Parsonage Farm

January snow

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A foot of snow fell in one evening in January.

lots of sledding

the garden buried.

the hazel flowers in the newly planted hazel copse.

New Year at Tintinhull

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On a lovely blue sky New Year's Day we visited friends from California who were staying in a self-catering apt at Tintinhull... It was lovely to walk around this beautiful garden as if it were our own! and drink a glass of champagne in the afternoon sunlight.

Christmas at Coleridge Cottage

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A Winter Review, December 2012

Christmas at Coleridge Cottage....Every weekend in December, the Cottage was open for visitors with mince pies, mulled cider and warm fires.

November... Carnivals and Floods

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Each year for Guy Fawkes, Bridgwater comes alive with....
the Bridgwater Carnival... an extravaganza of lights, floats and entertainment.

the prize winning float from Bridgwater Gremlins..."Revolution"

Searching for Apples, October 2012

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This season has been a poor apple crop here at Parsonage Farm and most places in the U.K. which meant that we haven't pressed much juice. So, we went to Italy in search of sunshine and apples. We had two lovely weeks, a few days in this beautiful town, Vernazza, north of Pisa.

Vernazza harbour in the Cinque Terre

Our breakfast cafe by the harbour

Then a few more days in the Italian Alps, in the South Tyrol during apple harvest season. Evidently, 40% of all apples eaten in Europe originate from this region. In addition to miles and miles of apple orchards, there are some beautiful gardens to visit.

garden in Merano

South Tyrolean apple orchard

Carrying on, we took the train back through the a
austrian alps, Germany and stopped in Belgium for a few more days. Now it's back to enjoy autumn in Southwest England.

A Summer of Pizzas

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We made pizzas almost every Friday evening throughout the summer. Sometimes, it was raining up until the moment the first guests arrived, but it always cleared up and there were some beautiful evenings eating pizzas and sitting by the wood fire- it was ALMOST meditteranean. To celebrate, at the end of the summer, our friend from Cornwall, Ben Quinn came and made a three course meal for forty people. Ben used to work as a chef at Fifteen in Newquay, but has now started his own cheffing and catering business in Cornwall. he was recently featured in an article ...http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2215602/A-baby-friendly-Cornish-cottage-break.html:

This was our menu...

Ben and brother Pegs in the kitchen with forty plates.
photo by cousin Frances Quinn.

June....New Greenhouse..... and bees!

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In June, we were delivered a new greenhouse on the back of this lorry. It was made by a father and son duo in Devon...
WG Grace and Son. It is now "gracing" our walled vegetable garden. We think it fits in really well.

It's been a long term dream of mine to have a greenhouse. In the foreground is the swarm of bees we collected which had been hanging on the nearby gooseberry bush.

Cream Tea, May 2012

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West Country Cream Tea

Liz and Suki taking afternoon tea in an open garden in Crowcombe. Lovely!

Water Storage Tank

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May 2012

Another development is our new water storage tank which is to buried in the garden and will hopefully supply us with all the water we need. It is sitting in front of the woodshed with the

3 kw solar panels. The panels are working really well and supplying our electricity. Perhaps soon we will be completely self-sufficient!

17th century window

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Now the window has been removed.

Tulips, April 2012

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April 2012

Tulips in our herb garden. We have a lot of box plants around the herb and vegetable gardens. Unfortunately, we have become a victim of "box blight" which is quite a devastating disease. We're hoping that we can save them!

March 2012

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March....

A Quantock walk in early March after the only snowfall we had this winter.

Rachel Sermanni is a great new singer/songwriter from Scotland. Our nephew, Gareth, is her sound engineer. They have been touring with the band, Fink and visited us while playing in Bath. Check out her website: www.rachelsermanni.net .

Rich and our friend Paul, removing the Elizabethan windows in our stairwell in order to make repairs.

withies, February 2012

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February 2012

Over the last few weeks, we've taken advantage of the warmer January weather to have some interesting walks. One day we walked in the Somerset Levels and watched some withys being harvested as well as the murmurations of the starlings. The starlings give this spectacular display every day and an RSPB staff person is always on hand to talk about the birds and the wildlife of this particular part of the levels. There is a "Starling HotLine" which can be rung to find out where the birds are roosting each day-- they do move around. The number is....07866-554142.

In January, we also made fifty jars of organic seville orange marmalade!

Winter 2012

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January 2012.

So far, quite a warm winter with the vegetable and flower garden acting like spring. The other day we ate six freshly cut globe artichokes. Even the honeybees were out flying around. This is very unusual and hopefully we will get some colder weather soon... great for walking in the woods though as it all looks so beautiful and fresh (and muddy) with the large amounts of rain we had in December.

January globe artichokes... delicious.

December 2011, Happy Christmas and New Year
We've had a busy holiday season. Some people are surprised to hear that we actually have a lot of guests during this time. Some of our guests are what we call "houseguest overflow" which means various family and friends of our neighbours. It is always lovely to see them each year. The week between Christmas and New Year is always busy with people who want to just relax and enjoy the Quantock Hills in winter and sit by the wood fire in the evening.

On Christmas Day this year we cooked every last bit of our meal in our wood-fired bread oven in the linhay. It was great... goose, potatoes, vegetables and even the pudding. We even sat outside in the late afternoon light and enjoyed a glass of champagne while gazing at the twilight view. Now we are looking forward to starting up the pizza season as soon as the weather warms up.

Our beautiful door wreath made by a friend.

Welcome to our blog...

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November 2011

This is the start of the Parsonage Farm Blog! We'll be adding our news here once a month or so. Watch this space......

We're pressing apples this month!