The Good Life...Ish.

I never imagined this day would come so soon, but I finally have chickens!  They are called Margo and Barbara and are the sweetest things!  They have been here 3 weeks on Saturday and it feels like I have always known them, and they certainly live up to their namesakes, Margo is super bossy, a bit snobbish and bullies Barbara. Barbara is quiet and gentle, but no less stubborn.  I've been a busy bee this summer, making various jams from my homegrown blackcurrants, and foraged brambles, and apple chutney and jelly from free apples from a friend The Bearded Wonder and I have also been attending stained glass classes, and are getting quite good! Margo laid her first and only egg, though in fairness it's almost winter, and I think they are starting to moult. Fancy chickens get their breakfast scooped in a teacup. Enjoying a good dust bath and a gossip My chard is apparently an all-you-can-eat salad bar They both enjoy helping

Hello all! The Polygreen is all finished!  Also, not only is it finished, you may noticed it has been moved too!  With the garden being so exposed, i decided it would be better for it to be side on to the wind, rather than head on, that way, hopefully, the wind will just go straight over the top.  It's been quite a learning curve, figuring out how to keep it all together, stop it from flying away or collapsing! A new sign for the garden gate. The back wall being put up. A bench for the plants to sit on It's also just nice to sit in and just chill out with my morning coffee, as well as to grow plants in. Last week saw me being given rather a lot of plants! A friend down the road gave me 6 tomato plants, and the bloke who gave me the blackcurrant bushes last year turned up with MORE tomato plants, so i now have 11 to try and keep alive haha. He also brought some pepper plants, courgette, rosemary, borage and sage. I originally

When life gives you an opportunity, grab it with both hands! A wonderful friend is possibly giving up her allotment, and last year her poor greenhouse got blown to bits in a storm and she decided it wasn't worth trying to put it back together, so i asked if there was any parts that were salvageable, in the hopes i could at least save some of it to build one later on. I was gobsmacked when there was so many parts that were useable!  The two sides were perfectly fine, she took the broken glass out for use in the stained glass course we are about to start, and she had a lot of black plastic that will work perfectly fine (I hope!) so that is being put to good use.  When i first started collecting the useable parts, i was going to build it the traditional way and create a triangular roof, but it would have been too difficult to piece back together, so my friends husband had the idea of creating an arched roof instead, which was much easier!  (Please ignore the fact

In a world where products are increasingly being over packaged, landfills are overflowing,and, quite honestly, being quite poor, it makes sense to to reuse as much as possible in our house. Yesterday, i had a sheet that was unrepairable, so rather than chucking it away it has been turned into teatowels, cleaning and dusting cloths and i am currently making an apron, and there's still lots of fabric leftover waiting to be turned into something else. I also made a "feather duster" from a wire coat hanger and strips of the sheet. We got some easter eggs the other week, and while we couldn't reuse the outer box it came in (having a plastic coating means i can't compost it, natch.) the egg itself was placed in these rather sweet little boxes made to look like baskets.  One is being used to hold my recycled dusting and cleaning cloths, and the other is being used to hold eggs when the milk glass chicken we normally use to store them in is too fu

*Peers round corner* Hello? Is anyone there? First of all, i would like to apologize for being so long updating here! It's been pretty busy around here, especially in the past month or two, and i have been updating mostly via Instagram.  We discovered that The Bearded Wonder has been having quite big heart issues , so much so that he was initially referred to get a pacemaker fitted, but on the day of his surgery the surgeon decided he was too young for a pacemaker and ended up fitting him with an under the skin monitor instead, which shall be in for 3 years, then he'll be re-assessed to see if a pacemaker is more suitable. He is doing well, and recovering nicely from the surgery. In other news, today is the day that Angus has been in our lives for a whole year! He was so tiny then. Somehow, out of nowhere, he has turned into this really fat, obnoxious fluffball! We are still enjoying going out and about on the bikes, and we are looking fo

Hello there! Wow! Its been two months since my last post! I just don't know where the time went! So, what's been happening? We are now the proud owners of 2 blackcurrant bushes, a tayberry bush and a loganberry bush, i've planted them and so far they seem to be surviving haha, fingers crossed! We have a "new to us" rug, which covers almost the whole living room, so no more cold floorboards! Woohoo! Thanks to lovely Jayne for helping to cart it back for me :) Also, thanks again to Jayne, we have a wee hoover called James :) The Bearded Wonder and i have been making the most of the lovely weather and have been exploring on the bikes  That day was sooo hot! I've been getting crafty and made a matching seat cover and bar bag for my bike out of an old backpack , and a face cover/neckwarmer for the cold weather from the bottom of an old t-shirt, though i have a feeling i may need to make a thicker one! Angus is gett