Kitting out the new outdoor kitchen continued this summer with the arrival of a wood-fired outdoor cooking oven.
Continue readingThe Big Birthday Pizza Oven
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Category Archives: Good Life
A Summer Round Up
It’s shaping up to have been a pretty good year at The Secret Acre, despite the very dry weather.
Where crops simply failed in last year’s unseasonable rain, at least the gardener has the chance to water things, especially, if like us, you live in a well-managed area like Severn Tent Water, which rarely needs a hosepipe ban.
So most things are back to growing reasonably well, even if the fruits are a bit undersized from the lack of rain.
Continue readingThe Outdoor Kitchen
While we were enjoying our spring equinox BBQ earlier in the year, we were also getting round to starting the final transformation of our rebuilt ‘lean to love shack’ into a new outdoor kitchen.
Continue readingMe, I’m just a rotavator, you can tell me by the way I…. er…. churn?
The rotavator man cometh!
Since moving to The Secret Acre, on the principal of cash poor, time rich, Paul has dug over the veg patches each spring, having never quite managed yet to get our ‘no dig’ act together sufficiently.
Continue readingFrom too Wet, to too Hot
Following our unexpectedly early ‘three seasons’ spring equinox BBQ, the UK weather delivered a prolonged heatwave.
Thanks to the growing climate crisis, after last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet spring and summer, causing England’s England second worst harvest on record, spring 2025 could prove to be one of the hottest and driest on record. We are already suffering the most extreme marine heatwave since satellite monitoring began.
Continue readingSpring Equinox: enjoying three seasons in one day!
Last week saw the arrival of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The UK enjoyed an unseasonably warm day, including Wales’ warmest spring equinox on record, as the early impacts of the coming climate chaos continue to make themselves felt.
Naturally, here at The Secret Acre, we took the opportunity for a summer BBQ. Our earliest on record, after none at all in last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet.
We ended up enjoying three seasons in one day! A summer BBQ on the warmest spring equinox, having dug up the last of the winter leaks, to char on the BBQ coals, and eat with an excellent romesco sauce.
Continue readingOur 2025 Wedding Anniversary theme… we’ve got wood!
Stop sniggering at the back.
As regular readers know, back in the mists of time, we decided to dump the traditional dull wedding anniversaries here at The Secret Acre, in favour of our own list of anniversary themes of things we like, that would make celebrating each year fun.
Continue readingSeason’s Greetings 2024!
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.
Back on the Land! Is this finally Summer?
Readers here in the UK will know that, after the wettest winter/spring on record and stubbornly cold temperatures, finally as we reach mid-summer, we might finally be getting some summer weather.
Continue readingSeason’s Greetings from the 2023 Museum Miners!
Wishing all our friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Like many people, we are no longer sending Christmas Cards, in favour of donating the money to charity instead. You have to follow our posts here for all our news through the year.
So we thought we’d end 2023 then, with these pictures from our ‘Museum’ anniversary year!
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