Travelling Jan: A Quick Gallop through 2025 (or where did all the time go?)

A beautiful Spring day in the Chew Valley

Warning: This is quite long so you may need to make a cup of tea before you plunge in!

I had seriously meant to write more blogs this year but, as always, I don’t know where the time has gone, so this is basically a gallop through 2025 barely stopping to catch breath!

The first part of the year was dominated with sorting out Mum’s house ready for putting it on the market, which involved multiple trips to Cheltenham to meet up with my sister and brother and many trips to charity shops and the recycling centre. During this time Jeni and I were also throwing ourselves back into gardening, when the weather allowed, in order to distract ourselves. I wouldn’t normally be gardening in January or February as I had spent the last few years holed up in Cheltenham with Mum, but we managed to find enough to do to keep us busy.

At the end of January, Jeni and I decided to move the old shed remains in my garden to a bonfire heap at the bottom of the garden. All went well until we moved the last panel and discovered a hibernating hedgehog! Luckily, I had bought a hedgehog house for Jeni and her partner as a Xmas present and she was pretty sure it was still empty, so we leapt in the car, drove down to Jeni’s house, grabbed the house and then managed to lift the sleeping hog and all its bedding into it. Later in the Spring I dared to look inside and found evidence that it had successfully made it through hibernation.

The beautiful alpaca girls

In April, despite saying I could no longer do farm sits for large animals as I didn't feel confident to deal with any emergencies on my own, I was asked to do a long weekend sit for the alpacas. Luckily, Jeni was free to come and help me and it made such a huge difference having a second person, with much younger legs, to share the fetching and carrying. The weather was amazing for April and we had some lovely walks with the dogs (and once with Jasper, the cat, as well!) I really miss looking after farm animals but I can no longer do it single-handed. 😢

And Jasper came too!

At the beginning of May, and following on from my hive installation at Easter, Jeni and I took Bunty, the camper van, down to Cornwall for a Natural Beekeeping course. It was a day course held at the Lost Gardens of Heligan and we camped at a site that was literally next door. Again the weather was amazing and we nearly cooked inside our bee suits, which we had to don to inspect the various hives. It was a fascinating and inspirational day and I had high hopes of getting a swarm to come to my hive but, sadly, I shall have to wait until at least next year before those dreams are realised.

I realise I look much better behind a veil!!

Inspecting one of Heligan's hives

Our classroom for the day

The course was held on a Friday so, on the Saturday, Jeni and I drove the short distance to Jo and James at Launceston and spent the night there. Amazingly, Number 74, the sheep I helped to save all those years ago, is still alive and enjoying her retirement in their orchard, where they also had a natural log beehive that they’d been given. Armed with our new knowledge we were able to suggest moving the hive to a more suitable spot in the orchard – time will tell if any bees moved in after that.

One of my favourite places in the world

Visiting with No 74 in the orchard

June brought a house sit for my friend, Mary, to look after her two aging ponies, her sole remaining chicken and a brain-damaged wood pigeon called Walter! By this time we had entered the incredibly dry season that was this year’s summer and I was called upon to water plants at various clients gardens while they were on holiday. Mum’s house had been on the market since the beginning of May, with many, many views but no offers, so we were still going up and down to try and keep on top of the garden, so that it would look presentable for the viewings. However, as the drought continued the grass all died off and most of the plants looked the worse for wear as the garden is very sandy and well-drained. We were relieved that Mum was not there to see the devastation 😢.

My camper van went in for her MOT in the middle of July and the news was not good – the engine was knocking so badly that they didn’t dare do the full emissions test in case the engine blew up! I had no option but to consign her to the scrap heap as it was not cost effective to have the engine rebuilt as she had quite a rust problem, too. I was really upset and so was the garage owner who decided to buy her off me and use it as a father/son bonding project over the winter – he has promised that she will go back on the road eventually.

Obligatory Cropredy photo

Another sunny Cropredy photo

This left me with a bit of a dilemma – I had bought tickets for the Fairport Cropredy Convention in August for Jeni and me and we now had nowhere to stay! I had a look to see about the cost of hiring a van for the weekend but the costs were astronomical and I couldn’t afford a replacement van. In the end we opted to stay in a Premier Inn just outside Banbury and drive in each day. This proved to be an eye opener – the place was full of people going to Cropredy! We were lucky to get a room as it is usually fully booked months in advance! We actually quite enjoyed the experience – a comfy bed and shower and a decent breakfast every morning which meant that we only had to get snacks for lunch and then buy an evening meal of some sort on the field. Yet again we were really lucky with the weather, in fact it was ridiculously hot on the field as the sun beat down and several people turned an interesting shade of salmon pink over the weekend. Even though the festival had been cut down in size, due to increasing costs, the music was still really good and the smaller number of attendees was not that noticeable. We were going to call in to Cheltenham on the way back and collect some more bits and pieces and, on the way there, we stopped off at the Rollright Stones, which I had never been to before. They are an ancient stone circle not far from Chipping Norton and well worth a visit.

The Rollright stones

As an early birthday present to myself, I booked Jeni and myself on a scything course in August. (I really like learning new skills, although some people were slightly shocked that a 70 year old would contemplate such a thing). It was very interesting and, apparently, I was a natural so I am now the owner of a scythe and sharpening stone and have used it a few times to cut the grass in my orchard/wildflower area. It’s a very good workout particularly for the waist and oblique muscles!

Yours truly, wielding her scythe

Working my way up the field

After a comment from Dave, and also seeing my next door neighbour’s new bifold doors, I decided to have patio doors put in my sitting room so that I could see the garden from the comfort of my settee. It’s made a tremendous difference to the room and inspired me to finally decorate it. I’m really pleased with the results.

The new patio doors

At the beginning of September I finally picked up my new chickens from Sally. I’d decided to have four: a Light Sussex, a Speckled Sussex, a Copper Black Maran and a Copper Blue Maran but after a few days I thought it would be nice to have another two! I found a website called Chickens to your Door with a local pickup point at the feed store in Wells, so I ordered a Silver Sussex and a hybrid called an Amber Rock. They all settled in really well after a couple of squabbles and two of them have since started laying. I was glad that Hutch had built the run like Fort Knox and with a clear plastic roof as we are now back in Flockdown due to Avian Flu and no wild birds can get anywhere near my girls. I’d forgotten how much I liked keeping chickens.

The girls!

Also in September I did the house sit for Hilary and Tom who have poultry, the Labrador Reg and three cats that I wrote about in my previous blog.

In October I did another house sit for Mary. Dave is living there at the moment in the annex that I used to live in a few years ago, so it was really nice to see him on an almost daily basis. However, I must remember not to sing to the ponies at the top of my voice when feeding them in the stables as Dave could hear my warbling through the wall – I don’t think he was impressed!

The painter/decorator that I had been waiting for for some months finally turned up in October and painted the outside of the new porch so that it now blends in with the rest of the house, and also painted the hall, stairs and landing so that I was able to hang the beautiful quilted wall hanging that Hilary made for me. I think it looks stunning and brings a smile to my face every time I go down the stairs.

My lovely ammonite wall hanging over the stairs

At the end of October I boarded the Berrys Coach in Shepton Mallet en route to the bright lights of London to spend a long weekend with my brother and his partner. I made it across London from Hammersmith to Plumstead without any mishaps and wonder why I used to be so paranoid about travelling on the Tube. Admittedly it can be a bit bewildering when changing lines (I have to try and remember whether I'm travelling East or West) but being able to use my bank card to pay for each journey at the barrier instead of trying to work out ticket machines, has made it much easier for me. Unfortunately, although my bus pass works on the buses it doesn't work on the Tube!

It's amazing how much we packed into a few days - we went to a poetry reading, a choral concert and the theatre, ate several meals out, went for some lovely walks around Plumstead (it's a very green part of London) and also went to the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was fascinating. We joined a guided tour of the main 'physic' beds where there were many plants that gave rise to modern day medicines. I got a bit tearful when the guide mentioned Vinca (our common Periwinkle is the same family) as the derivatives from this plant were used in the two types of chemotherapy that were used to treat Jeni's Lymphoma when she was 14. I came home on the Wednesday feeling slightly mind-blown by all the sensory input from the Big Metropolis but much more cultured!