It's Almost Over ....

It's almost over for another year, I couldn't resist taking this photo of part of todays washing!!

Once dry the Christmas T shirts will be packed away for next year.

The contents of my advent calender are now all in the makeup bag that was the final gift on Christmas morning. 

The empty calender is being saved for me to use next year for Alan.  I will keep my eyes open for little gifts to put into the boxes over the coming year, and hopefully M&S will do the same again next year so I can have another one too, as I absolutely loved this.

My favourite gift on Christmas morning was a box made up for us by my older son, which as well as containing yummy things to eat and brilliant items for daily use, included things from my childhood, that had been discovered tucked away in my ex's house and passed on to Simon for giving to me ... saving it for Christmas was a brilliant idea ... it made my day.

Christmas lunch was a quiet affair, cooked together after our daily chores had been completed, and tucked into on our new little table, with Christmas songs playing in the background and the sound of the dogs chewing on new Christmas bones at our feet.

The most successful show of the holiday break was 'Snow Bears'.  The dogs absorbed every minute of the tale of a mummy polar bear trekking across the ice with her twin cubs.

A full hour passed of doggy silence and concentration as the adventures unfolded.

We had quite a television based Christmas this year with the bad weather outside meaning chores were done as quickly as possible and doggies walked as and when we could, but luckily it's been quite good on the old box and I've been drinking in every detail of the BBC adaptation  of Little Women which unfortunately finishes tonight. 

Our Christmas isn't completely over yet though, as my youngest son is coming for a quick overnight visit between shifts from work this weekend.  As an emergency services worker, his Christmas dinner on the actual day was a hastily grabbed and very solitary bowl of pasta, so I think an action replay of our dinner would be a grand way to end our festive celebrations.

I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas, and can I just say a massive thank you for all the Christmas wishes on the comments on the last post.  It was so lovely to hear from so many people all over the world.

Sue xx

It's a Very Merry Christmas from ...

It's a very Merry Christmas from ... Ginger.

... from Mavis

and from Suky

Ginger proving he can still eat his dinner even while wearing a Santa hat.

The chickens have been a victim of their own success. 

Egg sales have been fantastic and we are wiped out for Christmas, so it's time to shut up shop for a couple of days and build up some supplies again, and talking about shutting up shop ... I'll be back blogging in a few days too.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

from 

Sue and Alan

Suky, Mavis and Ginger

 Jack and his ladies.  xx

"Can I take these off now please?"

Come on in ....

Come on in ... if you'd arrived ten minutes later the fairy lights would have been twinkling.

Christmas has arrived at ours!!

There are goodies in the cupboard ...

.. the contents of the hamper too.

There is food in the fridge ....

... my favourite 'fridge foods' at Christmas are the cold, cold tangerines, we keep the bowl topped up as much as we can.

Tinsel has been draped ...

... but sadly the snow has gone.

Never mind there is a stack of Christmas Dvds to watch ...

... now that we've finished filling stockings ...

... and have posted off gifts to grandchildren.

Would you like a glass of something alcoholic and very tasty ...

... or perhaps you have time to wait for the last batch of mince pies to be made.

You're off, oh well it was lovely to see you ...

... close the gate on your way out.

After you've said goodbye to the festive piggies of course.

Back tomorrow with more festive photos  :-)

Sue xxx

Christmas Delivered with a Soggy Bottom

We got back from an afternoons Christmas shopping in Llandudno for stocking fillers and a spot of lunch yesterday to find this in the garage.  It was in a cardboard box but when Alan picked it up the bottom literally fell out of it as it was so soggy.  It had been raining all day and perhaps the delivery guys van was a bit wet ... our garage floor was certainly moist!!!

It's our annual Christmas 'thank you' present from the company Alan works through for the day job.  They downgraded from the Fortnum and Mason ones we used to get a couple of years ago, but these are just as lovely.

Inside the little cool pack were these.

And the rest of the hamper, once it was cleared of the paper straw ...

...was full of these.

Not a bad selection, it should keep Alan and any Christmas guests in tasty nibbles for quite a while.  Unfortunately there is little of it that I can eat just the mince pies and the onion marmalade, but it is a lovely gift and very appreciated.

After a nice lunch out and then coming home to sort through all this food, all that we could manage for our supper was a chip bun each ... very tasty washed down with a can of cider  :-)

Sue xx

It Started as a Scribble ... and Ended Up as a Christmas Tree

It started as a scribble ....

... well really I guess it really started when I looked out of the window and saw this absolute decimation of one of my favourite views from the kitchen window. 

When Alan prunes, he prunes with gay abandon and nothing is safe, so down came most of the little tree and bushes that made my little shed look like a fairy tale shed nestled in the wood.  Now it's exposed I'm sad, it looks bare and un-protected .... it will grow back he said ... it was already perfect I thought ... you bloody vandal !!

Anyway I digress ... in a determined effort to make good a bad job, the smaller branches have been cut up as kindling and some of the bigger branches have been put to a very good use.

A free and totally homegrown Christmas Tree.

I left them to dry off a bit on the Aga so they wouldn't leave damp marks on the wall and while they warmed up I found some green string (thanks Dad your string stash is still coming in  handy), pulled out the one box of Christmas decorations that survived our big decluttering session over the Summer.  We had chosen to keep only the most favourite of Christmas bits and pieces, the things that meant something to us and that we will be happy to see year after year.  I had enough for a quick tinsel strewing of the living room .... and to decorate the pile of twigs ...

... that were about to be turned into a Christmas Tree.

It didn't look much at first, twigs and string hanging from a single screw in the wall that usually holds my 'cottage fireside' picture.

But the fairy lights glammed it up, as only fairy lights can.

And with the addition of a bit of tinsel, some of our most treasured Christmas bits and pieces picked up over the thirteen years that we've been together, and a wrapping paper covered flowerpot filled with Christmas crackers ...

... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas  :-)

Sue xx

And So It's December

And so it's December ... how did that happen? 

This year has whizzed by so quickly that I am determined to make the most of this, the last month of 2017.  Every year for the past few years I have done a 'Reverse Advent', sorting out things to donate to charity shops each day and giving things away.  This year I  am have gone traditional and we each have an advent calendar, me the all singing, all dancing M&S make up and toiletry filled  calendar ...

... and Alan his favourite chocolates.

Allowed as they are obviously on ration to one a day.

We are obviously doing our usual donating to charity during the Christmas season in the form of cash in collecting boxes, helping specific homeless people and always, always, always dropping food in the Food Bank trolleys that we see in all sorts of shops at this time of year.  But it's a quieter donating, and this year each day for us starts with a treat .... which I find automatically gets you in a giving sort of mood.

Soon it will be time to dig out the Christmas decorations which we traditionally put up on our wedding anniversary  (4th December), but todays December task is to empty the Sealed Pot and see what our money situation will be for next years Challenge.

December ... the last month of the year and a time to think of others, yourselves and the future.

How did your month start?

Sue xx

Anniversary, Christmas ... and The End of an Era

It was our ninth wedding anniversary yesterday and we made the celebrations last the entire weekend.

On Friday we took Suky and Mavis to the groomers and whilst they were washed, dried, snipped and titivated and made to look even prettier than they normally are, we treated ourselves to a coffee.  Later on in the evening we went to the cinema to see Allied, a surprisingly good film, even better than the trailer had led us to expect..

On Saturday morning we opened our Sealed Pot and after years of using the money to do various Challenges this year we decided that the money was ours to do with as we wanted.  So we went to the bank to pay the bags and bags of loose change into our account and then hit the shops.  I bought myself a new dress and two pairs of shoes, and Lovely Hubby bought himself a power tool and it's accessories.

We ended Saturday with a meal out, something we have not done that often this year, so it was a treat to put on my new dress and dine at our leisure ...slightly too much wine may have been consumed  ;-)

On Sunday morning after a much more leisurely breakfast than usual we gave the house a good clean  and then put up the Christmas decorations.  We don't go mad, indeed each year we seem to streamline the decorations a little bit more. The ones we didn't use have been bagged up and will be dropped off at the charity shop later today while they still have time to sell them this year.

As you can see from these photos, the little black piggies on the gateposts have got their Christmas finery on too :-)

And this is where I have decided to share our lives for the last time.

Since January 2009 you have journeyed along with us as we moved from town to country.  You've been with us through the trials and tribulations of learning to look after chickens and pigs and as I learnt to grow enough vegetables to feed us and to preserve them in lots of ways to see us through the leaner months of Winter.  You have laughed along with our messy adventures and cried along with our losses ... feathered, furry and family .... you've been true friends in every sense of the word.  But, after much deliberation I think that now is the right time to claim back privacy for ourselves, and to close the gates on our lives in this public domain for the last time.

Thank you for being there, for being you, for the comments, the emails and the visits.  Thank you for following along throughout the last almost eight years.  I will still be around in blogland, and will leave this blog as it stands now for those of you who use it to link to the other blogs on my sidebar, although I will change the photo after this post has been live for a week.  This is not totally the end of my involvement with blogland as I will still drop by and comment on those blogs that I read regularly and follow, and hopefully keep in touch in a more low key way with my blogging buddies.   I hope you all have a wonderfully happy and peaceful Christmas and a calm and happy New Year.

We all have so much to look forward to.

With much love from

Sue and Lovely Hubby xx

&

Rosy, Suky, Mavis, Ginger

and The Feathered Flock

Ladies Who Lunch - Round Two

It just had to be done, the 'ladies who lunch' struck again :-)

Once again at the Wyevale near Mum's the offers were waiting for us.  Everything was down by 70% and the 'Maypole plant supports' that I had been keeping my eye on since they were first put out at half their usual £18.99 price tag were reduced to clear at £5 each ... so I got two.

They will be brilliant on the Veggie Patch next year for the broad and runner beans.  I also managed to find another tomato hanging basket at just a pound, it was lurking on a shelf all on it's own ... so I rescued it!!

There was only one thing that fell into the trolley that wasn't strictly useful, and that was this glass sign ... I just had to have it ... and at just £2 it would have been rude not to.  Between us we got £71.93 worth of goods for just £11.76.

Mum was very restrained this week and she just treated herself to a little solar powered owl light, to light up her tiny garden at night, the neighbours watch in amazement as she squeezes so many lovely little plants and accessories into her tiny patch, it looks wonderful.  I'll get a couple of photos next week if I remember to take my camera.

That should be it for sale goods at the garden centre now .... I think they are making room for all the Christmas decorations that are no doubt waiting in the wings ... there I said it ... the dreaded C word.  I'll go and stand in the corner and repent  ;-)

Sue xx

The Right Sort of Presents

We were both really lucky over Christmas and we bought each other and were given simply perfect Christmas presents.

A book and a calendar by Amanda Owen, one of the subjects of Ben Fogles latest series about people living in the wilds of the UK .....

... and two books by Simon Dawson, who along with his wife Debbie were another couple featured on the series.  Books that we will both be reading.

Lovely Hubby treated himself to two wood books with his 'Show and Tell' £50 ...  I don't think I'll be tempted to read these.

Lovely Hubby bought me a lovely pair of boots in the post Christmas sale.  He knew I had been drooling over the black version of these for months, unfortunately they only had the brown ones available now.  But for half the price who was I to argue over colour  ;-)

I bought my make up for the year ahead while we were out shopping for boots ....

... and some knickers ... just as my last couple of pairs bit the dust.

With all of these in the house, along with the toiletries and hand creams that we also received I think we are safe from being tempted to spend where we shouldn't during our minimal spending year ahead.

The right sort of presents, and of course there were a few frivolous stocking fillers ... a blow up bath pillow, Lego and of course far too much chocolate ;-)

Sue xx