"Portfolio Life: I was looking for a phrase that I could use to describe my life and, this one seemed to fit! My business is called Portfolio Directors, as we have a portfolio of businesses that we provide non-executive and accounting services for and we pride ourselves on juggling their various needs. But the juggling isn’t just confined to my work life, like many parents, I have other things that make calls on my time – hence I have a Portfolio Life!! To simplify matters, I’m concentrating on my three key themes and loves, of mine: My family, the countryside and my work. Select the one that interests you from the menu above and you’re off! But, if you’ve got a mo and a cuppa, click here for the whole blog at once."
It seems that so much has happened this past year, that it’s hard to know where to start! So I’ve decided that rather than worrying about what I haven’t written, it’s better to actually start writing something! I will post a montage of photos which sum up the year, but for now I’ll concentrate on the here and now…
We’ve had a long held family wish to try and live a bit more sustainably - mainly inspired by Brigit Strawbridge and her family in a BBC2 programme called “It’s not Easy Being Green” which aired in 2007. Until that point I had considered green as a go/no go colour. By that I mean that I thought you either had to be fully committed to living completely sustainably or not do it at all. Brigit and her family showed that it is a journey, along which you can tread at a pace you are comfortable with, you don’t have to be perfect overnight! So we started out cooking more of our own meals, shopping less, growing more and even keeping our own pigs and sheep. Roll forward a few years and here we are with a few acres of land and embarking on the adventure of becoming a real smallholding as a family.
With each new thing we attempt, we usually get more wrong than right but we earn important lessons and get it right the next time. The fun bit is learning together and knowing that we are equipping our two boys with some important life skills.
This summer we’ve had our first litter of piglets – see if you can see the odd one out. She’s been named Spotty Botty and the boys are on a campaign For her to become the farm mascot.
We share a small herd of Dexters with friends from another farm – they arrived to eat some of our grass – Mack the bull arrived soon after and has been busy paying attention to his ladies ever since!
We’ve had a good crop of pears, apples and blackberries – which have been keeping us busy and we’re really looking forward to the sloe crop.
We’ve also been spending time considering what we want to do going forward, weighing up various options, but not really making any
decisions just yet.
I hope to keep you up to speed with what’s going on via this blog – and I’d be interested in your tips and help as we learn more about ourselves and our smallholding.
Sometimes the most simple, but beautiful things bring a good leadership lesson to mind.
This morning, I took the dogs out into a field I have walked them in many times before – it was a beautiful sunny morning and the grass was dew moist. This particular field has patches of grass and reeds and the dogs love to play hide and seek in it. As I walked down and idly gazed across the field, I noticed web after web waving in the slight breeze – it reminded me of a busy bazaar with each of the stall holders proudly displaying their wares. Intricately placed between anchor points and each one a mini-masterpiece of individual toil, they were a real sight to behold, a veritable field of dreams! As I turned and looked behind me, I realised that they had become invisible – the sun and where I stood made the difference between seeing them and missing them entirely. I must have walked past hundreds of webs previously and not noticed them, a particular set of circumstances had highlighted their beauty and the work they entailed.
As I walked back to the house, I was musing on how many times we as leaders must miss the efforts of the individual, only noticing the times when the hard work comes into stark focus – yet at other times toil and trouble go unnoticed. How powerful it would be to notice this effort at times when it is not waved in our faces – to recognise that each and every day, many people weave an intricate part of our organisation into being.
I love this time of year, the lovely surprise of still-hot summer days and the depth of the days starting to suggest Autumn – I find myself longing to light the log-burner and to sit beside it with my boys – snuggle-cosy warm.
But before we get to that stage, we have been gathering the fruits of the hedgerow – our hedges are wild and woolly and hold all sorts of hidden gems; cobnuts, beechnuts, rosehips, blackberries and elderberries are hanging waiting to be picked. We love to go out as a family, dogs included, round the fields – shouts of delight from the boys when treasures are found, blackberry-stained mouth signalling that the berries are sweet and delicious. We follow the country code and pick randomly, gathering fruits for us but remembering that there are animals who rely on these wild crops to get them through the winter. I smile to myself as I realise that nobody has told the squirrel about sharing – trees which were nut-laden a few days ago have been stripped bare by very efficient squirrel pickers. However, I did manage to find a few and will use them to make “Honeyed cobnuts”, a favourite of ours from the River Cottage Preserves book (***insert link).
The blackberries will be transformed into jellies to sweeten yogurt, with some more frozen to combine with our apples in the depths of winter to make a warming crumble. When I’m cooking crumble, I always cook a batch of crumble on its own in a layer on an oven tin – the crispy, crunchy mixture can be frozen to make a crumble topping later – it avoids the sogginess you sometime get on the underneath of the crumble layer of a fruit crumble.
When we moved here we were delighted to see lots of blackthorn, heralding the promise of a good sloe crop – not ready for picking yet…but being inspected daily – we’ve already made raspberry and blackcurrant vodka – but our favourite is sloe vodka – a lovely winter warmer.
Well, we first viewed our new place last June and really didn’t think that we would ever be able to manage to pull off getting it – but we did 
. I have to confess to the fact that I still walk around with an inane grin on my face – which our new neighbours probably find a bit strange, but it’s just because I’m so happy to be here. I’m loving the silence at night, broken only by the soothing sounds of the owls hooting to each other from their trees. The early morning is a different matter though, as the crowing cockerel cacophony starts early doors – might be time to have a bit of a cockerel sort out!
The animal numbers are starting to mount; we’ve managed to get the pigs out into their new home, so they’re enjoying rooting up bramble roots and the field in general; we’ve got a lot of chickens now and it will soon be time for the Goose Fair in Buckland Newton and we’re going, but don’t tell my hubby! You can read more about this here on my blog.
It’s been a bit stressy-busy at work for the last few weeks, even more so than normal, so I’ve also discovered that coming home in daylight and taking five minutes to explore the happenings of the day in the garden has a wonderfully restorative effect. We moved in last November, so the garden has just been “there” during our first few months – but now the hidden treasure bulbs are springing through from their winter slumber and I discover a new plant or bud every day! I’ll take some pictures and start tracking what’s going on as I’m sure the changing garden vistas are going to be beautiful.
The veggie garden we’ve inherited needs some sorting out as well, but there’s all sorts of plants springing through – I really do think I need to find someone to give us some advice before we start ripping up things we shouldn’t.
It feels like it’s been a bit of a dark winter this year, the stirrings of Spring promise haven’t come a moment too soon, and I’m looking forward to discovering more about our new home as it all unfolds.
Despite the best will of mice and men – I had to let something go at the end of last year, and indulging myself by writing this blog was the thing that had to give. I kept up with the business blog at www.portfoliodirectors.com and a really 1busy time for some of our clients – but, I hear you say, that’s situation normal. So what did cause the overload?? Well, I hinted at it in my last blog entry (omg, was it really as long ago as September) – the thing that was so nearly, really happening that I didn’t dare mention it. I was feeling very superstitious about it all, as it was something that we, as a family, have wanted to do for a long time. So here goes with your update…
I have to confess to being a serial house market watcher – we moved down to Somerset 14 years ago now and as I have a would-be landsman for a husband, we started small-holding in a small way a few years ago – inspired by the BBC2 series “It’s not Easy Being Green” . The yearning has long been there for somewhere with a bit more land – hence the house market watching. We had been pipped at the post on a few properties and early last year made the decision to sit tight and stay where we are for a few years. Then serendipity intervened and as usually happens when you stop looking, we came across the place of our dreams! We viewed it in late June, it went to sealed bids in July and much to my (screaming!!) amazement, we got it. I then spent the whole of the Summer working on finance and property related things – I’m sure many of you have been through the “heart in mouth” house-buying process. We finally completed in late October, and then the work really started – lots of cleaning and re-decorating ensued…
So, all that activity consumed an inordinate amount of time, I am so in awe of the people who manage to blog through everything – I think my head would have gone bang!! But now, the mists are starting to clear a bit, and as a family we sat down and agreed the things we were going to try and do better this year – our list of “Betters”, some of which are based around health and eating, and some around functioning better as a family. For me, I wanted to try and capture things as they change and develop – and to share our experiences with others and learn from them as well, so time to get back to my (much enjoyed) blog writing.
I’m going to try and improve my blog writing at the same time – so bear with me while I work out the improvements and please feel free to offer advice and tips, I’d love to hear them. I’ve been reading around various resources and have really enjoyed the advice from http://michaelhyatt.com/category/social-media and http://www.copyblogger.com – both are great resources.
I look forward to sharing more with you over the next few months
Well, what a summer it’s been – busy at work but we still managed to keep to our New Year’s Resolution and go away with the kids – that’s a first! We’ve also been working on something that could potentially be life-changing, but it’s so excitingly maybe-near that I hardly dare think that it might happen, let alone write about it. So dear reader…I’m afraid that, like me, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for that one.
So, the summer then! What have we been doing. Well, firstly we’ve made time to go for walks with friends, which the dogs are really pleased about. In addition to this, I seem to have turned into a fishing widow as at the princely ages of 8 and 6, my two boys have discovered fishing and it’s all they want to do – much to their father’s delight! It evidently involves procuring lots of kit (and here was me thinking that only girls had to accessorise to the hilt!) and then going and standing on the beach for hours at a time. Our eldest son can stay there for hours, but unfortunately for him the younger one soon gets bored. The thing I really don’t understand is that they haven’t actually caught anything yet, but it only seems to make them go and do it more??
In August, we set off in our car and then picked up an old VW Type 2 camper van in Keswick for a week long camping holiday. We didn’t go too far, only over to Ravenglass on the coast. We had fabulous weather all week – just one afternoon of rain, so we definitely picked the right week to go. The camper van (aka Billy Bling!) was brilliant, it was so good to just kick back and amble around (amble seemed to be the fastest we could go) – and amazingly other road users just waved and smiled as they passed us – no road rage!! The boys made new friends within 10 minutes of arriving at the campsite, and so we fell into a routine of hanging around the site in the morning and going off fishing or sightseeing in the afternoon. We went up the coast to Whitehaven, which was lovely and then across to Ulverston and the Laurel & Hardy museum. Our slapstick loving boys were absolutely transfixed by the godfathers of comedy and we ending up buying a DVD which they now adore, provoking real belly laughs from them both!!
We also walked from the campsite to Muncaster Castle, which was well worth the visit – they had entertainment, owl displays and a great playground. I managed to slip away and do a tour of the castle rooms, for once I picked up one of their audio tour guides and it was narrated by the family who live in the castle – which made it very engaging. We had lunch there and the food was lovely and great value for money – so the boys final requirement for a great day out (food!) was well and truly ticked…
Finally, we had to reluctantly pack Billy up and take him back to his owners, the boys didn’t want to give him back and wanted us to book next year’s trip there and then!! We headed off to Ulswater after we dropped Billy off – more fishing, that was a surprise 
While I was sitting and watching them, I started chatting to a lady who was also there with her lake-splashing children, nothing unusual in that – but within a very short time, we had meandered through the conversation and realised that we had some places in common, as well as both being Mums. Now I’m not going to break any confidences, but we ended up having a long conversation about a particular thing that was obviously a key concern for her on that day – and I’d like to think that I was there to listen at just the right time for her. Now I’m not claiming to have special conversation powers in me or anything – but it did stick in my mind for two reasons. Firstly, that my complete detachment from the situation obviously helped her to be very open about it – which in a funny kind of way underlined to me how important it is to be detached when I’m doing pure business coaching for individuals. The second reason was that I felt a curious regret when she drove away – it was a bit like I’d met someone that I instinctively knew might have had the potential to become a great friend, but we didn’t swap contact details or anything, so I’ll probably never know…
Anyway, back to the holiday…we moved across to Guisborough, to see my hubby’s brother and his family – and on with them to Castle Howard the next day – what a fab place to visit! Late that Friday afternoon, we headed back down to Somerset – a straight run home, the traffic gods were kind to us that day
With two children, two businesses and an embryonic smallholding, I always think that it’s important to try and get some time together as a family, so as promised in my New Year’s resolution – I did book some time away at the start of the year. We’re half-way through the year now, so I thought I’d report back and let you know how it’s going!
First off – the one that our two boys aged 8 and 6 had been begging to do for years – Legoland in Windsor. It was only a day out and we kept the costs down by taking our using Tesco Clubcard vouchers to buy the tickets and taking our own sandwiches. The boys were beside themselves with excitement – and our youngest gravely pronounced in the back of the car that he’s been waiting to do this “all his life!!” We went on a Saturday, lots of people about, but not too packed although we were told it was a “quiet” day! The boys managed to get us on the wettest ride first, but luckily it was a sunny day. We went on a lot of rides that day, and on the way home I asked what their favourite was – only to be astounded when the answer was “panning for gold” which was a completely non-techno attraction which involved water baths, sand and finding nuggets of gold! Just goes to show that sometimes simple is best!
Panning for Gold
The next pre-booked time-out was a trip to Wales for my husband’s birthday – we wanted a weekend away, somewhere different, but definitely based outdoors. We normally go camping, but we decided to have a treat and go to the Yurt Farm, near Lampeter in Wales – and what a great choice that proved to be!!
We followed the directions and arrived at an idyllic spot in the countryside. We parked our car, transported our belongings across to our Yurt by wheelbarrow and settled into our home for the weekend. The Yurts provide simple luxury based on sound eco-principles with candles and paraffin lamps for lighting and a log burner for heating. If you’ve always wanted to camp, but can’t do the whole sleeping on the ground thing then this will be ideal for you. There are only five yurts on the whole site and you literally have acres of field surrounding you – kick back, relax and enjoy!
Laurie and Thea, who run the Yurt Farm, are absolutely lovely and couldn’t do enough for us – printing out maps of places to go and just generally making sure that we had a great time. They offered to take us on a tour of their organic farm, which is next-door, and on the way back we purchased fresh vegetables and meat from their farm stall. Each yurt has it’s own private campfire area – so lamb burgers cooked over the embers were much enjoyed by everyone that night.
The facilities on site consist of solar showers (so much better than I expected), compost toilets (ditto) and a lovely area for communal cooking and eating if required – with another log burner for my pyromaniac husband to play with! The kids were straight in from the word go, disappearing off to make friends with the other children on-site and generally having a fab, outdoor time. Our youngest had pestered Daddy to bring pocket knives, so we went walking to find hazel sticks that could be whittled and transformed into thumb sticks for walking – cue hours of whittling outside the yurt and lots of wood shavings.
The inside of one of the Yurts
Come Monday, we were extremely chillaxed and very reluctant to leave – but it was time to go and so we set off back to Somerset – stopping off for a detour at a local pottery – Daniel Boyle Ceramics - on the way, as recommended by Laurie & Thea. We rounded off the treats with Fish & Chips in Lampeter and arrived back in Somerset in time for tea!
The final ongoing outing has been to make sure that we take advantage of the fact that we live 15 minutes from Lyme Regis and the Devon coast. We’ve been packing up after school on a Friday, or at the weekend, and heading off down to the coast. We take a change of clothes and a towel for the boys, and sometimes we meet up with other school friends – and then we release them to play on the beach. The Dads have taken up beach-casting and we live in hope of some mackerel being caught to throw on the BBQ, but no luck yet! So far we’ve been to Monmouth Beach (part of the Jurassic Coast) in Lyme Regis – famous for its fossils, thanks to Mary Anning; Eype Beach – Eype means “Steep Place” so as you can imagine, it’s a great place for tiring out the kids; Charmouth Beach – The sea is nice and shallow here thanks to the gentle slope of the sandy beach, so you don’t have to worry so much about losing kids; and Burton Bradstock. Burton Bradstock is the favourite at the moment because the Mum’s can decamp to the Hive Beach Cafe and have a lovely coffee with a great vantage point of the beach.
So, booking at the beginning of the year is really working for us, as it doesn’t offer the opportunity to duck out pleading that we’re too busy. We haven’t spent a lot of money, but we have gained so much in terms of family-time and reaping the benefits of down-time to return to work with a renewed vigour!
You dragged the business up out of the ground, probably kicking and screaming….you’ve had the sleepless nights, the tears and the tantrums and the pleasure of seeing it grow and finally you seem to be getting somewhere. If you’re a parent, this probably sounds very like the joy, trials and tribulations of bringing up children, but I think there’s a difference. We all expect our children to grow up and take the next steps in their development – in fact we’re eagerly awaiting some of them (like walking and talking) and happily push them forwards. We do feel a bit lost and aimless when they leave home (I’m imagining this bit, my boys are only 7 and 5!!), but we know they need to assert their independence and accept their rites of passage.
But when it comes to business – it seems to be a lot harder to let go. As entrepreneurs, we’ve done some really hard work to get it started, we were the ones who made everything happen and just when it finally seems that we’re actually getting a bit of success and some recognition, things start getting harder again. Quite often this is the point at which some entrepreneurs realise, (usually a little bit too late really), that they need to employ someone. The problem is, the business is you and everything you do, and along comes someone else and the temptation is, because it’s all about you, to insist that they do things your way – because obviously it’s the best way Often, we don’t listen to ideas and we don’t take advantage of those fresh eyes in the business to examine what we’re doing for better ways of working. But, the sad thing is that what we’re actually doing is failing our business, we’re like a parent who isn’t letting our child taste independence, or to spend time with anyone else to broaden their thoughts. We’re not doing this maliciously, it’s usually an outcome of the fact that to get the business started we had to be single-minded and driven, and we forget that we need to moderate that as the business grows. Just like our roles as parents change as our children grow and become more capable, so should our role as leader of the business.
As new input comes into the business, we need to clearly communicate our vision and what’s expected and in the early days we may still be working alongside people,therefore need to remember that how we are is likely to set the long-term culture for the business. If we’re domineering and blame people, it’s very likely that we will stamp out any sparks of initiative within the business, if we create a culture of trust and respect, then people are more likely to follow suit.
We also need to recognise that in order for the business to grow, other people have to be empowered as we can’t possibly do everything ourselves. It’s still all about you but in a different way – and here’s where the parenting bit comes in again - we should be looking ahead for the times when the areas we focus on change - and making sure that we, as leaders, are equipping ourselves and the business to cope with those changes. It is still all about you -but to succeed you need to become a much more selfless you, who is motivating and leading people, who you trust to get on and do the job – or, at the very least, to recognise that style of operating is what’s needed and find someone to do that bit for you.
So, back to the parenting analogy – did your children learn to walk, or did you teach them???? How does that apply that to your business, as an ancient proverb says “the best leader is the one who the people do not notice. When the best leader’s work is done, the people say “We did it ourselves”….”
As some of you may have gathered by now – I quite often find inspiration for improvements in the way I do things from the world around me. If you read my 2010 New Year’s resolution blog (http://www.emmawarren.co.uk/?p=67), you will know that I resolved to make sure that we made a bit more time for family fun this year. I’m pleased to report that we have booked some holidays (yay!!) and that this inspired me to make sure that I created some “me-time” as well. I am very good at creating time to go and do Continuing Professional Development, as I consider this an essential part of what I do - my clients pay for my expertise, so I need to make sure that it is current. I find it refreshing and inspiring to challenge my thinking on a regular basis – but I realised that I wasn’t indulging my little inner self at all – lots of time on business and family was making Emma a two-trick pony!
So, despite the fact that I was convinced I had NO time left in the diary to play with, I have put in some things into the diary that are really starting to pay dividends. The whole office has signed up to do a 20km walk for charity at Just Walk in May (http://www.acrossthedivide.com/index.php/products/events/-/pt-0010/psc-0027/-/0/9/index.html). This meant that walking our dogs turned into a training exercise and it’s been really invigorating, as well as beneficial to the waistline!
Continuing with the pony theme I mentioned earlier, I’ve had a yen to go horse riding again for quite a while – I rode until I was a teenager – Thelwell’s pony had nothing on me! A few weeks ago, I finally got around to booking up a Saturday pony lesson and have managed a few more since then. I asked for a small dobbin-like horse, but ended up with a giant that has a slight tendency to spook at nothing occasionally – which in the beginning was quite daunting and made me think that this wasn’t such a good idea. However, through my leadership network, I recently made the acquaintance of a lady called Pam Billinge at Equest Partnership (http://www.equestpartnership.com/who-we-are/pam-billinge.html) who runs a fabulous course which helps people develop their leadership skills through the medium of exploring non-verbal communication skills by working with horses. I remembered her saying that horses are very tuned to our “inner story” and that you have to be very “in the moment” and presenced in order to get the best from them. So, instead of going along to the lesson and spinning a multitude of things around in my head (multi-tasking as usual!), I decided to concentrate on the horse and my riding – and what a difference it made! I felt more in control and less nervous, and the horse obviously sensed this as she started responding to me much more positively – and hence I enjoyed the lesson more.
The final piece in the story is that as usual, this sparked a thought across to my work life – we often spend our time supposedly listening to people, but quite often, because we’re busy, our ears are listening but our minds are elsewhere - and we’re not truly connecting with the person that we’re engaged with. So I’ve spent the last couple of weeks making sure that I am connecting, rather than superficially listening and believe me it’s made a real difference – try it and see how the quality of the conversations that you are having improve.
I love my job and what I do and as a result I spend lots of my life seeing and hearing things and then being unable to stop myself relating them to being a good leader and what makes organisations work. I guess if I was a musician I’d always have songs in my head!
A few days ago we were doing a long journey in the car and we put story CDs on in the car for our young sons to listen to - and so, for the first time in ages, I heard Aesop’s Fables. Initially I wasn’t really tuned in and then I heard this one and BANG my mind was back in work mode again:-
The Belly and the Members Fable
An Aesop’s Fable
One fine day it occurred to the Members of the Body that they were doing all the work and the Belly was having all the food. So they held a meeting, and after a long discussion, decided to strike work till the Belly consented to take its proper share of the work. So for a day or two, the Hands refused to take the food, the Mouth refused to receive it, and the Teeth had no work to do. But after a day or two the Members began to find that they themselves were not in a very active condition: the Hands could hardly move, and the Mouth was all parched and dry, while the Legs were unable to support the rest. So thus they found that even the Belly in its dull quiet way was doing necessary work for the Body, and that all must work together or the Body will go to pieces.
As I listened, it occurred to me that we so often feel that we are the ones who are doing all the work, whether it be at work or at home – and we forget that there are other people in the team who are doing their bit too, but in a quiet, often overlooked way. I regularly facilitate in situations where someone is convinced that the other departments or individuals aren’t pulling their weight – and I get them to understand and/or work in each other’s departments and also encourage them to make sure their own house is in order before they start casting around to give criticism. These approaches get good results, but I think I’m going to add this fable into my toolkit as it underlines the point very succinctly and is a great model for good organisational design. I probably need to pin it on the fridge at home too!!
My wake up picture!
Rush, rush, busy, busy – the never-ending cycle of being working parents running businesses and children – with barely time to breathe. We get so caught up in this mad hurry of life that sometimes we forget to enjoy the simple things like family, friends and the scenery around us.
The view that made me stop and stare...
The recent snows forced us to slow up a bit while we were driving home one late afternoon, and we were all alone on this nearby country lane – so we stopped and looked and it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I felt moved to try and capture it – with my amateurish phone photography! I haven’t done it justice by any means – but it reminded me that we are lucky enough to live in Somerset – a beautiful area of the country and we haven’t looked at it lately, I’ve also captured the picture I wake up to every morning, with it’s ever-changing seasonal vista – how lucky am I??
Amazing Tree
We moved to Somerset over ten years ago and as newbies we walked and drove around marvelling at the views and promised ourselves that we would never forget how much they took our breath away – and most of the time we don’t. But just recently, it’s been so busy that we hadn’t taken a few minutes here and a few minutes there to stop and enjoy the scenery – it takes so little time but it adds so much colour and depth to your life. As I was thinking about that, I realised it wasn’t just the view I was rushing past, I haven’t taken the time lately to waste time with my most precious assets - family and friends! So I’ll share my motto for 2010 – be busy, be successful, be loving but also take a few selfish minutes every now and again to just look around you – you’ll be amazed at what you see!!
Well, I don’t know about you but I really can’t believe that it’s 2010!! I was working over Christmas, but had bits and pieces of time off and the time just seemed to whip by. We spent New Year with friends near Tavistock and had a lovely time but all too soon it was time to come back. We were back at work on Monday and it looks like it’s going to be a busy few weeks coming up.
This year, I decided that I would make a New Year’s resolution for the rest of family – given that I usually make mine and break them within hours – so I decided that we would book our holidays soon to make sure that we spend some quality time together. Oh, and I sneaked another small one in, namely that the boys have got to put their toys away after they’ve finished playing. I know that technically it should be their resolution, but I might be waiting a long time for that to happen – lol!! In a way it does benefit them, as it will mean that this working Mum might not do her impression of a pressure cooker about to explode when she finds a trail of toys on the floor!
Apart from that, we’re going to try and eat more veg, grow more veg and hubby is taking up smoking (the food variety) and I’m hoping that we should be able to smoke one of our lamb fillets in the near future – will be yummy, can’t wait!!
Burton Bradstock - Boxing Day
Santa-spotting, tumble-funning, present-ripping, share-shouting, sprout-hating, cracker-joking, sweet-eating, high-flying, crash-burning, sleepy-headed, dreamy-hugging, Christmas making, awe inspiring, did I really make them, luscious lumps of loveliness…xxxx
Our two boys are 7 and 5 – Christmas was so much fun for them this year, I loved their energy and enthusiasm, their capacity to believe in Santa because they so wanted him to visit them and the way they lit up our day too. Thank you boys xxx
Well, it was a frosty, but no snow to speak of Christmas down here in Somerset. We had a lovely family Christmas, with a table full of people here for Christmas Day and a relatively stress free dinner on the table for 1.30pm – how civilised. Hubby excelled himself and made sloe gin mincemeat (homemade) mince pies (hand-made pastry) so I promptly declared him the pastry chef from now on!
We got our two boys (aged 5 and 7) a cookbook and aprons for Christmas and they proudly produced their first dish yesterday – a very colourful salad – and had us in stitches at the theatrical kitchen antics – priceless!!
Me – well I’ve been catching up on some outstanding work and reviewing Portfolio Directors’ new website – yay!! I’ve also been indulging in my love of cooking and in the past couple of days have made tomato soup; roast parsnip and blue cheese soup; leftover turkey, chorizo and veg soup (for lunch tomorrow) and some oatcakes from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Everyday Cookbook (one of our Xmas pressies) – they’re on page 87 and they were pronounced delicious by the family cooking critics!!
Anyway – it’s stupid o’clock and I couldn’t sleep, so signing off for now!
Well, we were supposed to be going camping in Cornwall last week, but we’d had a wet & muddy weekend and there was a lot of rain in Cornwall – so we decided to be really trendy and have a Staycation at home. We had a great time, got lots of jobs done and discovered that Devon and Somerset are great places to holiday, the boys loved Diggerland (and I think Daddy did too). We also had a bit of a cookathon and made homemade tomato ketchup, tomato soup and taramasalata – scrummy! Hubby made some really scrummy cookies – which soon disappeared!
Well, we upped sticks and went to the festival again this year, it’s a lovely, family festival with great food and music and is at the Larmer Tree gardens near Salisbury – http://www.larmertreefestival.co.uk/ The picture shows Carnival Collective in full flow. It was a bit of a mini-Glastonbury in the mud department, but the boys thought that was fab and took great delight in squidging and squealing. They had great fun watching the acrobats and making things in the various “making” tents. The rain didn’t stop play too much and we came home Sunday afternoon with two very tired boys…
This time a couple of weeks ago, we had lots of relatives here. Grampy (my hubby’s Dad) had come down to stay for a few days (shown here with DS2). On the Sunday, we were joined by two Aunts and an Uncle and we all had a lovely day. We had a big roast lunch, served outside and managed to eat before it started raining. Pudding was an Eton Mess made with fresh strawberries from Forde Abbey Fruit Farm – http://www.fordeabbey.co.uk/ – delicious. As always, Gruncle (Great Uncle to the boys) came bearing gifts of fruit and veg – including some lovely redcurrants – which, feeling ambitious, I turned into a redcurrant jelly that night (with a few elderflower sprigs chucked in)
Today saw the grand sheep shearing event. We have two sheep left and one of our local farmers kindly came down and sheared them for us. He arrived as the boys were finishing their tea – cue lots of running around looking for wellies and farmer caps (them not me!). DS1 was heard to say “I need to go and watch it or I won’t know how to do it on my farm”…
They watched intently as the procedure took place, but were quite concerned that they would be cold overnight – so DS1 insisted on leaving the fleeces in the field for them to sleep on.
The sheep are a Dutch breed called Zwarbels – not as fatty as most lamb – so I actually like it!
I thought that it would be good to start as we mean to go on. Our lives have changed a lot over the past few years, we’ve added children, businesses and a lot of running around – but in 2007 we set out to try and live a greener lifestyle, having been inspired by “It’s not Easy Being Green”. This is our proudest moment yet – everything on this plate was produced within a few yards of our house (apart from the flour for the yorkies!).
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