Before and After

Thank you all so much for your congratulations on our Golden Wedding.
Here is a before and after pic. 50 years apart.

Back soon
Gillx
PS Don't you wish it would stop raining?!

I was a Child Bride. Honest!

Hello All
 Today David and I have been married for 50 years.
Good grief. Who would have thought it?!!
Gillx

Reasons to be cheerful- Animals

Hello All
Thank you all for your comments over my last posts. Like all bloggers I LOVE to get comments, but as I have stalled somewhat with my blogging lately I haven't replied. I'm sorry about this. I promise to do better in future.Many thanks for bearing with me while I struggle with getting my blogging act together.
Before I start on this post of regurgitated photographs from previous blogs I must welcome Alson Fraser,Samllhomebigplanet and Jill Mcclinton on Bloglovin and Jane,Pamela Forni, Trish Gibbs and Manicstamper on the Follower bar to the right.  I hope I haven't missed anyone, but with names disappearing with this Google thingy going on I'm struggling to know who is who.
So..............
Reasons to be cheerful part three... Animal friends.
I'll start with our transient livestock.
 Prior to the Foot and Mouth Epidemic we used to keep half a dozen Suffolk ewes. This would be too many on a two acre smallholding, but we used to share grazing with a couple of smallholder friends and rotate around  our fields. then came F&M.. When this hit Derbyshire our Ewes were at our friend south of Derby and a month off lambing. We were intending to bring them home a fortnight before their due date to lamb them. So far so good and then F&M was found four miles away from out frriends and everyone went into clampdown. We couldn't get our sheep home and when we finally did, after our friend had to lamb them for us, we had to have a Ministry of Agriculture vet travel behind us and then disinfected the trailor  +++,  all at enormous expense. When all was sort of back to normal the moving around of the sheep became so complex that we decided to send them to Bakewell market where they were bought at a buyers market for just a few pounds.  Since then we have just bought poddy lambs which we have reared for meat ourselves. We buy them in the spring and take them to a small local butcher in Oct/ Sept. he has them slaughterd  for us and I butcher them myself. ( I searched for different terms there but decided it is what it is)




Here are last years lambs

Our other transient animals are pigs. Here are last years weaners, We keep pigs until they are approximately 6 months before they go to the butcher. These I do not butcher, mainly because I can't keep the kitchen cool enough to handle the meat which gets "floppy"  if not cool.

Now to our all year round animals

Here is part of our front garden (tidy isn't it?!) and some of our beehives. The bees are probably the most important animals, as they contribute so much to ourselves and the wider community.
 Their initial purpose is to pollinate our vegetable and fruit crops, clearly plants within a four mile radius benefit from a visit by our bees too.
 We also use and sell the honey and make polish and hand creams from spare wax. We also sell the occasional colony of bees to people starting off in beekeeping and are happy to support these new beekeepers until they feel confident.

I thought you might like to see this photo of the bees bearding in the hottest day last year. Thousands of bees hanging outside the hive to cool themselves and the hive down. it's a great sight isn't it?

Next, the hens........

For some reason they would rather annihilate the gardens than go into the field, so I have sprinkled corn to encourage them. Not the best photography is it with my shadow to the fore!?

The hens stay in the orchard in the summer and range the smallholding in  the winter. If the weather  turns in the winter the girls gather in the hen clubhouse aka the empty greenhouse. here they are having a dust bath and a coffee and a natter.

You many have spotted a cockerel in the field.
If you keep a cockerel you will get......

We sell eggs from the door and usually break even with these. We do use a lot ourselves.

All that remains are the domestic animals and top of the tree has to be Dixie.

Here she is helping with some quilting. Dixie is an expert mouser and rabbiter. She brings them in through the catflap and carries them upstairs to the bathroom. here she jumps into the bath with them, so that they can't escape I suppose, and eats the head first. Sometimes she eats the rest, but not always. Occasionally she brings in moorhens or pigeons. She never seems to bother with small birds. While we are so pleased that she helps to keep the vermin down but hearing a pleased chirrup from Dixie as she deposits a dead rat on your pillow is not a pleasant experience!!

 Now for three animals that don't actually belong to David and I .. I give you the three musketeers...

The yellow lab is Coda. His mum is our eldest granddaughter who now lives with us, so he is here all the time. He really is as gentle as he looks. Next to him is Sammie, he belongs to my youngest daughter and comes to us for Doggie day care for four days during the week. Next to him, sporting his Christmas kerchief is Jed, who belongs to my eldest daughter. Jed visits every Sunday with his mum. You may have noticed that these handsome lads are pictured with our pretty granddaughters on my header.

There is only one animal friend not pictured here because I can't find a pic. Percy the African Grey Parrot. Percy lives in the room next to the kitchen that I use as a sort of work room cum snug. In truth I don't like the idea of caged birds, but Percy was a gift to David. I will have to take a new pic for next time.

So that's it for now. Sorry I've been so long posting. Next time I'll do a quick post about what I do to keep my post retirement brain active and I will then have finished these mammoth "Reason to be Cheerful" posts.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Gillx

Not Donald Trump surely?

Hello All
Been gone for weeks I know. Life has overtaken me. I will try to get it together and am currently trying to download pics for my next blog (part III of reasons to be cheerful... don't care anymore ? can't blame you!)
In the meantime.. has Donald Trump really been nominated for a Noble  Prize?!!! or is it an early April Fools joke?
Back soon
from
"Appalled of Derbyshire"

More reasons to be Cheerful

Hello!
Here I am again with part two of - Reasons to be Cheerful
 Where I live -  part two
Our little holding is divided into small areas. - the front garden, three vegetable plots, a fruit cum- socialising garden, the orchard and the paddock. We have two greenhouses and a good size barn and various workshops and animal and wood sheds.

Here is our back greenhouse (we have a smaller one in the front garden that I use for potting on, seeding etc) This greenhouse is made from four greenhouses that have been gifted to us over a few years. David placed each one a pane's distance from the one before and then filled in the gap with frames, thus adding an extra couple of feet  each time. This greenhouse is now quite long as you can see! We fill the beds each spring with our own compost mixed with molehills that we gather from the paddock.

We fill this greenhouse with tomatoes, with one section for cucumbers.

We grow organically and plant basil and french marigolds for pest control which has always worked well for us.

Here is our youngest granddaughter with the cucumbers that she grew from seed.

We have a small orchard. Here is a peek  from the paddock. Note the fence made from pallets, as are they all! Here we grow apples, plums and medlars. The chickens live here in the summer and range over the whole holding in the winter.

Outside the orchard we have many fruit trees around the holding, mainly apples, plums, nuts and damsons.

 We grow LOTS of damsons. Here is one of the five that are in in the front garden (more in the paddock) and the haul (with our camera-shy granddaughter again!)

After making copious amounts of jam, jelly and wine, we sell the surplus and put this money away to purchase lambs in the spring and some winter food for the hens.

 The vegetable gardens
I really am stuck to know which pics to use for this bit. I have chosen pics that aren't necessarily the prettiest, but do give some idea as to the shape etc. The first pic shows the path that divides two plots and leads to the entrance to the chicken run, which in turn leads into the orchard. The large greenhouse is to the fore of the garden on the right of the path.

This next picture is of the "paddock garden" which we have made within the paddock (yes really!!)

We dug this garden to ensure that we had three plots to rotate. This garden also has raspberries, gooseberries and goji berries and a vine( Leon Millet) that is just getting established. All the gardens have some sort of perennial plant in them, be it rhubarb, gooseberries, herbs, hops or some such.

I see that this is quite a large post and that I might be boring you so think I will close it here and cover animals in another post.
Before I close I must welcome Anne Christine Simpson and Catherine Hines on Bloglovin. A warm welcome to you both.
Back soon
Gillx

Reasons to be Cheerful

Hello
Just started to follow Gary at A Day in the Life (I found him via John Gray's blog) He has a great post on reasons to be cheerful and I thought "THAT'S what I should be doing in my next post"
I am unashamedly going to pinch his idea, firstly as a way of counteracting  my last post, but also as a way of updating my profile and re-introducing myself to my followers old and new.
Good idea eh?!
I shall recycle old blog pictures to illustrate, so to remind you.. here I am!

I have many reasons to be cheerful AND thankful
 firstly... My Family
I have a husband David (we have been married 50 years next month)  who is a great fixer, mender and maker of just about everything. The perfect smallholder husband. He is far from perfect, as am I obviously, but I'm used to him and don't fancy breaking in a newer model.
I have two daughters, both in their fourties. I won't say what they do for a living as they might be identified, which they might not like! I see the youngest daughter most days and the elder one at least once a week. We gossip, laugh a lot, dance around the kitchen and cook together amongst other things and generally get on well. We don't agree on everything but are able to say so and move on.
My eldest girl ED, is married and has a daughter (YGD) who was a latish surprise and is spoilt by us all obviously. She loves to come and stay with her grandma and grandad Chick Chick, when all thoughts of Ipads etc are forgotten as there is so much for her to do here. She has a great dad, who is used to our barmy family now!
My youngest daughter YD, who is now single, has two children, Our grandson,GS, who is 24 this year and a daughter EGD, who is 21 next week.  I'm not sure how much to say about these two as they are adults and I haven't checked with them on what I could write!
  I wont bore you with sisters, nephews,nieces in-laws, friends who are like family, godchildren, foster children and so on or you will be reading all night.
Here is David with his girls.. Our grandson was working when this was taken. He always has to work New Years Eve.

 Where I live
I live on a two acre smallholding in beautiful Derbyshire. The north boundary is bordered by a busy A road, the west and east by neighbour's land and the north by the river Amber.
We have been here since 1981 and each day when I go outside to feed the animals I look out onto my little kingdom and feel grateful. I won't say lucky as luck has never come into it. Hard work, frugality, bloody-mindedness yes, luck. no!
 I never tire of being here, it is who we are and is appreciated and loved by many as well as us.
Here are a few pics to give you an idea. Those who know me will notice that there are no "corners of shame" as I want you to admire how beautiful Derbyshire is and believe that it our smallholding always looks like this (it doesn't)

 I am having difficulty choosing from my pics, so those above show the house and the paddock and  part of the orchard. Next time I will load some that show the vegetable patches, greenhouse, beehives etc.Next time......

What we grow
Our animal friends
What I do to keep my post-retirement brain active ......
In my next post, if I can retain your interest.
All for today.
Many many thanks for your comments on my last post.
Gillx

I am a horrible person

Hello dear bloggy friends and a very happy new year to you!!
Welcome Mrs L Hughes, Snoskrad and Bloglover on Bloglovin. Great to see you here.
I feel I don't really deserve my followers as I'm such a tardy poster nowadays.
Are you all up to your knees in mud? We are, slipping and sliding everywhere. I usually work in the garden between Christmas and new year, but it has been impossible as it is so muddy and standing on wet ground has never done it any good.
While I haven't been posting I have been reading blogs, some of which have been quite thought provoking and I have been fired up with ideas for posts which have petered away to nothing overnight. I think 2016 will be my year for being lazy!

I don't know about you but I seem to be surrounded by sickness at the mo. Not just this awful coldy thing that we have all been suffering from (3 weeks and counting for most folk) but serious life changing stuff, from cancer to heart problems to allergies to depression. I don't think there is a group or family around me that is not affected by some such seriousness.
For many years I was a field Social Worker working with adults with disabilities/ life changing illnesses. I considered this to be a vocation rather than a job and, like many SWs, put in many many more hours than I was contracted to do, often taking my work home with me and working through the night with no resentment.
And here comes a dreadful admission... I think I have little left to give! I am sympathied out! I am a caring husk! If I have to sit at a party/in a pub and listen to any more conversations that are about statins and blood pressure and back ache and blood tests and scans and special foods and jabs for this and that I think I shall scream.
It's an awful admission I know and you can now hate me for the nasty person I seem to be!
Back soon with a nicer post.
Gillx