A Journey towards Summer.

There has been many great things happened over the past few months, rather than telling you a huge story, I thought you might like to just have a wee insight and some cool pics to let your eyes wander through our journey towards Summer.

      We had 4 wee lambs born in late September, early October, 2 boys and two girls.

                                                     This is little black knees...

      

Here are the 4 babies with Broken leg, she's the Mum of the little ones, Mamma at the front with her two, and Marmajuke back right, she's Grandma, but passed away in late October. One life begins as another ends. A wee happy sad story.

My brother in law on Holiday wearing his birthday pressie from us. An All Black training top.

We are trying to talk them into coming over for holiday...

                                    

                      

                                Broken leg cleaning little Black Knees, what a great Mum she is.

       

                       Brooke on the deck, enjoying the glorious day with relaxed .doggies

                                        

Went to vintage second hand shop, there is a consortium of these shops in the area, that all advertise each other's stores and it's a great way to support each other by inviting customer to shop around...

We went to one on the way to Matakana, and got a couple of lamp shades. This one is an industrial looking one for Kitchen. Looks cool.

                                      

                            This orange one looks quite Retro in the wee dining room area

            

                                   

We also tried our hand a building a Pergola, it was a challenge but in the end it is quite surprising what you can achieve when you push through. We also stained it 'black bean' and used some old pallets as seats, some wooden gates as lean backs and shelter. It will be a nice cool space for the warm summer days.

                                        

Harry our Rooster, what a cool little guy. He keeps all the girls in line, tells them where and (often) when to eat, they all scurry up to him when he sources food. He does get a very good return for his investment, if you know what I mean? 

         

                                      

                       Brooke created a wall garden from an old pallet, it's coming on great.

                                      

            The onion on the right is shop bought, the others are some of Brooke's garden variety...

        

                                     Fresh potatoes from the garden for dinner....you beauty.

       

                            Some of our UK trip photos, what a great trip home.

      

           Brooke made some yummy Pizza for lunch, she has an amazing, quick dough recipe.

                                   

                                  Some of the 12 girls Harry gets to look after, lucky fella! 

                                    

                          Brooke's onions, almost ready to lift and dry out.....stunning.

                      What epitomises Summer more than the sight of sweetcorn growing...

                                  

                                                Roses growing in the Summer sun...

                                 

                                               Blue sky,flowers and good times...

                                 

       The wee house is transforming before our eyes, Summer brings the best out in everything..

      

   The orchard we planted last year is really coming on, won't be long until we can pick our first crop

       

                                                       Apples...not too far away...

         

                                                Pathway through the garden of Eden....

                                     

                         Remember the woolly gate, well it's hanging out in the Garden now...

                                       

Well that's all folks, I hope you had fun wandering towards Summer with us. The Cottage is slowly become more and more connected to the gardens and it's surrounding. It's a joy to bring the things you love together, to have a garden that provides beautiful food for you and a surrounding that feels, well...just feels right I guess. 

Enjoy your journey towards Summer, see you soon.

Maggie x.

It's lfe Jim, but not as we knew it!

Boy, how the times they have changed......

Lately, there has been a lot of things we have tried for the very first time.

Here is a wee selection of our latest escapades in the life of Maggie and Brooke...

 

The sweetest moments.

Andrew came over with his wee ones to help Brooke extract her honey. After retrieving the beautiful golden honeycomb, we placed it in muslin to separate the runny stuff....yummy.

This is Andrews son Caisin getting up close to this tasty treat.

For the Shear hell of it!

Karyn and Sue gave us a lesson on sheep shearing. Here's Brooke getting her instructions from Karyn

 

And a few minutes later- she's away. Good on ya Brooke.

 

 

 Spot the novice! But it was awesome....a new appreciation for the woolly buggers.

 

                                      Under the watchful eye of the Grand Master....Gulp!

There you go, looks like I did it all by myself eh!

But Sue did all the scary bits.......

I hear the train a Comin,  it's comin round the bend.

This was quite a poignant moment the other day, it's the annual, northern line steam train journey, and this time last year we was privileged enough to wave as it chugged passed our Station Masters cottage...the driver honks his horn and passengers wave as they take a trip through 'the way it was' for those travelling north by rail....

 

 

Brooke managed to catch a wee shot as it travelled back down the line a few hours later.

 

What better way to spend labour weekend by knocking up a Pergola

We have been talk in about building pergola as part of our landscape design for the garden. We decided labour weekend was just about perfect for it. 4 days to plan, purchase, plan some more, agree, disagree, then eventually get on with building the thing...

We downloaded the Mitre 10 easy as 'build your own pergola'.... just a word of warning...IT IS NOT EASY AS! The biggest nightmare was setting the profiles, no matter how many times we looked at that bl**dy video, it became a very testing time for all trying to get it right.

 Post profile tantrums, string set and holes dug. 400 square x 500 deep.....

 

Posts in...and now we wait for concrete to set....cuppa tea anyone?

Waiting with Finn for Karyn and Sue to come for cuppa....

 

Day 2 and serious work has begun, bearers going in...this was quite a rewarding moment.

Almost home and dry, just tightening us the final bolts and job done. Woo hoo!

 

And there she is....one pretty lookin Pergola....Easy as..

Looking North. We painted the old gates and pallets then secured them to the posts...

 

 

Tomorrow is Tuesday and so far, we have decided we might take it easy...but who knows what might happen. At the moment, we are a wee bit stiff, maybe we might go shopping for some comfy big cushions for our pallet seats....sounds like a plan!

 

Thanks everyone...and take care.

Maggie. X

You take the High road and I'll take the low road.

Everywhere you go...always take the weather with you:

 

I kid you not, we have been so lucky with the weather...

We travelled to Edinburgh on Tuesday and left all the wet stuff behind us. We took the train and enjoyed relaxing and watching the country side go by. The city itself was it's usual breath-taking and gorgeous. Although I have travelled to Edinburgh many many times, I never tire of it's magic. The Royal Mile is stunning with it's cobbled walkways, it's air of capital pride and as it many shops create a mecca for tourists. The Grassmarket welcomes you with it's brilliant, multi coloured building and it's fantastic history detailing the 'last drop' and Maggie Dickson's pubs that share the stories of time gone by.

The mighty Castle overlooks it's city with a steely confidence of protection and vigil. You do get a sense that your definitely in the capital as you wander through this great city.

 

A view from the 'North Bridge' 

The story about a Man and his Dog  

 

Wee Bobby - Faithful until the end... 

 

Having a wee seat  

What a proud Nation. 

 

Next stop - The Home of Golf : St Andrews

 

 

St Andrews is the home of Golf just in case you didn't know this already. Again, the sun shone all day. What a neat little town it is. It's here William and Kate's romance blossomed and you can't help notice just how this little fishing town on the east Coast of Scotland can provide the perfect setting for this.

We wandered around the centre of town taking in the sights, then headed out to the Cathedral and eventually the castle ruins to really get a sense of the towns history.

 

 

 

 The Old Streets, perfect to this day.  

 

The Castle remains upright and proud 

 

The watch Tower. 

 

The Harbour, stands strong and welcomes the ships home

 

Trying it out for size.....

 

Looking out over the Old Course... 

The stunning 1st and St Andrews.....par 3

 

Women can't play on the Old Course, this is close as I could get. 

 

On the road home, golden fields of Hay 

 

The Road to Fort William

We're in Fort William right now and it's glorious. The drive up from Glasgow was just amazing, especially through the stunning Glencoe. Once you enter this amazing location, every sight seems more breath-taking than the one before.

This area is a hill walkers idea of heaven with the multitude of Monroes on offer to challenge the fittest of climbers. A Munroe is any range of hills that exceed 3000 feet, there are around 280 in Scotland, with the highest right here in Fort William called Ben Nevis: it is over 4000 feet. You can see many trampers who have conquered the 'Ben' walking slowly through the streets looking a little worse for wear..but triumphant never the less.

 

 

One of the lakes in the shadow of Glencoe's ranges

 

A sight to challenge any Braveheart! 

 

A quick picture at the bottom of the beast....

 

Well friends and followers, we are heading off at 6am tomorrow to drive up to The isle of Skye to board a ferry to The Outer Hebrides...will update Bog from there....

 

SEE YA!