We finally had some snow yesterday -- only a dusting really -- and then it turned to rain in the middle of the night, so by this morning everything was melted -- but this is what it looked like here around 4 pm yesterday...

The day before Christmas, Bart from across the road came by and handed me ANOTHER pheasant!

It is SO cold that the water in the toilet in the porch has frozen...

Oh no -- there's another cat! :)

The pepper harvest in its final form: Spicy Roasted Pepper Pesto!

This is K having a go at the bones from the pheasant after I pulled all the meat off them -- a treat for the whole family! :)

Yum! Pheasant!

And ready for cooking... Just like you get in the supermarket -- NOT!

We opted for peeling the skin off rather than plucking out all the feathers as I am going to casserole it rather than roast it.

Removing the feet.

Removing the wings.

Time to prepare the pheasant for cooking...

The final pepper harvest. Sometime this week these will all be made into roasted pepper pesto...

Stripey pepper!

Never mind fairy lights and flashing Santas -- look what I have growing in my yard -- for free!

More free food -- some guys showed up in a Land Rover and gave me this pheasant! It's currently hanging in the porch and I'm looking forward to eating it this weekend...

Latest knitting work-in-progress...

At long last, have FINALLY finished the cardigan I have been knitting since February! Now I have something to keep me warm on the chilly winter nights... :)

This is Gareth who is teaching us hedging...

So in the foreground is part of the hedge we laid today -- before we started, it looked roughly like the trees you see behind it on the right...

The egg on the left is from our hens, and the one on the right is from free-range organic supermarket eggs -- can you see the difference?

Cockerel Crowing

Sorry there's no photo of this, but it's an auditory experience -- this morning, as I was putting on my boots to go outside, I heard an odd crowing sound -- not our big cockerel...but our baby cockerel -- he's all grown up now! :)

Our House

So we have finally submitted our planning application for the work we want to do on the house. Barring any unforeseen complications, it should all begin in the spring...