Counting down and a bit of allwhite!

Hello ladies, its late on a sunday night and i really should be off to bed but im still really excited as my dad has been here all day putting up wallpaper in m hallway...do you remember i mentioned i had selected Cath Kidston's- Mono rose in blue, im soooo glad i did, im completely madly in LOVE with it right now, and cant wait to add the finishing touches(new door curtain, hall table, banister rail up the stairs) . I'll try and keep you posted with photos when it all comes together, but ive been a bit naughty with keeping my blog up to date lately!

I took a few pretty pictures on saturday as we've had another snowfall, so i thought you might like to see them, and also, as the fat man in the red suit is due to visit shortly ive complied a little list of things id like to receive as ive been such a good girl this year!;

1.Firstly, if i could have just one thing, it would be this man in my life more, Mr P....

Work is taking a heavy toll on him and our household at the moment and i miss him...

2.On a lighter note, if the snow were to piss off, id be able to wear these every day! If i wore them in the snow they'd be ruined and they're far too expensive to risk that. For now i'll keep wearing my thirty quid Next ones!
3. Im actually ashamed of my current riding style brown leather boots. They've been good friends for three years now BUT im starting to feel slightly embarrassed by them at the school gate, and who wants to be embarrassed by an old friend??

So, ive selected this pair from John Lewis as my gift from my parents...but i wont get them until boxing day..Grrrr!
4. Im really hoping to carry on with my gundog training next year (eventhough i'll be heavily pregnant), and this beautiful waistcoat is making me look forward to getting my pre pregnancy bod back!
5. Obviously it'll be less handbags at dawn and more nappies at midnight next May so i have my eye on a few different changing bags which will satisfy my need for that yummy mummy style(hmmm). Obviously this is a CK one, in one of my all time favourite prints, but it may be a little boyish..so we shall see.

6. Finally, this is not entirely practical, as leaving a block of butter on the worktop in our house is akin to leaving a block of ice in a freezer, BUT, i still want it. Emma Bridgewater of course, and did you know that if you break the lid they will sell you a new one? See-its an investment!
On saturday we woke to this-the forecast was NOT snow, so i was left with a dilemma. I was due to work a 10-6 shift at work, collecting the girls from their fathers on the way home. I spoke to Mr P's brother who had just returned from feeding the cows at 9am, who told me in no uncertain terms to not leave the house unless my life depended on it.

Hmmm...so should i have risked(at 21 weeks pregnant) travelling via country roads, to the motorway, to a work car park which had not and would not be being gritted, knowing i would have to travel back via the motorway with 2 little ones under cover of darkness that night??

I didnt want to be one of those people who just dont bother going into work because of a few flakes of snow, but it played on my mind that if i got stuck somewhere, i couldnt get out and push the car, i couldnt even clear the snow off of my car that morning without help!

I decided not to go, and tomorrow i face the same dilemma all over again as we are due more overnight. I slipped just retrieving logs from outside the back door, so how i would have made it to work in one piece is anyones guess?!

So, i'll stop rambling now, with my misplaced(?)work guilt and show you some pics of what it looked like outside the cottage...enjoy, and if i dont speak to you before, have a beautiful Christmas xxx

Snow ho ho!

Now, today, we are mainly indoors enjoying this sort of thing BUT, yesterday was a whole different ballgame!

We got the beautiful deep, powdery snow i had been hankering over. That which, it seemed, everyone but us had received. I opened the curtains and told mr p, it was a 'wonderful winter wonderland outside!'..he laughed and turned back over!

Want to see what it looks like round here right now?..

My garden and home...

Charlie, our nephew enjoying the snow?(not for long!)

This was early yesterday morning, you know when its still, and grey and quiet out? Makes it hard to take photos but i wouldnt miss the opportunity of soaking up the atmosphere..

AH! How cute does charlie look?!

We decided we would try and make a snowman with our family from next door, but, the snow was SO powdery that the kids got very frustrated and left the mummy's to make him while they trudged and ran up and down the chalk hills...This is my looking-erm-well, not very stylish but doing my best to keep warm as it was so bloody freezing!!

Ted the bear seemed to LOVE the snow and didnt actually want to come in. He thawed in front of the fire for a few hours when we got in.

And murphy, well, he just wanted to dig through the snow for whatever had burrowed underneath it!

The harvested got a sprinkling! Doesn't that lime green look striking in the snow?!

So, that was yesterday, and today, we're staying in the warm. Its too icy to drive anywhere and before we all get cabin fever we're going to do a bit of crafting...can you tell what it is yet??

Roo, being quiet for 5 minutes on her DS while mummy sorts the house before we get busy with the PVA!
But not all of us are snuggled indoors! Hermione has spent a fair while outside these last couple of days, here she is being nosey as she has spotted me opening the window to 'feel' if its snowing again!
But now she's home with her mama, cuddling, nosing, and most importantly-keeping warm by the radiator in the lounge, the fire just isnt giving enough heat off today!

The girls and i are quite happily sat here munching jammy dodgers and cheese toasties(in that order) and i think someone very tiny is enjoying all the comfort food, as i get a few 'thanks mum' kicks after every meal!!...

But having one of these stretching everything the wrong way kinda makes it hard to dress well in this weather.

SO, not wanting to resort to one of Mr Ps's old fleeces i headed to GAP and selected this beautiful poncho style maternity sweater to see me through the next few months, and i love it already!!

Bye for now...be safe in the snow xxx

Down on the farm.

Hello there my lovlies, i hope youve had a good few days, ive seen a few snowy posts but im afraid Hampshire hasnt been lucky enough to receive any yet!

This morning i did the school run, and came home to this...

Well, every room in the house looked like this-what a mess!-the kitchen was the result of my not emptying the dishwasher in the daytime yesterday, so after tea, i couldnt be bothered to either wash up, or unload and reload the dishwasher!

Never mind, it took me all day, but i got there in the end and the house is now looking spotless!

So, whats been going on down on the farm??..

Well, this BEAST is Mr P's new toy. Obviously times are hard for all at the moment, not just farmers, but we seem to be scraping the barrel a little more than usual, what with a huge mortgage looming over the business since we bought this farm. So-we felt the need to diversify. Lots of dairy/livestock farmers have had a tough year as they didnt have enough silage saved up in the summer, to feed to their animals this winter.

So, what you see her is a 'fodder beet lifter' Fodder beet is part of the turnip family basically, and sheep and cows love it! Its also the the highest yielding forage crop anyone can grow...so, we thought we'd grow some for us, some to sell, and buy a machine to harvest it as there isnt one this big anywhere in the south of England.

Its so large it has to have escorts to go on the main roads and doesnt even fit through some farm gates so Mr P is on a steep learning curve!

Here is is this morning carrying out some essential maintenance..

So my job at the moment is to supply various people with coffees and cake regularly throughout the day-such as Mr P-seen here with his winter beard!

It gets piled up like this, then farmers come along with their tractors and trailers and load up.

The kids had fun last night as this lot is growing in the field next to the house-you know the one behind our big oak tree?...they took turns to sit on the toolbox and have a ride with dad.

Then yesterday evening word got round that we had harvested, and three different farmers turned up to take some away, some had only a day or two's feed supply left for their animals.Serious business.

That's alotta beets right?!

Here's a slightly closer up photo, some of them are huge, but im sure it wouldnt take a whole flock long to chomp through them!

And, as you can see, Ted took a keen interest in it too!

Anyway, i hope i havnt bored you all too much with farm talk?!.

Apart from trying to keep my fire going each day i really havnt been up to much as ive been off work with ligament pains in the bump and im trying to take it a little bit easy(read that as bake lots of cakes!)and the dogs are not happy that they're not getting their two walks a day and the dr said i musnt go shooting until im better...frustrating!!

So, i havnt really got anything pretty to show you at the moment, BUT the weather man has promised us at least a LITTLE bit of the powdery stuff-so watch this space....

Take care all......xxx

Hello there my lovelies...x

Hello everyone, its me, Kirsty, remember me?...Im so sorry ive been away so long, i have been awfully busy though....you see, we've recently been blessed, we are expecting a 3rd edition to our family at around easter time next year!

We're very excited, but ive been suffering quite a bit with morning sickness so have taken some time out to rest and recover as much as possible. I'll pop back as often as possible to say 'hi' and check in on you all..here i am with my little 'bump'...

As they say, one new life begins, and another one ends...sadly this has been true of our family-this year i have lost a second grandparent, My beloved Granny Peggy, pictured here with my dad...
We love you and miss you gran...Kirsty xxxx

September 2010!

Just found this old post of photos, from back in sepetmber last year...thought id post it anyway as it gives a little bit of colour on what is otherwise a very dismal weekend!
So, im writing this retrospectively, but the moments are etched in my mind....

This is Lucy, our little chick you may remember from last easter? She is the loveliest friendliest chicken we've ever had, during the summer months when the kitchen window was left open late into the evenings this is where we'd find her sat!-On the worktop by the toaster! You can see its late in the day as ruby is in her jammies!...

This was from a little farm trip we took-love baby goats-even if they do chew your sleeves/camera case/buggy!

Now, last year, im ashamed to say that our lawn only received a short back and sides about 3 times? IF THAT! So, when dad was home with enough time to do it, the little ladies took full advantage-whizzing around until bedtime!
Then, one day disaster struck. Mr P and i were woken at 7am by his brother banging on our bedroom wall and shouting 'everybody out' we knew then that something major had happened. We threw on our dressing gowns and ran next door with the dogs, by this time Rich was sat in his land rover with his hand on the horn continually. What had caused the commotion was the fact that their electrical fuse box in the kitchen had caught fire. He was in the car so that he could race down to the end of the truck to guide the fire brigade , but mr swapped with him so he could grab an extinguisher and try and put the fire out.

Luckily my girls were not home on this occasion but our niece and nephew Ellie and Charlie were terrified to say the least so i stood in the garden with their mummy and calmed them down. The fire was out by the time the fire brigade arrived but they had to use their giant fan to get rid of all the smoke in the house. Let this be a lesson to you all-this family had built in smoke alarms which were connected to their fuse box-which didnt go off-they should have-because they had battery back up-to this day we still dont know why they didnt but please please if you do one thing after reading this-CHECK YOUR SMOKE ALARMS-rant over. If this family had been in bed an extra 10 minutes on this occasion the end result could have been a whole lot different.

These are my beautiful girls-obviously im biased!-dressed for summer.

I still cant quite believe they're going to be big sisters again...!

This was kinda how i felt during the whole of the six weeks holidays-like i was on the crazy bus!We went to the new forest county show-just me and them, and had a lovely time...

Which is where i took this photo...it makes me *beam*!!!!!

Love Kirsty xxx