Staithes Windows

We spent Christmas week in the fishing village of Staithes , it had long been our intention having had an association with the community there when Dave lived at Spindrift cottage for a couple of years. Many of the cottages had decorated their windows for the festive season and this had the effect of making the village more magical than ever. On the big day itself the whole village gathered in the Royal George for a joyful celebration pre lunch where we were lucky to greet many of our old friends, all of whom exclaimed upon how grown up the children were, remembering toddlers with buckets and spades on the beach! Even Chumdog enjoyed himself, especially after he found he could push open our bedroom door and avail himself of the pleasure of jumping on the bed, strictly off limits at home!
Happy New Year to you all, gardening will resume on the 6th Jan.

"Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself"
Merle Shain

Merry Christmas Everyone

We have been busy today at Norton Conyers making wreaths for our doors. It is nice to be creative with the produce from the garden and we think they are so much better than shop bought, they cost us practically nothing too!
So the gardening year has finally come to a close, we will be celebrating on Saturday with a party in the orangery and then returning with renewed vigour to do it all again in the new year. On behalf of all us gardeners we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful new Year, see you in 2014.

"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas"
Peg Bracken

Unlikely Appreciation

Inevitably after Thursdays storm we were back collecting leaves again first thing Saturday morning. The wind had almost done our job for us having created deep drifts, but only in certain places, making collection of them easy if long winded due to the amount, but at least there will be no more to do as there are none left on the trees. Whilst tidying the courtyard in front of the house I noticed a wasps nest, now they're not my favourite beasties but even I must admit to the beauty and industry shown there. We debated as to whether wasps will reuse an old nest but none of us had an answer, so we decided to leave it there just in case.  Lunchtime saw us celebrating Alyson's birthday, not only with cake but also the first taste of the Norton Conyers cider lovingly made by us in October, astonishingly it's really rather good! This bodes well for the Christmas party scheduled for the 21st where I have a surprise for everyone one up my sleeve too, more then........

Norton Conyers "No Problem" vintage cider!

"By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property"
Voltaire