The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space

Eleventh Blog Anniversary!

Eleven years have passed since the very first post on this blog.

Looking back I can see that my involvement with the blog was an amazing journey. Filling my small world with new ideas, people and experiences. I travelled far beyond the kitchen table where I wrote each day. It was one of the greatest adventures that I have ever experienced.

When I sat down to write that first post I had no idea of that promising future. The slow switch from pottering along on auto pilot to gradually learning how to actually fly the plane.

And of course if you can fly that plane you need to choose where you want to go. And there’s the rub.
I realised that I was in a place that I didn’t want to be. I didn’t know where I wanted to go. I was completely lost.
So over four years ago I cut Danny loose, stopped blogging and hid away.

I missed Danny, missed the blog.

I must admit that I couldn’t find that pilot’s license for a while and drifted about feeling angry and sad.

The chickens gradually died off and I was left with just a lonely cockerel. The min pins died too. I took in an Olympian Mouser Cat that was finding it hard to find a forever home and he was quickly joined by two four year old dogs that needed care.

Oh the amazing power of animal therapy! We were all damaged and needed unconditional love.

So on this eleventh aniversary of the birth of the Cottage Smallholder blog I’d like to introduce you to two of my best friends – Fanny and Ruby. They are posing in their basket which is located on the human dog basket.

Hopefully you will hear more about them in the future as I am now going to start blogging again.


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63 Comments

  1. Well I can say that I told you so Fiona, see how many people have missed you. Welcome HOME xx

  2. Margaret

    Don’t give up Fiona, baby steps. Get blogging again even if just once or twice a month… we’re looking forward to it.

  3. Louise Cooke

    Great news, looking forward to hearing your news. I’m a great fan of your chilli apples jelly which I have made in industrial quantities in the past. Best wishes for your future blogging Louise

  4. How lovely to read this update, I think of your blog every time I make ‘Anna’s Famous Onion Gravy’ & the years from me finding that recipe on your blog to now have also seen enormous change for me! Who ever thought I would be a vegetarian for starters?! Not me but here I am & lean slightly even to veganism. I’m getting married next year to a man so wonderful I still pinch myself & my daughters have gone from babies to 2 incredible 12 year olds, life is wonderful isnt it with all its twists & turns x

  5. Carole Brooks

    So happy to see you back on track and back on line, we all need time to re evaluate XX

  6. Good to see you back Fiona. I have missed your daily blog over the last few years. I look forward to reading more from you. Happy to meet Fanny and Ruby. Just need to meet The Champion Mouser now!

  7. Mary Ni

    So pleased to see you back in the traces. This site was an inspiration when I live in France and was desperate to find ways to make money go further. All those recipes really helped.
    Hope to read more about your life and times.
    Very best wishes to you

  8. Shereen

    Ah Fiona, it’s good to read you again. I’ve been coming back to your blog over the years for recipe inspiration, and to get the URL for one of your many amazing liqueur recipes to pass on to a friend. It was pork chops that brought me here today.

    Lovely to meet the latest menagerie, and I look forward to reading more about them in future blogs. Our current furry friend is an almost 4 year old rescue cat we’ve called Fergus. He’s still playing with the, now very battered, catnip mouse I got years ago from you for our then-cat Dawson.

  9. Toffeeapple

    Anything happening over your way?

  10. So lovely to discover your blog. I do hope you manage to get back in to it – I know the struggles of blog writing myself. Looking forward to reading more about you and your rural living.

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