THE MOVE AND THE LAST POST

J is doing exceptionally well at his new school in the UK.  I moved back to the UK at the end of October.  Saying goodbye to our animals, home, friends and family was impossibly hard, I think I created a bubble around me to deal with it all.

On my return to Mallorca in September Ruffa-Roo was visibly ill.  He'd lost weight in the 3 weeks I'd been away and he had lumps under his skin.  I took him to the vet and almost immediately had to have him put to sleep.  A biopsy taken, whilst I was away, showed he had very late stage cancer.  He was beginning to have problems with his breathing and I decided not to make him suffer anymore - chemo was not an option - I saw what it did to C.  No more suffering. 

With an unbelievably awful year behind us, both J and I are now trying to move on with our lives.  It is very hard to know what direction to go in at the moment, but I am sure that will come in time, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

We both miss Mallorca very much and our life there, but onwards and upwards is the only way to go.  

Thank you to all those that read this blog over the recent years.  It will still be left here for now and you never know, perhaps added to again in the future.

Goodbye and always believe anything is possible, even if it only lasts a little while. xx

MARMALADE AT LAST

We finally have a small batch of marmalade.  

Made from a few of the mandarins off our only two mandarin trees.  This was a test batch to see how it would turn out.  It seems that many people struggle to get their marmalade to set properly here but C used extra pectin this time - bought in from the UK.  We only have a few jars but one went to our local taster, who reported that it was the best flavour he'd ever tried! However, it was a little too sweet.  So the next batch will be altered slightly with the amount of sugar used.

The trees are now completely groaning under the strain of fruit, we need to get picking pronto!  C is going to make another batch or so of mandarin marmalade and obviously several batches of orange marmalade.  I think we will have to order in some more pectin as without it the setting process seems to be a failure, and runny marmalade just isn't the same!  So, much more to come in the marmalade department.

Today is Ruffa's birthday - he's 2, where does the time go?  He is now classed as an adult, although he still behaves like a puppy most of the time.

Not a good shot but Ruffa was trying to climb onto the bed for cuddles whilst we sang happy birthday to him! - He is definitely NOT allowed on beds or sofas in our house.















Whilst doing some writing this morning, C came in from cleaning out the hens and Hilda, with a whopper of an egg.  We now have two whoppers and three much smaller eggs - I might have an omelet at lunchtime!

We are hoping the two on the right are double yolkers - hooorrah!