Guest Post!

Hey y'all! I'd like you to meet someone! 

Hello! My name is Rachel, and my blog is The Reluctant Bumpkin. I’m 25 years old, engaged to Steve, ‘mum’ to my fur baby kitties Chester and Dora and recently (January 2012) took the step of moving in with my other half, into a cottage in rural Cambridgeshire, UK. 

I agonised over what to write for this guest post. Seriously spent days worrying, coming up with a list of ideas, scrubbing some off and adding new ones. Before I know it, its 23:40 on the night before the posts are due to be published and I start to panic. 

I have a moment of clarity though (at about 23:42) and decided to write about what I know best – ME. There’s really nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion I figure, so I finally decided to write a post which epitomises the crux of my blog itself – country living, being me, and the journey of growing up through moving away from my parents for the first time, and having to fend for myself. 

The House

We rent our house, and as such we can’t really and truly decorate. However the house is pretty neutral (cream/magnolia/pale green throughout) and while I sometimes dream of creating funky statement wall in the lounge or turning Olivias (my partners daughter who stays with us every other weekend) room into a pink, princess, fairy haven, I can work with neutral for now. I try to let my personality show through in the ornaments and accessories I have in the house, whilst keeping in with the rural theme/lifestyle. 

 Stop. Read the Sign. Do as it says. You'll feel better for it. 

Cooking

Cooking was my former nemesis. Don’t get me wrong, I loved to bake and create delicious treats, but loathed cooking dinner for myself or anyone else. Before I into a serious, grown up relationship, my dinners would mostly comprise of brinner (breakfast for dinner = brinner), or pasta. Nutritious, no?

But now I cannot serve cereal and toast to Steve, or any guests we may have, however much I’d love to. Living in the country we now have a working vegetable patch at our disposal, farm shops down the road, and good ol’ Tescos a 10 min drive away. 

So I’ve had to force myself to cook proper, substantial dinners, and I must admit…I don’t hate it all the time. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes there are still nights where I’d rather crack open a bottle of wine and pour myself a bowl of Cheerios than slave over a beautiful meal for an hour or so, but 90% of the time I think about what ingridients we have and what I can make that will be tasty and satisfying. 

And truth be told – I’m actually pretty good at it. I use my blog as a platform to share some recipes, and love reading other recipes for culinary inspiration now too. 

Some foody related bits I’ve posted so far are:

Chorizo, Potato, Egg and Green Bean Warm Salad 

French Apple Cake 

Asparagus and Poached Eggs

Dependants

Dependants is a scary word; and I betcha didn’t think I’d lump my cats into this category. But I have and I’ll tell you for why:

It is my job to keep these furry little things alive, and while they can fend for themselves to a certain extent, it is up to me to make sure they are fed and watered on a twice-daily basis, in a safe and loving environment, and when they get sick it is up to me and my responsibility to take them to a vet and pay for any meds they need. I also have to clear up their mess, and the path of destruction they leave in their wake. I regurlarly have to rescue various wildlife from their clutches, in fact whilst writing this I heard a kerfuffle outside and manage to liberate ANOTHER baby bunny from Dora’s claws (that’s country living for you, folks!). 

I like to think that caring for these two has put my in good stead for any future procreating I decide to do myself. Yup – I have just compared owning cats to having children of my own. 

The Garden

I bang on enough about my garden in my own blog, so I wont do the same on poor Jess’s blog, however in a nutshell: we now have a massive garden complete with veggie patch and it is our job to keep it looking nice. No spare pennies for professional gardeners here *sad face*. I’ve come to realise that while I cant exactly call myself green-fingered, I dont instantly cause death and destruction to any plant I happen across. 

The garden is actually blooming lovely (geddit?) right now, and while I cant take all the credit, I think the pruning and basic maintenance I’ve been doing to date is really helping. I now take pride in the look of my garden, and as such I don’t mind chucking on a pair of wellies and gloves and getting stuck into digging and planting. 

Growing up

I barely recognise myself…what happened to the tequila soaked, brinner eating, plant killing girl I once was? I guess in summary and if I really think about it – she’s still in there somewhere. But keeping her in check is the new, responsible me who now thinks; ‘There’s more than one person to think about here now. Put down the cocktail shaker, step away from those high heels and do the washing up’ 

Occasionally though I need to let the old me loose and allow her a night out of drinking, dancing and being silly. Because what would a life of being a grown up 24/7 be like? A pretty boring one, I imagine. 

So there you have it. I do hope you’ve enjoyed my post, and if you’d like to read some more about me please come on over to The Reluctant Bumpkin. I love receiving comments, gaining new followers (keeps the motivation sky high!) and discovering other blogs, so have a looksee; leave a link and I will defo return the favour. THAT’S A PROMISE.

Thanks Jess for letting me hijack your corner of the interweb for a wee while :-)

Rachel x