Misty Autumn Morning

I have never heard a stag roar before - today I did. In the misty woodland behind Powys Castle the bracken and leaves providing the correct background colours a gutteral sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, faintly at first but then as they came into view it became unmistakable.

Can anybody else see two faces in these trees or is it just me?








Meanwhile back at the ranch the puppies are eight weeks old and are all destined for loving homes, all relatively local, some will be working dogs, some will be much loved pets and that is definitely the end of puppies in this household - NEVER AGAIN! Skye is already booked in at the vets for an operation that will stop her cavorting with the boy next door in future despite the fact that she has been a model mother and has even enjoyed her pups - visibly smiling with pride from day one and still insisting on feeding the eleven pound monsters eight weeks later. She has to steel herself to get into the run with them, walking backwards and forwards across the lawn before she jumps down into the run and is immediately overwhelmed by seven hooligans.

















This is Lola - she's a showgirl - everybody start singing now...........








The first three go off to their new homes tomorrow so the dog whisperer thought he had better see if he still had the touch ............

Just look at the dust.....

and all the junk mail - stacks of it. Just write your name in the dust - I dont mind. Life has been frenetic all through the summer months - hang on a mo - that was summer? Yet I can count on one hand the number of times we ate outdoors which is our summer habit up here. We bought new chairs to do just that and I dont think we have sat on them for more than 10 minutes at any one time.

The junior shepherd is back up at the coast resplendent in student squalor - well it better hadn't be quite that bad - I know how much the rent is - shudder. It is actually a lovely little house in a very respectable area with the steam train to Devil's Bridge running along the bottom of the garden at regular intervals - choo choo - its like being in a Thomas the Tank film set. He rushed home yesterday - just for the night - to go caving under Llanymynech hill into the disused copper mines - as you do. Well I wouldn't go from here to the kitchen to go caving but when I rushed from work to pick him up and deliver him to Llanymynech and was there a tad early only to find car loads of fit looking men stripping down to their underwear to don scruffy old clothes and boiler suits - ahem. 'MOTHER - stop gawping!' Cor!!!

This has been the summer of the puppies - Skye gave birth to eight black labrador puppies on 23 August and has been a text book mother despite my original misgivings. I was sure she would just eat the lot! We dont advertise to find homes - its all been by word of mouth with J's girlf seeming to do most of the work - bless her. Just one little lady without a home - everybody go Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. We seem to be living in a sea of Weetabix at the moment - because every time I walk into the kitchen somebody is making up a tray of the stuff with hot water and milk - they hear the tray clattering and then they start howling - its like the hounds of the Baskervilles - if we have a full moon as well we could frighten a few souls.

The lambs are now big and beautiful and will be leaving us at the weekend - once we have mastered the application of the new electronic tags - I think a few swear words may be heard over Shropshire on Saturday - and with no jnr shepherd to assist I shall be there to hear the uncensored versions - now will my delicate, shell-like's cope I wonder - well mine will but will his?

Onwards and upwards......

Life goes on deep in the countryside - a wrench in the fabric of the family has caused many ripples and much soul searching but we are built of strong stuff - 'united we stand divided we fall' goes the song and we're still satnding - bring it on - we can cope!

Meanwhile we have not sat and sobbed into soggy tissues we have been out and about - one evening we went on a guided walk around the Asterley coalfield - no I didnt know there was one either - the wonderfully restored windmill enhances any scene and some beautiful derelict cottages that would make a wonderful des res. The pictures on the walls were very lifelike!!

Its that time of year again - street party time. This year the theme being a St Trinians reunion there was even a 'naughty step'! I looked out of the bedroom window at one stage to see dozens of gym slip clad bodies - hermaphrodites definitely - trannies possibly - whatever - its a one night thing - anything goes - the age range being from about 3 to at least 70. The entertainment was spectacular - hula hoops - ON FIRE and circus tricks. The food must have been good -well there was nothing left to clear up on Sunday morning but there were plenty of bad heads.

At last the junior shepherd has accommodation for September in Aberystwyth - what a nightmare that has been - then last week one of my harassing phone calls to the estate agents bore fruit - we had a family trip up to the coast on Saturday to see it. What an embarrasment! The current tenants were still in situ - in bed - asleep! One stood there bleary eyed and cheerily I asked him if it was a nice house and had they been happy there etc etc - 'Oh yes we've been very happy here - UNTIL WE'VE BEEN KICKED OUT!' Oops - cue - open floor and lets all get in. I havent a clue what's gone on there and I guess we will never know. Fingers crossed and lets hope everybody gets a roof over their head that needs one.

It was a lovely sunny day and the babes enjoyed every minute of it, we did the obligatory trip up Constitution Hill - it should be re named Windy Corner. On the seafront we played crazy golf and whizzed about on a longboard, listened to the open air music and fed the babes drippy ice creams.

Today we had the sadness of a friend's funeral to attend - then we played hookey - and ran away for the rest of the day into the borderlands of South Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys. We found Croft Castle - WOW! Why did I think it was a ruin? It isnt - it is an amazing country house with a colourful history and is still used by the Croft family - but the gardens - gobsmackingly gorgeous, lawns that felt like thick velevet carpet, a walled garden with exotic fruit trees, a vinyard and even a church. Mountainear - please put it on the list of 'must do's'........

Row, row, row your boat .........

....gently down the stream......etc etc

and so it was that after a very chaotic few weeks which saw the junior shepherd back in a hospital bed on a drip, one way of getting out of end of term exams I suppose. Ah well he has got them to look forward to when he gets back there in September - that's if he finds anywhere to live - you would never believe that there is a shortfall of student accomodation in Aberystwyth would you? So many empty and semi derelict properties that need doing up - so aggravating when there are in excess of 300 homeless students all chasing every property that comes up! So we emptied his flat brought him home let him rest then it was off on holiday. Even the dog came too!

We went down to Abergavenny to start our cruise leaving my faithful friend my blue Subaru at a garage on the way never to be seen again - hankies out - be brave it is only a lump of metal - but one that has served me faithfully without any problems for eight years - sob!

Ater a lovely welcome by boat owners and a thorough handover lesson we were off and headed southwards travelling through gorgeous scenery, the hay fields still uncut were stuffed with flowers all giving off a heady scent. Squirrels sat and watched us pass by making no move to dart away. The trees in full leaf made green secret tunnels for us to creep through. May flies flitted through the yellow flag iris that fringed the canal and the birdsong was unceasing - blackbirds, thrushes, chiff chaff, wrens, pigeons all clamouring to make most noise every inch of the way.

We reached the end of the canal in Cwmbran on Sunday teatime and went for a walk to find a shop for some necessities, the hills were huge, green and pricked with pylons, the rows houses nestling at the base. An ice cream van played tinny music and groups of raggedy children stood cluthing coins - I havent seen that for years and years - so poignant.

As dusk fell we would park up - sorry the word should be 'moor' shouldn't it? As galley slave if there was no canalside hostelry in view something had to be prepared, a couple of gins took the edge off cooking on holiday - and washing up! The novelty of no dishwasher began to pale after a week but my nails looked wonderful. The bed on board was luxury indeed and the bed linen was gorgeous and smelt of lavender - I feel asleep as the boat gently rocked, the owls hooted - hang on - what was that plopping sound? I lay there rigid listening for it - again and again - 'Wosssat? I hissed - 'RATZZZZZZ' replied dearly beloved who then proceeded to snore his head off as I lay there counting the plop noises and nearly expiring in panic. Next morning I sat clutching a mug of tea at 5:30am looking out as dawn painted the water silver - PLOP! It was fish not rats - I bloody hate him!

Every day was different, weatherwise, the views, the little villages and market towns to be explored. One evening as we were trying to park up for the night in the middle of nowhere - I had partaken of the gin allowance having been soaked to the skin earlier when yomping along the towpath walking the dog = not sure if the exercise was for her benefit or mine! Anyway there we were instructions being yelled by the captain - 'Just jump onto the bank with that rope...'

Who me? Dont be daft - I dont do jumping on a good day never mind a very wet day and a couple of gins! 'Go on quickly the gap is getting wider...' Errrr not on your nelly .....'Go On you can do it!' ..........'Err no I cant!'

'YES YOU CAN - JUST DO IT!'

'NO I CANT!

'YES YOU CAN'

No I couldnt - I landed up to my waist in muddy water and the shrieking hysterics that followed from all concerned could have been heard all over Wales! I still go of into gales of giggles at the thought of standing up to my middle in the canal whilst the men just stood there helpless in laughter!

It has to be the most relaxing way of spending a week, we read and played games and talked, we had no idea what was happening in the world, we never even bought a paper - reality could resume on Saturday with new smart wheels, a pile of washing and back to work...........

That's that then

so that was lambing was it? Hmmmmm well I know I said I didnt want any trauma, I didn't want an huge vet bill or any cade lambs but these lot didn't want a shepherdess either!

There all my careully constructed straw filled pens stand - empty. All the buckets scrubbed - unused. Box of plastic gloves - unopened. The heat lamp that had been dusted off and hung in the conservatory just in case has gone back in its box, the coke bottles scavenged from coffee tables around reception have gone in the recycling ( coke bottles are exactly the right size for feeding bottles) So there it is - all done and dusted 16 healthy lambs from 14 happy sheep.

We just keep looking at each other and remembering the times we were up half the night, the year of eight prolapses, cold lambs, rejected lambs, the chapped hands and the snow - shudder.

These sheep are so private and shy they would burst rather than give birth with an audience. The nearest I got was Sunday morning at 10:30 when I noticed a ewe sitting in the hedge a little way from the others - I watched her from behind the hedge. I saw her looking at her own flank and making funny noises as if she was talking to the unborn lamb - I rushed down to the shop and by the time I came back - 10 minutes max - the lamb was born, up, feeding and walking off down the field tight against proud mother's side. The shepherd has gone to the fields and the only way he has known a ewe has lambed is that there is an extra number in the count of lambs.

The two woollies (Devon Longwool) both had lambs for the first time this year - they were under threat - produce or else - so I'm so glad they have done the business at last. They are completely mad - like a couple of naughty girls. I couldn't work out why the one was always covered in grass leaves and mud until I found her one day rolling down the bank in the middle of the field - for fun! She would get to the bottom shake out her long filthy dirty tresses and rush back up and do it all again. The amount of wool these two produce is amazing and now they have two little white woolly daughters.

Lambing being a very hands OFF event this year has meant we could wander away from home for a few hours at a time - Attingham Park with the last of the daffs, the first of the rhodedendrons and bluebells was very picturesque - not as picturesque as the tents full of second hand books - drool. I came home with a carrier bag full -I'm set up for months now. Had to have a quiet giggle - nearly every box had a copy of 'The Da Vinci Code' in it - one box had at least three - I wonder what that says about that book?

So that was lambing - the most uneventful, absolutely boring lambing season ever - but with no vet bill, no bottle feeding and absolutely no stress what so ever who am I to complain?

back in the lambing shed....

....not a lot happening really - two weeks of full time shepherdess duties and what have I got to show for it - six lambs from five ewes. All delivered in secret when no one was about, all lambs fiercly protected by doting mothers - it makes such a change from what we have been used to over the past years with Texels - no rolling about the floor at midnight trying to persuade a heavyweight ewe with post natal depression to feed her offspring that she had hated at birth.

At counting up time this morning I couldn't get to six lambs - I searched, I recounted, I walked the field - I started to panic. As I moved a ewe from by the tree stump I found her lamb - carefully hidden down a hole out of the wind. I left him there and she sat back down to cover him up again. Dont interfere is the name of the game so I won't!

With being so not required in the lambing shed we have escaped to deliver rescue chickens up to Bodran mountain and take the dog for a swim in the sea at Rhyl. Its years since I have been to the seaside at Rhyl and I had dim memories of a seedy dump - gosh what a surprise - its been 'done up' it is now all painted pink and fancy concrete - wow! Very impressed!

We found our way home via a certain shop in Denbigh where we had a welcome cuppa amongst the rails of gorgeous summer clothes.

On Friday we were headed for Erddig - National Trust property only to find on checking the book that it does not open on a Friday - neither does Whitwick Manor, nor Dudmaston Hall - I gave up then and there. We went to visit the Victorian Farm at Acton Scott - first time without children in tow.

Clumper the heavy horse knows he's a TV star and behaved like a prima donna for his public! Whilst his 'driver' discussed agriculture with visitors Clumper got bored and then hungry = then he was off back towards his stable with the heavy roller bumping along the road. He was not deterred by the yelling that ensued - I'm afraid I stood and laughed, I was no help what so ever.

The bailiff's cottage was open and the lady of the house was busy making soup - it smelt divine. There were piglets, dozens of them all spotted and very new looking, geese, chickens and long horned cattle. The wheelwright was busy wheelwrighting and in the schoolroom coffee was served on place mats that were like old school slates. It was all beautifully presented and a credit to those who spend so much time making sure that everything is authentic.

We sat in nearby Cardingmill valley watching the dozens of walkers cascading down the hillsides in the glorious sunshine and then it was back to the lambing shed - in full expectation - forget it still just five mums and six lambs - at this rate we will still be lambing next Christmas - yawn

A Friday in April

...and if I misspell any word by leaving an 'f' out blame the keyboard its going wonky.

I haven't been in here for an age - about a foot of dust and yellowed paper, needs a good spring cleaning but no time today.

I'm ON HOLIDAY - well if that's what this is - shall I say I am not going daily to my paid place of employment, instead its up at the crack of dawn and down to the sheep fields to check on the mum's in waiting. Just one lamb so far - looking after 14 is as time consuming as 40. Back home to walk dogs through the woods to expend some of their energy and get me a bit fitter, a desk job for the majority of the time isn't that good for a body really - so its two weeks of pushing off the winter fat. Loads of other tasks that needed doing are getting done, holiday sorted, BT sorted, chimney swept, hedge sorted, ironing - nah, OU assignment ditto .....getting there, well there's another week yet isn't there?

Anyway back to 30th March - the junior shepherd had his heart operation at the very high tech hospital in Stoke on Trent. We were up bright and early to drive there but didn't allow for traffic in said city and the fact the hospital is a town on its own - we were well past the allotted time of 8:30am when we rushed through the doors of the cardiac unit. Nice consultant met us in the corridor - he was dressed in his garb ready for action - 'C'mon I want you now' he shouted to G who was busy stripping off jumper as he followed in his wake at a rate of knots - we just chased up the rear gathering up clothes as they came off like a chrysalis emerging...then they were through the 'No Entry' doors and that was that. The doors crashed back - consultant barked 'Book him in mother' and was gone again.......... I did as I was told and we wandered out into the murky streets of Stoke on Trent. We found Mooorcroft pottery more by accident than design and I duly whimpered around the display shelves. I failed to raise a whimper in Dudson or another one we found ourselves in. Doulton was shut up and partly demolished, Spode has gone and we didn't get as far as Aynsley before being summoned back to the hospital.

G was sitting up all bright eyed and bushy tailed eating his lunch, nice consultant comes barking down the line of trollies. 'I've got rid of six rogue vessels' - 'SIX?' I squeaked wandering how much there was left, we only thought there was one 'rogue', 'Yes six, and I need to have another three out but six is enough for one day....' then he produced beore and after pics and I thought I was going to pass clean out. 'He is likely to have a lot of pain, if its not bearable come into local hospital for analgesic help, he's lost a lot of blood, will be dizzy and faint - take him home - see you in the summer - bye!'

The shepherd was on home nursing duties in the days that followed - home nursing doesnt come that easy to him really, being a patient doesnt come that easy to Jnr shepherd either - they had words, he got better very quickly. The difference is amazing, nice colour, no headaches, RUNNING - never seen before.

So he goes back up to the coast on Sunday to resume his studies a lot fitter than when he left there on 27th March. 'Shirley' the long board will be going too.........ahem!

Meanwhile spring has sprung, the pussy willow tree in the front garden is amazing, the sweet smell of the spring flowers is coming in through every window and we have only got one lamb after one week of full time shepherdessing. I can however get nearer to the girls now, they have come down off the top of the bank to have a look at me ........