Monday 17 August 2015

Oh Happiness.....

We finally got the nod to start the ground works for the extension the other day, so ordered the digger and four hours after it's delivery we had made good progress in remodelling the driveway having received the final levels from our Architect.  Everything looking good for the next few days work, driveway reworked and drains installed, section of the holly hedge removed and new construction site excavated.  Excellent!

We forgot about the British summer.......

P1060722

We looked out on Friday morning to see that after 16 hours of constant rain the digger was standing in a foot of water.  That'll be off to hire a submersible pump then........

Jon

Monday 10 August 2015

Common Centuary - Centaurium erythraea

For the last three or four years here at Holly Cottage, we have noticed that there is Common Centuary growing on the banks above the meadow.  Though fairly widespread throughout  the UK, I had never knowingly seen it till around four years ago and I consider it a great find on our land and look forward to it's appearance every year.

Jon

[caption id="attachment_55" align="alignnone" width="589"]Common Centuary  Centaurium erythraea Common Centuary     Centaurium erythraea[/caption]

Friday 7 August 2015

Why.....?

As we go on our journey through life, we make decisions which are often life changing and occasionally give cause for reflection why?

After two years of faffing about, we finally bought Holly Cottage in February this year and having lived here for some eleven months now, have planted a new orchard, built a temporary new driveway, expanded our little flock of poultry and applied for Building Control permission to commence construction work. In all for we amateur property magnates and non-builders, a very stressful period.

But why?  We love living in the countryside and can now keep our horses and poultry at home, we have (or will have) a cosy cottage, not too big but enough for the kids to stay, and a nice garden in due course. We also have lovely views and are surrounded by places to walk and cycle.

The thing that makes it really special is, like this morning, we can stand at what will become our bedroom window and see things like this only 20m away...........

Jon

Roe Fawn at Holly Cottage

We are very lucky............