Life on the (cheese) Farm!

Our lovely few days with Mike and Judy draw to an end today. We've had a marvellous time and got to participate in daily and special rituals and Ian was able to visit the New Forrest Reptile Centre.

As part of Hampshire Food Week, Lyburn Farm hold 'Farm Walks', although no walking was involved, all was viewed from atop a trailer pulled by a John Deere tractor. (is there any other)

A very special highlight for me was being able to join the cheese maker yesterday and actually assist in turning about 2500ltrs of milk into lovely rounds of cheese. Due to sanitary reasons there are no photos of this event as scrubbing my phone would have been unproductive. To actually feel and see the different stages of curd development was fantastic and I can't wait to put my new-found knowledge to use, when working with my little 5ltr tub 💜

Blessed are the Cheese-makers...and all their relatives!

There are tell-tale signs of being in a Smales UK household - these are:

Binoculars and the British Book of Birds on a landing overlooking the garden, Farmhouse Cheeses and organic veggies, John Deere tractors and the magnificent garden of Little Buckholt.

On the way to Lyburn farm we stopped in Brighton to see the house John Mottram lived in, after his return from Peru and had lunch on a pebble beach. Upon our arrival, we learned that a huge combined 40th birthday party for Jono & Kate was to be held on Saturday night and the rest of the weekend was spend reconnecting, sharing stories and 'whiting up' to inspect the award winning cheeses.