Sunday 14th September 2008

A glorious day outside completing a weekend of near perfect weather....blue skies and few clouds with just the gentlest of breezes keeping the temperatures manageable. Phil is off to rugby practice this morning with his dad, Nicholas is asleep upstairs in his cot (for a change) and Megs, Mom and I have just been hanging, finishing the weeks homework, tidying the house and doing the ironing, but all in a nice kind of girly fog which is quite lovely for a change, not a trace of testosterone anywhere in the house (lol) and oh so quiet!!!!!

Having spent yesterday at Tully's Farm, Mom and I are planning a delicious Sunday Roast with the most beautiful piece of roast beef, fresh brussel sprouts, cauliflower and roast potatoes bought at the farmstall and finished off with a raspberry pavlova using raspberries which we picked ourselves yesterday.

Tully's Farm is situated about 16 minutes north of us in Turner's Hill on the way to Crawley, the farms main purpose is fruit and vegetable production, originally for the London Markets and more recently through Pick Your Own for direct farm sales. Strawberries are synonymous with Tulley's and they along with raspberries form the back bone of the farm's summer fruit season.
They have the most stunning farm shop which is a converted milking parlour and prides itself as a high quality provider of local and regional foods.

Having seen the weather on Saturday morning we decided to meet up with Kerry and her kids and take a trip up there as Tully's were hosting their Harvest Tasting Festival, where you get to try the most magnificent products and my word, we all thought we had died and gone to heaven and spent a wonderful hour exploring the gorgeous farm shop and tasting the wares...... I discovered Pear and Vanilla chutney to eat with hard cheese.....omg, this is right up there with my Rhubarb and Ginger cake from Amberly's (the traditional country food in England is to die for and I just love getting to taste all these wonderful products before actually buying them).

After a picnic eaten in the field behind the farm shop, we all went down into the Raspberry fields and spent another happy hour picking our own fruit (something Mom has been wanting to do since she arrived), finished off by picking some Sunflowers for the lounge and then heading home exhausted, tanned and happy.

Although we were all very tired from being out on the farm most of the day, we dragged ourselves down to Victoria Park (the main park in Haywards Heath) in the evening to meet up with Tracy and her children for the end of "town day" and the firework display.....again omg....you have no idea, I am so glad we went, I thought at one stage mom was going to pass out from holding her breath, it was the most spectacular firework display I have ever seen and lasted for at least 30 minutes, truly breathtaking. So all and all a fantastic day and finished off in the best way ever, the children thought they had died and gone to heaven.