High Spring Tides.

High Spring tide on Friday. Lifeboat is ready.
I'm sure it will all be fine.

At least down here at Soggibottom. Although we will be on water watch. New relief water channel or not.
No good the environment agency telling us that all the problems the new water relief channel has will be sorted once the new village by pass has been built. WHAT ABOUT SORTING IT OUT NOW ! !
They have their levels wrong.... WE KNEW THAT.... 

Our thoughts and good wishes go out to all those in Somerset who are under water and have been under water since the New Year. We understand how angry you are. US TOO.
xxx

Beaver spotted in the river Otter - along with the weather forecast for the next four days.

Thursday.
Some light overnight rain will be followed by a mixture of sunshine and cloud.
May rain later, becoming gusty around midday.

Friday.
Rain throughout the day, mostly light but with heavy spells, particularly in the early part of the day.

Saturday.
Mostly cloudy but with some sunshine likely in the afternoon. There is also the possibility of a light shower as the rain and wind pick up later in the day.

Sunday.
A cloudy start will soon give way to rainy showers. These will become heavy in the afternoon when it will again become windy.

An inspiring weather forecast taken from our local newspaper today. I wonder how long it took them to put the words together.
Why couldn't they just say it's going to rain for the next four days, it would have worked for me.

 No wonder beavers have moved south, and have been spotted in a local river, they love water.

Freya is over at Cat Flap Cavalier as always, she isn't bothered if it rains as long as she can dig holes on the beach.
See you all soon X X X

Beaches and beautiful views are best when shared.

We spent part of last weekend in Somerset.

Lots of beach walking.

Skipping around and digging with Tilly May (the one with the boots on).

On the way, we passed the Striding Man on the Somerset levels, who used to stand on his own beside the M5 motor way in empty fields. Now he has company of a load of new houses and a huge supermarket storage facility.
Somerset has a village that is still cut off with flood water from a few weeks ago. I always thought the Striding Man stood on a flood plain.

We had a brilliant time with our kids and grand kids. We don't see them often, but when we do it's always quality time.

There was even a rainbow at the weekend, only I could take this photo, too intent on watching the rainbow and not notice what framed the view. Our camera died on us a few months ago, we've been using our old pink one, so I blame it all on the camera.

We also came home with a bottle of Mead. Mead is made from honey.
If you have never tried Mead before and we hadn't, word of warning, it's potent, very sweet and we still have half a bottle left along with the headache it gave us both.
NEVER AGAIN..... maybe a small glass, not a large glass to start with.

If you haven't noticed, on our side bar we have a link to an auction blog. This time, the auction is for our friend young Tweedles, if you want to bag yourself a bargain head on over by clicking on the link HERE
Freya can be found over at CAT FLAP CAVALIER

We weren't the only one's who enjoyed our visit to Somerset.
See you all again soon. :-) x x x

2014 Soggibottom giveaway results.

Santa left one of his little helpers, to pull a number out of the hat in Soggibottom's giveaway.

After giving them all a good shake in her hat.

Then shaking them around again with her nose.

Freya Rose Blossom finally dipped in and pulled out a number.

Although Freya gave the paper a good chew before giving it up.

 We can all see she picked out number 1.

 The Soggibottom bear giveaway won't be going on a plane ride this year, he is going to stay in England and live with Molly The Wally. Congratulations Molly.

We hope it helps Molly out with her Windy Wednesday.  The Soggibottom bear is on his way to you.

Thanks to everyone who took part, and if Freya didn't pick your number out, don't worry, there is always another time.

The sea and coastline can be a scary place to be around at the moment, we have timed Freya's walks and digging missions when the tide is low or on it's way out.

 Thank you again to everyone who has asked how the Cottage has been coping with our recent storms. The cottage has been lucky, so far, she still has dry feet.
 Although we have been carefully watching water levels that have been traveling past in the river and in our new water relief channel.
Only once on Christmas Eve we thought it wise to put our flood gate at the front door.

The sun is up there somewhere, it has to break though sometime.

 One more thank you and that is to our very own random generator who helped with the Soggibottom giveaway.

Freya can be found over at the Cat Flap Cavalier as always.

We hope everyone has a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Soggibottom 1000 post and giveaway.

The Soggibottom giveaway is to mark our 1000 cottage post.
It has been extended into January. As Soggibottom normally posts a giveaway on the 7th of December to mark the cottage birthday and missed this year's deadline.
I hope everyone is happy with the giveaway ending at midnight GMT on January 7th, 2014.
The draw taking place on the 8th January 2014.

As usual, the giveaway is intended for all friends and followers of Soggibottom's cottage blog.
If your not a follower, you can still enter, by clicking on friends and followers to become eligible.

I also ask that you share the giveaway by letting all your own friends and followers know, either by putting it on your side bar or by letting everyone know by a post. 
It's Christmas and it's about sharing.

I also have to know who you are, so a comment on this post will help.

That's it. Then your entered.
I do check, as most of you know, so no sneaky stuff :-)

One more thing, the bear will travel, he isn't limited to one continent and will travel to anywhere in the world.

This 7 inch little guy's pattern has been adapted from a 1940's pattern .I have a fondness for older patterned bears.
He has a sweater and hat to keep him warm on his travels.

The cottage is now 345 years old, restored loving by us after flooding a number of times over the last ten years. Hopefully Soggibottom will keep her feet dry for a few more years and Christmases to come.

Freya Rose Blossom and Frankie de tabby can be found over at CAT FLAP CAVALIER. They are still opening all their Christmas mail.
Little did we know when they joined a Christmas card swap list they would both be so popular. They have more Christmas cards than us.

 

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Soggibottom and The CAT FLAP CAVALIER :-) x x x

Jim's bear and bird houses.

One of the bears toddled off over our little bridge yesterday to his new home.
We thought it best we take his photo with our cottage bear to remind us that the lucky ted is going to sit under a palm tree, on a small Caribbean Island, he really did come from here.

He might have to take off his Winter sweater, scarf and hat in all the heat. I also forgot to remind his new owner, that although he will probably love living in the sun, he shouldn't be placed in full sunlight for long or it will fade his colouring. Mohair left in the sun tends to fade.
With an after thought maybe I should have given him a sun hat but I wasn't quite sure where he was going to live, in London or on that far away island.  Oh, lucky bear.

We've been promised an update and photo when he arrives, apart from a car ride, one long haul plane journey, it also involves a helicopter ride. He is going to be a house bear, sitting looking out onto a sun drenched, golden sandy beach.
At certain times he will have to  pull his weight at keeping Grandchildren happy when they go to visit. Oh, lucky bear.
It was a pleasure to see his new owners eye's light up as he was handed over yesterday.

Back to reality, the bird houses made last week were put into place.

The Soggibottom carpenter had to climb down a water relief channel and then back up onto the bank on the other side. JUST LIKE A CAT. With the help of a ladder.

The bird boxes (houses) are very popular, if you look back to old posts you can find out how to make them yourself. The patten and instructions are free.
THANKS TO THE SOGGIBOTTOM CARPENTER.
For everyone who has emailed to say thank you for the patten and instructions of how to build a bird box, your very welcome.
The bird boxes seem very popular with bird reserves all around the world.

The days of long shadows are here again, for one minute I was with the bear sitting under a palm tree, in thought anyway.
Have a great week.

Christmas Sparkle

Can the year have gone by so quickly ?
Another anniversary of us moving into Soggibottom. Wow, what a birthday present I had that year.
If I tell you how long ago it was, it will age me even more, so lets say, it seems just like yesterday.

I waited a whole quarter of a hour into December the 7th last night to open some of my cards.
The black Labrador pup I have been dropping hints about, didn't happen. Frank de tabby would have given it, a dogs life anyway. Poor pup would have been licked to death.

I had a needle case from Wendy and her beautiful cat Tia. Thanks Wendy, it's brilliant.
As well as other beautiful sewing related gits, makes me wonder if someone is trying to tell me to get back into a creative mood.

We had a great day out visiting three of our grand kids during the week. Not sure what they are fed on, but they get taller each time we visit. Thanks for such a great day out guys.

Our car was loaded down like Santa's sleigh.
They all opened one present, besides, we will miss seeing them on Christmas Day, and it should be Christmas Day every day of the year. I can see our daughter laughing at that suggestion.

The Soggibottom Carpenter has gone back to work, building new houses for the birds.
They are to replace the one's that were taken down when the large Ash tree outside of Soggibottom was felled to make way for the new water relief channel earlier in the year. Hopefully they will go up before the cold weather hits us down here in Devon.
Birds still like to shelter and huddle together in boxes like these when Winter temperatures tumble.
One slight problem, the Soggibottom carpenter will now have to climb down into the water channel, climb out the other side to put them up, as he often tells me he's, "just like a cat" when climbing, I won't worry until I have to go and help him out of the relief channel.

Around the park at the back of Soggibottom the road guys have started a new project. A rolling road no less. They are still working on the stream further down at the other end of the park, but why oh, why couldn't they have used this last year instead of doing so much damage right beside us ?
As they say, that's water under the bridge, time to move on towards Christmas.

The terrible two, Frank and Freya seemed to be joined at the hip lately, where one is, the other follows. I think that has something to do with the postmen and all their Christmas Cards that have been arriving.
We have three, they have a whole pile of them.
You can find them both, over at CAT FLAP CAVALIER

At this time of year, Soggibottom normally does a giveaway. There will be one, but in January next year.  I won't forget.

One last photo, one I found on the net, of our youngest Granddaughter. She's growing up quickly, at this time of year Cambodia seems a terribly long way away, and it is.

Have a great day, even if the sky is darker than normal because of the weather, you can always go and stand under some Christmas lights to bring the sparkle back to the day.

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and cards. Midge x x x