A quiet day today, bit of rain, just enough to be annoying enough to make me bring in the washing. Seun is a little better, think he has cellulitis of his front leg. Should have blood results back tomorrow. He is turning his nose up at anything that looks like dog food, prefering a little boiled chicken breast with rice. Im sure he is laughing at me behind my back.
Today, Brian , the local gravedigger (who convieniently lives next door to Wynn, the local undertaker ) popped in to give us a quote for fencing. We think we will have a go at cutting back some of the hedges so that the sheep fencing can be attached to the exsisting fence posts. I am expecting a few scratched arms before the weekend.
The tree surgoen will call tomorrow ( which means some time in the next fortnight in Welsh/english ) to have a look at the huge collapsing conifer we have inherited. We thought that just a big branch had collapsed with the weight of snow in the winter, but once we actually got around the back of the tree we can see its collapsed several times, and been propped up on a variety of planks... wheres health and safety when you need it ??
Wisely David has decided that its too big a job for a man with a new chain saw... thank goodness.
Tomorrow night is Wednesday, which means Ruby and I have to attend dog training. Its amazing how attentive she can be when you have a pocket full of treats... who says the dog is stupid ??
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Poorly dog
We woke this morning to find Seun, our 12 year old golden retrievr very poorly indeed. He couldnt stand up, couldnt even lift his head. Had to carry him to the car in a blanket to get him to the vet. Not sure what the problem is, high temperature, fast heart rate, completely off food and drink, and off his feet. Excellent service at the vet, seem straight away, various blood tests done, injections given and tablets too take home. He has managed to eat a small amount of rice and chicken, and now can stand up if you help him to his feet. Not keen to walk mare than 3 steps. Hope hes lots better in the morning .
Sunday, no sun, so just a day ?
Jayne left early this morning for home. Think she might have packed the sun as well, as it almost forgot to shine. Just a gentle sort of dampness in the air... did all/ some of the boring stuff today, including a visit to Tesco in Carmarthen... think it might have been " take your grumpy child shopping day " as the store seemed to be filled with whining little darlings !! The checkout assistant might have attended charm school, but sure as sugar did not pass with flying colours.Anyway, at least I dont have to go there for a while again.
We have a wonderful walkin pantry in our house, think it was originally the dairy, where the milk was stored before fridges. The room seems to hold a constant temperature of about 3'C, which is about the same as our fridge. It has wonderful 2inch thick slate shelves, and theres plenty of room, only slight draw back is that the door into the pantry is anly about 4foot 6 inches high, so you feel you are shimmying into the room, and I have just about knocked myself out several times coming out with my hands full of things and forgetting to duck. I think I almost have a callous on my head, but I am learning slowly.
Farmer Alun came to walk around the fields with David today, he will probably bring about 6 cows to graze the fileds for us until we get our own animals. He must have had an exciting life, he was born and brought up about 200yards down the road from where he lives, and his wifecame from a village 6 miles away. Hes a farmer, but prefers driving the school bus ?? His parting shot to David was, " if you want to use my tractor thats fine, if you can drive a car, you can drive a tractor", very genourous, considering the price of a tractor is 20 -30 thousand pounds !!
We have a wonderful walkin pantry in our house, think it was originally the dairy, where the milk was stored before fridges. The room seems to hold a constant temperature of about 3'C, which is about the same as our fridge. It has wonderful 2inch thick slate shelves, and theres plenty of room, only slight draw back is that the door into the pantry is anly about 4foot 6 inches high, so you feel you are shimmying into the room, and I have just about knocked myself out several times coming out with my hands full of things and forgetting to duck. I think I almost have a callous on my head, but I am learning slowly.
Farmer Alun came to walk around the fields with David today, he will probably bring about 6 cows to graze the fileds for us until we get our own animals. He must have had an exciting life, he was born and brought up about 200yards down the road from where he lives, and his wifecame from a village 6 miles away. Hes a farmer, but prefers driving the school bus ?? His parting shot to David was, " if you want to use my tractor thats fine, if you can drive a car, you can drive a tractor", very genourous, considering the price of a tractor is 20 -30 thousand pounds !!
Rubys Rustic Retreat Part 2
Saturday dawned, another beautiful sunny day, and Jayne and I got to work tackling the hydrangeas, which had certainly not seen a pair of secateurs for many a day. It was quite difficult to know when to stop as it is so tempting to cut just a little bit more off. Anyway we showed at least 2 big bushes who was chief. We shall see wether they bother to flower at all this year, but at least I could always say it was the frost that got them, if anyone enquires why they look so awful.
I managed to bake a quick sponge cake, which tasted better than it looked ( Ive never had to bake in a gas oven before and its taking me a while to sort myself out ). Trus as BOB, when3 pm struck, the doorbell rang and there was teresa, with her gum boots and a VERY posh hat, ready for the official opening. Needless to say a good laugh was had by all, and the shed has been recristened Rubys Rustic Retreat, as she may have to spend some time in or around the shed while I am working in the veggie garden , so at least I know where she is.
I managed to bake a quick sponge cake, which tasted better than it looked ( Ive never had to bake in a gas oven before and its taking me a while to sort myself out ). Trus as BOB, when3 pm struck, the doorbell rang and there was teresa, with her gum boots and a VERY posh hat, ready for the official opening. Needless to say a good laugh was had by all, and the shed has been recristened Rubys Rustic Retreat, as she may have to spend some time in or around the shed while I am working in the veggie garden , so at least I know where she is.
Rubys Rustic Retreat
Well, its been a busy week. Last Wednesday, my friend Jayne arrived for a visit. Once she was here we took full advantage of her skills and knowledge, using and abusing them as much as possible. Once she was fed and watered I left her with David for the evening while Ruby and I attended dog training, on the correct night.It was a very friendly crowd of about 10 starters, and we were read the riot act on what to bring and not to bring to training. Essential to bring... dog,poop bags, dog treats, poop bags,toy, poop bags. What not to bring.. a dog full of dinner or poop, a toy with a squeaker in it. We recieved a bit of paper marked home work, and I was trying to point out to the trainer that Ruby has not yet done her literacy or numercy course. Apparently, I am meant to read the home work and help Ruby do it.... When the kids went to school we were specifically told not too help them with the home work, how times have changed!!
Thursday morning we were up with the larks, the late larks, about 8 30 am. David had declared war on the dear little shed in the veggie garden, vowing to burn it down.... ( the one thats my main photo ) Jayne and I decided to prove him wrong, and renovate it. Once we had removed a considerable amount of junk from the shed, cleared around its sides , we decided that ALL that was needed was a new floor ( to hide the slightly rotton far right corner) a couple of nails and a coat of wood preserver. Laugh out loud . One of our major stumbling blocks awas that neither Jayne or myself had GCSE or A level in wood cutting, so when the planks that we had available would not fit in the shed we had to do quite a lot of eyelid battering to get dear David to help up. As always, when I make enough empty threats about having to use his power tools, he soon gives us a hand. Once we had the two large planks cut and in the shed we decided to apply wood preserver before laying the new floor down, this proved a problem, as what goes in does not always want too come out very easily, so the floor bards had to be manouvered around the shed, while I was painting the floor. Unfortunately the only way to get out once the floor had been covered in preserver and the new floor boards had been stacked inside the shed over the doorway, was for me to shimmy out of where the laying boxes once were. Fortunately as I had been exposed to quite a lot of paint fumes, I found this rather funny, if not a little difficult. After some lunch and a bit of fresh air, it was time to patch up the outside.severl litres of paint preserver, several boxes of nails ( dont hit them too hard.... because the wood start falling off the other side of the shed ) and a couple of pieces of clear plastic later, we were almost finished. Jayne suggested that I remove a certain piece of wood that seemed to be superfluvious to needs, so being an obedient apprentice I gave it a good yank. OOOOPS, the side of the shed started to come away in my hand. So we then had to make a plan to put a stury piece of wood into the corner of the shed on the inside so that we could screw the front and side to it. Fine. Then, the flooring which had been cut to size did not fit, as we now had a nice piece oif 6 x 2 inch wood in the corner. A slight adaption had to be made , in the form of hacking away ay the corner, until it could be fitted, and then we decided to leave things as they were as every small job was turning into a major one. IF this preserver is any good, my arms should be here for ever as I had a good coat of it on me.
On Friday, David was quite relieved when we announced we were going to explore the local village, in fact i think David might have been quite pleased if we had offered to explore Edinburgh of New York. Jayne and I had a lovely browse through Newcastle Emlyn, looking into each and every shop . The antique shop had some very interesting items, including a row of cinema seats ( numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 ) some rather twee looking ornaments, and some very dreary paintings... if you werent depressed before you looked at them you certainly would be afterwards. We managed to lunch, and then took a trip over to Lampeter to my favorite patchwork fabric shop.... Calico Kate.
The browse around here took slightly longer than anticipated, so we had to rush home, to get dolled up to attend " Gardeners Question Time ".I was a little economical with the truth when Jayne enquired wether this was the program associated with Radio Four, saying that it was possible but I was not quite sure ( fingers crossed behind my back ). Actually it was a fund raising event for another nearby village, and we had a great laugh. The meal provided was cawl, which is a special Welsh dish, I thought it was a good ringer for a thick vegetable soup, it was lovely and filling. We left the evening with some information sheets including " How to prune a Hydrangea", this wa to become the task for saturday.As we were leaving the pub where the evening had been held, I mentioned to Teresa ( the neighbour 2 doors down ) that we were having the official shed opening on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm and we would expect her to come and do the honours, as long as she wore a hat!!!
Thursday morning we were up with the larks, the late larks, about 8 30 am. David had declared war on the dear little shed in the veggie garden, vowing to burn it down.... ( the one thats my main photo ) Jayne and I decided to prove him wrong, and renovate it. Once we had removed a considerable amount of junk from the shed, cleared around its sides , we decided that ALL that was needed was a new floor ( to hide the slightly rotton far right corner) a couple of nails and a coat of wood preserver. Laugh out loud . One of our major stumbling blocks awas that neither Jayne or myself had GCSE or A level in wood cutting, so when the planks that we had available would not fit in the shed we had to do quite a lot of eyelid battering to get dear David to help up. As always, when I make enough empty threats about having to use his power tools, he soon gives us a hand. Once we had the two large planks cut and in the shed we decided to apply wood preserver before laying the new floor down, this proved a problem, as what goes in does not always want too come out very easily, so the floor bards had to be manouvered around the shed, while I was painting the floor. Unfortunately the only way to get out once the floor had been covered in preserver and the new floor boards had been stacked inside the shed over the doorway, was for me to shimmy out of where the laying boxes once were. Fortunately as I had been exposed to quite a lot of paint fumes, I found this rather funny, if not a little difficult. After some lunch and a bit of fresh air, it was time to patch up the outside.severl litres of paint preserver, several boxes of nails ( dont hit them too hard.... because the wood start falling off the other side of the shed ) and a couple of pieces of clear plastic later, we were almost finished. Jayne suggested that I remove a certain piece of wood that seemed to be superfluvious to needs, so being an obedient apprentice I gave it a good yank. OOOOPS, the side of the shed started to come away in my hand. So we then had to make a plan to put a stury piece of wood into the corner of the shed on the inside so that we could screw the front and side to it. Fine. Then, the flooring which had been cut to size did not fit, as we now had a nice piece oif 6 x 2 inch wood in the corner. A slight adaption had to be made , in the form of hacking away ay the corner, until it could be fitted, and then we decided to leave things as they were as every small job was turning into a major one. IF this preserver is any good, my arms should be here for ever as I had a good coat of it on me.
On Friday, David was quite relieved when we announced we were going to explore the local village, in fact i think David might have been quite pleased if we had offered to explore Edinburgh of New York. Jayne and I had a lovely browse through Newcastle Emlyn, looking into each and every shop . The antique shop had some very interesting items, including a row of cinema seats ( numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 ) some rather twee looking ornaments, and some very dreary paintings... if you werent depressed before you looked at them you certainly would be afterwards. We managed to lunch, and then took a trip over to Lampeter to my favorite patchwork fabric shop.... Calico Kate.
The browse around here took slightly longer than anticipated, so we had to rush home, to get dolled up to attend " Gardeners Question Time ".I was a little economical with the truth when Jayne enquired wether this was the program associated with Radio Four, saying that it was possible but I was not quite sure ( fingers crossed behind my back ). Actually it was a fund raising event for another nearby village, and we had a great laugh. The meal provided was cawl, which is a special Welsh dish, I thought it was a good ringer for a thick vegetable soup, it was lovely and filling. We left the evening with some information sheets including " How to prune a Hydrangea", this wa to become the task for saturday.As we were leaving the pub where the evening had been held, I mentioned to Teresa ( the neighbour 2 doors down ) that we were having the official shed opening on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm and we would expect her to come and do the honours, as long as she wore a hat!!!
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
A funny thing happened this evening
Well, as usual its a long story...... zzzzz......
One of our new neighbours mentioned that she would be taking her dog to dog trainingin a nearby village once a week, and asked wether I wanted to join her with Ruby. I wasnt sure wether this was a friendly ," come and meet some new people " sort invite, or a "your dog really needs to be trained" invite. Anyway, I decided to take up the offer what ever the reason.
So at 6 30 pm, Ruby , ( fed, lightly excersised, and beautifully brushed ) and my self ( armed with emergancy bag for any dog like emergancies) arrived on Teresa's doorstep, as agreed, in order that we could get to the class for 7pm. We were warmly greeted, and offered a glass of wine ( a little worrying as Teresa was going to drive us to class along the windy lanes), having refused the wine a cup of tea was offered and accepted. I could smell something nice had just come out of the oven, but Teresa was in no rush to eat, or even to get ready to go to class. So we sat and we chatted, and we chatted and we sat, and we discussed the beautiful sunset, what we needed to plant in the garden, what we had both done all day etc etc. I wa getting a little concerned about the time, as although the classes are held nearby, even a short journey takes a while here.
Eventually I asked, " so what time does the class begin ", thinking that maybe I got the time wrong. To my utter embarassment, Teresa says, Wednesday 7pm !!!!
I really am a baffoon, so Ruby got reorganised, David got to make his own dinner, Teresa got cold dinner and I got the day wrong !! Oh well, at least we had a really good laugh. Better luck tomorrow maybe!!
One of our new neighbours mentioned that she would be taking her dog to dog trainingin a nearby village once a week, and asked wether I wanted to join her with Ruby. I wasnt sure wether this was a friendly ," come and meet some new people " sort invite, or a "your dog really needs to be trained" invite. Anyway, I decided to take up the offer what ever the reason.
So at 6 30 pm, Ruby , ( fed, lightly excersised, and beautifully brushed ) and my self ( armed with emergancy bag for any dog like emergancies) arrived on Teresa's doorstep, as agreed, in order that we could get to the class for 7pm. We were warmly greeted, and offered a glass of wine ( a little worrying as Teresa was going to drive us to class along the windy lanes), having refused the wine a cup of tea was offered and accepted. I could smell something nice had just come out of the oven, but Teresa was in no rush to eat, or even to get ready to go to class. So we sat and we chatted, and we chatted and we sat, and we discussed the beautiful sunset, what we needed to plant in the garden, what we had both done all day etc etc. I wa getting a little concerned about the time, as although the classes are held nearby, even a short journey takes a while here.
Eventually I asked, " so what time does the class begin ", thinking that maybe I got the time wrong. To my utter embarassment, Teresa says, Wednesday 7pm !!!!
I really am a baffoon, so Ruby got reorganised, David got to make his own dinner, Teresa got cold dinner and I got the day wrong !! Oh well, at least we had a really good laugh. Better luck tomorrow maybe!!
Monday, 21 March 2011
Sprouting, sprouting, sprouting
Everything is sprouting, about 10 different sorts of beans, tomatoes sprouting, peas sprouting, onions sprouting, beetroot sprouting, I had better stop throwing the ball and get digging.
We had a visit to the Edible Garden Show on Friday, and managed to come home with a stainless steel spade, some seroius pruners ( amazing ow easy the job can be when you have the proper equipment), a sausage making machine, and an electric bread /meat slicer. I think i am going to try and have a competition with David as to who can have the most gadgets, and more importantly, who uses them the most. So far the bread maker and the spade are in contention for the best used prize.
We had a visit to the Edible Garden Show on Friday, and managed to come home with a stainless steel spade, some seroius pruners ( amazing ow easy the job can be when you have the proper equipment), a sausage making machine, and an electric bread /meat slicer. I think i am going to try and have a competition with David as to who can have the most gadgets, and more importantly, who uses them the most. So far the bread maker and the spade are in contention for the best used prize.
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