April arrives and we welcome our Easter holiday guests. Our hens are laying well so we can avoid chocolate eggs and savour the real thing.

The gardens are full of primroses and daffodils and we saw the first swallows passing through on April the 2nd. The wildlife pond is teeming with tadpoles. I can already see it is going to be another bumper year for foxgloves. I managed to spruce up the potting shed with left over emulsion from the previous owners and it is looking much prettier now. 

​Work is forging ahead on the "nearly wild campsite" with the new campfire pit set up and the washing up station set up. I have been running wild with ideas for signage and can't wait to get started on them in my workshop. Camping will be very basic, tents only with just a toilet, cold water taps and of course the all important campfire. Pitch up, tune out and relax!

​Sharon x

We have been working on our website over winter 24/25 and at last we have enough content ready to launch it on the world wide web. There are still lots of things we want to add but if we wait for perfection then it will never happen. Andy had been working on the site overall and I am tasked with the history section and this blog. I find local history fascinating and digging into the past of our home has been great fun. Lots of late nights I have spent disappearing into strange internet rabbit holes of research to find out who lived here over the past 300 years and how they lived. I really hope that people who are researching their own family trees will use and add to the information collected here. 

We managed to get a fibre broadband connection here last summer and that has made a huge difference. Bringing Ducks Paddle into the 21st century whilst still keeping its history and charm alive will always be a fine balancing act but both of us feel it is an important aim during our custodianship of this very special little part of north Devon.

We very much would love to hear from anyone, anywhere so if you are interested in what we are up to, have any useful information or just want to say hello please do drop a comment below.

​Sharon x