Snoozy, Rainy Sunday

 

Yesterday it rained, virtually all day.  We dashed out between the heavy downpours to see to the chickens and quickly walk the dogs around the paddock.

 

In the house we caught up with some jobs that have lain unfinished since the move.  One of them was putting blinds up at the downstairs windows, so we can pull them down when the sun shines on the television screen on the lovely sunny nights we hope come back after all this rain.  They will also add a layer of insulation in Winter, double glazing, blinds and curtains together are a good way of keeping the heat in the house and not simply warming up an ungrateful Welsh hillside.

 

Of course the flipside of this meant that we do not now have three roller blinds in their packs cluttering up the corner of the living room. Space.

 

 

We also gave the conservatory a good clean, hovered the rugs, washed the floor of all the doggy footprints and then re-laid the rugs but with the green rug from our last place as a layer in front of the doors to hopefully dry a bit better the doggy paws when they dash in from the wet.

 

They've never learnt to wipe their feet these lovely little sleeping beauties of ours.

 

Of course laying the green rug meant that now to the corner of the bathroom doesn't have a rolled up rug in it, so the place is looking cleaner and tidier.  More space.

 

Once all this was done Lovely Hubby gave in to what was obviously a day for sleeping and crashed on the sofa with the dogs quickly cottoning on and moving from their beds to drape themselves all over him.  Then sun then came out and was shining directly in his eyes, he could of course have pulled the newly fitted blind down to cure this but the two dogs were already snoring and he was loathe to disturb them,  so when I came down to the living room I found him fast asleep with a cushion over his face joining in with the chorus of snores.

 

The smell of freshly baking scones and a beef casserole brought them all back to join me in the land of the living ;-)

 

Sue xx

A Walk through the Paddock for Mum

 

My lovely Mum is poorly at the moment, stuck in the house nursing Shingles, not nice at all.  So I thought I would take her on a walk through our paddock.  Breathe in the fresh air Mum and walk through the lush green grass with me. 

 

No sheep can come to munch on our grass yet as we need to put up a couple of fences and some gates, so in the meantime it is growing long and luscious for them.  When they do come they will be well fed.

 

 

At the top of the hill the ferns are starting to unfurl their wonderful fronds.  Lovely Hubby is zapping them with the strimmer whenever he has it out, but I love ferns and in between his assaults on their tender stems I love to watch them, it's a shame these are choosing to grow in the wrong place but there are lots in the woods for me to lavish my ferny love on.

 

Buttercups peek out bravely from the grass, all around them are tiny blue flowers but when I took these photos early in the morning they were yet to show their delicate beauty to the world.

 

Bluebells, escapees from the woodland are dotted here and there amongst the grass.  Tiny blue beacons adding colour to the field with their daintiness.

 

And as we walk in a full circle, with the dogs dashing here and there to sniff at things I cannot see, we come back to the trees we recently planted, the top picture is one of the apple trees still in full blossom.  A sign of hope for a few fruits later this year.  This is one of the Cherry trees, it's blossoms have gone now ....

 

 

... replaced instead by the fruits, slowly developing in the rain and sunshine of the past week.

 

As Suky leads the way back to the house, carefully bypassing the bare earth of the proposed roadway she takes us past the Whitebeam and Rowan trees dotted in front of the Laurel hedging, everything has taken well and is growing strongly.

 We should pause a moment by the Magnolia, it too seems happy in it's position with the smaller plants, Daisies, Genista and Azalea all around it.  Maybe we'll get some flowers on it next year, our neighbour has a long row of them in her garden so they must like this part of the world.

 

 

Crossing the driveway we need to stop to admire the strong beauty of the Auricular, nestled in the pile of rocks that form the temporary wall to our entrance.  Given to me by Mum and Dad a few years ago and bravely flowering each and every year throughout our moves, no matter where I put them and how much I neglect them.  Simply gorgeous. 

 

And a lone fern peeking through the retaining wall, waves goodbye as I check round the back of the house before going in with the dogs.

 

I hope the stroll was good for you Mum, it was lovely to share the promise of Summer to come with you and to record what we have here at the moment. 

 

Little by little we are starting to make this slice of Welsh hillside our own and it's partly due to the things we have learnt from you and Dad, to nurture the earth, to take our time with choices, to move forward slowly and steadily, but to remember to stop every now and then and savour the moments and the achievements.

 

I hope you're soon feeling better, see you soon.

 

Sue xx



Just Mooching About With My Pal

 

Me and Ginger love mooching about together ...

 

 

... we walk side by side, fur against fur.

 

Cuddled up and walking .....

 

... oops I want to go left and he's obviously got his eye on something else.

 

Where's he gone now?

 

Nope ... he's vanished.

 

Aha .... snuck up behind me again he did.

 

Mum's busy with those pesky chickens again, so she left me to talk to you today :-)

 

Gruff, gruff ... have a good day.

 

(I don't woof .... I'm a Pug.)

 

Suky xx

 

 

Shelves and Music

The shelves above the worktop, (made from the sliced into three, left over piece of worktop) have been gradually evolving.  Things I use on a day to day basis are within easy reach and don't need to be in cupboards.

 

I do try and keep an semblance of order and neatness to them, and there are a few items that are purely decorative and filled with memories.  It's always nice to be functional .... but not too functional.

 

 

The third shelf on the other side of the Aga is smaller but just as full. 

 

 Seasonings within reach for when I'm cooking, the chicken pot that contains the money we make from selling the eggs until it is banked. An enamel pot with all the bits and pieces that accumulate in a kitchen neatly stowed away from sight.  And the most used item in the house our Brennan sound system. 

 

Such a little music system but it holds all our collection of CDs, over 300 at the last count.  So much neater than a stack of CDs waiting to be shuffled through and with a brilliant clarity of sound.  We usually have it set to random so we never know what song will appear next but as soon as I leave the house for a while Lovely Hubby resets it to play his favourite bands ... Lynyrd Skynyrd and Runrig. Not that I don't like them .... in small doses ... but he likes them full blast and on repeat for hours ... oh well each to their own, he can't help having terrible musical taste  ;-)

 

Sue xx

Busy Indoors and Out

 

What's that we spy from the bedroom window.....

 

... surveyors lurking in Chicken World.

 

They were here the other day taking level measurements all around the house.  Measuring, taking notes, photographing and playing with their theodolite all around the place.  It's the first stage of the work towards our second planning application, so we can build  open fronted garage spaces and a workshop for Lovely Hubby next to the house.  The roofs of these will provide the platform for our solar panels, hopefully making us self sufficient for most of our electricity.  Another tick on our list.

 

Meanwhile indoors, two plumbers tried to fathom innards of the upstairs toilet, it's a good job they were friends the space they were both in is tiny, really tiny :-)

 

 

While washing the cups from all the cups of tea I had been making this gorgeous little face stared back at me.

 

The surveyors' dog patiently waiting for his master to finish work.  Isn't he gorgeous, our dogs loved him, but I kept them inside while so much was going on.

 

And I apologise for the unseasonably cold weather .... I unpacked my Summer clothes from the suitcase under the bed ..... need I say more!!

 

Sue xx

Our Own Bluebell Woods

 

I've been meaning to take the camera out with me on our early morning doggy perambulation round the paddock for the last few days ... and this morning I remembered.  The Bluebells have been in full bloom for a couple of weeks now giving the whole woodland a wonderful blue tinge.

 

 

Walking towards the end of the paddock you start to see through the gap on the trees the vast carpet of blue flowers.

 

As you get closer the individual plants appear before your eyes.

 

We don't walk through this part of the woodland at all as it is very steep.  We have been that way on a couple of occasions, once when we first came to view the property and then again to check things over when we first moved in, but it is nice to leave nature completely untouched if you are able to just so you get to see what things get up to unaided and unhampered by a human touch.

 

Walking back towards the house whole vistas of Bluebells open up before your eyes n the gaps between the trees.  This part of the woodland is more accessible but we have been busy doing things in the paddock and around the house so no foot has broached the area recently to squash these beautiful flowers.

 

They spread themselves each year and this year for the first time they are appearing in the paddock.  Bending down to get a photo ....

 

... made Ginger, the cat come over to see what it was I was watching. 

 

He joins in on virtually all our doggy walks these days.  Lolloping around the paddock, and into and out of the woodland as he shows off his graceful feline skills to the dogs.  There's been a few double takes as car drivers and coachloads of tourists see me walking with two dogs and a cat.

 

He's taken to sleeping curled up with Suky this last few nights, they look so cute together but every attempt at a photo has been thwarted by his sharp ears hearing me coming, making him jump out of bed to lead me to the stack of tuna tins that he knows provide the most tasty breakfast.

 

"I'm as beautiful as a flower aren't I Mum."

 

Sue xx

Freebies

 

 

I don't know if any of you have been collecting the Lurpak butter codes and entering them in the website.  But it was well worth it, I managed to get a total of three freebies with my codes.

 

A pair of blue oven gloves, a really good quality brownie tin, something I was short of as I have never had a square tin always making do with my other tins, and therefore not quite getting the right thickness on my brownies or flapjacks.

 

 

And this rather dinky kitchen timer.  I love its little note telling me to wipe it clean with a damp cloth and not immerse it fully in water as 'it's not a good swimmer'.

 

I love it when companies take the time to make you smile.

 

Sue xx