Snow again, Night out, Dark Ages Re-enactment

We have a monochrome landscape once more since a heavy fall of snow on Friday evening. Today we are under leaden skies and with intermittent flurries of snow and hail. It is very cold.

The chickens don't like the snow much, they tend not to go out in it; I have been told that they get very dis-orientated by it , I'm not sure why.

However, they are still laying well.

We now have three lambs and hopefully by the end of the week there will be a good few more.

Last evening the Farmer & I had a bit of a social life...a night out! We went to the Shoot Dinner after the last shoot of the season took place yesterday. The Farmer went beating with the wonderful Poppy as usual  and came home with brace of pheasant & a mallard.

The dinner was held in a pub in our village and was a very jolly evening. I didn't know many people there, though there were one or two of our neighbours who we don't see very frequently and it was good to catch up with them.

 The Shoot Dinner is held to say thank you to all the people involved in making the shoot successful through the season. The amount of work involved is staggering, what with the rearing of the pheasants, the keepering, vermin control , the maintanance of the drives, recruiting beaters, inviting visiting guns, keeping the syndicate members happy and generally making sure that everyone has a good day's shooting.

We have our first holiday-makers of 2010 staying in the cottage who are delightful and fully appreciating being in the countryside in the snow. They even came out and helped us move some cattle this morning.

We suggested that they, & their sweet Border terrier Ralph, go up into the hills above Tregaron today where the views will be spectacular in this weather. Looking down the flooded valley of the Llyn Brianne reservoir with the snow lying on the hills and on the conifer plantations that blanket large areas of the uplands, will be a superb.

A. & J., our visitors, are members of a Dark Ages re-enactment society in Kent, and we have had  fascinating conversation with them about the history of that period and how they experience the details of life at that time by wearing the clothes, eating the food, handling the weaponry, even learning the language and generally absorbing themselves in the Anglo-Saxon culture. It sounds huge fun. They put on demonstrations at shows & pageants and are in constant demand by film-makers here and on the continent. Tomorrow I hope they will be able to go down to Pembrokeshire to visit Castell Henllys which is a  reconsrtucted Iron Age settlement, and one of my favourite places.

We heard from our travellers in New Zealand during the week. They were on their way to Wellington and then to cross over to South Island this week, I think. It is very hot there,apparently, but they are having a marvellous time. The Eldest Son reported that the scenery was similar to, but vastly bigger than Wales and very dramatic...he sounded pretty impressed actually!
 I hope they go to the Lord of the Rings 'Experience/ Museum'(?) while they are Wellington. I know Younger Son has visited a couple of the locations in South Island. He says LOTR is a huge thing out there still, almost unavoidable really.

Lambs, Sustainable Food Production

The Farmer must have got his dates wrong...we now have two lambs and both doing well.
They will stay in the poly-tunnel for a few days although the weather is reasonable, but its best to be on the safe side and put then out when they are a little stronger. The Farmer always says that if he can't catch the lamb easily then a fox can't either and a healthy lamb can move like greased lightning!

We have heard from the travellers. They are in glorious sunshine heading for Rotarua having had a fairly grim time flying (27 hours or so!), It is such an adventure for them.

With thoughts of long haul flights very much in our minds lately we were very interested to read in one of the dairy industry papers that come to us, the following information; that  one jumbo jet taking off has the same carbon footprint as the annual output of a 1,000 cow dairy unit.
I think this puts into persepctive the critiscms that are the levelled at farmers over their contribution to global warming! Whilst the vegetarian/vegan lobby & some politicians, tell us we should not produce meat & milk because it is damaging the planet, no-one ever suggests that all aircraft should be grounded.
This is a debate that we and our fellow producers have all the time, along with the pros & cons of vegetarian/veganism. With the encouragement to eat locally produced food, the need for non-meat,dairy& egg-eaters to have their rice, soya, nuts & lentils flown in from all corners of the world becomes an indulgence that is completely unsustainable.
Whilst Britain can produce high quality food of great variety, there are parts of the country where due to geography & climate, only grass can be grown and surely it better to be able to convert that grass into meat & milk than fly foodstuffs halfway round the world.
This is a very simplified argument, but it would be interesting to hear your point of view, dear readers.

Corgis, Rabbits, Snowdrops & First Lamb!

We heard via Younger Son that Eldest Son & KT have arrived safely in New Zealand, though they themselves have not contacted us since just before boarding their flight at Heathrow. I think there is some problem with phones, but at least we know they got there safely. They will be in touch when they can.
Meanwhile we are looking after their livestock, which includes their very pretty Pembrokeshire corgi, Cadi. She is sweet creature and loves racing in ever increasing circles with the labradors who are very tolerant of her.. She is the second corgi that we have had and they have both proved to be quite delightful; as a breed they have had a reputation for being snappy and unreliable, we have never found this and both of them have been marvellous members of the family.

I have got into the egg collecting routine now, though the washing of the eggs is tedious when one has to clean 5 to 6 dozen a day. Most of them are just rather dusty but some do need to be cleaned properly.

Yesterday the Farmer & the dog, Poppy went beating again. They came back about 3.30 very tired but having had a good day and with a brace of duck and couple of woodcock. Lunches for the week now sorted.
An additional bit of hunting went on last night when a neighbour came over with his two young lurchers and he and the Farmer went out for rabbits. There was no bag but it a was good training session for the dogs.
We have a huge rabbit problem and I'm furious because they have already eaten the tops of the daffodil shoots that are coming through  the grass around a large standing stone that is the memorial to all our dogs. It looks wonderful when the daffodils are out...I'm hoping the depredations of the rabbits will not have been too serious.

This morning I found the first snowdrops just opening in a hedgerow. We are so lucky, all down our driveway there are masses of snowdrops each year, which will look superb in few weeks time..
We have had a couple of lovely days of sunshine. I even did some work in the garden yesterday. An acquaintance had given me clump of some special snowdrops and a hellebore which needed to be planted pdq. and while I was out doing that I took the opportunity to do a little tidying up. It does get very cold on the fingers though, at this time of year.

The Farmer has just popped his head round the door to tell me that the First Lamb has arrived. What a surprise...at least a week sooner than we had expected, but then that's sheep for you!!

Travellers depart, Chickens, Wet weather to come

Well, the Eldest Son & KT left this morning for Heathrow to fly out to New Zealand this evening. They are leaving cold, damp, grey Wales for what is apparently cold, damp, grey New Zealand. Younger Son rang last night and reports that NZ is having its coldest January on record, and its their summer!
The Farmer is getting great amusement out of having been left a minutely detailed laminated list of instructions on how to run the farm in E.S.s' absence and I'm sure we will get phone calls checking up that everything is being done properly.
Anyone would think that we are ancient, decrepit and stupid, quite incapable of doing anything as it should be done!

I have been instructed on the egg collecting routine, but without the joy of a minutely detailed laminated list, so I must be more trustworthy, I guess. My only problem with the chickens is the electric  fence...I hate them!
The hens are great fun to watch with their enthusiastic scratching around in the grass of their paddock. They love people going over to see them because of course they expect food. When they run towards you  they look as though they have their hands in their pockets,which is very comical.

Walking the dogs this morning the sky was dull and grey though the horizon was blushed with palest mushroom pink which gradually became dove grey. The view across the valley was veiled with a faint smoky haze and sounds were carrying on the air from below the farm. I could hear one of our neighbours whistling as he worked and the cries of the children playing outside at our local primary school, which is about a mile away, were very clear. Its always a bad sign if we can hear the schoolchildren as it means it will almosr certainly rain within the next 24 hours...it hardly ever fails us as a warning of an impending downpour.

Life back to normal, Looking forward to Lambing, Snowdrops

Now that the snow has all gone except for some rags of white under hedges on the higher ground across the valley, life is very much back to normal. The Farmer & Eldest Son are getting the daily chores finished rather earlier now that they are not battling to get tracks gritted  and water running.

The Farmer & I, yesterday, went up to the small grey university town of Lampeter to meet Eldest Son who had taken his pride & joy, his Big Blue Tractor, to a mechanics' yard for servicing and needed a lift home.

We are due to start lambing on 1st February and we saw some early lambs out the fields yesterday  and our neighbour who keeps his sheep indoors, was lambing before Christmas ...I have heard his lambs but not seen them. Our ewes are looking good and hopefully all will go reasonably smoothly. They are still going out every day and coming back into their poly-tunnel at night. Poly-tunnels are ideal lambing sheds being light and airy making them good spaces to work in. Lambing is always a time of hard work though we are lambing only about 30 ewes this year so it will be a lot easier than when we had a 100 or so. The arrival of the first healthy lamb is always a good day.

Eldest Son & KT are off on their trip to New Zealand tomorrow and E.S. is quite convinced that the place will fall apart without him! We will just have to prove him wrong...after all we have been doing this job a lot longer then he has.

My gardens are looking very bleak at the moment with everything just recovering from the flattenng by the snow. I found snowdrops coming up and daffodils shoots have been visible since before Christmas. In an old, old orchard that we have, there is a large area that each year is a lake of snow-drops and after searching carefully throught the  grass this morning I found the first shoots; it is always so encouraging to see that spring is on its way, though still a long way off.

After the silence brought about by the snow there seems to be a constant chatter from small birds in the hedges now and we hear pheasants clattering across the fields now and then.

Yesteday a skein of geese flew across the valley, which is always a beautiful sight, even if they are Canadas which are considered such a pest.

I spent 5 minutes or so the other afternoon standing at our dining-room window watching a vole being very busy darting in and out of a stone wall at the edge of a flower bed. It would make a mad dash into the grass and quickly get back to the crevice in the wall and then reappear  little further along from another gap between the stones. There must be be whole vole city in the stones. It is amazing to think of all these tiny creatures going about their daily lives oblivious to our huge shadow, yet such a life, being constantly on the look out for predators.

Snow gone, Pheasant shoot, Howards End is on the Landing'

With the snow completely gone now, apart from some small unappetising grey leftovers lurking under hedges, we are now squelching everywhere. The small stream that runs down the side of a green lane was three days ago, a solid sheet of ice, it is now a raging torrent of white water, albeit only 18" wide. Perfect for the Borrowers to go whitewater rafting.

It is a grey, cold & damp day and the Farmer has taken one of the labradors off beating for a local shoot.It is not a posh shoot though it is run very well and the beaters & guns all eat together, which is good. And very well fed they are too, I gather. The Farmer always comes home reporting soup, stew, rich fruit cake and beer & whisky. What more could they possibly want!
The Farmer & dog will return home exhausted, probably soaked, but happy and hopefully bearing a brace of pheasant. Roast pheasant at the end of the week is something to look forward to. We don't hang the birds for too long, not being very keen on eating very high game, 4-5 days is about right. I used to casserole pheasant but have found that roasting it is better. The flavour is superb and this has always been rather lost when casseroled, though if the Farmer has shot a rabbit to go with it, a game stew is lovely. We eat quite a lot of rabbit which with its delicate flavour is as good as any poultry meat.

With a quiet day on my own I am revelling in a new book that arrived this morning... (Isn't Amazon amazing? No longer having a book shop nearer than 20 miles away I am forced to use the internet, though would much rather go to a proper book-shop and browse in the correct manner, however, that not being possible Amazon serves its purpose well especially with delivery within 24 hours of ordering).
The book that came today is Susan Hills ' 'Howards End is on the Landing'.  Just reading the opening paragraph I got that delightful frissson of anticipation that tells you this is going to be a Very Good Book.
 I have always loved Susan Hills' writing ever since I was at school, and this one is no exception. It is not fiction but an account of a year spent not buying new books but re-discovering what is already on her bookshelves. It is turning out to be one of those books that makes you  want to open a conversation with the writer to discuss what she has just said about a certain author or book... to say, 'Yes, but don't you think...?'.
I am now off back to my fireside and Susan Hills' excellent company.

Thaw

The thaw has arrived and with a vengeance.
Yesterday we were still completely white over, though the snow was softer and the roofs were dripping gently. Today we are just grey & slushy and running with water.
There is a mini Niagara coming down a set of steps near the house that lead up to the fields, and down the track there is a river. It is extraordinary how such a depth of snow as was lying in the fields can melt away so quickly. Water is running everywhere as well a heavy drizzle falling. All prettty unpleasant.
I hope we don't end up with the same problem that we had during the autumn, when it rained so much that the run-off from the saturated fields was affecting the cattle sheds and the Farmer & Eldest son had a seemingly endless task each day of diverting water and trying to keep the sheds dry.

At least I'm able to shed some of the thermals now, if only to don the waterproofs.

It is odd that once snow begins to disappear the sense of being on holiday disappears with it, and life returns to 'normal'. Why does this holiday feeling arise? Is it something to do with not being able to get out and having to rely on ones' own resources and the new routine that is enforced by being snowbound? Or is it only like that for those of us isolated out in the countryside? Or maybe I am romanticising what was in fact a period of hard work and anxiety, though we did enjoy it.

One thing that is very noticable with the rise in temperature is the increased visibility of the small birds...the sparrows are chattering away again in the hedgerows and the blue-tits and robins are audible once again. Snow brings such silence.

I came across an old Welsh saying yesterday, 'A warm January means a cold May'...do you think it works in reverse? I rather hope so.

More Snow, Towing Lorries, Haitian Earthquake.

After a very heavy & prolonged snow fall yesterday for many hours, we have had the usual concerns over access for the milk tanker but fortunately it did come, albeit an hour & a half late.
The next problem was the imminent arrival of the lorry from the West Country with a load of cattle cake. The Farmer met it at the end of the lane but the difficulties began once it got onto our yard. There was lot of sliding and slipping sideways as the lorry made its way down to the building where the cake is stored. Once unloaded it could not get out of the yard unassisted and ended up having to be towed out to the end of the lane. It is quite a sight, a 20tonne lorry being pulled up 45degree slope by a tractor! Still, at least we've enough cake for the cows now if this weather should continue.

After the dreadful news of the earthquake in Haiti, one can only feel that it puts our puny problems into a very harsh persepective. How dare we complain about not having roads gritted or not being able to get out when the poor Haitians have lost everything and will suffer much harder & longer than we have any idea of.

The snow began falling yesterday about 4 o'clock and I had to take the dogs for their afternoon run in it. The dogs loved it, I was less enthusiastic and got back to the house very wet and cold.
A friend from the village appeared during the evening, rather late...we were just about to go to bed!...having walked about a mile(!) through the falling snow. Personally, I think it was incredibly foolish, but he got here safely and presumably got home again. We haven't heard otherwise.
I love walking through the snow but not when it is falling thickly and in the dark.

With the snowfall last night came a strong blustery wind which has caused great pillowy drifts of snow against hedges and fences. The depth of snow around the edges of fields meant that I was wading, rather than walking, through it. The dogs had a lovely time leaping into the drifts after smells, which were very strong this morning. The powerful, musty reek of fox was very noticable.

We are still camping in the dining-room though the Rayburn is going again. It seems to be throwing out very little heat and there is a terrible smell of heating oil in the kitchen which makes it very unpleasant to be in there for any time.
I really must do some baking as we've just finished the Christmas cake, so I shall just have to bear the stink, or put a clothes-peg on my nose!