I am sitting up in the spare room, my "office", watching the rain fall and my beloved husband pottering about doing what is obviously a necessary job today, that of repairing a gate in a man/farmer way which means you hit what ever it is very hard with a hammer.

I have noticed this about most men. Why not use a sledge hammer to crack a nut if that is what it takes? I think it's an ancient guy -type thing going back to a less sophisticated era when drills, tape measures and electric screwdrivers hadn't been invented and the only way to deal with the problem was to whack it back into shape which is what he appears to be doing. Oh well, as long as it works and he is happy that is all that matters. I have also noticed how grey he is going. Poor man, probably my constant nagging has done it.


Across the gate that he is "repairing" the cloud is hanging so low in the valley that in places I can't quite see where the cloud starts and the hill finishes. And behind us I can't see the mountain at all today, not unusual. It looks as flat as East Anglia from here, no sign of anything more vertical that a bowling green all the way to the top lane.

Of course the wet and much cooler weather has meant that we have lots of animals in again. One or two of the very elderly ponies were shivering with the cold and Humphrey and Sadie have both come in, Humphrey now looks like he is wearing his dressing gown though it's really a red flannel blanket. Sadie is fine but once Hump comes in, he must have his woman with him or he worries she might be flirting with some of the other chaps on the farm. To be fair she is a bit of a tart. Always making eyes at Cquirt and Hamish who lodge on the other side of the fence to them. Even though Sadie is only a Shetland pony I doubt if Cquirt could hit the target anyway.

So Adrian will have twelve stables to clear out tomorrow while I get on with housework. His father is visiting for a few days as of Monday and I can't find the floor in this spare bedroom for STUFF everywhere.

But it isn't STUFF in the modern classification of"Items of no real use" type STUFF, this is more like I don't know- pseudo survival STUFF.

There's the dog toy box- fairly crucial if you value your few bits of decent furniture. Then there is all the beer and wine making kit including the 5 gallons of pinot grigio that I am supposedly making in five days but that has been sitting there since I started it in March. I decided that I would bottle it all up today and then spent so long looking for the sterilizing crystals that I lost my enthusiasm for the job. It will have to be done tomorrow which then raises the problem of where I store the bottled wine as this is a really small house, there is virtually no storage space and all those bottles will take up more space than the 5 gallons bucket it is all sitting in at the moment. Might have to drink it then. What a bummer.

There are also several bottles of unopened spring water that we bought when we had the big freeze and bottled water was all we had for cooking and drinking for eleven days. Twenty seven litres in all. Something inside me would be greatly offended if I was to just dump that lot down the drain and as it is unopened it should last for a very long time despite the sell/use by dates on the bottles. How can bottled water have sell by dates anyway? So I need to keep that somewhere and the spare room was a very handy place as you never know we could have another big freeze any day now, this being Wales. I am back into my flannel shirts and the house smells of wet dogs and waterproofs again by the way.

So I don't know where all this STUFF is going to end up. Maybe in the little shed attached to the side of the house that I think was a wash house and is so small and cramped that we call it The Hobbit House. It holds my washer and dryer at the moment with little room for anything else so if I do all the necessary laundry today and tomorrow morning, I reckon I can stand all the various bottles of liquid and the dog toys in there as long as I don't have to do an emergency load of laundry. What do you suppose constitutes an emergency load of laundry anyway? An invitation to the Palace I would imagine. Perhaps I won't worry too much then.

After one whole week of sunshine we revert to normal Welsh weather and so far we have had maybe 36 hours of rain. But even that has a certain charm as there is no wind today and you can hear the raindrops pattering on the leaves of the trees which I always think is a very nice sound to be able to hear, much nicer than the roar of traffic. When I took the dogs for their run they all ran like mad through the buttercups and I could hear a swishing noise as a greyhound shot past me hell for leather on the way to nowhere in particular. There was a look of real enjoyment on their greyhound faces as well as them being covered in wet buttercup petals. There is nothing like a real greyhound grin to cheer you up and mostly that happens when they have a good belt across a field unrestricted and just for the pure joy of it.

Worth standing around in the rain for.

Modern technology, there is no escape now

Been a very busy couple of days up here. As some of you already know, the Groom and myself are away to Northern Ireland for a charity garden party in aid of Lluest Horse and Pony Trust. It is being organised by our very good friend and ex- volunteer who is suffering from cancer and in her own words......

"You are by now no doubt aware of the rather large black cloud that currently sits in the vicinity of my head ... however, as the saying goes, with every cloud there is a silver lining...."

"I am now on a mission in the coming months to raise as much money as possible for a charity that is very close to my heart, the Lluest Horse and Pony Trust ."

Incredible person. So positive in her outlook that she certainly puts me to shame.

Now for the modern technology bit so that you won't all be wondering.

Their committee had their first meeting last night in N.I. and I was asked if I would like to attend. Not in person of course, I won't go over till the weekend of the garden party but using Skype which is some sort of FREE (you read a'right I did type FREE) computer database thingee that allows you to plug a special headset into your machine and get on with it. I could hear all that was going on( sounded like a hell of a cocktail party) and I could speak to them. Dont forget they can hear all you say as well so don't have a disagreement with your husband like I did. But there you go, just proves we are human I guess.

It all felt a bit Eurovision to me. I had this real urge to say something like "Good evening Northern Ireland, this is Wales calling. Douze point." whilst wearing a posh frock and standing arm in arm with a handsome young man with very white teeth. Needless to say I couldn't do that as I don't have a posh frock any more. It was a good meeting with lots of things sorted and I was there virtually.

I just sometimes marvel at the way modern technology has progressed. A lot of it I am not keen on, mobile phones for one thing, can't bear them especially in the middle of the supermarket when the caller is trying to decide whether parsnips are good for dinner or not. But this Skype thing has my vote I think. It has allowed me to take part in something important, something worthwhile that I would have been in the dark about. So, thank you modern technology.

For the next two weeks or so I shall be rushing round getting stuff ready to go to the weekend; Tabby and I are manning the Lluest stall where folk will be able to find out more about the Trust and what goes on here. There is a lot to do but then perhaps it was time a lot of it was done, some of the information boards are to be updated with some of the more recent ponies that have come into the Trust. Chance and Cquirt will have a board to themselves; Abandoned Animals. Also one about our education animals, Zorro and Sonny. We take them to schools to show the children the basics of equine care, always helps to have a hoof there when you are trying to tell children how to clean them out and the two ponies are rock solid with people.
Several more boards to take about our work here and about the history of the place and it's founder that will show what we are all about.

Other than that, the strangles and the flu symptoms infection rumble on, looks like a couple of the animals have one or the other now though it is hard to tell which is which till the advanced stages.

We did have a bit of good luck yesterday. Adrian was contacted and asked if he would like some hay off the field at a good price and so we had 120 bales delivered which meant we have some cracking hay now in the barn. The smell of newly cut hay is intoxicating and is a real smell of summer time. I am glad I didn't have to help unload it though as it was definitely a hot afternoon. I let Adrian have the first shower. Very gracious of me but also very necessary for him.

Keeping my sprits up

A bit tricky at the moment I have to say.

To add to our problem, yesterday we were told by the vet that Chance's infection is Strangles. The dreaded "S" word that we really didn't want to hear. It is an infection of the glands that run under a horse's chin and can be fatal though not usually. But when you have strangles, the yard closes down completely as it is highly contagious. We think that one or two of the others have it now but it is hard to tell the difference between the first infection and strangles so we just have to watch and wait to see what happens. We will be closed now for at least a month, maybe more and of course all equine movements are forbidden till it's all over.

Never mind, we will carry on as before.

To cheer myself up I went through the photographs I took yesterday at St David's and I have to say that one or two of them please me greatly. I took a course in digital photography a year of so ago and quite enjoy snapping away without worrying about taking any duff ones, the plus of a digital camera of course is to be able to delete the ones that don't work. So here are a couple of shots I took of inside the cathedral (if I can get this bit right.)

Not too bad as it was a bit dark.

It is a very peaceful place and absolutely oozing with history, the tomb is Edmund Tudor who would have been Henry VIII's grandfather as far as I can work out.

Outside the weather was perfect and I took a couple more shots, probably the same ones people have always taken but I don't care. I took these.

Ok, the guy in the shorts is Adrian but it was a warm day and anyway his legs aren't too bad for a man.

One or two more I think.

Just when you think it is safe.....

We thought we were over the lurgy. No new cases for 2 weeks so we should be ok we thought.

But no, it is not to be. Adrian and I went out today for the day and lo and behold, we come back to find that Willow, up in the main herd apparently has the flu or whatever it is.

To say we are all fed up is putting it mildly I have to say.

That means that no horses can go out again, just when we were starting to plan which events we could attend.

No more horses in either as we are now full to bursting so we can't help any other people with their problems, Adrian is still turning away roughly 2 animals a day but as we can't move any, we can't help them.

Fund raising is beginning to be an issue now. With no animals allowed out, we won't have the impact we would have had. Outside fund raising is necessary and we will have to pull out all the stops to get as much in as we can.

We can't let this beat us, won't let this beat us but my goodness it would be nice to have some good news for a change.

Last night I spoke to our very good friend in Northern Ireland who used to be one of our volunteers and has returned to N.I. to undergo chemo therapy for cancer. Despite the treatment she is in good spirits and wants to help the Trust in absentia so to speak by holding a fund raising day and fete near where she lives. I am to go over there to "man" the Lluest stall and there is a great deal of work to be done before the event which is to be held on June 27th.

I am looking forward to seeing her and her husband and all of us at the Trust are touched by her ability to think of Lluest even at this difficult time. I can't say I would have as much courage as she does under the same circumstances.

Summertime

And for the moment the living is easy. Two whole days of sunshine and the warmest temperatures so far have meant I have been able to ditch my flannel shirt, sweater, thick socks and fleece in favour of my lighter T-shirts and- oh my God I am also wearing shorts. Won't last though, never does for long so I don't put my thicker clothers "away" so much as move them to one side.

Adrian has actually been off on holiday for the last week or so and we have been out and about a bit. We had one whole day where we saw no horses at all, probably a record of some sort. On Bank Holiday Monday we ended up at the Botanical Gardens near Carmarthen which is where the above photographs were taken. It is a bit of a haunt of ours, a place we can go and have a wander and sort of get away from things here for a bit. They do a nice lunch menu as well. The photos show the glass house, a real must if you go there. The top photo is inside the glasshouse and the other shows it from the outside. The whole site is beautiful and there are plenty of places to walk and see no one at all which is also nice for us.

The good news here at the farm is that after two and a half years, Adrian has finally and at long last finished my poultry area. I feel I should hang out the flags and declare another Bank Holiday for the principality. I love poultry, they are busy creatures and take little looking after. The turkeys are bizarre birds, Stanley is nothing if not incredible. That's him below. He's something else isn't he? Trouble is they are so destructive that I had virtually no seedlings left. All my veg plots have to be netted off as well. Now although I shall miss having the birds wandering round the garden, at least I shall have some plants left. At least he and his woman Gidget won't end up as dinner.

Just a domestic type of day

You need those sometimes don't you? What with horses jumping out of stables, cats with parasites in their eye and the general hurly-burly of life up here, it sometimes does the heart good to just be...well, normal I suppose you could call it.

Don't know where the sun got to, the rest of the world seems bathed in sunshine and high temperatures and we have greyness and the temperature didn't get much above 60 degrees. Such is life up here.

I begin to get concerned about my vegetables about now. Everything is much further behind than I was used to in East Anglia or indeed further behind than the garden that belongs to the couple who live at the bottom of the hill. I had to put the runner bean plants out and sow the rest of the bean seed. I am still wary of putting out my morning glories, they are so sensitive but they also are screaming to go into the ground so I may have to give in to their plea and put them in tomorrow. I always grow sweet peas, Alderman peas, runner beans and morning glories on two structures that I pray are wind proof. The peas are a late variety that grow up to 6 feet high. The seeds I put in the ground rotted so I put some in gutter pipe in the greenhouse and they didn't come up either so as a last resort I have put a load in pots in the warm in the downstairs loo, it's warm in there because of the water boiler so with a bit of luck they will soon be on their way.

I also did a lot of baking today, something I enjoy but don't always get time to do. So we have a nice fruit cake, a load of Welsh cakes and I made a custard tart with our own eggs. It is a much darker colour than the ones you buy in the shops as the eggs are more "free range"-or rather "large garden". You can't say "free range" unless your hens receive no supplementary feed apparently.

One thing I didn't say yesterday was that while we were out, Tabby rang to say she had been contacted by a man that had found a young foal that was abandoned by it's mother and was in a state of collapse. He had tried one of the larger charities and got nowhere, would we take it? Tabby explained our situation with regard to equine flu, suggested he try Animal Health at the local council but if he got nowhere, he was to ring us back. He said if needs be he would bring it over in the back of his car as it was only the size of a labrador. In the interim Tabby spoke to Adrian, who agreed we would do our best for the animal, after all it is what we are here for. She tried several times to get back to the informant but by the time she reached him, he had had a reply from the major charity to say they would send a man out to have a look. I wonder what happened? I hope the animal got the help it deserved. We certainly would have done our very best.

Animals. Who'd have them?

I wonder sometimes.

Yesterday we ended up taking Seven to the vet. He had something in his eye that made him blink and made the eye weep. We had a look and saw a brown thing in his eye that seemed mobile but try as hard as we might we couldn't move it enough to let him shed it naturally so in the afternoon, we stuffed in a cat basket and away to the vet. We were a bit apprehensive because of course Seven is sort of semi feral but he was actually very cooperative.

The vet had a look, up close and personal like they do and then got a pair of tweezers, we held him down and she removed it. The only thing we can think it was was a fluke, or a parasite that normally gets into the skin but somehow got into his eye and partially under the third eye lid. Pardon me while I heave. The the vet removed a couple of sheep ticks, one of which was alive and wriggling (pardon me while I heave again) before we brought him home.

So all was well that ended well there.

The weather report for today should have been light rain but in Wales that means heavy rain to the point of deluge with winds set to tear your hair out and a temperature 5 degrees lower than the rest of the UK which added to the wind chill makes it 10 degrees lower. There you go, I could be a weather forecaster of the telly couldn't I?

Adrian disappeared outside and didn't return and the finance lady wanted a word so I went on a reccie in the pouring rain and high winds to find him and Tabby out in the front paddock trying to entice the foal close enough to get a head collar on so they could bring her mother inside to warm up. The foal was having none of it and was cavorting round the field kicking her heels up and generally making a nuisance of herself while the two humans had to try not to care.

Tabby had just got a hand near her neck when there was a noise from the main barn where Chance and Sasha had been put to warm up. Now we know that Chance has a bit of a claustrophobia problem but usually if she is in the barn with Sasha she will settle.

Not so today. We heard the noise and looked at Chance trying to get over the stable door and all credit to her she nearly made it as well but somehow she lost it and ended up hanging over the stable door, front feet in the corridor and rears in the stable. The mare and foal were released to deal with this more urgent problem and the foal went into the field shelter with mum which was what was needed in the first place. Gee thanks.

Away to deal with Chance then. She was starting to get edgy now and was shaking in fear. What we didn't want was for her to struggle and hurt herself. Adrian tried several different ways to sort the problem but she is too heavy for him to lift up from either end (good way to be kicked as well) and her weight on the door meant he couldn't open it at all to try and get her into a better position so she could extricate herself. If she hadn't been quite so large that all feet were in fact firmly on the concrete that would have worked.

What to do, what to do?

Bolt cutters. Cut the hinges on the door and it should fall forward and she will move. Bolt cutters didn't work, hinges too big. I suddenly remembered the crow bar I keep in my wood shed (every woman should have a shed) so I fetched that and Adrian had to lever the stable door off and then pull it forward so that the mare could at last move out of danger. But stap me vitals, she didn't want to move then and just stood there. Waiting for a bus I suppose. We checked her over, doesn't seem to be any damage apart from a cut on her leg but we were very lucky that she didn't tear her stomach open on the tin strips that are across the top of the doors, some of them are pretty ragged. Then of course it was what do we do with her now?

In the end we had to move Humphrey and Sadie out of the other barn into the main barn and put Sasha and Chance down there and leave the back door of that open just in case she gets a panic attack and needs to be outside without one of us being there to help her.

So we have one stable without a door now. Chance is as happy as a clam apparently down in the other barn with Sasha but they can't stay there as the paddock is too small for them and the grass will be gone in 48 hours. Then of course there is the problem of we have been trying to keep everybody in seperate places so that we don't have any cross infection of the flu thing the horses have so we will have to juggle that one as well.

Let no man tell us that we have the idyllic life up here till they come and spend a week or two.