My blog is 10 years old!

I've never kept a traditional written diary (except for holiday journals) but somehow I've kept this blog going for 10 whole years!

My first blog post shows the amazing tidy and sunny vegetable garden 

the vegetable plot, March 2007

. . . and here's the same view today

Looks like I need to do some weeding! The main change has been the Pigeon Proof Pen which keeps the Purple Podded Peas and brassicas safe!

Inside the wall the garden is looking Spring-like and much neater, with lots of daffodils in flower and yesterday Cliff cut the lawn for the first time this year.

Our cockerel, Mr Cheep is now 5 and a half years old, here he is supervising Ivy pecking grass (Ivy, our youngest of the surviving 3 hens, needs no supervision ... she has one spur and occasionally tries to crow! she also lays beautiful brown eggs).

The other hens are Saffron, who is Mr Cheep's biological mum, seen here paddling in the pond ... of course, under supervision!

And finally Nutmeg, who is the same age as Saffron. She was in the nest box preparing to lay one of her lovely blue eggs ... yes, Mr Cheep popped up into the hen-house to supervise!

In the view of the walled garden above, you can also see the Ginger Studio Assistant strolling across the lawn. He and is Tabby sister were very young apprentice assistants when this blog started. She prefers to walk on the wild side!

This blog charts the past ten years of working in my studio, I've found it a useful way to record work in progress and the different things I've done and places I've visited.

I've decided to keep blogging from time to time, but electronic communication methods change rapidly these days, and I'm finding Instagram (which didn't exist when I started blogging, Instagram is only 6 years old) fits easier with busy times ... you can find me on Instagram here, where I'm posting my photos of my Lent sketchbook, Meditations on the Colour of Trees. You can also find me on Twitter.

Thank you for visiting, I know some of you have been following from the  start. And welcome to new visitors who have just stumbled into the Purple Podded Peas blog.

To celebrate, here's a discount code 

BLOGBIRTHDAY10

to get 10% off anything 

in my online shop

valid until midnight on 31 March 2017

A whole decade of my life, recorded in a blog! Who'd have thought?!

I wonder where we'll all be in 10 years form now?

Celia

xx

. . . and then there was cake!

Yesterday we went to a marvelous party, although I'm not sure Noel Coward would have enjoyed it! no-one stood around a grand piano wearing smoking jackets (however our jackets did get smokey – but that's another story!)

The party hosts were Fiona and Danny of The Cottage Smallholder blog and forum, and the event: The First Cottage Smallholder Party.

I arrived early in the afternoon (Cliff joined us later) and already there was a happy buzz with people in the kitchen and scattered along the various "rooms" that make up the outdoor space at CS HQ; in the fashion of media phenomena like Top-Gear or Gardener' World, this was Cottage Smallholder Live, with all the main characters from the blog and forum there in person: The Chicken Lady and S, Ruthdigs and The Chap, Terrier, Danast and Sumprat (complete with smokers and fire-lighting flints!)

The afternoon and evening itinerary progressed thus . . .

Drinks


Cold Buffet


Afternoon cups of tea and cake


Drinks and more cake while the barbecue got fired up


More cake while the meat sizzled


Chicken wings, steaks, sausages and burgers from the barbecue


. . . and then there was cake . . . THE cake!

Thank you Fiona and Danny . . .
it was indeed a marvelous party!

Celia
x