Nature did well

 Frog Spawn

 Close Up

 Broad Beans

 Early Over Wintering  Onion

 More Daffodils waiting to burst into life

Hellebore common name (Christmas Rose)

Saturday 16th February Been a long time since the last post but I have not sat doing nothing still fighting through the packing cases & also decorated the front bedroom repaired the damp patch under the front window. What I hate with having so much stuff in boxes is having boxes & items all over the place, landing full & spare bedrooms full! been getting us down having so much bric-a-brac but we are slowly getting rid of it which is a good feeling, many books have gone we are just keeping the best.

If you have been following my blog since moving here you will know we purchased a new design gas Aga/Rayburn 480CD after the original gas Rayburn was all day & uncontrollable & also having a floor antiquated central heating boiler our gas bill was well over £1,000 so had to make changes. This Rayburn cost us £5.500 & been nothing but a pain in the butt.

Tuesday 5th the electric went off 2/3 times during the night I know this because we  have fire alarms connected to the house wiring & when it goes off the battery back up kicks in with bleeps. 

Wednesday 6th woke to find the Rayburn not work completely dead no heating or cooker! The technical department were a waste of time again! & when I rung local Rayburn plumbing engineers they have never worked on this model! when I asked about the electronic side of it they stated we  put the work over to a house wirer! but that is no good to me I knew the power was getting to the user interface but would not stop on! my only concern was the main PCB controller was a sealed unit but after a internet search it states if the unit has a zero on it it is working ok!

Anyway decided to fault find myself knowing I had a G&C in electronics found a blown capacitor on the user interface which was due to a power surge with the power electrics coming back on. Yes I cheated & ordered another board but even that was a nightmare getting it to here! Due to doggie walking left a note on front door stating leave parcel in porch! We started to get desperate with having no heating or cooker for over a week rung the company who told us the part was at the sorting office yet we had no card through door! Anyway sorting office in village only opens for an hour in the morning in desperation drove to sorting office & nearly knocked the door down! a guy answered I told him the story & he said come in we will look together!we looked on the shelves nothing!

He then stated if it was parcel force it is a separate company! & they leave parcels at the post office!!!! So over I went told them the story, yes was the answer back I expect it is here! Thankfully it was! I fitted the board & wow a warm house again we were so thankfully for our crock pot (slow cooker) with not having the cooker for over a week!

Anyway nature did us proud this week on the doggie walk noticed a otter on the river bank never seen one out of the water before only swimming in the river got out my mobile phone camera but by that time he was in the water staring at us & I did not catch him/her in the photo taken sadly. Then came home & noticed frog spawn in the small pond so thrilled but maybe a little early. Today we saw new born Spring lamb in the fields we are so lucky to have had a mild winter here in North Devon. Raised veg beds are doing well more snow drops & daffodils are ready to burst out plus the nights are getting lighter yippee.

Early plants and bulbs out in the garden

 First snow drops of 2013

Hellebore Christmas rose

 Iris, the cable is from the solar lights

 Witch hazel 

 Pink Catkins

Primrose in bloom with yellow archangel in background

Been a mild day so wanted to catch up with dead heading in the meadow 1st it was a walk down to beam weir & if you watch the nature programs on BBC2 as it was recently all about otters you would have seen the weir I talk about on this blog & Facebook. Well when doing the dead heading it was good to uncover snow drop bulbs & seeing shrubs coming into bud. Been such a mild start to the new year but thinking that will be changing in the next few days & over the weekend.

Dartington Crystal Factory Tour

We have lived in North Devon for for 5 years now & in our house 4 1/2 years 1st 6 months was in rent which we hated.
We have been many times to shop at Dartington Crystal due to it having Edinburgh Woollen Mills items for sale & also other clothes areas. The site is in our village yet we have never done the factory tour due to the fog & damp thought we would make the most of the drab day & do the factory tour & we were not disappointed the skill of the workers was great to watch with them cutting glass with what looked like scissors!  You follow the work from the furnaces to the finishing side of the business also there was also an excellent video showing the history of the company. For a better look & more information please visit the follow web site http://www.dartington.co.uk/

New Year 2013

 Swimming pond looking good for a summer swim 

 Broad Beans shooting up

 Japanese onion also starting to shoot leaves

 Bus bars fitted to Cobweb balun box

 All drilled with posts fitted & aerial socket

Starting to plan the 2013 with a few projects to keep me busy god willing. Going to purchased a new 8ft x 6ft shed for the garden tools concrete base all ready down they will free up the room I want to make my workshop with a proper bench inside it. Got three big jobs out front which is the roofs over bay windows & porch roof  also the wall on nice neighbours side desperately needs pointing up all the way along plus seal a small roof over bathroom. I would like to build a log store & also make changes to my ham radio aerials started on making a Cobweb which is basically five dipoles in a square made a start on the balun box for a more up date layout & you are interested please visit http://m0pzt.com/ web site for a radio ham it is a useful site. Need to move the VHF/UHF aerial closer to the house also been sorting out the electronic logging for the shack/study so looks like going to be another busy year

Another two NT Property Christmas Visits

 Castle Drogo Tree

 Dinning  room Castle Drogo

 Dunster Castle dinning room

Quantock choir singing carols on stairs sorry a little dark unable to use flash

Two other places we visited was Castle Drogo  & Dunster Castle in North Somerset this was the 1st time Dunster Castle had done the dressed for Christmas the atmosphere was excellent piano playing carols & the Quantock choir sing with the open fires lit made it was wonderful visit. On way back home drove across Dunkery beacon the high place on Exmoor & North Devon.

Killerton Grounds

Every part of the house & grounds plus church had something in it for Christmas wonderful amount of effort & all from volunteers brilliant work.