Tranquillity and frustration

Today is my last full day in Herefordshire - and it is shaping up to be a very full day! It is now just gone 6.00 am and I am already up, washed and dressed and sitting outside on a bench by the lake. Above me stretches a pure blue sky, unblemished by even the merest hint of cloud, the birds are singing their early morning songs, the grass is wet with dew beneath my feet and there is a slight trail of vapour above the lake. It's going to be a scorching day. It's also going to be the first hay baling day in the lower paddock and this evening it will be all hands on deck - a time when, traditionally, every community member lends a hand to haul the bales home. The grass was cut on Saturday as the weather forecast was good, by Saturday evening there was talk of a light shower on Sunday; on Sunday there was talk of a heavy storm; Sunday evening and for most of the night it hammered down! Since then the weather has improved day by day and volunteers have been turning the hay each afternoon.

In a little while I shall go back indoors and have a bit of breakfast and then I am scheduled to give the chickens their breakfasts, plus I have volunteered to help milk the goats again, with a view to seeing a goats cheese made from the milk, and then I expect I shall be weeding again. My working day is supposed to start at 10.00 and finish at 5.00 with a leisurely lunch in between but I have found the place so beguiling that I have done far more hours than that. Spending time in the highly productive walled garden has been a soul restoring activity and to see rows of neatly weeded vegetables or newly turned soil at the end of my endeavours never ceases to satisfy.

I have not only weeded; I have harvested comfrey to put on the compost heaps; done a bit of hand-milking of both the Jersey cow and the goats; helped with the production of a cooked goats cheese called Halloumi; helped on the maintenance gang painting the inside of the large greenhouse and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I am going to be very sad to leave this place but I have a lot more travelling to do not only physically but mentally too before I can decide on my future.

The frustration here, and hence sitting on the lawn in the cool of the morning on a cold metal bench, is the inconsistency of my mobile internet connection. The laptop has been on a table in my room for over a week and most days I can get enough signal to at least check my emails - today, nothing! In fact, I couldn't get a signal anywhere in my room so I've come outside to be near the huge mulberry tree on the lawn that apparently stands on a ley line that increases the signal! It's true that it is a good signal here, but the downside is that, in bright daylight, I can barely see the screen so I hope that my typing is accurate! Only once, since I have been here have I managed to catch Jeni on line, and there ensued the most frustrating hour as I tried time and again to speak to her on Skype. We gave up in the end, defeated by technology, and I can only conclude that mobile broadband (which is incredibly slow even with full signal) is not up to supporting a Skype connection. I shall have to hope that I can get internet at the next place I am going to and that Jeni and I coincide at some point down the line as it is over a month since I last spoke to her. For anyone who doesn't already know, Jeni is currently in Paraguay and you can read her blog at http://mothsandbeetlesandbugs.blogspot.com/.

Well, I must go now, breaksfast and hungry chickens are calling me! I'm off to Shropshire tomorrow for assignment number three!