It's been a lovely Autumn so far,after a rather disappointing Summer!  Once again we are awash with fruit!  The trees are covered in apples,damsons,plums and nuts, we've made the redcurrant jelly and also had a go at sloe and apple jelly this year.  It looks super and I'm certainly looking forward to trying it with some pork or game.

The big thing this Summer for us, has been cycling.  We have both got bikes now and we've been sampling the Derbyshire bike trails and we can certainly recommend them!  The scenery is breathtaking, the track surfaces are safe and good to ride on and level enough not present a problem to the likes of (older, unfit, lazy) me!  You can ride for distances of up to 20 miles, there are cafe, pub and ice cream stops at the old station halts or you can pull off and visit pretty little villages and places like Tissington Hall with its lovely restaurant on the green.

Several guests have brought their own bikes and stored them here or hired bikes from the bike hire places on the trails and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  It has become a regular jaunt for us now!  Must sign off now but will try to write more regularly in future!

We have just had the most wonderful spell of very warm weather, more befitting July than March and April!  It brought all the daffodils and forsythia out and now the blossom trees are on the point of bursting forth.  It really is the most beautiful time of year at The Cruck Barn.  It also brings our guests out too - its nice to see them enjoying a glass of wine (or even a cup of coffee!) on the balcony in the sunshine, after being huddled inside around the log burner for so long!

Spring is also the time to take stock of the Winter damage!  At least two bay trees dead and two olive trees and several cordylines.  We were obviously too ambitious with our planting and Mother Nature gave us a sharp reminder!  We seem to have had a very short snowdrop season this year because they were actually buried under the snow for so long!

I think the chickens may have suffered from the prolonged and intense cold and lost some condition as well because we are getting a run of soft shelled eggs.  They are now on a tonic containing seaweed which looks awful and smells iffy too but they seem to like it and hopefully it will do the trick!  Otto is fine and probably even enjoys the Winter as he is allowed to snuggle up next to the Rayburn all day and despite his years and increasing creaky joints there is nothing he likes better than a good roll in the snow!  Glad somebody was satisfied!

I can't believe it's Autumn already!  We had a fair bit of sun throughout the Summer and all our guests enjoyed themselves getting out and about in The Peak District but it seems to have gone so fast!  We are already well into making plum jam and plum chutney,(yes we had a lot of plums!)  and lots of gooseberry chutney and red currant preserve as well.  We have two new additions to the chicken ark so now we have three little red hens and a grey one who should keep us well supplied with eggs throughout the year and the sheep will be back in the field soon.

I think the thing that stands out most about this Summer is the local agricultural shows.  They really are good. Bakewell and Ashover are an excellent day's entertainment for the whole family and Cromford steam rally gets bigger and better each year.  It is a real trip back in time to watch the old tractors and threshing machines etc.that I used watch as a child and to stand close up to the huge steam engines and imagine them rumbling along the old lanes at harvest time,(they were before my time!)  The side shows and stalls are good too.  I bought an old potato rumbler,(it peels the spuds really well!) but did'nt have quite enough money to pay the price we agreed, so I still owe him £2.  'Pay me next year' he said.  I hope he does'nt expect me work out the interest!  Don't worry I'll be there!

We have the ewes and lambs in the field now as usual but this year because some of the ewes are a different breed they have produced four lambs instead of the usual two and can't feed them all, so a little assistance is needed and we have one to bottle feed!  At first it was four feeds a day with the last one late at night so she went to sleep with a warm tummy full in the still chilly nights.  Now we are down to just one feed a day and boy, has'nt she grown!!

She started off a tiny poor little thing with knock knees but now she's as  big and plump as the rest of them and racing around playing with them all and shouting loudly for her bottle when she sees us.  Unfortunately one of the quads was'nt so lucky and died back at the farm.  Despite being bottle fed it never thrived and obviously had something wrong from the start.

The biggest shock though, was when one of the big healthy lambs died for no apparent reason.  She had a mouthful of bits of bark and stick and soil from the dry patch under the trees where they all sleep and the only thing we can suggest is that she choked on the bits she was chewing and asphyxiated.  That sent me out regularly several times a day to check on 'my babies' and started me wondering if you can do mouth to mouth resuscitation on a lamb but hopefully I won't have to try!  The weather is beautiful and The Cruck Barn guests are enjoying the sun and the views from the balcony and not an ash cloud in sight to worry about!  Lets hope this is the start of a long, warm Summer.

Late this year but well and truly out now and looking very beautiful.  I can see that all the trees we have planted will be well worth waiting for in future years.  The blossom is the first touch of real colour since the harsh Winter and very welcome it is too!  The birds are all nesting in the usual places, (no sign of any squirrels yet - perhaps they heard I've got a gun and a life-like squirrel target!)  To put the icing on the cake, we should have some new Spring lambs in the field this week as well.

Forget what I said in my last scribblings about Spring being on it's way!   We have had snow and more snow since then and we were forgetting what 'green' actually looked like!   The snowdrops are all out in force but they have been buried under a thick white blanket so are only just visible now, the birds have had to have water containers filled regularly as well as seed feeders and Otto  (the labrador) has to be literally tipped out of his bed to persuade him to go out at all when there is ice and snow on the ground!  We can at last though, hear the sound of Woodpeckers hammering down in the valley and the Curlew have started to return to recce their old nesting sites so things must be looking up.  I hope the reward for this long hard Winter is going to be a mild Spring when it comes so we can enjoy the blossom on the new trees and then a long hot Summer to sit in the shade with a book and a glass of something long and cool,(out on the balcony if you are staying at The Cruck Barn) - that's what dreams are made of!

The Snowdrops are already appearing in drifts around the old postbox and various places in the garden, the Tawny Owls are very vocal in an evening and the usual assortment of garden birds are massing around the feeders, the Blue Tits hanging upside down, the Nuthatch pointing downwards and stabbing away with his great big dagger of a beak and the Robins,(at least 6 of them) trying to chase everyone else off ......  until the female Blackbird comes along that is!

We've seen a water vole busily scurrying from hole to hole in the bank of the canal (very rare in Britain now, disappeared from 94% of their former range!) and the usual collection of ducks and moorhens etc. but cutest of all is the new little calf born to the Highland cows  at the end of the lane.  He looks so clean and soft and cuddly, not like the enormous shaggy, muddy, longhorned beast of a mother and auntie in the field with him!

I'm personally looking forward to seeing all the new trees we've planted in the last few years coming into leaf and blossom this Spring;  oh and we are going to get another chicken to boost the egg supplies.  So lots to look forward to with the lengthening days and warmer weather just around the corner.  I expect the squirrels are thinking the same thing too, whilst chomping away on their Winter supplies of my last years walnuts and hazelnuts!

I received a Christmas present that was so apt for me after all my complaints about the squirrels wreaking mayhem with the bird feeders all year and robbing me of every single walnut and cob nut at the end of Summer!  I was intrigued when I started to open what was obviously a two foot long metal object with a spike and amazed to see a black steel squirrel emerge complete with  target hole in his head for air gun practice!  I shall have lots of fun with him and who knows, if I get good at it, look out furry little pests, no matter how sweet and cute you look, better pack you bags now!

We are well and truly snowed in at the moment!  Luckily, we had decided to keep the first two weeks of January clear so that we could decorate The Cruck Barn and set up the new music system etc. and that was definitely the right decision as we have been totally cut off now for a few days, only the most intrepid adventurer in a trusty four wheel drive can get through and we havent seen many of them!  It seems very strange to have had no post for a week and we are very lucky to have a milkman who continues to battle  through although we've seen him struggle up the hill with one foot out of the door pushing like mad!

  Our poor New Year's guests slid down the hill as they left and crashed into a grit bin of all things at the same time as our neighbour hurtled down the other hill, narrowly missed ending up in our moat and then crashed into his garden.  The noise of pots and garden furniture smashing had us all running but luckily no-one was hurt in either case.  The dogs are enjoying the snow, we have the little Border Terrier staying with us, unable to return home after his New Year stay, he and Otto have had several long walks across snowy fields where they race around like mad things and all of a sudden little Chester disappears in a snowdrift!  A neighbour's dogs have been conscripted into pulling sledges of small children along the traffic free, lanes so there is lots of fun to be had out in the snow with the schools closed but probably mostly if you're under ten!

Can't start my New Year's resolution yet, which is to regularly walk up the Middleton Top incline so I will settle down in front of a log fire with a book and enjoy an extension to Christmas for a while longer - pass the mince pies please!

Iwould like to take this opportunity to wish all 'friends of The Cruck Barn' and all you avid readers of my blog page, (well there might just be one or two of you out there!) a very happy and healthy and successful New Year and we look forward to seeing many of you again in 2010.

We always enjoy chatting to our guests and finding out about about their lives and their interests and we were thrilled to receive a very special minted silver sixpence this week from an Associate Owner of a beautiful and unspoilt Hebridean  island called Sgarabhaigh, who stayed with us during the Christmas break.  This beautiful, tranquil paradise is owned and conserved by the Friends of Sgarabhaigh, and you can become one of the family with all the rights this bestows by buying a (very affordable!) share in the island, which can then be passed on as a family heirloom.  This would make a very special present for that person who 'has everything'!                        Look up the web-site  www.scaravay.com for all the details.

New for 2010  in the barn is a Sony sound system for radio/CD's/i pod so you can now bring your i pod with all your music on it and 'dock it' in our system, I am reliably informed!  We have just taken delivery of a consignment of new extra thick soft ,luxury,towels and next week we begin the new year with a complete redecoration of the barn,(I have'nt told the husband yet.  He has just retired and I think he was thinking more along the lines of golf!)       Anyway all the best to all of you reading this and if you are new to The Cruck Barn web-site and considering a stay then be sure to contact us early as I have already had to disappoint some people looking forward to an early Summer holiday!

Christmas Eve here at last!  Everything is ready, the tree is decorated, the Holly and Ivy gathered and decorations made - just in the nick of time before the Blackbirds and Thrushes ate all the berries!  There's no wonder they're so fat, there were millions of berries this year!   The recent snow has turned the hamlet into a silent wonderland and I can see the sneaky foxy footprints all round the field, calling in at the chicken ark to see if there is any chance of supper! Not likely! All is safely gathered in now!  Christmas cakes and dozens of mince pies have been made, the mulled wine is ready and the presents wrapped.  All that's left to do is put some carols on or Bing Crosby if you prefer and cosy up in front of the log burner.  There's nothing more traditional than Christmas at The Cruck Barn and we wish all our guests past and present, a very Happy Christmas and all the best in health and happiness for the new year.

We  always have a bonfire and pea and pie supper at The cruck Barn for family, friends, neighbours and guests, as many of you will know, but not this year!

The bonfire was coming along nicely, growing tall and taking shape and the husband was quite proud of it's height and solid structure as he added to it and tweaked it regularly.  A few weeks before  The Night , he trimmed all the Ivy around the garden and heaped huge mounds of it onto the top of the bonfire and declared it ready to go.

The very next day the sheep came back into the field; five big sturdy boys, so fit and ready for their 'working' season that they could'nt make up their minds whether to crash heads together or try to mount each other but when they saw all the Ivy their bellies took over and they dived in to eat it.  Although it is'nt poisonous, they ate so much of it that it made them ill and one was found lying on his back, with belly ache, in a pool of liquid manure and had to be removed back to the farm to be treated.     

The farmer built a fence of sheep netting around to keep them away from  the Ivy but they simply pushed it over and forced their way in, despite having over two acres of lush grass and herbs to graze on, they wanted the Ivy!  They say that sheep spend their days looking for new ways to die and I can see why now!   On day three, when they had forced their way in yet again, I decided there was nothing else for it, the bonfire had to go!  I had a lovely bonfire all to myself but no pie and peas and no fireworks unfortunately and the husband was rather miffed!

We have had a lovely start to Autumn here in the Peak District with beautiful sunny days, all the more precious because you know they will not be here for much longer!  The lovely weather got the husband, the dog and I out foraging for the wild hedgerow fruits on several walks and we now have  shelves full of beautiful jewel like jams and jellies:  Rowan and Apple jelly, Haw and Crab- apple jelly and Redcurrant sauce and Beetroot chutney from the garden so far and as the husband had some Sloes left over from his Sloe gin I shall put them into some Sloe and Apple jelly.  The Crab-apples are a work of art in themselves, ranging from big mellow yellow ones through red streaked and speckled ones to tiny little pickled onion sized green ones that hang like bunches of grapes on the tree!   An old Farmer's Weekly recipe book comes in very handy!  The jellies made from wild fruits are a delicious piquant addition to pork, poultry and game dishes and will make very popular little gifts at Christmas for friends and visitors.

When I was at primary school we had Nature lessons where we learnt all the wild fruits and nuts and fungi and we children knew where to find them all when sent out with a bag by Mum, I wonder how many children would recognise them today - but then you can't send them off into the fields on their own any more can you!  Aah those were the days!!

Talking about nuts, the Walnut tree and the Hazel or Cobnut trees were generously loaded with nuts earlier this year.  Not any more!  The squirrels have taken every last one and they don't even give me a fighting chance as they take them when they are still green and then bury them all over the field and garden, forget where they have put them and we then have to pull out all the little trees growing where we don't want them next year!

Thankfully squirrels appear not to like plums and so the family and the visitors have been enjoying the surfeit of Victorias.  The apples will be next and some of the small trees are so laden down that the branches are breaking!

I'll let you know how the Sloe gin turns out.  The recipe, (from the Larkrise cookbook), says that it is at it's best after seven years ......  as if!!!

I am beginning to wonder if just maybe I owe the fox population an apology,(grudging)?!    I was busy in the garden yesterday,(lovely hot sunny day!)  when I heard a commotion in the paddock where the chickens are, although they were still safely in their ark.  I could hear the loud mewling call of a raptor at very close quarters and wondered if a sparrow hawk had it's eye on the swallows so I quietly moved closer to have a look and to my amazement saw that a buzzard had dropped out of the sky, down onto a big fat wood pigeon, now in his talons and was loudly calling, presumably to his mate, 'I'm coming now dear, I'm bringing lunch with me' !

He took off when he saw me, taking his prize with him and I just wondered if that was the way some of my chickens went.  Looking out of the window whilst eating my toast and tea this morning I can see the buzzard circling around the neighbouring fields where the corn has now been cut, looking for his next prey!

Talking about foxes, I heard a very unsettling fact recently.  Since the ban on hunting, chicken farmers have had to find alternative methods of protecting their livelihood from decimation and have come up with the grisly but effective measure of taking a chicken carcase,(Tesco?) and injecting it with Roundup weedkiller,(probably Tesco as well!) and then leaving it out at night to be taken away by the fox and probably fed to cubs as well.

They squirm with distaste at the telling of the story but claim that since the hunt is now prevented from keeping the fox population under control they have to revert to desperate measures to stop the fox population proliferating,then having to hunt in daylight hours because their territory becomes crowded and wiping out their flocks of free range chickens and ducks and geese.  I thought a good strong guard dog might do the trick,(if he did'nt eat the chickens himself) but then remembered that you can't chase foxes with dogs, so, back to square one and Roundup!

Bring back the hunt and common sense I say and possibly the fox would too!

I can't believe it was April when I last updated our blog and now it is Summer (is that what you call it?!).    Anyway, we have had some lovely warm 'deck-chair' days and apparently it has been wetter down South and in the Lake District and Wales so we should not complain!  It has been ideal for all the new trees we have planted in the newly fenced off paddock and we should be able to look forward to a froth of blossom next Spring and lots of fruits and berries for us and the birds. 

We have had lots of birds nesting as usual and there are now fledgling Robins, Tits, Chaffinch and Greenfinch, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Wrens and Nuthatches around the garden and woodpeckers as well, (luckily for them all we don't have a cat any more!)  The Cruck Barn guests say how much they enjoy watching them all on the balcony bird-feeder.                                                                                                                                                     The sad thing amongst all this new life is a total absence of Swallows this year.  Last year two successive nests fledged but this year nothing!  We occasionally see an adult or two swooping about but sadly none are nesting.  The squirrels are notable by their absence at the moment.  One young one got trapped by the foot in the balcony bird-feeder a few weeks ago and had to be rescued by The Cruck Barn guests,(wearing the stove glove I hasten to add!)  Where they are hiding I have no idea but I am pretty sure they will be back in force when this year's bumper crop of walnuts and hazelnuts is ripe.

The chickens,(all two of them!) are enjoying free ranging once again now they have a paddock of their own and I am going to get a couple more so that we have a little flock once more.

I could'nt believe how fast my Calor Gas had gone down.  "We only run a little gas cooker off it in the Summer, when the Rayburn is switched off." I said to the delivery man.

"I'll tell you the answer to that",  he said , "Squirrels!  Look they've eaten through the rubber hose on your tank and now all the gas has leaked out!"

This is how they pay me back after I have turned a blind eye to them raiding the bird table, (well sometimes), protected their nest in the Ivy banks,(O.K.I did'nt know it was there) and fondly watched as the youngsters emerged ,carried by their mother; they now eat my rubber hoses and get high on my gas!

A while ago some guests at The Cruck Barn told me they had been to Bakewell Farmer's Market and seen 'squirrel burgers' on a stall.  I laughed at the time but it does'nt seem such a bad idea now;  I wonder where I can get the recipe from.  It's war,  make no mistake about it!!

Another loss last Thursday!  This time it was Maud, the biggest hen and one of the best layers.  I'm afraid we can no longer claim,  "Free range eggs",  they will now have to be,  "Fresh, severely restricted range eggs"!

The fox population is proliferating, individuals are getting short of territory and therefore having to take the risk of hunting by day and coming close to human habitation to steal poultry and anything else they can get.  This is bad news for the fox in the long term but devastating for my chickens in the short term!

As those of you who have stayed at The Cruck Barn will know, we have four chickens who provide us with ample eggs for our own family use and for guests at the barn.  No longer........!   We now only have three. 

Matilda disappeared on Wednesday whilst they were free ranging in the field.  She always was one to wander away from the rest and now she has paid the ultimate price, she has become dinner for some young fox hunting the fields during the day.  No - one heard or saw anything and there was no trace of her going, save for one solitary black feather blowing in the breeze at the top of the field.  Poor Matilda!

We could never work out why a fluffy white coating persistently appeared on the wall, low down at the bottom of the stairs.  It was'nt damp, it was'nt an outside wall and the wall had been recently skimmed with plaster.  No matter how often we brush it off it soon re-appears!  Now I think I may have found the answer.  This is an excerpt from a book about old farming memories in the area...........

"...........     but I've still got the legacy of salting pigs in my farmhouse.  The salt stays in the walls permanently, it's there as a fluffy white coating.  You'll never get it out.  Even in the room on the other side of the pantry, the wall paper would not stay on without a false front of timber and plaster boards being fitted".                                        (an old farmer now in his 80s.)

So it seems quite likely that that corner of The Cruck Barn could have been the place where the cottage pig was scalded to remove the hair after it was killed and the hams rubbed with salt and hung to preserve and possibly this was happening here over many generations!

The old Walnut tree in the field may also have an interesting past history.  In the 16th.Century, Mary Queen of Scotts was incarcerated in Wingfield Manor,(a mile or so from here), by it's owner, Bess of Hardwick who was given this unenviable job by Queen Elizabeth 1st.  A local supporter of Mary, Anthony Babbington of Dethick, (his manor house still stands, just over the fields), hatched a plot to free her and instate her as rightful queen.  In order to get close to the manor unseen, he and his co-conspirators stained their faces with walnut juice so they would not be spotted by the guards at night.  They were caught and arrested and executed of course.  Apparently there were several Walnut trees at Wheatcroft in those days but only two remain now; could ours have been one of the trees he aquired the walnut cases from to make his dye?  He could never do it today of course because the squirrels get all the walnuts before anyone else has a chance!

We love to have dogs staying at The Cruck Barn; we are very 'doggy' people, but we do have two simple rules and I'd like to take the opportunity to explain why.

First of all we ask that dogs stay in the big downstairs room and do not go upstairs.  The reason for this being, the upstairs is a sleeping area with fitted carpet and various rugs and sheepskins.  The microscopic particles  left behind from a dog's coat could become an irritant to anyone suffering an allergy, no matter how well the room was cleaned.  So out of respect for everyone we welcome dogs but downstairs only.

Secondly, we ask that dogs are walked off -site, on a lead, to wee and all the rest.  The lane outside the gates is very quiet and there are footpaths next to the garden.  If your dog is simply allowed to wander on his or her own outside then the first instinct is to start scent-marking his perceived 'new' territory.  The next dog to come and stay then has the urge to scent-mark over the top of this and I am sure you can imagine the result!  Our dogs would  join in this free for all if they got half a chance and we would be constantly cleaning up!

I hope you agree that our rules are sensible and reasonable and do not in any way detract from your enjoyment.  Anyway, if you go out for a short stroll late at night you will have the pleasure of hearing the owls and perhaps even bump into one of our local badgers!

If you are staying at The Cruck Barn for a Winter break, on a frosty morning, don't miss the view from the balcony.  We have a high vantage point facing South and East, with panoramic views not to be missed at this time of year.  Go out there between 7 and 8a.m. and watch the sun rise over the mist hanging in the Amber Valley.  Look out for the gothic ruins of South Wingfield Manor rising from the mist.  It really is a magical scene on a crisp Winter morning and well worth dragging yourself the few yards from your bed to the balcony doors!  (you can always just put a jumper over your jamas and then go back and snuggle down for another hour or so but don't forget there are some excellent Winter scenery walks to be done!)

November 18th.  first snow of the year!  By evening there must have been several inches of crisp white snow and the guests at The Cruck Barn awoke to a Winter Wonderland scene from the balcony,(it really made someone's birthday apparently), but it did'nt last.  By mid-morning it had all melted away to the chagrin of the children down the lane who have just moved to Derbyshire and can't wait to go sledging and build snowmen!  I'm sure there's more where that came from though.