Holiday time

We've been away on holiday. Yay! We've been to the same farm in Wales that we've been to before and this year, as last year, our oldest granddaughter came too. It was a lovely time and I really appreciated time out from all the responsibilities and jobs at home : )

The farm is a lovely place and there are ponies, horses, Welsh cobs, donkeys, goats, llamas, sheep of lots of different breeds, geese, ducks, hens, 5 dogs and a cat. Just lovely and I'm more than a bit envious.

We've come back to an enormous amount of weed on the allotment and loads of fruit that need processed now. So you can guess what I'll be doing all week : )

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This and that

We seem to have been doing lots of extra things recently and I haven't got around to blogging about them.  We have been looking after our youngest granddaughter as our dil has got a temporary job for this term. I really look forward to her coming and having a good excuse to play : )

One evening we went out to our friend's farm and helped with shearing the sheep. He only keeps eight ewes now and a ram so an evening was enough time. I'm sure the sheep were cold that first night but were pleased not to be wearing all that wool in those hot days last week.

I made lemonade (cordial) and elderflower champagne and posted the recipes for those.

My husband had a birthday and we had a bbq at my daughter's house as it was half term. That was fun. I do enjoy a family get-together.

We went away for three days. My husband had two days of meetings in Cambridge so I went too as it costs the same for a room and travel for two as for one.  It is a lovely place with so many really old colleges and churches. And I can't believe how many bikes there are in Cambridge. And I passed so many bike shops too. It is big business there for bikes.  The only problem was the humidity which made walking not as pleasant as it could have been. I love walking along the river and watching the rowers. There are so many pieces of green there which are not allowed to be built on and were covered with groups of young people chatting. this visit. Some are municipal parks now and some others are common land but it is so nice to see so much green inside a town.

My items gone total has crept up a little bit and I have another bag of things waiting to go.  It is much harder work this year and my natural inclination is to hold on to things "just in case". The trouble is that I find it hard to part with things especially when they have memories attached but still, some things have made it out the door even if I am way behind in my schedule.

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Days away

We've been away for three days and I really enjoyed it.  My husband had to go to Cambridge for a two day meeting and could stay at a (cheaper) hotel on expenses.  As the charge is per room and not per person, I went too and my son looked after the menagerie. Cambridge is a lovely place, full of old buildings and I loved wandering round looking at them.

M&S had sent me some vouchers that I probably won't use, but the one useful one was for £2.50 off the bill at a their café. So I went and had a lovely sit down with my book for an hour and sipped at a smoothie (costing £2.50) full of vitamin C and which they said would contain 2 of my 5 a day. I really enjoyed it and the break in my wandering was welcome too.  It was mid-afternoon and the place was more than half empty so I didn't mind staying for a while as I was in nobody's way.

This is my second visit so I am sussing out places where I can sit and eat my lunch. It is not yet the weather for sitting in a park or by the river. I went to the Tesco near the hotel and bought a pack of rolls and a bag of leafy salad to put in the rolls with some cheese spread. This made a tasty and moist filling which was not expensive. Certainly it was cheaper than buying a sandwich. I never go out without a bottle of water with me, either. So that was lunch sorted for both days with some leftovers to be eaten really quickly at home as cheese spread really shouldn't be out of a fridge for very long. My husband was sorted too as he had a cooked lunch provided for him. We shared the provided (and generous) meal in the evening so the lunchtime rolls were the only cost for my days away. Nice!

The one thing that I am missing in Cambridge is visiting the charity shops. I've only spotted three so far. There must be more than that somewhere in a town that size. Sometimes one can spot something in a fresh lot of charity shops. I've been looking for a new warm winter top/jumper for several months but I haven't found anything in my size that I like. I didn't think that I was very fussy but maybe I am after all. Or maybe there are loads of people in my area who wear my size and they always get there first.

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Birthday time

I've been having fun recently.  My younger daughter and my son and I all have birthdays very close together so this year we had a joint family "do".  Everybody came as well as a few close friends and we had fun just chatting and catching up.  My daughter organised the food and everybody was detailed to bring a particular dish so it wasn't too much of a chore for anybody.  The grandchildren really enjoyed themselves as there were lots of people willing to play with them.

I've also had a couple of days away in Cambridge this week. My husband had a meeting there and the hotel charged per room and not per person so I went too.  I've never been to Cambridge before so I got to wander round while he was in his meetings.  I loved looking at all the old buildings and colleges in the town centre. My one complaint is that there were very few places to sit down and give my weary feet a rest.

I'm still processing fruit. There are still quite a few blackberries on the bramble in our garden and I'm still stewing windfalls with either blackberries or sultanas and putting bags of stewed fruit in the freezer along with another bag of plums that I was given. I still have sloe and apple jelly to make and I have citrus fruit in the fridge for marmalade. I'd quite like to make some sweet apple chutney too.  I've made piccalilli because I know my daughter would like some for Christmas - and when it was all bottled, I realised that I had forgotten the mustard.  So I'm not quite sure how that will turn out...

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A week away

This last week we went to stay at the farm in Wales where we have been before.  Our eldest granddaughter wanted us to take her and it was booked about six months ago before any cat issues arose.  If I hadn't gone, then my husband would not have gone and then my granddaughter would not have been able to go either.  So I bullied my son into agreeing to see to the hens and the rabbit and calling in three times a day to see to my poor old cat.

The week away was absolutely lovely.  Yes we had a bit of rain but we did choose to go to Wales : ) We also had a lot of dry weather in between the wet bits so we were still able to go out and about.  We like to go on to the moors with our boots and have a nice walk, chat to the sheep and then go back to the car for a cuppa and a read with lots of looking at hills.  My granddaughter was helping on the farm each afternoon so we were free after lunch to go out on our own.

Since we had gone to a rural area, I went to lots of shops and feed merchants looking for a new pair of wellies.  I want a pair of slightly shorter ones but couldn't find anything apart from Dunlop green up-to-the-knee ones and Hunters at £70.  Looks like I'll have to put up with my really old ones for a bit yet.

The rabbit and the hens survived us being away and so did my cat but she has faded so much this week that I took her to the vet this morning and she is now buried in the garden beside her friend, my other cat.  Both of them developed cancer of the mouth which is a dreadful way to go. The poor thing was just skin and bone as she could no longer eat very well.  I cooked a chicken breast for her breakfast and chopped it almost into powder so she could lick it up. The vet was so nice and understanding.  I took him back the tablets that we had not got through as he uses them for any strays that are ill and brought in to him.  It is better than just putting them in the bin.  My house is so empty this afternoon. 

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Pancakes

I'm sitting at the keyboard trying to type by reaching past a quietly purring cat on my lap.  Not very easy as she is moving her head so I can't see the keys very well. Any typos are entirely due to said cat : )

We had a lovely evening out last night.  The BB (Boys' Brigade but we have girls too) had their pancake night last night and invited the church to come as both a fundraiser and a bit of fun. They had made over 120 pancakes to share among about of us and there were lots of sweet fillings.  My grandchildren were there and predictably, they chose chocolate sauce.  Just as predictably, I had sugar and lemon - my absolute favourite sweet filling - and my husband had honey.

It is half term this coming week  so our three children and their families have rented a house in Skipton together.  I hope the weather is kind to them and that they can get out and around lots.  We are left behind  for cat sitting duty.  We'll be able to go away later on when they can be on animal sitting duty for us. That is a treat I can hold up in front of me and look forward to.

My house has too much Stuff.  I've been reading lots of blogs that say this and I looked around my house and agreed that I need to lose lots of Stuff too.  I made myself a promise at the beginning of January that I would lose 1000 items during 2015.  So far I've lost about 80 items, most of them small.  So I'm a bit behind.  I've just passed on a box of Lego to my son for my grandson.  So can I count the individual pieces...?

Holiday : )

We've been away for a few days and we are back now.  My older granddaughter wanted to go and stay on the farm in Wales where we've been before.  She wanted to help with the animals and her parents didn't really want to stay for a week so they took her down, stayed for a weekend and then we went down and took over and then brought her home.  Not that there is very much work involved - it is more a case of being around and then providing meals. My son and his family went down on the Sunday and stayed one night so their children got to see the animals too.  They love being there.

We managed to go for a walk on the moors on three of the days and we loved that. There are a lot of areas of moorland around there and I love a quiet walk with just a few sheep to talk to. I am not surprised at the lack of people in February when we last went, but I had expected to see a few walkers in July/August.  I suppose because we work in a school and are always coping with teenagers that I really value the times when we can get away and be a bit antisocial : )

One of the oldest goats is losing her teeth and can't chew hay any more so we were asked to save any veg and fruit peel/cores to supplement her diet.  That goat is very knowing (and very friendly and gentle) and when she sees anybody coming her way with a tub in their hand, she is suddenly very interested.  It was fun! I could cope with a small goat in the garden if the council weren't so dead set again anybody keeping cloven hoofed animals...

In the last week of the term, my hens just about went on strike and I had hardly any eggs.  Lots of my work customers were asking for extra eggs to start them off for the school holidays and I hadn't enough to give some of them their normal ration let alone extras. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how many they had laid when we were away.  Perverse creatures!  Let's just say that omelettes won't be off the menu for some time yet.

We went down to the allotment yesterday.  The warm weather and the rain we've had recently meant that we couldn't see the crops for the weeds. There is plenty of work there to keep us out of mischief! However, the autumn raspberries are showing signs of flowering and it looks like there will be a reasonable crop of little purple damson-y plums, so I reckon I will be making jam and maybe some plum chutney. One of my summer jobs is to increase our stock of marmalade which is getting low. I haven't got my hands on any fruit for jam yet this summer but the blackberries are ripening nicely in the hedgerows...

Today we went to a house not far from us where a kind lady had said that we could have her shed as she wanted rid of it.  Not having seen it, we thought it would end up as firewood with maybe some of it being used to make another shelter to keep wood dry.  Now, however, as it was in pretty good condition, we are thinking of swapping it for the old shed up the garden.  We had to take this shed to pieces and that took some time.  Lifting the two halves of the roof off the walls proved to be a problem.  The second half slipped and I ended up briefly with the full weight of it and banged my shoulder rather so I'm a bit stiff now.  After that, I knew that I would not be able to help get the sections of shed up on to the roof rack so I sent for reinforcements.  Fortunately my son-in-law was at home and although he was in the middle of some DIY himself, he came and helped load the car roof rack and then came to our house to help unload again.  They need to do two trips so I was very grateful to him for dropping what he was doing and coming to our rescue.  The next job will be to put the shed together (after we've decided how to shift things around to fit it in because it is bigger than our current old one) and I think we will be calling on his help again, bless him.

Got there!

I feel like I crawled there on my hands and knees at the end but I have actually got to the summer holidays from school.  Hurray!  Yesterday I did one load of washing and pegged it out and later brought it in and folded it but I didn't do anything else that could remotely be described as useful.  Today I feel better for the rest and hopefully tomorrow a bit better still.

On Saturday, we had the birthday party for our two small grandchildren.  My job was in the kitchen - preparing food, serving food, clearing up food...  I was so tired that when we got home again, I fell fast asleep.  I always have difficulty sleeping when it is daylight so this is very unusual for me.  I put it down to a severe case of end-of-term-itis : )

Nearly there

Just one more day, then freedom.

Nearly there : )

All I shall be doing at work tomorrow is to finish clearing my room so that the team of cleaners can have a clear run and phoning up about some things I ordered for school which seem to have gone astray.  No kids : )

Just one more day.

Easter is coming

Tonight we have our first service of the Easter celebration at church. It is a joint service with various other churches in the area but we are hosting it at our church.  Tomorrow, Good Friday, the same churches will gather for a short service and then a Procession of Witness up the High Street to another church where there will be an even shorter service.  In the evening, there is yet another service.  Then on Sunday there is an early service followed by breakfast (eggs for Easter!) and then a brief interval (music rehearsal for us) and the main service.  Then a bring and share lunch and an afternoon of fun for everybody.  We are not providing music for just one of those services...

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and my husband had been asked to preach at another church a few miles away.  It was a good service and beautiful weather so we drove into the lanes behind the little town and ate our picnic in the sunshine and had a little walk.   We parked beside a field gate so that we would be off the road and other cars could pass by.  When I stepped out of the car, there was a fallen branch almost covered by the weeds that were growing so we got out our little saw that lives in the boot and the branch went into the boot in pieces.  Next winter's supply of wood for the woodburner is growing. 

On the way home, we passed very close to a large branch of Tesco that I hardly ever get to visit, so we called there and brought home lots of yellow stickered bread and salad.  I took a carrier bag of goodies to my son's house, one to my daughter's house and one to my friend down the road.  Lots of happy smiles from the recipients and the three bags didn't even cost me £3 in total. 

On Tuesday, we went to my lives-slightly-further-away daughter's house.  She has just come out of hospital after an op and that was our day for looking after her.  Family and friends are doing one day each until her partner can be off work.  It was nice to have a quiet natter with her and see for myself that she is definitely improving.  An assurance over the phone is not quite the same as seeing for myself in person.

Last night we went to our first barbeque of the year.  It was another beautiful day and most the the family gathered at other daughter's house and we sat outside and chatted until it became too cold at about 7.30.  I always enjoy seeing my family and playing with the grandchildren : )

This has been a good first week of my holiday so far.  And the list of jobs to be done has not got any shorter because I've been too busy enjoying myself.  I need to remedy that!  Maybe I need to reprioritise the jobs to make sure at least some things get done next week...

Holidays

Just one more get-up and then it is a holiday for Easter.  Yay!!  There is lots going on in our lives at the moment:

• My husband has got lots of bits of work on the go
• My new little hens have laid an egg each twice this week and their eggs are getting bigger
• There are lots of seed trays around the house and new plants coming
• My poorly cat seems to be improving and is now eating me out of house and home
• My daughter is going into hospital tomorrow for an op which will improve her life greatly
• My grandson came to fetch me from work yesterday and we played tig (current favourite game) round the shelves of books and my knee survived
• We were out of bread so I made a little flat loaf of soda bread on the woodburner last night so that there would be fresh bread for breakfast.  I used my new kefir and the bread worked (and tasted) just fine.  I'm not sure that the kefir is working properly though because it tasted vile when I tried a spoonful and I love the tang of natural yoghurt. It always amazes me that bread and scones taste so good when I've made them with sour milk
• My husband has been asked to preach on Sunday at a church 20 miles away.  I'll go with him and hopefully the weather will be nice on Sunday and we can come back through the lanes and look at green fields.  If it is nice, I might even pack a little picnic : )
• There are lots of services at church in the coming week to celebrate Easter
• I've been asked to knit little "chicks" to cover creme eggs for Easter again.  I knitted lots last year but they have not given me much notice this year

Half Term Ramblings

We had booked to go and stay at the farm in Wales where we have been for the last few February half term breaks.  It feels like home from home now.  However, my husband's important meeting changed its date (rather late in the day) to the Monday of half term week so that meant that we could not go to Wales until the Tuesday.  Soooo....

My son and his family went on Friday night and stayed until Tuesday.  We overlapped by one meal and it was good to hear that young grandson really REALLY enjoyed himself.  It was his first time on a farm and to be honest, I wasn't sure how much he would take to all the animals around (and to the five dogs - I don't think he has ever met more than one at a time before) In fact he cried his eyes out because he didn't want to go home.  Son-in-law brought oldest granddaughter down on Monday.  They stayed overnight and then SIL left.  Granddaughter stayed until Thursday evening (getting up at 5.30 each morning to help with the animals...) when SIL fetched her home.  And we stayed until Sunday, giving us two days of peace and quiet.  At least the family all had fun and we really appreciated those two days on our own.

On the Saturday, I went to a chicken wholesaler and bought 5 little brown hens.  I'd taken my biggest cat basket with me to Wales just in case... The farm had a spare run and they set up a hen hotel for me (well, for the hens, actually) for the night. And we came home on Sunday and put the new girls in a temporary run until we get things re-jigged a bit.  They seem happy enough and one of them has laid two miniature eggs this week - about 35 grams and the older ones are laying eggs weighing about 75-80 grams.  Having lost my beautiful bantam crosses recently, I'm very pleased to have some new girls.

We spent most of our few days in Wales up on the moors.  We would have an early lunch and then go and park up in some of our favourite spots, go for a walk and then sit in the car with a cuppa from the flask (and some homemade biscuits) and read a book or do a sudoku in between admiring the fabulous views and chatting to the curious sheep.  We thought it was a very busy afternoon if more than one car/van/tractor passed us : )  We were fortunate that we had showers rather than solid rain so we were able to go for walks.  I was delighted to be able to go for a walk this year after tearing the cartilage in my knee last winter.  For a long time I thought that I'd never be able to go for a walk again...

And now I've been back at work for 5 days and the holiday is rapidly sinking into the "distant memory" category.  I never cease to wonder at how quickly that happens.

Holiday : )

Well, half term has come and gone but it was wonderful while it was here.  We've been away and stayed in Presteigne, right on the border with Wales.  The river Lugg is the border between England and Wales just at that spot and the river was just a few yards around the corner from our house so we were in Wales but only just  : )

The kids had clubbed together and staying in a house and having a holiday together was their birthday present to us as my husband has also recently had his annoying birthday with a big fat "0" at the end of it. Wasn't that a lovely thought!  I have to admit that they all went home and left us alone for the last couple of days and it was blissfully quiet.  We had really enjoyed the time together but a couple of days' peace and quiet to recoup before the onslaught of another half term was just what we needed.

The house we stayed in was Georgian (typical three floors with little windows on the top floor) and still had the slate flagged floor.  It was just lovely.  In the kitchen, you could see where the range had been and where the adjacent little salting room had been, now incorporated into the erstwhile kitchen which is used as the dining room, you could see on the flags the marks where the salting barrels had stood.  The salting room was on the north side of the house and had a little window about the size and shape of a large letter box to ensure the food in the salting room stayed cool. We had the benefit of a large built on kitchen which was well kitted out to cater for a large number of people staying. We also had an old, (but nowhere near Georgian) roll top bath which looked and felt so much more luxurious than our acrylic standard version at home.  

I'm always fascinated with practical history and how people actually lived. Our house had originally had a coach house but that area had been sold long ago to the neighbours who had built an extension to their house on that little bit of land but our garden still went in an "L" shape behind it. There were lots of other quirky (quirky to us in 2013...) little features that we discovered too.

The older area of the town was charming - mainly due to the fact that they hadn't invented planning regulations when these houses were built.  You built one house according to what you wanted and could afford and then the next person came along and built another house on to yours according to their wants etc.  So no two houses are the same and they are all at different heights and with different pitches to the roof and it all works together just fine.  Some houses have the Georgian look and others have beams and ancient tiles (not many thatches) and lots are jettied with that typical Elizabethan upper floor that bit bigger than the ground floor. Some of the Georgian houses had cellars so they were over four floors and I don't know how modern people cope with the heating bills for such houses...... Lots had an arched coach entrance to one side of the front and a courtway through at the back.  Some of the houses had a Georgian front but the back was closer to medieval in age.  Just fascinating! Some of the small beamed houses were of the one up, one down size and you know that three generations probably lived there together with umpteen children raised yet they look as if there would be standing room only for a family.  Most of today's children expect a bedroom each or no more than two to be sharing a bedroom.  We live such a different life today.

The rest of our family were sorting the meals (and cooking them) so that left us bringing some of the treats, which has totally blown my budget for October but it was so worth it.  I am so pleased with them all for dreaming up such a lovely present and giving up their time to spend it with us.  There were lots and lots of happy memories made.

Who pinched my summer holiday?

I'm sure I'm only halfway through my holiday but the calendar says that it is the 1st of September today so that means I am back at work tomorrow : (

I love my job but actually I have a whole host of things that I still want to do before I am back at school. And I've run out of time. Again.  During the year, I look forward to this big long holiday in the summer (5 1/2 weeks this year).  I think about all the things I can do and about taking my time in doing them instead of rushing about trying forever to beat the clock.  Time takes on that childhood quality of seeming to last forever when I am thinking forward to that big, long holiday.  And then I get to the holiday and pfft, it is gone before I've hardly had time to realise that it has arrived.

So what have I achieved in 5 1/2 weeks? Well, there is that nice long list of jams and pickles.  And I've made 3 more:

• raspberry plus jam (ie I didn't have enough raspberries so I added a little bit of rhubarb and a handful of blackberries. The predominant flavour is raspberry which is my husband's favourite.)
• lavender and lemon chutney (haven't made this before but I like the sound of it)
• last of the summer jam.  Jam, not wine...  This is made from a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a small handful of the other - blackberries, sloes, wild damsons (sieved to get the stones out), crab apples, quinces and a small number of windfall apples just to make sure that it set.  It did set well, and it has the most wonderful flavour which can never be repeated because I'll never have just that mix of fruit again.

And the little purple damsony type plums on our little tree are not ripe yet so there will be more.  After not getting my hands on any fruit to make jams or chutneys last year, this year is definitely one of bounty - and of lots of hampers of goodies being given at Christmas.

We did get away too.  Going away is always a problem as somebody has to feed the animals and let the hens out in the morning and shut them up at night because we get a large number of foxes through the garden.  However, my daughter and her family were going to stay at the farm where we often go in February half term.  Since we had never been in the summer, she suggested that we go down for a night and we would all just squash in somehow.  The journey is about 70 miles door to door so it is possible to go down early morning and come back after tea the next night and have two days out but only one night away.  Easy to get somebody to look after the animals for just one night and one morning?  NO!  My eldest daughter was away on holiday and so was my son and we were going to visit my other daughter so none of them could help.  The only person left was my friend down the road but she was going away the day we were coming back.  She could only help if she got a lift from somebody to get her to meet her coach for 6.30 am.  The only person we could find to do that was away on holiday and came back the night before... So my friend saw to the animals on the evening and got up really early to see to them the next morning and get back to her house in time for the other friend to pick them up to get them to the coach for 6.30am.  How convoluted is that! 

My granddaughter was helping with the animals at the farm and as there were no guests booked for the following week, the farmer offered to let my daughter and family stay another week if they covered the basic costs.  My granddaughter was thrilled (mega-understatement!!!) but my daughter had things booked and could not stay all week so we were called into service to granddaughter-sit for 3 nights which was not exactly a hardship : )  My granddaughter is a useful person and was actually of some help around the farm.  How many teenagers do you know who would voluntarily get up at 5am to help with feeding and mucking out? We did not see much of her but we had fun and she had fun too. I also brought home from the farm 4 bantam crosses.  My hens are not laying many eggs at all now because they are just too old so I'm hoping that these will help with that problem when they are a bit older.  They are currently 11 weeks old and will probably start laying about 18-20 weeks old.  They are black with that kind of iridescent greeniness that you get on magpies - pretty!

The following week we went to Plymouth to see my husband's family for 4 nights, which was lovely. On two of those nights, there was the firework competition up on the Hoe and that was marvellous.  We really enjoyed that and were delighted that the firm that won was the one we chose too.  We also enjoyed getting up on to the moor and just pottering around.  Considering that we were on the Plymouth side of Dartmoor, I was amazed that we saw so few people on some beautifully sunny days in August. 

This last week we decided that we needed one more trip out, so we went to Ryton Gardens, near Coventry, which is the home of Garden Organic.  We found some quiet little lanes afterwards where we could stop to have a quiet cuppa on the way home.  It was in those lanes that I got my blackberries, sloes, wild damsons and crab apples for the jam I mentioned above.  It was a good day and I shall remember it fondly when we eat some of that jam in the winter.

So those are some of the things that I have done this summer but there are an awful lot of jobs that I haven't done.  My vacuum has packed up and I went to the shop and can't decide what to buy.  Currys had vacuums ranging in price from £30 to £400+  How do you choose?  So I haven't cleaned my house within an inch of its life as I had intended but just done bits with a dustpan and brush to keep it ticking over.  The fridge is on its last legs but we didn't replace that.  We spent money replacing lots of little bits on the car but haven't yet managed to track down the remaining electrical fault on it.  We did however replace the television as it was ancient and the sound had finally packed up. Can you detect my husband's influence here? He could live without the vacuum etc but not without his tv : )  However, he did gird his loins (literally) and has tackled the blockage in the downpipe from the roof guttering.  He has tried before but this time he has succeeded and managed to remove a large amount of foul-smelling gunk.  In heavy rain, the blockage would mean that the water backed up the downpipe and sprayed out of the joint halfway up the wall.  When I say "sprayed" I mean that it came out with incredible force and hit the bay window 18 inches from the joint with such noise that it was impossible to carry on a conversation.  So that section of wall behind the downpipe is now damp and that is where we have bookshelves on the inside...

And as for the ironing pile (mountain), it has only been reduced to a large hill, whereas I had plans for it disappearing altogether.  And there were all the other jobs.  Ah well, there is always manaña ; )

Work and holidays, holidays and work

We went away for half term to the farm where we stayed last February half term. I wasn't sure about going because I've damaged my knee and I knew that I wouldn't be able to do much of anything.  But we went and I'm so glad that we did.

It kept trying to snow but it never really came to anything and at least there was no rain at all.  On one day, the sun shone in a cloudless sky and it was more like summer than February.  There was a woodburner and plenty of wood so we were kept luxuriously warm.

Each day we'd get up in a leisurely way.  Just not having an alarm clock was a treat in itself : )  We'd potter and then have an early lunch and go out for a (short) drive to a bit of moorland with a grand view and I'd sit in the car with a blanket and my book and my husband would go for a bit of a walk.  Then we'd have a cuppa from the flask and read for a bit, look at the view and then go back when it started to get dark.  Usually we'd only have seen a small handful of cars and probably would not have spoken to any humans, just some sheep.  We lead a busy life and deal with people all day, every day so it is a real treat to be antisocial for a week and just be on our own.  Longer than a week and I'd be wanting to see people but a week is just long enough to be a tonic.  The clean air does wonders for my husband's asthma, too.

At the moment I can't stand for very long to bake or cook (or do anything else for that matter) but I wanted to bring something nice and homemade to have with our afternoon cuppas so I made a small tray of flapjack the night before we went.  I don't know what I did wrong but we couldn't get it out of the tray.  So we just took the whole tray with us and decided to deal with the problem later.  Once there, we managed to lever out enough chunks to go with several cuppas and then scraped out the rest as crumbs which got put into a plastic tub.  We went to the Aldi in the next town and got a few bits of shopping to eat for the week and also had a small tub of Aldi icecream which was on offer.  Those flapjack crumbs were really lovely with the icecream and a spoonful of homemade jam. 

The farm is just 20 acres and they have lots of animals so I'm in my element.  This time there were 8 assorted sizes of horses and ponies, 2 donkeys, 3 llamas, 1 alpaca, 2 English goats and a flock of various breeds of sheep,. There were also 3 Brecon Buff geese (very pretty!), umpteen ducks from little call ducks to big Aylesbury with lots of mallard crosses and half a dozen flocks of hens of all types all wandering round following their own cockerel.  They have just acquired a little flock of 6 ex-batts which are so obviously enjoying their freedom and are so curious and follow you around to see what you are doing - just because they can. They were also given some golden Sebright bantams and three of the chicks have turned out to be cockerels.  I found it strange how loud their voices were in comparison to the other normal size cockerels and how far the cockadoodledoo carried across the farm.  They walk very upright and have large tails for their size but they are very small compared to even a Warren.  The females were not old enough to lay so I didn't see an egg but they must be tiny. I've "borrowed" these photos off a website so you can see what I'm talking about



On the day we came home, we called into Knighton where there was a craft and produce fair.  I gulped at the cost of the baked goods and jams/chutneys.  I was chatting to an older lady who had brought her knitting to do as she minded her and her daughter's stall. We got chatting about the socks she was knitting and she showed me the ones she was wearing.  She took my address and yesterday I got an envelope containing a copy of the pattern she uses (4 needles) and a copy of the one her daughter prefers to use (2 needles) and a couple of others as well as a card.  What a lovely envelope of goodies to receive.  She was so pleased that somebody was taking an interest in her knitting and just wanted to spread the word.  This lady also said that handknitted cotton socks are much warmer in the winter so I'll have to look out for some sock yarn on offer.  I don't have any shops round here that sell knitting yarn other than one charity shop that sells cheapo baby yarn.  Anybody recommend a good mail order company for yarn?

So now we're back with our noses to the grindstone again.  However, more treats are in store: we're going round for tea tonight to our son's house so I'll get to play (gently and from a sitting position on a chair) with my little grandson and granddaughter : )

It is the end of half term.  It has been so damp this week.  I've got two loads of washing out on the line and the sheets are drying as there is a little bit of a breeze.  Even the towels are looking promising. The weather forecast says it will be dry tomorrow too so there will be another two loads out on the line.  We still haven't had any heat on in the house so the washing just will not dry inside.

Tonight, we are going out gallivanting.  It is my son-in-law's birthday and as he is moving into a new decade, they are putting on a party.  There will be about 60 people there and I won't know about three quarters of them.  I'm not a big party person and my husband is even less so.  There is bound to be somebody I can hide in the corner and chat to.

My husband is down at the allotment.  He popped home for lunch and apparently the slugs have been having a free lunch off plants that we thought could sit in the ground and wait a bit before harvesting.  Grrr. The leeks are doing quite well and I love leeks so I foresee a leek-ful winter.  Soup, stir fries, just as a veg, tucked into all sorts of dishes.  Yum!

The hens are still producing some eggs.  One pair (Warrens) has given up for the winter but surprisingly, the two Bluebelles who are the oldest hens by far, are still laying about 5 eggs a week between them.  The youngest ones (Warrens again) are still laying 5-7 eggs a day from 7 of them.  They are scruffy looking urchins, that group, but seem happy enough or they would not be laying so many.  The trio who came from school, are laying 1-2 eggs a day with the occasional 3.  There are still enough eggs to keep all my customers happy.

I'm off to do a little bit of ironing and then I'll go out and give my hens a bit of corn.  A little reward for laying such nice eggs for me.

Lots of things have been happening here.  We've been away on holiday.  Just five days because that was all we could have with animal sitters but we enjoyed them.  We went down to Devon to see my husband's family so we spent time up on Dartmoor.  I need my regular fix of hills and Dartmoor is wonderful.  There is always somewhere to go and park the car, go for a walk without meeting anybody and then come back to the car for a cuppa from the flask.

On the way down to Devon, we stopped off to visit an old schoolfriend of mine who has recently moved house and now lives in a beautiful bungalow with lovely sea views.  It was great to see her and her lovely new home.  We also popped across into Cornwall to visit a blogfriend that I haven't seen for a couple of years and had tea and cakes (homemade, of course) with her.  It was good to catch up on news.  She is a really nice lady and very kind to let us visit. And I do enjoy a natter with like-minded people.

After visiting this friend, we went to visit a favourite haunt from the days when my mother-in-law lived in Callington.  We had a picnic lunch up on the moor and then went for a walk in the sunshine.  I took a photo of my husband standing in the sunshine beside a tor.  Ten minutes later, the heavens opened and we had a monsoon.  We had cagoules in the backpack but there was not a dry thread anywhere not covered by the cagoules - literally.  When we got back to where we were staying, I had to empty the water out of my walking boots : )

Last week, we found a house with a field.  It is about 12 miles from where we live now so we could still see our family but too far for them to animal sit.  We have been to view it and have spent the last few days trying to work out if we could afford the house and do the repairs needed.  This house ticks more boxes than any we have seen before but there are a couple of big negatives. 

Decisions, decisions.  I'm not sleeping, have permanent indigestion and I'm not happy.  Anyone got £100k to spare that they don't want because then I could buy the house AND do the necessary repairs and still have enough money left to eat.

And really big thing - my new grandchild is due next week : )

Well, we made it.  Day one of the summer holidays has finally arrived.  I have such a long list of jobs to do.  I have such a long list of jobs for my husband to do... : )

The sun is actually shining in celebration and I'm not doing anything useful at all.  I've decreed that today is a holiday from everything except that which must be done to feed us or the animals. And I'm enjoying it. That list of jobs can wait until Monday for me to start on it. After all, the jobs have been waiting quite a while already so what is another couple of days of waiting?

Back at work again.  We did get away for two nights at the end of last week and that was great.  Our daughter and family had gone to the farm where we stayed in February half term.  They had to leave earlier than planned so they suggested that we went down on Thursday and we all squash in for a night and then they would leave and we would have a day to ourselves.  However, granddaughter was having such a great time helping with all the animals that they didn't leave until 10pm on Friday night and we had to be out of the cottage by 10am on Saturday morning...

We arrived for lunch on Thursday and went for a walk (4 miles-ish) over the moors.  That was lovely.  The sun was shining and the ground was really springy underfoot so it was a very pleasant walk.  On Friday, we went to the Elan valley and the plan was to park at the Visitor Centre and walk around the nearest reservoir.  Well, we started off along the designated foorpath but then we had to leave the edge of the lake because of a river coming in.  This river used to be dammed into a smaller reservoir and was blown up in 1942 by Barnes Wallis as part of the trials for blowing up a major dam - remember the Dambusters film?  Anyway, we had a disagreement as to where the path went at the top of that hill.  Obviously the first part of the path is well used but then people look at the gradient of the next bit and go back to the Visitor Centre for a cuppa instead, because the path is less well defined. So we took the path voted for by the majority of our party.  They were wrong!  We went up and down every little valley for every stream and river that flowed into the main reservoir instead of ambling along the top of the hills...  I'd tripped over a root up on the moor the day before so it was not long before my back was protesting loudly.  I was so grateful when we stopped to eat lunch because I could sit on a nice rock and take the weight off my feet.  The view was fantastic and we could see very clearly where we should have been walking.

Where the reservoir narrows, there is a road bridge across and my husband and I said we would take the short(er) route back, leaving my daughter and her husband to go on round the original route.  So we split up.  We walked about 3-4 miles back to the car and they did about 8-9 miles.  We walked downhill to the bridge and then back to the car along a level cycle path - absolute bliss for my back after all those steep ups and downs.  They walked on the steep paths and then on the cycle path for the last bit.  I was getting slower and slower and they got back to the car just 20 minutes after us!  We had a flask in the car and that cuppa tasted like nectar.  Had we gone on the intended path, it would have been so much easier.

Granddaughter did not come on either walk, nor on any of her parents' outings - too busy helping with the animals on the farm.  She was so busy on Friday night that she did not come back for dinner until 9pm and they left at 10pm to drive back home. 

On Saturday morning we woke up (having slept very well) to find that it was snowing heavily and that the snow was laying.  So we packed up quickly as we had to leave by 10am because there was another family coming in later that day.  We stopped up on the moor for a cuppa for a last look at those wonderful hills which look absolutely fabulous with snow on them and the sun shining down.  Then we drove home after stopping again for a sandwich up on Clee Hill to admire some more views.

Then it was home and feed the animals and unpack and my husband went over his sermon for Sunday morning.  Our minister had taken a group to Spring Harvest and my husband, being the associate minister, was taking the service.  In the afternoon, after a very quick sandwich, we went to the big Tesco where we struck gold - also known as yellow reduced stickers.  We got there as they were reducing the already reduced things.  I got 24 portions of meat at an average price of £1.20 per kilo as well as lovely bread at 10p a loaf.  And I had a £5 off a £40 spend voucher too.  The freezers are groaning now.  We went to that particular branch of Tesco because it is on the way to my friend's farm where we were going to see how the lambs were doing and to see the 3 little calves born that week, one just the day before and still all wobbly on his legs.  They have black Dexter cows and had borrowed a red Dexter bull last year.  This produced three fine bull calves, two black and one absolutely beautiful red one.  Being bull calves, they are all destined for the freezer but it doesn't stop them being very cute.

A really good break from school - lots of jobs done (not enough but still lots achieved), Easter celebrations, a mini-holiday away, an incredible Tesco shop, a visit to the farm.  The two weeks went by too quickly but I have some good memories to store up.

Our livestock have increased in numbers. A friend of ours rang up and said that the date had been fixed for their emigration to the Antipodes and please would I have the last two of their rabbits. They had rehomed the other four but these two were still in need of a home. So the animals now are: three cats, three rabbits, four Warrens, three bantams and Mrs Speckledy Hen. I am going to need more than my little bit of hay to cope with three rabbits over the winter. It is just as well we have an allotment and can provide lots of greens and other veggies for the bulk of the year. I tend to buy a 20Kg sack of rabbit food from the feed merchant where I buy the hen food and it works out way cheaper than the pet shop - just a few pennies per rabbit per week.

We've just been away for a few days to stay in a friend's caravan. It was a kind offer to let us stay there and we've really appreciated it. It was not far from home - just 40 minutes to drive there but it was a wonderful rest. I kept falling asleep and so did my husband. We are two poor old souls! We read and pottered and went for a little drive to a pretty village and then had a little walk round and did nothing very much really. It was really wonderful! I had taken a few tins from my stock cupboard with us as reserve supplies and then went to the nearest Tesco at the time when I thought that fresh and chilled goods would be reduced. If there were no bargains to be had, then the tins would have come into play and I was going to bake some quick breads with a bag of flour. We were fortunate and got lots of their nicest bread reduced to 10p. We froze it in the caravan's freezer and it lasted all week and we even brought a bit home with us. We also got some salad stuff reduced and the sort of veg (eg baby sweetcorn) that I can't ever bring myself to buy unless reduced but love eating and had a great stirfry and a pastabake the next night. So even our holiday food came at a bargain price. I had baked a cake to take with us and we bought a tub of nice icecream so we felt we had lots of treats and ate like kings. But the rest was the best thing. We really needed a time to recover because the end of term was just frantic and the moving of the Library had drained me.

And now we are back home and need to make a list of all the jobs that need to be done before we go back to school at the beginning of September. I will need to rank them in order of importance to make sure that none of the urgent ones gets overlooked. Sometimes a job has needed done for so long that it just blends into the background and somehow becomes "normal". But - I still want a few times to "play" with some of my craft stuff. I'm hopeful that I might manage to produce something that will become a Christmas present for someone. And I definitely want to prune a little stuff that is sitting in piles round the house. Maybe I'll be able to sell one or two things on ebay and put a little more aside in the coffers.

While we were away, we naturally looked at properties for sale that had most of our requirements. There was absolutely nothing in that area within £100,000 of our budget. Very disheartening. We talked around the possibilities of mortgages, staying at work and commuting and every way we could think of because we would be close enough that our children would probably visit us more than an obligatory once a year - but it is not going to be possible with the kind of prices that properties are going for in that area. Ah well, back to looking at Wales again.

I also talked seriously to my husband about ways to prune our spending even further. We really need to have as much money (ie cash) behind us as possible so that we can repair any property we find. We are thinking that any property that we find that "feels right" is going to have a lot wrong with it if we can afford it... He is not thrilled about me paring any more off our budget but he knows that most things that I try, work. He is helping as best he can. He sat down at the computer when our car insurance was due last month, and managed to knock £50 off the renewal premium with our insurer from last year. Our house insurance is due next month so he is keen to reduce that payment as much as possible. I'm happy that he is willing to do this as I seem to be in charge of squirrelling away pennies from day to day living expenses. After all we don't often get an opportunity to reduce a bill (and therefore not spend) by £50 but there are hundreds upon hundreds of opportunities in a year to save (and not spend) 10p or 20p or 50p and these can really add up. Also if we develop the mindset of trying to reduce the spending on small things, it carries over into larger things as well.

Time to make dinner. The cats are certainly telling me that it is dinner time!