Bank Holiday Weekend

We just (!) managed to get the Wheelhouse finished on Friday before our first paying guests of the season arrived (fortunately, they were planning to arrive in the late evening). I must admit that Diane and I were very pleased with it and we would have quite liked to stay there, ourselves.

Jo and Steve also arrived at Sorley late on Friday. The weather has been absolutely superb over the weekend. We had a mooching about kind of day on Saturday with a barbeque with our new neighbours in the evening. We put our visitors to work on the construction of a new raised bed, yesterday, and then we did the walk from Bolbery to Hope Cove and back. As you can see, the Thrift is in full flower at the moment. This was the longest walk that Digger has ever done and he was totally knackered at the end of it!

Busy, busy, busy

So where have I been while David has been fishing and blogging? Well - obviously looking after "the boys & girls" of Sorley, but also enjoying my birthday.

One of the chucks "eggcelled" (thank you, Darren) herself the other day by laying a huge egg - over 100g in weight and 6.5cm circumference! Makes my eyes water to think of it! Unfortunately I do not know which one of the chucks laid it so you can all claim it was yours!


I have had a super birthday - it started with a lovely walk, dinner and bubbly at friends in Bovey Tracey, - a jaunt out to "Diggers Rest" to meet Lynne and Les, and then a "girly" weekend with Claire involving a pamper day at Bovey Castle (present from my beloved), shopping in Salcombe, and river/estaury walks. Just perfect - David only joined us for one of these activities - I wonder which one that could have been! For anyone wanting to come down I can now recommend a girls day out at Bovey Castle while the boys play with tractors and the like!


Have also being doing some paid work - a conference on Geneva and more next week in London. I had to fly from Heathrow and had forgotten what driving near London was like - but after 3 cars pushing in I soon got back into the swing of it. I am now re-programmed for laid-back country lane driving and the hedgerows are just so pretty just now .


On the way back I went with Jo and Lynne to order "the dress". Absolutely gorgeous and very exciting although the wedding is not until next April (....just thought must have another pamper day before the wedding - anyone want to come?)


Must sign off as yet more painting to do before we have our first summer visitors to the Wheelhouse - now with ensuite toilet upstairs

It's a monster!

I went fly fishing on the River Yealm with Paul Kenyon on Thursday. The weather forecast for the day had been awful all week but it turned out just fine. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I managed to catch my first wild brown trout and, as you can see (if you look very closely), it was a real monster! This is actually pretty much the size you expect from these rivers, so we are not going to get fat on them. I had four, altogether.

This is a lovely stretch of river and it is only a couple of miles from the A38 at Lee Mill. Higher up, there is a fantastic bluebell wood that I just had to take Diane back to see.

Digger visits one of our favourite places

Claire has been staying with us for a few days. We took advantage of a lovely sunny day to go down to the Erme estuary. It was low tide so there was plently of room for Digger to chase around on the sand and he made lots of new four-legged friends. He came back from this a lot cleaner than he did from our walk along the River Avon last night. There, he ended up in an area of knee deep smelly black mud. Diane and I managed to grab two legs each to get him back into the car without us both getting covered in it and he got the hosepipe treatment when we got home!

Doesn't time fly?

It is difficult to believe that a couple of weeks have passed since we last posted. We have been busy, as usual. One of our main priorities, lately, has been to get the Wheelhouse sorted out. The builders finished work on the new upstairs en suite bathroom a couple of weeks ago (and a very good job they did, too) and we have been busy since then decorating it. There is just a bit of grouting and a final coat of paint to go now. All the signs are that this is going to be great success. We also hope to finish the redecoration of the living room, get a new TV and re-paint and change some of the bedroom furniture before our first guests arrive at the next bank holiday weekend.

I have also been doing some work to get Tiny Dancer ready for the season. I hope she will go back in the water at the next set of spring tides in a couple of weeks time.

Back at Sorley, the fruit trees in the orchard are in full flower, most of the vegetable crops are sown (even if the mice have already pinched most of the onion sets I sowed!). Now I just need to make a couple more raised beds so I can plant out my brassicas and beans when they are ready.

We have moved the hen house into the menage area where it will be easier to move it on fresh "grass", periodically. We have also been letting the chooks out to free range in this area. They obviously love scratching around here but they also managed to make a dust bath amongst my onions (all in all, it has not been a great week for onions).

I am just about to settle down with a beer or three to watch the Bath game on the TV. If they win today, we hope to go up to Twickenham for the final. Come on you Baaa.....ath!