At the end of August you can hardly miss the signs for local shows happening around our area. Almost every village holds some sort of local event, all based around a classic template of classes for sheep, produce, handicrafts, and some sort of entertainment in a "main ring" They're always a bit of good fun to go around, and usually we try and enter things in our local show but this year time got away from me and I didn't manage to rustle together any entries, must try harder for next year. I did however manage to pop in to one of the other shows. The classes at our local shows are eclectic, and varied... Best Silage, and best sod of meadow in particular always make me smile. I'm also rather partial to the tallest nettle competition. And who can resist the charms of the oddest shaped vegetable class. Somehow, these Dahlias have survived the ravages of a truly dreadful summer, wet and wind have left most of our flower flattened. The children's classes have a huge number of entries, and you can be judged on everything from decorated cupcakes, to the way you write an address on an envelope. Add in the most catastrophic falconry displays I've ever seen, and you have a cracking afternoon out. Three falcons, none of whom did what they were meant to do. One disappeared in to the trees on one side of the show ground, the other did one circuit and found a tree in the opposite direction to the first missing bird. The final bird ran around the arena stubbornly refusing to fly after the lure, and when it finally did take flight made it as far as the roof of the marquee.
For the past couple of months going in and out of the potting shed has been something of a competitive sport. The swallows arrived back from Africa a couple of months ago. Most of them nest in the un-used barn behind the house, but this year a pair decided to build a nest in the rafters of the potting shed. It had a certain rustic appearance from underneath, and for a long time we presumed they were a pair of first time breeding birds who were getting the hang of nest building, and probably wouldn't raise a clutch of eggs this year. Apparently this isn't unusual with swallows, building your home using beakfuls of mud isn't an instantly acquired skill! A couple of days ago though space must have got a bit cramped because 5 babies appeared out of the nest and sat on the rafters building up their nerve to make their maiden flight. They're still coming back and roosting in the potting shed, and are making sure we know about it, for small birds the quantity of poo is enormous! Every now and again they need a little help with their exit strategy... after all a window and a door look much alike in swallow world. They also still have their lovely cute baby mouths, the white rim helps the parents to find their beaks and stuff in insects. They're also much paler than the grown adults. This is one I had to rescue from my house a couple of years ago.
For once the sun was shining, and outside was sparkling, so I took the descision that this was a good day to skive off for the morning and go walking with the dogs. The lanes were full of frozen water, lethal in a car, but the streams and gullies were full of ice sculptures. The hedges looked as if they'd been dusted with icing sugar. And the puddles had frozen in to fantastic patterns. The tops of the hill have a dusting of snow, and after days of grey rain it was nice to see everything sparkling. There's currently a lot of bored looking rams about the place, their jobs for the year are done, so there's nothing to do except wait around for spring. The fashion round here seems to involve spraying your rams with as much coloured spray as posssible. It certainly makes them easy to spot, but is less than ideal for fleece. Mind you, as this one is a Welsh Mountain his fleece is probably going to end up as insulation. These Texel rams were rather unimpressed with the cold weather, they'd got a warm frost free patch under them and were determined not to move!
I'm taking a break from work over Christmas. The past few weeks have been very busy, both woth work, and helping friends. It's been nice to catch up on all the things I've put to one side. The loom is warped again, I've carded some batts for me, a large scale knitting project has been cast on, and, gasp, shock, horror, the house has been cleaned. I've also been rushing around less, looking more. Found on a pile of logs at the side of a forest track. A crystal clear pool of water. Ice encrusted Curly Kale. Penny has also been looking closely!
I have a few more days off planned, it's taken me nearly a week to properly wind down so I plan on making the most of it. Unlike for most people, beaches are a winter destination. Our pair of dogs are rescue dogs, and were never taught how to behave properly around other dogs. In the summer, the beaches are full of people, and their dogs. As a result we leave them to their fun in the summer, and we go in the winter. The beaches are nearly always empty, so we get views like this all to ourselves. I know the sky is grey, but somehow it has it's own beauty. At least I think so.. This is Ynyslas, a sandy penninsula that pokes out in the the mouth of the Dyfi estuary. Aberdyfi is just on the other side of the river, seems so close you could touch it! However, there's no bridge across at this point, instead it's a 13 mile drive up the riverto Machynlleth if you want to get there. Before the sand dunes is a huge expanse of sand and mud flats. Great fun if you're a dog who likes to chase things. This is just so Meg, the trot towards you, because you might just throw her ball! Then when you throw it! Such fun, and then your Mum tried to get in on the act and dump you in the sand! Guess who found the continuous shooting mode on her camera, and worked out how to make animated Gifs?
This is why I really love the place really. Just look at that sky. The early morning sunrise, mist in the valley bottom. Spiders webs glistening with dew. Blackberries Last swims before the water chills. Dappled shade beneath the trees.
I think this has to be the most unusual use of Hilltop Cloud fibre I've seen so far. A wagtail nest, we'd been keeping an eye on it in our log store for a while, and this weekend the nest was empty. Here's hoping the babies fledged rather than being eaten. I'm particularly taken by the subtle sparkle the birds chose!
Wagtails aren't the only birds who are fledging. The Birds Collection is slowly disappearing from the shop, it's been around for 2 years, and I'm ready to have something new. The something new is going to be rather lovely. It's called Hiraeth, which is a Welsh word, and has no real translation in English. The University of Wales, Lampeter attempts to define it as homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past. So this is my homage to the Welsh landscape, and to it's history. I've set up a Pinterest board showing the images that have inspired the collection here. I've already created test blends, and spun up some prototypes and I'm really pleased. The whole collection works really well together, and there's a nice variety of colours. Spring has definitely sprung around here. The daffodils have been out for a while now, and the trees and hedges are just starting to show hints of lime green fresh leaves. The field behind our house belongs to the local farmer, it's been empty all winter, but a few weeks ago a small flock of sheep were moved in. They do scan the sheep to check which ones are in lamb, and these ones had all been identified as having twins. Our local breed is the Welsh Mountain. It's definitely hill country round here, and you need a sheep that can survive harsh weather, with very little human input. The sheep spend most of their time up on the hills, and the grazing is poor quality so you need a lot of land for not many animals. You couldn't use the land for anything else though, so it's actually a pretty valuable part of our food production in the UK. Come spring, the sheep are brought in to fields closer to the farms. Lambing usually happens around April, as by then the worst of the winter has passed, and the grass is growing again. The sheep lamb completely unassisted, every morning recently I've been looking out of the window and seeing more lambs bouncing around. The BBC hosts a lovely show called Lambing Live, filmed live in a sheep shed, during a week of lambing. There the sheep are usually having twins or more, and sometimes need assistance during birth. The lambs themselves need a bit more tlc during their first few days so they're kept inside. No such luxury for the Welsh Mountains, they lamb outside, usually with single lambs. The grazing round here is poor, so twins usually grow a bit more slowly than the singletons who don't have to share their mother's resources. The farmers actually prefer single lambs to twins, very much not the case in a more lowland system. The lambs are very curious about everything, they'll often stand and look at you through the fence, humans are still interesting, rather than creatures to avoid. Their Mums think differently though, and getting near them to take pictures is a definite challenge. The lambs themselves spend lots of time either eating, playing or sleeping. The field is usually full of curled up bodies fast asleep. It can be a bit disconcerting, as when you glance out of the window all you see are lambs that look very much like they're dead. Get too close however, and a little head pops up, and the lamb runs off at great speed to find Mum. And just to give you a sense of perspective, this looking down on our house from the sheep field. I think it give you a sense of just how steep the land here is. Last winter we had great fun sledging here, usually baling out well before the bottom as you build up quite a sense of speed!
I took a day off on Friday, the first I've managed for a while, and headed over to see my friend Katharine. While I live very much in Wales, she lives in the Borders (but still in Wales, just!). It's been part of Wales for a long time now, but in past centuries the strip of land between England and Wales was a dangerous place to live, and territory was regularly swapped between the English and Wales, usually at sword point. The Welsh princes regularly raided in to England, and the Marcher lords used to do the same in to Welsh territory. At that time the Marches were ruled over by English aristocracy, they had great power, and kept large standing armies to try and help defend their lands. At times their raids crept too far in to Welsh territory and outright civil war broke out. This part of the country is littered with small castles, essential bases for both sides. They're usually found on small steep sided hills, giving great views of the surrounding countryside, and making them hard to attack. Of course back then this would all have been woodland, the trees were felled during the Napoleonic wars. This is Dolforwyn castle, originally occupied by the Welsh. The final truly welsh Prince of Wales Llewelyn used it as base in the 13th century, but it was then captured by the English Mortimer family, and used by them for a short while. The castle itself was completely buried until the 1980's until Cadw (who look after and maintain many historical sites in Wales) excavated the remains of the castle. They certainly knew how to build back then, the fact that there is still anything left after 700 years is pretty amazing, and it's a very visible reminder of a fascinating piece of history.
This time of year is one of my favourites, the colours are always changing, vibrant, and when the sun is shining it's hard to resist going out and enjoying them. After a week of solid rain yesterday morning was bright and sunny, this was the view when I stepped outside to let the chickens out. No fancy editing, just how it looked, blue sky and swirling mist. Do see what I mean about the colours, vibrant and subtle, all at the same time. With views like that, and good weather I couldn't resist sneaking off walk to go out with Mum, Dad and the dogs. We went on one of our regular routes as we needed to collect our weekly eggs from a neighbouring farm, my pet chickens look pretty but are lacking in egg production when we get to this time of year. One part of the walk is one of my favourite spots. Along a muddy track is a collection of tumble down buildings, and this glorious Y shaped tree. The cottage had some work done on it a few years ago, unfortunately without planning permission, and definitely not complying with building regulations, and work has now been abandoned. It's built in a similar style to our cottage, thick stone walls, 2 downstairs rooms and 2 upstairs, hopefully someone will rescue it before it falls down completely. Heading home again we came across this seasonal decoration at a neighbouring cottage, I know how the poor witch must feel, the collection of isolated properties does mean we have rather a lot of phone and electric poles about the place. Finally home again for coffee, cake and bones, feeling ready to get on with a days work.
The shop has been quiet recently, I spent the best part of a week in bed with flu, and have spent the past few days catching up. Next job on my list is to go through the stock I have leftover from shows, some will be going up as a pot luck sale, and some others in the shop with a discount so keep your eye out over the next couple of days. |
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