The 2006 Deary news continues, with Russell, Peter and Lucy going skiing at Easter, In Val Landry, which is in the French Alps, close to Les Arcs, which you may or may not have heard of! with Russell's sister Sonia (see opposite) and her family from Belgium.This ski ing is turning into a yearly event, which Peter and Lucy really look forward to. Russell finds it quite hard work, but enjoys getting away form the pub, and catching up with Sonia.Unfortunatley I don't get the nod! because we can't really afford for us to both be away from the pub, and also because I like to stay with my dogs and have a bit of piece and quiet!!

Peter and lucy opposite .......

Talking of Dogs, apres les ski! Our little Dog Poppy had puppies on

14th April. It was a planned pregnancy, and we mated her with one of our regulars in the pub, a very handsome, long haired Jack Russell called Riley.

And here is a picture of Poppy in the buttercups!

And one of Riley at the bar! enjoying a pint!

So anyway, Poppy had five pups, four females and one boy. One was very small, and Poppy quite literally gave her to me, and said 'you look after her'. So I bottle fed her, and she has turned out to be the biggest of the litter. Needless to say, they were all adorable and went to very nice families, all of which come into the pub very regularly.

Here are some pictures of the pups...

We kept one pup;- the boy and called him Billy.

Poppy and Billy get on well together and although they can be a bit yappy in the pub, are generally liked by all

So anyway, summer came, and the pub was once again in full flower with our hanging baskets, which we created this year, in Greenhouses that Russell put up in our garden during the winter. I managed to purchase both of the greenhouses on e- bay! and one I paid £1.00 for! we went to the sellers location and dismantled them in a morning, gave them a good clean and assembled them in our garden, giving us one to establish the hanging baskets in and one to grow herbs.

So work continues with the pub, and onward battle to improve and impress! all to make money. Its hard work as I am sure you will all realise, but it provides us with a home in a small village in a lovely area, where we are always available for our children, before they go to school and when they come home. The school bus picks them up at 8.00am in our car park and drops them off at 4.00pm. We also have 'built in babysitters' our staff look after the dogs and children when we are not about.

a picture here, of the bottm of the garden from the stream, and below a view looking up the road at the pub,-

Those of you familiar with our website;

www.thenotleyarms.co.ok

will recognise this picture from our front page.

We have to plan our lives so that we work mainly in summer months when the tourists are about. so when the summer school hols arrive, we snatch days off at a time, travelling down across the moor to the North Devon coast, with it's famous surfing beaches. It takes us just over an hour, so we travel down as musch as we can. Peter is keen to get in the surf, so much watching of the surf reports online takes place, which is actually not so good, as the lack of surf quite oftens ruins a sunny day!

I managed to take the children camping this year on the North Devon coast for a week, we travelled down and built camp in a small camp site on National Trust land. The weather was appalling as we put up the tent, and we were absolutely soaked. The folllowing night, we had gale force winds, and I lay awake worrying that our camp was going to blow over the cliff into the sea. Peter and I were out in the gales securing everything down, whilest Lucy slept on oblivious to all!

Russell arrived the next day, bringing with him the sunshine, and listened to our tales of woe. However the weather went on to improve, and we enjoyed a cheap week of camping.

I am a 'heavy camper' and I know those of you who know me well, will know that I take my old girl guide motto of ' be prepared' to the limit!!

My old Ventor trailer that I use to deliver my chickens in in Mutorashanga, is still going strong, and is now officially the camping trailer.and I still sit on the lid, as I use to do in South Africa, as we packed up from our long beach and shopping hols in Ballito to return to Zim. We were never brave enough to camp with the children when we they were younger, but now they have grown, they are quite useful!

Peter surfing
Not the best photos, I know, but action shots are not easy, with dropping the camera in the water!!

He has all the kit, from surf board, to body board, winter wetsuit, hood, boots, gloves, flippers etc. Enough to surf on Christmas day if he wanted.

The tent, with Kitchen gazebo which somehow manged to stay tied down during the storms! It was Peter's 15th birthday as we camped, so birthday cake was taken too.

Peter is in fact very young for his academic year in Uk, so is sitting his GCSE at an early age, which isn't ideal.

He has sat his RE Gcse and got a B grade which is great, and has just finished his Mock exams. He hopes to go onto study A levels at the same College in Minehead, where he has now been for the past 3 years. Then onto studying Sport management possibly. Ideally at Bath Uni but he will have to get the grades first!!

Peter is as always very sporty, he plays for the under 16 Minehead Barbarians as Flanker, and also for his school.He won the most improved player of last season,and went away in October this year on a rugby tour to France, which I believe he enjoyed. He also is a member of the Minehead Golf Club, which is down by the sea, on the edge of the Snad dunes, which makes it a little windy. Russell and I think it is great that he enjoys spending his spare time down there, smartly dressed and out in all weathers! However in the summer he doesn't have that much time for Golf, as his cricket takes up most of his week.

Cricket has definately become Peter's fav sport. He plays for the under 16 West Somerset team, and two other local teams. He is a bowler first. The local newspaper has a comment on his playing nearly every week in the match reports. Russell and I really enjoy watching him, and once we have shut the pub up after lunch will go with our picnic chairs and watch for an hour or so, sampling the excellant cricket teas that the local ladies provide. If I am good, I will run to the match, so that I feel as if I have earn't my tea! Peter, ( as with the rugby) won the most improved player for his cricket team this year)

He has joined the Minehead running team with me, which he came to regularly all last summer and winter, which greatly improved his fitness level, which obviously improved his bowling and his rugby.

I love my running, and have run through some beautiful countryside over the past 18 months since I have joined the club, As we are in an area of natural beauty, every spring and summer run, seemed to introduce me to yet another area of outstanding natural beauty. A lot of our running is along the South west Coast path, which starts in our local town of Minehead and runs around the South west to finish on the south coast at Poole Harbour. The run that sticks in my mind for the greatest enjoyment for me was a 10 mile run from Countisbury Lighthouse ( northeast of Lynmouth) to Heddons Mouth ( just north east of Ilfracombe) together with two running friends ran this route as part of a long distance relay run to raise money fot the South West Childrens Hospice. Just to give you an idea of the kind of scenery we run in I have inserted the picture below, I took overlooking the coastpath from Bossington to Porlock weir and beyond to Lynton area.

For those of you reading my spot, and thinking that you can't see the pictures properly, I have just found out that if you click on the picture/subject, the whole photo zooms up to a close up! You live and learn!!

Monksilver.

My blog begins at last Christmas, which we spent at our friends in Yeovil on their farm, before rushing back on Boxing day to open up again. Luckily the pub has aways been shut on Christmas day, so we have kept it that way. In fact it was originally our only day off in the year, but as we have settled in, we have now started shutting Mondays, to give ourselves a break. Even if you dont work behind the bar or in the kitchen, having you home open to the public is hard work!

The picture below is of Lucy and other friends in our village last winter. Lucy is in the blue on the right. We were lucky to have some super sledging snow last year, and Peter in particular, just lived out in it all day, everyday, as the school bus could not reach us to take them into school. Even Peter's friends that live on the main road and by the sea rang up the college and said they couldn't get in, then got Russell to drive down in his Landcruiser to pick them up, so the could spend the day sledging with Peter!!

This is a picture of all the children in Monksilver ( we are only a small village of 70 inhabitants!) sledging. Lucy is in pale blue and Peter is looking at the camera in his Springbok beanie.

Our little dog is running around in a green jacket, while Rosie the village sheepdog looks on.

The weather so far this winter has been quite mild, with alot of heavy rain and wind. We keep our fingers crossed though for a white Christmas!

The pub is decorated throughout for Christmas, and trade begins to pick up, again, with even Father Christmas enjoying a pint!!

I get out and walk as much as possible because we are blessed with some truely beautiful countryside around us. Peter and I are also members of the Minehead running club, and this gets us out and about, running through truely awesome scenery, along coastal paths, over moors, through valleys and along rivers. The picture below shows us last year after we had run an uphill fancy dress run on Porlock Hill in Somerset.

Peter is dressed as Father Christmas on the extreme left, and I am dressed as Mrs Christmas on the extreme right!

My first photo on our Blog, quite easy really! This is the Deary family on holiday in Corralejo on the island of Feurteventura in Oct/Nov this year. We had a fantastic holiday with lovely sunshine ( and a bit of rain). This banana Boat ride was Lucy's favourite, Jane was a bit apprehensive, and fell off the most, as she does Lilos and horses anyway. We stayed in a super hotel which we had stayed in a couple of years back, so we knew what and where we were going. but more on that subject as I run through our year of 2006!

dearynews has just begun!

I have just set up our new blog! and thought it would be a great place to place our Christmas 'Deary update' which as normal is not done, yet Christmas looms around the corner.
Will return later to add more. Work to do now!