Spring wildlife

Early morning reflections in Moelfre Lake

Well, the blogs are getting fewer and further apart! I always suspected that this would happen when I stopped travelling around so much, but I still find it disappointing that I seem uninspired to write much these days.

Snow!

Way back, at the very end of February, I set off to Moelfre on the Powys/Shropshire border, stopping at lunchtime at my favourite French restaurant at Shatterford (funny how I seem to arrive there at lunchtimes!). It is not quite at the halfway point, but has proven, over the years, to be a very good place to stop and have a break. I hadn't been this far north this early in the year before and I did wonder what the weather would have in store for me, so I packed loads of winter clothes (including thermal underwear) so that I could layer up against the cold. The weather started off being very wet and windy but, the day after Dawn and Tony left for Brittany it snowed! As it had been raining when I first woke up I didn't think it would settle but, as the day wore on and the snow kept falling it soon became obvious that it was settling. In the end we had about 1 inch of snow but it soon thawed and went back to being wet and windy!

Exhausted juvenile otter

Before Dawn went away, we had a morning out in Oswestry getting in supplies and enjoying a leisurely lunch in a vegan restaurant, before dropping in on a local lady who runs an organic grocery shop from her home. We bought bread fresh from the oven and Bara Brith amongst other things and then Eiriann said: 'I've got an otter in the conservatory – would you like to see it?' It was a juvenile in a very sorry state, huddled in a cardboard box and had been found outside the conservatory door that afternoon, crying piteously. It turned out that another youngster had been found a bit further down the road (and nearer to the stream) that morning and taken to the vets in Oswestry who, in turn, passed it on to a specialist rescue centre. No-one knows what had happened to the mum, but it had been an exceptionally wet and stormy night, so perhaps they had been swept away? I didn't realise that young otters are dependent on their mothers for thirteen months, so this was a disaste,r as they couldn't fend for themselves. Once Dawn returned, we went to see Eiriann again and found out that the siblings had been re-united and were doing well – hopefully they will be returned to the area when they are fit enough to be released.

I know I've said this before, but the peace and quiet in the valley is exceptional, and the number of birds, frequenting the feeders outside the dining room window, stunning in quantity and variety. At Dawn's request, I tried to make a list of all the birds that I have seen, either in the garden or flying over, and came up with at least 34! Added to the list this time, was a lone red kite who flew over most days – I wonder if it will be joined by a mate soon? One morning, on the niger seed feeder, I counted nine goldfinches and there were often two or three siskins waiting their turn. I felt very inspired by all this bird activity and decided to add a needle-felted nuthatch to my repertoire!

Needle-felted nuthatch

On the day before Dawn and Tony came home, Jeni travelled up by train to spend some time with me. The weather had improved so dramatically by then, that we worked in the garden in just T-shirts – very different from 10 days earlier! We then we travelled back to Somerset together (stopping at Shatterford for lunch, surprisingly!) It was a gorgeous, sunny day without a cloud in the sky, and I didn't feel like driving on the motorway so, with The Navigator plotting the route, we headed off towards Evesham, up the Cotswold scarp to Broadway and then south through Cirencester and Tetbury on my usual route back from Cheltenham. It was a lovely drive but it took hours – we only just made it back in time for our Pilates class!

I had missed two Friday markets while I had been away, but had been working on some new items for my stall as, on March 19^th, we held the first of our monthly Sunday Markets, as well. It was really busy, but I didn't sell as much as I'd hoped and nowhere near the amount of the inaugural market back in November, but it was great to see so much activity in the town. I dusted off the spinning wheel and it made its first appearance of the year, much to the interest of several passers-by.

March Sunday Market

On 30^th March, I finally went back to Cheltenham to finish off the decorating of the little bedroom that I had started early in February! Mum was away for most of my stay but had provided me with several ready meals, so that I wouldn't have to do too much catering. Luckily, this time the decorating went quite well and I even managed to lay a new piece of carpet before I left, so that the room was all finished and furnished for when Mum came home – just as well as she is due to have a house full over Easter and will need all of the bedrooms.

And, finally, our swallows returned from Africa on 4^th April and are already busy building nests in the outhouses opposite my annexe. When they're not busy, they sit on the wire and 'chitter' conversationally – I'm sure they are trying to tell me of all their adventures since I last saw them. Every year I look for their arrival as I feel that Summer is really on its way, once they are back.

Springtime Creativity

Potted snowdrops and snowdrop pouches

Well, here we are into March and I haven't written a blog since the start of 2017! It's a good job that I didn't make it a New Year's Resolution to write more frequently.

To be honest, the New Year did not start well as two of my Mum's friends died within a month of each other and, as I knew them both quite well, I went to Cheltenham for the funerals. They both went off as well as these things can do and in both instances we were given flower seeds to plant in memory of them, as both had been keen gardeners in their time. I think that that is a lovely idea and I shall look forward to planting my flowers once Spring finally arrives!

At the end of January I ran my short Introduction to Spinning course for six lovely ladies from the Somerset Smallholders Association. It was a great afternoon, with lots of questions and exchanges of information and I hope everyone got something out of it – I certainly did, and hope to branch out into running a few courses later in the year. I also launched a Facebook page for my nascent business – A Little Bit Sheepish – and have had some good feedback on the photos that I've posted.

At the beginning of February Mary announced that my workroom was ready so in I moved. It is a wonderful space to work in, with much better natural light than in my annexe, and the work table is about six feet long so that I can spread my projects out and leave them there. I have also brought my drum carder in from the (very cold) workshop where it had been languishing, and fixed it to the end of the table so that I can card wool whenever the mood takes me and I don't have to don thermals in order to do it! I have been in the workroom nearly every day since and have created quite a few new items, with lots more still in my head just bursting to get out.

Vinyl wallpaper stripping!

On the 9^th February I was off to Cheltenham for funeral number 2, but also to do some decorating for Mum for a week. She wanted the small single bedroom decorating and I estimated that I could strip the wallpaper, make good any problems with the plaster and emulsion it round easily within the week. Unfortunately, I had failed to notice that the wallpaper was, in fact, vinyl and it had been on the walls since Jeni was a toddler (about 30 years!). The bedroom doesn't get direct sun but it does get daylight and this had been enough to degrade the vinyl so that, instead of coming off in large sheets (as I was led to believe on the internet) it came off in approximately 1cm wide pieces and 15cm long! Of course, being impermeable, I was unable to soak it off or use a steamer so each piece had to be laboriously scraped and peeled off and then this, in turn, created a static charge so that the strips stuck to everything – me, the step ladder, the wall – it looked like an explosion in a paper streamer factory! Suffice to say that I did not finish the decorating in one week and will have to go back as soon as I can to complete the project as Mum now has two bedrooms unusable, as all of the furniture from one room has had to go into the other.

Needle-felted snowdrops

I had to go home after a week because I had other commitments: a special Friday Market to celebrate the start of the inaugural Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival and a wedding on the Saturday, that the choir had been engaged to sing at. Trying to come up with a snowdrop theme for my stall I decided to create some needle-felted snowdrops in pots and these proved quite popular and has led me to try making primroses and violets for the markets in the run up to Mothering Sunday. I am trying to concentrate more on the felting side of my craft work as, in the last couple of weeks, another stall has come to the market selling knitted goods and she is a much better knitter than I am and has far more stock. I spent the first week feeling quite upset about the competition but then decided to change focus slightly. I'm also hoping that the weather improves soon and then I can take my spinning wheel back to the market.

Needle-felted primroses

 I am now off on my travels again, and have headed back to the Shropshire/Powys border to house sit for Dawn and Tony for ten days – but I'll tell you all about that in my next blog!

Needle-felted violets

Festivities and Fun on the Farm!

Sunset over East Penrest farmhouse

Well, I failed miserably to get out a pre-Christmas blog, so may I take this opportunity to hope that you all had a happy festive season and that 2017 will be a good year.

On 10^th November I headed off to Cornwall to do a brief farm sit for my friends, Jo and James. I was a bit anxious as to what I would find there as, earlier in the year, they had decided that they would drastically reduce their sheep flock and not put any ewes in lamb. I was really pleased to discover that they are retaining seven breeding ewes, because their granddaughter was so upset that there would be no lambs at the farm, and that my lovely No 74 was one of them! I had entertained thoughts of adopting her and driving back to Somerset with her strapped into the passenger seat of my car, if they had intended to sell her with the rest of the flock! James had split this mini-flock into two groups and put a ram in with each, and then the rest of the sheep that they hadn't yet sold were in three groups around the farm. During the first afternoon that I was there, I went round with James to see what was where and find out quantities of feed, etc. We visited No 74's little flock and, at first, she was a little stand-offish but then, just as I was going out of the gate, she walked over and lifted her head. I put my head down until our noses were virtually touching, fondled her ears and then she walked off to join the others. The fact that she still remembers me always brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes – hardly a hard-bitten farmer!

Luckily, all of the animals behaved themselves for the few days that I was in charge and several of the ewes 'went' to the rams, so hopefully, there will be the patter of tiny feet at the beginning of April, although, with only seven to lamb, I don't think my services will be required this year!  The chickens had had to be confined to their house and run as their numbers had been severely depleted by the frequent visits of a large dog fox, who picked them off one by one as they free-ranged around the orchard and fields. Jo had even seen him sitting brazenly in the middle of the orchard when she was outside! One afternoon I took the dogs for a quick walk as it was getting dusk and was surprised when Pickle suddenly hurtled off at full speed, shot under a field gate and proceeded to chase something down the hedge. I was just wondering why she'd taken it into her head to chase one of the farm cats when a blur of red and a large bushy tail broke through the hedge about ten yards from me, shot across the farm track and disappeared into the old quarry with both Pickle and Jess in hot pursuit. I'm glad that I didn't have a third dog with me as that would have been counted as 'hunting with dogs' and would therefore be illegal!

My Sunday Market stall

I returned to Somerset just in time for the inaugural Sunday Market in Shepton Mallet. It was an astounding success, even though we only had three weeks in which to promote and advertise it! We were also extremely lucky with the weather as either side of that Sunday we had torrential rain and there was widespread flooding in the area on Monday. The little stream that gurgles along about twenty yards from my annexe rose alarmingly and water poured in from the road and across the yard to add to the torrent. For a while I thought I might have to evacuate!

Stream in spate

Normal winter stream level

We have just heard that we will be allowed to run a monthly market on every third Sunday in 2017 starting in March, so that is really exciting news. The Friday Market has been a bit sporadic as far as sales go, but I live in hope that one day it will take off. The knitted Fairy Mice proved quite popular, and I am thinking of expanding the range to include Flying Pigs! I have also had several ideas for needle-felted animals and figures, but haven't had the time or space to experiment yet. In fact, before Christmas, I was living in such chaos surrounded by various knitting and felting projects and bags of wool and yarn that I got quite miserable, but things are about to change! My friend and landlady, Mary, is going to allow me to use one of the rooms in her house as a workroom and has been re-decorating it and making me a large work table so that I can leave projects out instead of having to tidy them away! I have been asked to run a one-off workshop on spinning, peg-loom weaving and preparing fleeces for the Somerset Smallholders group at the end of January and, if it goes well, I may offer to run some classes in my new workspace, so that will be amazing.

The run up to Christmas seemed to pass in a blur (doesn't it always?). We had our choir's Christmas Concert on 3^rd December, which was very successful, and this was followed up on the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th with Carol Services in our three local churches and finally a lunchtime concert on 19^th for the Senior Citizens in Bruton! Surprisingly I still had a voice left at the end of it, which just proves how much my voice has strengthened over the last year with regular workouts!

On the 20^th I was heading back down the A30 to Cornwall. In exchange for a Christmas farm sit, Jo and James offered me the use of their wonderful barn conversion for a family Christmas. Not all of the family could come but my Mum, my sister, brother-in-law and one of my nieces plus my two children managed to converge on Lezant on 23^rd December, and stayed until 27^th. The barn proved a brilliant space in which to celebrate with plenty of space for us all to get involved in meal preparation without getting in each other's way, and a snug/library area off the main room with a huge log burner that got very cosy in the evenings. I had one minor panic about Christmas dinner – the turkey that I had ordered online from the Tamar Valley Food Hub weighed in at an impressive 11.95Kg and only just fitted in the oven! It was, however, absolutely delicious and only took 6.5 hours to cook!!

The Christmas branch

Many years ago, when my ex and I were still together, we substituted a Christmas tree for the 'Christmas twig', as we didn't have much space in our cottage, and I would decorate it with white fairy lights and crystal decorations. Because we were only going to be together for a few days at the barn, we decided not to buy a real tree, but we still wanted some festive decorations, so I enlarged on the Christmas twig theme: James and I had cut down some overhanging branches from the track by the pond back in November, so I went and retrieved one of these and dragged/carried it back to the barn where I set it up in a large decorative pot and wedged it in with split logs. I then decorated it with lights and baubles and tinsel in red and gold and I must say that it looked quite attractive. I also cut holly and ivy from the hedges and made a willow wreath for the front door and draped the rest (artistically!) around picture frames, shelves and window sills.

Quad biking!

The weather, which had been wet and windy when everyone first arrived, managed to improve so that everyone could appreciate why I love coming to this part of Cornwall so much. Mum came down as far as the pond and also managed to see the Shepherd's Hut, and my two came for a walk down to the river and back through the wood on a couple of occasions, as did my sister. I think Jess, the sheep dog, thought she'd died and gone to heaven as she managed to persuade Dave to play stick throwing with her all the way down the farm track and all the way back up again! My niece went on a couple of three-mile runs around the local lanes (where does she get all that energy from?) and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. It was certainly great for me to have company whilst doing a farm sit. Jo and James had not managed to sell any more of their flock so I ended up looking after 60+ sheep, which justified me using the quad bike every day to ferry feed and hay to the various groups, so I was happy.

From Jo and James' I drove straight to Cheltenham to spend New Year with Mum and my brother and his daughter, so I have seen virtually all of my family in the last couple of weeks, which has been lovely as, being spread quite far apart, we don't often all meet up together.

I have a couple of farm sits booked for this year already and I am intending to do some actual WWOOFing again at some new venues, as well as with some old friends. I wish you all the best of health in 2017 and look forward to catching up with some of you. x

Dave with Jess, Pickle and stick