I have friends staying and the ladies all plan to go down to Cardiff for a day of retail therapy. Cardiff has swish shops, a terrific walk through shopping center with every type of shop you can think of and so many different places to stop for a tasty lunch or a delicious cup of coffee.

The men all have different plans. Bob is going to get the big red tractor out and do some work on the Estate, Robbie and Barry are going logging and Big John has planned a full days fishing down on the Towy & Cothi rivers. We packed him a picnic with home made bread filled with thinly sliced, slightly pink local lamb, tomatoes just picked from the greenhouse and thinly sliced hand cut crispy game chips. Washed down with a can of his favourite tipple this will make a good lunch. We are hoping he will bring back supper.

We are still finishing http://www.walesholidaycottages.com/ Just a few more things to do on the web site and it will be fully operational.

Another beautiful balmy September day. I took the RTV down to the orchard and picked eating apples from several of the trees. There is quite a heavy crop of crisp juicy fruit this year.

We spent the rest of the day out in the fresh air usefully, cleaning up weeds and debris from the brick paved entranceway the old fashioned way with a flat shovel, brooms and rakes. It was hard but rewarding work

Feasted on sweet blackberries growing on the brambles beside the top back drive. Came back with fingers and mouths stained purple but having had our fill of them. No rain about at the moment so they should stay plentiful, firm and plump.

As beautiful as The Bwlch Tre Banau Estate is http://www.walesholidaycottages.com/, we all love to travel. We have been looking at some gorgeous properties in Florida. Now is the time to go as the prices are low all through the autumn - found some absolute gems of properties for holiday rental on http://www.amisland.com/ We are going to stay in Villa Serena. It has plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, looks really romantic, has a heated private swimming pool and is close to 7 miles of white sugar sand beaches.

Another gorgeous day - we had breakfast in the morning sunlight outside beside the clematis and the roses - heavenly! I spent the day working on The Orangery, giving it a complete spring clean (or in this case an Autumn clean). The palms are looking wonderful and the last of the oranges need to be picked as the blossoms are starting to burst out again. Orange blossom smells divine. A robin has taken up residence there and he sings to me as I am working. http://www.walesholidaycottages.com/

We fed the carp in the pond, put some more eggs in the incubator to hatch and cut the grass really short. The swallows are still here, swooping low over the bottom pond - they will take off any time now. They all gather in the big pine tree beside Wheatsheaf cottage and then the next day they are gone.

Friends popped in last evening to pick some of the huge yellow raspberries by the pond and I gave them some apples from the orchard. I made apple crumble with butter and chopped hazlenuts in the topping which went down pretty well.

What a beautiful morning. The Autumn sunshine is streaming in throught the bedroom windows and when I look out over the gardens I see the waterlilies in the ponds are still in bloom, huge pink flowers set amongst dark green glossy leaves. The huge old rocks around the water are covered in moss and lichens and all the plants are really green a lush. Looks like being an Indian Summer this autumn.

Yesterday we picked more of the huge yellow raspberries down by the pond, apples from the orchard, oranges from the orangery and grapes from the conservatory. We have loads of ripe tomatoes, both red and yellow in the lean to greenhouse so I picked some rosemary from the rockery and set about making home made tomato soup. Skin and de-pip a couple of pounds of tomatoes, chop a large onion and gently simmer in a little olive oil for 5 minuutes, then add the tomatoes, some really good home made stock, finely chopped rosemary and some black pepper. Left it on to simmer for 20 minutes while we went up to the top meadow to check on the geese. I could not immediately see them in the three ponds, but eventually found them among the bull rushes - I think they are pretty lucky to have their own acre of ground fenced off with saplings, grass and plenty of water to enjoy. When we got back to the kitchen the soup was gently bubbling away. Served it with a swirl of cream and some home made crusty bread - delicious.

Anyone looking for a holiday cottage in Wales could do not better then visit the web site at http://www.walesholidaycottages.com/ The Bwlch Tre Banau Estate is just an hour and a half from Bristol, an hour from Cardiff and about 3 hours from London.

Must go as we are going out to look for mushrooms in the fields - it's that time of year!

We walked over to the kitchen garden and picked runner beans. We also dug up some tiny new potatoes, picked huge yellow & red raspberries down by the pond and ate some sweet tasting blackberries we found on the way. We then walked down the brick path to the orchard and picked a dozen of the slightly crisp and delicious pears.

Here at the Bwlch Tre Banau Estate we aim to be self sufficient.

Found some mushrooms in the neighbours field this morning. Great with chopped bacon and some home baked break for breakfast. Walked down to the river, it is running quite fast and waterfalls are cascading down through the woodlands. Beautiful.

We walked with the dogs along the paths and byways for about an hour this evening at dusk. The moon came up and it was huge and hung low in the sky like an giant misty ochre ball over the landscape. Some cloud drifted by and partly obscured the moonlight, the thought crossed my mind that it would have been useful to have put a torch in our pocket before leaving the house, but the dogs follow the paths homeward and Spotty is so white that he is easy to see. Apart from a few times that they ran off into the fern chasing rabbits, the dogs know their way back. The owl was hooting in the trees down in the valley. I love this place so much, it is such an incredible part of the world to be - we are so lucky!

We are still working on the we site for the holiday cottages www.walesholidaycottages.com
It has been quite a lot of work, but I think that we will be finalising it soon and getting the online booking functioning. In the meantime anyone who wants to book can phone us on 01558 650399