Nini goes to the seaside

Not many people know this but mice love the sea.

So guess who sneaked into my overnight bag when we went down to Lyme Regis for a couple of days?

Yes, Nini mouse came along too....

The Stowaway

View from the B&B - Nini spots the sea!

A nice comfy bed

Playing on the beach

A spot of window shopping

Nini's favourite shop

A bit scary for a little mouse...

Even mice like to reflect on life while gazing out to sea...

Lyme Regis is a very pretty seaside town with two lovely beaches (sandy and pebble) and lots of little shops. We even found a shop selling Nini's cousins!

And our B & B was very comfy and quiet although unfortunately Nini was unable to join us for breakfast - for some reason Mike seemed curiously short tempered whenever I suggested it.

But all in all we had a lovely time and Nini is now flicking through brochures for the South of France for 2012 - she understands the weather and the cheese is very good over there.

Catching up in the garden...

I'm a bit behind in the Cottontails garden this year so I thought I'd better enlist some help. And who better than Apolline the mole - with those big digging paws she doesn't even need to use a shovel!




Even with Apolline's help the Cottontails garden is on the verge of becoming a bit of a jungle at the moment so I am too ashamed to capture it on camera. But here are a couple of pics from earlier in the summer, when it all looked pretty neat.





So, why am I so behind? Well there is some Big News afoot at Cottontails - we are soon to be on the move to a small farm!

As it is we have already taken over taking care of the land and veggie gardens, so instead of one small patch to maintain, I find myself with rather more...

For example, the strawberry patch:


And the, erm, wilderness patch:


And believe me there is much more. I am starting to feel quite alarmed at the prospect of harvest and am going to need a whole team of Apollines I think.

We won't be moving in for a few months so the whole thing is going to happen pretty gradually, but I will start posting about the farm over the coming weeks to introduce you to Cottontails new home to be.

Baking and the Bromyard Gala

This weekend was the Bromyard Gala - our local country show, and for the second year running I entered some cakes and jam in their Handicrafts and Produce Show.

Also for the second year running I missed the entry deadline, entered late, entered too many classes and left everything rather late in the day. I have decided that this kind of thing is part of my character.

In fact I had attempted to plan things so that this wouldn't happen. The plan was to go shopping for ingredients on the Thursday evening, then take Friday off work for a lovely relaxed day of baking. Additionally my mum had volunteered to make a couple jams for me which she was to drop off on the Friday. Perfect.

I had entered the following classes, along with a couple of jams. An ambitious list but I had my plan and felt certain all would be well.


Things started to go awry on the Thursday evening, I had had such a busy week at Cottontails (end of the sale) that I was terribly behind and still packing parcels into the evening. Never mind, I thought, I'll work late and get everything finished, shop early tomorrow. It will be fine.

I worked until 10 but still had many, many parcels and emails to attend to. And at some point in the evening my mother called to tell me she had had a jam disaster. So no jam. Never mind, I thought, I'll get up early in the morning to finish things off, then I can go shopping, be home and baking by 11. I can make the jam in the evening. It will still be fine.

The next morning I failed to get up early. But was in the office by 9 and working like the fury. I had gravely underestimated the work still left to do and lunchtime came and went. In fact it was well after 2 by the time I left the office - and I still had the post office run to do. I was starting to think things might not be fine.

About an hour to source recipes, plan the shopping list and measure cake tins (none of the right size, obviously) then I hared off into Ledbury. Two trips to the post office, a quick dash to the cook shop and finally I started the grocery shopping. I arrived home just before 5pm, sat on the sofa for 10 minutes with my head in my hands, then girded myself, donned my apron and began.





It was 3am when I finally took the apron off, and the evening had not passed without its challenges - a cremated Dundee Cake prompted a 9pm dash to the Co-op for more ingredients and there was a tearful moment in the small hours when the strawberry jam failed to 'wrinkle' after about 40 minutes of the cold plate / teaspoon of jam nonsense.

But I did it. Okay the strawberry jam was liquid, I gave up entirely on the Granola Bars and there is still a massive charcoal encrusted Dundee Cake sitting in the kitchen, but by 3am I had my the entries complete, put a bemused-looking Humphrey to bed, and fell asleep happy.

So, drum roll please...................





Success! I was absolutely chuffed to bits - and genuinely surprised - to win four prizes. In fact, I came second over all and within a whisker of the challenge cup. Delighted!


ps. I am now trying to decide whether to retire gracefully or go for the cup next year...!

End of the Spring Sale

The spring sale has been running for a month now, and - at the risk of sounding like a furniture advert - It Must End Soon! After all, apparently it isn't even spring now, it is summer... *peering out of window at rain*



I've just added lots more items to the sale in my usual haphazard fashion - oh how I wish I had a proper reporting system that would tell me what to reduce and by how much. As it is I glance down my inventory, furrow my brow and, well, guess.



So, to recap, we are having a sale with lots of lovely things at lovely prices. Do come!

Springwatch at Cottontails - part 3

Welcome back to our third and final part of Springwatch at Cottontails hosted by our three long eared presenters Rabbit Packham, Bunny Humble and Martin Hughes-Carrots.

First up tonight, let's have a look at what has been happening in Nest Box 1...

And now, at long last, we would like to introduce you to our guest naturalist Charlie Haymunching-Jaws who has been investigating the controversial reintroduction of dragons into the British countryside:

That's all we have time for for now (I really must get back to doing some proper work!) but thanks for watching and who knows, maybe we'll be back in the Autumn...!

Springwatch at Cottontails - part 2

Welcome back to Springwatch at Cottontails - where rabbits are far more than just a furry meal.


Today our three presenters, Rabbit Packham, Bunny Humble and Martin Hughes-Carrots, will be reporting on life in our mouse's nest.

But first, here is Bunny Humble with a quick update on Nest Box 1.

And now it's time to see what has been happening over on Mouse-Cam...

And that's it for today, but do tune in next time when we will be introducing our guest naturalist, Charlie Haymunching-Jaws.

In the meantime thank you all for your comments and please do get in touch with any photographs or footage of what is happening in the countryside near you. See you next time!

Springwatch at Cottontails

I am a massive fan of Springwatch and have been in my element since the new series started last week, but if there is one thing I don't like, it's the fact that rabbits only ever seem to feature as furry suppers at the bottom of raptors' nests :(

So I have decide to make a Cottontails version of Springwatch, where bunnies have a rather more significant role to play!



So, welcome to 'Springwatch at Cottontails', a series of blog posts which will run throughout June to follow the adventures of some of our local wildlife.

Here are our opening credits where you will get a glimpse at our three rabbity presenters:

And here they are on the Springwatch sofa - meet Rabbit Packham, Bunny Humble and Martin Hughes-Carrots:



Using state of the art technology we have set up cameras in several key locations around the garden including Next Box 1, Pampas-Cam and Mouse-Cam.

Here is Bunny Humble outside our first location, Nest Box 1:



And here is Rabbit Packham checking out camera at our Pampas-Cam site:



But to kick things off this week, Martin Hughes-Carrots has been down to visit Mouse-Cam and see what is happening with some of these favourite Springwatch residents...




It looks like we have selected a good location amongst the logs - Martin quickly spotted evidence of mouse occupation:



And it wasn't long before we were able to film this footage:

What a lovely creature! Mice are of course well known for their reticence in front of the camera, but Martin will be spending plenty of time monitoring Mouse-Cam and we hope to bring you lots more footage later in the week.

Well, that's it for our first installment of 'Springwatch at Cottontails' - but stay tuned for regular updates and stories over the next few days, including a report from a guest naturalist on the controversial project trialling the reintroduction of dragons to the bottom of the garden...

Thanks for joining us!