Relaxed at home
Relaxed at home
Relaxed at home
Relaxed at home
Relaxed at home
Relaxed at home

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
<< October 2024 November 2024 December 2024 >>

1st: Birds 2nd: Birds 3rd: Pond Day 4th: Birds 5th: Birds 6th: Dogs 7th: The Pond 8th: The Newt 9th: Birds 10th: A Walk
11th: Planting Trees 12th: Birds 13th: Goats 14th: Dogs 15th: Birds 17th: Dogs 18th: On Being 60 19th: The Land 20th: Snow
21st: Birds 23rd: Rugs and Fibre 24th: Dogs 25th: The Pond 26th: Birds 27th: Birds 28th: Planting Trees 29th: Dead wood 30th: The Pond
1st: Coal Tit
These tits are now as regular a visitor as the Great and Blue and just as busy. Love how this one is just standing on the blades of grass - they are just so light and it obviously had its eye on something!!!!
Relaxed at Home
2nd: Soooo busy
The bird feeding station is just so busy at the moment - the goldfinches are now here in fabulous numbers, we see 6/7/8 at a time coming to feed - the niger feed is half emptied in a mere week. And as for the the fat balls and the woodpeckers - definitely a favourite just now!!
3rd: Sustainable Chulmleigh
What a totally fabulous day: we had a working party here from Sustainable Chulmleigh to help plant up our new pond, remove a no-longer-needed Avian Flu poultry cage and start digging out some shallow shelving round the pond edges.
This whole area is destined to become a peaceful haven for wildlife where community groups can come and learn and unwind!!
We are very very excited.....
Thanks to Nick, Claire, Mike, Miriam, Julie, Andy, Kelly and Vivien and to Claire for some of the photos!! xx
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
4th: 'Our' blackbird
Virtually every day, this female blackbird is waiting for us when we head to the feeders to fill them up. She is of course, waiting for the mealworms. She sits, none too patiently as we top up the seeds, peanuts and fat-balls, willing us to hurry up and get the mealworms out!! She gets so close we could reach out and touch her but to date, doesn't quite have enough courage to eat from our hands. We are working on that!!!
Relaxed at Home
5th: Goldcrest
Very chuffed to spot this beautiful goldcrest in the trees just up from Yeti's gate - it's a popular place for a fair few passerines. Capturing them on film is not easy!!!
Relaxed at Home
6th: Look at these two go...
Dragonfly and Firefly - nine years old and still racing round the fields and responding to the whistle.
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
7th: Pipework
Nigel helping to get the piping sorted so the barn run-off goes into the pond. It was fun getting the levels right here.....
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
8th: The Newt
Had the most amazing day at The Newt in Somerset with ❤Becky ❤ today (an early birthday treat).
It is the most stunning estate with gardens, woodland, regenerative farmland, cafes, a farm shop, a Roman villa, a Beezantium, a mythical grotto, a hotel, beautiful architecture and so much more. They also run workshops, evening events, courses and walks.
(And next time I will take my camera as opposed to just my phone).
It was all utterly, utterly stunning.: an incredible mix of formal and wild, of stunning attention to detail, or working in harmony with the landscape, of fantastic vision.
Well worth a visit - and I can guarantee you will want to go back. Our next visit is planned!!!
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
9th: Rook
Love these silhouetted images
Relaxed at Home
10th: Beauty of North Devon
Today I accompanied Lynda on one of her walks - we came out of Chulmleigh past the school, turned right to go to Parsonage Farm and then down to Farrier's Cottage. From there it was a right to head back into Chulmleigh via the very steep Park Mill. It was stunning!
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
11th: Autumn
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
12th: House Sparrow
Relaxed at Home
13th: The last farewell
And now, after 15 years of being smallholders, we are livestock-free. The goats went this morning so no more mucking out, feeding, giving chuckles, checking worm counts and feet.. we are going to miss them BUT
....instead, we are filling our land with trees, more hedging and ponds (lots of ponds) and throwing our arms open wide for all that lovely wildlife to come and make us their home. So glad for those 15 years and also very, very glad for this new journey!!!
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
14th: Ocean
Today we had SIX Gordon Setters racing round our land (as well as two Irish): our five (Dragon, Roxy, Sparrow, Redwing and Kite) plus Ocean. Ocean is one of Redwing and Kite's sisters, born to Sparrow this Feb and very sadly, her home has not worked out - this is due to 100% ZERO fault of hers nor her owner's. We are mega chuffed to Bethan, who helped us get Ocean back to Devon from Anglesey yesterday, not before a lovely river walk along the Wye where Ocean wanted to meet and greet every dog and human that she saw. She was a major star in the car both for Bethan and us and the meet and greet with ours last night, could not have gone better. We do believe there was familiarity there for all the dogs which must have helped.
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
15th: Sisterly love.... 🥰
Makes our hearts melt.... ❤
Redwing and Kite at nine months!!!
Relaxed at Home
17th: Starlings
Starlings really are beautiful birds - we get hundreds here every winter now. It's extraordinary to think we no longer have resident birds and that once upon a time, they were considered a 'nuisance' by some people.... I absolutely love their chatter, their mumurations, their colours.
Great article here about them - rather sadly, scientists don't actually know why their numbers are declining.
I love it when they visit our bird feeding station - even if they demolish the mealworms in about 30 seconds.... 😀
Read more
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
18th: On being 60!!!
So.... 60!!
The first thing I can tell you is that I don't feel old enough to be 60!! 🤣 Nor wise enough, definitely not wise enough!!!
I have been thinking about what I was doing at all the other significant 'decades' in my life:
  • Aged 10: cycling off into the countryside whenever I could with my two best friends to spot lapwings, have picnics and race through leaves and mud
  • Aged 20: enjoying student life: having seriously intellectual (!!) discussions about the poems of Philip Larkin, building ponds during teaching practice and watching Neighbour
  • Aged 30: in the midst of travelling, lots of travelling (Africa, Himalayas, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Monglolia and more) and realizing teaching was no longer a life-long dream
  • Aged 40: about to set up our own website business (still going strong today) after many years learning loads working for an educational charity, the proud owner of our very first dog and living in a gorgeous village in Oxfordshire
  • Aged 50: loving being a smallholder, totally self sufficient in meat and at times, virtually the same in veg - adoring owning all these amazing animals, learning to love mucking out and getting covered in mud
  • Aged 60: basically busier than ever: making rugs, rewilding, reading, building ponds, singing, a little bit of the 'day' job still, taking photos, sharing the house with 13 dogs and cats, being very involved in the amazing Sustainable Chulmleigh, immersing myself in nature, feeling so grateful for all the fabulous friends we have made here in Devon, being in love with David just as much as I was 35 years ago... Looking forward to 70, 80, 90 and beyond.
Age is what it is, death is inevitable - life on the hand can be full of opportunities, happiness and love - hope you all have bucket-loads of all three as often as possible.
Relaxed at Home
19th Our fields and hedges
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
20th: Snow
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
21st: Lucky Shot!
Marsh tit in the snow at Nick's place yesterday... lucky shot as it was there for a nano second!!
Beautiful little birds.
Thanks also to Nick for the impromptu 'Lightroom' lesson to help make the best of today's photo shoot!!
Relaxed at Home
23rd: Rugs!!!!
Despite not posting scenes from our loom-filled front room for ages, we are still busy on the rug-making front.
It's a very relaxing little side-business and we very much enjoy turning fleeces from much loved sheep and alpacas, into soft, thick, rustic rugs that hopefully evoke happy thoughts and memories, each time they are seen and touched. 🥰
This from a grateful customer this morning: 'I'm so totally thrilled with the rug and attach a photo of it next to my bed. It is so lovely to have my boys in the bedroom with me!'
And just to re-assure.... our rugs are made from shorn fleeces - the animal is very much alive when their fleece is removed!!! 😊
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
24th: Ocean leaves for her new home
Farewell to Ocean from us as she set off this morning with Raven, Pauline (Paula) and Tony to her new home.
These two are best buddies already. as the video from their meet and greet yesterday clearly shows. 🥰❤ 🥰
Relaxed at Home


25th: Water levels
We have capped the original outflow pipe in the pond as we felt it was too low and instead have installed one from our 'shelf' here (you cannot see it is the photo). The idea is that this shelf will be a mini pond with warmer water where the frogs may be happy to lay their spawn, and then in the autumn/ winter when we get more rain it will also act as an overflow.... time will tell if our cunning plan will work...
We hope to build at least one more of these mini ponds - they will also be a good place for animals to get in and out of the as they are only 5-6 inches deep.Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
26th: Nuthatch
Not the best photo but very chuffed to see that the nuthatch is now becoming more of a regular visitor to our bird feeding station.
Relaxed at Home
27th: A riot of activity
Our bird feeders continue to be a riot of activity every single day..
We are up to 14 species who now visit to feed: tits - blue, great, coal and marsh; starling; blackbird; nuthatch; dunnock: house sparrow; finches: gold and chaffinch; greater spotted woodpecker; robin, wren.
And in total we have now seen 50 bird species on our land in the eight years we have lived here..... so lucky!!
28th:
This autumn Devon County Council were offering 45 free trees: oak, cheery and silver birch for anyone with a bit of land. We applied and were successful 😄, and today I got them all planted in Goat Field (don't worry, goats no longer live here 🥲🤣).
The dogs helped. 😳🤣
The middle photo is Jack knackered but happy!
They are altogether in a random group with the view to becoming a mini copse..
All very exciting - and more trees and hedging are due to arrive early next month...
Our nature recovery/ re-wilding is definitely all in track at the moment. #savedevontrees
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home
Relaxed at Home
29th: Deadwood
We are starting to make piles of deadwood around the land.. and this quote from the Woodland Trust explains why:
'It may not look like much, but fallen branches, rotting stumps and dead trees are the lifeblood of any woodland. Decaying wood recycles nutrients back into the soil, provides food and nurseries for animals [such as Saproxylic beetles], and hosts spectacular collections of fungi.'
Check out the full article
Relaxed at Home
30th: Mud!!!
And there's us thinking e had escaped the mud now we are no longer smallholders.... 🤣🤣
Digging out shelving in our pond and covering over our in-flow pipework... it was a tricky one.. the land slopes up to the pond so in order for the barn run off to go 'in to' it, we had to create a mound so the piping would slope downwards (as shown on 7th).
Hopefully by next year this will all look lovely and you will never know it was once a mud pit!! 🤣
Relaxed at Home
Relaxed at HomeRelaxed at Home

Tel: 01769 581175      07929 204386      07929 204521      office@relaxed.org.uk      © Relaxed 2024