Sheep Shearing

Some of our sheep lined up in the pen waiting to be sheared.

The contractor shearing the sheep.

Oldest Daughter age 18 helping roll and bag the fleeces.
















My Husband hard at work rolling fleeces too.








Devon County Wool bags stuffed with fleeces, waiting to be delivered to the British Wool depot.

Red Retro English Phone Box

These retro red phone boxes were everywhere around England when I was a child but they are becoming a rare sight now. First many were removed and replaced with clear plastic ones but due to the huge popularity of mobile phones many of them have been totally removed now. However, Devon still has a few scattered around the County in various quaint villages adding their bit of nostalgic charm and character. Some have made it into museums and other public places such as country theme parks etc, while some have been bought privately and can be found in people's gardens.

For me I can remember them well as we didn't have a telephone in our house for many years while I was growing up, it saved my parents a lot of rental charges! Also, my Mum made money out of it as she was paid to clean the phone box and had the job of reporting any vandalism or if the phone was out of order, she used a neighbours phone for this.

Juicy Red Cherries

There is an abundance of juicy red cherries on our garden tree at the moment. The birds love eating them. The problem is that this tree is so tall that we can't reach up high enough to pick them! Any ideas apart from ladders? Comments welcome!

Frugal Dates

Date night is definately the favourite night of the week for my Husband and I. We like to have a bit of variety without breaking the bank. During the cold, wet, Winter months we are more likely to stay at home, turn off the lights, use candles and sit in front of the woodburning stove eating a home cooked meal or watching a dvd.

Two weeks ago on date night it was hot and sunny and as we were already in Exeter on business we drove a bit further to the beach at Exmouth. After a walk along the seafront and on the soft sandy beach, we went to eat in for a treat at 'The Bamboo' which is our favourite Chinese restaurant. The curry is served on burners and steams through the whole meal. Chopsticks are provided but we're not really patient enough to eat the whole meal with them, it takes us so long to eat the rice! I asked for tap water to drink and was pleased to get lemon and ice. We had a water jug with the meal too. While munching prawn crackers we ordered beef curry, chicken curry, a portion of chips decided to try to manage on one portion of rice but had forgotten quite how much curry they gave you there and had to order another portion half way through the meal. Never mind, it was good to experiment. (Maybe next time we will just have one curry between us then we could manage on one portion of rice, this would be easier if we had a small snack a couple of hours before, it's hard to cut down when you go out to eat if you are already starving!). We didn't order dessert but got given two after dinner chocolates, one was orange chocolate and the other was mint chocolate. We ate these in Exmouth park while sitting on the bench admiring the flowers.

Last week we got a takeaway from our favourite chip shop then parked at a pictureque location nearby to eat. We took our own drinks and went for a country walk afterwards. We found some unusual wild yellow flowers there. This cost about £10 for the two of us, £5 each, plus a little diesel but we didn't drive far.

Last night we decided to have a bedroom date, I changed into a pretty nightie while the dinner was cooking then brought it up to eat in bed. A simple dinner of home-made quiche, potato and a full salad with creamy dressing. We watched a free film downloaded from the internet while eating a Magnum ice-cream and sipping Bailey's and ice, lovely! The meal was the same family meal that we would have eaten if it hadn't been date night, the only cost was 50p each for the Magnums which were on special offer and part of a multi-pack and the Baileys which was a tiny part of the litre bottle which was on special at £15, so very hard to price, 50p each? That would make the cost of this date about £2 for both of us! The novelty of eating, drinking alcohol and watching a film in bed made the date special for us as we don't normally do this. We don't need to spend pounds to enjoy our night together, we certainly didn't feel deprived!

Bird Spotting on Our Land

We have lots of birds on our land including birds of prey. There is a Woodpecker who has lived here for a few years and is spotted regularly, sometimes at the back of the house or in the garden but usually it is pecking the walnut tree. However, the other day my young Son came rushing in asking for the camera as he had found an unusual bird which even Grandad with all his knowledge couldn't identify! My young Daughter took the photo's, they are not very clear as the bird wasn't close enough. We have googled English birds and now think that this is a Red Legged Partridge, please do leave a comment if you can confirm it or recognise it as something else!

Baby Stella & Teddy

Our youngest Daughter age 4 loves her dolls and has several. This is one of her favourites, the Manhattan Stella Doll which she received as a gift quite a while ago. She has now been given a new outift for her doll which delighted her, the new sleepsuit and teddy bear which velcroes on to Stella's hand so she can hold it herself! She proudly let me take a few poses with her.

Antique Hunting at Topsham

My Husband and I recently enjoyed a trip to Topsham antique hunting. We visited the Quay Centre which is in a really picturesque location on the quayside full of expensive boats. The centre is on three levels with treasures stuffed into every nook and cranny! It felt like we were looking around a very large museum, only it was better than some of the smaller museums we have around here. I only made one purchase, a beautiful floral antique hand painted dinner plate in the Rose Chintz design. These plates were made by the Johnson Brothers and this design came into production in the 1930's but have since been discontinued. This gorgeous dinner plate was a bargain at just £4!! I bought this plate to use though, not to put on display, or just stick in a cupboard. I want to enjoy my purchase!