Apologies!

I seem to have taken a little unscheduled blog break there! A combination of doing jobs on the house we put off till after the wedding, trying to finish my first children's book for the publishers deadline and the fact that our camera seems to have packed up, has meant I either don't have anything to tell you about or cant take pics!

So here's a few bits and pieces we been up to over the last month that I managed to get pictures of before the camera gave up the ghost...

Most of whats in the garden has gone over now, we still got some leeks and cabbages in but that's about it, which is ok by me as it seems to have been raining here none stop for nearly 2 months, and I hate getting soaked while weeding!

I have to say one of the major success of this year for me has been the Sweetcorn, I've never grown if before and once we got over the mice problem, they where wonderful. I was never a huge fan of Sweetcorn but I that has changed now I've eaten home grown, I just wish we'd planted more (on the list again for next year!)
Here it is having just about gone over, I was in the process of pulling the dead stalks up for compost...



I also used up the very last of the tomatoes in October, I was amazed at the size of them (I shouldn't really, there called Giant Delicious, does what it says on the tin!)



I made about a ton of tomato and basil soup (about half of which is still in the freezer!)

We did have one tiny bit of planting to do before the end of the year, back in the summer I ordered 2 hedging plants for the orchard, Cherry Plums. It was the first time I'd heard of them, but apparently they make good shelter hedging for orchards, and produce red or yellow fruit the size of cherries but the shape of plums. At the moment they don't look like much...



...but I'm looking forward to the spring when they come to life!

Another thing we've been trying to do this month is keep warm! As money is tight (as always!) we have been trying not to have the central heating on (thank you British Gas, I do like my fingers blue and my pockets empty!) so we have been relying more and more on our trusty little Stovax wood burner (which is AMAZING! I have probably said it before but nothing get a room cosy and toasty like a wood stove) we've eaten rather quickly through our store of logs so we're having to scrounge up gash wood where we can, luckily our local garden center is happy for us to take old broken pallets off their hands...



see, I knew that Landy would be good for something!



The husbands not bad either!

The Landy has been brilliant this Autumn, she's even managed a couple of trips up to Shropshire to see our parents. Rich's Mum & Dad moved house last month, so we went up to see their lovely new cottage...





Cute isn't it, I'm not jealous in the slightest!



...and here's me stroking the horses who live next door.

So a bit of a hotch potch post, I'll try to do better from now on (and possibly nick Richards phone, which has a descent camera on it!)