Wednesday 25 December 2013

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all. I hope you have a fabulous christmas and a wonderful new year.



Love

Sarah
xx

Friday 20 December 2013

Feeling festive

It is officially one week to go until Christmas, are you excited? I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older so appreciate the stress of the festive season a bit more, but there doesn't seem to be much christmas spirit around. Personally I blame the lack of Christmas films that have been on TV, it's just not right that Elf hasn't been on channel 4. Anyway.... I'm trying really hard to start feeling festive. Last weekend I put up the tree and decorated the flat, I even went for a wander around the Christmas market but didn't manage many photos before the rain came. 

 

This week is going to be hectic so I'm in planning mode. It's the last week of work and there is that big rush of things to get done before we shut until 2014, I need to finish wrapping presents and adding all the trimmings - because you HAVE to have trimmings, but also this Friday is my Nan's 90th birthday! So putting my degree in Events Management to good use, I've gone into party planning mode. I've hired the village hall, ordered a beast of a cake, I've made decorations, tomorrow I will be food shopping and on Friday night I will be baking/cooking my ass off. Anyone who gets to such a ripe old age deserves a little party, and fingers crossed (if everyone turns up), it will give her the opportunity to have all of grandchildren and great grandchildren together.

Are you feeling festive, or are you crumbling under the pressures of wrapping paper and curling ribbon?

Sarah
xx

Friday 13 December 2013

Christmas at Cotley Farm

My nephew, Jack, is totally obsessed with all things farm related. To say he loves tractors is an understatement, show him a book on them and he can tell you which is which in his cute little voice, my favourite being when he says bombine (combine), adorable! Ask him what noise any farm animal makes and he will do an impression, it's just great. So on Sunday Erica, Jack and I joined Dad & Julie on their annual pilgrimage to Cotley Farm to get their Christmas tree. As soon as I heard that they have reindeer I was sold on the idea and was looking forward to seeing Jacks reaction to the animals.

The staff at Cotley Farm put on a great christmas experience. A couple of the sheds are opened up so you can go and see the lambs, piglets, calves and reindeer, all accompanied by free mulled wine and mince pies, then there is the christmas tree shop & the farm shop, full of meat (from the farm), cider, mulled wines and christmas decorations, it couldn't have been more festive. Obviously the animals were my favourite part, I mean I got to stroke a Reindeer for crying out loud. But Jacks reaction was just priceless. He adored the piglets and squealed the place down when they came near him, and there was a digger so it was a win win for him. If you're local to the Exeter/East Devon area then you should definitely go. For a free little outing it's brilliant and so entertaining.

 
At this point Jack was finding it hilarious to say "eat coat" to the lamb, while backing up and poking his arm through the railings. 

Seriously, look at that grin! He is the cutest.

Sarah
xx

Monday 2 December 2013

Pomps Patch #3

Last week Rich and I made a start on building some raised beds. Our aim over the next few weeks is to prepare the existing raised beds by turning ground over and then covering them, ready for planting. We collected up the spare wood and got to work. I cleaned it all up and Rich drilled them together, he wanted to do the manly jobs with his new tools! Considering we'd never done anything like this before I think we've done quite a good job. It took us around 2 and a half hours to make 3 beds, not bad hey!

We made the beds in Rich's garden so we could take advantage of flat ground and electricity. As he lives 30 seconds away from the allotment, we carried the beds down and then began putting them in. We'd hoped it would be fairly easy as the basic shapes were there but we had a lot of leveling out to do to get them to fit. Plus it was nice to have two little helpers watching us while we worked, Percy and the ginger cat are best buds and excellent supervisors.



I love the view from our plot that looks over the allotment and the center of Exeter, it will be great in the summer.

We've had a week off from allotmenting due to birthday celebrations and a catch up with great friends, but it's full steam ahead this weekend. I'm planning on planting some onions and daffs ready for spring, yay!

Sarah
xx

Friday 15 November 2013

Pomps Patch #2

Helloooo, welcome to my newly named and new regular feature 'Pomps Patch'. Here I will share tales of our allotment, our progress, produce and all other nerdy allotment related things. 
Last week Rich and I had our first weekend 'up the allotment'. I'll be honest, we have NO idea what we are doing, so we have set ourselves a few missions to get going, the first being to clear the existing raised beds. We took advantage of the dry weather, donned our scruffiest clothes & wellies, and got stuck in with pulling up everything (minus the Asparagus, Rhubarb and Strawberry plants, which we will be keeping). I've definitely had to grow a pair after getting our plot. I really really hate spiders but there are so many creepy crawlies that you have to just suck it up and get on with it. 

One of the perks of having an allotment is making new friends as different people appear to tend to their crops. We're pretty lucky to have two experienced gardeners, Jenny and Cathy, next to us so it will be handy if we need a bit of advice. We even bonded with a couple of slimey looking creatures, Francine and Francoise frogs. Whilst pulling up some grass, Francoise had a good old chuckle and jumped at me, I screamed, Rich caught him, we took photos and set him free, only for another frog, Francine, to appear shortly after and do the same to Rich, twas brilliant!

We also experienced our first bit of scandal... when you acquire an allotment everything that was left by the previous tenant becomes yours. We were very lucky to have a shed and some raised beds, some of which had come apart and the wood was stacked up ready for rebuilding. Whilst in the midst of weeding we realised that the pile of wood had been stolen. After a tip off from a neighbour we went for a nose and found them a couple of plots away from ours. As we were 100% certain that it was our wood, along with the tip off, we quickly took it back and locked it in our shed. Obviously we do not condone taking anything from another plot unless you have proof, and we did inform the allotment manager before we did anything. It was pretty disheartening that someone would steal from us in our first week, but we got it all back and hopefully it will be plain sailing from here.


I'm also really excited that I can share allotment life stories with Anna, a lovely friend, blogger and fellow plot owner. She has very kindly donated a big bag of magazines and seeds to help us on our road to home grown goodness.

If you're of the green fingered persuasion I'd love to hear any tips you might have. 

Sarah
xx

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Sing us a song, you're the piano man...

On Friday, the entire Ginn gang, plus Julie, hit the road and went to Birmingham for a very special occassion - to see Billy Joel! I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, and I'm sure if you ask a lot of people to name one of his songs they will say 'Uptown Girl' (not his finest moment), but after growing up with him being my Dad's hero it would have been impossible to not be a fan. Now when I say he is my Dad's hero, I literally mean hero. He worships him like he is his God, he's like a 12 year old girl at a One Direction concert, he cries tears of joy when he sees him, and I'm pretty sure he will mourn for a long, long time when he eventually stops touring. 

Anyway, after being brought up on his music, the whole family are massive fans. We booked the tickets months ago and have quite literally been counting down the days. This was our (my siblings and mine) fifth Billy Joel concert, and he really was just as amazing as the previous times. We had amazing seats on the ground level so had a great view of the big man. Despite having a dodgy throat he still sounded amazing, he belted out some of the classics and before we knew it, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant was on and the concert was coming to a close, and I cried! I seriously did not want it to end. As the concert came to a close he ended on a high, and we left buzzing. There was no fear of getting tired on the long drive home because we were too hyped to care. As always I took a couple of photos...


Thank you Mr Joel for making us Ginn's extremely happy! Please come back soon, we would hate to have to fly to NYC to see you (yeah right!).

Sarah
xx

Sunday 10 November 2013

Lest We Forget


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.


Sarah
xx

Friday 8 November 2013

Pomps Patch #1

I have exciting news... last weekend Rich and I got to choose our allotment!! After viewing a couple that were so horrendous we were seriously lucky to grab up this gem from a different site 30 seconds from Rich's house! It really is amazing, we have 3 eating apple trees, our very own shed and raised beds that are already done, complete with an asparagus patch!! 

This weekend we will be making a start on pulling up the weeds and turning the ground over, the photos make it look worse than it is but I can't wait to get stuck in. I have many plans for the shed, a lick of paint and some cosy little lanterns inside will be great. I'm also being given a car load of garden tools so I'm feeling very lucky right now! I'd like to start a regular feature about the allotment but I'm struggling for a witty name, if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!!


Now I better go, the Ginn Gang are off to Birmingham to see Billy Joel, and go to Ikea to stock up on candles for winter!!

Sarah
xx

Monday 7 October 2013

Two

On Saturday Rich and I had our 2nd anniversary, time flies! With a budget of £5 we searched the high street for gifts and ended up buying each other a notebook from Paperchase, Rich's is a travel journal, mine is for our new allotment (as long as all goes to plan), great minds think alike hey! 
As we're currently cat sitting for my Dad we decided to spend the day at the seaside, Rich wanted to use his camera and I wanted to hit the charity shops, before getting some chips & sitting on the beach. Sadly the chips were pretty rubbish so we splashed out on enormous & delicious ice creams that were as big as our faces. With ice cream all over our faces we strolled along the beach, I had my saltwater sandals on so paddled in the sea, I think Rich was ready to punch me if I said "it's so warm" one more time, ha, but it really was like a summers day, I'd have gone for a swim if I'd been more prepared. Instead I settled for jumping waves, dodging dogs that were shaking as they came out of the water, and collecting sea glass. 

Rich: "I can't smile, the sun's in my eyes", me: "shut up and smile"

 
These ice creams were as big as our faces!
I could have watched this man and his dog for hours!

The charity shop gods were particularly generous this week, I got this stash of fabric; one pillowcase, 5m of spotty fabric and a large gingham tablecloth; from Save the Children for £6, bargain! 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Sarah
xx