New Homes

At dawn 11th July 2011 the delivery of Bertha's piglets began. 2 weeks later the arrival of Gertrude's. Since then I have been up to my armpits in piglets. What an adventure it has been. What a learning curve it has been. For nearly 12 weeks my life has been filled with care, love, fun, laughter, anxiety, nervous tension, pig poo. Enormous amounts of pig poo.
This week most of the piglets have been relocated to their new homes. The pig pens are looking very empty.
Gertrude and Bertha were reunited, not exactly the Bo Derek and Dudley Moore moment we were expecting. More like a couple of sumo wrestlers vieing for prominent position. An equally matched spa which went on for some time. Now they have settled back into their old order of some you win some you lose, pointless fighting about it.
Now it's all done, back to business as usual.

Ever have one of those days!

One of those days is turning into one of those weeks. The list of 'jobs to do' this week just hasn't been touched. More important tasks arising throughout the day until there are not enough hours left and the day has turned into nearly a week.
The main cause has been mischievous animals. I think the geese have visited every animal in the street, not any of these visits have been welcomed. They have left a trail of disgruntled beasts behind.
Bertha aided Gertrudes piglets in the great escape. Tunnelling from her side of the pen whilst they made an attempt from their side until they both met and a nice piglet sized gap was made so the pint sized porcine's could keep aunty Bertha company.
All this has been compounded by the wind. It has a worrying effect and leaves me exhausted. Some years ago we stayed in France during the Mistral and returned as worn out as we went. This week the constant hummm has been identical. With all this talk of climate change is Northumberland just getting all the rest of the worlds worst weather?

Is this your large marrow?

Today we attended the smallholders club show and had a lovely afternoon with some new friends. We admired their hard work and entered some of our own. Reminding my husband that it's the participation what's important not the winning. He entered two categories, best dressed stick and rock buns. He couldn't hide his dissapointment at not being placed for his rock buns but he was overjoyed at his first for best dressed stick. His was the only entry, table leg was mentioned only once or twice.
I did much better. Third place for heaviest pumpkin and largest vegetable (No it's my courgette). Second for bird photograph, gentleman's buttonhole and ladies corsage. First for fresh flower posy, crocheted item, soft craft, embroidery with silks and the one I am most proud of best hens eggs blue. I forgot to take my novelty vegetable-natural which was a potato in the shape of a duck and I wasn't placed for my potatoes and tomatoes.
All in all a mighty fine result for our first show.

It's a wonderful world

This was one of my most favourite days. If everyday was as good as this one would it still be appreciated?

enough is enough

This windy weather reminded me of a similar weather some years ago. When I arrived home from work I was greeted by a bale of straw and 3 guinea pigs in the bath. When I questioned the culprit she was adamant that it was far too windy to leave them outside in their run. When I suggested she could have put them in the shed, she argued that the wind was far too strong and she didn't think the shed would be safe enough as her dad had built it!
The guinea pigs and straw stayed in the bath for a week. The shed is still standing today!

Not to be left out

Not to be left out there is also a category for birds.
My hens and cockerals have always been camera shy so I don't have a photo of good enough quality of them.

The Geese on the otherhand, inquisitive by nature, will follow the camera as easily as a bucket of food. Talking all the while!

Which one to choose.

 It's the smallholder's show on Sunday and one of the categories is an animal photgraph. I have been going through my photo's to choose an entry. With all the cutie piglet photo's you would think one of those would be first choice for the aww factor if nothing else.

But I keep coming back to these three.

Bertha has always enjoyed getting her photograph taken and will strike a pose at a drop of a hat.

Even when she is not aware that the photo is being taken!!!

be careful what you wish for

When I finished work in February I found the silence at home quite novel. I certainly had a lot to keep me occupied. It was probably a few weeks down the line when I first recognised how much I missed the chat. I had and still have a steady flow of visitors and do my fair share of visiting. But I miss the craick.
I dont miss the recount of weekend activities from staff or the conversations with parent/carers. What I do miss is dancing in the potting shed, playing name that tune, the everyday banter, the stand off's and wind up's.
When I first brought the goslings home little did I know how much they were going to fill that gap. Oh can they banter, wind up and have we had our stand off's. They can carry a tune as well as any one in that potting shed (although my potting shed does not have the same ecoustic quality). They can do a wonderful angel wing dance which makes a welcome change from the same old swan lake we used to do!