Pigeons

We’ve just had a bit of a laugh.

John has had a British Legion pamphlet about the Normandy D Day Landings.  We shouldn’t really laugh because his father died in the War and there was terrible carnage on those landings.

Apparently there was a pigeon called Gustav (?Swedish) who flew home in 5 hrs to Essex with the news as there was a total radio blackout. 

He braved the weather and attacks by German hawks who were trained to attack British pigeons.  1. How did they know the difference between Geman and British pigeons and 2. Did Gustav have roundels painted on his wings.,

Was his name Gustav so that if he was caught and interrogated he could deny he was British?

Cloudy, damp and not very pleasant here today.  All the trees, banks and verges looking lovely, greens and flowers everywhere. 

Small caught a shrew this morning but it got left outside.  They don’t like the taste of them for some reason.  John is taking the TW9 steering column thing over to Ceri to be sorted out.  Mark will know what I mean.

Getting somewhere…

PC Mobility will be sick of the name, Powertrike… Paul from there has been on the phone twice about the battery charger.  First to give me an update which was that the place they had ordered fr0m in America seemed  to not be available.  Nothing, so perhaps they had gone out of business.

He’s just phoned now to say they’ve found Powerstream who have one in stock, it’s still £100 but do I mind paying £40 delivery.  No I don’t, the carriers are special ones, (yes they need to be at that price but I really want to get it sorted. 

Actually, I’ve just emailed Schumacher’s who seem to be specialists so I’ll see what they say anyway.

98% of the tack sheep have gone.  There are two ewes with newborn twins up the field.  The babies are too young to be moved in a big lorry so Elfed will come back today…tomorrow etc.

There was a fair amount of running around involved.

It’s a bit grey and misty here now, cooler as well. 

Plans are moving along slowly.  My new book cover is done and going through and Edward at youwriteon is on the case with it so my plans are slowly coming to fruition.

Lamb Elvis is doing well, popping back and forth through the fence so he can play with his mates.  Now we can get the fields harrowed and the trace elements spread  out. 

So I’ve got two tea parties, Slumdog Millionaire and we are being taken out to dinner  to look forward to.  Apart from my launch party which will happen sometime.

Have a good weekend.

Passing time

One good thing about sitting in front of a computer is how y0u can avoid doing what you know you should be doing – i.e. serious w0rk.

One link leads to another and before you know it, it’s time to go and get dinner ready.  It’s been grey and cloudy here but the sky’s clearing and clouds and blue sky are moving across from the south.

John found a dead tack ewe up the field this morning, don’t know what she died of.  And only yesterday he was thinking how good it was that they had all survived!  Don’t count chickens etc. 

They should have gone yesterday, the tacks but Elfed couldn’t get the lorry so now it’s Friday.  Let’s hope it is. 

I’ve rung to check the progress of the battery charger coming from America and apparently the lady who runs the stores at PCs is away so they don’t know.  Not til Monday.  Oh well, all in good time.  Everything comes to she who waits. You would think they could check on their computer.

The local mechanic has put the new steering ball joint thing in my car today and they had a good look undeneath.  It all looks clean and well so should be ok for the MOT next week.  It’s only c0st £44. so not knowing how much it would be but expecting a lot more I am pleased.

The local Vauxhall dealer wants £54 for an MOT but I can get it done in Cardigan fo £39.95.  I was prepared to bargain with Cawdors but they didn’t offer so I shall go to Cardigan as I will be there anyway.

These are tough times, i think everywhere needs to be competitive.

Shall see what the Budget says later…I hope he doesn’t put the duty up on booze…

Summer’s here!!

Probably not, but it feels like it.  Gorgeous blue sky and not much wind which makes it very pleasant.

Yesterday I was over by the sea having lunch at the Cliff Hotel with the folks from the local MS Therapy Centre.  This is right on the cliff top and our dining room had panoramic views out to sea and Poppit Bay. 

The soup was under seasoned, ok, mine’s better.  Everyone else had roast beef but I really don’t care for that  a lot, especially when it’s smothered in gravy so I had salmon and that was good.   I do like nice vegetables and they were all right.  Red cabbage, which I cook better, carrots and cauliflower au gratin. 

Dessert was chocolate roulade or summer fruits terrine.  I had the latter which was like a summer pudding and it was very nice.  The roulade was about 80% cream.  We all had a good chat, laughed a lot etc so it was very nice.

We sat outside last night until after seven, it was warm enough to have a barbecue.  I expect some people did. 

John’s up the field feeding the tacks.  Lots of lambs up there now, Elfed keeping a low profile, they really should go now.  John has trace elements to put out on the bottom left field.  Trying to work out how to do it whilst driving the quad. 

Writer’s meeting tomorrow morning so need to print out my homework. 

Hope you all are enjoying the weather…

Ellie and Elvis

Nothing personal in the names, Mark and Vivi will know what I mean.

Ellie is the sick tack ewe that was brought down about 8 weeks ago.  She recoverd quickly but has lived with the ‘old girls’ ewes going in and out of the barn and having food twice a day.

She lambed on Monday morning.  John came down from feeding the tacks and discovered a dead lamb.  She was pawing at it so vigorously that she broke it’s nose.  He thinks it was born dead and was also blind.  Probably the result of when she was ill.  He came in to tell me and went back outside to see if she would have another.  Which she had, just born but it was in such a thick, tight birth sac that he couldn’t pull it off  quickly enough and the lamb died as it couldn’t breathe. 

What a shame after all her effort and John’s.  So  in the afternoon he went up the field to see if there was a new born lamb in need of rescue and fostering.

The tacks are lambing now, nearly thirty lambs up there.  Doing it all on their own as they are so wild.  There was a lamb by the gate who seemed to be looking for his mum and was getting knocked back by the ewes.  John watched for a while to see if he was claimed and then picked him up, brought him down and gave him to Ellie. 

Actually he took the lamb down to Ellie, out in the paddock, rubbed birth fluid over it so she would think it was hers and then carried all 3 lambs into the barn with her following.  He tied up Ellie and put the lamb to suckle.

Ellie was not too pleased but the lamb had a good suck and by midnight when he went out to check Elvis had been accepted.  He now sticks like glue to her and she seems pleased with him. 

She might have been called Elveeda, or Elfeda but it’s mutated to Ellie.

This morning John took Ellie’s food out into the paddock for her and she didn’t want it and he thought, oh no, she’s not well but what she wanted was to go in the barn and have it in her pen where she always has it. 

I have a battery charger coming from America for the Power Trike so I’ll probably go up to Port Talbot to collect it early next week.   I’ll see if Helen wants to come and then we can have lunch afterwards.

Southwell’s is happening slowly.  The email that was sent to me with the new cover was ‘lost’ so when it is sent again and I have o.k’d it then it can be sent to the publishers and printers.

Beautiful weather

Lovely for all the visitors  wh0  have come down for the weekend.

Marred for John this morning by finding a dead lamb up the field with the tack sheep.  The mother was by it.  She had cleaned it but left a tiny bit of birth membrane across it’s nose and it had died.  Normally they sneeze and shake their head which helps to clear it.  Shame as it was a big lamb and a caring ewe.  Probably happened in the early hours and you would have had to be watching closely to spot it.

Just one of those unlucky happenings. 

It’s been a beautiful day here and I’ve been enjoying it, sitting in the sun.  Relaxing for  a change.  We’ve had roast duck tonight which was melt in the mouth delicious.  Tesco, half price.  On the recommendation of the wine assistant I bought a Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere from Chile and although it was good, a mite rough, it was not as delicious as the Jacobs Creek Grenache Shivas that I had the other day.  That was like alcoholic fruits of the forest. Deep, rich, smooth and not one offer any more – sadly. The assistant said it was from a vineyard that  has a small output from a lesser used grape.

These offer Tesco and Morrison wines are spoiling for me my usual tipples. 

We are going to have the Secret Life of Bees DVD now so I hope we like it…

Lambs and…

might be more lambs up the field.  The tack sheep should start in earnest about now and they should also be gone.

It’s a bit like a house chain.  Elfed’s waiting to hear from the guy who has the land and he is waiting to hear from the farmer in North Wales who has his sheep there at the moment.  This NW farm is organic and the farmer won’t have any other sheep who are non organic near. 

This means that he also will not be able to bring his sheep down here next winter as everyone is fed up with him. Meanwhile John is feeding the tack sheep every day.  He tries to take them by surprise as othewise he has about 70 hungry ewes all milling round.  They’ve knocked him off his feet and sent the bag flying so the food ends up in a heap.

It’s best if he can put it out and then call them.  It was a wild and wet night last night so I hope there were not too many lambs born here and at I’s next door.

John has taken the Meriva up to the local mechanic to have a pre MOT checkup.  Last year there was an ‘advisory’ on a steering ball joint so it might need that doing.

Our first lambs were triplets on Sunday.  A large black ram was first, a small white ewe 2nd and another black one.  Like twin syndrome in women where one baby grows at the expense of the other.  This often happens in sheep. Then there was a single black lamb yesterday.  So the old boy managed to tup some of them before he collapsed.

Elfed’s sick ewe is perfectly well now and living with ours.  John call’s her Ellie and we shall keep her and the lamb/s as payment for looking after the tack sheep.  If she has a ewe lamb John can keep it and that will give us some fresh blood.

He’s just backing the Meriva in – I’ll see how it got on. Yes it does need the ball joint doing so J has ordered it.

A misty day…

today, here, up on the hill.  I went to a workshop at Ceridwen this morning.  It was such thick mist across the moor at the top that I used the fog light for the first time.  It’s a cloud thing as, the lower I went,  the less it was.

Peter Read was there. ‘Writing for pleasure and profit’ was the theme and it was mainly talking.  All very pleasant and we ‘might’ get new members for Teify Scribblers from it.

I’ve been sitting here in front of the computer, asleep this afternoon. I knew I had to get up early so I set the alam clock but knocked it off the table twice in the night when I woke up and put the light on.

So I had to get up and pick it up, the scond time the battery had fallen out and the clock was under the bed so I fished it out with a coat hanger.

We were talking about nutmeg and one lady said she puts a pinch of mace in her bread sauce.  I havn’t done that before so I shall try that.

I like bread sauce with chicken or turkey.  I need to find out if Mark is coming here in the foreseeable future, otherwise we’ll eat their Easter Eggs or they might go off.

Elfed hasn’t come with food for the tack sheep so John is using his.  They start baaing up there when they hear  his voice in the morning. When they hear the quad bike they all rush down, unless the wind is in the wrong direction.

I’m waiting to hear about the Powertrike Battery Charger and from youwriteon that the new cover has gone through.  Next week I expect everything will happen at once.