Hibernation

I think I've gone into hibernation. Last week saw lots of drab, dreich days, I just wanted to curl up under the duvet and sleep.......

But this week has been all about crisp, hard frosts and Mr. Sunshine has come back out to play. It's amazing how a bit of sunshine can totally change your day :)

Some photos of the dazzling crystals in the garden.

Anyone else out there in hibernation?

L x

Back into things.

We are back home and trying to get back to normal, back into the routine of things. Friday was a really hard day, my first on my own with no one to look after, just me, myself and I. And a very messy studio with a huge backlog of orders to be made, put together, and posted out. I'm getting there, slowly. The shop is also back open now and is dressed for Christmas with twinkly lights and lots of festive loveliness.

Thank you to everyone for their thoughful comments, cards and phone calls, it's at times like this that you realise just how important good friends are.

Taking things slowly this week, but missing the buzz of the Country Living Fair, never mind there's always next year. I'm sharing a stall with Katie this weekend at a local Winter Festival so that shall keep me busy.

L x

Autumn Courses

At long last I got the Autumn courses organised last week, details sent out and the website updated, so places are now booking up. I enjoyed the courses that we did over the summer, and from the feedback we've had everyone enjoyed themselves and would like to return, so I have a list of requests for courses next year.

I'm really looking forward to the more craft orientated courses we're doing, needle felting and knitting, both being held in the cottage, sat around the dining room table with the woodburning stove going. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day, good chat, good food and getting creative.

It's a busy week this week, I'm off to a charity fashion show tonight (a girl is allowed a night off every now and then!). It's for a charity that is very close to my heart, The Sandpiper Trust. The family who have set up the trust are very good family friends and own the estate where I was brought up. So I'm looking forward to hopefuly seeing a few familiar faces this evening and catching up with old friends.

It's madness in the studio just now, trying to get enough stock made for the Perthshire Open Studio event, although it's a bit of a stab in the dark as none of us know how many visitors to expect.......

And then there's all that stock to be made for Chirstmas......?

See you soon,

L x

P.S. Another photo of us on the beach on Sunday. x

3 years on......

On the 8th of July 3 years ago we got the keys to our little shack in the country. We were about to embark on a new journey in our life together. Over the last 3 years there have many ups and downs, lots of hard work and far too much blood, sweat and tears shed! Amusingly, I've heard that Gregg was dragged here kicking and screaming to live the life that I wanted........I know that he kind of likes it here, he tells me pretty much every day! The man does have a voice after all, if he really didn't want to move here, I don't think he would have.......

We have met so many wonderful people over the last 3 years, many of which I know we will be good friends with forever as they are very special folk :)


The menagery of animals has grown over the last few years, we still have our two loyal cats, Bud and Lexie, and we have added Chrissie the dog, 22 chickens, William II the cockerel, our two very friendly geese Florence and Felicity, 10 ducks - 8 of which are our ducklings hatched this summer, and a new arrival is coming to join us next month.................

We are gradually getting on top of the garden, the veggie plot has come into itself this year and we only have a tiny bit of fencing left to be done! Gregg has built me the most wonderful studio and shop, a true labour of love. The house is still a bit of a shack, but plans are in hand to sort that out..........
Anyway, I shall leave with some photos of when we arrived to how it is now, a bit of an improvement I think...

The perfect working day

Today has been the perfect working day. The sun has shone, while out walking Chissie this morning I stopped to let the sun beat down on my face for five minutes, that always sets me up well for the day.

A bit of sewing was done this morning, then a friend popped round for a quick cuppa, some cake and some gardening chat. Photos were taken of said sewing done this morning and a wander round the garden to see what else was in need of some camera love.

Seeing as it was such a lovely afternoon, the wellies stayed on and some gardening was done.

A bed was cleared ready for planting and some seeds were sown, sweet peas and cornflowers. I've come in rosy cheeked and full of fresh air.

Here's a picture of Mr. Bud cat giving my wellies some love and the next one is of him watching the world go by.

WRI night

Tonight is the monthly meeting of the Mount Blair rural, yep, I've joined the rural, or should I say WRI. And no I've not started putting a blue rinse on my hair and wearing a pleated tweed skirt before you ask! Our group has a real mix of ages and some real characters. The first night I went along I was warmly welcomed and taken by the arm by one of my egg customers (a dear little lady who lives up the road) and she took me round and introduced me to everyone, now how sweet is that? I've made loads of new friends and really do feel like I'm a part of the community now. I've been cajoled into entering competitions and the like, and if I'm totally honest I absolutely love it.

Tonight we are having a joint meeting with the Kirkmichael group, over at their hall. The talk tonight is "A day in the life of a vet" by one of the local vets from Blairgowrie, I'm really looking forward to it as it's one of the many jobs that I fancied doing when I was a child. For me the best part of the evening is most definitely the supper, some groups just have tea and biscuits, whereas our group really goes to town with a full supper of savoury and sweet goodies, so no dinner is required before you go!

The competitions this evening are a bowl of bulbs and a jar of marmalade. As usual I checked the programme at the beginning of this week (always at the last minute!) and luckily had some hyacinth bulbs flowering, so I've titivated them with some pussy willow twigs and raffia. I made marmalade a couple of weeks ago with some lovely organic seville oranges, so bobs your uncle I'm all sorted for tonight!

Right, better go and get on, eggs to collect, dog to walk and a drake to catch, more on that one tomorrow!

L x

The month that was February!

Well, February has been and gone and we're well into March now.......where has the time gone? It was a busy month, so much happened........

I met up with this lovely lady for a day in Glasgow, we had great fun shopping for fabric and trimmings, I took her to VV Roleaux.......need I say any more!

I received this amazing gift in the post, not only is she a great friend she's a very talented lady - could you whizz up one of these in a weekend?

A friend recommended her hairdresser at Christmas time when I commented on how lovely her hair was, so I went and got a new hair cut, 5" off as I hadn't had it cut for over a year, very drastic but I'm now getting used to it. I'm not a fan of going to the hairdressers but I think I'll go back again...!

The reason behind the hair cut was because we were going to a christening here and a wedding here, a post about this will follow as I've got so much to tell you all about it!

It was a busy month with work too, lots of sewing for Valentines orders and lots of shop orders winging their way out of the workroom.

We've also been busy with the studio - what do you think so far then?

Ooh and it was also my birthday on March 1st, my mum and my two sisters came and visited for the day and then we had friends round for supper. Gregg cooked, Greek lamb with lemons and feta, I made pud, marmalade ice cream and chocolate brownies - good food and good company, what more could a girl want?!

So, now that I'm back out of hibernation I shall do the cushion draw tonight and post the winner tomorrow.

See you all then!

L x

P.S. Hope you like the spring cleaned look of the blog!

Friday already and family fun

Can't quite believe that it's Friday already, where has the week gone? Maybe it's the fact that we've actually had a proper, summery week of weather up here, washing blowing on the line every day. You know what it's like when you've had visitors, the washing machine is on for about a week after they've left and you always find the odd sock that doesn't belong to you.

Linda, Ian, Hayley, Jordan and Joshie (aunt, uncle and cousins) arrived on Saturday afternoon, thankfully bringing some decent weather with them. We left the boys to put up the marquee and us girls headed off to the berry fields to pick strawberries and raspberries for Sundays pudding. Then we had a mass cookathon on Saturday night, marinading a couple of joints of meet from here, making the chocolate slab cake that was in last months Country Living mag (it's delicious by the way!) and generally catching up.

It was going to be a simple affair, lots of good home cooked food, straw bales to sit on, tables borrowed from the local village hall and foxgloves in jugs on the tables.

Sunday arrived with lots of sun and all of the visitors, nobody got lost on their way here and we all had a marvellous day. There were 30 of us in total and two babies, enough food to feed an army and much fun was had. A very competitive game of football was played, a dead frog was placed in a Prada shoe and another dam was built in the burn.

It made me realise how important family is to me, how important my family is to me and Gregg. We've been together ten years this week, he is as much a part of my family as I am, he's been welcomed with open arms and accepted as part of my life, the way it should be with your extended family. That means a hell of a lot to me right now.

Our home comes into itself when it's full of life, kids running around, laughter filling the air, just general happiness buzzing about the place. It was a very special day, my mum and her five brothers and sisters all together, my grandparents watching most of their grandchildren running around with each other and two great grandchildren bouncing about on folks knees. Bliss.


After the last of the visitors left late on Monday morning the house seemed very quiet, I hate it when it's like that. Never mind, we'll just have to do it again next year.

A year of blogging........

I knew it was coming up but didn't realise it was today....................a year of blogging, where has that time gone? I've had great fun telling you all about our adventures over the last year, doing up the shack, tales of the animals and running a rural business from home. I've also made loads of superb friends over the last year, a couple of which I've even managed to meet up with.

I do find this whole blogging thing a bit crazy, I can't do it every day, I just don't have the time. I know I've been lacking in posts and commenting on others lately but life is just a bit hectic at the moment, I promise I'll get back into the swing of things and catch up with you all again very soon. I think the longer you leave it the harder it is to come back.......?

Anyway, this week is a bit mad, getting ready for the family invasion on Sunday, I think we've got a head count of around 36 people coming and a couple of babies at the moment...........where are we going to put them all?????? And trying to tame the garden is proving to be a case of dodging the torrential down pours, we may all be wearing swimming costumes on Sunday.........!

I promise I'll be back next week with lots of photos and more tales to tell.

Thanks all for letting me share our adventures with you. Sending you all love and hugs.xxx

On a mission..............

Too much wild fun going on here at the moment and now a mad panic before a family gathering of around 40 in less than 2 weeks time.........

Spare room to be painted, the garden to be tamed (?) and a mink to be caught that ate two of our chooks last night, little bugger..............

The joys of country life, it's not all a bed of roses.

Marie Chantal

Just a quick post to let you all know that Maries on-line shop is back up and running. When I did my post the other day on her beautiful products, unfortunately her site was down. So any of you who are interested in her products go have a look, they're delicious!

Today was a bit of a shopping day as I had been car-less for a week, I'll show you my purchases tomorrow and tell you all about the dilemma I found myself in over a pair of wellies!

See you tomorrow.

L x

From the garden.....

All this great weather has brought the garden on in leaps and bounds, veg, flowers and most of all weeds! Except for the parsnips, all the veggies are now planted in the veggie boxes as the last of the frosts are now hopefully past. We've been eating salad nearly every night for the last week, it's fab!

We're having a big family get together next month as we have family over visiting from NZ, so I'm hoping we might have some new potatoes ready for eating and plenty of salads, fingers crossed we might even have some fresh peas..........

I just need to get those second sowings done now.........! What veggies are you all growing?

A quick hello.....

Just a quick hello from me before the weekend begins. The dreaded lurgy attacked this time last week, needless to say I ended up in bed for a few days. Not one to play the martyr I slept it off, best way in my opinion! So, feeling a lot better now but sounding like I smoke 40 a day (although I do quite like having a Mariella Fostrup type voice!), I've been playing catch-up these last few days. I have managed to get a few parcels in the post and have another order ready to go out, so roll on the weekend!

I'll be back on Monday with lots to tell, I've spent a good bit of this week cheering myself up by organising our holiday, all will be revealed on Monday, lets just say I'm VERY excited!!

Have a great weekend, what are you all up to?

L xx

P.S. The picture is of Jacobs Ladder, we've got tonnes of it in the garden just now, it makes a lovely cut flower so I'm off to fill up loads of jugs to dot around the house! x

The wonders of nature

Don't you just think that nature is a wonderful thing? Yesterday was the big day, 21 days ago we'd sat our broody maran on a selection of 10 eggs in the hope that they would hatch in to little chicks. She has sat on those eggs religiously turning them and keeping them warm.

Gregg had popped out first thing to check but could hear no cheeps, I went out at 11am, lifted the chicken up and there facing me, cheep, cheeping away was a pile of fluffy chicks! 9 out of the 10 eggs hatched, the 10th chick had made it half way out of the shell but unfortunately had been squashed, survival of the fittest as they say. Today they are running around inside the little hen house, they've been shown by their mother to eat the chick crumbs and drink water so fingers crossed they will all grow into healthy chickens ( or possibly cockerels!). Maybe tomorrow they will venture out on the grass, lots of photos to follow I think!!!

Our day at the Rare Breeds sale on Saturday was enjoyable although the chickens were going for ridiculous amounts of money, I was outbid on everything so came home empty handed. Chicken keeping seems to be quite fashionable at the moment, certain breeds were reaching £45 per chicken?!!! One breed in particular, the cream legbar, was proving to be very popular, all because they lay a blue egg! They were actually the chickens that I was after, but luckily my uncle keeps them so we'll be trying to hatch some of our own this summer.

We also watched the livestock auction, cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. Seeing the piglets was interesting, there were Gloucestershire Old Spots, Great Blacks and Tamworths, all tiny little things squealing away. Gregg did pose the question " so if we do get a couple of weaners are you going to be able to take them to the slaughter house then?", there was a slight hesitation in my answer, but I'm pretty sure I could.

I came away feeling quite sad as some of the sheep weren't even getting as good a price as the chickens, one going for as little as 4 gn (4 guineas = £4.20). An animal that could provide the wool to put clothes on your back and feed a family for at least a couple of weeks was being sold for less than a bird that provides approx. 200 eggs in a year and probably wouldn't feed a family for one night, where is the sense in that?

Anyway, I shall leave you with photos of our proud mum and her chicks and some photos from the market. I really should be getting on with work but I just know I'll have to go and check on the chicks again!

Falling from grace

Well, the chickens had a good old laugh at me this morning! I'd let them out and was changing their water, we're lucky enough to have not one but two burns (streams!) running through our property, both of which border the chicken run. I was on my way round to fill up a bucket of water from the burn when one minute I was striding along, the next I was flat on my arse, caked in mud! I swear it was a chicken poo that I slid on. Little b*ggers. It's my own fault, I have been blessed with rather long legs, which means that I never walk anywhere slowly as I have quite a long stride, anyone walking alongside me tends to trot rather than walk. Maybe I should slow down, they do say "less haste, more speed" or is it the other way round?

Anyway, my rather cold and caked in mud bottom is slowly recovering and my jeans are in the wash. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those days.

Here's a picture of our French Cuckoo Maran sitting on a clutch of 10 eggs, they should hopefully hatch around the 6th or 7th of May, although she did decide to come off them for a little while yesterday, hopefully no damage has been done.

Crafty swapperoony!

I had planned to post about other things today but when the posty arrived with a rather large parcel for moi I just had to tell you all about it!

You'll recall from previous posts that I have a cyber twin, Rach, over at Oh the glamour...... From being days appart in age to lots of other things that we're both experiencing in life, it's just way too freaky how similar our lives actually are, but I won't go into all of that. We met at the Country Living Fair, I'm not sure if there was a crack of lighting outside the hall when we clapped eyes on each other, but I'm pretty sure a firm friendship has been found.

Last week Rach suggested that we do a little crafty swap, and true to her word a huge parcel arrived today, here's what was in it..........

beautiful hand dipped candles......

really groovy knicker discs........

a huge selection of gorgeous handmade cards......

and a fab covered notebook .

All handmade by the lovely Rach herself and available to buy in her on-line shop. What better way to start a boring old Tuesday! So all that's left for me to say is a HUGE THANK YOU to Rach, your parcel from me will be winging it's way over to you this week!

On the home front, Mrs. Duck decided to sit on her 12 eggs on Sunday so when we went to shut everybody in she was sat tightly guarding her nest. We put an old wooden fruit crate over the top of her with a large stone on top, thankfully she managed to survive the night out on her own. After getting lots of advice from the Practical Poultry Forum, we were advised not to leave her outside as a fox would stop at nothing to have her for a snack. So last night we managed to lift her off the nest, move her beautiful blue eggs and most of the nesting into a little coop for her to stay in. We're not sure whether this will work but we can only try. She has been out in the little run this morning making lots of noise, having a bath and some food. I had to coax her back into the coop where she has now returned to sitting on the eggs. I am a bit concerned that she is coming off the eggs for too long, up to two hours at a time, but I'm sure she knows what she's doing. We've got the whole summer ahead of us to try and hatch ducklings and I'd rather try doing it the natural way this time round.