Dec 10^th Lucy and Melanie came see us today, Lucy sadly lost her husband Richard recently and we drown our sorrows last night and the goodly amount of alcohol. Melanie a long-time friend from the past about this dropped into coffee to talk about old times. Great fun but very sad

Dec 9^th this is a marvellous old threshing machine belonging to Robert Hambro of Stoke St Gregory, the interesting part of this machine built in 1892 is that not only does it sort the wheat from the chaff, but it also ties the bundles into stooks which are used locally for thatched cottages

Dec 8^th Alan Perry, a long-time friend and colleague Alan and I have known each other since I was 15. Having recently given up the job as chairman of Haslemere's museum to Melanie, is basking in the sunshine of extra time although his chairmanship of the Sussex ornithological Society is demanding time together with a host of other interesting activities

Dec 7^th Melanie O’Dell. Is soon to take over the chairmanship of the Haslemere Museum, today we donated three lovely linen backed maps to the museum to add to their historical archive. Dated around 1850 they are a good gauge of development within the Haslemere area at that time, I hope they will be made readily available for use rather than locked away

Dec 6^th. Chelsea vs Valencia. Fergus myself and Darren went up to Stamford Ridge to watch a an important match, Chelsea needed to win in order to stay in Europe and to keep their morale up for the Championship. Valencia were convincingly beaten with the first goal after 3 min more to follow, good fun evening

Dec 5^th Grayshott Christmas lights. Back early today to find the lights in the square Grayshott had been turned on and for the first time in years they were matched by a really good Christmas tree. The Square looked really this Christmas.

Dec 4th Kingsley Beck, Kingsley runs a driveways business in Hatch Beauchamp just on the outskirts of North Curry. Today is getting towards the end of our project and the driveway is one of the final jobs to be done at the cottage

Dec 3^rd. Our new gate. Fresh from the savage yard at Glastonbury reclamation I was delighted to see that the space left by the bricklayers within the two pillars in the front garden was exactly the right size for our gate. We have tried to ensure that it wasn't to new and out of keeping with the property

Dec 2nd The Taunton Vale Hunt. Today was the first meeting of the Taunton Vale Hunt who gathered behind the Bird in Hand pub at the start of their meeting. The village turned out in force to enjoy free drinks from the landlord and to watch this festive occasion. I understand the drag can't across the moors was a good ride.

Dec 1^st. Nigel Berry, retired police officer and sadly now a retired firearms inspector. Nigel has visited our house on a number of occasions to look at our shotgun licences and to supervise the security of the guns. He tells me last week that he was made redundant at a moments notice by Somerset police. The task now to be looked after by the tactical gun squad which seems to be a rather wasted time from highly trained group of individuals

Nov 30^th Amanda Casalis du Pury. It was emergency Ward 10 on Ludshott common today. Amber, Amanda's dog was very badly impaled by a stick whilst running through the undergrowth on the common. We managed to do a quick dash to the veterinary hospital in Bordon where a lot of stitches combined with a lot of emotion seemed to rectify the day

Nov 29^th Deborah Gourlay, Deborah is an artist and recently has been the artist in residence at the Watts Gallery in Compton just south of Guildford. Her recent exhibition has specialised in light boxes which are incredibly intricate pieces of artwork showing three-dimensional views. Sadly the one that she is pictured with here is not done justice by the photograph

Nov 28th Peter Arnell. We have all known Peter for many years, he was initially a surveyor with Keats Chartered Surveyors, and latterly he and his son have set up in practice in Midhurst and Bristol. Peter is especially good at project management and design and build

Nov 27^th. Yandalls Yard. We went to this excellent timber mill today next to Martock. I have never seen a range of timber quite so extensive all types of exotic woods etc. The thing that caught my eye was the large electric crane in the middle the site which is abandoned 20 years ago due to health and safety reasons

Nov 26^th at daylight today, Adrian my brother and Fergus took off for the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall near Street in Somerset. We wanted to see starlings takeoff but I was very impressed with this photograph Fergus took with my new lens. Mute swans on the move

Nov 25^th The Meehans from the USA where our guests for the next few days. They had come over for the wedding and immediately afterwards gone to Paris for a few days which they really enjoyed. It was great to see all the cousins together including James. a little too much white-eye in this photograph

Nov 24^th today I went to the Taylor Greenslade and Hunt auction to try and pick up some sheep hurdles and some electric fencing. As you can see bidding was brisk and I didn't end up with the sheep hurdles but I did get some fencing for the chickens in the New Year. They run these auctions every six months getting rid of second-hand farming equipment

Nov 23^rd Tintern. We drove up into The Forest of Dean today past Tintern Abbey to look at some stone at Coleford. There was a massive yard called The Home of Stone run by Mark and Richard. A new shipment of flagstones are in which will suit the top of our wall

 Nov 22^nd just outside Stoke St Gregory I caught this shot on my iPhone of the last few willows standing in a field, just like corn stooks but in this instance they were willows.

Nov 21st. I took a photograph of these trees are on April 10th (Blog) I just thought it was really interesting to see how much growth they put on over the year. They have gone from skinhead to Mohican in one season 

Nov 20th. James and Kristin. Kirstin is a slice of New Jersey being gently moulded by Hampton Court Palace. It was great to see them at the meal after the wedding, but it was a squash.

Nov 19th. Well today is Lucy's day. The Wedding of my niece loved spectacular and it was such a lovely November day with the sun shining and everything was perfect, married in Churt, lots of memories  

Nov 18^th.  Another one of those sad days, he we are on the River Torridge on the way to Richard Lucey’s funeral. It only seems a few months ago that we were walking in Exmoor and had lunch at a delightful pub., The London Inn (Jan 8th Blog) Richard died from a brain tumour, very quickly.

Nov 17^th. Jill and Jeff, over from Canada for the big wedding on Saturday. It was great to see them down and Somerset and tons of reminiscing, food drink and good times.

Nov 16^th A Giraffe in Hammer Lane, I suspect I should no longer be surprised by the things I see on the edge of our country lanes nowadays, this giraffe peering over the fence startled me for awhile but then you just carry on thinking to yourself all I see next!

Nov 15^th. Anne and James, only a couple of more days to count down now for the wedding, and house is a hive of industry in preparation for the big day this coming Saturday and followed by a mass brunch on Sunday

Nov 14^th. David Nolan, has been servicing our gas boilers for more years than I can count, at the beginning of November every year he does his rounds sniffing our gas and making sure they run for another year.

Nov 13^th. These flowers left on the side of the M5 are the awful remnants of a ghastly motorway tragedy on Exit 25 last Friday evening, many people injured and killed it seems so appalling their lives finished at the at the edge of the Sainsbury's supermarket car park.

Nov 12^th. This is the railway tunnel at Purton Manor in Gloucestershire. Abandoned when the old Severn Bridge was destroyed the rail way removed all the sleepers and rails and since then my brother-in-law has been using it for storage and access, the brickwork appears to be as good as the day it was built

Nov 11^th Remembrance Day. An interesting collection of numbers today 11.11.11.11.11 but I didn't get there until 13 min past the hour for my photograph. It was a rather dreary and dark morning the flag at half-mast and more awful news from Afghanistan

Nov 10^th. Malcolm Pyne has opened his new butcher shop today, spending around £1 million is a huge investment but it looks like he's taking on Waitrose and the like. He has invested in a counter for fish, cider, delicatessen, takeaway ….He is really going for it.

Nov 9^th. The lapwings are back in town, migrating from the North and Scandinavia they've started to arrive on the Somerset levels. Travelling in a flock they are a marvel to watch huge paddle like wings which with their black-and-white colouring look totally stereoscopic.