broooom

car science

more books more car books

helping

embercombe farm

an open day at embercombe farm - more apple pressing!

car book

more apples

he can say the word apple now.. along with what seems like 100s of other words (probably more like 30!)

apple pressing

apple pressing in cornworthy. buckets overflowing with apples, and juice, cider and vinegar everywhere. apple crumbles, cakes clotted cream...mmmmm. trudy used to do lots of voluntary work with 'orchard link', an organisation that works to preserve heritage apples in devon. THere are 6,000 varieties in england!

trac-tor

a day out at occombe farm

cars diggers tractors

anything with wheels works - he has been thoroughly gender programmed (from birth - I promise it wasn't me!) to be obsessed with 'hot hot' cars, bikes, tractors. he points at the engines and says 'hot' and squeals like he's at a banger rodeo-thing. At least I didn't end up with a boring old girl! I'm learning all about g-force and chassiss and overdrive and how many cars monster trucks can leap over. any books without cars in them he picks up, looks at the cover and then chucks across the room. hmmmmm. actually I am exaggerating a little. We can entice him into some other things, but cars are his default position.

lucky ladies

even with it dark at 5pm, our ladies are still squeezing out 3 eggs a day... janu chases them around and likes throwing corn AT them.

goal!

we walked past a local football game and stopped for a bit - when one team scored he threw his arms in the air and clapped...??! neither A or I watch any sport at all - is he channelling his nagyapa?

autumn

walking with my boy

pip's allotment

our friday workdays are still going on - and you can see how we manage to get anything done! Pip has just moved house and is getting her allotment sorted for the winter...

geese

changing seasons...

nearly there...

boating house

we housesat this amazing house this week! wow... it is paradise, with seals popping up just outside the kitchen window, lots of chesnuts in the woods, a lovely hound to leap around with, wood to chop (fun for suburban dwellers like us!), and lots and lots of little trails to explore. the leaves were like a autumn sock drawer.

almost...

abundance

a snapshot of the abundance we enjoyed this season - buckets of apples, sunflowers reaching skywards (now the chickens are picking out the seeds..), tomatoes overflowing into jars of chutney, beans bean beans, and little fella now cries sometimes when we round the gate of the allotment (not again mum!!!). He'll be happy that the season is all but over - but Ihave just planted out our greenhouse full of winter greens, mustards, rockets, corn salad, land cress and more. the green manures are overflowing in the rows, and carrots, leeks and parsnips, cabbages and sprouts all sitting patiently in the ground ready to be harvested. Ideally we'd like another couple of people to work onthe allotment next year, as it's too much for the 2 of us that are regularly there, but we have to convince the landowner to open it up a bit more... Today I'm heading up again to slash and crash through to some more apple trees that have been overtaken with brambles.

We went on a wild food walk this weekend, and learnt even more about the abundance that we don't have to grow - just keep an eye out for. we have buckets of chesnuts, hazlenuts stored and for roasting - elderberry cordial (dark like wine and with a honey taste) and wild spinichs, nettles and more....mmmmm

painting...

neighbours

we are very lucky to be surrounded by lovely neighbours who let janu run amok in their gardens, homes and feed our chickens when we're away! ! Janu is forever wandering down the street and into their gardens...

carrots

this is how the carrots look now! Huge!