Down on the farm in the Cotswolds

Last week we had a few days away from Sussex and headed towards the very pretty Cotswolds. We stayed at a farm - a rather large farm!! That's it at the bottom of the hill on a rather frosty morning. We had lovely sunny weather for our stay, but, boy, it was cold.

The farm is run by the 3rd and 4th generation of farmers, and there was also a tiny 5th generation son about, so perhaps one day the farm will pass down to this little chap too.

There were five horses of various sizes. Zaf was a little worried, not being used to such huge creatures.

The main area of barns and outbuildings, with a view of the farmhouse at the rear.

The road prone to flooding was lined by trees festooned in mistletoe

Lots of evidence of recent flooding, many fields still under water

I've never seen so much mistletoe in one area!

Lots of pollarded crack willows

The neighbour farm. You don't see many farms this size in our part of Sussex, but there were plenty around Tirley

Walking Zaf along the narrow lanes lined with pollarded willows

Town Street Farm

BB really enjoyed jumping around the bales of hay in the huge barn! Think this was one of the highlights of our break.

The little piggies on the farm were very sociable

The farm produces beef and lamb, and although we didn't see any sheep on the farm there were plenty of cows

Think Dad enjoyed the bales too!

Sam's looking at the rows of cows munching on their lunch

Look! How sweet is she? Love the expression on her face!

Some of my favourite things..

At the moment these are some of my favourite things:

A very sweet skirt, with lovely embroidered twittering birds! I found this scrunched up at the bottom of a plastic bag with other bits of linen in a thrift shop for 50p

A great find - an original piece of art - found in a thrift shop some years ago, it remains a favourite item, there's always something new to discover when you look again...

An ever changing little corner filled with treasures - including bowls from Anthropologie and a selection of bird skulls :o)

Pretty embroidered cushion

Vintage patchwork knitted blanket, and a Christmas present cushion from my good husband

My white roses from my lovely hubby

A really nice book about growing plants with edible flowers

My latest haul from my favourite charity shop, appropriately in spring colours!

Interestingly, few of my current 'special' things are new; they are mostly pre-loved or hand-made. I am not really a bling girl, nor do I particularly go for the boutique look!

Do you have some special peachy things at the moment?

Seedy Sunday

Seedy Sunday is the UK's biggest and longest-running community seed swap event, held in Brighton each February. In return for a donation or in exchange for seed they have saved, growers can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables, to take home and grow. It is also a campaign to to protect biodiversity and protest against the increasing control of the seed supply by a handful of large companies.

We've been meaning to attend the event for a couple of years now, but for various reasons - mostly to do with a lack of organisation -  we have never managed to get there. Until this year, when FlowerScapes finally managed to have a stall, manned by me, your guest blogger for the evening, Kattegat's hubby.

The FlowerScapes stand, with our new jars of seeds

 At the heart of the event is, obviously, the seed exchange, where members of the public can bring their spare seeds to exchange for something new and different. But around three-quarters of the hall was taken up by other, related stalls - allotment societies, Friends of the Earth, a mushroom producer, the Brighton & Lewes Beekeepers, community composters, even a cooperative pub!

 

Being Brighton - home of the UK's first Green MP - the turnout was fantastic; over 3,000 people came through the doors, more than twice as many as in 2012. And the atmosphere was great, everybody very interested and friendly.

I was given an early slot to off-load my wares - 8.30 in the morning - and had the stall all set up by 9.00. That gave me an hour to wander around, drink thermos coffee and recover from the early start. But once the doors opened (there was a queue outside, apparently) at 10.00, I was on duty, on my feet and talking to the Great British Public for the next six hours solid. During that period I had maybe 2 or 3 minutes at the most without someone to chat to.

Before the hordes descended

By mid afternoon I had run out of 5g packets of seeds, had given out dozens of leaflets and was starting to flag. But the visitors kept coming, and right up to 4.00 people were still stopping to chat, even as I was packing away.

Everyone I spoke to had something positive to say about our work, and the new range of seeds in honey jars attracted lots of complements.

All in all, a very successful - if exhausting - day.