Our online shop is now up!
Wey hey. Danny has mastered the techie side of our on line shop and it’s up! Just a few items but we will be adding more over the next day or so. Click on the tab under the header marked = Gifts = to enter and have a poke around. I’m very excited about it. The start of a whole new Cottage Smallholder adventure.
read moreThe mouse intruder
We have caught loads of mice over the past three months but there is one that has survived all attempts to trap him. He is living behind the cooker. Clearly a highly trained mouse survival expert, he scoffs at our humane mouse traps and evades the killer traps. Danny has become obsessed with this interloper. It’s war but as yet there is just a lot of muttering about poison and sterilising the worktops several times a day. Dispatching vermin is my department. If we leave the kitchen for a few minutes the mouse is back – with a trail of...
read moreThe Duchess
The last few days have been a bit stressful and frantic. Searching in vain for a replacement car. Meanwhile I was rushing about stocking up on anything too heavy to collect in the bicycle trailer. Friends have been very kind and generous. The Contessa’s diabetes has become very unstable and she had to be rushed to the vet – S and The Chicken Lady drove me down to Newmarket in the snow to collect her. Seraphina offered to lend me her car, every other week. But living in a village we need our own car. Then Danny came up trumps and...
read morePreparing for a gap between cars
We discovered this week that Danny’s company car is being replaced by a monthly car allowance. Panic. The car goes on Tuesday. Paying the tax will go on for another year as it was paid a year in arrears. Grrr. “Why don’t we get Jalopy repaired? She might be old but she’s a good car.” “I only get the car allowance if the car is suitable for carrying clients.” “Oh…” During a really hot summer a couple of cans of paint exploded in Jalopy’s interior giving an interesting patina to the roof and seats. And of course...
read moreA present of seeds: “such stuff. As dreams are made on..”
“What are those? They look like sweets!” A hopeful, sugar addicted Danny, was peering over my shoulder as I unwrapped the chunky package that fellow blogger *Emma Cooper had sent me as a present. “It’s Oca. One of the things on my extensive A Taste of the Unexpected wish list.” Yes, apart from the book list I have several others! Lists to lurk over and dream. I was thrilled. Then I spotted a pack of Goji berry seeds – also on the same wish list. I remember Emma blogging about these and am really keen to grow them next...
read moreCottage Smallholder has a ‘new’ sewing machine and is now on twitter
Pottering outside the village shop yesterday, I noticed a list of things for sale – wriiten with a spidery hand. My eye ran down the page to the line “Singer Melodie 50 sewing machine and 50 bobbins – £10” And below it “Large amount of materials, skirt lengths etc. £5.00” I rushed home, rang the telephone number and within 10 minutes was parking in front of a snug bungalow in the village. I’ve been hankering for my own sewing machine for years but could never justify the cost. Now I’m doing more crafts the hankering...
read moreNew member of the family
Years ago I found a lovely old lath back chair in an unused room in my Aunt Pickles’ house. This was to become a good friend and was a constant nightly companion when I first started blogging and often worked late into the night. Unfortunately it needed re gluing and, every now and then, a leg would fall off. I had plenty of glue left over from my days as a wooden toymaker and I would make a small repair. Then one day, rushing the repair I made the chair slightly off balance and one of the side struts snapped. The chair sat in the...
read moreGirly day out with Celia – a much needed tonic
For the first time in months I was woken by the alarm clock. I was going out with Celia (who writes the excellent Purple Podded Peas blog) and didn’t want to oversleep. The dogs, who are used to a very leisurely awakening, crept deeper under the duvet while I flew around the cottage, taking a shower, preparing their breakfast, chicken feeding and all the little jobs that make up the cottage smallholder morning. “I’d like to drop into Daily Bread, on the way to my mother’s,” said Celia. We were going to dig up a Cambridge Gage tree...
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