Not sure why.
Thursday was a hard working day for Ady (who will find things to do even when no one is expecting him to). In the morning we headed over to Paddington Farm and caught up with Tanya and Michael there. I’m always rather flattered when people remember us from just being here a week or so way back last year, given how many visitors they have. We were there to choose two piglets for Jill and selected two likely looking baby boars which Tanya marked with purple spots ready for us to collect the following day. We introduced ourselves to their current WWOOFers, another family travelling around in a caravan on their way to Tinkers Bubble, an intentional community in the west country that we have heard much about and met various people from but never been to despite emailing them way way back asking for a WWOOF placement. Ady and I had a quick chat with Miranda and Simeon who seem lovely and shook our hands twice when they learned we were another travelling family. Their kids Izzy (boy 12) and Kooky (girl 9) are lovely and Davies, Scarlett and Kooky are firm friends already.
I did some cottage inventory checking and helped Ady move wood piles about and then spent some time in the office as Denise the office manager wasn’t in. I answered the phone a couple of times including to Jill’s old next door neighbour who we met the very first time we met Jill as she was staying here with her. It was good to update her on the next chapter of our crazy plans 🙂 I spent ages trawling through the Middlewick website noting down things that need updating and did a couple of reviews of the holiday cottages for various travel websites.
Davies and Scarlett spent time over at Paddington playing with Kooky who seems really nice :).
Yesterday morning was Pig Collecting Time so armed with a cat carrier Jill, Leyah, Davies, Scarlett and I headed over to Paddington to collect them one at a time. Piglets are bloody heavy in a cat carrier! I carried both of them most of the way – first the spotty one, then the plain pink one, both as yet unnamed (they came with the names Inky and Porky but they will get changed), both boys. They settled in quick, the plain pink one escaped a couple of times but we herded him back in and put another round of stock fencing up to prevent further escapes. Leyah and I also brought Benji the goat back up to the field from the stables where he has been hanging out.
Ady spent most of the day working with Harry, an apple tree pruner extraordinaire who we met last time we were here and showed us a thing or three about apple trees. He remembered us and was very excited about our plans. I’m loving being back here and being recognised by people every day 🙂 We’ve been invited over for a cup of tea at Sam and Cassie’s next door too.
After lunch Jill, Leah, Davies, Scarlett and I went off with the cat carrier again to Happy Landings animal rescue for some ex battery hens. We collected four to add to the current five hens here and then came back and prepared a run for them to stay in for a few days until they are ready to roam with the rest of the flock. I love the way Middlewick has changed from a holiday cottage complex into a smallholding which just happens to have some holiday cottages too :).
I went with Jill to collect Thomas from school and have a nose around the very fancy school he goes to. He’s doing well there and it clearly suits him lots. We arranged to reconvene at Orchard View (our cottage) for takeaway pizza before heading to the pub 🙂 A very nice couple of hours 🙂
Today was a struggle to get up and out of bed – after feeding and letting out animals Ady headed off to do more firestarting and I had an office day – I spent time remerchandising the farm shop, checking best before dates on everything and getting it into some sort of order. I listed a weekend break at one of the cottages on ebay (worth a look actually, we’ll still be here, as will some friends of ours staying nearby, if it remains at this price it’s a stonking bargain!), set up a flickr account for Middlewick and created a group for guests to add their photos and tried and failed to create a youtube account for here too.
I still have website updating to do 🙂
I saw in two lots of guests, started a fire in the woodburner for one cottage and generally enjoyed playing offices :). It’s very lovely to have our own space again. I wish our cottage had a bath – it would be nice to have a long soak but other than that this is a very good way of whiling away a few weeks until the tenants leave and we can crack on with getting the house ready to sell and heading up to Rum for our interview. Life feels on a far more even keel again now than it did even a week ago :).
That fancy school is where RP’s Mr C is moving to!
Comment by Jan — 15 January 2012 @ 4:24 pm