BLOG 5🏡December 2015🏠

🏡  Spent 4 days at the cottage after Christmas which was great, relaxing time this visit with Katherine & Abbie, James & Sam came for an overnight & we spent the morning in Lyme Regis with breakfast at The Bell Cliff, love it when places accept the dogs too !👍

Amazing how calm the harbour was !

One thing we’ve realised here is that a lot of restaurants were closed for Katherine’s birthday ! Seemed to be an extra long holiday period ! Where were we going to eat ? Found one in Lyme Regis which was pleasant, but no other choices, nearly resorted to a takeaway !  Mum & Ted were visiting overnight so they joined us. The winds were amazing on the beach when we left the restaurant !

Visited Seaton Beach today, still wet & very windy weather but very mild for December !  ☔We got very wet !

So we needed a nice cozy pub & meal so travelled along the coast to Beer Village & relaxed in the local pub, the Anchor Hotel !  Again dogs welcome !

Well it’s time to go back tomorrow morning unfortunately to our rental, if we stayed one more day they are holding the tradition of dipping in the sea in fancy dress on New Year’s Day in Lyme Regis !  Now who fancies that !!! 🌊☔🏊🌊☔🏊🌊☔

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BLOG 25 🏡October 2017🌼

🏡 Well the weather hasn’t improved for the Month of October…oh well suppose Winter is coming ! The only excitement having weather like this is visiting Lyme Regis when storms are approaching, quite spectacular !  The dogs love it and we all come back with sandy feet !  

Looking at the ‘wobbly floor’ bedroom, (must change that name as the floor is fine now!) have taken down the bin liners which were stuck over the holes catching the rain from the thin thatch, now sealed up so no draughts, also fixed this in landing ceiling, that had same problem but all sealed and no leaks !  We can paint over the plasterboard when we decorate. Looks very neat work by Andy ! I stood and helped if he needed it !  So this room looking much better, needing decorating, carpet, wardrobe….now thats going to be fun chosing a wardrobe as walls are not straight and beams in the way ! So think only one part of the bedroom suitable to get decent size wardrobe in, so on the look out at the Antiques shops. 

The doorway to this bedroom is very low, ok for me being bit shorter but you have to duck to avoid hitting your head if taller, so the plan is to cut out above the door frame and put in a bigger door.  Andy cut away the plaster and discovered a very dry messy mixture of dirt, a dry cob mix used to build this wall. 

It covered everything, it was so dusty, looking around for a new size door, thought of a downstairs door between kitchen and boiler cupboard which is never used and yes it fits width ways and door frame cut to size height ways, may need a new door frame to hang door onto as original frame, part of beam used before makes the door hang funny angle and will not be moving the beam !

Thinking of sending the chickens back….they still have not laid any eggs !! Only joking but what is going on….they are about 25 weeks old now and things should have happened ! Fingers crossed for VERY soon !  We wonder if they were younger than the 12 weeks when we first saw them at the Farm.  More wood added to their run today to eventually add a waterproof cover over the top to protect them in the winter, should be better for them.  They were trying to shade from ‘Storm Brian’ so putting a cover on will keep them dry.

Enjoying breakfast 🐔🐓🐔🐓

Hoping next blog will include eggs !!                        🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

UPDATE….🍳First egg laid on 5 Nov 2017 …..at last !! 🐓👍🐓🍳

BLOG 27🏡December 2017💐

🏡 Walks along beautiful Lyme Regis Beach, brilliant sunshine & the views !🌞

🎄Axminster Lantern Parade & Christmas Lights Switch On & lots of market stalls to browse🎄

🎄Lyme Regis switched on their Christmas Lights after a Lantern Parade & Display, what a beautiful glowing Christmas tree🎄

Work carries on in the house, finishing adjusting the height of the bedroom door, if you were not as short as me you had to watch your head entering the room ! A good project, almost finished…

Finished….

Not a straight forward door frame !

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BLOG 32🏡May 2018

🏡 Thinking about the colours for next bedroom, this bedroom is bigger and all the walls have artex so guess this will be fun ! Also will be a challenge as it has a very high ceiling with black beams, they will be painted to blend in, (if we can reach !),

not one wall is straight up & down so choosing colours is fun !

This end of the room has different levels and a “lovely stained” ceiling from the original leak through the thatch.

Would still like a feature wall which will have to be a lime based clay paint as it is the original part of the house before the extension, the other two bedrooms are part of the extension so traditional paint was used. Trying “Riding Hood” as colour choice for this wall. A project still to start, weather has been so good so been in garden so will be taking a while I reckon. Did start in September so all about it in Blog 37.

It’s the chicks ‘brooding’ time, started with Dawn, Pam soon joined her ! When we eventually gather the eggs they are so lovely and warm 🐔🐓🐔this ‘brooding’ could happen for days or weeks I’ve just read, I hope all four of the chicks are not going to be broody all together, not sure where they’d all fit !

🐔Nessa and Gwen….you next ? 🐔

🐔Help needed to drink 😉🐔

Managed to collect the eggs when Dawn moved out the Coop ! 🐔🐓🐔

Lovely Lyme Regis 🏖🌞🐾

Lovely Seaton Beach…..chill out time, sitting on a blanket with a Latte with just the sound of the sea, Wonderful x 🌊🌞🏖🐕🐾

BLOG 33🏡 June 2018 1 Year Living in Devon

🏡 Starting this blog with a picture of a visitor we had recently in the garden !! Also a small shrew arrived in the house, played at hiding very well but managed to get it to run into a box & put outside !

Views across to Axminster on our doggie walk 🌾🌻🌳🌲

What’s going on here ? ! Still brooding I reckon ! Only 2 eggs being laid at the moment so have a reasonable amount of eggs to cope with 🐓🐔🐓

🍓First strawberries & add some clotted cream, delicious ! 🍓🍓

Early morning in Lyme Regis, very quiet, started running this week, so a good idea to give it a try along the beach front with Katherine 🏃🏃

Went to visit Beer Quarry Caves, now me & caves do not get on but would wait & see when I get there to see if I go in, on their website description it says ‘no crawling involved’!!

Entrance to the caves….oh dear !

Great, a gate to escape back through if need to….!

Well, pleased to say it was very spacious inside so made it out again after the hour Tour which was informative! Still would not want to get lost in there, so when you buy your entrance tickets they also give you little red plastic squares so on entering the caves you hand your tickets in & on exit you hand in red squares & they make sure that same number been handed over, so no chance of hiding in there for the night ! Interesting but simple idea, think it’s all to do with people sometimes wandering off !! (Health & Safety).

My treat for being brave was a ‘Cream Tea’ after ! 🍰🍰 Nice to chill out for the day🍹

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BLOG 35 🏡July 2018

🏡The month of July started with a trip to Falmouth Cornwall, lovely weather, pretty place.

Our new chicken, Doris has started laying, tiny eggs🐔

Lacking eggs at the moment, one time we had too many to eat but the broody hens, Pam & Dawn, who have finished brooding now, are slowly laying again, but we do collect 4 eggs so getting there ! 🐔🐓🐔

A project started outside with all this wonderful weather is painting the wind-up Gramophone in ‘Clotted Cream’ colour, (like that name) we bought it recently ! I hear you say why ? It’s a project to strip everything out and put in a vinyl turntable & speakers, we’ll advertise items as spares. Have bought the turntable plus need speakers & cd player to finish it. It will all fit in the unit plus all our vinyls (including my Osmond vinyls, & on that subject did you ever read my Osmond Blogs if you fancy click here ! http://tinamckenzie.blog 🆒👍 Back to this blog ! So original wooden gramophone looked like this…..

Nice varnished lid keeping the original wood colour to finish it off. 🔊🎶

Ready to go ! 🔊🎛🎶🎵🎼

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BLOG 44 🏡 April 2019 🌻

🏡 Finished making the vegetable plot this month, planted the seeds, also trays made up with broccoli, cucumber and sunflower seeds & placed in little plastic greenhouse….thought I’d give the plastic version a go ! It’s quite a cute size so ok to experiment with. Next few blogs hopefully will have results !💐

Over the Easter Holiday made a start painting the outside of the house, the two sides we had not yet touched ! It’s good when the weather is dry but when it’s very very warm, hotter than the rest of Europe, it’s quite hard as soon as the sun comes round to that side of the house to carry on painting as it was so bright ! To be fair we only had enough paint to finish the one wall but we didn’t even succeed in that, do not complain about good weather but sitting out in it is good but painting is a no no ! Anyway gives us a chance to get more paint ordered and when the weather is a bit cooler we’ll crack on with it, must finish this Summer, it’s been planned for ages !

We visited Lyme Beach & Forde Abbey in this wonderful weather but when at home the dogs decided it was best to stay in the shade under the garden table, wise move ! (spot Toby!)

Edna and Edith are coming along fine, they love being outside, if the weather is to continue very warm through the Summer we’ll seriously have to get another paddling pool just for the dogs. Toby loved the pool to cool down last Summer as that was a hot one ! I only buy the small toddler size pool, it’s just enough water depth & easy for him to get in & out, loves it !

Forde Abbey fountain

Lyme Regis beach

Back home

Fun times had by all 🆒😉🌞🌊🏖🌞

BLOG 48 🏡 Sept 2019 🏠

🏡 Outside painting this month, YES at last finishing remaining two walls of the house, has always looked finished from the front with side and front painted, sneaky ! 🏠   Now finished at last, looks so much better & fresher.  Had to scrub the paint drips off the windowsills & windows, always say we will cover the windows with covering so it protects them BUT never happens as such a pain doing it but wasn’t too bad to clean, all done now !! 

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Next Job……….finish that 4th bedroom  (1) Alcove to paint  (2) Skirting to add   (3) Carpet  (4) Curtains – bought a lovely set for £ 7.50 but split them for the two windows.  They also have hooks rather than rings on the curtains so found some oak colour rings for £2.50 plus some more on eBay for £5.00 which should work.

Vegetable Plot is nearing its’ end !  Most of the vegetables grew well,  the tomatoes been moved to different part of the garden in their grow bags & pots so catch more sunshine to make them go red maybe !  They are a lovely size tomato but still green & stayed green, shame !  Wonder if I should grow the tomatoes in the little greenhouse next year ?

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Last of the carrots 🥕🥕🥕

Spring Onions grew well 🌰🌰🌰

Colyton Shop Space……We are having to store the new items we purchase as no room in the Shop at the moment, we use our dining room with the large table pushed to end of room and bought some more plastic boxes so all neatly tucked away. Sorting & wrapping the items into a box, label & price each item, add Box number to Stock list to keep a track on where everything is at the moment. We had thought of racking around the room and keeping items on the shelves which is fine too but the boxes keep it tidy & dust free ! All ready to go to the Shop…. grab a box or two, sorted !👍👏

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  Looking quite full at the moment !

BLOG 50🏡 December/January 2020🏠

🏡   Decision made in January……decided to close the Shop Area at Colyton,  we’ve decided we are selling more on our Ebay Shop Online and monthly payment a lot lower than the Shop at Colyton.  A big decision but moving on, maybe in the future have another Shop Area.  Ebay hopefully will be fun.  We now have alot of stock all boxed & ready to be added to our Ebay Shop, gradually adding it. Our most popular item at the moment are tea sets amazingly,  the challenge with these is the packing to post & getting it to the buyer in one piece !   Success at the moment.  So moving all items to this Shop we are working on social media also to advertise items so next Blog with updated details hopefully.Cannot wait for Spring & Summer, weather has been very bitter lately so garden being neglected.  The dogs love being in the garden so hurry up sunny weather ! Edna & Edith have been with us for a year now (25th January) and they seem happy & settled, think Smudge & Toby realise now that they are staying & not just overnight !  Look at Toby here, now dropped weight to 17.70kg,  that’s 6kg weight loss since last April, sooo good 👍😃🐕Little Edith here looking all fluffed up in the garden, her favourite place 🐕🐶Lyme Regis is as nice as ever, especially enjoy it when the tide is way out, the dogs love the run around, only issue that bothers me is when we let Edith off the lead she tends to run off to other dogs as she loves them so you can shout her name over & over but no she wants to play !  But I realise the more you let her off the lead the easier it will get, eventually, hopefully ! But she LOVES it and has great fun running around & keeps us fit !   Issue that is brewing with regard to dogs on the beach at Lyme is that there is talk to completely ban them ALL year from using the beach, I’ve given my opinion on this matter, so we will see what happens, would be dreadful if the ban is enforced.