Spring Flowers & Foxes, Whitewashing, Lithuanian Lorry Driver

There are only a couple of ewes left to lamb now and this year's crop are now out with their mums grazing...this was the peaceful scene this morning as I walked the dogs. Our morning walks are lovely at the moment with the birds singing away and the flowers embroidering the hedges and verges. The daffodils are now almost all finished but are being replaced by violets, primroses, stitchworts, and the wild strawberries. These are all small fragile creatures and are easily overlooked when growing alongside the the strident, gaudy dandelions and the lower growing but no less vibrant celandines. The blackthorn hedges are rich with their lace veils of blossom and the the willow trees are showing their acid yellow spring colours. To counteract the romantic loveliness of the flora the local fauna leaves it's mark as at various points along the walk today I was assailed by the truly appalling stink of fox as we pass the
gaps in hedges where they have their regular runs. The dogs busily investigate but Reynard has been long gone though the scent lingers on. I suspect the fox also runs through our yard at night taunting the dogs. Most nights the dogs start growling and barking for a few minutes and we have heard nothing that we think would disturb them, but a sly fox slinking through would certainly set them off.

This time of year brings on the urge of the proverbial, old-fashioned notion of spring-cleaning and the turning out of cupboards & drawers and tidying the place up generally and so we have redecorated our bedroom which is a great exceuse for getting rid of 'stuff'...the local charity shop has done well by us lately! The Farmer has been very busy like Mole, whitewashing the house and while I rather agree with Mole, 'Hang whitewashing!' and feel the urge to take off to the coast, especially as the weather has been so wonderful over Easter, the job has to be finished and so the Farmer has been up ladders for three days now with a large brush and buckets of limewash coloured with yellow oxide to give rich creamy shade which looks beautiful and clean. It is worth the effort and mess.

The Sons are busy building a new shed on the site of an old one, for a new (to us) milking parlour. This is a major project and involves steel girders, concrete panels, diggers and long hours to say nothing of a two day trip to Cheshire to dismantle and bring home the parlour itself.
A number of concrete panels were delivered last week from Ireland on a very large articulated lorry which was driven by a extemely competent driver from Lithuania. Getting such a big vehicle up our drive and then turned around to leave was very impressive. We gave the driver a sandwich and a cup of tea as there was delay over the unloading and though his English was not fluent we managed an interesting conversation with him. He had originally been a waiter back home in Lithuania and then a lorry driver but was able to earn four times as much driving lorries from Ireland to Britain than he could in Lithuania. He spends 3 months over here driving and living in the cab of his lorry and then goes home for a month before coming back to UK. If one can earn so much more working for a British haulier than staying at home then it must be worth the discomfort and probable loneliness of the long distance lorry driver and it is it any wonder that so many Europeans come here to work long hours and away from their families when the rewards are so great.