Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to all my readers.

:-))

The thaw begins

Well today I have been out in the polytunnel a lot as it is finally above freezing here - HURRAH! So I have been able to do some work, cleaning pots, sweeping the floor and generally making it all tidy and ready to start the 2011 growing season. Joyous times!

Hens are still disgusted though...the snow has not gone away so they are inside the Mega Hen Pen and are refusing to set foot in the nasty white cold stuff...

I also cleaned out the guinea pig hutch and the rabbit hutch, sorted out the study and did some crafting and mending.

Christmas Evening outside at Compost Mansions.

Brrrrr -14 outside...Brrrr

The Feathery Laidees were NOT impressed, despite hot porridge, mealworms and cheese treats.

More about Christmas Day

So, amongst some lovely presents I recieved were....

A Cheese making kit....for hard and soft cheese, with a press and moulds and all...

A Lace making kit...

The book of the TV series Edwardian Farm and the 2 Stephen Fry autobiogs to read

and a bottle of Spietzia face oil, which I love, it smells of roses and vanilla.

Feel very lucky and pampered today!

Compostman and Compostgirl seemed to appreciate their gifts as well and we have had a quiet, friendly family day together...which was the very best gift of all!

Happy Christmas Day!

12 noon

Merry Christmas to all, its glorious here, sunny, blue sky, a balmy - 8 now, was -13 overnight (!)

Beef is slow cooking in bottom oven of Aga, went in about 8 am and will be done late afternoon...yorkshire batter resting, some presents have been opened, more to come...

all lovely but best one so far is the Cheese Making Kit (Hard and Soft) (thank you to my lovely Compostman , how he got it delivered I do not know... )

And the Lace Making Kit - Thank you Compostgirl

So some lovely crafty days to come for me, some involving milk I think!

I hope you all have lovely lovely days full of peace, fun, food and laughter ( and cheese).

Merry Christmas and a blessed Yule!

To all my readers and blog friends, old and new, Season's greetings, A festive Yule and a Happy New Year!




From all of us here at Compost Mansions, the humans, the feathery two legged and the furry four legged ones.







May you have a lovely, lovely holiday time!

Friday shopping trip

I braved Hereford Sainsbury with Compostman, and got stocked up on the stuff we get from there. Our meat delivery came this week, so we are now OK for meat from the local organic farm. We also came home from Hereford via John Davenport's organic farm shop and got some fresh veg in. It will all keep quite happily in the garage, along side our own harvested stuff from the garden, ( sprouts, leeks, parsnips etc) as his stuff is sold " dirt on, roots on etc" so you can heel it in if needed for a week or more....

We also made sure all the store cupboard items were stocked up, likewise the small animal food. Will be getting more hen food and bedding tomorrow to make sure we have a good supply in the barn.

Also I now have all presents sorted and all stuff sent apart from cards which go tomorrow.

We have made sure that the fuel for cars and the generator is sufficient, just in case we have a power outage or several ( as is normal)

We are doing this becaues we expect more of the white stuff and disruption next week so are making sure we are prepped and ready for Yule/Xmas, now, just in case!

I am feeling a bit rough now, but managed a day on my feet today and did hens, small pets and some seasonal stuff as well as sitting in the car, so am on the mend again I hope.

But have to go and have investigations as to why I keep on having bouts of this as it is getting too frequent....

Thursday thinking

Still ( I love that emoticon!) but slowly improving. May have to go out later to Hereford with Compostman, though, and stock up on food etc stuff regardless of how I feel, as more white stuff and very cold weather is predicted here over the next few days. Living where we do, we need to make sure we keep stocked up with supplies, as we have been unable to get out for more than a week, before now.

House smells delish though, as yesterday I have been making soaps and lotions balms and and bath bombs and all sorts of stuff. I thought up some new recipes for various soaps, lotions etc while I was bed bound and made some notes and read a few reference books on ingredients, essential oils etc.

As soon as I was well enough I set out to weigh and measure out ingredients and  and have made some really lovely stuff as a result. I make stuff like this as gifts and for our own use all year round but am thinking of maybe opening an online shop as I AM a qualified Aroma/Holistic Therapist so it seems like a good idea to sell some of the lovely, organic stuff I make!

We need smellovision on this blog...  :-) Pictures WILL follow!

Compostgirl got very confused this morning when she saw some bath bombs in cupcake cases curing in the kitchen, she thought I had left some cakes out in the open to go stale!
 

Feeling slightly better

Am feeling slightly better, still in bed in gloomlight but double vision is going, can now read a book and walk(slowly) without falling over.

Hopefully will be up and about later on, got up yesterday for a couple of hours, did a few chores, made myself worse, went back to lie down again.....

Thank you all for the good wishes and hope you are all well, enjoying the season and ready for the up coming celebrations.

Don't forget the lunar eclipse on the Solstice! Am looking forward to that, if it is clear ( didn't see any of the lightshow last night due to cloud grrr......)

Am still poorly but taking the drugs ...they don't really help much, but knock me out so I suppose that is an advantage over the vertigo and nausea.....but am bed bound in a darkened room at the mo all day

Compostman bought a small ish LCD tv with DVD player and has installed it in our bedroom temporarily, so when I am able I can watch TV from the bed, so I enjoyed River Cottage and am catching up with some opera DVDs, as with those, if I can't watch I can at least listen! TV is destined to be a "floating TV" and will replace huge CRT/DVD player/digibox set up in guest room, which takes up much needed extra space, or can be moved into our room or Compostgirl's room as needed....so am glad he decided to buy it tbh.

Rather sad that I had to miss Cg's production of "Scrooge" today, am a bit gutted as am unlikely to be well enough to go to tomorrow's performance either...

but I know from bitter experience the ONLY way to shift this is with lots of dark room rest....so am actually doing just that ( shock horror! Am actually DOING WHAT I AM TOLD!!! )

Hopefully doing this will get me recovered asap so I can get back to the million and one things I need to do, and so let Compostman get on with all the million and one things HE is supposed to be doing, and instead is doing MY chores as well as his...

Feel bad about that; don't like to shirk, but have no choice as I fall over when I try to stand up! Have already bashed my face about due to a tumble....

Hope you are all ok and enjoying the run up to the festivities....

Off back to bed, it took me 3 hours to compose this in Word...so have had enough now.

Labyrinthitis AGAIN

Am still here, but with Labarynthitis again so not looking at screens very much and so not writting blog posts, either..

Have been resting.

Cassi goes to the vets

- 9 here again last night, and very cold this morning...more ice and frost everywhere. Am in from the hens and have my hand wrapped around a hot mug of

We have had a fun morning of keeping cats separate from each other and food...Cassi Cat came on heat yesterday so guess where she is off to now? Yep, the Vets. So she had to be starved overnight...boy did she make a fuss. Poor little mite.

Still, maybe Tom and Tabitha won't bash her up so much once she is neutered...the violence from Tabs has ramped up again this last week, I wonder if Cassi smelled different or something?

Stay warm and safe, everybody

Some wonderful icicles!

More of the same Monday!

 Treacherous underfoot ( and wheel!) here today....pretty, though!

Sunday

Very cold here again, slipping around all over the place in order to do anything outside. Another day of indoor chores with frequent trips outside to change frozen drinkers and check on the animals.

Cassi cat has taken to throwing herself around in a wanton manner, making wild suggestive vocalisiations......suspect puberty has hit! Guess who will be visiting the vets this week?

Slushy Saturday

Well it is thawing a bit here, but still cold. Compostman has taken advantage of the bit of a thaw to go into town and stock up on some stuff....like fuel for the Generator, just in case..and to get more building supplies while they can get stuff out of the yard ( last week it was all frozen solid!)

He is also taking yet more rubble from the sitting room floor to the recycling site. It is amazing just how much is coming out of that room.....

I am ironing and sewing and tidying, as enforced house time means I can catch up on such chores. Compostgirl is reading. Cats are curled up on sofa, very bored with it all!

Hope everyone stays safe and warm.

Frosty Friday

I have a sinus infection I think, which is making going outside in the cold to do the chores very unpleasant indeed.

It is lunchtime (1.30) and it has only just got up to - 4 here outside, and it was - 11 last night! All three cats wre snuggled on our bed in the night.


I am now using warm water to put in the animals's drinkers as otherwise it freezes really quickly.  Have just given the hens some warm mash and a few treats, they are obviously really unhappy as I have only had 4 eggs today!

Later....

Compostgirl about to come home, think I will shut up the animals and then watch a dvd with her...feel like I have been punched in the face, and just want to sit down all the time...still did lots of decluttering for charity shop (when I can get to it, not going in today) and stuff for school fete.

Hens finally gone on strike at the cold, only had 4 eggs today...!

Hope everyone is staying warm and safe.

An icy trip to Hereford.

Snow here, more of it, very cold indeed as well here.

We went into Hereford today to watch Compostgirl take part in a Singalong organised by Sing Up. Was wonderful but was in Hereford Shire Hall, a HUGE Georgian pile with huge windows and no heating discernable. It was absolutely freezing in there sitting watching for 2 hours!


We also went shopping and stocked up on various stuff, not panic buying as we have a lot of stored items here, but things which we might run out of if snowed in for a week or so ( as we were in Janueary this year)

Drive back was "interesting", there seem to be lots of people who don't know how to drive on snow and ice...which was worrying!


Off out to do animals now, and then, some hot tea!

Ice and snow and more ice...

More snow here today, its 13 C in the study and I am off to put on yet more clothes......I already have many many layers on but am still cold!

Downstairs is warm but the room I am in is not zoned for heat until later on in the day.

Have been struggling to keep the animal's water unfrozen here, I have to keep going out and changing the drinkers, bring the frozen up ones in to thaw and then go out with them later to swop with the now frozen up ones I put out an hour ago.....

As you may gather I am not a fan of snow and ice!