Our Move to the Country

Time to buy a 4×4

Posted on November 8, 2016August 22, 2017 by ouradmin

Growing up in a small village 600 ft above sea level in Wiltshire teaches you about why you need a 4×4, now we are in Cornwall, winter is starting to arrive and the trip to school each day is down into the valley and up the other side. Time to get a 4×4 me thinks. Over the years we have had several 4×4 vehicle, although landrovers can take more maintaining over a Japanese equivalent there is no doubt that they are the best 4x4xFar. Off to the local independent landrover garage it is. Several days later and we now have

Pumpkin Chutney

Posted on October 28, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

Our crop of 4 Pumpkins are ready, so we cooked the first one and served it with dinner, it seems like only one of us likes Pumpkin, so what do we do with the other three. Simple answer, make pumpkin chutney…. Over the years we have made Apple Chutney, Green Bean Chutney and Onion Chutney so we looked on line for a recipe for Pumpkin Chutney. There lots around, some sweet, some savory but the one that caught our eye was this one as it has garlic and chilies. It dose take quite a bit longer than in the recipe when

Firewood and Free Pallets

Posted on October 2, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

Its October, time to make sure we have enough firewood in for the winter. First stop my mothers house, My late father was a bit of a hoarder when it came to timber, lots of it in the loft, the shed and the garage. So far we have a 1/2 full log shed. At our old house we knew of industrial estates where we could pick up broken pallets for free, great firewood once cut up. A quick search around and looking on Facebook market place and i have found several companies trying to get rid of them. Needless to

Off on Holiday to…… Cornwall

Posted on August 1, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

Its Holiday time, for the last 5 years we have been renting a holiday home in Cornwall, the one for this year was booked in 2015 before we knew for sure we would be moving to Cornwall. Only an hour away this year instead of 3 1/4, so much easier to and although we still left early to beat the traffic. Cornwall is a great place to visit for a holiday, come to Cornwall and enjoy yourself, you never know, it might tempt you to move here as well. Kernow a’gas dynergh

Finding our way around

Posted on May 24, 2016August 21, 2019 by ouradmin

After living in the previous town for 18 years we got to know where everything was, shops, services, places to go etc. Moving 140 miles away and its quite a task to find what we want. Here are a few shops we have found so far: Homeleigh Garden Center – Good all round garden centre, sheds, plants, fish, pets, tools and of course a tea room. Phillip Warren Butchers – Some of the best Steak we have every tasted, really good service, wide range of meat and great value for money B&N Farm Foods – Local delivery or pick up from the farm,

Sweetcorn and Pumpkins

Posted on May 20, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

10 days from when they were put into compost and they are doing really well. Sweetcorn and Pumpkins are coming along well, the soil is ready for them but i will give it another few weeks before we plant them out. See what we made with the Pumpkins…

Bigger Garden, Bigger Mower

Posted on May 20, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

For many years a small electric lawn mower has been enough to keep our lawn in shape. Now we have a much bigger garden its time to move up to a Petrol powered one. After looking at several new ones and some secondhand ones on Ebay I decided that it must have a Briggs and Stratton engine as its a well known make and it will be easy to get spares and service, the next point is the construction, lots have plastic / polymer bases, these wont last so well so a metal base is a must. My old electric

Finding a Guitar Teacher

Posted on May 18, 2016August 1, 2018 by ouradmin

Before we moved to Cornwall our son had been having Guitar lessons at his school, he was having a shared lesson with other children. the new school was not offering lessons so we had a good search around and found Bude Strings. What a great teacher, progress has been really good and the cost is good. Shortly after we started the lessons the school started to offer them, more expensive and shorter time so we stuck with Jan Deis-Horton in Bude. Highly recommended teacher, he is also very good with repairs and recommending suitable instruments when moving to a larger guitar.

Royal Mail Redirection… or Not

Posted on May 15, 2016August 22, 2017 by ouradmin

Just spent the weekend with friends and relatives close to where we moved from, I rung the new owners of our old house just on the off chance to see if any post had slipped through the redirection service, Guess what, a pile of it waiting for us. I think a call to Royal Mail is in order to find out what has gone wrong. Glad to be back in Cornwall, So peaceful.

Buying our first heating oil

Posted on May 12, 2016July 18, 2018 by ouradmin

Our previous house was on mains gas supply so the heating and hot water were run on gas, we also had a solid fuel stove in the living room. Mains gas is not available in lots of rural villages and hamlets in Devon and Cornwall so the options are Oil, Bottled Gas or an LPG Tank. Our new house has a 1350 ltr oil tank that runs the boiler, the previous owners had left around 300 ltrs. With oil being at a low price at the moment its a good time to fill it to the top, looking at the