Marmite
I used to always buy small jars of Marmite. I didn’t lavish it on bread every day so it seemed the sensible choice. But these dinky jars easily get lost in the larder. When the Marmite Deamon took over I often couldn’t find the jar. I would carefully search each shelf and finally tear the larder apart. Eventually, two days later, I would discover the jar skulking behind the kitchen roll. Danny always got the blame. A bit unfair as he hates Marmite. When I discovered that he really didn’t like Marmite I questioned the...
read moreMoney tree
Many years ago I was staying with a friend with time on her hands. In the past, I had noticed the tall green leaved plants that stood in three pots in her drawing room. They didn’t flower. They just made up a dull wall of leafy greenness. When I arrived for this particular visit, they were covered in tiny white flowers, as insignificant as the plants. “The flowers are not real,” she whispered. “They are teeny pieces of tissue paper secured with a twist of florist’s wire. It took me two days to make them. My...
read moreA True Blue Award
Sara at Farming Friends has given me this award! Thank you Sara -I’m bowled over. Sara is very supportive of The Cottage Smallholder blog and we have had enormous fun with our Interblog guinea fowl breeding event this year. If you write a blog, blogging friends are important. These are the guys that support your blog leave comments and get involved. This award made me think about my short blogging history and commenting in general. My sister Sara had been suggesting for months that it might be fun to do a blog. “You could talk...
read moreMenu for Hope
Menu for Hope is not something that Danny has run up on the back of a cigarette packet after a disastrous meal. Menu for Hope is a wonderful fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. The aim is to raise money to combat hunger and feed the world’s poorest citizens. Last year Menu for Hope raised over $66,000. All profits will be donated to the World Food Programme and this year the funds have been earmarked for a specific programme – a school feeding programme in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, South Africa. Currently, the WFP’s...
read moreGreen apples
Children fall in love. My mother had a student house in Cambridge. Mainly for foreign students that attended The Bell School of Languages. Sometimes there was an English student; Mr Lowe when I was very small and Roy when I had grown up a bit and had just started school. Roy was my dream man. Kind and gentle, he played with me and told me stories. I knew that he would marry me when I grew up. I was certain about this. I’d knock on his door. We would play. Then he’d have to work at his desk. A new student moved into the house....
read moreDavid
When my aunt died I found this beautiful old lath back Windsor chair forgotten in a store room. I couldn’t leave it behind. It looked so inviting. The ultimate, comfortable kitchen chair. I tentatively sat between its generous arms, half expecting to find the reason why it had been relegated to such an inferior place. It was as if it had been made to measure. I relaxed and laid my head against the top of the chair. A place where so many weary heads must have rested before. When it arrived at the cottage I found that the underside of the...
read moreEvery being loves attention. Dogs and Pay it forward.
Most nights I tuck the Min Pins and great aunt Daisy Beatyl into their beds. We have a lot of rugs. Mainly Barbie rugs, cut from the blanket that I bought just before we collected Inca. Sometimes I unearth one of the starter rugs – the size of a facecloth – it’s easy to forget how small she was at seven weeks. Easily wrapped in a 6″x6″ cloth. The response from the dogs is variable. Inca and The Contessa snuggle firmly into their hat shaped baskets. These sit on chairs, out of the draughts. A small cuddle and tummy...
read moreEight happy thoughts Meme
I got home this evening feeling a bit grumpy. On the run up to Christmas I generally work a six day week. Everyone wants their work finished by Christmas. At the start of November, this is fine. Just a distant date. By now things are hotting up. I have four clients on the go and promises have to be honoured. Jalopy and I returned late tonight, with no post in mind. The Min Pins were fighting over an organic carrot, filched from the vegetable bag. Great Aunt Daisy Beatyl was asleep and Danny greeted me at the door. I was delighted to see that I...
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