Thursday 7 January 2016

My Home

They say Home is where the Heart is, and with me that is most certainly true. I love where I live, even in this gloriously English weather I STILL love it.

 Yes, at the moment it's slightly more than damp, the wind bounces down the chimney creating the illusion a giant is stomping around outside and it's cold, so cold infact that the ice is on the INSIDE of the glass. But it's my home and with not a main road, town or shop within 5 miles it's my silent piece of (muddy) heaven. 


As I said- it's wet! To get to my house you need to park in the sheep field and walk across the bridge over the ditch. Most of the time this isn't a problem, but with all the rain we've had the water is getting ever closer to the wooden planks and (not for the first time) the bridge may well just float off. Wonderful!

Around October/November last year we had the most bountiful mushroom harvest I have ever seen since living here. They were everywhere and I didn't have to wander to far from my house to pick enough to make soup! I had to clean the sheep poo off them and double check that they were harmless field mushrooms rather than the sinister stomach crippling kind that also grow in abundance all over the farm.



 In summer the Romney Marsh is like no other place, the lambs from spring are full of energy and you can watch them frantically play on the banks of the field before they scamper back off to Mum for a well deserved milk stop. The crop fields look lush (hopefully!) with their produce whatever it may be: wheat, barley, oats, peas, and the wildlife they bring is beautiful. Butterflies of all different colours, dragonflies, ladybirds, the odd kingfisher zipping past near the sewer and the hares gracefully loping between bales.  Summer days normally involve picnic lunches in the garden or some far flung field somewhere on the farm, bike rides along the long, (thankfully) flat roads to the beach or canal and twilight bbqs where the moths dance around the candles in jars. 


 Of course, living on a farm its not all play. There are still animals to feed and a far few more as lambing happens in spring and most years we lamb at least 600. The hours I've spent in a tractor (both willingly and..... slightly less enthusiastically) going up and down fields with my boyfriend or on my own is something I both enjoy and dread- as beautiful as it is it gets a little boring after the first 4 hours! 

This is my favourite tractor, she's a little rusty and dusty, but she's loyal.

 Living on a farm has it's ups and downs in almost equal measure. I've learnt that sometimes the hard way is the best, to appreciate things others may take for granted (hot water is the most glorious thing on this planet!) and to stop and evaluate what your actually lucky enough to be doing rather than critically analysing it (sticking your hand up a ewes...well... to pull a lamb out isn't the most fun I've ever had, but WOW!).

So until next time, enjoy.







8 comments:

  1. You live in a beautiful place I can't wait to see more pictures. I love your cute little Aga cooker, I absolutely want one and have just started knocking a big hole into a kitchen wall so I can put one in later this year :-)

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    1. Thankyou so much :) we have a Rayburn (Aga's slightly cheaper counterpart), but my other half dabbles in the reconditioning and conversion of both so let me know if you need any advice :)

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  2. Hello! Congrats on starting your blog. Romney Marsh sounds like a fascinating place so I'll look forward to reading/ seeing more. CT :o)

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    1. The Romney Marsh is an aquired taste, but I hope to portray its prettier side :)

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  3. Love your range. Good luck with your new blog, it looks very promising ... there are a lot of folk very interested in country living, as I found out ;-)

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    1. Hopefully the weather will dry up a little so I can get some pictures that don't look like there are multiple lakes all around the farm :)

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  4. Lovely! Good luck with this exciting new venture! xx

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