Sunrise, Sunset

As I made my way to the kitchen this morning, I splashed through puddles of sunlight in my entrance hall. The soft golden glow greeted me through the kitchen window as I switched on the kettle for my first cup of tea of the day.

As I waited for the kettle to boil I was transfixed by the scene that lay outside my kitchen window. The autumn mist shrouded the countryside making the barns and farmhouse across the way seem surreal. 

Dew lay thick on the grass and for a few moments, all was still. The stillness was soon broken as a tractor drove past just at the bottom of my garden and I reflected on what a wonderful place the English countryside is.

We have been in our new home for a week now and I keep thanking the Lord for the blessing of this home and its location. I am a true country girl at heart. I love the stillness at night and the busyness of farm life during the day. It reminds me of my childhood where holidays were spent on my aunt’s farm in the Eastern Cape. 

The move went really well and by lunchtime on day two, I had unpacked the last box. The only things left to do as it stands now is to hang pictures and sort out the garage. Those things might take a few weeks as the next few weekends are booked up with visiting university open days for the girls. But I’m not too fussed. We generally feel settled and everything has a place that works. I’ve even managed to get my autumn decorations up but I’ll leave that for another post.

On Friday, two days after moving into our home, we collected our kitties from the cattery. They were so happy to be home and with us after 5 weeks of cattery living! Poor things, I felt so sorry for them but they were healthy and still fat so they couldn’t have been too unhappy. Right now they are housebound for at least two weeks, preferably three while they get a true sense of home before being allowed to go outside to explore and meet the farm animals. Heart-stoppingly, one of them got out yesterday but we managed to coax her back inside. She was pretty chilled when she was in the garden but I certainly was not!

Meet our curious neighbours. They are all too sweet. These young bulls sleep in the barn that runs along our drive. We love to visit them each day. They seem to enjoy our company and are ever so curious when we arrive. They spend a bit of time staring at us before all crowding round sniffing and licking our hands. Cow 893 (standing staring at the camera) is super friendly and enjoys a good head scratch. So sweet!! I just love these little fellows.

This morning I dug my bird feeder out of the garage. We have a little-hedged garden (well it will be a garden, right now it’s a hedge and a square patch of bare earth) outside our bedroom window. The birds absolutely love it there, so far I’ve spotted our resident friendly robin, some cheeky blackbirds and a small flock of sparrows that frequent this little patch throughout each day. I thought I would see how the bird feeder fares here. I’m hoping to be able to lie in bed in the mornings and watch the birds visit. 

As I type up this post I glanced out of the window and saw this ↑ such a beautiful sunset! I dashed outside to capture the moment noticing how quickly the sun slips away once it’s decided that it’s bed time. I just caught the tiniest slip of the sleepy sun before it tucked itself up for the night.

We have two horses that live in the field and this one was curious as to what I was doing. He came on over to investigate further. They are quite friendly and come over to say hi when we are on the patio. Occasionally we treat them to a carrot which probably makes us slightly more ‘interesting’ then if we didn’t 😁…the way to a horses heart!

I have to say that I am inspired by my surrounds, I always have been inspired by the English countryside. I have a bucket list of things I want to do, ideas, blog posts, crafts, stitchery’s but frustratingly, I feel like I have a million things I want to do but not enough time to do it all. I think that must be a common problem that most creatives face.

Anyhoo, I am going to love and leave you for today. Wishing you all a lovely evening.