DR DOOLITTLE HAS NOTHING ON ME! - March 2015

I think I have mentioned before that I talk to the local animals - in their language. I baa back at the lambs. I guess it's no different from people talking to their pet dogs. Well, as we have no dogs, and the cats are batty, I talk to the farm animals.


So, I was taking my morning walk along the lane, 

when I came upon two wild goats. I startled them. They startled me! I carried on walking. They both jumped - one over the fence to my left, the other over the fence to my right. We were all heading in the same direction - the three of us, side by side, two wire fences separating us all. Me at a fast walk, them at a slow trot, clearly unnerved by my presence, and me by theirs!

The one on the left blurted out a loud 'meh meh meh' as it trotted along, the one on the right continued trotting and replied with a very similar 'meh meh meh', to which I answered both with what I considered a very similar 'meh meh meh'. At which point they both suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, turned their heads to look at me as if to say 'What the ...?' Then nonchalantly continued with their walk.

I wonder what was going through their heads. As far as I was concerned, I was just joining in the conversation!!

Dr Doolittle had best watch out!




Next blog - Breakfast

NEW SKILLS CONTINUE - Feb 2015

The most recent new skill is 'lime hemp plastering'. 


Having been advised that lime hemp plaster would be the best type of finish for our ceilings as far as insulation, breathability and damp reduction goes, we decided to give it a go, starting with the porch ceiling.

As new skills go, this has to be the worst! It's certainly not as boring as paint-scraping or trench-digging, but it's probably the hardest thing I've had to do. 

Lime hemp plaster looks, feels and smells like tuna fish paste with a bit of shredded wheat thrown in for good measure!

There are some jobs that need an artistic hand, and those such as decorating and pointing up seem to fall into that category. This is my area. There are others which fall into the category of 'brute force and physics'. Plastering I have decided, falls into this category and is where Will come in useful!

Here is Will's first attempt after about an hour (or two) ...

and here is my attempt ...

And the finished job ...

All hail Will !!!

So, as you can tell, I can't really treat this as a 'new skill'. More a complete failure as far as I am concerned. So I have gladly demoted myself to that of 'preparer' - laying down protective sheeting, and 'finisher' - removing said sheeting, clearing up spillages and cleaning dirty windows. I can live with that!




Next blog - Dr Doolittle has nothing on me!

NEW SKILLS - Feb 2015

Supposedly, one never stops learning. 

With an already overloaded brain close to saturation, I was ready to argue this point. I had no more room for any new facts, figures or knowledge. 

However, since moving to Wales, my brain seems to have expanded and created room for a whole load more! Maybe it's the fresh air, or maybe, it's because I have left behind my hectic life of speed and congestion, and no longer need to cram my brain with things now deemed stupid and unnecessary. Like how to choose which shop to buy from in a large complex, housing more tie shops than necks walking past; or which washing powder to buy from an unnecessarily huge assortment on a supermarket shelf, holding more washing products than the whole of the contents stocked by our local village shop. 

Now, if the local shop doesn't stock it, I don't buy it. Done, dusted, forgotten. Brain free to learn about useful things.

I am learning to understand the antics of gold-crests, the feeding habits of nuthatches and sparrow hawks, and the behaviours of woodpeckers and buzzards. I know the difference between crows, ravens, jackdaws and rooks as they fly overhead silhouetted against the sky (ok, I lied about the rooks and crows). I know where to find quiet beaches with seas bluer than the Med. I have learnt how to build dry stone walls. I can hold a conversation in Welsh. I can reverse my car for 'miles' along narrow high-sided single track lanes with threatening oncoming tractors holding smirking farmers behind the wheel. 


Restoring an old property has allowed me to learn about the benefits of using lime putty instead of cement. I have learnt how to point up old stone walls and where to buy clay paint and natural insulation. 

Receiving water from a mountain spring which eventually drains into a septic tank means I have had to learn about water sources, springs, tanks, filters, drains and the benefits of throwing a dead sheep in the septic tank to restore the healthy level of natural bacteria. We have recently dug a 50 metre trench across a field in order to lay a new pipe from the spring to our tank. It took forever and lies high on my list of 'most boring jobs'.

I am becoming familiar with the farming calendar and have herded and sheared sheep and held new born wild goats. I now know the difference between rams, lambs, yearlings and Texels but I can honestly say that I'll never reach the abilities of our local farmer who can pick out individual sheep in flocks of 100+ all of the same breed! 



Next blog - New skills continue

'NEW SKILLS' TOOK A BACK SEAT! - Jan 2015

So ... for several weeks now, or even months, I have intended to inform you of my new found skills but other things keep getting in the way. On this occasion, I blame 2015 which has crept up on my blind side like Stealth itself and hit me smack in the face at point blank range. 

Sometimes it is necessary to write a blog entry which is topical or seasonal, and if it is not written there and then, the moment has passed. However, it can take a while to prepare for publication. Once a topic has been chosen, I sift through folders lurking in the depths of my laptop for suitable photos to illustrate my stories. I read, re-read and spell-check my efforts. If it takes such preparation to create something as simple as a blog entry, why was I ever fooled into thinking something as potentially complicated as Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny show was live? It was only last night as we celebrated the arrival of the new year that I was informed that his show is pre-recorded. So maybe, I should take heed from Jools and prepare my blog entries in anticipation of the event - but that's difficult when I can't predict what could be worthy of an entry.

So, if I were to spend this very moment writing about my 'new skills' and allow my festive entry to take a back seat, I could find myself wishing you a Happy New Year some time in the future when your thoughts are focused on what to pack for your summer holidays. 

Not that I have much to say about Christmas and the new year other than to say,  just like 2014, it's come and gone in a flash!

We have spent the last two winters and Christmas around the log fire in the lounge. But our lounge has been out of use for several months. We had the intention of spending the summer months working on it so it would be ready for us to take over again once the cold weather returned. 

However, summer was unexpectedly hot and dry. It seemed a waste of good weather to spend it working inside a dark, damp room, so a decision was made to only work inside during rainy days, and we would work outside during the fine days. But . . . throughout the whole of the summer, we only had about 4 wet days. This resulted in the cold weather appearing well before the lounge was anywhere near ready.

Approximately 3 weeks before Christmas, this was the state of the lounge . . .

We spent three solid weeks pointing up walls, sanding and oiling ceiling joists and boards before painting any ceiling and walls we could. It is now starting to feel homely.

Then, with only 3 days left til Christmas day, just as we had started tiling the floor, we discovered that what we thought was a soundly rendered wall, which just needed a coat of paint, was in fact far from it. The cement was crumbling and had to be completely removed. This revealed some very wet stonework which needed time to dry out. 

Tiling the remainder of the floor was put on hold until the festive season had passed. So we moved back into a half finished lounge for Christmas.


Each year we buy a real Christmas tree. This year was no different, but as the lounge wasn't ready, we temporarily erected it in the room we had been using as a makeshift lounge. 

As it happened, this small tree fit so expertly into the small space it occupied, so we decided to leave it in its place, and I put an old artificial tree into the lounge.

Now with seasonal celebrations well behind us, and the tree now well and truly unceremoniously dumped outside waiting for the secateurs to come and pluck it like a Christmas goose, into sizeable chunks for the log burner, I am left scratching my head wondering how it is that the fake tree has left more fallen pine needles in its wake than the real one!!

All that's left is to wish every one of you a very enjoyable 2015.




Next blog - New skills ... maybe?

WHY? - Dec 2014

It's December for goodness sake, but has nobody told the flowers?

Why? Just why have all these flowers started to bloom?

Even a long abandoned, thrown out tomato plant has started to produce flowers!

Why???

Maybe you are all experiencing the same? Has Spring come early? Or are they, like me, trying desperately hard to cling on to the Summer? 




Next blog - New skills

MY EARLY MORNING WALK - Nov 2014

Early morning walk? Well, maybe more of a mid-morning walk. I have no 8.00am meetings to attend; no school run; no rush-hour traffic jams to avoid. So why take an early morning walk? Why indeed?

During renovations, I thought I may become fit and lose some weight, but that never happened - no, not even a teeny weeny bit of weight dropped off. I guess pointing walls, and carrying slates and wheelbarrows full of stones and rubble is not as aerobic as I had hoped! Maybe it has something to do with all those coffee/cake breaks.

So, to inject a bit of aerobic activity into my sedentary lifestyle, I take a brisk walk every morning along the lane - just as far as the corner. It only takes 10 minutes and includes some up and some down. 

It has now increased to 15 minutes. Impressed? 

No need! The reason for this increase is not due to me taking a longer walk. 

It is because . . .

 . . . during the walk, I have my compulsory chat with little Stevie the blind lamb who's very small, and still likes to be in the company of his mother. He is always in the same spot and responds to his name with a twitch of his ears, a roll of the head and a bleat (although this week he's been somewhat subdued). 

A rather subdued Stevie

. . . I pick up branches to allow traffic through, well ... tractors and the occasional sight seer

. . . I clear blocked roadside streams and drains of leaves

. . . I stroke the horse who lives opposite

. . . I check progress of nearby Japanese knotweed, which I have been trying to eradicate

. . . I admire the view from the corner

. . . and all the way back

. . . And the good news? I think the weight loss is working!



The sad news is that on this morning's walk I discovered that little blind Stevie has died :-(




Next  blog - Why?

HERDING SHEEP - Oct 2014

Several farmers have grazing rights for their sheep on various parts of the mountains. The sheep - or at least most of them are brought down to lowlands over winter for better grazing and preparation for lambing,

It was the turn of our local farmer to bring his sheep down. We offered him help which he gratefully accepted, as herding sheep from 600 acres of uneven mountainous terrain can be a very long job.

The mountains over which the sheep are scattered 

Although herding sheep is clearly a specialised skill, it never appeared to me to be that difficult for those with the know-how, as they whistle while their dogs do all the work controlling sheep across luxurious green pastures. Herding sheep on our terrain is nothing short of near impossible, with no green fields in sight, we scrambled through bogs, bracken, gorse, heather, woods, bilberry bushes, fords, shale and old deserted quarry buildings up and down slopes that would make Ben Nevis quake!

The intention was for me, Will, Jenna, the farmer, his two sheepdogs and my compulsory camera to drive up to the top of the mountain in two vehicles and then 'walk' down, herding sheep on the way, directing them towards an area to be fenced off by the farmer. We soon realised that these mountains hold many hiding places and escape routes, the whereabouts of which, only the sheep know and they (so we quickly discovered) are excellent escapologists. One of the ram lambs clearly had his own intentions, and eloped up the mountain with a stray ewe from a neighbouring farm, never to be seen again!

We were positioned by the farmer in strategic places around the mountain.

As the day passed it was great to slowly observe small groups of sheep emerging, closely followed by one of us with arms flailing madly about. And even better when these small groups became bigger groups, and eventually a whole flock heading through gaps in walls in the direction precisely where the farmer had intended.

As the sheep neared their destination, the aim was to get them all through the gate in this wall.

All was going to plan with us strategically placed like scarecrows preventing the sheep from taking unplanned routes through any gaps.

How satisfying it was to see 70 sheep guided by two dogs charging straight towards the final gate and ... 

... straight passed it and an out-witted Will, and back up the mountain!

Fortunately a very fast-paced farmer with faithful hounds quickly re-negotiated them back around, and through the gate into the small pen.

Gate closed - bang! And they're in!

Next step - to fetch the farmer's 4x4 along with ours from their parking spots up the hill and off-road them down to the pen to collect the sheep and weary dogs while the farmer separated his sheep from the hangers-on we had inadvertently collected.

 Then, up the ramp ...

into the trailer ...

and back to low land enclosures.

It took all day but it was exhilarating and well worth every minute.

Next blog - My early morning walk