Late Harvest

Yesterday the wheat was finally cut behind our garden and it was wonderful to watch the Combine working. For weeks we've been wondering when they'd get around to harvesting, but finally I think the weather has been dry long enough.

It was a lovely evening too so I took Barry for an energetic walk around the Millennium field in the village where we bumped into his two new best friends Chester and Lola (two gorgeous French Bulldogs). They only live a few doors down from us and the owners are very nice too. It's all a good confidence builder for Barry especially getting to play with dogs more his size as he is still rather nervous. He's discovered his bark now though and the art of chasing back! I also walked the neighbour's dog over the weekend, another Lola (so many show girls around here!) but this time a Staffie. She's so affectionate but a bit of a tank too and usually bowls Barry right over!

 

Barry was rather intrigued by the Combine and tractor, giving it a little warning growl as I lifted him up so he could see it over our back fence.

 

Beautiful evening yesterday

 

I had a lovely weekend with my Mum, who came to stay with us from Friday until Monday while my Dad was on his walking holiday in Whitby. Their Norfolk home went live on the holiday company website they're using for holiday lets back on Thursday and they already have two bookings for September so they're very pleased and just a little relieved after all the time and money they've spent on giving the place a freshen up. It'll be a lovely holiday place for couples and families with the beach less than 10 minutes walk away and pub, shop and café less than 5 minutes walk from their bungalow too. They're also allowing up to 2 dogs which is great, especially for dog owners like us when we're looking for a dog-walking holiday. I took Mum to the Woodspeen on Sunday for a roast (I've been twice in one week but it was that good!), which was very tasty and impressively presented.

 

 Sunday lunch at The Woodspeen - my roasts never look this well-presented, usually because our plates are piled high with lots of delicious veg!

 

I also took Mum to Millets Farm Shop as I wanted to get some more of those lovely corn on the cobs, which we've enjoyed a couple of times now. There was a chilli festival going on with lots of tasting samples; I tried a piece of chocolate and chilli fudge which was really good, except in my haste I picked a piece up from the "hot" plate and it nearly blew my head off, I walked around the farm shop for the rest of the trip trying to get the feeling back in my tongue! Note to self, read label next time even if very excited at thought of food freebie...

 

Jack made a start on his shed at the weekend, but sadly he's very busy at work and hasn't had much more spare time since to carry on. We've got a quiet weekend at home planned this weekend so hopefully the weather will be kind to us so Jack can continue with the shed building and I can continue with the tortoise run building/landscaping.

 

 

 

Finally, I've managed to master crocheting granny squares, hurrah! I've totally got the crochet bug now and keep thinking of all these things I'd like to make. I'm currently doing a lovely mesh-style scarf which I'll hopefully have photos to show you shortly. If these cold mornings continue then I think I'll be wearing the scarf much sooner than planned. Not only that but our work building still has the air con blasting out and my hands are permanent blocks of ice, so perhaps wrist warmers should be next on the agenda.

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week :-)

Birthday

I had a nice birthday yesterday, though sadly the majority of the day was spent at work!

Jack took me out for a lovely meal last night at a restaurant that opened about a year ago just outside of Newbury called The Woodspeen (http://www.thewoodspeen.com/).

 

The food there was amazing, probably one of the nicest restaurants I've been in. I had a lovely starter of Scallops, chicken wings and black pudding which was really tasty, while Jack had a terrine with amazingly fresh brioche (I must learn how to make it!)

 

My starter

 

I had beef fillet for main which came with an array of different vegetables, but the best was the beer cooked onion - so good! Jack had a lovely big steak (he's a big steak fan) with triple cooked chips which were amazing (have I already said amazing?)

 

My main; beef fillet, smoked potato, runner beans, beer cooked onion and truffle

 

I'm very grateful to Jack for treating me to a posh meal out, made me feel quite special on my Birthday! Especially as I'm usually more than happy to go to the local pub or to Nandos! Jack cooked for me on last year's birthday which was equally just as good, but it's nice to make the effort to go out sometimes and make an evening of it. The Woodspeen's prices were very fair for the quality of their food and the service was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much that I'm taking my Mum there this weekend for Sunday roast!

 

Mum arrives tomorrow and we have a quiet weekend planned. I'm sure I'll get home tomorrow to find she's let herself in and is cuddling Barry on the sofa, he's a ladies man is our puppy and loves being cuddled! I think we plan on going shopping in Newbury on Saturday and Jack is going indoor sky-diving on Sunday (as I've said before, he'll give any sport a go!). My Dad is going on a walking holiday in Whitby with his friends this weekend; they're all members of the CAMRA club and love real ales so it tends to be an energetic version of a pub crawl with 20+ mile walks in between pubs. My parents then leave for France next Tuesday and won't be back in England until November/December, so I'll miss them a lot. We are however going out to France in a few weeks' time which we're excited about.

 

How quickly this year is zooming by...

Typically British (rainy) Bank Holiday Weekend!

I've had a lovely last hour or so reading through everyone's bank holiday weekend blogs. Sounds like only a few were lucky enough to get some sunshine, most of us got the horrible grey skies and miserable rain. Oh well, that's England for you and since when do we let the rain stop us from having a good time! I've loved reading through everyone's recent posts and looking at their lovely photos :-) This is my tenth blog already, this blogging malarkey is quite addictive!

The sun did appear for most of Saturday

I started the weekend with a nice walk on Friday evening towards the Ridgeway - it means more hills but I had my comfy wellies on and Barry bouncing along in front which meant I couldn't go too slow. He's certainly come on leaps and bounds (literally!) since his fractured leg fiasco and it's great to see the muscle definition returning to his bad leg - it still looks a lot smaller in comparison with his other hind leg but that's also because the fur is still growing back.

Jack also came home with beautiful flowers for me on Friday :-)

 

My best friend arrived late Friday night after a tiring journey from where she lives in Suffolk. I don't think the roads were particularly kind to her because of the bank holiday traffic and she was glad to arrive before midnight! It was her first visit to our new house so it was nice to show her around our home and the lovely village we live in. We also made sure to celebrate her recent news on becoming a qualified Veterinary Nurse, well done Jess!

We were up a decent time on Saturday morning to make the most of the weather - we were told by the weatherman that Saturday was the only decent day and they were right. We had glorious sunshine all Saturday morning and ventured to nearby Millets Farm Centre near Abingdon, Oxford (http://www.milletsfarmcentre.com/). I am so excited that I've discovered this place as it's fantastic. They have a large farm shop which sells their own produce or produce sourced from the local area. They also have a garden centre, falconry, maize maze and the most exciting part; pick your own! I can remember visiting the local farm to pick strawberries when I was very young but sadly this seemed to almost die out a while back, so it's lovely to find a local farm which does let you pick your own and they had a variety of things to choose from. Jess had already brought me a sack full of goodies from her and her fiancé's allotment (marrow, squash, runner beans and beetroot), so I picked my own sweetcorn cobs, Victoria plums and raspberries.

 

Picking raspberries

 

We had a great time picking our own produce in the sunshine and the prices were very decent too (which makes it all the better at the end of the day). The plums are very ripe and tasty and I can't eat them quick enough so I may have a go at making a plum jam. I've also seen on my BBC Good Food calendar that next month's recipe is for a plum crumble cake so perhaps I'll give that a go. I have frozen the majority of the raspberries too. We had the sweetcorn cobs last night and they were delicious.

 

My 'pick your own' haul

 

I will definitely be frequenting Millets Farm Centre in the future, it was just so lovely to wander around and pick what you needed before heading off to pay. I'm sure many of you (smallholders, allotment holders etc.) get even more satisfaction when your hard work has also gone into the growing of the fruit and veg and I too hope to have this joy next year when I hope to grow my own veg and fruit, but in the meantime I like this alternative and it certainly beats the dreaded supermarket shop sometimes! The farm has a pick your own potatoes event in a few weeks' time which I may try and go along to, as I've only got a few potatoes growing in the garden and I don't think they're going to amount to very much. I may even be a big kid next time and try the Maize Maze if I can persuade Jack to join me!

 

I had a lovely weekend with my best friend anyway; we only see each other every few months so it was nice to spend a whole weekend together to giggle and catch up, and Jess gets married next year so there was plenty to chat about. I do miss my old friends back in Cambridgeshire and it's hard sometimes being away from everyone you know. Luckily Jack and I do enjoy each other's company and we're the best of friends too, though I know how much he likes time with the 'lads' the same as I need time with the girls. We took Jess for a lovely meal in our local pub, the Crown and Horns (http://crownandhorns.com/) and I had a lovely homemade pie and chips, yum. We also went out for Sunday roast in Newbury so in terms of eating... yes we've done a lot of that this weekend! I did however kick this morning off with a healthy home-blended juice of banana, raspberries and blackberries so I'll hopefully start this week as I mean to go on. Jess headed home on Sunday afternoon so Jack decided to finish the tortoise run in between the rain showers. He has managed to get it done and I'm so grateful as it looks great. I need to paint it (if the weather will let me!) and get designing and building the inside of the run, so I hope to have photos for you all soon.

 

Because of the persistent wet weather yesterday, there wasn't a lot I could do outdoors. I popped into Newbury for a few bits but then spent the rest of the day on the sofa determined to learn how to crochet. I say determined, because on many occasion I have attempted and only succeeded in throwing the hook and wool back in the bag in anger!

 

For the most part, this is how I feel when crocheting!

 

However, for some reason I actually seemed to understand it this time, hurrah! I spent all afternoon practising double crochet, half treble, treble and such like and they're starting to sink in. I'm afraid my pictures are very un-exciting and un-inspiring as all I kept doing was practising, but practice makes perfect and let's hope I have something substantial to show you next time. I'm just very pleased anyway as I love knitting and I find that easy and I've been so frustrated that I couldn't crochet. I'm trying to read and understand crochet patterns now and though I seem to understand what they're asking I must be going wrong in more than one place because mine just don't look like their example pictures :-( Try and try again I suppose... I'd love to make a patchwork blanket so I'm hoping to successfully crochet some squares soon, but at the moment I'm struggling (all tips welcome, pretty please).

 

Nothing exciting, just practice

 

Jack has also requested I crochet matching Christmas jumpers for him and the dog and I did tell him to get stuffed for at least another three years - that's if I can even master a square by then, let alone a jumper! Perhaps I should stick to sewing and knitting...

 

The dog found crochet very boring

 

Finally, I did manage to have two trips out to the garden centre this weekend which was nice; I definitely think summer has left us now and autumn is arriving so it was nice to get some ideas of adding some colour in the garden for these approaching colder months. I'd also like to get some bulbs planted in the front and back gardens too at some point. I've bought a huge lavender plant to put in the tortoise's new run, it's not poisonous to them and they don't tend to eat it anyway, preferring to use it as a good hiding place so it will add some nice colour to the run and hopefully survive the winter if it establishes in the ground soon. I got a Hebe with purple flowers for their run too. The Lobelia in the pot by our front door has also almost finished flowering now so I'm going to replace them with a large Chrysanthemum plant I got which is covered in little purple flowers and as long as I keep removing the dead flowers they'll keep flowering for quite some time, at least a little colour out the front of our house, especially as the Buddleia has almost finished flowering and other than a few weeds in the big bed there's no other colour. You can't tell that purple is my favourite colour can you?! We'd like to plant a miniature apple tree out the front as it's quite a sunny position and I think it would like it there. My question to all my lovely new blog friends is when would be the best time to plant said apple tree? Should we wait until next year now?

 

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'll be stuck at work all day, which is rather depressing. I used to always make sure I had my birthday off just so it didn't become any other working day, even if I still didn't actually do anything but we have a busy month end at work and I work in finance so that combination means no such luck for having my birthday off. Oh well, Jack is taking me out for dinner so I look forward to that :-) 

 

Happy four-day week everyone!

 

Em x

Blackberry Picking

The weekend absolutely flew and sadly it's Monday which means back to work. We did manage to achieve a lot at the weekend though and when we were outside the weather did stay kind to us.

Jack's parents arrived Friday afternoon and we took them out for dinner as pre-payment for all their help on Saturday in our garden! Jack and his Dad managed to get the shed base done on Saturday morning while the weather was really warm and sunny. They've done a really good job and I think Jack is now itching to get the shed built. We had a lovely BBQ for lunch before Jack's parents headed home, so Jack and I got on with a bit more work on the tortoise enclosure. The fence is almost finished (we were waiting for Jack's parents to bring us more spare wood that they had) and I can't wait to get designing and planning the tortoise run, though building them a suitable house will be first priority if all this rain is anything to go by.

Shed base mixed, poured and drying on Saturday evening

 

I also managed to get the new skirting board in the master bedroom glossed (I caulked it earlier in the week), Sarah and I weeded the back garden and patio and finally Jack and I whizzed into town late Saturday afternoon to use our John Lewis vouchers to get new king-size bedding for our new bed in the master bedroom. The mattress doesn't arrive until Wednesday but I like to be organised.

 

I thought Sunday was going to be a wash-out from start to finish, but it started dry and bright so we got up early and took Barry for a nice long walk while the weather was nice and so I could spy the best areas for blackberries. I went armed with a bag full of empty tubs and was pleased that we managed to fill a large tub full of blackberries, just over 700g in all which wasn't bad considering we hadn't had any breakfast and they were a tasty snack... A lot aren't ripe yet either, so I want to go out again next week to get more. We ended up walking a lot further than planned and must have done a good 3-4 miles by the time we got home, the furthest Barry has been but it's good for him to build up the muscles again in his now healed leg (he slept all afternoon, he was so tired). He also enjoyed chasing pheasants, the first time he's ever seen them. It's nice to see he does have a bit of a Terrier instinct anyway!

 Barry and I

 

 

We walked through some beautiful countryside on Sunday, another route we hadn't explored before so it's nice to discover new routes

 

I did a lovely roast pork dinner yesterday afternoon and made some nice apple and blackberry mini crumbles too, they went down a treat with Jack (Mr Sweet Tooth). The crumbles weren't anything special, some oldish apples in the fruit bowl needed using, plus the freshly picked blackberries, sprinkled with cinnamon and caster sugar. I then topped them with an oaty crumble mix I made. We of course had them with custard, but I'm afraid that wasn't homemade.

 

 

We went to bed feeling very full last night, I do love proper British grub! Having a big roast dinner reminded me that this season is coming to an end, I've even noticed that the leaves are beginning to change on the trees. Autumn will be here soon, but it's such a pretty season, so long as it doesn't continually rain.

 

Nothing very exciting happening this coming week, I'm feeling rather tired and a bit blue at the moment... can't really explain why either, so I need to try and pull myself together. There's plenty of housework to do, I have studying to do and more decorating too so I'll plod on. Looking forward to a three day weekend this coming weekend anyway.

 

Have a good week!

 

Em x

Red Kites

Just a short blog to show you some photos I got of the Red Kites that are often seen soaring above our house/in the nearby fields. There are no end of Red Kites around here, they seem to be thriving in the UK once more. We often see Buzzards from the garden too. These photos were taken from our back garden, looking out onto the wheat field.

 

 

Hopefully I'll get some photos of the Buzzards soon. I'd also like to try and capture some photos of the Red Kites playing; we regularly see three or four playing together and they're quite funny to watch. They really are rather huge too.

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us; Jack's parents are travelling down from Cambridgeshire today to stay with us for the weekend. Jack and his Dad are starting the concrete shed base, while Sarah and I have some skirting board to gloss and the outdoor tortoise run to continue building. I'd also like to go for a snoop along the nearby footpaths and bridleways to see how the blackberries are coming along; I'm keen to pick lots this year for crumbles, pies, jams and just to freeze for smoothies. I took Barry for a walk the other evening and saw quite a few had ripened so I'm going to head out early before the blackbirds and others steal the best ones.

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend :-)

Guest Bedroom Redecoration

I thought I'd share with you a few photos of our guest bedroom that we've finally finished redecorating. I've not shared them with anyone else and it seems a shame to take before and after photos just for my own reference, though it may not be of much interest to others either! :-)

We're lucky that both bedrooms in our mid-terrace are a very decent size. Both bedrooms were in need of some TLC (I'm a dab-hand at poly-filling holes and cracks now) and some updating. We decided to decorate the second bedroom first seeing as we'd been inundated with family and friends wanting to come and visit.

How the guest bedroom started; at this stage we had taken up the laminate flooring, ripped off the polystyrene coving and removed the old skirting board.

We changed the faces on the plug sockets and light switches - cost a few £s from Screwfix to do so but made the room look so much cleaner by doing such a simple thing. Jack's Dad also fitted new light pendants too. The windows at the back of our house (upstairs and downstairs) were original wood-framed, single-glazed windows and it was extremely chilly when we moved in. I didn't mind the chill but it was more the wind whistling through at night that kept me awake. The front had been double-glazed at some point (though they're looking quite old now too), but the back had been neglected (not that I'm blaming previous occupants, new windows are not cheap!). We knew that fitting new windows was a priority and thankfully the deposit we got back on our rented flat covered almost all 3 back windows (both bedroom windows upstairs and the living room window downstairs). The back windows are abnormally large (therefore costly), but I love that as it means we get to make the most of the view over the countryside.

New double-glazed windows fitted

 

Next job was painting the walls now that I'd finished filling the holes/dents/cracks and sanded them. Jack is more than happy for me to choose colours etc. but I always ask for his opinion (he's grateful that I'm not a pink-fanatic). We decided to go with 'Taupe' in the guest bedroom, a nice warm neutral colour, my thinking being that I could accessorise in the room for a fairly low cost and it would fit in with our old bedroom furniture that would be staying in this room.

 

Walls painted with Dulux matt in 'Taupe', new skirting board fitted by Jack (caulked and glossed by me), windowsill sanded back and then glossed, finally the radiator is no longer a horrible greyish colour and I painted it white once more with Ronseal radiator paint.

 

I think the skirting board looks lovely and the main reason for us replacing it was that the rest of the house already has this skirting, but for some reason the two bedrooms had been left. Coving wasn't as easy job (it's so fiddly and more arm-aching above your head), but Jack and I remained on speaking terms despite how annoying it was at times to get someone to hold the coving while the other sands a smidgen more in order to get the corners flush. We're now experts and I'm hoping the master bedroom will be quicker to do coving-wise, though there are a lot more corners in there...

We had decided we wanted carpet upstairs (I like the feel of carpet between my toes in the morning when getting out of bed) and after getting many quotes done we went with Luke Johnson Flooring, based in Newbury. They were fantastic and we're really pleased with the carpets. We had the second bedroom and landing carpet done at the same time in the same colour, this is a Cormar Saxony carpet called 'Primo Delight' in the shade 'Almond', it has a nice deep pile and a slight fleck in the carpet so helps not to show up grubby marks too quickly. We're undecided whether to have the same colour fitted in the master bedroom (I'll update on that soon when we reach that stage).

 

Coving fitted, door and door frame glossed (we are yet to replace the door handles - every room in the house has a different one!), finally the carpet has been fitted.

 

We decided that for the meantime we would move into the guest bedroom now that it was finished, in order to help empty up the master bedroom so we could get started on the decorating in there. We moved the furniture into the guest bedroom (this furniture is staying permanently in there) and here's a photo of the finished room - only thing missing is some wall art which I just haven't got around to yet.

 

 

Glass bottle table lamps - Ikea

Beside tables & chest of drawers (not in photo) - Malm, Ikea

Duvet cover - Dunelm

Curtains - Dunelm

Ceiling Lampshade (larger version of table lampshades) - Ikea

 

Thanks to our old furniture, we managed to save a lot of money on this room. We intend on buying new furniture for our room but I think our family and friends will be more than happy with our old furniture in here. I'm pleased with how the room looks, pretty plain but that's what I wanted. I hope to get one of my nice landscape photos I took in nearby Micheldever Woods (Hampshire) blown up and framed for the wall above the bed. We've also installed a small desk (not in the photo) in here for me to do my sewing and crafting. The sewing machine now has its own permanent home! I managed to find some vintage wooden reels of thread in a local antique shop that I plan on displaying in a large mason jar/glass bottle on the chest of drawers to give the room a bit more décor, along with another nice box filled with some of my knitting wool and needles. In total, all décor, paint, DIY materials came to just under £350, well under the £500 decorating budget we set for this room. This doesn't include the cost of the new window or carpet which came to £950 (ouch!). It gives us a bit more spending money for the master bedroom which is good as we need all new bedroom furniture for that room which won't be cheap.

 

So this is the guest bedroom just about fully complete. We always give up the room when we have visitors (Jack and I are more than happy on the air bed for a night in the "building room" aka our master bedroom) and they all compliment the room so that's nice. For our very first house and our very first go at some things like fitting skirting board, sanding doors and windowsills I'm quite pleased with how well we've done. It's all a learning experience after all and I've discovered I have an extra talent for painting and glossing (Jack's least favourite jobs). We wanted a bit of a project house and this house has just the right amount, allowing us to put our own stamp on it while hopefully adding a little bit of value to the property. Here's to more exciting decorating projects! :-)

Newbie!

I'm pretty new to the blogging scene and I'm not sure I'm actually all that good at it either, but I wanted to share some of my musings anyway!

Having set up my blog I'm reminded at just how much I've forgotten from IT lessons at school; I use a computer every day in my job but creating blogs/websites/pages is not my area of expertise! (give me an Excel spread sheet any day of the week). So I'm sure there'll be many tweaks over the coming weeks/months/years if I keep this blog up, in the meantime apologies if my layout causes headaches or eye strain!

I'd like to start my blog with some bad and good news in order to introduce you to our handsome puppy, Barry, as I will most probably write a lot about him in this blog. Barry is a Jack Russell Terrier and true to breed traits he's energetic, intelligent and just a little bit nuts too! He joined us at eight weeks old back in March and since then has been my little lamb (only with sharper teeth). He's provided us with hours of entertainment, endless love and company and some expensive vet bills too! Which brings me to the bad news... Four weeks ago Barry fractured his femur. I'm not quite sure what happened as I only heard a bang and thud as he came running in from the back garden at a million miles per hour; knowing Barry (total wimp) a Pigeon probably landed on the back fence and scared him half to death and he raced in too quickly. We think he missed the step into our conservatory or caught the doorframe, either way an immediate trip to the Vets confirmed he had fractured his femur (after I had stopped hysterically crying down the phone to my boyfriend, Jack, on what I should do)! He had surgery and two pins inserted to support the fracture and four weeks of cage rest to ensure it healed correctly. Thankfully Bazza is a fan of chilling in his crate so cage rest wasn't too horrendous for either party and here we are four weeks later with a happy puppy now that the pins have been removed (the fracture has healed really nicely) and only another few days of cage rest. At only six months old it was important that the fracture healed correctly and that the pins were removed to ensure they didn't affect Barry's growth plates and I was very relieved when the Vet told us he thinks he'll be completely back to normal in no time. Meanwhile, attempts have been made around the back door to ensure we don't have a repeat of this. People keep telling me "he won't do that again in a hurry" and I keep reminding them that he's a dog, a puppy for that matter, and therefore like children he probably won't learn on this first occasion! Here's hoping that we never have a repeat of this!

Barry at home resting, having had the pins removed from his "chicken drumstick" leg yesterday morning.

 

 

 

I have grown up around dogs but was never lucky enough to have my own. Oh the times I thought my Dad was going to come home with one when he'd tell me "I'm going to see a man about a dog", only years later did I discover that actually meant "I'm going down the pub". Jack and I moved into our very own house together back in January and we soon settled into village life (having lived in Newbury town centre for the past two years). We're located in the beautiful Berkshire Downs and our bedroom view looks out over 'The Ridgeway', believed to be Britain's oldest road. Having grown up in pretty but flat Cambridgeshire, I can't get enough of the rolling hills here. We love exploring the countryside and go for walks daily and there's nothing quite like having a dog by your side when out in the elements. We can't imagine being without Barry now as he's fantastic company for us. Everyone that meets him loves him and we've even been told at the pub in the village not to bother turning up for a drink without him! He's rather popular with the ladies too!

 

The view last Sunday from our back garden

 

And now to the next introduction, Squirt and Lola, our two Hermanns Tortoises. I've always had a fascination with tortoises since I was little when my Mum used to tell me stories about her escape-artist tortoise named Toby (he regularly escaped and made it over a mile away in the space of an afternoon to the local Doctor's house, before they'd call the number painted on Toby's shell and my Mum would take her pony Rosie to collect naughty Toby!). I got Squirt when she was 10 months old and around 7cm in length, before getting Lola as a companion for Squirt the following year. Lola was just 2 weeks old when I brought her home and the size of a 50 pence piece! Though tortoises are perfectly happy on their own I have to say I think they're a lot happier together and my two follow each other everywhere, sleep next to each other and fight for the same dandelion leaf! They're funny little characters and by no means slow, so never underestimate a tortoise! Barry finds them interesting but for the most part ignores them which I'm pleased about; dogs are naturally very inquisitive and as friendly as Barry is I would never leave him unsupervised with the tortoises. Likewise Squirt is not afraid to push Barry out of the way should he be in her path and weighing almost as much as a bag of sugar she's a fair weight!

 

Lola and Barry conversing in my parent's garden in Norfolk, with Squirt in the background doing a runner!

 

We've been living in Berkshire for over two years now and feel really settled here. We miss our family and friends back in Cambridgeshire but often go home to visit or enjoy having visitors here. It's hard sometimes being hours away from everywhere and everyone you knew, but we've met nice people through work, in the village etc. and we've always been happy with each other's company anyway. Jack and I have been together for almost eight years now. We're both hard working individuals, but enjoy making the most of our time outside of work whether its decorating our new house, exploring somewhere new on a walk with the dog or socialising. Jack (like most men) is sport-obsessed; he's a formula one fanatic (I am too now thanks to him) and a rugby player too. He's also a keen cyclist and squash player and quite happy to give any other sport a go! I'm more of a hobbyist and enjoy sewing, crafting and love nothing more than getting out and about with my camera to take wildlife/flower or landscape photos. I have ridden horses all my life but sadly since moving to Newbury have hardly had the chance other than helping on the odd occasion to exercise someone else's horse. I miss being around them, I loved hacking through the countryside. I hope to get back into it again, perhaps next Spring if I have more time, though I think I'll invest in a seat-saver for whatever saddle I sit on or I fear my bum-bones may not survive!

 

I think I'll leave today's blog post there for fear that you've already fallen asleep back at the second paragraph! I'll provide an update on Barry's recovery soon :-)