Farm Cottage Holiday

Well we've been back a week and the laundry and cleaning is all caught up with, along with a few other things that needed doing, so there's finally time to get back to Blogland and the fun stuff again. :0)


This time we were staying in a newly built cottage on a farm site in Maltby-le-Marsh which is just outside of the seaside town of Mablethorpe (less than 5 minutes car journey away). From our home it's just under a three hour drive to get there, mostly on winding B-roads that were very picturesque at this time of year, so a pleasant journey.

This is the view of the back of the cottages - my DSis, DH and I stayed in the one on the right:



Apologies for the naff photos - I forgot to pack the digicam so these were the best of the ones taken with my phonecam. These were relatively new builds, about a year old. The block you can see in the background are part of the original development that forms a U-shape - our Uncle W, Aunty M, cousin M and my cousin's youngest son J were staying in one of the bungalow sections, just across from us. Aunty M and Uncle W both have mobility problems so that was ideal for them.

The whole site was lovely and peaceful, despite being relatively close to the road into Mablethorpe. Here's the view from the far side of the largest fishing pond, looking back at the cottages:

As you can see there were also a couple of static caravans on the site, with a little play area for the children. Here's another view of the main pond - tried to capture the full length of it in this one:

Plus another angle of the pond, looking towards the statics and the farmhouse beyond:

Plus a view of the small fishing pond which was to the far left of the cottage, more or less behind the farmhouse:

It's a popular site with keen anglers, as the ponds are well stocked with varied sizes of fish. Aunty, Uncle, cousin and his son fished regularly through the week and caught quite a few good sized fish. Here's one of Uncle W showing off one of his catch:


DH took this (and the next one) with his much better phonecam. That's Aunty M sat behind him - also a keen angler. My cousin's son J enjoyed the fishing too. He had to watch the farms old sheepdog Emma (Em for short) though as she had a habit of going into the water and waiting near the line:


She did this one day just as J caught a fish..... and so we found out why she liked to do this: she promptly whipped the fish off the end of the line and ate it! Apparently it's one of her favourite occupations. That's definitely one dog that thinks it's a cat. LOL As you can see we had some nice weather through the week. :0)

One of the nicest things about the site were all the critters. Every morning there was a parade of chickens past the cottages with occasional feeding frenzies when someone chucked food out for them:

In the pen in the background were a rabbit and a family of guinea pigs which we think were pets of the farm owners grandchildren. There were also a few families of chickens. here's a proud Momma with her babies:

I used the zoom on this one and it ended up even worse than the others, unfortunately. There were also a couple of small ponies, lots of ducks (though the Momma duck was really warey so I couldn't get a pic of her with her babies). there were also the occasional seagulls stopping by and we heard a couple of owls most nights - Uncle W and cousin M were lucky enough to actually see a barn owl swoop along the tree line at dusk early in the week which I was extremely envious about, as I love barn owls.

During the week we had a couple of trips into Mablethorpe. The first trip was to have a look round, a meal and to do a little shopping. We made it into the New Age shop there and I came away with this little gem:


As you can see I've already started reading it. :0) The second trip was so DSis and I could have a card reading with a local reader which proved to be very interesting. On the Tuesday and Friday we had trips into the nearby town of Alford: those being their market days and we fancied a nosey; there was also a regular Craft Market in the Corn Exchange and we had a look round that too and we didn't come away from there empty handed either.

The belt was a necessary buy for me: one of my pairs of jeans has suddenly become very baggy around the waist and I needed the security of that belt! LOL The bracelet is tigers eye, a truly gorgeous piece with a very strong energy - it was one of two I tried on, the other one being a bit too strong an energy, as it made me feel very "spacey" when I had it on. The ring is amber and it replaces the amethyst ring that broke a couple of weeks ago, which replaced the triple amber ring that was lost when it slipped off my finger somewhere - so hoping to have better luck with this one! LOL The salve and balm are all natural products which I'm tending to use more of now, as I'm finding mass produced chemical based toiletries are constantly drying out my skin. The Green Man plaque was DH's choice as he liked it as soon as he saw it and the plan is to have him on a wall in the sun lounge, once it's been decorated, facing out towards the garden and towards my Green Man at the top of the garden. :0) We also bought a little something as a gift for our DS:

He's a sci-fi buff and we thought it very appropriate as his star sign is Scorpio. He seemed to like it, though was probably wondering where he was supposed to hang it...... there isn't an awful lot of vacant wall space left in his bedroom. LOL

After Tuesday's trip into Alford we went on to Skegness to meet up with the rest of the family but soon abandoned that idea (due to them leaving early, the crowds and our not liking the place much anyway) in favour of visiting Gibraltar Point instead, where DH thoroughly enjoyed himself using the binoculars provided in the viewing area. We had hoped to do some walking but got rained off big time, so opted to go back to the cottage. After the Friday trip into Alford we stopped off at the Windmill for a look-see. There was a small shop inside the mill itself and I bought some organic porridge oats to take home and DH treated himself to some wholemeal fruit scones and real ale chutney.

We also had plenty of time for just chilling out and DSis and I managed to get quite a bit of reading done between us........ though I didn't once manage to do any stitching, due to the evenings being taken up with some very competitive sessions playing Trivial Pursuits. :0)

We arrived back home on Saturday 29th with my DSis following us to our house. This is the first time she's visited our home since our Dad died so am hoping it has helped get her past the mental block she seemed to have and that she will start to visit us occasionally now. :0) Unfortunately her drive back to her house was eventful: she opted to go back on the motorway which she'd never been on before....... and promptly took a slip road off too early and took a detour down the Immingham/Grimsby bit of the motorway. We ended up having to drive out to find her in the lay-by she was parked in then get her to follow us all the way back along the motorway to her house. DSis has always said she has no sense of direction and couldn't find her way out of a paperbag.......... now we have proof, Bless her. ;0) I don't know if she's dared to tell Uncle W and cousin M yet - boy, will they rib her big time for it when she does! LOL

We also came home to a lovely surprise but I shall share that in another post as this one is already long enough.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit and for all the lovely comments. I shall be having a blog read and catching up with all your news soon. :0)