Despite the vile weather this last week the garden is still managing to look good and has not been too battered by the winds that we endured the other night.
The roses are doing very well this year thanks I'm sure, to the very hard pruning I gave them and as I write I am looking out onto a beautiful dispaly of Kiftsgate tumbling in creamy billows over a wall at the back of the house and a gorgeous display of Rosa Mundi in her lovely striped petticoats.
This morning we said goodbye to a delightful Dutch family who have been here for the past week. They were thrilled to have seen dolphins and seals at reasonably close quarters when they went out oa boat from Newquay. Sightings of cetaceans can never be guaranteed and so I'm always so pleased when any of our visitors do manage to see them, which is rarely. Their brushes with wildlife continued one evening during the week when a disorientated bat came into our kitchen. We found it crawling on the floor, so the Farmer caught it and took it over for the children in the cottage to see. Again, to see such a creature at close quarters is unusual and they were very excited by it.
On Wednesday the Farmer had to go into Carmarthen to see our accountant, so Younger Son's girlfriend & I took the opportunity to go shopping. After we had exhausted the delights (!) of Carmarthen we went on to the sweet little town of Narberth in Pembrokeshire where there is some seriously good shopping ( if one is in funds) and we had a lovely time looking at expensive 'stuff' and buying some expensive cheeses & olives in a wonderful delicatessan which we always make a bee-line for.
The run down through south Carmarthenshire and part of Pembrokeshire was a good opportunity to show S. the area. She finds it all so different to Canterbury Plain, being hilly and with narrow twisting lanes edged by hedges, a complete contrast to vast open farmland intersected by dead straight roads and huge paddocks marked only by fence-lines.
The men-folk are waiting, yet again, for the weather to improve in order to get grass cut, both our own and that of various other farmers who they do contract work for. While it is sunny today I think the forecast for the week is not good so there will be idle machinery and frustrated farmers all over the place.
Next week the Royal Welsh Show takes place at Llanelwedd, near Builth Wells...the highlight of many a Welsh farmer's year. The boys are planning to go and Younger Son has bought himself a tent as he and S. plan to go up for a few days and meet various college friends in the showground, while Elder Son will go only for one day. If the forecast is right they will have a very muddy time!
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