When I first arrived at Launceston there were two other WWOOFers already here, so after I'd been shown to my room in the luxurious barn conversion(!) I went out to help them in the soon-to-be-revamped vegetable garden, digging out tree roots and dismantling an old wildlife pond that was in the wrong place. Rosie and Gus cooked supper that night as they were leaving the next day, so I was a bit disconcerted when Jo and James asked me if I was OK to look after things while they went away for a couple of days, starting the next day! Luckily for me there are not many animals left on the farm as they have decided to scale down their farming a bit to give themselves some time off in the winter, so all I had to look after were about 60 sheep, one cow and calf, some chickens, three collie dogs and several cats including 4 kittens. Aaah!
I must admit that it felt very strange to suddenly find myself alone after spending the last three weeks as part of a family, but I lit the log-burning stove in the evening and closed all the curtains and then settled down with a good book and it wasn't too bad, although I was quite relieved when they came home again. WWOOFers aren't expected to work at weekends here so it was almost as if I'd had four days off in the first five that I was here. On the Saturday I went for a walk in the woods at the end of the farm that drop down to the river hoping to see the two deer that the farm dogs had chased the day before but although I thought I heard them I failed to catch site of them. James also tells me that there are kingfishers by the pond and evidence of otters - now that is something I would love to see.
Another WWOOFer arrived on Saturday - he's a young Californian with English parents who is over here for about a year and wants to do a couple of long-term WWOOFs. He is very pleasant and we have had some good laughs, mainly taking the rise out of each other. We spent most of the following week laying the hedges in the vegetable garden - a new skill, at last! However, when I said I wanted to learn hedgelaying I hadn't reckoned on the hedges being on top of five foot banks! Physically it was quite challenging as I was trying to use a bow saw and loppers at shoulder height which is not easy. In the end I used a folding handsaw which was a bit easier but I still had aching shoulders by the end of the day. One of the bonuses of thinning out the hazel prior to laying it was the large amount of brash that was produced that we had to burn on a bonfire. Woohoo! Unfortunately, Nathaniel is not allowed bonfires in California because of the risk of forest fires, so I felt it would be mean not to let him do most of the fire-poking - in fact he has definite pyromaniac tendencies too and we got on like a house on fire!!
The weather has been very changeable since I've been here with quite heavy rain overnight giving way to bright, crisp mornings that make you feel good to be alive. I've found myself on several occasions just grinning with the sheer joy of being out in the fresh air on a beautiful, sunny day - but it's best to have your waterproofs handy as the weather can change dramatically in the course of the day. Overnight on Tuesday the wind got up to gale force and the rain lashed down, so that I hardly slept a wink, but in the morning it was calm again and we continued with the hedgelaying - the bonfire was still going, too. Later on we all walked down to the river as we could hear it rushing from up at the farm and James thought it might have burst its banks. It was a raging torrent and had covered the entire bottom pasture that I'd walked across a few days earlier and floated the little bridge across the drainage ditch off its piers. By the next morning it had completely receded again.
On the Friday evening, Jo and James took me to Lezant church where there was a concert in aid of the roof fund. It featured a husband and wife who sang various light classical songs accompanied by a pianist, and a very talented young pianist and organist. The programme was very varied and included a medley of songs from Les Miserables, 'Bless your beautiful hide' from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and the Flanders and Swann song 'I'm a Gnu'! The finale was the organist playing some Handel on the little church organ and I had to smile at the memory that came back unbidden of accompanying my first boyfriend, Jeremy, to a little church just outside Cheltenham where he sometimes played the organ for Sunday service - the pedals of the organ made the same clacking sound that was so loud that it almost drowned out the music being played! It was a very pleasant end to my stay here as I was off to Hatherleigh the next day and Jo and James were off to a family christening.
I must admit that it felt very strange to suddenly find myself alone after spending the last three weeks as part of a family, but I lit the log-burning stove in the evening and closed all the curtains and then settled down with a good book and it wasn't too bad, although I was quite relieved when they came home again. WWOOFers aren't expected to work at weekends here so it was almost as if I'd had four days off in the first five that I was here. On the Saturday I went for a walk in the woods at the end of the farm that drop down to the river hoping to see the two deer that the farm dogs had chased the day before but although I thought I heard them I failed to catch site of them. James also tells me that there are kingfishers by the pond and evidence of otters - now that is something I would love to see.
Another WWOOFer arrived on Saturday - he's a young Californian with English parents who is over here for about a year and wants to do a couple of long-term WWOOFs. He is very pleasant and we have had some good laughs, mainly taking the rise out of each other. We spent most of the following week laying the hedges in the vegetable garden - a new skill, at last! However, when I said I wanted to learn hedgelaying I hadn't reckoned on the hedges being on top of five foot banks! Physically it was quite challenging as I was trying to use a bow saw and loppers at shoulder height which is not easy. In the end I used a folding handsaw which was a bit easier but I still had aching shoulders by the end of the day. One of the bonuses of thinning out the hazel prior to laying it was the large amount of brash that was produced that we had to burn on a bonfire. Woohoo! Unfortunately, Nathaniel is not allowed bonfires in California because of the risk of forest fires, so I felt it would be mean not to let him do most of the fire-poking - in fact he has definite pyromaniac tendencies too and we got on like a house on fire!!
The weather has been very changeable since I've been here with quite heavy rain overnight giving way to bright, crisp mornings that make you feel good to be alive. I've found myself on several occasions just grinning with the sheer joy of being out in the fresh air on a beautiful, sunny day - but it's best to have your waterproofs handy as the weather can change dramatically in the course of the day. Overnight on Tuesday the wind got up to gale force and the rain lashed down, so that I hardly slept a wink, but in the morning it was calm again and we continued with the hedgelaying - the bonfire was still going, too. Later on we all walked down to the river as we could hear it rushing from up at the farm and James thought it might have burst its banks. It was a raging torrent and had covered the entire bottom pasture that I'd walked across a few days earlier and floated the little bridge across the drainage ditch off its piers. By the next morning it had completely receded again.
On the Friday evening, Jo and James took me to Lezant church where there was a concert in aid of the roof fund. It featured a husband and wife who sang various light classical songs accompanied by a pianist, and a very talented young pianist and organist. The programme was very varied and included a medley of songs from Les Miserables, 'Bless your beautiful hide' from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and the Flanders and Swann song 'I'm a Gnu'! The finale was the organist playing some Handel on the little church organ and I had to smile at the memory that came back unbidden of accompanying my first boyfriend, Jeremy, to a little church just outside Cheltenham where he sometimes played the organ for Sunday service - the pedals of the organ made the same clacking sound that was so loud that it almost drowned out the music being played! It was a very pleasant end to my stay here as I was off to Hatherleigh the next day and Jo and James were off to a family christening.
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