Sunday 25 April 2010

New House and Blaze Farm

Ok, so the 'get all my catch up posts done in one week' plan didn't go so well and here I am bursting to tell you my exciting news but with a back log of info to tell you. I'm going to combine two posts in one today, our new house and Blaze farm. Tomorrow will be my birthday surprise (as long as Brian remembers to bring the lead for his phone home for pics). So first I'll tell you lovely people all about the wonderful Blaze Farm. It was one weekend after moving house and me and Brian had been busy for weeks on end so we decided we needed a break. We still had no Internet so I used Brian's phone to do a quick search for farms in the Peak and found Blaze farm in google. It was a lovely drive out through beautiful high peak countryside to the farm. It's such a lovely place with gorgeous views around it even on a dull day.
It was a brilliant place for me and Brian to visit and learn from. It was originally a dairy farm and as most of you probably know, the dairy farming industry isn't doing too well over here so the farmers have two choices-diversify or close. Blaze farm has chosen to diversify and has done it so well they've won awards. It's a really clever set up that me and Brian hope to copy in the future. You drive into the farm and then wonder around the cleverly laid out farm yard with sign posts pointing you to barns with plenty of gorgeous baby animals to look at and stroke like this gorgeous little lamband these pretty little calves,
you can then go for a stroll around the nature walk and pond (it was a bit windy but it was March to be fair).and the best part of it is it's all self directed, no staff needed. After all that you can head in to the farm shop for some of their amazing Hilly Billy ice cream or the tea rooms for some lovely home made scones, Mmmm. They also have a pottery painting shop for kids and adults and a function room to hire. All in all a lovely little place to put a smile on your face...Oh yes, I've dyed my hair red and purple too :) Right, you still with me? On to news of the new house. Well we're loving it here, especially the space. We were almost sorted inside the house with only a few boxes left when Mr. Sunshine came along and tempted us outside so we've done a bit more in the garden than the house at the mo (hence the lack of indoor pics) So here is the new house with one of the shiny new cars,
and here is the view from the top of the stairs.This is the corner of the garden I've adopted and did my first proper bit of gardening on. Most if the borders are over grown with brambles so the main mission was to clear them first.
I think I did quite well for an afternoons work,I've realised I'm here telling you about the new house but I have a definite lack of indoor photos. That will need to be sorted out. I do have this pic of some groovy window stickers I have on the loo window :)Think that's enough today. My bed is calling me and I'll be to tempted to start telling you the exciting news if I stay any longer. I'll leave you with a sunset from the hall window.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Jessie

For the first of my catch up blogs I'm going to start with the saddest. On the 5th of February my lovely Jessie had to be put down. There is no way I could write a post that would explain what an amazing dog she was and only other dog people will truly understand how it feels to lose her.
Jessie was a rescue dog but not in the normal sense. She belonged to a friend of a friend who had her from a puppy till she was 7 and gave her up because they we're divorcing and moving to flats.
I was aware they didn't really look after Jessie particularly well but had no idea of the extent to which she was mistreated as I'd only been to their house once, but that's all it took to fall in love with her, she was that special kind of dog.
I don't really want to go over the state she was in when we got her in too much detail, flee infested, hairless, petrified, half her weight, malnourished among other problems. I want to remember her for the gorgeous, loving, crazy dog she was. The pictures are in time order and hopefully the change you can see in her speaks for itself.
We were only lucky enough to spend a year and a half with her and I wish we could have spent longer making up for the bad times but hopefully it was enough.
Jessie had more love for everyone she met than any dog I've know and was a complete flirt with men :) she discovered passions for cheese, brioche and pretty much anything else that was bad for her with us. She had her own way of giving out her special Jessie kisses and hugs when you'd been away long enough for her to miss you (about a day).
She had so many funny quirks that made us giggle such as refusing to wee in the back garden if the grass was longer than 2 inches, spinning in circles to wipe her nose on the (cream) carpet after tea, putting on her most hard-done-to face when being bathed, falling off sofas and beds constantly because she expected you to catch her and so many other comedy moments.
I'm glad she didn't have to suffer for long at the end and happy that she is now with my Great Nan eating cheese mountains and running in fields of short grass. I will always miss my jelly belly bean and can't wait to see her again one day and get my kiss and hug xxx

Monday 19 April 2010

Back at last!

Well I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! I've definitely let the blogging habit slip what with moving and no Internet for over a month! (Yes we did shout at them lots Sian) But we have been connected for a few weeks now and alas I have not posted. I think the problem is a common one I struggle with-information overload. There is just so much I need to blog about and each item is worthy of a post all of it's own. I think I will have to do a few main posts on the highs and lows of the last few months and some of the smaller moments will just have to be missed. The posts to come will be as follows;
  • My Birthday Surprise!
  • Jessie
  • The New House
  • Blaze Farm
and all of these I will need to write this week as we have a very exciting weekend coming up with one of the first major stepping stones on our way to a small holding. Getting the chickens!!! I'm so excited I may actually pop before then :) Only a short post today to get me back into blogging. I'll leave you with a picture of a chick and mother hen I took at Blaze farm (which you'll hear about in the week). Feels good to be back blogging, just need to catch up with everyone else's blogs now!