About us: High Summer is Here

About us: We have endured a long wait for this weather & now it is finally here we will not take it for granted: tee shirts, sun cream (yes, suncream in North Wales)  home made lemonade with heaps of ice, sunglasses are all the order of the day here. Hafod Farm camp site we have been full, the cottages are using the garden furniture & a permeating smell of barbecuing hangs in the air morning, noon & night as our campers & guests make the most of our late summer.

News of the farm jalopy is not good, it is poorly sick & has had to have its head skimmed or something equally painful, anyway, after lots of work the final diagnosis is terminal for the poor old thing. We may have to get something practical & boring like a van which makes me sad.....I liked the quirks of the pick up & the fact that if I did have a little shunt up against a bollard you couldn't really tell because of the other knocks & bumps!!
Yesterday was the long awaited Eglwsbach show & we had a great stand opposite the main livestock ring & the Beer tent....perfect location as the sun made me quite thirsty. Here are the photos..    

About us: As I watch the rain falling...........

About us  I aim not to get wet in the mornings to avoid being wet all day....that's OK in theory, but I got my first soaking about 10am this morning putting campers on the field & have been dishevelled ever since. I have given up wearing any footwear other that my birkis as my feet get so wet, so often, it's not even worth trying to keep them dry!! It must be August then........  
Apparently wet weather is good for something......catching salmon, so Pete can be found on the river Conwy most evenings catching dinner we hope, as that will mean I won't have to go shopping !!  
Furniture wise we are full flow to make a range to take to the Eglwysbach show from chopping blocks to  wardrobes & everything in between we will be loading up the vintage horsebox & setting up our stand next Friday. Safest clothing choice will probably be wax jackets & hunter wellies....but we can always hope.
Thrill of the week.........seeing my dinner service on Agatha Chrisites Poirot .....I lead a very sheltered life!!
Achievement of the week........Selling a bed to 'Liberty' of London (my favourite shop in the whole wide world)
Moan of the week........Getting a £3000 water bill from Welsh Water, when I think we provide more water to them off our land than we are ever likely to use!!! maybe I should send them a bill !!

High of the week.........The lovely Strawberry daiquiris made by Donna which made me forget about the rain <3    

About us: This weeks Mid July Blog.

About us: Apart from the obvious jet stream disaster we are doing quite well this week. Four days in seven were rain free but on the days it did rain it made up for the dry days!!! I brought an old tin bath a few weeks ago for planting in: I thought it would make a nice colourful display in the yard........needless to say the bath is now half full of rain water & if I had planted anything it probably would have drowned!!!
High of the Week: The chicks have been let out into the yard to discover the wider world & they love it.......It's lovely to see them scratching & feeding on grubs & grass. They are still quite small so we were a bit worried about the predatory cats.......but we still have the same number that we started with, good news!
On the furniture front: my favourite piece this week is a huge antique chest of drawers we have restored & painted in a light grey, most of my clothes would fit in it & that's quite a big ask!! The other items which are very popular are the free standing, custom made, kitchen pieces which are being made to order for an old cottage in Bala.
Moan of the week: If there have been any knock on advantages to the tourist industry round here as a result of the London Olympic Games, it is not in evidence here........The local area is suffering quite badly with bookings down all over the categories of  accommodation, hotels, B&B's, guest houses and self catering cottages & camp sites; as long as the London hotels do well I suppose that's all that matters to the great & the good!!!          

About us: We All Got Wet This Week

About us We all took shelter where we could: the chickens under the horse box, the humans and other animals inside.............we were not overwhelmed with campers this week, so we put all our energies into working on furniture orders. I have included some photos of the commission pieces we have made for local customers and some of the pieces that were finished .

Also, on a happy note, we have to announce that Olly has a girlfriend (his first) she is a  border terrier/cross?? called 'Bronwen' and a Welsh lass, so at least they can understand each other!! they are both one year old and have been playing very sweetly together this week as Bronwen's owner was staying in the Cartbarn.
We have an American family staying in the Farmhouse & before they went in I took some new photos to update the website; The family are surprised that in our lovely Welsh summer they need the central heating on in the daytime & a log burning stove on at night......the jet stream certainly has a lot to answer for!!

About us: After A Short Break- Back to Work

About us: It is always good to get back to the fabric swatches and paint samples after a few weeks off.
There have been some restoration projects going on in the workshop which take time (over a hundred years worth of grime to remove)
Other projects have been a vintage group of red & white spots on furniture and a pink set of  vintage bedroom furniture made to look pretty in 'Camomile' by Farrow & Ball. The blanket box has been lined with paper to match. A range of small crochet blankets has given a 'lived in' feel to one area of the showroom and because I ran out of floor space the eclectic mixture of chairs ended up hanging on the wall, where I quite like them.

On the Camp site the weather has not been kind to our campers (heating is still required) apart from the very hardy types. The mountain bikers are the only ones not complaining......they seem to prefer mud, to hard surfaces, perhaps for softer landings.        

About us: Hafod Farm Summer Range In-House Designed & Made Free-standing Kitchen Furniture

About us: The workshop has been busy this week with our new range of free standing kitchen furniture, there is more to come & the waiting list is 6 weeks at the moment.
Pete & I are both flagging after a really busy Jubilee holiday and half term......we were full on the camp site & in the cottages so we are in after-shock-mode & sleeping for twelve hours per night, then, waking up and feeling tired !!

Next week will be given over to fun and outings as we will at last be able to make the most of Gautam being home, it's lovely to have him back.....

About us Jubilee Weekend at Hafod Farm

About us There is a lot going on here this weekend: We have about 200 Jubilee campers staying for the long weekend, the campsite looks lovely with bunting over many of the tents (i will post photos tomorrow)
Both holiday cottages are out to families & friends, the family have a visiting daughter over from New Zealand and the group of friends have had a charity challenge to climb 3 peeks in Snowdonia, over 3000ft within 24 hours, they failed in this as they had to come off Crib Goch in terrible weather in the early hours of this morning.
The cakes have arrived and everybody loves them.......thank you Jenny & Jo from the welsh cake company in Betws, I will post photos of the jubilee & daffodil cakes tomorrow because they are so beautiful.  
The big news however is that our son Gautam is currently on a flight home from school in India. We haven't seen him for 11 months so tomorrow will be a joyous day when he reaches Wales & we start our own celebrations!!!     

About us: This Weather deserves a special blog

About us: All furniture production has stopped at Hafod Farm as everything takes a back seat to this fabulous heat & sunshine.
The camp site is filling up as the holiday makers and people climbing Snowdon, doing the 3 peaks challenge, or just barbecuing & playing football. This has kept us busy with the cottages going out as well. I had to get my camera out this morning with all the colour in the garden & in the sky........we are making the most of what is an unusual event in Snowdonia SUN, SUN & MORE SUN, long may it last!