Middletown Farm Cottages

09/04/2025

A ring of red tulips to enjoy whilst we await the Summer bloom of the Swan Lake roses

03/04/2025

Café Loco at Foregate Street Station, Worcester.

If you are off somewhere by train, you might well change trains at Foregate Station, Worcester. You can have an absolutely delicious lunch, brunch or snack at this charming traditional railway café yesterday. I had a sandwich, freshly made with bacon and sausage and a cup of coffee. You will be given a warm welcome and enjoy a lovely chat with the waitress in this quintessentially British location. So much so, you can almost expect Miss Marple to come in and site at the table with you. She would love it too.

24/03/2025

SUNBATHING HENS

I had the shock of my life this morning, dashing around the corner and saw three dead hens. Phew!!! They weren’t dead at all - just flat out sunbathing. Their heads popped up as they heard me and I got this lovely photo of them.
From back to front, they are Trixie, Sister Monica Joan and Lavender.

23/03/2025

Lovely outing for our visitors to attend

Get your tickets on Eventbrite!

23/03/2025

The Sherborne Cinema Gloucester is the most fantastic little local cinema with very convenient parking right in the middle of the city of Gloucester.

You have a friendly warm welcome from the gentleman in the ticket booth and there is an excellent choice of sweets and drinks to enjoy during the film.

The inside of the cinema is an absolute British traditional joy with delightful decoration and very comfortable seats.

I went to see Bridget Jones: Mad About the boy. A totally fabulous film directed by the nephew of my lovely friend, Stella. In this chapter of Bridget’s story, Mark Darcy has died. It is terribly sad; my, otherwise merry band of friends, had tears pouring down our faces which is why I am looking a bit blotchy in the photo. Dried tears are not a good look!! Other parts of the film are very cheerful and the funny bits are side-splitting hilarious. Actually I’ve seen it twice and thoroughly enjoyed it so much I am looking forward to seeing it again one day. Bridget Jones Movie UK

https://www.sherbornecinema.co.uk/

20/03/2025

First Day of Spring 2025. What a joy to look up at the bright blue sky through the branches of the trees.
Soon all those little buds will burst into leaf and the life cycle of the trees will be at its busiest again.

19/03/2025

Gloucester Arts and Crafts Group have released their 2025 Summer School brochure. The Summer School is held at Newent Community School and you can stay at Middletown Farm Cottages if you live too fr away to travel every day.

This is the most amazing week with absolutely masses of different Arts and Crafts classes. Sebastian Burchart will be running his ever popular Wood Carving Class and I will be next door making a chair.

Do check out the website www.spanglefish.com/gloucesterartsandcrafts

14/02/2025

Valentines message from :-

“Roses are red
Violets are blue
Dogs are the best
You know that is true 🐾❤️
Happy Valentines to all my besties ❤️”

The best Valentines message I have ever seen from our wonderful Daniella of Woohoo Walkies
That reminds me, I must dash off to kiss and cuddle Pomme & Bratchet X X X X

13/02/2025

Post from Tamarack Hill Farm:-

Princess Anne “catching some air” over the notorious Ledyard Coffin back in one of the three “Ledyard Internationals” 1973, 1975, or 1977, hosted by Neil and Helen Ayer at their Ledyard Farm in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Neil was both Master of Myopia and president of the USCTA (now USEA) and he understood that the best way to have lots of USA riders deal with the intense pressures of competing against the best 3-day riders in the world was to induce riders from abroad to come to America to compete, so he personally created a cross country course at his own farm and personally paid air fare for European horses and riders.

It worked. USET squads won gold in 1974, 1976, and 1982. And while this might have happened without Neil’s intervention, my guess, as one of the American riders who competed at Ledyard, is that Ledyard provided a launching pad.

And back to Princess Anne. She was the real deal as a rider.

12/02/2025

The lambs are getting bigger. I was in seventh heaven kissing and cuddling this soft warm little lamb and he smells just divine. Looking at the size of his tummy, I think that we can rest assured that his mother is feeding him well. Jacob ewes are generally excellent mothers; they take the very best care of their babies.
I had to give him straight back when his mother called him!!

09/02/2025

Guy Ridley and his team from Ridley Fencing put up some smart new fencing a couple of years ago. They have very impressive heavy duty machinery which gets the job done quickly and sturdily.
Guy left this fantastic tractor unattended and I simply could not resist a little sit in it. Finding the key was a pretty major excitement - the temptation was almost tooooooooo much.
It is so wonderful to have good reliable fencing and the ultimate farm luxury of gates that close and latch with a gentle push and quiet click.

09/02/2025

A visit to the Everyman Theatre - Cheltenham is always a super outing. They have a really interesting and varied programme throughout the year.
The theatre itself is such a friendly welcoming place to visit with a well stocked bar selling drinks and the most delicious ice-creams.
We saw Summer 1954 by Terrence Rattigan last night. The star of the show was Sian Phillips who is in her nineties and was an utter inspiration.

08/02/2025

Dearest Freddy. I love these photos of you with the sheep. Seven years ago - can you believe it?????? Hopefully we will get together again before too long. Love & hugs, Dordie X X X X

Here’s the post from 2017:-

‘Here is Freddy helping on the farm. Our work here alternates between hard labour and wonderful moments interacting with the animals which we absolutely love. You can clearly see from the expression on the little lamb’s face how happy she is to be in Freddy’s arms.
This is one of Caterpillar’s lambs. The poor little thing got a thorn in her foot and it turned septic. We injected her with antibiotics and a pain killer and she was as right as rain in no time. I am sure the lovely cuddles helped her to get better.
The other photo is Arran with Freddy. Arran is a great character and he thoroughly enjoys a bit of attention. ‘

01/02/2025

Hot off the press from Jeremy and Trudi ; their new The Ideal Gardens Podcast

Fantastic timing - just as the hint of Spring coming is FINALLY here and we are drawn back out to the garden.

31/01/2025

Funny little Flora flatly refused to go to bed in the barn with the other sheep last night. It was a bit worrying because she was clearly in the early stages of labour. We respected her decision and left her out. I checked her regularly and then at 10 pm, I found her with these beautiful healthy twins. They are both big and strong and had full tummies so she had obviously fed them.
Flora allowed the twins to be carried to the barn. They are surprisingly heavy and wriggly and rather difficult to carry. I had to carry them at Flora’s nose height to enable her to keep contact with them.
Finally we got to the barn and the other sheep who were very interested in the new arrivals.
Flora is now penned on her own with her babies; she tucked into a late supper and settled nicely.
The black and white photo is taken from the barn camera in the early hours of the morning. It is so good to see everybody settled for the night.
Madam Gizmo came to get me as I walked back to the house and she activated the security lights. You can see, it was a beautiful night and Orion is clearly visible on the night sky.