4 Years, Is That All?!

Good morning! Time for a little anniversary.

Four years ago, TODAY, we arrived in wonderful mid-Wales. We fell in love with Aberystwyth and the surrounding areas before we properly moved here and we still feel just the same.

The boys, and us, knew about 10 words of the Welsh language when we arrived, This week they are back in school after the summer break speaking Welsh regularly and my youngest has begun his year 7 at a Welsh medium secondary school. This means only a couple of his lessons are taught in English! Children are so adaptable and we are immensely proud of their progress.

The first of these two photos was taken the weekend we arrived, sorry a bit blurry, and the second was taken in May of this year. I have very few photos in roughly the same location.

For the first 4 months or so the garden was a jungle at the far end, 

 and at the house end, too, so there was a bit of work to be done there, too!

Now the garden, my little patch of paradise, our outside space looks a LOT different.

It has been a hell of a ride for me, Jon and the boys. We now have a beautiful outside space, a growing area for fruit and veg and chickens.

One of the highlights of this year have been Jon bringing back from the brink one of the lambs that was born on our neighbouring farm. We have enjoyed being involved with the lambs, helping out since the first year or two we were here. This little thing, born toward the end of lambing this year, was not expected to last the night....

but here he was strong as an ox at the end of April and in June and he continues to thrive.

Also this year our Airbnb listings have gone off the chart with the inclusion of our first self-catering unit. 

We look forward to increasing to four next year hoping to add to the bookings we already have for the Eisteddfod which comes to Ceredigion for the first time since 1992.


As usual I could go on and on and one with before and after photos. I burst with pride really at how far we have come in just four years. Just the other day Jon asked me if it wasn't five years and I said nope, and look what we've done.

We look forward to the future and all it may bring us all.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Crimbo Limbo or Twixmas!

This is my usual inbetween post after the festivities have calmed down before the newness of New Year that I really enjoy,although I'm a little later than normal as had photo issues!

We had a lovely time on Christmas Eve as we had a nice finger buffet and watched Elf, my very fav Christmas film although I am not a fan of Will Ferrell otherwise. The boys had their treat bags with new onesies, 

chocolate oranges and festive mugs for hot chocolate - however it has been too mild for them to really want a hot drink until yesterday - no photo! 

We also had a relaxing time on Christmas Day at home, just me and my three and had a yummy spread!

I received jimmers and slippers from the boys, a beautiful Welsh gold ring from Jon in the shape of a harp, a tea cup shaped bird feeder, an electric toothbrush plus a full, frilly apron and smellies and I had my fav Christmas tipple on the day - a snowball.

After opening our presents we had smoked salmon and bubbly for breakfast.

The boys had some fantastic electric scooters, basketball hoop and balls, clothes, books, battery powered flying 'things' etc. from us and various others and they declared it the best Christmas Day, ever!

On Boxing Day our neighbour and his lady friend came over for supper around 5pm and we really had a lovely couple of hours with them.

Sadie, hope you appreciate the fairy lights!

I have taken all the photos for my December Daily and look forward to putting that together over the next couple of weeks and sharing it with you. I'm not sure if I will do another next year; I don't like the pressure of having to take a good photo or collecting something for each day, but will of course complete this one.

We had to pop to Aber as I needed to change the ring; it was a little bit too big for me but now it is just perfect.

Nothing much else is happening here over the next couple of days apart from using up leftovers. I put the Christmas left-over veg, spuds and pigs in blankets plus a spoonful of cranberry sauce (there wasn't too much left over) into a pan and made up some soup putting four servings into the freezer. 

Not the most appetising of colours but it tasted yummy.! Jon made a big pie to use up the turkey; nothing is going to waste!

That is about it really. The day before yesterday I thought I had lost one of my best earrings AND my January issue of Grow Your Own but pleased to say I have now found both! Last night I did a bit of New Year sowing and growing planning. I also pulled out all my Country Living mags from the year and started my usual read through for any recipes, ideas etc that I want to keep.

Ok, a chilly wet day today so not sure what is in store for us. 

Don't think I'll be back until the New Year so best wishes for a wonderful, peaceful year to everybody and to those sowing and growing for the coming seasons lets hope it is a very productive time. 

I just would also like to say that it has meant so very, very much to me to 'meet' and keep in touch with so many lovely people out there in Blogland this year. I have had lots of help, hints, tips, advice about things, and made some special friendships; to you and yours I send special love and wishes for 2017.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Not The Best Of Weekends, But At Least The Sun Shone!

We had been looking forward to Jon's cousin and her chap visiting this past weekend. On Friday about lunch time I began with a headache. (I should say at this point that Alfie was off school on both Wednesday and Thursday with a cough and not feeling well in general.)

I improved enough for us to go to Aber to do the food shopping when they boys were home from school, but on our return I could hardly get out of the car. I didn't get any better and woke up Saturday morning feeling like death. I rallied by the time our guests arrived and we popped to Aber and Sophie's  which will be our new cafe now instead of going to Costa or Starbucks. It has mis-matched furniture and serves a wonderful hot chocolate and toasted tea cakes which I found very restorative at the time, plus they have a loyalty scheme where you buy six drinks and your next one is free. I have meant to go into Sophie's for ages because it is on the opposite corner to Charlie's where we go a lot. I feel much better about having decided to support a local business instead of a low tax-paying American corporation. (Here endeth the lesson.)I had a sleep when I came home but was not feeling like going out to eat with the others later so stayed home.

In the morning I was again unwell so stayed home whilst the others went to Llanafan with Jake for a paddle in the river; they had great fun. 

Again I felt a bit better and we decided we'd go to Aber as it was a gloriously sunny day and so warm at 21 degrees! We had a lovely walk along the sea front and I sat down whilst the other went up the hill on the cable car. I sat looking at the sea with the sun shining down on it from around 3 - 3.40pm which was calm and gently lapping on the pebbles; it was beautiful sight.

This morning I got the kids off to school and then went back to bed for a couple of hours. I feel a bit better now and have this morning enjoyed looking at the wonderful things all of you in blog land have been doing this past weekend. I don't have the energy to comment on everything individually but Sadie I love your gold bunny, The Croods are doing amazingly as a family with their smallholding, Dawn, I saw gorgeous Alpacas on Country File last night - about Aber which was very exciting - and hope you are feeling better after the dentist trip! Well done on your mammoth reading session, Sue.

Well, that is about all from me. I hope my next post will be a little more cherry.

Lou.xx