Life is too short......

Shamelessly stolen from another Blog.

Sue xx

Learning from the Animals

Archie the town cat with the immaculately fluffy tail brought to the countryside by us when we moved here. He spends his nights hunting and his days cleaning his tail and then sleeping....not a bad life.

He sits relaxing staring out at the world, allowing me a photo.....if I'm quick!

He curls up with his friends and has a snooze whenever he feels the need.

At times he leaps into action .....

... showing us his skills, agility and beauty, sometimes wanting a pat on the back for doing well, but mostly doing it just because he can.

We can learn a lot from animals.  Take what life throws at you, learn from it, make the most of it ... live it well... we only get one!!

The animals are keeping me grounded at the moment, walking the dogs in the fresh air (yes, Archie comes nine times out of ten), cuddling with Lovely Hubby and the cats and Rosy on the sofa in the evenings in front of our roaring log fire. 

My Dad is now out of hospital with strict instructions to rest, to take time to get back to normal..... what's normal..... it's different for each and every one of us......normal is good, especially when it's your own version of normal.

My version of normal ........ my family and friends safe and well, doing what they want to do, when they want to do it.

Sue xx

Patchy Blogging

Sorry for the patchy Blogging of late, there's reasons ..... lots of reasons. 

As this Blog is about 'Our New Life in the Country' it doesn't always seem right to encompass all the personal things that go on.  When I do you are always right there with your support, love, prayers and good wishes, but I'm not, by nature, the type of person who goes out of her way looking for sympathy or extra support, I've always managed on my own, helped others and I find it hard to lean on and accept support when sometimes maybe I do really need it for myself.

I'm always there for my family when they need help, in any way I can give it.  I know how hard it is to have help refused so I am opening this Blog post today to just let you know what has been happening here in deepest darkest Oxfordshire and in the corners of England that my family call home, the reason why, for a while I have lost some of my bounce, why things seem a little 'bit too much'.

Simply a list (I can't find any words in me to accompany it).

Losing Mum (Jessie)

Seeing my Lovely Hubby in the depths of despair.

My eldest son sadly splitting from his wife.

My younger son struggling to cope with a bad dose of flu, alone in his home many miles away.

Wanting to get LH back on track with his healthy diet to control his diabetes.

Me being diagnosed with very high blood pressure this week. (I now hold the record in the family 210/110).  It's being monitored this weekend and will be sorted out I hope.

My Dad having a heart attack

The final one could really have been the 'icing on the cake', but he's alive thanks to the quick thinking and the clear headedness of my clever Mum. She noticed the symptoms, listened to his calm words telling her it would be alright and not to worry, ignored them, and did what her head told her to ..... phoned for an ambulance and paramedic. With their help, and that of the wonderful staff at Wythenshaw Hospital in Manchester, my Dad was operated on within hours of the attack and lives to fight another day.

The doctors have said that his healthy diet and lifestyle are what has saved him, running an allotment, minding the farm for us, dancing three times a week, generally being so very active for a man of his age..... almost 81.

What else can I say in this strange post except ..... thank you for reading and I know you will understand any absences from my Blog.

Sue xx

Jobs this week.......

This week has been about tidying the farm and making the best of what we have.

The polytunnel is slowly being emptied of the compost in the raised beds ready for our move, so the outside beds have benefited from all the freshly dug compost which has neatened them up nicely.  We want this place to look good for prospective renters when it gets advertised as soon as we definitely have our new home, (we are looking at a very likely candidate tomorrow, we're very excited!!).  It's been lots of hard work but I've had some very good help to do it.  The cats of course think all these nice clear beds are just huge cat litter trays solely for there use.

The bed and a half at the back still have lots of lovely 'chicken food' growing in them (weeds), I harvest a good bowlful every couple of days, the chickens needs freshly growing things to keep their eggs nice and tasty and their little bodies healthy, so until the frosts come and kill off the weeds they are ideal.

I've also been busy in my little workroom, making up Christmas gift bags and other items to sell at my final few Farmers Markets.  We have decided that we will stop doing them from the end of December, so I have four more Farmers Markets and two more Craft Fairs to sell off all my remaining stock.  I want all my regular customers to get lots of bargains in time for Christmas so they can give them as gifts, or just treat themselves.

It's been lovely to spend a bit of time playing with pretty things and seeing what I can make out of what I have left.  This time last year I was already wallowing through fields of mud trying to look after lots of big pigs ..... what a difference.

Sue xx

It's November........

It's November .....the sun is shining, it's unusually warm and the dogs are loving the doggy walks at the moment.  They enjoy them all the time, but these last few days the fields have been full of rabbits basking in the sunshine, pheasants roosting low in the trees just waiting to be scared by a barking dog.  Rosy loves it when they suddenly take to the air with the loud hollow sounding flapping of their low flying wings, she chases them for a couple of hundred yards and then comes back with a cheeky grin on her face looking for the next poor victim.

The early morning sun shines low across the fields, rising to it's full height by late morning, warming the farm with its rays and clearing any last lingering mists that may have been left by a chilly night.

The skies are gorgeously blue giving the farm a Spring time feel, only the leaves slowly falling from the trees and the weeds dying back show us what time of year it really is.

Even the crops in the fields all around us are having a real growth spurt with this unseasonal weather.  We walk the fields each day the dogs, Archie the cat and I, storing in our minds the memories of these beautiful days, knowing that all too soon we will be rushing through harsh winds and wading through mud to get our exercise.

Sue xx

Still Harvesting

Amazingly we are still harvesting lots of lovely foods to eat both from the Kitchen Garden -  Marrows (well they should be courgettes but they just grew and grew),  Spinach Beet, Kohl Rabi, Cabbage, Leeks, Carrots and this weekend I got the last cucumber and from the poly tunnel Radish, Lettuce, Spring Onion, Carrots, Beetroot and Aubergines, so no chance of us going hungry in the near future.

The Pumpkins are all safely stored in the spare bedroom, proper 'Good Life' fashion with the Marrows all joining them today.  The harvested onions are hanging strung up in the utility room and we have just one bulb of our Elelphant Garlic left, it was just so yummy we used it all up.

Of course all this lovely home grown food means that the How Low Can You Go Challenge is going to run for quite a while, stocks just never seem to go down in the cupboards as with all the preserving I'm doing as soon as I make space I fill it up again with jars of jams and sauces.  The same is true in the freezers, the space we have made is rapidly being filled with tubs of homemade soups and stews all made with the bounty of the Kitchen Garden.

Not that I'm complaining of course!!

Sue xx

Simple things.....

Simple things......are making me happy at the moment.

The bright jewel colour of the Damson Gin with the autumn sun shining through the bottle, now safely stored in a dark cupboard to mature nicely to be our Christmas tipple.  The lovely pale pink flowers on the Christmas Cacti getting more prolific every day.

Knowing we have four bottles of the wonderful stuff.

Last weeks mini harvest of potatoes, I had no choice ..... Rosy (the Jack Russell) decided these 'balls' were for playing with and dug up all the ones she could see peeping through the soil, still it saved me quite a bit of hard work, and that makes me very happy!   I will have to dig up all the rest this weekend before they rot in the soil.

Of course I had to sample one for lunch, I now cook my jacket potatoes the 'Jamie Oliver way'.  I saw him do it on '30 Minute Meals' and I've done it this way ever since.

Simply prick your potatoes a couple of times place them in a bowl, cover it with cling film and then pierce this in a few places, pop in the microwave for approx 5 mins per potato.  When they are feeling almost soft place them in an oven proof dish, glug over some olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Just 10 minutes or so in a moderately hot oven makes them absolutely delicious.

I had mine with a bit of salad and mayo.....yummy!!

Simple things = happy me.

Sue xx