Photo Friday - 100

Thanks google for auto animating! This is our 100th post *does a little dance*. Its been a great eight months and we've loved how much the blog has grown in that time. Coincidentally, we also hit our 10,000 pageviews milestone (according to blogger) this week: that's 10,000 times you lovely people have come to look at our blog and for that we're exceedingly grateful. 100 posts with no...

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2013 Christmas Cards

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago one of our Christmas traditions is to make our own Christmas cards. I enjoy card making all year round, but when it comes to making Christmas cards it becomes a joint effort because some very different skills are needed. While I might happily put an hour or two into making an individual card, we don't have the luxury of that sort of time when we're making several...

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A Special Christmas Tree

Last weekend we were staying with our friend Chloe, and she had a very special plan for our time. Last Christmas they had made a tree with a difference and now it needed "one-upping". Since this year her husband was away with work Joe and I stepped in to help with the creativity - something we were very happy to do as I'm sure you'd have guessed. We decided to try and make a bauble tree like this...

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Photo Friday

An old granite mining cart at Parke, Bovey Trac...

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December in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been... ... tucking into warm food. Chicken food tends to come in two forms - pellets (easier and cleaner to deal with) and mash (same stuff just not formed into pellets). Mostly we feed our hens pellets, but at this time of year we switch to giving them a bowl of mash-porridge each morning which they love. I don't know if its the warmth, or if its just food, but they tuck...

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Origami Advent Calendar

I know I'm running a little late in the year for advent calendar explanations as we're already a week into December, but I'm going to do so anyway. We've had a variety of advent calendars over the last few years, some shop bought, others hand made. Last year I made this one, and as it's stood the test of being in the back of the cupboard for eleven months it is getting a second outing. When I say...

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Photo Friday - Ardkinglas over Loch Fyne

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Kitchen Gadget 3. Bread Maker

We eat quite a lot of bread, lovely fresh bread. For a while we made it all by hand (with a little help from our trusty Kenwood Chef), but then one day we were offered a bread machine that was gathering dust in a friends kitchen and we've never looked back. We're now onto our second having worn out that first gift. While we do regularly use it's normal cycles, we also love it's range of dough cycles....

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Sunshine and Christmas Traditions

A few weeks ago I was honoured to receive the sunshine award from Jo. As part of the award she wanted to know all about our Christmas traditions and that sounded like a great idea, so we decided to tell you all about ours - and ask you all about yours! Still being relatively early in our married life we're still making up what Christmas looks like as we go along. Some things we like and repeat, others...

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Photo Friday - Rhiwargor Waterfall

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November in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been.... ... not laying. That's right, not one single egg all month. It started with the moulting which should cause them to have a short break (making feathers and eggs is hard work on a hen) but we're coming to the conclusion that the shorter days and the cold weather might be influencing things as well. They seem otherwise healthy and we didn't get any eggs this time last...

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Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag

We enjoy watching the birds out the window so it will be no surprise to find out we have two bird feeders. Every so often they need fully dismantling and cleaning. Its a quick job once you have done it a couple of times so I thought I would show you how easy it is to do (this one is a 15 inch Droll Yankee feeder - like this one). Step 1: Realise your feeder needs cleaning. If the seed is growing...

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