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| Another puffin commission |
A long time ago, back in the mists of time (well, February actually!), I was at my friend’s house having a lovely aromatherapy massage, as I do every month. We’d finished the massage and were sitting having a catch up over a cuppa when she told me of the sad, unexpected death of her elderly next-door neighbour. The lady’s husband had died back in the middle of 2022 and she had struggled on without him, but become ill during the winter. Her only daughter had got her into hospital, but she had been too frail to survive and now the poor daughter was left with the house to clear and sell – not a quick job as it had been rather neglected as her parents aged.
Suddenly, I had one of those moments where the world seemed to pause, hold its breath and wait for me to make a life-changing decision. With barely a moment’s rational thought I plunged in and suggested that they might like to sell it to me! In no time at all, it seemed, we’d started discussions, agreed a price and my home of two years was back on the market! I refrained from mentioning this in my previous blog as I didn’t want to risk jinxing it in any way but, as the year has gone on it now appears that the deal is jinxed anyway so, what the hell! 😊
At first everything seemed to be going really well, as I found a buyer within the first couple of weeks and searches were done, questions answered and we proceeded, at the usual snail’s pace, towards contract exchange. The day before contract exchange my buyer pulled out as he had, allegedly, lost his job (it didn’t stop him coming back and making an offer £30,000 below his initial offer a few months later, though!). This was at the beginning of July when the cost-of-living crisis and mortgage ‘wobble’ were just kicking in and, since then, I have been unable to find a buyer and my property has plummeted in value ☹.
Luckily, the owner of the property I want to buy is adamant that the property is mine and she will wait for as long as it takes for me to sell mine and complete the purchase, which is very generous of her. Consequently, I have been living in Limbo Land since March of this year and it has taken up most of the space in my brain as I mull over the pros and cons of continuing!
Trying to maintain some sense of normality, I have continued with my usual activities of gardening three days a week interspersed with farm sits, which seem to have increased in number this year, as I have done a couple of extra ones at Dundry and one back in Cornwall at the home of my favourite sheep! Incidentally, she is still alive but showing her age now as she lives in retirement with her friends in the orchard at the farm. My stay could hardly be described as a farm sit as, since Jo and James have now retired, I only had the ageing sheepdog, Jess, two farm cats and 5 geriatric sheep to look after, but I had no hesitation in going, as a week back in one of my most favourite places in the world was just what the doctor ordered. I only ventured off the farm once in the whole week and that was on my last day when I arranged to meet Jo and James’ daughter, Mary, at the local farm shop for a coffee. It was some years since I had seen her and her hubbie, Richard, so we had a great catchup – I was startled to realise that their son has just left university and their daughter has just turned 18 and is taking a gap year before she, too, goes off to uni – where did those years go?
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| Number 74 💖 |
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| Jess, waiting to play sticks |
There have been several high points through the year, which have served to keep my spirits up:
Jeni landed a new job working for Yeo Valley Organics as a Farm and Estate Administrator, and this seems to have been an entirely positive move. After initial doubts about her ability to do the role, she has now settled into the job and actively enjoys it, even though it is quite busy most of the time and she is often tired by the end of the day. Her colleagues seem to be lovely and the whole company exudes a feeling of friendliness and caring. I started to reap the rewards of this move almost immediately with a trip to their organic garden and lunch in the garden restaurant, which was delicious. I also, occasionally, have gifts of Yeo Valley produce which is much appreciated (mainly the butter!) I’ve been a fan of their products for many years and feel that their Live Natural Yogurt has contributed, in no small way, to the saving of two animals’ lives, namely the aforementioned sheep, No 74, and one of our own, many years ago!
Dave has also got a new job and, more importantly, is back in the West Country and living only about a thirty-minute drive from me! The move back has not been without its dramas however and involved me doing an emergency repaint of his new home’s bedroom, while he camped out in the living room! It is wonderful to have him so near after an absence of nearly 10 years in the wilderness that is the East of England!! He has only been back since the beginning of October but twice already we have met with Jeni for lunch on a Friday at Yeo Valley HQ, where they have a canteen that has recently reopened to members of the public – I feel this may become a regular ‘happening’.
This year I also decided to go to Cropredy again but this time I managed to persuade Jeni to come with me as she now ‘felt she was old enough to go to a folk festival’! The camper van pretty much flew through her MOT this year which was a huge and delightful surprise and I also realised that I felt more confident driving her, although the hill in Bradford-on-Avon still left me dry-mouthed and trembling slightly! We went to Oxfordshire via Cheltenham, staying overnight with Mum and setting off at about 10.00am the next morning. I’d bought some levelling-up chocks for the van as the gas-powered fridge will only work if the van is on the level but, in the end we didn’t need them as we were parked in a really flat field.
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| First cider of the Festival! |
The weather forecast for the festival had not been good, but it was never as bad as was predicted and we managed to stay mainly dry and warm. Luckily, Jeni really enjoyed the festival, the food and the canalside walks and may well accompany me again, if only to get some more water buffalo ice cream!
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| Cropredy Festival |
Sadly, the Shepton Mallet Sunday Markets have stopped running, but I was able to take my stall to a summer market at the local farm shop and also to the Theale Village Show, just outside Wells, where I spent the day happily spinning under the shade of an old apple tree in their community orchard. Jeni and I had both been persuaded to enter several of the classes and did quite well. I undeservedly won a large silver cup in the 'beverages' section - I entered 3 of the 5 classes and got a Third out of three for my Sloe Gin, a First out of one for my Homemade Lemonade and a First out of one for my Elderflower Cordial - so hardly a deserved win really!
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| My stall at the last Sunday Market |
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| 3D needle-felted pictures |
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| Needle-felted woodland creatures |
I have just finished another farm sit, this time for the alpacas where there are 5 new cria (baby alpacas). Did you know that alpacas don’t calve or lamb or foal but ‘unpack’ – how descriptive is that? The babies are incredibly cute and I spent one evening, as the dusk settled in and the moon rose over the alder trees at the river’s edge, watching 4 of them playing chase around the field. Then my eye was caught by something in the next field and I watched, transfixed, as a beautiful barn owl ‘quartered’ the hay field on the lookout for voles – a magical end to my day.
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| Dee, Lewis and Braemar enjoying lunch |
Hopefully, I will not leave it so long between blogs next time and it would be nice to be able to report that things are moving forward on my house sale/purchase, so keep your fingers crossed!
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