with myself for getting this far as back in January this was a dream for me........

To have just my own little lot of grown veg.... And here i am 9 months later graced with this monster.... I am blessed, i am grateful and im so in love with all of this.

Thank you millie and thank you squilver 💞

12/09/2019

So much has happened in the last two and a half years since my last post on this page.

Home education, starting a new business, and a number of other twists and turns along the way. Finally I can focus on this precious space again.

We are out of the meat business. Sadly our plans for home slaughter fell through. I was faced with sending my beautiful, trusting, meadow fed, mother raised free range cross breed babies to the abitour. A trip I was not prepared for them to make.

Our English method slaughterman retired and our Halal slaughterman's understandable principles, ment that he could not get licensed. I have since found a licensed slaughterman but I have moved on.

I strongly believe that Muslim people should have access to quality free range meat. My experience of genuine halal slaughter has been surprisingly positive.

I have never prayed with a slaughterman before. Never seen human pray held in loving arms and sung to before. I laughed at the thought of a goat submitting to being held in a stranger's arms, let alone submiting to its death with no fear.

And yet, this was my experience. He never saw it coming and was relaxed to the end, in my arms. Surrounded by love, gratitude and respect. Listening to spirit chants from two very different words. The animal welfare actervist halal hating, English, hippy, hill farmer and the urban, Dutch Egyptian, Halal slaughterman. United in grateful mourning for the the life that would feed our own.

Life and death are entwined, they spring from each other eternally in nature's endless cycle. All food takes life. It should be conscious and payed for with gratitude and respect. Be it plant, insect, fish or mamal. This was my first shared moment of the sacred moment of food's death and it coursed me to extend my mealtime prayer of gratitude to the plants who's lives I take.

So, what now? A complete change of direction. More of that I. The coming months but our first piece of news is that we have a beautiful sole joining us as caretakers of Squilver Meadows.

Welcome Hope , you angel, Squilver welcomes you, your energy and your assistance.

20/02/2017

Finally some real information on the legal requirements for keeping birds during the bird flu epidemic. Squilver is surrounded by high risk areas but not in one so from 25th feb the birds may be allowed some outside time. Thank goodness as they are stressed.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu -controls-in-england-from-28-february-2017

How to spot avian influenza (bird flu), what to do if you suspect it, measures to prevent it, Prevention Zones requiring birds to be housed, and recent cases.

08/12/2016

One of the best things about a smallholding is never knowing what will happen next. You can have a plan for the week and you can wake up to a whole new set of dramas and emergencies.

So, all birds in for a month! For a place like this that is a challenge, unlike the "freerange" farmer in this article, we do not have enough room for them to stay in their over night housing for 30 days. I am hoping to borrow a dear friend's barn which is much bigger and can house all the hens. However I must prepare for all the birds needing to be here. This morning I will be emptying the barn and preparing it for them. The cockerels will have to stay in their own houses poor things.

The geese will have to be separated and each pair put in their own house. The turkeys will need to be brought up to the barn and stay in the feed room, pushing the Muscovy ducks to the corridor in the goat shed. The call ducks may be able to go with the chickens.

It is going to put a big strain on us over Christmas and may stop me from visiting my family. Avian flu is caused by factory farms. The appalling conditions those poor birds live in infects the wild birds and bam we all suffer. This is usually a tool for squeezing proper farmers even harder, as was seen in Thailand after the first outbreak.

Here is to a very busy day, the one consolation is that with the hens inside under lights we will at least get some eggs!

Poultry keepers have been told to keep their birds inside to protect them from avian flu in Europe.

18/09/2016

Some of the girls have gone the other side of the hill for a little holiday. Happy girls in w**d heaven!