Tipping point.

We've reached that moment when one year becomes another. It's only minutes on a clock, but somehow it means so much.
Earlier today I needed a lie down and as I slumbered in a very cool bed, I thought about my garden and how I saw the flower beds in the spring and then the summer. It was so lovely to look ahead to the months to come. This house and home means so much to us all, so many plans lie here. Dreams of a future filled with potential and promise.
 
Next week there's a gathering planned outside the Mairi. Half of the population (150 - ish) are turning out to welcome the new arrivals to our lovely village. Wait! That's us and a couple of other newcommers!!! Holy mo, what an honour :D I'm excited and scared by degrees. I'll be practising a few new sentences in French, just in case!

So, on to the coming year. I've been knitting like a demon, ready for phase 1 of the new business - Grow it, dye it, knit it. I hope to grow the plants to dye my fleece, whih will then be spun and knit up to sell. I've been in touch with a lovely lady who breeds a local rare breed sheep (Oussant) who I'll be meeting with next month with a view to one day owning my own ewes. This is the slow part of the business, the animals, horses etc... are the beginning part of it all. I can't really explain it, as it will develope as time passes in an organic kind of way.

So the practice side has led me to little gloves, which were a Christmas present for the Moomin.

 She loves them and has cast on her own knitting for a large jumper. I can't do big projects as I get bored easily!
I straightaway cast on a new project for gloves as I couldn't resist the wool calling me and my gorgeous wooden DPN's that were my Christmas present from my son. I got a little bag with about a dozen sets of needles in varying sizes. They're super cute and so easy to knit with <3

I have mastered the Norwegian style and am happy to report that I have no hand cramps at all and can knit for hours in this style. I always knew there was a system out there for me.

Also, I found a wonderful walk this week but alas I didn't have my camera. It's not far from the house, but there are amazing rocks rising from the ground like the bones of Gaia. I wanted to stay, lie down, paint, meditate all at once, but I had the dogs with me and they ran off to find fox pooh and other smelly stuff! I'll go back by myself next time and take some pictures.

So, here I am, now in 2018 and I'm filled with excitement. I hope the New Year holds magical moments, times of hope and happiness and above all possibilites for everything you wish for in your life.
Love and bright blessings to you all.xxx

What to leave and what to take.

There are only a couple of days left of this year, and maybe some people are thinking of New Year's resolutions and some are wondering why they ever bothered. We often give up our resolutions after a week or so, because they're just too hard to stick to, right? I've often made resolutions that are way out of my control, regardless of the bestest intentions while sat full of Christmas food and wine and wishing that I'd indulged a little less. I'll get slimmer, fitter, earn more and be better at everything I try!  When you've overindulged it's never the time to make resolutions, if that's even what you want to call them.
From now on, I want to focus only on what I learnt from last year. What served me well, what lessons did I learn and what do I never want to repeat again? There are too many for me to list here so I'll keep it simple.

I discovered so much about my art and my work ethic this year. What I want to do is very different from the passion that flows through my veins. I have always wanted to paint and sculpt, but this year I've learnt that there is art in so many things I do, from baking bread to raising plants from seed and even from pruning an old tree in the hope of bringing it back to new life. Art is something I feel and breath, not always something I put down on paper.

So what am I leaving behind? Well, for me, I guess, everything. I've pretty much left all my baggage behind in the UK. I finally walked away from the things that were bringing me down found a new life, a new focus and haven't looked back since.
Looking forward, I face many adventures, many challenges and as far as I can see, many happy days full of hard work and rewards.  Bring it on :D

Arne and Carlos

I think I'm in love with these guys and want to make them my knitting brothers! As I can get You Tube on the tv, I had their vlogs playing while I did a little knitting. My lovely T gave me some very odd looks as he walked through the kitchen a couple of times, but I watch his cooking shows (and often enjoy them) so it's all square :D
Check them out if you don't already know them and if you want to learn how to knit Norwegian style. It's completely changed how I knit now :D

Arne and Carlos easy knitted socks

Wild in the Wildewoods

We had an incredible storm last night. The wind was so strong that the upstairs landing window blew open and the force pushed up the loft hatch with a mighty crash. We were scared for a while until we realised it was the storm and not a burgler crashing in. The dogs burrowed deeper under their blankets which is a usual sign that there are no intruders. The storm built up in force and then came the rain. No thunder or lightning, just incredible driving winds. Throughout the bangs and crashes the forest droned like a hive of angry bees. At one point it was calm enough for us to sleep, but I heard it building up again around 7am and a pain in my shoulder kept me awake as I listened for any hint that the ponies had escaped.  In a short while, we'll go and survey the damage.

How has Christmas been for you all? We had a lovely, peaceful time just chilling out and eating far too much!
Walley adored the tree but couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to play with the balls!

 We had a really cold and frosty couple of days where the sun was golden and the skies were clear.

 Yes, it was cold, but it was refreshing for a while, mud free.

 Finn and Dexter chose the warmest spot, outside of Moomin's window. They're often together <3

 Bambam decided that she loved Walley and snuggled up to him whenever she xould.

 On Solstice eve we lit our candles and put lights around the mantel piece to welcome back the sun.

 Bambam does love to pose ;)

Sadly, since Christmas eve, we've had pretty much non-stop rain which then led to last night's storm. It's been sunny on and off all day but only in between wickedly harsh showers and hail stones! It's a great day for the heating to stop working and trying to figure out the timer is a little beyond me. We persevere!!!

ps, the ponies were fine, but their buckets were scattered around in nearby fields! If that's the worse we have to deal with, then I think we got off lightly!

A feast.

We have eaten far too much and it's only Christmas eve! We had a gorgeous indian curry, cooked by my lovely man. I made the onion bhajis and bombay potatoes while also making bread and spiced red cabbage for tomorrow. Our meal was delicious and got us very niely in the mood for khristmas.

I'm making bread just about every other day at the moment as, it seems that we eat a lot more than we did in England. French bread is lovely, but just isn't any good for toast or sandwihes, and I really love a good sandwicch. So this has given me a lot of time to perfect my loaf! I've tried several recipes in the last week or so, but this is my good old standby recipe and it is pretty reliable. I'll share the recipe after Christmas if anyone wants to know. It has a lovely soft inside with a slightly crunchy crust, perfect for a good sandwih or toast.

Today was a gorgeous day. It started off with the usual drizzle, but after lunch a little weak sun warmed the damp air and we took the dogs and a bag of baubles to the woods. We dressed a little tree and had fun taking festive photos. There was a lot of tinsel, but the Moomin said it was tacky, so I laid it aside while we draped beads on the tree and before I could react, Manchee had run off with it. He danced and pranced with his prize and then savaged it until almost nothing was left. It was very funny, but clearing it up wasn't so much.
It was a good day and hopefully one to be remembered <3

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas as enjoy your day as much as possible. It doesn't have to be what most people call traditional, so long as it makes you happy. Blessings to you all.xxx

Holy ow.

The 'C' on my laptop is failing. If I want it to work, I have to bash the keyboard real hard or just type with fingers crossed. Sometimes it works and others not at all. If I want a capital, I an only use shift on the left side and never on the right. I'm sharing this be cause sometimes I just can't be bothered to go bak and orrect everything! I don't want a new laptop, I don't want to go through the whole thing of copying my hardrive and moving it to another, so for now I'm making do, but I can see a time in the future when I have no hoice. For now, I'm just explaining why my posts are strange as I use words that don't have CC's in them! oh for heks sake!!!!!

A little help from my friends.

Thank you all so much for your kind words, friends are just as important whether in the same room or across continents :D

I was struggling but then discovered that I could get You tube on my tv and listened to the Sergeant Pepper Film soundtrack as I pottered about doing little bits of work in between rests.  It cheered me up so much, I loved the film when I was young, but looking back now, it was so incredibly cheesey!!!

Having Fibro sometimes drags me down and then I go through the stages of misery, anger and acceptance. After the acceptance I usually pull myself out of it and get back up to fight again. I'm not as bad as some people I know and if I manage everything sensibly, I can live a pretty good life. Most of the time I'm fine and coasting along quite happily, but that silly fall last week just tipped me over the edge.
 I don't think it helped either that Wednesday was the 10th Anniversary of when I lost my beautiful Oliver. He was the most amazing horse and we had 20 very happy years together. It was because of him that I became an Equine Reiki master, as I wanted to support him in his twilight years. As he got older, the more he asked for treatments.

 I only had to put my hands out and he would put his head where he wanted to feel the Reiki. As often as not he would run away and leave me feeling daft and rejected! He had a wicked sense of humour ;)

So having got through a hellish few days, I asked T to help me improve how we feed the ponies. They've been wasting so much hay in the mud. He came up with these lovely hay mangers and made two in a day.

 At first the ponies were wary, but soon got the hang of eating from them. This has changed our routine so much for the better that I can even manage to do the feeds by myself if I have to. Although, I haven't had to this week as everyone has helped so much while I recovered <3

Yesterday, someone, probably Flash (far left in this picture) went through two strands of electric fencing probably after a fight over hay and manger rights!!!

We were sat contemplating the decoration of our little Christmas tree when Manchee started barking and just wouldn't stop. After yelling at him a bit, we all heard the thundering of hooves and got to the front door in time to see the ponies galloping across the garden and into the field behind. They did a lap of the houses at the end of the road and came back up the road, hooves clattering and mud flying to stop at the lush grass in the orchard garden. We quietly caught them with buckets of food and put them away again. Well it wouldn't be the weekend without a break out of some kind!!!


Edited to add. I'm such a doughnut that I blogged twice about Oliver, I guess it shows how much he's been on my mind this week!!!

I can do better!

It's not been a great day if I'm honest!

After a silly fall on Sunday my Fibro has kicked off in a big way. Today my back just got worse and worse as the day progressed and despite managing to do a little painting in the bathroom, I found myself in tears of pain and frustration. Getting angry with my condition is a pointless waste of time, but it inevitably, on occassions, it happens.
I know that in the warmer weather I'm so much better, hence the move to a warmer climate, but before I feel the benefit of that warmer weather, I have to deal with an increased workload with double the animals to care for.
I know that I can improve the way the animals are fed and the current system is currently being reviewed but for today, it's been one long hard slog after another. I need to get my thinking cap on work out some much needed solutions to these issues.

Ouch.

So tonight I fell over. I've been really good and managing to get everything done that needed to be done, but I guess I overdid it! I sat down to start knitting some presents and fell fast asleep, under the duvet with Bambam purring beside me. I really should have stayed there. Moomin and her brother sorted the ponies with T, but the alarm went off for the bread and I roused myself, probably a bit too soon.  Walley needed to go out for a wee and that was fine, but on the return I slipped on some mud and ploughed along the drive on my hands and knees. To most people that would be enough, but the shock caused a big old muscle pain and I was very sorry for myself. Not to stay down for long, I consoled myself with a chunk of a fruity breakfast bun! It helped a lot!

 The white loaf was also very good and not quite as burnt as it looks in this picture. I'm finally getting the hang of this oven.

In a couple of days it will be the 10 year anniversary of when I lost my beloved Oliver.  He was all I ever dreamed of in a horse. We were best friends, confidantes and soul mates. I still feel the pain of his leaving as badly as when he first went. I don't live with it daily, but sometimes the loss just hits me. A great big absence of feeling.
I'm giving him Reiki in this picture and he loved it. I would hold my hands out and he would just put his head where he wanted. It's a bad picture of me, but he looks so gorgeous <3

 We had so much love and trust between us. We spent 20 very happy years in each others company, often riding but also just hanging out.

 This was a very special day for us with so much love and joy.

Post office.

Today I did it. I finally braved the Post Office. Not the one close to me where the parking is awful and the shop hard to get to. I went to my favourite tiny town and walked in. All French phrases left my head and I said to T that I would listen to the person in front of me and it would all come back! Unfortunately for me the person in front was English and had managed to raise the ire of the Postwoman who babbled a lot in fast French. I understood a great many 'non's and 'pah's and the man stomped from the building uttering a lot of four letter words which were unfortunately very clear in any language.

I took a deep breath, walked up to the counter and said goodbye!!! Bonjour is hello, bonjourno is have a good day! Thankfully the postwoman laughed and told me to say it when I left, or was I leaving already. Some of this in perfect English, so she clearly understood the previous gentleman and was just being awkward! This had quite an effect on my confidence and I managed to send out a few Christmas cards without any further embarrassment. I'm going to make that my usual Post Office as not only is it a delightful little town, but I'm no longer terrified of the Post staff and need a good service for when I re-open my internet shop in the new year.

Meanwhile, back home at crazy acres, as I sometimes call it, the hay was fast running out and the ponies were planning another jail break. The two separate herds had broken the fence and were in togerther, the Eriskays had T's horses backed up into a corner and wouldn't let them onto the meagre strip of grass remaining in the paddock. Moomin and I gave them large buckets of feed and planned to ration the hay to last the weekend. Tempers were frayed, human and horse. I came in, soaked and cold and poured a large glass of Pastis and water. This is normally a summer drink and served with ice cold water is very refreshing, however, I've found it to also be quite warming after a cold day in the mud! As I started to unwind for the evening, I noticed an email from my lovely farmer, Pierre (I kid you not), the hay was on it's way. So, back into wet boots and outside to move the remaining hay ready for the delivery.

Pierre arrived on his Ferrari of a tractor (I'm no expert, but it's better than my car any day) and in less than half an hour I had five huge rounds of hay unloaded and covered and my pockets were a good deal lighter. It's good to know that we have hay until the new year, the cave is well stocked with food (50 kilos of potatoes from Pierre and cupboards full of cat food after a stock sale) our freezer is stuffed and we have over half a tank of oil from Jean Luc (honestly). We fired up the boiler this evening and mercifully have a working central heating system. It was such a huge luxury to feel warm and as the temperatures are due to drop after the weekend, it's quite a relief to know that we won't freeze like little match-girls!!!

Blogging.

I'm back from England and back to my blog again. I've had a couple of heavy work days before I could even switch on my laptop, but I think we're catching up now and I'm allowed a little pc time before bed. To be honest, I'm finding it hard to wind down after all the frantic activity.

We caught up with lovely family in England and there were so many people to see that time just ran out. It didn't help that I booked my car in for a service and repair to the windscreen wipers only to have the brakes go on the journey back to where we were staying! The wipers weren't even fixed!!! I complained to my garage and the car was taken away the next day. Great! Two days without a car and a heap of things to buy to bring back home. I was so stressed when the brakes went that I managed to coast into a supermarket and begged to use their phone (of all times this was the best for my phone to break!). I wandered around the shop in a daze and bought four boxes of tea and three packets of bagels, that goes to show where my head was at!

Do any of you other bloggers find that you start a post with an idea in mind only to have the words tumble out into another direction entirely. I do! I've been determined not to prattle on about my car troubles, and yet there I go, off on a wild ramble!

Anyhoo, I was originally thinking about blog friends over the years. I've made so many and lost touch with quite a few. Some for some reason stop blogging and others stop responding to comments for no reason that I can fathom. It's such a strange thing when you think about it, pouring out your thoughts onto a page and hoping someone will take the time to read, much less comment on it.  I was friends with a lovely lady for years, who very sadly passed away. But her blog wasn't finished, I said over and over, it was hard to deal with her loss when she always had so much to say.  I suppose, where my mind is going with this is that it's so important to live our lives to the fullest, to maintain friendships wherever they occur and to be the best we can to everyone in our lives.

I'm going to sleep now before I start to sound all preachy, that wouldn't do would it. I've learned my lesson about being on my laptop late at night after accidentally posting a slightly dodgy picture to Instagram that had Moomins eyebrows raised so high I thought she'd had a bad facelift. Stay away from multi-media after a couple of glasses of wine, that's the moral to this story :D

Going back to Blighty.

I  don't really want to go back to England but I have things there that need to be sorted and I am at least looking forward to doing a bit of shopping. Some things here in France are very expensive, yet horse feed isn't one of them. I'm still only paying the same amount to feed seven horses as three!!!

I love this little tree in the orchard garden, it's the only eating apple tree we have, the rest are all cider apples, I may have to buy a couple more apple trees, especially a cooking apple.

 This is how the orchard paddock looks at the moment, a bit bare! We took the laurel shrubs out to the far right of this picture, but it's not clear where they were from this angle. I'm glad they're gone, I don't like their toxicity and they don't have much to offer to make up for it, in my opinion!  Yesterday we planted some dogwoods and a couple of plumb trees. I have hedging whips to plant when I get back. We also uncovered some huge rocks and discovered that they extend a very long way under the top soil. I'm wondering if this is the reason that many of the trees are failing, because there is so little good topsoil. If that's the case, then a year or two of mulching and manure will make a huge difference.

 While we we labouring in the garden, my dear bf T was building a chicken house.

The cats thought it was their new climbing frame :D

Can you guess what I'll be doing on the ferry? This is an example of a perfect gusset decrease, as I described in an earlier post.

And this is a prime example of SSK (slip, slip, knit) gone wrong, again. Maybe for the next sock I'll remember how to do it properly!!!

So, for now it's off we go to pack, back soon.x

Stormy.

We had an incredible storm last night. The wind was ferocious and while Moomin and I struggled to pull the tarp over our hay bales, we almost took off as the tarp filled with air like a parachute. I'd like to say it was fun, but I was very grumpy and swore a fair bit! I finally lashed the tarp to pallets under the bales and used a sort of crochet stitch through the eyelets with hay twine. It worked and Moomin and I came in for a cold beer. It's so funny to think of her as an adult now, but when she pops open a couple of beers for us, it brings it home :D

While the wind built itself into a frenzy, I sat and cracked on with the next sock. This one is flying by but even so I'm needing to refer to Youtube for a couple of tips. My pattern is quite simple, but seems to assume I know how to pick up stitches properly. I looked at this tutorial for shaping the heel and then learnt the proper method for picking up stitches in the tutorial for shaping the gusset. Well, It was an inspiration and if you could see how I originally picked up stitches you would either laugh a lot or feel very sorry for me :D 

I'm knitting properly now and loving it so much. It's incredible that a series of tiny loops made in wool can create such a lovely garment. If the stitches are created in the right direction as in shaping the gusset, you get a lovely patten along the sock, if not, as in my earliest attempt, you get a messy decrease that looks bloody awful! I have a couple of new projects lined up for when I finish the socks and I think that's spurring me on to finish. I even have more sock wool waiting to be transformed!!!

The weather today is very subdued, most definitely the calm after the storm! All ponies are accounted for and the two greys, Merlin and Bo, look a good bit cleaner as I sneakily rubbed a bit of shampoo in their manes and tails before the rain started!

Thank you all for your kind comments. I'm still feeling a bit rough, but that's probably because of all the tarp wrangling. I'm typing from my bed in the company of the two dogs and Bambam. For the sake of animal care, I'll stay here a bit longer because they clearly need me to ;)

Not much today.

I don't know how much work I'll get done today, but I'm sat in bed waiting for painkillers to work or my neck to un-freeze and I'm actually starting to seize up more than ever!
I have so much planned for today, but it may have to wait. I wanted to plant a couple more trees and fix the rest of the electric fencing for the ponies. I often try to plan a quiet day and the animals put a stop to it, but today, I think they will have to make do. Thankfully my lovely children have done the morning feeds and water, so I'm going to slap a heat pad on my shoulder and snuggle down with the animals.

Dexter is so in love with Finn, can you see he's almost holding on to him <3  Finn doesn't mind at all, it keeps him warm :D

Quilts.

This snow picture is for Leeanna and was taken in the Uk a few years back. In those days I actually walked from home to the ponies field as all of the roads were too dangerous to drive on. This is the lane up to their field.

I'm in a quilty kind of mood and would love some inspiration. Can anyone recommend any good quilting blogs? I want to make a simple no fuss comforter for my bed. I've made small quilts in the past, but this time I want something luscious. Of course, all my sewing things are back in England, so I'll just be browsing until I can pick them up, but that's fine as I've little time to finish the things I'm already working on!!!

Yesterday the horses broke out again! Today will be spent putting up new fences. There are three lots of fences each with their own solar powedered energisers and most of the time this works, but yesterday I forgot to turn one on and the big boys went for a take out from a neighbours field! I hope they ate plenty of grass before we caught them as there's precious little forage in our own fields until next spring!

You tube.

I've started a You tube channel to talk about my life here in France and
share some images of our home and animals. I'd be interested in your comments but please be kind to me, it's the first time I've tried it and I hope I'll improve with practice, I think I sound a bit self conscious!!!

Also, I think I need to keep the videos shorter!

Christmas is coming!

Here in France we've been protected from the usual race supermarkets in England have to get their Christmas decorations out first. One Garden center near our old village was advertising it's grotto in October one year. I'm not a Grinch but I do find that it starts too soon.

Saying that, it's almost passed me by here as there are so few adverts for the coming festivities.

Imagine my surprise then when I walk into a favourite shop to be hit with a huge wooden grotto! I had to take pictures and was almost overcome at the cuteness of it all.

It's not actually that long until Christmas and if I want to make presents for people I need to get a wriggle on! 

We've been so caught up with working on the house that the changing seasons are almost passing us by!

I was reading a lovely blog this morning, unfortunately comments are switched off, but the writer was talking about her morning routine, cleaning and feeding the animals, baking bread and cooking a lovely stew. I felt comforted and worn out at the same time, lol! Some mornings I'm just glad to get up and feed the animals before lunch time! Winter is always a struggle for me and sometimes I wake up and can barely move, but here there is no stress and I can take my time, drink some tea and ease slowly into the day.
Yesterday I was up early to collect my children from the Ferry, they'd been to England to visit family. Today I need to recover from all the driving, so I'll stay close to home, make some bread and finish Manchee's coat in between feeding the ponies and walking the dogs. A simple day for me <3

A lot of weather and stairs!

What a week it's been! Remeber last Sunday when I talked of a lovely day pottering around and maybe a picnic by the lake? Well, all thoughts of being outside were halted by a very black sky and icy winds. I settled in the conservatory with Dexter and tackled the dwindling walnut mountain, while listening to a bit of Spandau Ballet (I have to be alone to listen to that as no one else much likes it, but I'm such an 80's girl). Suddenly there was heavy rain pounding on the roof which turned to large hailstones. Dexter hid under my seat while Finn and Fae dashed in to shelter.
An almighty clap of thunder had all three cats running outside to hide in the barn. When it had calmed down, dear BF came rushing out to say that he could hear galloping from the loft where he was working and we discovered that the ponies had broken down the fence in their panic. There was a lot of drama and my three monsters took off across the fields where we found them an hour later on the road down to the lake! Thankfully the roads on Sundays are even quieter than during the week!

We were soaked through and exhausted by the time the fences were restored and all ponies fed. I was worried it would set off a fibro flare, but luckily a hot shower and a long sit by the fire seemed to do the trick. I was very sore the next day though.

We've been lighting the fire every night now as we still don't have enough oil for central heating. It's been flipping cold, I can tell you.  Poor Manchee feels the cold when it's just a bit chilly, so this week has been really hard for him. Here he's under two blankets and still needed a hot water bottle!

The solution is simple. I'm making him a little dog coat for inside the house. He has an outdoor coat, but of course I can't find it!

It took a couple of hours to warp up the loom as I'm still getting used to it. It does make my back ache, but as this is going to be a square weave, it's easier to do it on the table. Longer items are attached to a door handle and that causes a whole different set of problems!
I love these colours, green, brown and orange although the green looks more grey in this picture. The wool is just standard acrylic as it needs to be easily washable and I'll probably line it with a fluffy wool when it's extra cold.

So lots of inside jobs to do this week. The stairs to the loft started out like this.

Then they were crafted from floor boards and somehow we attached them to the loft (by magic, I think)

Once the props were secure, BF created the curving steps. Somewhere on my phone I have the finished picture, I'll share it tomorrow. But believe me, these are the cutest little stairs I've ever had and I love them to bits <3

In my mind I'm already decorating this little corner of the house but I have to wait for the walls to be plastered first.

I have a favour to ask, please can you share any pictures of winter weather on your blogs, especially snow for Leeanna of 'Can we have a new Witch'  as she's missing the snow now that she's living in Texas. Maybe leave a message here or on her blog. Thank you friends.x

I'm writing this post from the warmth of my bed. The rain is hurling leaves across the garden and I'm not terribly inclined to get up. However, if I don't feed the ponies soon, they'll probably stage another breakout!

Sedimentary my dear Watson!

We walked along the lakeshore a couple of times this week. From the footpath we could see the beach below where the level of the water has dropped. I really wanted to get down there and walk along the shoreline as it's normally all underwater. I wish we'd been here when the lake was fully drained. My neighbour has pictures of it and the village that is underneath is remarkable.

 The rocks here are mostly sedimentary and the lake was once a slate quarry. Our house was built from the slate in the lake. How awesome is that?

I love the white lines of quartz, the stones are lovely up close.
Here you can see the beach clearly on the other shore, but on our side it was tough climbing over the rocks.

 We managed to make it under the tree here, but what you can't see is how steep it is and how the rocks drop off into deep water at this point! We had to admit defeat! Today we may explore the far shore and see if we can get to the beaches there.

 
Back to the house and this is what the loft is looking like now. My BF has put down new joists to raise the floor above the tangle of pipes.

Here we've laid down some floorboards to see how they'll look and it's so great to imagine this beautiful space when it's finished. It's so silent in the loft and will be perfect when the windows are in.

The roof will be lagged and boarded with the same boards as the flooring. It will be sooo cosy when it's done :D

The Mairi paid us a visit while I was busy (throwing junk out of the door) tidying up the cave! The place really couldn't have looked worse, but he was very gracious and agreed to come back and see the house when it was finished. He was so friendly and said that we could do pretty much anything we like inside the house and only need permission for the Velux windows in the roof. We can also build the field shelters for the ponies which will make them a lot happier. I do worry about them when it's wet or windy.

 I've also managed to fit in a little sculpting time. My fibro has been a big naggy lately, so I've made myself sit down and get back to needle felting. These little mice are from a tutorial on You-tube and are helping me to flex my stabbing muscles, haha, I have some designs of my own to work out and as it's Sunday, I may get to try them.
Have a good Sunday everyone.x

Back to the drawing board.

What would you rather do? Sort laundry or spend the day in weak Autumn sunlight sorting out your garden? Well, of course, any outdoor activity is probably better than sorting laundry, but the air was warm and the sun occassionally peeped out between the clouds and I made my choice. I started laying cardboard for the second bed to go in the Potager. My lovely neighbour came over to ask if he could take some of the manure for his Potager and I gladly agreed. Any help cleaning out the paddocks is welcome. He asked me what I was doing with the cardboard and I tried to explain. There was a long pause and I tried again making hand movements to show the layers of mulch (I need to look up Mulch in French). He looked at me again for a long time, finally, 'Pourquoi'? Why? For the Potager I replied, oh no, he said emphatically! It would seem that the arrangement between the farmer and the previous owners does not extend to the new owners of our house (me). I can graze the ponies on it, but not put anything permanent on the land between the houses. It was an awkward moment for both of us. Could he still have the manure? Of course I said and helped him with a couple of barrows full.

I then had to scout around for another suitable area, which should be easy, but it really isn't! At the back of the house (which is kind of the front as it's on the drive up to the house from the road) is the orchard garden. It's mostly shrubs and edible fruit trees and a lot of lawn.The orchard garden is big enough, but right in the center is the Septic tank and it's runoff. We all agreed that we didn't want our vegetables to be grown there!  So I decided to extend the orchard garden and pinch a bit of the reserve pony paddock.

 Viewed from the side of the house is the two new beds and the ponies hay under the black plastic cover. To the right of the hay and in the center of the picture is the grassy area fed by the septic tank. It takes up a large area and isn't fit for a great deal. I may let the goats go on it during the summer (when we get the goats!) as I don't know what else to do with it. On the very far right is the driveway up from the road. We planted two of the pear trees there and then dear son broke the shovel!

I have some ornamental trees to remove as they're poisonous to animals and people, but I need someone with a chainsaw to cut them back. I only took out a couple of branches with a handsaw and was exhausted! So today wasn't a great success but at least I still have the laundry to look forward to (yuk!) :D

On reflection, I may plant clover and edible wild flowers in the septic tank area to attract bees and pollinators and give the goats a little diversity in their diet. It seems to make sense!