Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all. I hope you have a fabulous christmas and a wonderful new year.

Love

Sarah
xx

Feeling festive

It is officially one week to go until Christmas, are you excited? I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older so appreciate the stress of the festive season a bit more, but there doesn't seem to be much christmas spirit around. Personally I blame the lack of Christmas films that have been on TV, it's just not right that Elf hasn't been on channel 4. Anyway.... I'm trying really hard to start feeling festive. Last weekend I put up the tree and decorated the flat, I even went for a wander around the Christmas market but didn't manage many photos before the rain came. 

 

This week is going to be hectic so I'm in planning mode. It's the last week of work and there is that big rush of things to get done before we shut until 2014, I need to finish wrapping presents and adding all the trimmings - because you HAVE to have trimmings, but also this Friday is my Nan's 90th birthday! So putting my degree in Events Management to good use, I've gone into party planning mode. I've hired the village hall, ordered a beast of a cake, I've made decorations, tomorrow I will be food shopping and on Friday night I will be baking/cooking my ass off. Anyone who gets to such a ripe old age deserves a little party, and fingers crossed (if everyone turns up), it will give her the opportunity to have all of grandchildren and great grandchildren together.

Are you feeling festive, or are you crumbling under the pressures of wrapping paper and curling ribbon?

Sarah

xx

Christmas at Cotley Farm

My nephew, Jack, is totally obsessed with all things farm related. To say he loves tractors is an understatement, show him a book on them and he can tell you which is which in his cute little voice, my favourite being when he says bombine (combine), adorable! Ask him what noise any farm animal makes and he will do an impression, it's just great. So on Sunday Erica, Jack and I joined Dad & Julie on their annual pilgrimage to Cotley Farm to get their Christmas tree. As soon as I heard that they have reindeer I was sold on the idea and was looking forward to seeing Jacks reaction to the animals.

The staff at Cotley Farm put on a great christmas experience. A couple of the sheds are opened up so you can go and see the lambs, piglets, calves and reindeer, all accompanied by free mulled wine and mince pies, then there is the christmas tree shop & the farm shop, full of meat (from the farm), cider, mulled wines and christmas decorations, it couldn't have been more festive. Obviously the animals were my favourite part, I mean I got to stroke a Reindeer for crying out loud. But Jacks reaction was just priceless. He adored the piglets and squealed the place down when they came near him, and there was a digger so it was a win win for him. If you're local to the Exeter/East Devon area then you should definitely go. For a free little outing it's brilliant and so entertaining.

 
At this point Jack was finding it hilarious to say "eat coat" to the lamb, while backing up and poking his arm through the railings. 

Seriously, look at that grin! He is the cutest.

Sarah

xx

Pomps Patch #3

Last week Rich and I made a start on building some raised beds. Our aim over the next few weeks is to prepare the existing raised beds by turning ground over and then covering them, ready for planting. We collected up the spare wood and got to work. I cleaned it all up and Rich drilled them together, he wanted to do the manly jobs with his new tools! Considering we'd never done anything like this before I think we've done quite a good job. It took us around 2 and a half hours to make 3 beds, not bad hey!

We made the beds in Rich's garden so we could take advantage of flat ground and electricity. As he lives 30 seconds away from the allotment, we carried the beds down and then began putting them in. We'd hoped it would be fairly easy as the basic shapes were there but we had a lot of leveling out to do to get them to fit. Plus it was nice to have two little helpers watching us while we worked, Percy and the ginger cat are best buds and excellent supervisors.

I love the view from our plot that looks over the allotment and the center of Exeter, it will be great in the summer.

We've had a week off from allotmenting due to birthday celebrations and a catch up with great friends, but it's full steam ahead this weekend. I'm planning on planting some onions and daffs ready for spring, yay!

Sarah

xx