Hi I’m Daisy, a country girl living with my husband and small menagerie of animals in the beautiful Exmoor National Park. You’ll probably find me either renovating the house, walking the dogs or chasing the sheep but generally I’ll be somewhere on the moor, in wellies and covered in mud!
After a lot of encouragement, I have started this blog to tell you all about my adventures in the South West including all things small holding, interiors and country life.
Matthew, my husband who puts up with all my crazy ideas, indecisiveness and sometimes lack of common sense {whoops!}, without going all mushy on you he really is my rock. I’m sure he’ll be making the odd appearance especially as I am very lucky in the fact that he is generally the man behind our DIY.
Bramble & Clover
Matthew and I have both grown up with dogs in the household so it didn’t take us long after moving in together to start looking for our own. Six months later along came Bramble, an English Springer Spaniel we couldn’t have asked for a better little puppy. She is quite shy but very inquisitive and intelligent – loves to cuddle (on her terms) and adores working, if there is a pheasant to be found she will find it no matter what! A year or so later we couldn’t resist getting her a sister and perfect timing Megan and Scott (aka Mum and Dad) were having another litter. And so along came Clover. A not so shy, loves to jump all over you, mini version of Bramble.
Pumpkin
Personally, I wouldn’t call myself a cat person – unless that is, you’re talking about Pumpkin. But then again sometimes she does act like she thinks she’s a dog. We decided to rescue a cat as after having had two puppies we thought it was time to give an older cat another chance. A few non-starters (it had to be right with the dogs) lead us finally to Pumpkin – a one-ish year old tabby. After a few months of getting used to each other the rest, as they say, is history. The dogs and her love one another and even play hide & seek in the garden!
The Chickens
With the house slowly filling up with animals it was bound to only a be short time before they also spilled out into the garden. So we began our chicken collection; first we got Honey and Oreo, who lay beautiful blue eggs; then along came our Lemon Pekins Custard, Cream and Lenny (the cockerel). Finally, we have squiggles and Hobnob who we cannot tell apart and have no idea what breed they are but love them all the same. We recently started letting them all free roam the garden which they seem to adore and I love opening the curtains in the morning to be greeted by their little faces.
The Sheep
Since I was a little girl I wanted to halter train and maybe even show an animal but Dad would never bring me home a calf L. However, since I started lambing with my family I have fallen in love with Sheep, more specifically though Exmoor Horn Sheep. Their lambs are so fluffy, the ewes sweet natured (generally) and rams with amazing curled horns. Following the move, we have rented some land to start a small flock that, we hope, we will one day be able to show. I stick to the rule of not naming them just in case something happens as it so easily does, although one or two now have affections names and our first ram lamb – Raymond.
Dave and Sven {Minitaure Shetland Ponies}
A phone call from a friend on the Wednesday, a viewing on the Friday and a drive down to pick up on the Sunday. You could say that getting Dave and Sven was a bit of a whirlwind and you’d probably be right. We had already considered getting some ponies but nothing too serious until that Wednesday. To explain the boys were at a small holding in Cornwall and needed to be rehomed since their Dad decided they were now his rivals. Kept as grass grazers they had hardly been handled, so the plan is to slowly introduce them to the world and tame them, hoping that one day we can back them!