Mud-Happy Piglings, International Visitors,

After yesterday's 24 hour down-pour for which we gave much thanks, the pigs are now happier in their paddock. They really don't like too much heat and being able to rootle round in some mud is heaven for them. They are great fun & the Labradors & I go and have conversation with them each day...they are quite intrigued by the dogs, so much so that they forget there is an electric fence separating them and the mutual investigations have been broken off very abruptly by squeals of anguish as their sensitive noses just catch the fence. It is all very short-lived  and they go off  to a far corner of their patch mumbling & grumbling  to themselves to regain their dignity. Their comic curiosity always reminds me of a favourite series of children's books about Sam Pig by Alison Uttley which I still read now and then. Sweet Sam Pig who lives in a house in the woods with his brothers and sister and Brock the badger and his adventures with people and fairies in a countryside that has now vanished. All children should meet Sam Pig.

The rain yesterday was incessant and much needed though it has left the gardens looking somewhat flattened, but the dried-up streams on the farm have begun to run again as has the spring flowing into one of the ponds. The Farmer & the boys are pleased that it rained so much...the grass will now grow well for the second cut of silage especially as the temperature is very warm. Perfect grass growing weather.

We have had some delightful Americans in the cottage this week from Brooklyn, New York. Such a contrast for them to be here in West Wales after the city life of New York. They have inevitably commented on how quiet it is and that the only sound is the birdsong rather than sirens and traffic noise. They are lithograph printers and produce the most beautiful work for artists from all over America.(http://www.harlanandweaver.com/).
Our American visitors join the ranks of our international guests this summer. Tomorrow we have people from Holland arriving and then over the next few weeks we have more families from Holland & Belgium coming to stay. We enjoy these foreign visitors very much and they seem to love Wales, especially the Dutch who really appreciate the hilliness...I can't imagine why! This year we will have visitors from Hungary, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Holland and the U.S.A and of course from that remote & exotic land across the bridge, England...not bad for a small cottage on a farm in West Wales.