As our wet winter drags on, slightly lighter evening, snowdrops, crocuses and the green shoots of bulbs, all give us hope that eventually spring will be in the air.
Continue readingPatatas Bravas, and the portents of spring
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Category Archives: Good Life
Trouble 2 – Airbourne Solar!
They say misery loves company, and it wasn’t just a punctured tyre we suffered recently at The Secret Acre.
Storm Chandra at the end of January turned one row of our new ground mounted solar panels into the lesser known airbourne variety!
Continue readingFour More Paws
Eagle eyed readers will have noticed mention of a dog in both our Christmas greetings and in the tale of our recent sheep invasion at The Secret Acre.
Continue readingNorthern Lights
In common with much of the UK, there was an unbelievable display of the aurora borealis in Gloucestershire last night. I never saw it this good when living in Scotland!
In case you missed our own pics on social media, here they are again,straight off Emma’s phone camera with no editing…
Continue readingIt’s Cheese Gromit
January is that time, at the start of a new year, when everyone asks us what our new Wedding Anniversary theme is for the next 12 months.
And the answer for 2026, out of box number ten of our ‘Mystery Moose’ of yearly wedding anniversary themes is… Cheese!
Continue readingSeason’s Greetings 2025
As you know, we no longer send Christmas Cards, in favour of posting our news on our blog – http://www.thesecretacre.com – throughout the year. But, wishing all our friends another Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The Great Escape of Shawn the Sheep
The other weekend, we let the dog out at 7am as usual for her morning pee, then went back to bed with a cup of tea.
Half an hour later, we looked out of the window to see a huge flock of sheep had mysteriously and silently, with military precision, materialised in the garden like a mass of fluffy clouds, as if we had suddenly been transported into a bizarre live action episode of Shawn the Sheep!
Continue readingEvidence of Autumn 2025
Despite the dry summer, autumn dampness seemed to arrive just in time for a spectacular display of seasonal colour.
The autumn fungi seemed to enjoy it too, with an abundance of edible and non-edible varieties popping up around The Secret Acre.
Continue readingRecord Breakers
If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest… have a really dry year apparently… certainly some things on the smallholding have enjoyed it more than others… and not necessarily the things you might expect.
Continue readingPower to the People
Another big piece of our original plans for living at The Secret Acre has finally fallen into place, after only ten years in the planning!
We are declaring our energy independence. No more hostage to Putin, dirty fossil fuels, or uneconomically expensive nuclear, and all the evil dinosaur corps that continue to peddle them.
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The Secret Acre 