Hi there! I’m Claire and I live near the North Cornwall coast. I’ve been married to Ashley for 15 years now. I enjoy all sorts of crafts, gardening and walking the dog. Ashley and I both dream about living a simple life – having a small holding, maybe build our own home, grow vegetables and keep a couple of animals. We bought our land in May 2023 and can’t wait to get the projects rolling!

Phoebe

Phoebe came into our lives at the end of July 2018 as an 8 week old Collie puppy and nothing’s been quite the same since! She is our world now really, and we wouldn’t be without her! We love getting out and walking with Phoebe on local beaches, and Phoebe loves nothing more than chasing a ball on a beach and coming home with a sandy nose! She’s also very helpful if there is a cabbage leaf that needs shredding or some newly planted seedlings that need sitting on at the allotment…

Allotment

Allotments are like gold dust around our way! Thanks to some wonderfully generous friends, we were lucky enough to have the use of a piece of land just a short drive away to grow some veggies before we bought the land. We had use of about a quarter of an acre, shared with a couple of other people. We were so grateful to have the opportunity to start learning about growing vegetables.

 We have previously grown vegetables in the tiny front garden of our mid terraced house. I loved having a garden packed full of vegetables growing higgledy-piggledy and adored going out just to potter or pick the odd ripe pea pod or tomato. But 2 raised beds isn’t very practical when you want to provide food for yourselves for more than 2 or 3 months of the year! We also had no space for a greenhouse so I had to wait for the weather to get really warmed up to get sowing those seeds – there’s only so many seeds you can get started on the kitchen windowsill! So when the chance of having some allotment space arose, it’s safe to say we jumped at it!

Crafts

I enjoy lots of crafts, however I have a terrible habit of starting new projects before finishing old ones. I started making cards for friends and family several years ago – I can spend a couple of hours making just one card! It’s great being able to create a completely personalised card for someone, particularly for a memorable event such as a wedding or christening, or a milestone birthday. I rarely make cards these days – I found that I just didn’t have the time for it and so it is on the back burner for now, but maybe I will pick up the stamps and scissors again one day.

Christmas 2013, Ashley bought me my first sewing machine and I have made a few bags, key chains and turned up a fair few pairs of trousers (I’m not exactly what you’d call tall!). I’d love to be able to make some clothing items, simple t-shirts and PJ bottoms are on my list of sewing projects to try next. This is the one craft hobby of mine that fits with our ‘providing for ourselves’ ethos, so I need to keep practising!