Christmas is coming...

...and our geese are certainly getting fat, but we've decided to spare them and have ordered a turkey this year (as well as all our other Christmas meat) from our friends at Kittow Cattle!

As you can see, we've made a small start on decorating Luggs Barn for its first festive season! We've tried to balance the restrained preferences of the winter wedding party currently in residence with the more glitzy requests of young visitors! The kitchen will hopefully have fairy lights on the main beam next week, but for now a sparkly mini tree is a tasteful counterpoint to the overload of (pink) tinsel planned by our girls for the farmhouse!

The double height hall in Luggs Barn is particularly beautiful; the oak banisters are now adorned with frosted garlands and a wreath welcomes guests in from the cold. (The latter is hung inside the door to avoid Monty's attentions - last year's glorious berry heart met a sorry end five minutes after its debut!)

Plans are afoot to buy both trees this weekend - this year's Christmas guests have requested a real tree and nothing else will do for the main house either. Photos will follow shortly once they're suitably splendid!

Outside, the ducks are settling in well and have laid two eggs so far. The long awaited cake making with these began and ended this afternoon when we discovered the yolks were a nasty brown colour! Despite advice from expert duck keepers that they've probably just been eating too many acorns, we were rather put off by this, so have made the latest offering (Victoria sponge with chocolate orange buttercream filling) using the reliably fabulous hens' eggs! Hopefully it won't be long before the ducks start earning their keep...

The pigs are growing well and permanently hungry, so fit in well here! They're doing a great job of turning over the veg patch, so we're hoping for a productive spring and summer next year.

In the main house, the final push is underway and we're clinging to the hope that all the really messy internal work will be done by Christmas. Flagstones are finally laid in the last 3 small rooms and these are now being (lime) plastered. We've also found an interesting cubbyhole in one very thick wall which we're going to leave open - more photos will follow in due course but for now the whirl of changeovers and nativity plays is keeping us busy!

When we finally sit down in a couple of weeks' time we'll be looking forward to our second holiday season - bookings for 2012 are already encouraging. We wish all our guests past, present and future a very Happy Christmas!