Where Has The Time Gone?

Hello? Remember me?

It has been just over a month since my last confession  blog post.

It has been one heck of a summer. My last post celebrated our 4 year anniversary of moving here to wonderful Wales but I didn't really chat about anything else so prepare for a ramble!

I have to say I'm enjoying a little hiatus regarding the Airbnb listings. The whole of July and August were mad months but by the middle of September things started to calm down. This does mean we can plan some maintenance, especially for the first chalet. We've had this listed since September 2016 and intend to give it a lick of paint, put in blinds to replace the curtains plus a new shower tray.

We've had family and friends visit recently, including a friend from London who I only saw last month for the 2nd time in 14 years, the day of her wedding, so it has been fab to catch up with her again, and her husband.

Next month we're so excited about welcoming Tracy of Our Smallholding Adventure, along with her family, to our little homestead for the weekend. After being What's App buddies for about two years we're stoked about actually meeting each other! We'll have a great time as Jon's cousin plus fella are coming, too, so we are in a for a riot of a time with any luck! 

Elsewhere in and around the house the log burner has been lit in the living room a couple of times when the afternoons have been a little chilly; the boys adore coming home to warmed slippers, hot chocolate and cake in front of it!



But the Rayburn is now being lit every day!

This means no immersion heater as it is now heating our water, the few radiators we have in use along with us enjoying using it to cook again. Can't wait to bake bread in it again as I always prefer it to the gas range for that and cakes.

Outside really has been quite neglected due to being busy with the Airbnb listings. (As I type this the rain is in biblical mode so even if I wanted to get outside today I don't think it would happen.) 

I will admit that harvests of some things could have been better if I'd had the energy to spend more time in my little patch of paradise, but there is always next year. I didn't do too bad with maincrop spuds, cucumbers (just picked the last one yesterday) onions, dwarf beans and lettuce. On the bright side they are things we eat a lot of so....

This year is the first time I've bothered to plant/grow more flowers and I was quite pleased with some of them, like these.

This was taken just over a week ago; things look a bit bare but I still love the view and feel very lucky that it belongs to us.

I've emptied most beds apart from some rogue celery, carrots and literally a couple of parsnips. I'll start mulching and covering them once we get a good amount of dry weather? When I look at a photo like this I see just how much growing space I have. I hope a trip out for the day in November will assist me further in making the most of it. I am very much looking forward to going to hear Charles Dowding talk about an hour away from us and very pleased to be going along with my morning coffee chum, Karen from @smallblacksheep on Twitter. We met on a couple of Green Rocket courses run by Kim of @BadlyBehavedOne and she lives just 30 minutes from me!

Talking of courses, I'm very excited as I've signed up for Welsh classes, again, at my youngest's school. It means I go once a week and will bring him home with me as they finish at the same time as the school day. I might meet some of the parents as I don't go to school very often with the bus taking him from right outside our front door!

Right, ramble over. Just listened to pop master but didn't score. I think I've peaked for a bit as got 36 one day last week.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx