2017 Goals ~ Let’s go with Healthy, Wealthy and Wise… and a couple donkeys

I absolutely adore that the advent of the New Year gives one a sense of renewal, a chance to reflect and consequently focus on ones short and long term goals.  We have lots of changes planned for 2017 and, I must say, yes, I must, that we are very, very excited (and a teeny bit scared).  We will be putting all our eggs into our  entrepreneurial basket and focusing our time specifically ~ Pumpjack’s to our new wine business Terroir au Verre and me, Piddlewick, to my Pumpjack & Piddlewick  Shop and the life that goes on behind it, so our blog will get a bit of a face lift too this year.

Welcome 2017! It’s make or break time.
(Hmmm, maybe not a good euphemism when talking about entrepreneurial eggs.)

Harvest Widow – the other, though arguably not better, half of wine making

There’s a term in the the wine industry, a ‘Harvest Widow’. I’m a Harvest Widow. In fact this is my 6th time being a widow. No, I haven’t butchered 6 husbands and hidden them under the vines, though harvest time may give one ideas. Harvest season is the best of times and the worst of times, as it brings in the bounty (hopefully) but also means long, long, long hours, getting up before dawn, coming home well after dark, often working through the night. And as a Harvest Widow, I keep the home fires burning, food ready and on the table and to bring to work the next day, the animals fed, watered and walked, and I do lots and lots and lots of laundry.

Chamomile has taken over my garden – tea any one?

Last year I planted Chamomile, with no great success. I tried it in various places and had a little grow in one of my pallet planters. It produced one really good bunch of flowers, which were duly harvested and made into Chamomile tea.

But what I had forgotten, when I had been, with desperate conviction, trying to get my chamomile to grow, was that I had ‘lost’ almost half a packet of seeds that had spilled out of the envelope. Fast forward to a little over a year later and I now know where the seeds have gone.

Downsizing, Giving it all up, Changing your Life… Is it very hard to do?

I’ve ‘given it all up’ in my life, not once, but twice.  By choice. The first time I gave up everything was to travel the world by bicycle.  When I met people they would inevitably ask, “What’s the hardest thing you have had to do?” The answer was always ~ to go.

This answer remains fundamental, whether changing your life style, downsizing or, as in our case, Following our Dream. Giving up the life you know, the life you are comfortable with, is the hardest step to pursuing change.

Finding a Vineyard in France (or not) – Part 2

After attending the public meeting with SAFER in Chichee about vineyards for sale, feeling still completely blind and rather disorientated, we headed off to look over the areas that had been discussed at the meeting, trying to determine which vineyards were the ones up for sale.

After thoroughly wasting our time, but managing to settle our nerves, we got home to discover a message had been left for us to phone SAFER. Zing, the nerves came right back.

What’s In Store – From Us To You

We have been travelling the world for the last few years, making wine. In 2014, we took a leap, to follow our dream and make our own wine in France. To assist in supporting this dream, and with true entrepreneurial spirit, we are also putting our creative juices (or should that be wine?) to the fore in making a variety of additional items, crafted from the world around us, to sell in our shop Pumpjack & Piddlewick.

Following A Dream

It all happened rather suddenly actually.

We had been travelling the world, moving from hemisphere to hemisphere, following summer, making wine. Idyllic in many ways,

Loosing My Garden Virginity

Last year this time I was a garden virgin.  In fact, I would have declared easily that I had a brown thumb. My mother has the most amazing green thumb, so I have always felt extremely disappointed that I didn’t inherit an iota of her talent ~ I managed to kill (mostly through kindness, I hasten to add) every plant she ever gave me, even the ones she said were impossible to kill.  However, that never meant I was willing to give up.

In the beginning … Creative Ginger supports letter writing and drinking wine

We’re Pumpjack & Piddlewick~

A redhead (Piddlewick) with a fun loving attitude and a quirky sense of humour, living with an eccentric, mad scientist oenologist (Pumpjack – he who makes wine). We have been travelling the world for the last few years, making wine in such places as Northern Spain, New Zealand and California. However, enhancing other peoples plans and lifestyles was not enough for us. We decided to take the leap, and Follow Our Dreams.