Kiann and Karina our STAR's

There are things that are more important that walls and cob cottage's that are being demolished. .
If you have never seen our granddaughter Kiann before, actually you probably have if you look way back on our posts.
Here she is.
Kiann had surgery on both of her Achilles tendon's today, Kiann has Charcot Marie Tooth Syndrome... just like another beloved member of our family, Karina.

Except when Karina had the same operation CMT.. wasn't known.......Karina spent six weeks in plaster of Paris when she was seven years old.
Nana could not help but retell the story.
Mum wouldn't take her medicine.
Except when her Dad said if she took half of it, then he would swallow the other half.
The reply...
"If you like it so much, you should have all of it"...
How lucky are we that we have such beautiful, strong, loving, steadfast kids and grandchildren.

That's our granddaughter and she smiles.

My brain over the last few days does not compute as to dust and noise, or to being woken so early in the morning.......
We stood well away from our kitchen wall at one point today. JUST IN CASE !
BIG GULP... Hopefully :-) over the next few days we can show you.
Kiann, yep, you follow in your mum's footsteps we are so proud of you.  XXX
Lots and lots of love Nana and granddad x x x 

What is cob, how to demolish a cob cottage and dyeing mohair with red onions.

There's so much going on down here this week.
If Freya's nose grew every time she looked out of the window to see what's going on, she would be an extremely long nosed dog.

It's now day two of week number five since the demolition of the cob cottage next door started.

Beyond the point of no return.. This once beautiful old cottage is disappearing before our eyes.

It used to be beautiful before it was left for over eight years waiting to be knocked down.
Like the cottage next door Soggibottom cottage is made of cob and local stone.

Cob is a word that comes from old English meaning lump or rounded mound. It's sand, straw and water. We live in a mud house. A red mud house at that.
 By this photo of the wall next door, you can still see the straw in the mud.
At times we have had to take away parts of the interior walls of Soggibottom. Especially when we first arrived and took the old worn out kitchen units (I should have said tired kitchen units).  We had to go right back to the cob wall, the straw was as golden as the day it was put there over three hundred years ago.

At least cob is supposed to be non toxic and completely recyclable. Did I forget to mention the resistance to weather.  In warmer weather the walls tend to contract and in wet weather they expand. But no so much that you ever notice it. It's warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer.

The guys have been extra careful taking the cottage down. It's been done mostly by hand. It was snowing when they were all trying hard to make sure that the walls fell to the interior of the old building and not fall outwards towards us this afternoon. It was cold, a big fat zero degree's.
This is Freya's new best friend by the way.

Now you see it.

Now you don't.

We have a completely different view from one of our windows. There are houses there.
Also a view of the original road through the village. The main road used to go over our little bridge at one time called Monks way. It went.past Soggibottom Cottage and curved around the corner. Until the railway decided to put a rail line across it splitting the village in two. Nothing much changes, except instead of a railway line there is going to be another new road.

I've been trying to create this afternoon. A pan of red onion skins.
 

Some hard to see beautiful white mohair.

I normally wet the mohair and then dump place the mohair carefully in with the onion skins. Then put it on a low heat for half an hour or so. Wash out the mohair with warm water when you think you have the depth of colour you want.

I promise the mohair does not smell of onions.

I'm happy enough with this colour, it will be slightly lighter when it dries.

The tree outside of Soggibottom cottage. I thought I would add it, just in case it isn't there this time  tomorrow.

Freya and her nose are, as usual over at catflap cavalier. 
See you all with another update soon. X X X 

Freya Rose Blossom, and a close run thing with flooding.

Freya Rose Blossom is our little star so we thought we would like to share her fame with everyone.

 Besides Freya being our little star, it was a much better photo to start the post with than this one.
The guys are back and getting stuck into the serious business of demolishing the house next door...

There is a protective net around the house, that comes very close to Soggibottom.

When I say close, I mean close. You might also notice sandbags in the corner by the wall, we made good use of them over the last couple of days.

Last Thursday night it was a close call, we were expecting the water to come around the corner again. New flood gate in and all sandbagged at the back. We were ready.

It's amazing how inventive you can be when it's needed. We got ready for a flood again and low and behold our lucky fairy must have been watching us because all of a sudden.

The water stopped here, right beside the scaffolding poles of the cottage next door, by the entrance to the park.

This is the view on Thursday morning, the rain started and never stopped.At least we didn't have snow like the rest of the country.

Thursday was also the day that Karina's felt art was framed and went onto the wall, it looked so good until I promptly knocked it accidentally. It fell, and the frame fell to bits.  It's now on it's way to be framed properly and not with a brought do it yourself frame.
There are things we are good at and things we're not so good at. Framing isn't on our good list.

 The water has gone and the cottage is dry and back to it's beautiful old self today.

The guys have been working hard again this morning, the chimney's of the cottage next door are down.

As usual Freya can be found over at the cat flap cavalier. Miss Nosy will miss the demolition crew on their day off tomorrow.
Have a great weekend, we'll be back next week.

Half day work ethic for scaffold company

After a week of inactivity, things are moving on the demolition front again, reference the 200 hundred year old cottage next door to Soggibottom cottage.
We are now into week 4.
The time limit seems to have been extended to another three weeks. Three weeks + three weeks = 6 weeks. That seems rather along way off from the original time scale.A bit like the weight limit on the little bridge we use to get to this side of the river. It was seven and a half tons one day and then suddenly it had a forty ton weight limit.. amazing !

We were woken up at one a.m. last Friday night by sounds of late night vehicles coming over the bridge. Notice, I wasn't the only nosey one that night.

The Ash tree that held our bird nesting boxes beside Soggibottom Cottage is also going to get the chop.
It's to make way for a new water culvert that will be built to help with the extra flow of water that will be heading our way when the new road around our village is finished.  Help with our flooding problem?
Maybe, but after last year who on earth could predict the amount of water that saturated the ground. No matter what the flow charts from the road builders say, we are still keeping our flood gate ready.
They never predicted all the water flow last year. 

The outcome of the tree being felled last Friday night. They shone torches around for ten minutes and then all cluttered off over the bridge again. Seems the tree has a short reprieve... but it's now bird nesting time. One of the bird nesting boxes remains.... they forgot to take that one down two weeks ago. Now they have to get an environmentalist to check the nesting box... !
Er ?
That you left there........
Honestly you couldn't make this stuff up.

We left them to it this morning and escaped.
This is one of our favourite places, Charmouth Beach in Dorset. Unfortunately because of all the rain last year and the land and cliff slides that are still taking place we haven't been here for ages.

There are loads of signs around telling of all the dangers of walking along this particular stretch of beach.

This is the view looking towards Lyme Regis. We kept to the open spaces, besides the tide was coming in.

Charmouth is a great beach to go fossil hunting but there are other safer places around.

This all looks a huge mess, even more of a mess than we left it this morning. We arrived home at half three this afternoon.. not a soul in sight next door, we came to the conclusion that it must have been A National half day for certain workers.
Now, what was said yesterday, "an early start and late finish to get everything up, so everything can come down...safely. The roof will come off by hand on Friday... ".

Someone is away with the fairies.
I found this cute little Robin Rive Golly at a bear fair on Sunday.
Along with some beautiful white fluffy mohair that is crying out to be dyed, and then made into a bear.

The bears that live upstairs in the cottage might have to find a new home, Freya keeps looking at them longingly.

She never touches them, but can at times be caught with her nose up to theirs.

Freya is over at the cat flap cavalier, nosing around donkey's. Much better than nose to nose with a teddy bear.
As things are moving on the demolition front again, promise to keep everyone updated. X X X

Spam on Blogger

I keep messing around with the comment posts at the moment because Soggibottom gets so much spam.
Blogger keeps messing around changing things too, there must be a better way of filtering spam out.

This is a view from a place in South Devon called Sandy Bay, looking West towards Exmouth.

Only two days ago the cliffs were hanging in ice. IT WAS SO COLD walking along here.

 Even the mutt had her woolly jumper on.

That was the day that we got our clock back. It sat in the back of the car while we were on the beach.
It had been in the repair shop before Christmas.
Last year the clock stopped. It stopped dare I say, on October the 4th.

To understand why you have to go back to older posts. but hey it is going again...... It's a 1927 Gong clock, made in Germany. Arts and Crafts... When my mother gave me it, I didn't want it. NO ROOM.. for it. But it looked really sad and it worked, my Nana had it in her hall way, I remember this clock from my childhood.
It has been in Soggibottom for a few years now, I never realised, I missed it... It goes again, new bushes what ever they are... the gong is quieter, that is fine. it's back.
.
Wish we could report the same about the demolition crew this week, that they are back, it's now week three .... It was going to be three weeks .....the cottage next door still stands......
It's an invitation to all sorts dare I say who could benefit by metal. OR WHAT EVER they might find to make money from. The cottage next door isn't our responsibility... but because it is so close to Soggibottom........... it's a worry and has been for years.
Strange cars, thankfully we saw a strange car, this afternoon. Oh !
Half an hour of being back to Soggibottom cottage and in broad daylight.....
Over the last few weeks I am sure that we are thought to be too security conscious, not the case at all.

We try to protect Soggibottom... especially this beautiful Medieval bridge.....
History needs protecting. It's not our job to do it, but we do it never the less............

Freya can be found as always over at the catflapcavalier...............  The mutt is, as always a beautiful charming dog... pure Cavalier........It would be great to say that about some of the people that inadvertently come over our bridge. Updates as soon as we know anything :-) xxx

How to make rag baby books.

We are beginning to feel bored with the demolition of the cottage next door.

It was supposed to take three weeks. We are just about to go into week three. Because of paper work delays last week, the window to deliver scaffolding to protect Soggibottom cottage has passed. There must be one scaffolding company in the whole of Devon...
No clicking camera outside, a clicking camera inside instead.

 I saw some printed dog and farm yard material a few weeks ago. Perfect for a rag book. Perfect for a first book, you can never be too early in getting kids interested in books. I'm not keen on the hard cardboard or plastic baby books they can be chewed by little teeth. Rag books can be put in the washing machine and kept for years. I remember I used to have a Dean's rag book. With dogs on it.

They are really easy to make.
Decide on how big you want your book to be, remembering little hands have little fingers.

Cut out your material pictures, leaving enough room to tuck the edges in, although you could applique them on.
Also cut eight rectangles all the same size for your base material, I used green for the farmyard book and red for the dog book.

One picture one side of the base (green) material and another picture facing. Just like this.
Do the same on each of your rectangles of base material on one side only.
You have eight rectangles each with two pictures sewn on the same side. 

Take two pieces of the material and put the picture sides face to face.

Sew around the edge leaving a small gap to turn the whole page inside out. Press the page with an iron .
You should have a rectangle of material with four pictures on it, two on one side and two on the other.
Hand sew to close the turning gap. Then sew all around the edge of your rectangle.

Stack your finished rectangles of material on top of each other and sew a strong stitch straight down the middle. Easy.

I have flowers for Mother's day today and cards too. I love my kids.

Even the wit of one, with the address on the envelope. .

As usual you can find the terrible two over at the cat flap cavalier.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there.