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Meet Gustav

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Exciting news!

We have rehomed a cat from the nice people at Cats Protection.  Meet Gustav, out 11 year old domestic long hair cat!  We might be a bit bias but we have decided he is, in fact, the best cat ever!

Gustav

Pets make a home

Getting pets has been high on our agenda since we moved, we both feel a house isn’t just not a home without some furry critters wandering about.  We had been in contact a couple of branches of Cats Protection, having a house visit to make sure we were suitable.  As we are quite close to a road so we decided that it would be best to rehome an older cat that is less likely to go wandering.

Gustav was in the Newbury rehoming centre, he was looking in a bit of a sorry state.  He had come into the centre with serious teeth issues which has resulted in a lot being removed.  He had matted hair on his tummy that had had to be shaved off and and had a bad case of fleas that they need to treated.

Gustav

Our Purrfect Cat

Despite all of this on meeting Gustav we almost instantly knew he was the cat for us.  He was friendly and confident which endeared him to us. Despite his straggly appearance, and wonky ears we could see he was a majestic cat.  So the deed was done, we signed on the dotted line and the very next day Gustav came home with us. He was a bit on the nervous side to start with, but soon came out of himself.

Gustav loves his food which is helping with training him.  He is very playful so we have stocked up on all sorts of cat toys.  He loves chasing these about the place and when he tires he spends the evenings curled up on one of our laps.

We have introduced Gustav to Rich’s folks dogs and he took that all in his stride so we are confident when we finally get round to getting our puppy he will not be put out.

Gustav

King Gustav

Gustav wasn’t his original name, but we decided with his regal looks he needed a regal name.  He is therefore named after King Gustav III of Sweden, we think it suits him very well!

We can’t thank the people at Cats Protection enough, especially the staff at the Newbury Rehoming Centre.  They were helpful, informative and very supportive. If you are looking to rehome a cat, we cannot recommend them enough.

Gustav

28th April 2017
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Getting Settled

Posted in Dwell, News by
New Home

So as per our last update we finally found our new home.  Since we shared that post we have moved in, begun to get to know the town and have started planning how we are going to improve and decorate the house.  Our house doesn’t have a name, but in honour of our blog we will informally refer to it as Orchard Cottage.  We will be using a blog for a place to share updates with you.  There is plenty to be getting on with, and we will be starting the projects soon. Before we get started on anything we’ll share with you room by room tour and share our current thinking, keep checking back over the next few weeks.

We have already had our first dinner party at the cottage and have more planned so there will be plenty to share with you.  We are also busy planning our holidays for this year.  With so much to do at the cottage we won’t be getting out and about as much as we used to but we love our little adventures.  Its going to be a busy and exciting time for us, we can’t wait too how you what we get up to.

We received lots of lovely housewarming cards, we particularly loved this card from Rich’s cousin Catherine. She obviously knows us well as we have already started lots of new pinterest boards for the different rooms, go take a look and let us know your thoughts.

Best wishes for now,

Rich & Calum

New Home

23rd February 2017
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Our New Home

Posted in Dwell, News by
Orchard Blog | Our New Home

Since we started this blog we have been looking for a new home, we have been living at Rich’s folks cottage whilst we carry out our search.  We are very excited to to tell you we have finally found somewhere and will be moving in next week.  One of the reasons we started this blog was to share the development of our new home, it has just taken a little while longer than we anticipated.

Our new home is a Victorian semi-detached house in Whitchurch, Hampshire.  The house was built in 1897 as one of a row of about a dozen houses, it was probably intended as a farm or mill workers home. The cottages were originally known as Jubilee Cottages due to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in the year the houses were completed.

Our New Home

We have 2 reception rooms and 3 bedrooms, and plenty of space for us to grow into.  The house has potential to extend into the loft and to the back and side if required. Over the years a lot of the house’s character has been removed, we will be looking to adding some of this back in.  The garden is mainly on a steep hill, with just a small section being on the flat, this will prove a bit of a challenge but we’ll figure something out.  Rich’s garden design education will come in handy!  The house is in perfectly good working order but we will no doubt redecorate throughout to our tastes, we’ll of course be sharing the progress here.

Our New Home

The house is on the edge of Whitchurch in North Hampshire. The nearest big towns are Andover, Newbury, Basingstoke and Winchester. Whitchurch itself is proud of its town status but in truth it is more akin to a village.  There are a handful of shops, five or so pubs and a selection of restaraunts and take aways, so we are not entity cut off from civilisation. It also has a train station with direct trains to London.

Whitchurch is famous for being the home of Richard Adam, the author of Watershed Down. The down itself lies not far from our new home, on the edge of the North Wessex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty.  The house is not far from the River Test, a beautiful chalk stream which is apparently a very good for trout fishing if that is your sort of thing? Of more interest to us is just up the road (and river) in Laverstoke.  Housed in an old paper mill is the Bombay Sapphire gin distillery, we are very excited about this, they doing guided tours and special events there, we’re sure to become regulars at their on site bar!

We are looking forward to doing into our new home in Whitchurch, and excited to join the community.  The hard work starts now!

Our New HomeOur New Home

Images courtesy of Graham & Co

18th January 2017
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Welcome to 2017

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Happy New Year! We hope you had a suitably joyful Christmastime? But alas the festivities had to come to an end. Our decorations have been taken down and are nows safely stored back in the loft, and so far our resolutions are holding strong.Happy New Year

We are having a little break from the blog but we will start up in earnest next week. We have really enjoyed blogging over the last several months, but we needed a bit of a break to gather our thoughts and evaluate how we are going to move forward. We have lots of ideas, and some exciting new coming up so keep and eye out and we will be back with you soon.

All the best

Rich & Calum

7th January 2017
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Hello | Welcome to Orchard Blog

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Hello! We are Rich & Calum, a happy couple on our adventure through life. We love exploring & adventures, hosting parties & creating a welcoming home, and above all making the most of life.

We have been sharing our going on with our friends for several years but at some point in late 2015 when we were thinking about new year’s resolutions we decided we would like to start a blog to share with a wider audience. This has led to creating Orchard Blog.

As with all blogs we know the content will develop and evolve over time, but as we set off  we have three main topics in mind:

Dwell

Ideas, inspiration & updates on our home & garden

Gather

Parties, food & drink

Explore

Adventures, travel & days out 

We hope you enjoy our posts, and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. Or if you have any questions feel free to get in touch on social media or send us a message here.

Rich & Calum

Rich-&-Calum

 

20th April 2016
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