This year's lamb...

Derm took the lambs into Howells on 10th October and we picked them up on 16th. The biggest came in at 24.5kg! and the two smallest at 17kg with most of the others being 20kg and above. Delivered one straight to a friend at Blickling - will collect some of her beef in return later in the year. Three more whole ones were collected the next day. Fiona had the joints she asked for and some put aside for more friends who just want a few bits chops/offal. Still got lots of chops and liver left so will see if any of the holiday cottage guests would like to buy some. Had chops for tea that night and they were, unsurprisingly, delicious!! Left long enough to develop a decent flavour but still tender and not at all fatty. Yum! A really good batch this year.

We made the most of the day out to do lunch and go shopping! The lunch was purely in the interests of research you understand! Going to try to go to as many places as possible that we are recommending for our holiday cottage guests to visit. So first choice was Wroxham Barns. We already know what a fab place it is with all the amazing craft shops, the petting farm and the old fashioned fun fair. A great place to go to find presents for people. But I was interested in the restaurant. Heard that they have a new chef and a good new reputation. Beef and apple pie with freshly cooked veg was lovely and the pesto and mushroom risotto was generous and tasty. Rest of the menu looked pretty good too. Light lunches as well as proper meals. Very reasonably priced. We'll be recommending it and going back again. Next time for afternoon tea - the cakes and scones looked amazing! www.wroxham-barns.co.uk.

The shopping was not as much fun as lunch - no clothes or shoes or anything remotely like it. Pamments. For the Piggery floor. We went straight to our favourite reclaim yard - Womacks. SOOOOO much stuff there, a real Aladdin's cave. I have no idea how the guys that work there can remember where everything is, how much it costs etc but they do. Their 'office' is the most amazing little clay walled hut with a stove at one end and racks of small reclaim bits in the middle. Love it. How Health and Safety let them get away with a lot of stuff I'll never know but long may they do it.

So, we looked at red, buff, pink, brown pamments in about 4 different sizes and couldn't make our mind up so took home a selection of each (above) to see what they looked like in situ. The colour we chose? Why not come and see?!. At least we have a proper floor to lay them on now!


The lovely Hoseasons rep, Jenny, came to see how we were getting on today (we are with them as well as using our own website and links to get bookings - see here) and was amazed by how nice it is looking and how tidy the building site is! She loved the big open space that will be the lounge/dining/kitchen area with the fireplace, wood burning stove and doors opening out onto the yard. Friends who came to collect lamb were also impressed by how things are progressing. It's easy to forget how far we have come when you see it every day.

Ended this day with a gig at the Waterfront, Norwich. To see Seth Lakeman. Loved it. Such an amazing sound - really ramped up, rocky folk/ballards. Check him out at www.sethlakeman.co.uk

Lots going on at the Waterfront - see www.waterfrontnorwich.co.uk in Norwich. Plenty more at the Arts Centre, Theatre Royal, Playhouse and the Forum. And the newly re-opened Cinema City is a cut above the usual multiplexes - two at last count in Norwich.

October is the new September!

Well, September didn't really come up to its usual promise - those wonderful, high cloud sunny days that are damp and cool in the morning and crisp in the evening. Instead it was cloudy and a bit damp, but warm. At least I was able to sow the Old Piggery 'lawn'. After much raking out of stones and stuff and the addition of a several barrow loads of garden compost I was able to broadcast a flurry of grass seed. I fenced it off with hazard tape (sorry to all those riding past on spooky horses!) - which the wind promptly blew to bits in no time but it blew the birds off it too and in about a week there was a definite green sheen to the ground.


October is, so far, providing the promise that September failed to deliver.


(View from behind the house.)

Inside the Old Piggery the wiring and plumbing work was finished in preparation for the underfloor heating pipes to go in, after a cement base is laid over the insulation. The weather has been good enough for the guys to get some pointing work done too. And the chimney is finished with a pot on top.


With the ditching of a couple of jobs (Tescos can probably cope without my efforts behind the customer service desk on a Thursday night. The Parish Council don't seem to be best pleased that I want out but I am sure they will cope!) , in preparation for the Piggery holiday business, I seem to have a little bit more spare time to spend on, amongst other things, picking the hedgerow fruit with a view to making cakes, jams and liquers. Got a particularly interesting batch of plum and blackberry brandy on the go! Looking forward to getting another batch of sloe gin stewing soon. Oh, the cakes and jams? They'll come later. First things first!

Regularly visiting the local Farmers' Markets now that Tescos is an employer of the past and I am aiming to buy even more local food than before. Came back this morning with a fabulous selection of fresh veg - little beetroot for roasting, superbly fresh carrots, purple kale, cauliflower and some thin sweet peppers. As usual, bought a bag of Sue Andrews mixed salad - no more expensive and certainly much more tasty and fresh than anything you can get in the supermarket. The fish man was there - always get smoked haddock from him. He had sold out of my favourite smoked haddock pasties (and I was only there an hour after opening - the best stuff goes quick!) but had a sea trout left, still all glossy eyed, so I bought that for supper tonight. My 'meat' friends - Mick and Pauline from Mallow Farm Organics - had a queue. I bought a load of meat direct from their farm last week so didn't need to join it. I was just steeling myself against the temptations of the bakery stall when I turned round and saw.....a handmade chocolate stall! Oh dear. Just not physically able to steel myself against that! The friendly girl serving said it was their first week and offered me a taster. Lavender and something lovely. The chocolate was dark, rich and there was plenty of it to combat the intense flavours of the fillings. I bought one of each loose to try (who am I kidding? to guzzle down myself at the earliest available opportunity!) They could make a very pleasant addition to the welcome tray for the holiday cottages. I counteracted such indulgence with a selection of rare type apples from the lovely Andrea Lyons from Burnells Farm in East Ruston. Her husband Nick is a very talented artist www.nicklyons.me.uk

and also the cause of one of my greatest regrets! He had a landscape of our cottage and the barn, long before it was a twinkle in our mortgage (less of a twinkle maybe, more a black hole!) It was beautiful and not expensive but I just didn't have that sort of money to spare at the time so I didn't buy it. And somebody else did. And then I changed my mind and it was too late. And now we don't have that painted record of how the buildings were. Damn and blast my parsimony.

One last purchase, another first timer at the market. All the way from near Harleston (but that is still Norfolk so it counts) - a lovely selection of free range chicken and beef. I only bought a couple of chicken breasts - well aware that in the next couple of weeks we will be swapping some of our lamb for some Blickling beef and possibly some Marlingford pork. And I have to clear the freezer of the pheasant and grouse before the start of the shooting season. But I was sorely tempted by the most glorious rib of beef - a dish fit for the hugest, carnivorous dinner party.

I waddled round one of the antique/bric a brac shops in the high street, careful not to knock china off stands with my carrot tops sticking out of the basket! I could have bought any number of things for the Piggery/Forge/Gothic Cottage but refrained - where would I put more stuff??!!
Except I just had to have a little wooden egg tray. Could double as a really nice candle holder....