The Best Weekend.

We have just had the most amazing weekend.

First we stayed at The Lavender Patch, the most luxurious beautiful B&B we have ever had the pleasure of staying in, highly recommended and we would go back anytime. Then we had a great day finding out all about keeping chickens on a larger scale (12,000 instead of 12!!). Will we do it? We don't know for sure yet, lots to think about, but the main thing in my mind is how happy (and healthy) the chickens were even when in a flock this size (2 x 6,000).

Then we nipped home for a quick turnaround and we were off on Saturday afternoon to Lyme Regis and to a B&B of such a contrast it was unbelievable. It was perfectly clean and had everything we needed but it was tiny, teeny tiny in fact. The en-suite was a cupboard, you had to open the shower to stand up from the toilet!! Everytime one of us stepped out of our 'bathroom' the other was in fits of giggles it just looked like you were coming out of the wardrobe!!

But still this was just a base for the day we had been looking forward to for so long, the chance to see River Cottage in all it's glory and to meet the lovely Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. And lovely he was, just the same in person as you see on the TV, no airs and graces just a really nice down to earth chatty guy, if only all celebs were like that!

We both got our new books signed by him and then Lovely Hubby joined the end of the last signing queue to have a more in-depth discussion with him. And he didn't mind a bit, they had a good chat about our thoughts and plans for the future and Hugh gave LH a few tips for really making it pay, even away from the celebrity, tv, book route. The whole of River Cottage (or Park Farm as it is really called!) was lovely, a mine of good ideas and full of like-minded people who were all out to have a good time. The thing that really stood out was the cleanliness of the place, they catered for over 2,000 people over two days and even with all the litter this would normally produce the place was spotless, everyone used the recycling bins dotted about and a little golf trolley drove around emptying these into the main recycling bins by the farms entrance on a regular basis. Everyone had time to chat, the well-known faces off the TV, the visitors and the experts that were exhibiting and showing their

crafts.

Gorgeous food was produced, cooked and sold on the site and you could see the chefs and cooks in action, picking the herbs from the kitchen garden, making burgers and veggie stews and serving them up piping hot and as fresh as fresh as could be.

The animals were happy and healthy and just as you see on tv, living in their little ram-shackle houses in their little paddocks occasionally escaping and then trotting back to get away from the throngs of people. The polytunnels and greenhouses were all available for walking through (and pinching ideas from), and the whole site was open to the visitors to stroll through and see in action. (Some naughty, nosy ladies even pressing their noses up against the house windows for a closer look at the living quarters.)

We thoroughly enjoyed our day and would repeat it in an instant, visit your selves next year, just sign up to the River Cottage website and you get information on all these days and other fabulous courses run by the team, although you have to act quick, this day was sold out within hours of going on the site.

Today I am off to Preston to drop my lovely son off at University, am I sad? No, not really, yes I'll miss him, but he is a lovely lad full of confidence and more than ready to take this next step in his academic career. We felt all the pangs that parents do when he went to University the first time to get his degree in Forensic Science, and now we know, he knows this is exactly what he wants to do we are just happy that he has this brilliant chance to do it. We will be here always ready to help, but for now he's back off into the big wide world and away from our little farm.

See you soon.

Sue xx