Since I’ve Been Gone

Sunday 9 September 2012

I’d like to say I gave myself a ‘summer break’ from the old blogging thing, but truth is I’ve been either too busy, too lazy or too completely apathetic to get around to it.  However, today I’m feeling a little more enthusiastic so here goes (warning: could be a photo-heavy post!).

The girls came home with their respective partners shortly after my last blog entry and we went on the West Somerset Railway to Blue Anchor, then on from there in a coach to Chapel Cleeve Manor for the ghost tour.  Although the girls have been on the train before they were obviously too young to remember and spent most of the previous journey asking whether we were there yet.  This time they found it much more exciting; we trailed up and down the train comparing the various carriages, most of which are different, until we came to what Steph called ‘the Harry Potter section’.  I think this carriage would have originally been a first-class car and had compartments with doors.  The seats were extremely squishy but we had it to ourselves and their excitement was contagious so it felt like a proper adventure.

This is Stephanie and her partner Carl in the first choice of seats before we decided to move around the train.

And this is Alex and Mike who were sitting opposite Steph and Carl – they took photos of each other!

Blue Anchor station.

Alex got told off for sitting here “in case a train came along”.  “Without me noticing?” she asked.  “Well, they do move quite quickly” the Station Master said, despite all evidence to the contrary and the fact that the line was long, straight and you could see for about half a mile in either direction!

At Blue Anchor we waited until greeted by our guide in a long, black sweeping Victorian coat which he wore with flair despite the fact that it was really warm, who escorted us to our coach.  There were six of us and four other people on the tour and we were taken to the house.  As ghost tours go it wasn’t very scary – in fact it was quite hammy – but the little bit of the house we saw was interesting.

This is the ‘ghost’ of a bride who drowned herself in the pond after being told her fiance was killed in the war.  I wonder if the actress realised that whilst she was dancing around in front of the large window, her dress was almost transparent?

The following day we were going to go to Hestercombe House to look around the gardens, but the rain was pretty heavy so we decided somewhere indoors might be better.  This is Tyntesfield House near Bristol, a National Trust property.

By early afternoon the rain had stopped so we were able to look around the gardens.

The bees were out in force.

Once the girls had returned to Cheltenham life got fairly boring!  I’ve made several things – runner bean chutney from a recipe on the internet, mozzarella cheese (which actually tasted like mozzarella cheese, much to my surprise), and a large selection of birthday cards.

Gordon and I were invited to view a canal a friend had worked out during the early part of the year so we went to Chepstow, walked the canal, had some lunch then came home.  On the way along the canal bank I found some excellent fossils that had obviously been turfed up when they were clearing sludge from the waterways.  My friend told me one is called a devil’s toenail and the other is a small ammonite on top of a piece of a larger one.  I’ll photograph them soon to show you.

Part of a series of locks still waiting to be cleared.

My shadow on the opposite wall of a lock.  Looks harmless, but there was a drop of about twenty feet directly in front of me.

On Friday this week I went with friends to Clevedon to see the Waverley come in at the pier.  Even though I live fairly close I don’t think I’ve ever been to Clevedon and I’m told the Waverley is the only sea-going paddle-steamer left in the world.

It was quite impressive tying up alongside the pier at high tide.

Once the passengers were on board it set off and I was surprised how quickly it was going.

We walked along the seafront, had lunch and were still there to see the Waverley return in the afternoon from Wales.

This week Gordon and Daniel have been busy haymaking – just in time judging from the weather conditions outside now.  We’ve had a week of fairly dry weather and now the rain’s returned.  Luckily most of it is safely stacked in the barn.

 

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A Day Of Numbers

Sunday 29 April 2012

Following a stormy night Gordon discovered two cows had calved.  Three calves were born.  Two were twins obviously.  One twin was male and the other female.  The female was dead.  The male died later – it was a cold night and they were both small.  It may have been for the best as the female half of male/female twins is often unable to reproduce due to male hormones in her system.  They’re known as freemartins.  The surviving calf is another heifer and at the close of day was hale and hearty.  Let’s hope she stays that way.

The mother of the twins is ‘down’ with what looks like milk fever and if she isn’t up by tomorrow she’ll be put on a course of medication to get her back on her feet.  She’s an Alexandra, one of our older ones.  She’s a good cow with a permanent callous on the bridge of her nose where she’s learned that if she knocks the feeders in the milking parlour, more cake will fall down into her trough.  She can always be bribed with cake!

On top of that it has rained all day.  We went out at one stage as Gordon was getting a bit stir-crazy and the roads were covered with green: leaves and twigs from the hedgerows.  At milking time I snapped this photo of the cows in the rain looking a bit like water-buffulo with their ears down.

Yesterday evening I went to my once-a-month craft group where one of our members whose preferred hobby is scrapbooking gave us a lesson.  We were told what supplies we needed and she helped us through the design stage of a scrapbook page of our own.  I’ve seen this done before of course but never tried it myself, preferring the digital version on the computer and I have to say I enjoyed the evening a great deal.  I took two of my favourite photos, one of Steph and another of Alex, but the one of Steph didn’t quite go with the paper I’d chosen.  This is the result of the evening’s work, as yet unfinished although I’m pleased with it so far.

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Hello Again.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Well, here we are again, catching up.  Where does the time go?  I’ve been busy gardening/farming/socialising/shopping!

The garden is now pretty much ready to start planting things in, although I’ve yet to devise a way of stopping the cats crapping in all that lovely prepared soil as if it was a giant litter tray.  I thought large electric fences might work, but I’m sure that would come under some kind of animal cruelty law so am trying the netting from around large bales of hay.  One layer doesn’t work and two layers is struggling as they’re still digging through it.  Yelling at them isn’t working either.  Last year you may recall they scurried around enough in it to displace a percentage of the seedlings I’d taken the time to plant so once again I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve just signed my life away to a mobile phone contract for the first time ever.  I wanted a smart phone so I could connect easily to the internet when I was out and about, having coveted the ones belonging to the girls, so am now the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy Ace.  It’s very shiny and fast especially when compared to the one I was using before.  I switched providers, which was traumatic enough in the first place, but having trawled up and down the high street in Bridgwater, most of which is mobile phone shops or charity shops the new provider offered the best deal.  Of course, when I phoned O2 to ask for a PAC code (important, apparently) in order to transfer my old number they were adamant they could have provided me with a better deal.  I explained that perhaps they should tell that to the guy in the O2 shop who assured me ‘yes madam, that is our cheapest pay monthly tariff’.  As it turned out, their cheapest tariff was about £6.50 dearer than that of Three so that’s who I’m with now even though the guy on the phone tried really hard to persuade me to stay with them since I’ve been one of their most loyal customers.  “Bit late now” I told him.

We have sixteen heifer calves so far and they’re all doing well, growing as they’re supposed to.  The cows are finally out in the sunshine, enjoying the grass and the warmth on their backs.  They were very excited to be out on their first day, but have already got very casual about it.  Ferdinand is up to his old tricks of blocking their way in then refusing to let them out into the fields after milking, but he gets bored with that eventually and they push past him.  As long as he doesn’t get aggressive we should be all right.

A week or so ago a group of us went to the Manor House Hotel near Okehampton.  You may recall I went there last year around the same time of year and came home with handmade goodies.  This time there weren’t as many activities available but I did falconry on the lawn with my friend Chris and took some photos, as well as archery on my own.  I silk-painted and did a small ‘creative’ embroidery, both of which were passable and may yet be framed, so I’ll post photos of those if I ever decide to do that.

This is Ethan, the Harris Hawk

This one is of Jasper, the Eagle Owl (yes, I know I called him Oscar, but on reading it again I realised that was wrong).  Apparently owls that hunt during the day usually have orange eyes.

The little American Kestrel was called Fidget and was the smallest bird in the group.  We held out our suitably gauntleted hands with delicacies such as chicks’ legs and chunks of meat and the birds swooped in to grab it up, posed for photographs for a minute then flew back to their handler.

This little robin was not quite hand-tamed, but definitely wasn’t bothered as it went about its business collecting worms.

Oh, and my internet is rubbish again, dropping constantly and irritating me half to death.  Gordon thinks this might be it now for the rest of the summer!  Ever the pessimist!

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That Darn Cat!

Friday 27 January 2012

On Wednesday evening I ‘hosted’ a craft evening at the house.  The group has been meeting for a long time in a nearby village hall, but over the past year the numbers have been dropping as so often happens with these sorts of things and the lady who runs the group was trying to decide whether to continue or not.  Rather than lose something I really enjoy I volunteered the use of my large dining room table and we were amazed that over ten ladies made it here on a horrible, wet evening.  We had a great time even though I was slightly stressed that everyone would leave covered in cat-hair as Thomas has taken to sleeping on the fabric dining-room chairs and even though I vacuumed them as thoroughly as I could, cat-hair tends to linger.

As you know, Thomas is large, hairy and molts a lot.  Add to that the fact that it’s quite wet outside at the moment so not only is the chair of the day covered in hair, more often than not there’s mud involved too.  The thing with Thomas is that he rarely lies on the same chair twice.  No sooner has one got dirty than he’s on another one.  He knows he’s not supposed to be on them as I hear him jump down when I’m walking into the room.  At least he has the grace to look guilty, but I know the moment I’m out of sight he’ll be back on there.  This morning I’d had enough and shut all the cats out all day, but even I’m not mean enough to shut them out overnight, especially in this weather.  I ranted to Gordon about the mess they make, especially since one (not sure if it is Thomas) has taken to walking over everything – work surfaces, the sink, tables – with muddy paws during the night.

Gordon tells me we have three choices:

we either cover the chairs

we get rid of all the cats

we put the doors back on our rooms to keep them confined to the kitchen.

Tough choice, but I decided the easiest option would be to cover the chairs with something that didn’t look particularly untidy but could be whipped off when visitors arrived, leaving lovely clean chairs ready to be sat on.  Consequently I’ve been on an internet quest to find something suitable.  It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.  I can find chair covers in linen, faux suede, or taffeta with bows.  I can find plastic covers to protect the seats, but unfortunately just the seats, not the backs, which are also fabric.  The only thing that looks even vaguely suitable seems to be something that resembles a large plastic bag that decorators would use to cover chairs when they’re painting.  It isn’t quite what I was looking for, but may be my only option.  If you know different, please let me know.

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Catching Up

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Since I last wrote I’ve been fiddling about with this and that, which has taken up time and energy that would have been better spent elsewhere.

I had a good sort-out of stuff I’ve been promising for months to stick on Ebay and finally did it.  The majority of it sold well with only a few hiccups including a winning bid from someone who then e-mailed me to say she’d bid on it by mistake and could I cancel the whole thing.  If you’ve ever done this on Ebay you’ll know it isn’t the most straightforward thing to do, but I got there in the end.  The only problem now is it won’t allow me to post the item again for another twenty days, but I figure it’s been sitting around long enough and another couple of weeks won’t hurt.

I’ve also had an ongoing battle with the internet and have given notice to Virgin that I wish to leave.  When they asked why I explained that the service was rubbish and my router was dying, and they immediately said I should have let them know.  Of course, I told them that actually I had let them know on several occasions but had seen little improvement in the service and been turned down when I asked for a new router, which they’re quite happy to hand out like sweeties to new customers but don’t give to existing customers who’ve been with them for years.  They offered me one then and there, but it’s too late, I’ve signed with BT.

My logic behind signing with them is that they’re always telling me it’s not their fault when I phone to complain about the service.  This way, they won’t be able to pass the buck to my service provider but will have to sort it out themselves.  Besides which, we got a business package that includes 500 free UK minutes a month (way more than we’ll need) and we’ll hopefully save money in the long-run.  It hasn’t been smooth sailing though as they initially signed me up on the wrong (recommended by them) package that included an additional new phone line.  Once I’d realised this I was back on the phone trying to sort it out and we eventually came to an agreement which suited us.  In the confusion however I’ve changed order numbers, log-in details and even addresses as they put my address in wrong the second time, but despite being told my new package did not include a free router I’ve subsequently been sent two!  The first one is a result of the first incorrect contract and the second is because I notified them of the wrong address!  I’m sure that over time this will all be resolved.

Alex came home for a long weekend to chill but spent most of Sunday in a cleaning frenzy!  She has far more energy and enthusiasm for this sort of thing but as she now lives in a very small room in a shared house, cleanliness is important to her.  What she fails to grasp is that when you’ve lived in a rambling farmhouse for fifteen years with the accumulated rubbish of not just you, but family on both sides, things are going to get a little cluttered.  Apparently, when I die it’s all going in a skip.  Like I care!  She did enjoy a little raid into my craftroom though and relieved me of several items of accumulated prettiness in the way of craft items which have gone back to live in Cheltenham with her.

Steph is also home from her holiday and kicking around with various hobbies to stop herself getting bored.  Unfortunately for us all, cleaning and housework isn’t high on her list of priorities either (like mother, like daughter), but she decided she’d like a sewing machine so I gave her my Nectar card with a huge amount of points and she made a trip to Argos, picking up a machine which didn’t cost us any cash at all.  On Saturday afternoon she started on a project she’d had in her mind for a while and today she’s finished it.

When you realise this is double-bed size then you can see what a huge amount of work has gone into it.  I’m slightly concerned that she may have worn-out the new sewing machine already, but on the plus side it is guaranteed for a year so if it dies of exhaustion any time soon it can go back to Argos.

Gordon and I are off for a short break to Wales tomorrow to stay with friends who live in Pembrokeshire.  I’m very much looking forward to it but Gordon’s feelings on the subject are less obvious, mainly because it’ll mean leaving the farm!  Daniel has promised to contact us if anything goes badly wrong, but I’m sure he can manage on his own.  The poor boy has been given instructions from all directions so he won’t be sitting around idle while we’re away.  My camera will be coming with me (of course) and I’ll post photos when I get back on Sunday.  It’s a long time since I went to Wales and only remember it vaguely, so let’s hope it’s all I remember!

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Weekend Away

Friday 25 February 2011

I’m off for the weekend with my friends in the craft group I attend.  I’m going here to get up to all sorts of activities.  I haven’t decided what I’d like to try yet, but I suspect swimming won’t be one of them despite the encouragement of my friends.  Swimming combines several of my least favourite things – getting undressed in a public place, walking from changing room to pool in just a swimming costume, getting my face wet and then putting dry clothes over a damp body.  Some people do it for fun apparently, but I’ve yet to discover why!  I expect I’ll be having a go at the craft stuff, which is far more me.

My camera will be coming too so there’s the possibility of photos when I get back.  Have a good weekend.

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Ferdinand’s Firstborn

Tuesday 31 August 2010

This morning Gordon came in with a big grin on his face.  Ferdinand’s first live calf was born during the night – and she’s female.  Her mother Nancy was out with the herd as we had no due date for her although we knew she must be near her time, which probably means she was one of the first served by Ferdinand when he joined the herd in December.  She calved by herself and walked in this afternoon when Gordon went out to bring the girls in for milking.  Her calf ran the whole way, which is why her mouth is covered in drool in the photo.  Less than a day old and already running all that way!

She allowed Gordon to stroke her, but quivered the whole time, poor little thing!  Her ears were really flapping.  Isn’t she beautiful?

Stephanie and I went uni shopping today with a friend and her daughter; first to Asda for duvet, pillows and some household stuff then on to Dunelm Mills in Weston-super-Mare.  As I type, Steph is on the sofa surrounded by her new goodies like a pig in whatnot.  She’s storing it in Alex’s room for the timebeing until transferring it to her car in a couple of weeks for the big moving day.

When we got home I had a pleasant surprise in the form of some delicious blog candy from Julie at KC’s Court.  She was running a blog giveaway on the event of her 500th post and her granddaughter’s first birthday.  It was so exciting to open the package and find all the lovely goodies, so thank you very much Julie.

I have to say, I have a bit of a ribbon fetish going on so was almost as excited by the wrapping as the contents.  The parcel was tied in brightly covered ribbons, which I’ve included in the photo.  Julie designs some lovely samplers and there was a chart for one called ‘Make Much of Time’ too.

All in all, a good day.

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Busy Old Week

Monday 26 April 2010

Since I last wrote I’ve been rushing around with commitments: good ones, it has to be said but still commitments.

On Wednesday I took Dad out to lunch at The Maypole in Thurloxton again.  We’re becoming regulars and are greeted like such by the staff.  It’s nice to go somewhere where they recognise you and the food is great.  Dad and I have an ongoing battle about who’s going to pay for lunch but I’m trying to steer us in the direction of taking turns, otherwise he insists on picking up the bill every single time.

On Thursday I visited Julie in Minehead for lunch, a wander-around the town and then a cup of tea at her house.  The sun was out and we had a thoroughly pleasant lunch in one of her favourite restaurants.  I came away with a present:

a luggage tag she’s designed with a view to making your suitcase immediately visible on a luggage carousel at the airport.  She has other designs and if you’re interested you can buy your very-own from her site.  This is her photo, by the way, which I ‘borrowed’ from her website since it’s the design I chose.

On Friday I went with several friends to a craft fair at Shepton Mallet.  It’s the first one I’ve been to since mum became ill; we always went together and I didn’t feel like going to one without her when she was so poorly.  It was still difficult although my friend Vivien is good company.

Saturday saw us awake at 5.00 am.  There was an Open Day at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, Steph’s university of choice in September, which started at 10.00 am so we left the house at 6.00 am and picked up Terri en route.  With about twenty minutes to spare we were parked in Luton and finding our way to the entrance of the university.  I’ve a horrible feeling I picked up a speeding ticket on the way – not because we were rushing but simply because we were in unknown territory and I missed the signs!  Time will tell.  The day was interesting and informative with tours around the campus, various associated buildings and accommodation, and she thinks she definitely wants to go there.  I’ve a suspicion that I may take her leaving home even harder than I did Alex’s, but she is the ‘baby’ of the family.  It’s still a shock to see her so grown-up and I’m getting dire premonitions of ‘empty-nest syndrome’ already.

Speaking of which, Alex is coming home for a few days tomorrow.  Her dissertation is bound and will be handed in some time today, she’s out to celebrate this evening with friends then I’m driving to Cheltenham to collect her.  We’ll be bringing home a lot of her unnecessary stuff too so she doesn’t have to worry about it on the train.

Yesterday we gardened.  Yes!  Both Gordon and I.  This is unusual, but while he mowed the lawn and strimmed the edges, I weeded the flower-beds and clipped shrubs.  We had lunch and a glass of wine in the gazebo when it started raining with the initial thought of staying there until it stopped but it didn’t so we eventually gave up and went indoors.  After milking the sun had come out again so we carried on until 7.30 pm.  Again, a flash into life at home with no ‘children’.

The farm has been busy this week as we’re now fully into our calving season.  We’re getting about two or three calves a day and are starting to run out of places to put them again.  At the moment the most in one pen is six with three cows even though there’s only one set of twins.  If their mother isn’t interested in looking after them we put the cow back in the herd and hope one of the ‘maternal’ cows will take over feeding it.  This is working quite well so far.  Oddly enough, even though the mothers kick the calves away and refuse to let them drink, they still bawl for a couple of days when they’re let out with the herd.

We had the fire brigade out twice last week and they phoned us again this morning.  The first time was when someone in a passing car on the motorway reported an animal in the canal.  By the time TWO fire-engines turned up Gordon had already found a calf that had fallen off the end of the ramp down to the water and was paddling about sadly looking for the way back.  The mother was peering into the water intently so Gordon simply looked in the same place and found the calf.  The second time was on Friday and unfortunately I missed this one.  THREE fire-engines turned up because someone on the motorway had reported ‘a herd of cows walking into the canal and trying to drown themselves’.  It was a hot day: they were going for a drink and a paddle to cool off their legs, but apparently the person in the car was concerned they were trying to commit suicide!  This morning, someone in the office used their initiative and phoned Gordon before sending out a fleet of engines, which is just as well as the passing motorist this time had reported a cow and calf stranded on an island in the middle of the canal.  There isn’t an island in the middle of the canal, but there is a large ditch on the opposite side of the canal bank and we can only think that it looked like an island from the motorway.

I know it’s quite an expensive business to send out an engine, so I hate to think what the cost of all these unnecessary call-outs has been to the Fire Brigade this week.  Giving Gordon a ring and asking him to check it out first has got to be far cheaper!

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Another Freecycle Experience

Monday 18 January 2010

Once again the clearing bug has come upon me (unfortunately it happens so infrequently) and I’ve been listing things on Freecycle or Ebay depending on the condition of them as well as ease of delivery.  The large sewing cabinet mother-in-law left behind when she headed for the sanctuary of a bungalow in Pawlett, thus not allowing herself any extra room for ‘large’ furniture, finally had to go.  It’s been sat in the corner of the study for more than a decade, usually buried under a pile of stuff that tends to accumulate on the top of any flat surface and the aggravation involved in clearing the rubbish off usually outweighed the need to sew anything.  When last tried it didn’t actually work so it wasn’t even useful any more.

I offered it on Freecycle a while ago and someone claimed it straight away so it was moved into the hall to wait for collection.  Didn’t happen.  I wasn’t surprised; it’s not the first time, as you may recall.  This time I was determined that it went to a new home one way or the other, but whether it was a ‘loving’ one or the tip depended entirely on the whim of local freecyclers.  A chap called Jim was interested and came this morning to collect it.  Apparently, that’s what he does.  Collects sewing machines.  I could think of more handy things to collect: after all, how many sewing machines does a household need?  In my case, probably none, but Jim “likes the mechanical simplicity of them” so off it went to be cossetted.  That or he’s a local dealer who chops them up and sells the bits on Ebay.  I don’t really care.  It’s gone and I have the majority of the end of my hall back.  The cats are miffed because they were spending a lot of time sleeping on top of it, but now they’ll just have to find another surface to get muddy – a work-surface I expect.

Having said that, we could have done with a sewing machine before Christmas when Stephanie took it upon herself to design and sew a quilt to give us as a present.  She accumulated fabric in matching colours, cut it and designed the whole thing herself without us ever catching a glimpse of it.  She borrowed Terri’s sewing machine to put it together and the first time we had a clue about it was on Christmas morning.  To say we were staggered is a bit of an understatement.  Stephanie, to the best of my knowledge, has never sewed anything in her life and her first project was a bed-sized quilt.  When the weather improves I intend to drape it across the fence outside and photograph it in natural light so you can see what a fantastic job she made of it.

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Thomas Is Home

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Yesterday Gordon and I went Christmas shopping together in Taunton.  It’s something we do just the once; Gordon buys presents for me and I end up desperately looking for something to give everyone else.  I’m not sure how that came about, but it’s fairly clear that he gets the better part of the arrangement.  Questions such as “what do you think your mother would like?” are met with shrugs and muttering, so I shall have to use my initiative yet again.

Since her presents to me often … how shall I put this? …. take me by surprise, I don’t know why I stress so much over finding the ideal gift.  Last year she bought me a chopping board with a picture of a cow and the words ‘Silly Moo’ underneath.  Yes, I know we live on a farm with cows, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want many products that depict them!  A few years ago she bought me some chutney (Gordon ate it since he sees chutney or ketchup as an extra vegetable) and a biscuit jar in the shape of an Italian waiter.  He’s very shiny and slippery, gathered such a lot of dust that he needed brushing off at least twice a day and the lid was so tight that we finally gave up on him.  Plus, the biscuits went soggy really quickly.  We christened him Luigi and tucked him quietly in the back of the cupboard.  To be fair he was an improvement on the nylon nightie that would have looked lovely on an octogenarian in hospital, the embroidery she bought me because she knew I liked cross-stitch so thought she’d buy me a lovely embroidery for a change (her words, not mine) and the plastic tray that was just large enough to stand under the toaster to catch crumbs.  And no, I’m not an ungrateful person!  Honestly.

Thomas was collected from the vets this afternoon looking vastly improved and much happier.  We have a problem in that he needs to be fed a special urinary mix (really, it’s called that) so we’ve had to pick up the communal feeder.  The other cats keep looking at the space where it should be or sitting beside it waiting for the food to return.  If anyone has any suggestions about how we’re going to get round this, it would be appreciated.  We don’t even have a separate room we could shut Tom in while feeding the others so it’s constant supervision.  The vet says Tom needs to stay on this diet for SIX months!  Help!

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