Sugar bush

The farm at Kings landing

Our horse and cart ride

Pouring the maple taffy onto the snow to cool quickly

Spot the water wheel in this picture!

Harriet & Maeve on the horse and cart ride.

Isaac & Maeve eating the maple taffy

Grandad Woollin's privvy!

This week has seemed ever so long, although the time change has meant it's light till after 8pm which is lovely. We have taken advantage of this and gone walking on an evening a couple of times, there is still lots of drifted snow but the roads are clear and the sun has been shining most of the week making it feel very spring like. We got up to 9 degrees one day and it made me smile seeing someone in shorts! We are seeing lots more grass appearing all over but it looks very sad and brown at the moment.

I officially started both my afternoon jobs this week, one I found very frustrating and I have a feeling I may be counting the days down till I finish in June. The other was great, very positive and lots of fun so I'll be sad if that finishes in June!

David's job interview went well and he will find out if he's got it in a couple of weeks.

As I had no market again today we went out to Kings Landing, an historical settlement not far from here. They were having their annual sugar bush weekend. This is when the days get above 0 degrees and the nights still freeze so maple syrup can be harvested from the trees. The sap is boiled over a fire then ladled out onto clean snow to quickly set into a mapel taffy, this is very like soft toffee made with black treacle. It is very yummy. All the people were dressed in period costumes ranging from 1820-1880 depending on the age of the house they were in. We had a horse and cart ride and visited the farm of course.