Laburnum Hedges, Demise of a Peahen,

Despite the vile & unseasonable weather we are having at present, the farm is looking beautiful in its May-time glory. Yesterday we had a short respite from the blustering winds & rain and I was able to take photos of the laburnum, or golden chain, which grows in our hedges and looks so magnificent at this time of year.
Many miles of hedges in this area are planted with laburnum trees which have grown from fencing posts put in by the farmers many years ago. They pose no threat to livestock which is always a concern to people who see the hedges for the first time. Cattle just don't touch it.
The rain over the last few days has brought the growth on apace in the fields & gardens, though the winds have damaged certain of the garden plants, particularly the taller rambling roses & I have had to remove stems laden with buds as they been snapped off by the wind. The hedgebanks are full of pink campions, stitchworts and jack-by-the-hedge & the last of the bluebells, looking like a medieval tapestry.

The Farmer came in yesterday with the sad news that Hettie the peahen was dead. Having looked after her & Charlie all through the winter and seen them safely (we thought) released to wander around the farm it was a bit of a blow. We can find no reason for her death and she had even made nest a laid an egg. The Farmer had removed the egg as peacocks are notoriously bad sitters & mothers, and as we have a couple of broody hens the egg will go under one of them, so maybe we will get replacement for Hettie. Charlie meanwhile is still strutting around though rather less vocally than he has been I suppose because he no-one to screech at now. He was chased by one of the Labradors (who was soundly scolded) and I saw the extraordinary sight of a full grown peacock with his massive tail feathers trailing, flying across a meadow and landing up in a tree. He was most put out & spent the next little while sitting on a branch about 20 feet off the ground being tossed about by the fierce wind that was blowing, looking very foolish.

Peacocks, Lambs on New Grass, Lammas Project

Just before Christmas the Farmer acquired a pair of peacocks, Charlie & Hettie. In order that they did not try to return to their old home they were kept confined in a large and airy loft until it felt they had been here long enough not to make a runner. They were let out a week or so ago and have learned the lay of the land in their new surroundings very happily. Hettie is very unobtrusive and spends a lot of time back in the loft or in one of the cattle sheds while Charlie struts his stuff around the place with great presence and much shrieking. He was in the garden of the farmhouse the other day while we were having tea and through the windows we were able to see his magnificent display of the great fan of his tail...an exotically unlikely sight somehow in a Welsh farm garden, but quite stunning. Hettie was with him at this point and seemed totally unimpressed with his posturing and preeening!

Things are rather quiet on the farming front at present. Lambing has finished and the ewes with their tiny companions trotting alongside are all out in the fields. Lush new grass is now growing apace after the recent rain that fell in the last couple of days, much to Farmer's relief and the fields that have been shut up for silage are beginning to thicken up very nicely with the clover growing very well.

Yesterday the Farmer & I had an opportunity to visit the Lammas Project in Pembrokeshire (http://www.lammas.org.uk/) The Lammas Project  is an eco-hamlet being created under the new 'low impact development' planning policy (Policy 52 JUDP 2006) that was set in place in Pembrokeshire and is now for the whole of Wales.
Under this new policy eco smallholdings can be built in open countryside as long as they are off-grid and blend into the countryside. The people involved in these developments must be working the land, getting 75% of their needs from their smallholdings.
The project is in its second year and the 9 families that are living in this eco-hamlet are working to get their houses built and crops growing. Many of them are living in caravans whilst building cob and straw bale dwellings and in time it will look great. However, we were surprised at how little had been done in terms of growing food  in 2 years. The food production plots were not very large and we could not see how any of the families were going to keep themselves fed. There was almost no livestock to be seen, one family had a few chickens but that was all and there were no decent sized plots of potatoes and other vegetables that would produce sufficient food for a family. When one thinks of the incredibly productive gardens that can still be found on farms, particularly those run by older people, and that have been managed using tried & tested husbandry methods over centuries it seems a pity that the new smallholders do not try to replicate thse amazingly productive gardens. And they all need a pig!
All that said, as a project Lammas is fascinating and it will very interesting to visit it again in couple of years time.

Basket Making & Bread Making Courses in West Wales

Local Basket Making and Bread Making Workshops

Basket Making Courses

Learn how to make country style baskets for every day use: berry picker, shopping basket and log basket. The basket is the ultimate bio-degradable container able to last 50 years with care and repair. Try to come to as many days as you can to practice your skills and make a number of baskets.

Dates; Saturday 21st May, 11th June, 9th July
           Tuesday 21st June, Thursday 21st July, Wednesday 3rd August

Venue: 1 Castle Green Pentrecagal, Newcastle Emlyn, SA38 9HY

Time 10am-3pm.

Please email for more info. and to book a place. Small classes - no more than 6 people.

Email; jules87@btinternet.com 
Mob;  07964530436

Bread Courses and Open Days at Mair’s Bakery

Sourdough baking with stoneground flours:  25th May, 24th September, 22nd October 2011

Baking in a commercial retained heat wood fired oven;  27th-29th May 2011, 26th-28th Aug 2011

Sustainable bakery open days;  24th July , 29th August, 25th September, 23rd October 2011

Contact for more info.;

Mair’s Bakehouse, Pwll y Gaseg, Cwmduad, SA33 6XP

Phone; 01559 370082
Email; richard.coldman@btinternet.com
Website; http://www.mairsbakehouse.co.uk/

Day Out in Pembrokeshire; St Govan's Chapel, Green Bridge, Rock Stacks

Yesterday the Farmer & I took a day off and went down to the south Pembrokeshire coast to visit St. Govan's Chapel which is tucked into the cliff near Castlemartin. This part of the Pembrokeshire coastline is owned by the MoD and is used as a firing range, and thank goodness it is, otherwise it would no doubt now be covered in St Govan's very own caravan parks, visitors centres and other monstrosities!
On previous occasions when we have gone down there it has been closed to the public, however yesterday we struck lucky. We were able to drive onto the range and walk along the cliffs and to the flight of little steps that leads to the chapel. It is an extraordinary place; a tiny stone-built single room with a well and stone altar. It is named after the hermit who lived there in the 6th century though the building itself is thought to be medieval. It was very damp and dark. It is wedged into a narrow angle in the cliff with steep rocky area leading down to sea and must have been miserable place to live, but then those early saints were stoics and needed few creature comforts. Did he live on sea birds eggs & seaweed do you think?
 I am not good with cliffs & caves and found the whole place rather unnerving. The Farmer however loved it and went off rock-hopping as is his wont, under the cliffs and exploring the geology of the cove. I took myself back up the narrow stairway onto the cliff top and had a lovely time looking at the profusion of wild flowers growing in the turf. I found rich magenta orchids and tiny yellow pimpernels, violets sedges and tiny blue squills.

When the Farmer returned to the top we walked westwards to what is called Huntsmans Leap and the grass all along the clifftop was a mass of squills creating a blue haze over the short cliff-top turf.
Legend has it that a huntsman jumped across the the gap between two parts of the cliff on his horse but on looking back to view the gap both he and the horse fell to their deaths. Looking at the distance involved it is impossible but makes a good story.
We next made our way further along the coast to the Green Bridge of Wales and Rock Stacks.

The Green Bridge is self-explantory being a fine example of erosion by  
sea & weather.
Rock Stacks, a collection of rocky stacks(!) off the cliffs is the home to the largest mainland breeding colony of guillemots in South Wales and was an amazing sight, thousands of birds crowded together on treacherous ledges on the cliffs and all over the tops of the stacks. There were not just guillemots but razorbills and seagulls with jackdaws mingling in the swirl of birds that was constantly flying around overhead. The noise was tremendous and downwind, the smell of guano was very certainly pungent.
For lunch we went to the excellent Stackpole Inn (http://www.stackpoleinn.co.uk/) in the very pretty village of Stackpole and had very good meal before heading west towards Fishguard and visiting some acquaintances on our way home.
Pembrokeshire was looking stunning even in the very welcome rain which fell in extemely localised showers...because we are needing it so badly at the moment we didn't mind that it rained on our day off and today it has rained properly here which is good, the grass will come on well now.

Before heading off down to Pembrokeshire we went and did our democratic duty and cast our votes in three elections. It seems that Plaid Cymru has held its seat in our constituency which is no surprise to anyone and we're still awaiting the results on the other elections.

The Royal Wedding, Orchards Full of Blossom & Late Lambs

The first of my lily-of-the-valley to flower in the garden this year & very timely for the Royal Wedding where the bride's posy was made up of the sweet flowers.
 We don't have television, but I was able to watch The Wedding not too far away. And it was lovely & it didn't rain! It was a superb spectacle & despite the pomp & pagaentry managed to remain a simple service involving two families, albeit with millions of on-lookers.
I thought the trees in the Abbey looked superb and the bride's small posy of lily-of-the-valley was beautiful and so much better than the huge overblown & tortured bouquets that so many brides seem to feel is necessary.
As for the Dress it was stunning, just so elegant and simple. For those of us living out in the sticks with very little opportunity to see or wear beautiful clothes but have an interest in such things, an occasion like a royal wedding is a marvellous window onto a scene of elegant shoes, amazing hats and beautifully made outfits by wonderful designers. A far cry from the world of wellies & jeans!
The music for the wedding was wonderful; there can never be too much Parry and the specially commissioned anthem by John Rutter was beautiful. English choral music at its best.

With the very dry weather we have had lately the Farmer is beginning to pray for rain to come soon. He & the Sons have doing a lot of field work and now we need some rain to dampen the soil and start things growing.

We are still having lambs arrive intermittently though most of them are now out in the fields with their mothers. The very new ones are in one of the orchards and look very decorative under the tres which are thick with blossom at present. The blossom has been superb this year and as long as we don't get a late frost the fruit crop should be good.

Celebratory Tea-Party (Not for the Royal Wedding!)

Yesterday, Easter Monday, we held a tea-party to celebrate the birth of our beautiful grand-daughter. She is now just over 3 months old and a good age to be presented to her extended family.
So, invitations to a gathering of the tribes were sent out and enough food to make any self-respecting tea-table groan was baked.
We are fortunate in having access to a marvellous canopy (not shown to best effect in the picture) which was erected over the main yard along with a small marquee to provide shade or shelter, depending on the weather. We were blessed with a glorious hot sunny day and the sun-shade was greatly appreciated.
We played host to about 80 people, mostly family members, several of whom had travelled considerable distances to be with us. The age-range was huge, from baby Lili aged 3 months to her paternal great-grandfather aged 82. We had gangs of small children playing merrily on a slide all afternoon, glamorous langorous teenagers with their dead-straight curtains of hair & airs of sophistication and their parents & grandparents all milling around in a lovely melange of generations.

I had spent days baking and as always I was quite convinced there would not be enough food so made more(!) but of course all that was presented got eaten. There were sandwiches containing cucumber, egg, tomato, home-grown beef, great numbers of meringues made with our own eggs filled with our own cream, profiteroles, iced Easter biscuits, iced buns, chocolate cake, coffee cake, Victoria sandwich,
Welsh cakes, Bakewell tarts, muffins, bread-&-butter-with-hundreds-&-thousands (something remembered from childhood parties) and a beautiful two-tiered confection of a cake to honour the baby which was made & decorated by her mother.
I dug out old bone china tea sets and ancient lace & embroidered table-clothes and with the immeasurable help of my brother & sister-in-law, did a rather good bit of set-dressing for a proper tea-party. It all looked lovely with home-made bunting and festoons of pretty paper flowers. We put tiny posies of spring flowers on all the small tables each with its beatiful cloth, which were dotted around on the grass with chairs and benches placed strategically.
The Farmer had spent the week mowing all the lawns to within an inch of their lives & when I was not baking I was tidying the gardens & potting up scarlet geraniums to be placed in odd corners and along window sills to prettify the yard. And though I say it myself it  did all look very good on the day!!...well worth the effort and hard work.
The baby behaved beautifully all day and all her vast family thought she was wonderful and we have some marvellous photographs of the entire party with Lili in the centre. Although she will have no memory of the day I think everyone else will be able to talk of Lili's Party as very happy family get-together.
The day ended with just a small group of family & friends sitting round a fire in the farmhouse garden eating chilli con carne & drinking the Farmer's home brewed beer until after dark. All very pleasant.
And today we are dismantling canopies & gazebos, packing away china, washing fragile linen and generally getting back-to normal after an incredibly busy week as of course, all the preparation had go hand-in-hand with the usual farm work.

Lime-spreading, Returning Holiday makers, Red Cow-Slips,Harvest Trust

It has been a very busy week here for the Farmer & the Sons. Two days were taken up with lime spreading on several fields which has not been done for a few years. A large lorry delivered several loads of ground limestone onto the yard which was then loaded into a lime-spreader and distributed over the fields. Work started on Tuesday but a wind got up and the Farmer had to call off the work as the lime was blowing away. Fortunately the following day was calm and still so the spreading was able to continue.

When not dealing with the lime Younger Son & the Farmer were kept occupied with re-locating YS's workshop. He does all the machinery maintenance and servicing of the tractors and implements on the farm and has an extensive and well equipped workshop but, as is always the way, had outgrown the space he has had for several years, so it was decided to allocate him another shed. This involved putting in a loft & moving his 'lock-up' as well as putting in a window, so the job, like Topsy just grew into a bigger project than originally intended.

I am waiting for my next holiday makers to arrive. The family who left this morning after their 8th consectutive year here (!)  had a lovely week with very reasonable weather and were as usual very loath to go, but have promised themselves to return next year. It is great when families return to us and we see their children growing up and they feel that the farm is an important  part of their lives...rather like the swallows returning each year!

The daffodils are almost over now, though we are very lucky in having a range of varieties that flower in succession so I should still have some for Easter. Primroses and primulas are appearing everywhere and its always lovely to find self-seeded plants appearing in unexpected corners that were empty last year. I have a small but steadfast colony of cow-slips in the farmhouse garden, but in the past few years some of the them have been producing flowers with dark crimson edges which must be the result of cross-pollination with red primulas that are also in the garden. they are very pretty and there are still plenty of the proper yellow

cow-slips coming up through the grass.
 
During the week the Farmer & I met with some people who work for a charitable trust which gives children with low self-confidence and are socially withdrawn  a holiday in the countryside. Harvest Trust (http://www.harvesttrust.com/) was set up about 20 years ago on a small farm near here and has welcomed hundreds of children through its doors. The trust has had amazing results in enabling children who have difficulties in the class-room and in social situations to become more confident and even to speak and join in activities. We hope we may be able to host visits from Harvest Trust to the farm in the future.

A Fine Spring Morning, First Swallows, Ploughing Under Way, Buy British!

Another lovely sunny morning. Having had several days of much needed rain, we are now enjoying good spring weather with the birds singing and trees & flowers bursting forth. The hedge-banks & verges around the farm are starred with constellations of golden celandines and clusters of violets are to be found on sunny banks.
The whitethorn is opening into its lovely froth and catkins are dancing in the hedges.
Yesterday evening the Farmer & I were out on the yard and saw the first swallows arrive. They are early this year by a few days. Everything seems to be coming early this year; bumble bees have been lumbering through the gardens for several weeks now and of course the daffodils were in flower in the middle of February.
During the afternoon I also saw the first butterfly, a Tortoiseshell, flittering across the sun-warmed stone wall of one of our old courtyard buildings.

The Farmer & I have have been struggling through rich bubbling head-colds this last week though they are now in retreat, thank goodness, though the chesty coughs are lingering in a most annoying manner.

 Elder Son has been able to start on some of the spring field work and was ploughing yesterday ready for re-seeding a pasture. There is anaother field waiting to go under the plough and then the tasks of harrowing, seeding & rolling will have to be done. I hope the weather holds fine until the job is finished.

The Farmer attended a meeting with OMSCO (www.omsco.co.uk) last night for an update on how the organic milk market is doing. It seems that sadly, the market in the UK for organic milk is still dropping, though the sales on the continent are growing rapidly. This means that our good Welsh organic milk is being exported rather than consumed here in the UK and travelling great numbers of food miles. Apparently once the milk has crossed the channel it is en route for another 18 hours! Meanwhile, continental yoghourt is being transported to the supermarket shelves in the UK. So much for 'buying local' which has been the slogan for the past couple of years. Its all down to the consumer...buy British, buy Local !