Porridge for Breakfast, The Ordinary Life of a TTP Survivor

I love having family and friends to stay at home with us, and this week we have been busy with two sets of visitors.    Its a great way of rediscovering your local area and taking the trouble to visit a favourite place not visited in a while.   A sort of holiday for us as well as our visitors.  Today we chose to walk a short stretch of the Tarka Trail. We began our walk at Barnstaple Railway Station.   Cycle hire is available but decided against this today.    The beginning of the walk was a little confusing as you can go in one of four directions, but luckily we had a family member who had walked to Fremington before and knew the way.   There are plenty of signs about once you get onto the trail.   The path to Fremington is well paved, flat, and an easy enough route, however there were few benches to rest upon and I would say that you still need to be of a reasonable fitness.  I may be wrong.  One of our group would have struggle...

At the beginning of this summer I was disappointed with the number of slugs devastating our garden. Beer traps were set every evening and my other half and I did nightly slug patrols.  Suddenly though, we found the beer traps were being tipped upside down, and we suspect that badger was around again.   No worries though, we were happy for any help with our slug problem.   After deciding to keep a note of plants that slugs seemed to enjoy, we abandoned any idea of replacing them.   We stuck to plants that slugs leave alone, or at least are slow to attack.   Some of those plants are still holding their own against the falling temperatures.   And the slugs numbers really do seem to have to decreased. The viburnum is as good as ever.   Definitely one to concentrate on again next year :-) The osteospermum has flowered continually throughout the summer.  Ice plants are turning darker in colour but still attract the insects. T...

There really is a nip in the air today.   The daylight hours are decreasing and we've lit our fire once already.   The garden is still producing some fruit though, and its important for me to make the most of what it is providing. These raspberries have been picked this morning.  I initially bought raspberry canes because raspberries are so expensive in the shops.   A raspberry cane can cost less than a punnet of raspberries.   I'm no fruit grower, if i can do this then anyone with a small planting area can do the same. Last year we left all the grapes for the birds, this year I plan to make grape jelly, once i have decided upon a recipe :-) The last remaining apples still to be picked, they have ripened and are now beautifully red :-)

Wow, that week went by quickly!   And what a change in the weather!   It seems as if summer hardly began before the leaves have begun to drift down from the branches.   Summer plants are almost finished and need sorting, there is plenty to do in the garden and the day light hours are decreasing.   I don't mind this time of year though, actually I quite like the crispness of an autumn day.   Walking at this time of year is a real pleasure and then coming home to a cup of tea and a warm fire.   How lucky am I!    I count my blessings every day. One of the best things we have invested in, in our home, is our wood burner.   It is simply the best thing since sliced bread.   A few years ago, we had it installed and were surprised at the huge variety of burners available nowadays.   Luckily we have a working chimney, and along with lining we chose a solid cast iron stove.  It's a little bit traditional in style, but it fits in wit...