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

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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

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Well, I like to think that I can come up with plausible reasons for my actions – but I have to confess that even I pushed the boundaries recently.  I’ve written previously about our smallholding and our various animals and go green initiatives, and we’ve been pressing on with growing our own veg.  My hubby has a bit of a weakness for old tractors and farm tools, and I love my chickens – and I’ve got quite a few!!  We keep extending our chicken run and I saved up and treated them to a chicken palace from a great place near us called Flytes of Fancy so in my mind that meant that I had room for more chickens.  I had seen an article about a Charity Goose Auction held twice yearly at the Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton and so with a determined air, I set off with all the family in tow.

Well, I was expecting a few pens of chickens for sale, but it’s a massive affair with over 400 lots of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and even peacocks.  My hubby was happy as they also had a cider tent and a hog roast on the go, with lots of things for the kids to get interested in as well – so a bit of a day out for the whole family.  I set about the serious stuff of watching the poultry auction and unfortunately for hubby, the bidding bug bit and I was off!  By the end of the auction, we were proud (me), and bemused (him), owners of the following:

5 Aracuna blue-egg laying chickens

A bantam and three tiny chicks

4 point of lay bantams

2 frizzies – they look like exploding chickens!

3 Marsh Daisy chickens

2 Lemon Fantail ornamental chickens

3 runner ducks (OK so I promised I wouldn’t get ducks but they were only £8 and I couldn’t leave them there…)

As I was bidding, hubby was getting ever more anxious and I, desperate to justify getting more chickens, heard myself saying “but they’ll make great material for my blog” – the best excuse I’ve ever come up with for unrestrained purchasing!!

Hughie, Dewie and Louie

My boys were really excited by all this activity, so once we had packed them into crates and set off for the car, my hubby took the opportunity to point out that we’d got too many chickens and what on earth was I doing buying “bloody ducks”.  I ignored him and later that night, as I introduced the ducks to our geese, I was a bit concerned that he might start a campaign to get rid of the ducks. However, I needn’t have worried as the ducks launched a charm offensive of their own, and the very next evening I found him laughing his head off as the ducks all stood neatly in line for him to spray them with the hose – one converted husband!

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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!!

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Last weekend, we went out for a walk with two other families and went to Lamberts Castle in Dorset – great place to go for a walk, but I wanted to make it a bit more exciting for the kids. I remembered that a few weeks ago, James Cracknell had been in the paper and had been Geocaching with his family. If you haven’t come across it, it’s a form of treasure hunting, except that when you find the “treasure” (litlle bits and bobs in a container), you write in the logbook with the cache and you can also log the find on their website (www.geocaching.com ) and then you replace the treasure and leave it for the next person to find.
I typed in the location as Lamberts Castle on their website and there was a cache to be found there – so I downloaded the encrpyted clue and towards the end of the walk we set the children the task of seeking it out. They absolutely loved decoding the clue and finding the treasure (after a goodly search) and can’t wait to go and do another hunt. We found the “treasure” in the area described by the clue, but would never have noticed it otherwise. How many other things are out there that we just walk past!!

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