Gardening & Gardeners, Gwili Steam Railway

This is my large garden in former days when it was still under control...this year thanks to the broken leg it is no longer quite so tidy, so I have treated myself by employing a gardener & he's wonderful. The luxuriant rampaging brambles have disappeared, bare earth is now visible though it will soon be hidden by some new plantings and shrubs are able to breathe again. I'm thrilled. The beginning of April was just about the worst time to injure myself as the gardens were full of the joys of spring and everything was growing like mad and needed to be kept in check, especially bramble, docks creeping buttercup and the dreaded couch grass. I still can't get out there to work so a gardener was the only answer. As well as dealing with the big stuff F. is also prepared to do fiddly weeding and also discuss changes and planting ideas which I'm pleased about as the garden neeeds to be taken onto its next stage of development for which I need as much advice as I can get. Do we go all out for giant rhododendrons in dark corners or other less dramatic shrubs that just fill a space and do we take out a couple of trees that are struggling? Also digging up enormous clumps of irises and splitting them and planting the smaller clumps in new places creating a more varied palette of colour in the established beds. When the Farmer has time we shall go our local excellent nurseries and have bit of a spree. I particularly want to get more Japanese anemones which are so lovely for late summer and lots more irises and roses but also smaller low growing plants such as anemone blanda to plant at the foot of the box hedging. Also fuschias which do well here and then some more hydrangeas, the thugs of the garden but well worth their bullying tendencies. I have some interesting hellebores waiting to go in and some lavenders, so all in all it is quite exciting.

The Sons are still busy with silage-making around the neighbourhood and as we got ours done last week the pressure is off a little. When they are not driving silage kit around they are spreading slurry on the newly mown fields to encourage good growth for the second cut.

The summer weather has arrived and our holiday makers are enjoying sitting out of an evening after spending the day entertaining their small grand-son at various attractions in the area. The favourite seems to be the Gwili Steam Railway near Carmarthen(), real steam trains puffing their way through a lovely wooded valley alongside a small river, all very attractive. The Gwili Railway is run by a team of railway enthusaiasts and is one of the very good attractions in the area.

Cottage with Roses round the Door, Silage Time Again

A glorious sunny morning and this is when I think the holiday cottage is so lovely with the rose Maigold gleaming with its butter-yellow flowers so beautifully scented at the front door and with the sun streaming into the kitchen/sitting room and lighting up the warm rose-pink walls with a cheerful glow...so relaxing and with the birds singing in their summer joyfulness it's just perfect. There are still a few dates available for the summer so book now and come to enjoy a peaceful break in the lovely Welsh countryside.
In the farmhouse we have a different light but just as cheering as it pours into the kitchen and lights up my pots of scarlet geraniums on the window sills which with the smell of fresh coffee and toast is a great start to the day.

Nine weeks on from breaking my leg and things are improving all the time...I no longer use the crutches but still walk very slowly & carefully and with a considerable degree of pain but apparently that is quite normal so I was told by the excellent physiotherapist I saw a couple of days ago. So, I still can't take the dogs for their walks or go very far at all but potter gently around the house. Standing ironing bed-linen proved a bit of a challenge as standing for any length time is very uncomfortable and painful. However, it is all getting better as the days pass.

On the farm the Farmer & the Sons are very busy as with the advent of the lovely weather so comes the silge harvest and with the long hours and keeping a constant eye on the weather. The boys are out contracting much of the time but should be doing our own silage any day now. This is always such a busy time of year (but then when isn't?!) and with the very long days running into the late nights everyone gets tired though because they enjoy it all so much they do stay cheerful apart from when machines break down which hopefully won't happen, or if it does it is something simple that can be fixed quickly. This year we have anew front-mounted mower which together with the back -mounted one makes the job even quicker. To think that when the Famer & I were first married silage took about four days now it is all done in one!

Leg Cast Removed, Spring Abounding

My visit to our local hospital for my appointment at the fracture clinic this morning has resulted in the cast being removed from my leg (hurrah!) and I don't have to go back. It is wonderful not having the weight of the cast to carry around though I still have to use crutches for the next couple of weeks. I can put weight on the injured leg without pain though the foot is still rather swollen and bruised and I do need the crutches so I'm still not able to do much that is useful, except washing-up! I prop myself up by the sink, though standing for longer than about 5 minutes is quite uncomfortable, still things are improving. Considering it five weeks to the day tomorrow since I broke the leg I reckon I'm doing rather well!

The apple blossom is in in full glory in the orchards and looking just gorgeous. With the beech tress just bursting into thier vibrant spring greenness the farm is looking marvellous. Our guests in the holiday cottage are enjoying their trips around west Wales seeing at its loveliest and when they are not out and about they are enjoying the tranquility of the countryside listening to the chorus of birdsong from the blackbirds & thrushes and seeing the woods and fields transform themselves in preparation for the summer.

Farewell Morris 1000 Traveller

Yesterday saw the end of an era when we waved farewell to our old Morris 1000 Traveller which we have had for 30 years. For many of those years it was our only car and it did sterling service until a time came when we needed to tow cattle trailers so poor old Moggie was relegated to a shed and left to a quiet retirement. However, a time had come when it was taking up valuable space and someone offered to buy it at a very reasonable price so it just seemed sensible that it should be re-homed and diddled up and used again. I hope its new owners have as much fun with it as we did.

I am still on crutches, hobbling around and still unable to do anything useful. Its been 5 weeks now so the end is in sight, I hope. I am missing my daily walks around the farm as this is a most wonderful time of year with visible changes everyday as the bluebells come into flower and the trees burst into leaf. The birds are chorusing madly though I have not heard a cuckoo this year. Last year they were very vocal across the valley. The swallows are swooping in and out of the buildings around the yard and every now and then they come chattering into the house as the door stand open most of the day. They flit in panic around the house and then find their way out through an open window. If need be when they get themselves against a closed window and are frantically flapping against it, someone captures them gently in cupped hands and takes them outside to be released with a swift upward throw and off they go to continue their aerobatic hunts for insects.

Coping with Crutches, The Delights of Spring

The spring flowers are coming into their glory now, though I am not able to get out to view them unfortunately thanks to my hobbled state. Crutches are not the ideal means of locomotion around the farm. I'm now in the second week of using them and have found that any uneven or loose surface is very frightening which limits my range considerably as our yard is very uneven and on a slight slope. My one or two forays beyond the house and garden have been difficult so I'm tending to stay put. Just getting around the house has its own problems as there are little steps all over the place and our one bathroom is up a staircase with a tight turn in it. Still, I'm coping and there are only 5 more weeks (!) to go before the cast should come off...and believe me I'm counting the days!
Moan over, now praise for the Farmer. He is being marvellous and has taken over all the cooking (I can't stand or walk without the crutches so cooking or anything else is impossible) and he is a good cook. Our super daughter-in-law is great, coming in every day to do house-work-y stuff for me. Friends and neighbours have been so kind bringing flowers, books and dvds as well as conversation and so on the whole I'm being thoroughly spoilt.

Today there is gentle rain from heaven which the Farmer is very pleased about as he and the Sons ahve been so busy all week sowing grass seeds and doing a lot of field work in the lovely weather that we had. This soft rain is perfect for the seeds and we should see a fine haze of green across the fields before too long.

The first swallows arrived last week, somewhat later than usual but they are now settled in and can be seen swooping in and out of the farm buildings building the nests for their first brood.
Many of trees are still quite bare though the oaks are coming into leaf and well before the ash so will we have dry summer as predicted by the old saying
'Oak before Ash we're in for a splash.
Ash before Oak we're in for a soak.'
The blackthorns are now in flower with their lacy white blossoms contrasting beautifully agains the still dark grey and purple of the otherwise leafless tres and bushes in the hedgerows.
Bumblebees are busy everywhere in the garden and early butterflies have been seen out in the sunshine. I've seen tortoiseshells, orange-tips and a couple of peacocks flittering about.
Most of the daffodils and narcissus are over now and the bluebells are coming into flower now with their amazing splashes of vivid blue lighting up dark corners of shade under trees and hedges and of course the primroses and cowslips are appearing and not just at the edges of fields and in the hidden corners of the farm but in my garden too. The wild garlic is also emerging and we are gathering it for a lovely addition to salads. Cheese and wild garlic sandwiches are delicious.

Spring Milk & Eggs, Farmer's Wife Breaks Leg, Praise for Local Hospital

The cows are out and enjoying the sunshine. The milk takes on a lovely enriched flavour at this time of year once the cows are eating fresh grass instead of silage.It is another indication that Spring has sprung.

I have been impeded by a badly sprained ankle these last few days. I was carrying a basket of laundry when I mis-stepped a shallow step in the house (this is a house full of steps!)and found myself on the floor with my head in the laundry basket while my ankle shrieked pain. Unbelievable pain! However 4 days on, with the ankle strapped up, the swelling & the pain are reducing while I recline like a lady of leisure (or as much as is possible in this household), on the sofa. All a great nusiance & inconvenience to me and the men-folk who are not known for their sympathy & patience after about 2 days! That said the Farmer has been doing the cooking and has offered to make the beds & get things ready in the holiday cottage for our next lot of guests who arrive tomorrow, so I can't really complain!

With spring in the air and the longer hours of daylight the hens are laying 'like trains' as an old friend used to say. We are getting about a dozen eggs a day and even with the amount of baking I do it is difficult to not get a huge backlog. Everyone who calls has eggs thrust upon them! We eat eggs in every cooked form imaginable though I have drawn the line at egg-y meals twice a day!

Post Script
Next day.
I have not sprained my ankle, I have broken my leg, as a visit to our local A&E proved this morning.
The pain was so bad this morning that I thought I should have it looked at...and yes, the fibula is broken and I've been walking on it(or attempting to) for 6 days. The hospital staff were very impressed, especially when I said I had not been taking any pain-killers! I am very stoical! So now I am plastered up to my knee with a pretty scarlet cast and equipped with a pair of killer crutches and instructions to keep my foot 'elevated' for several days. I have to endure this now for 6 weeks just as we are getting into the really busy time of year. Oh, well!
I have to praise the staff at our local general hospital, they were wonderfully kind and patient and we waited only abut 30 minutes before being seen and then it was a very efficient progress through x-rays, plastering, further x-rays and crutches & home. In all about 3 hours. Well done & thank you West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen.

Lambing Nearly Over, Return Visitors

Lambing is almost over and we have such perfect weather at the moment for turnign them out into the fields. The ewes sit in the sunshine while the lambs gamboll and play running races across the field or gathering in little groups to investigate the hedgrows.
One ewe produced triplets which are all doing well but we are supplementing them with a bottle twice a day as the ewe has not got just quite enough milk for three.

Our guests in the cottage for Easter have had a lovely week and have been so lucky with the weather. They are here returning after 20 years...or rather D. the mother has brought her children back as she had such happy memories of her childhood holidays here. I was so pleased when D. contacted me to say she wanted to bring her family here. We remember her & her sister as they came to stay several times all the way from Hull with their parents back in the early '90's. The cottage has changed a lot since then but the general ambience is much the same and D. and her husband & children seem very relaxed and happy. We must have got something right that people want to come back even after, or especially, after so long a time. The children are thrilled to have dogs & cats to play with and the dogs & cats in turn seem more than happy to have so much attention!

Easter was quite quiet here though I did of course make the traditional Simnel Cake and we all ate too much chocolate, but the work carried on with the Farmer & the Sons being kept very busy with muck spreading and ploughing.

We are waiting for the arrival of the first swallows, they usually put in an appearance about 10th April so any time jnow we should sudenly realise that they are swooping above the yard and chattering as they start nest-building.All the little hedgerow birds are very noisy and busy at the moment and I watch the sparrows squabbling in the hedges and the blackbirds vying with each other over territory. We have nuthatches nesting in a hole in one of the barn walls and bluetits in nest boxes. I've seen wrens flittering in the hedges and the thrushes are very vocal. It is all so lovely.

Internet restored, Lambing, Cow Signs

After almost two weeks without phone and therefore without internet connection I am at last back in communication with the outside world! It is shocking how reliant we have all become on the internet...I would be unable to run the holiday cottage without it nowadays and the Farmer is now obliged to do all the VAT and much of our DEFRA 'paperwork' online. When the phone line is out of action we are completely stuck and have have to rely on the kindness of friends & family allowing us to use their wifi to enable us to catch-up with emails and general business demands. It was a deeply frustrating couple of weeks. Anyways it is all fixed now and we are back to what passes for normal.

Lambing is now well underway and going well. The weather has on the whole been very good, though these last couple of days we have had strong winds and it is cold. The wind is great actually as it dries out the land very quickly which is always a good thing. Today we have glorious sunshine which is perfect for lambs.

A couple of days ago the Farmer & I attended an OMSCo (www.omsco.co.uk) meeting at which we listened to a talk called 'Cow Signs' given by vet on how cattle indicate that they are unhappy. It was simply fascinating. Farmers always keep a close eye on their cattle, and dairy farmers even more so but we learned a great deal from this talk. Housing in very important and the good layout of cattle sheds is vital. All the cows should be able get to water troughs without being blocked by the 'big mama boss cow' meaning that there should be no dead-ends in a shed but free access all the way round, whilst seeming obvious it is not always the case. Also cows like to drink from smaller troughs rather than large ones. Another interesting part of the talk was the section on cubicles. Many dairy cows have beds, with mattresses very often, in rows like a dormitory, each bed being divided from its neighbour by a metal barrier. This is a cubicle shed. It seems that the shape of the barriers plays a part in how content a cow is by giving her sufficient room to move easily as she gets up from lying down. A full grown cow needs a space of about 8feet in length in order to be able lunge forward to stand up. If the cubicle is too short or the dividing barrier is a bad shape she had real problems which can over time result in her damaging herself with the further result that her milk production is affected as she is an unhappy cow. Many of these things can be corrected very easily, fortunately with out great expense.
Much of what was said was very obvious but as with so many things when you are dealing with them on a daily basis some aspects of the work can be overlooked or taken for granted until they are pointed out by an outside voice.

We have had friends staying for the last couple of days and this morning we all went to Cwmtydu beach to walk the cliff path. It was superb. Though there was a cool wind the sun was shining, there were clear blue skies and Cardigan Bay was looking its best with the headland at Cardigan to the south and the curve of the bay to the north visible through a pearly haze. Perfect Easter weather.