Livestock update

Five christmas turkeys arrived today, neurotic as usual and rather small ... they've got a lot of growing to do over the next three and a half months!

Gorgeous new hand-finished cards in

We've just taken delivery of some very original new stock from Joanne Wishart, an artist from the East-coast village of Tynemouth. All of British wild birds, they are printed on torn-effect paper and mounted on high quality textured board.

New Fine Art card collection arrives

This month we have significantly boosted our range of art cards with a new selection from the Robertson Collection and we know you like them as they started selling the moment we added them to the site! Find them in Orchard's favourite "themes" of seaside, birds and Scotland, or type RC- into the text search box.

Nice Testimonial received 14-07-2009

"Just to let you know, my order arrived this morning. Great cards and great service!! Many thanks and hope to see you again." J.H.

Four weeks old ...

I'm always amazed by the rate at which the chicks grow, ours (see entry below) have at least quadrupled their birth weight in just four weeks. The gorgeous weather has meant we have been able to put them outside earlier than usual and they are loving the grass.

Nice testimonial received 22-06-2009

"I received my order next day and was absolutely delighted with it. Many thanks for such an excellent service with such good quality cards. I will be back!" N.S.

Nice Testimonial received 17-06-2009

"I notice your business seems to be expanding and I wish you all the very best of luck. Nice cards, nice people, reasonable prices and efficiency. Good site. What more could we ask?" Kind regards, Mrs J.B."

New arrivals at Mere House Farm

We've hatched 15 chicks in the incubator today (from 20 eggs, which is a good hatching rate for us). They are terribly cute at the moment, but have been specially bred as free-range table birds so we mustn't get too attached!

Ayo Ghurkali!

Thank goodness, something to make us feel good about being British at last, and how utterly courteous of the Ghurkas to thank us so sincerely after their long battle with the Government for justice (picture courtesy of The Telegraph).

New Gillian Pattinson greetings cards

New in this month is a stunning range of cards illustrated with birds and Scottish landscapes by Gillian Pattinson. Gillian studied at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing & Painting in London, and after having her family, moved to Wester Ross in 1986. Gillian works fast in a variety of techniques including watercolour, acrylic and collage and mixed media. These are cards that cannot be found on the high street.

New gift selection online

Having been selling cards for three years now, and feeling confident about our range, we've decided to add a new range of easy-to-post gifts to our website. They're mainly based on the kind of thing I'd give to Kate to take to a children's birthday party, or perhaps the kind of small token I'd take if I were invited out to lunch. We do hope you like them.

New card payment processor & Paypal

We are pleased to have changed to a new payment processor, Protx, this week. We previously used HSBC to manage our card payments, but found that too many customers experienced difficulties or interruptions during the check-out process.

Protx appears to be working much more smoothly, and an added benefit is that customers now have the option of using Paypal to check-out, as well as credit or debit card.

Nice testimonial received 05-03-2009

"Just wanted to say thank you for excellent service. My cards and my mum's (who lives next door to me) arrived the next morning and we loved the descriptions of the cards and easy to use website. Many thanks, J.H."

New stock in from Emma Ball

Absolutely tons of new cards have come in over the past two months, but we are particularly delighted to have started stocking Emma Ball's cards. If you like her watercolour paintings, type "Emma" into our text search box, or look for her regional designs under [Theme] e.g. Cornwall, Scotland, Wales etc

Nice testimonial received 06-02-2009

"Order arrived this a.m. Super service. Am delighted with cards. Hope you will have more Easter cards. I will be back. Many thanks. Mrs M.J."

Disaster in the orchard

We have just lost all our hens to a fox - there was a powercut shortly after midnight (which we didn't discover till morning) and so the electric fence was off for most of the night. I have heard that foxes can be very persistent, and will check a hen house every night for months, just waiting for that one occasion when they haven't been shut in, and that seems to have been proved in this case. I'm just glad that I didn't send Kate and Charlie out to get the eggs today, as the fox only took one hen away, and left the other corpses scattered around the paddock (and one dead in the nestbox).

Cold snap

The cold snap has made life a bit more difficult at Mere House Farm, providing extra food and water for the poultry and animals. However it has brought some more unusual birds to our feeders, and we've been really delighted to receive regular visits from a flock of long-tailed tits over the past few days, never before seen within the boundaries of the garden. Now they know we're here, we hope they keep coming when it warms up.