The First Daffodils, Frog Spawn, Not So Fantastic Mr Fox

At last we have daffodils in flower...they have been such a long time opening, but well worth the wait. Today has been so much warmer, despite a frosty morning again, and the blackbirds are starting to sing. An even more significant sign of spring is the mass of frog-spawn that I found this afternoon down in a pool on the side of the small river  at the bottom of our wood. The Farmer tells me that he has also seen some up in the top pond.

Elder Son has started on the spring ploughing, preapring one of our top fields for a new ley of grass. Having got the muck out, he will be busy with much field work for some time now. He enjoys ploughing and there is great satisfaction in seeing a field turn from its dull and faded winter green to a rich chocolatey brown corduroyed expanse.

Younger Son rang us this morning from New Zealand and was telling of a riding trip he and some friends made up in the mountains near Wannaka, I think. They had hired some horses and had gone trekking through marvellous and spectacularly beautiful countryside
I was very surprised to hear that he had gone riding; this is a boy who thought the only means of transport worth considering had to have an internal combustion engine, a steering wheel and was preferably made by John Deere. I hope he has taken some good photographs!

Last night one of KTs' hens was taken by a fox. It was one that had been laying outside the electric fence and presumably had not managed to get back to the flock in time. Despite the fence a couple of the hens have learned to fly over and have made nests in secret corners rather than laying in the nest boxes provided...a hen with a streak of independence is a determined and foolish creature and must just take the consequences of her actions I fear. Lets hope the fox does not think he has a supply of easily obtainable ready-meals. War will be waged.

Ancient Hedgerows, Darwin, Cleopatra & the Earthworm

A cold frosty morning but with the sun shining and the first daffodils have begun to open. These fine mornings with a promise of a glorious golden day somehow seem to infect the dogs with such joie de vivre, they bounce about the fields on our walks and go tearing in and out of the hedgerows.
In Wales hedges are often planted up on stone banks. We have several miles of old hedges on the farm and running along inside the hedges themselves are narrow paths that the dogs use as their own private routes around the fields. These paths were originally used by farm workers to walk along as they trimmed  the hedges back with sharp hedging knives. The Farmer can remember the old farm servant of his childhood, Davey Tom, doing this work in the winters. Now it is all done with flail mowers mounted on tractors in a fraction of the time and the hedge paths are used by only the rabbits & the dogs.

The Farmer & Elder Son have been busy with the muck-spreading for these past couple of days and today they had the help of a local contractor to get the job finished. The fields are now all nicely covered with muck which does make going for walks rather smelly and sticky under foot. I can see that for the next little while my dog walking will be restricted to the lanes on the farm and the more steeply sloping areas where the tractors do not go.
It is amazing how quickly the muck will disappear thanks to the worm activity once the soil warms up. A healthy worm poulation will drag this muck, into their burrows (it has been estimated that there could be up to 1,000 miles of worm burrows per acre) thereby incorporating it  into the soil.
It is a little know fact that it was Darwin who did much of the research into earthworms and published it in his last book with the snappy title, 'The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms with observations of their habits'. ( It probably won't make it onto Richard & Judys' reading list!)
Cleopatra declared worms to be sacred and ordered their protection so important were they to the fertility of the Nile Valley.
As with the bees, we imperil the worms at our own risk.

Lambing Live BBC2 , Muck Spreading

We do not have television and have not done so for twenty years, but we have just heard about a programme that has the nation gripped, called, I  think, 'Lambing Live' on BBC 2. Elder Son said it was even talked about on Radio 1 today. How marvellous that programmes like this are being made and that the public response is one of such enthusiasm.
When we have visitors to the farm at lambing time we often invite them to watch a ewe lambing and to see the first struggles of a new lamb to get to its feet and find the milk bar. It is a truly memorable experience particularly for children and one that is difficult to make more available, but if a tv. programme can do it that is just great.
Even for us as lambers of sheep for many years, there is still a thrill seeing newborn lambs and their mothers bonding and thriving. We rarely have bottle-fed lambs these days as we've got the adoption process well worked out, however,  if we happen to be lambing at a time when we have visitors, orphan lambs are very good way of getting children close to animals and gaining a better understanding of them. Also they are great fun; when our boys were little they loved bottle-feeding the orphans and became quite attached to them though not in an overly sentimental way...they knew what the final destination would be and accepted it. The fact that these sweet little lambs are ultimately food on our plates should always be kept in mind and made clear in a sensible way.

Over the last couple of days the valley has been resounding with the clatter of muck-spreaders as we and our neighbours took advantage of the dry weather to get muck heaps cleared.. Today it is damp so maybe the worms will start to do their bit to break down the muck on the fields. Once the weather warms up the grass will start growing well after its dressing of good old fashioned FYM.

Having given my lovely new floor three coats of varnish I am now about to set to with brush and roller to paint the walls of our dining-room and hopefully by this evening we will be back to normal with a clean sunny room . We shall have to give a dinner party to show it off!!

Welsh Quilts, Empty Hills

Yesterday afternoon I walked the dogs down what had been the original farm track 150 or so years ago. It is quite steep and a deep gully with wooded banks on either side, leading to a little, mossy, concrete footbridge over the Siedi, our small river. In the past there must have been a ford giving access to the farm from the road, which is still several hundred yards walk up another steep bank. The farm must have been quite isolated when considering the distance from the road. Now with the 'new' driveway which was opened up about 150 years ago in completely the opposite direction to the old track, we are about 1/4 mile from the road and have a pretty little stone bridge over a small stream before we get onto the tarmac lane leading to the main road, and not really isolated at all, though many of our holiday makers think the farm is very remote which always makes us smile.  Compared with a number of places we know, our farm is almost too near habitation.

The Farmer & I were in Lampeter again yesterday and visited a fascinating exhibition at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre (http://www.jen-jones.com/) in the old town hall. A marvellous gallery has been created in the building which houses the most beautiful collection of old Welsh quilts and shawls. The work undertaken to create these items is staggering and although these quilts were made for utilitarian purposes, they have now become collectors items and an important part of Welsh cultural heritage.(http://www.welshblankets.co.uk/)
Textiles were a very important part of life in West Wales, particularly in the Teifi Valley where the river Teifi powered a great number of woollen mills. In our small village alone 300 people were employed in the mills. The woollen fabric was used to make quilts and garments and even the uniforms for the British Army at one time. Now most of the mills are either derelict or used for other purposes.


From Lampeter we had to go to Llandeilo to deliver some of the quantity of 'red tape' paperwork to the necessary offices. (We should not complain too much...its the red tape that pays us to farm as we do, though we would farm organically anyway). Driving over the hills we were amazed to see that there is still a lot of snow lying on the Breacon Beacons and  in pockets on hillsides a little nearer home. The countryside was looking very beautiful with clear blue skies and the sun shining but very cold. The land is looking bleached by the cold with grass flattened by the snow and all colour faded to shades of cream and grey. Apart from the dark green of the conifer plantations, the uplands are looking very bleak and lonely. All the sheep have been taken down off the hills for lambing and the only signs of life were the occasional red kite or buzzard wheeling around in the sky or a small flock of crows flapping like black rags against the blue.

New Floor & Fresh Paint-work, Two Staircases, Varied Visitors & Border Collies

Another cold & frosty morning but with a clear blue sky and sunshine, a beautiful day.

Taking advantage of this fine weather that we are having at present the Farmer & I have embarked uopon a major decorating job in the house. For years we have talked about sanding the oak parquet floor that the Farmer's father laid in the dining-room. Having cleared all the furniture out and several hundred books, we hired a floor sander and set to. The result is lovely, the oak has come up a beautiful golden colour and has transformed the room. However, as is always the way with jobs like this we then realised that a lovely new look to the floor made the rest of the room look so shabby, to say nothing of the fine layer of dust that has settled upon every surface not behind closed doors (though the dust will probably be there too if I look for it!). So I will now be wielding a paint brush for the next couple of days  and trotting up & down a step-ladder. It will be worth the effort though...I do find decorating a satisfying thing to do and over the years I have become quite efficient about it and it is a good job to do when the sun is shining I find. It must be spring in the air that gets these jobs done.

Thank goodness we live in a house with two staircases! The dining-room is a room of passage; it leads to our sitting-room, office and main staircase, and now, with a floor we cannot walk across for at least two days we have restricted access to these rooms. I have been carrying bags of fire-wood up the other stair-case, through Younger Son's bedroom, through the bathroom  and down the main stairs. I then have the obstacle course of piles of furniture stacked in the passage-way outside the sitting-room to negotiate with my bags of logs. The lengths I will go to to have somewhere warm & comfortable to sit in the evenings!

As well new clean paint and new golden floor the Farmer has decided to build some oaken bookcases as we have had a problem with woodworm in the old pine ones his father made.( Apparently woodworm doesn't attack oak which is good to know) so the whole room will have a  'makeover' (horrible phrase). And then I want a holiday!

While I spend time varnishing the floor the Farmer & Elder Son are busy up in one of our top fields doing some drainage work. With the frosty weather it means the fields are dry and tractors can get on the land, which for so,much of the winter is not the case. To be able to make a start on work that has had to wait over the winter is great.

We have had a stream of callers over the past few days. Our friends the Fashion Designers from London came in on Friday and yesterday, as they had been in the area visiting a mutual friend. They give us country bumpkins a glimpse of a very different world and are good company.
On Sunday a friend brought her 9 month old sheepdog puppy for the Farmer to take a look at. She was wanting some advice on training it and as the Farmer trains all his dogs so well she felt she would get some worthwhile information. Not all collies are natural workers; if they do not show any interest in a flock of sheep then it is unlikely that they will be useful working dogs, but can however go onto be good agility & obedience dogs which gives them a purpose. Bored collies are a disaster!
We have also had delightful visitors in the cottage over the weekend and various friends & neighbours have dropped in and joined the conversation around the kitchen table. I love it.

Canadian Travel Writers, Canada geese

We can never say that our life here at Penyrallt is dull and lacking interest.
Today we entertained to lunch a delightful group of Canadian & American travel writers who were brought to West Wales by Visit Wales. Having been to see the Welsh Wool Museum at Drefach Velindre, about 3 miles from here, they were given the opportunity to see a real working farm and to meet real working farmers. We do like to encourage visitors to the farm and when they are as pleasant and interested as this group it is well worth it.
They were so appreciative of the the lunch I provided, particularly the selection of local cheeses (Caws Cenarth) and the bread made by our friend the Bread-Maker in his wood-fired bread oven (Mairs' Bakehouse).
After lunch the Farmer & I took them on a walk around the farm and ended the tour with a demonstration by Molly the sheepdog out in the field with the ewes & lambs, which is always a joy to behold.
We were sorry we were not able to have longer with the writers, to be able to talk in more detail about the multitude of topics that came up in the general conversation but they had to go on to their next port of call, Carreg Cennen Castle.

The last few mornings we have heard the lovely haunting cry of Canada geese flying through the valley to the bend of the river near our local town where they congregate in large numbers. Occasionally a pair will land on one of the ponds on the farm but I don't think they have ever nested here.

With the return of Elder Son & KT, I have relinquished my responsibility for the hens. I must admit I do not miss the collection, cleaning & boxing of the eggs. Though I quite enjoyed it for the five weeks I had to do it, I was quite glad to hand it all back to KT. Hens have never been my favourite creatures, though the little bantams are very decorative. They have taken to scratching around in the garden through all the dead leaves and the detritus of last year that I must get round to clearing up as soon as the weather improves.

While the snowdrops are glimmering beautifully in the hedgebanks, the daffodils are still no more than tight buds. Usually by now they are in flower all over the place.
With the longer days now I should be able to get out in the gardens...I have two seperate gardens to manage here and they are both looking the worse for wear after the hard winter and it will be great to have tidying up sessions and to see what has survuved the snow & frost. I have found hyacinths shooting up and some crocus have struggled through though everything else still seems to be waiting for some real warmth.

Silver Morning Frost, Closure of Local Post-office, Cakes Galore, Fire-wood Supplies

A glorious hoar-frosted morning with the sun shining and the valley full of mist. Mist in the valley usually indicates that we are going to have a beautiful day with blue skies and golden light, once it has lifted. Often we are above the mist and look down onto a sea of silver-grey hiding the valley bottom and as it lifts the view expands and the surrounding hillsides are revealed once more.

In the last week or so our little local post office has closed, sadly. This is not due to any government cutbacks but to the retirement of our postmistress who has run a tiny post-office from the front room of her house for forty years. What she doesn't know about the neighbourhood is not worth knowing.
With her retirement it means that we will now have to drive about 4 miles to get to a post office instead of the pleasant walk of about a mile, to buy stamps and have parcels weighed. It is unlikely that anyone else in the village will want to open a new post-office in their front room , or that they would even be allowed to, I suspect. Another link in the rural community gone.

The other day I was asked to do huge baking session for a coffee-morning being held in a local village hall and the Farmer has insisted that I put a photograph of  our cake-laden kitchen table into the blog. He loves cake and I do seem to spend a lot of time baking, though rarely in these quantities, thank goodness.


Elder Son & KT are settling back into normal life after their journeyings and are finding it very cold after the heat of Sydney. They have brought back 1,000 photographs (which will be edited down to a more digestible number) and they clearly had a marvellous time.
Elder Son has quickly got back into the routine of milking again and he and the Farmer have begun work on putting up new fencing on the edge of a wood and moving some large trees that were felled. They will be taken to the saw-mill that we have here on the farm, to be planked and stacked up for future furniture- making projects and the stores of fire-wood will be replenished. It a deeply satisfying sight, stacks of logs drying in readiness for the next couple of years requirements. We are very fortunate in being able to keep ahead of our firewood needs and having well-seasoned wood to burn.

Travellers Return Engaged, Late Daffodils, Marmalade Recipe.

Our globe-trotters have returned  and as engaged persons!
 Elder Son & KT arrived home late this morning after a 24 hour flight from Sydney. I think their definition of Hell is 24 hours in economy class from the other side of the world! They are exhausted and jet-lagged and Elder Son says he's never flying again!
However, despite all that they have had a most wonderful trip and have marvellous photographs and tales of spectacular and extraordinary places and a type of farming that is so different to what we do in Wales.
It was the agriculture that Eldest Son was so keen to see. Younger Son was able to arrange for him to experience millking 850 cows (!!!) in an hour & a half, in a 'state of the art' rotary parlour which was a real thrill for him. So very different to the life of his own dear farm!
Apart from the tiredness, the change in temperature has been bit of a shock...they left Sydney sweltering in the 30s' and arrived home to cold rain and what is becoming a very late spring.
It is lovely to have them home and yes, they got engaged on Mount Cook on the South Island of New Zealand. It is a great piece of news and everyone is so pleased for them.

We normally have some daffodils in flower by the 1st March, St Davids' Day, but this year they are still tight green buds and will be so for a while yet, I think.

In response to a request left on the last posting for the recipe that the Farmer uses to make marmalade, here it is;

3lbs Seville oranges
41/2 - 6 pints water
6lbs sugar
 1tspn. citric or tartaric acid or juice of 2 lemons

Scrub the fruit, cut in half, squeeze out the juice and pips and slice the peel without removing the pith.
Put the sliced peel, soft pulp and jiuce in a pan with the water. Tie the pips and fibrous tissue ina muslin bag and cook gently for 2 hrs. or until the peel is quite soft.
Squeeze the muslin bag and remove, add the the sugar, stir until this is dissolved, then boil quickly until setting point is reached.
Remove the scum, allow the marmalade to cool slightly and pour into warmed jars. Cover with waxed circles while still hot and put on lids.

The Farmer likes the peel cut cut very thick and in big chunks; I prefer it very fine and probably like marmalade jelly even better.