A piece of my family history

This week my Grandmother woke to begin her 80th year. She was born just before WWII broke out in the same house as her sister was born in 10 years later at the war’s end. During the war she returned to the safety of the same house with her mother to stay with her grandmother, my great-great grandmother.

Last Sunday we all gathered for a meal in a pub next door to where another of her relatives was born, I forget who. Then went for a look round some of the place she knows from her life in Bristol where much of her family is from. She’s now living in Devon close to my Auntie and cousins after spending much of my life looking after my great-grandmother.

We went back and found the house she was born in and it is still there, currently empty whilst being done-up but looking like it will soon be someones home again;

 

Happy birthday to me

Today is my 25th birthday; I have been on this earth for a quarter century.

May blossom - 26th May 2011

It’s been a lovely weekend starting on Friday with more seed sowing (peas, beans, toms and the first squash) and then a lovely dinner cooked by lovely friends. Yesterday we started work on my plastic bottle greenhouse, the first two posts are in and ready for the back wall. It is finally becoming really!

Today I booked myself a slow start, mother let my chooks out whilst I spent some time having a shower, a cooked breakfast, including birthday cake and hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, and poking at things in my garden where things are taking off fast now. This was followed by a ‘party’ lunch at mothers with jelly and Cornish Clotted cream ice cream then this afternoon we bought a chicken pen back to my house so as I can bring some hens back to clear some ground before planting squashes and rounded the day off with some potato planting and roast potatoes with gravy for dinner.

A short catch up

Well, I have now finished my course and handed in my final essay and am just awaiting the results before I decide what to do next. Fingers crossed they will be good, I got 72% on my first one so am holding out hope that they will be. 

Whilst I’ve been busy with my course lots of little things have happened that I have wanted to blog about but not had time to, things like our TB tests went clear about six weeks ago which was a big relief after our last test. Chloe was disbudded at the same time and hardly even seemed to notice. 

I have been away twice last month, once to Rhys’s brothers wedding and then away for a weekend to mark my birthday. Both weekends were lovely but my birthday weekend especially, we camped near to a beach in South Wales and spent the whole of my birthday walking along the coast in glorious sunshine, with quite literally not a cloud in the sky, then cooked Mexican wraps on a BBQ. I got some lovely presents, almost all of them were off of my wish list so I am now the proud owner of a number of cloches, a head torch and a lovely wax jacket (which I still haven’t had any need to wear yet, but winter will be here all to soon I’m sure.) 

Last years leek bed with what was left - 3rd of May 2010

  

At the end of the day; weeded and planted with onion sets - 3rd May 2010

I spent the Bank holiday at the allotment which is going along slowly but getting there, I turned one of the beds from this (left) to this (right).

 

Other than the onions, garlic and carrots there is not much planted up there, other than the potatoes that still haven’t appeared but are still there as I dug down to find one to check they hadn’t rotted, but at home there are leeks, parsnips, red and green cabbages, red and green sprouts, broccoli, two types of squashes, sweetcorn, tomatoes, sweet peppers, french and runner beans.

 

The weather is looking good for Sunday so I’m planning on spending a couple of hours up there. I made some soft cheese out of the milk from the freezer the other evening and I’m hoping to make a cheesecake out of it over the weekend too.

Present lists

Firstly, just to make completely sure that this cannot be mistaken, I like and am grateful for all the presents that I received over Christmas and the thought that has gone into them.

Now for the “but”… I don’t know where to keep any of it. I am having a real downer on “things” and “clutter”, not that I am thinking of a single present as clutter but it all adds up to more stuff, and I am sure that more “stuff” is only going to keep me happy or entertained for a finite amount of time. It is all stuff that I will value and treasure and use, but…

I am not an easy person to buy presents for; there is just never anything that I really need or want and most of the time I have no idea what I would like for Christmas or Birthdays so if I don’t know what I’d like how is anyone else going to stand a chance of knowing.

This year I want to cut down and cut back to what is really important, the things that are going to get me closer to “the good life” and stuff is just not going to help me with that.

For example, me and Rhys were given a few cheese collections, which is an ideal present in most ways. We both like food, and cheese is one of my favourite foods, it is a gift that we/I will enjoy, but it did remind me that one of the things on my long list of “things I am looking at”  is cheese cultures and cheese wax. A gift of a set of, or one or either of these I would be over the moon with and it would help me on my quest for self-sufficiency. Another example; I’ve been given some of those bathroom-bubble-bath-shower-smellies sets, again something that I will enjoy but what I would have really liked is a book of recipes for making these things myself leaving me with the nice-smellie-things but without the empty plastic bottles when I have finished and the pretty box/basket that I will keep and use to sort more “stuff”.

Does that all sound amazingly ungrateful of me?

I don’t mean it to at all. I desperately want out of the “stuff” part of life, “stuff” is meaningless at the end of the day, but I do need “things” and enjoy “things” it is just getting the balance right. The solution that I have come up with is lists, I just hope no one is offended by them (I will try writing a nice letter and include that with it, everyone likes nice letters…)

Birthday Girl

Today is my birthday; I’m twenty-three years old but I somehow feel age-less, I feel like I have done a lot of things and that if tomorrow I had to stop I wouldn’t turn around and say “but I still haven’t…” or “I wish I could change…” but I also feel very young and like they’re are a lot of things still to do.

Catching up on the last couple of weeks

Well my wish was granted, I had the last two weekends off and both have had good weather. It’s been so nice to be able to be out doing things.

The last week or so has felt very strange, it’s been busy but is hasn’t necessarily felt like it was busy. Everything feels like it is slowing down for winter now.

The weekend before the one just gone was mostly spent re-doing the goat pen, putting up a new pallet fence and digging out the wet mud that’s built up over the last two wet summers. There’s now paving down over half of it and we’re going to try grass seeding the other half and see how it takes.

We also threw a surprise party for Rhys, it’s his 30^th this year and even though his birthday isn’t until this week his party was last weekend as I couldn’t get the hall I wanted for this weekend. It was a good party, lots of his old friends came and he didn’t know a thing about it until me and him got to the hall. Keeping him out the way broke up the time on Saturday in a strange way, when I have time off I hate leaving home unless I really have too as I always have something that I want to be getting on with even if I’m not getting on with it, so we don’t normally go out together much, especially in the day, but it was a nice afternoon. We went and picked somethings from freecycle up and then had a picnic.

Sunday I had a cold and Rhys was hung over so not much work got done. I started cutting back all the caterpillar eaten purple sprouting and sprout plants and sprayed them with a mixture I made up from a recipe out of an old gardening book, boiled tobacco, to see how well it works. The plants have started growing back and I think they will come back but of course they are going to crop late. I’m still not daring to plant out the kale or spring cabbage just in case but I will have to do it this week really, there is only so much growing on they can do in pots and it always takes them a while to settle after re-potting. 

I got my strawberry plants; I had bought 50, not 30 like I thought from ebay. I can’t remember which day they arrived, or which day I potted most of them up but they are really nice plants all very well rooted and not at all dried out from being posted. The last few plants are in a bucket of water waiting for me to finish the job off. I started off by sorting all this year’s plants and runners out, I got 5 free plants from a magazine and they fruited well this year, even though they were left in the same bucket I had put them in ‘for the time being’ when I got them last autumn and they’ve produced some good strong runners. We’re going to have so many strawberries next year!

During the week I’ve carried on with freezing courgettes, the plants still have plenty of fruit coming on them and, touch wood, the sweetcorn should be done soon as well. The chickens have started getting on the bed (the old muck heap bed) and seem to like the mystery squash plant that’s on there, I don’t think it’s going to manage to fruit. My bucket of Christmas carrots are doing really well, it looks quite impressive.

I’m going to sow some more carrots in buckets and start them off in the poly tennel, they should over winter in there alright. I’ve been picking a few runner beans as well, the plants went in really late, at the time that other plants put in at the right time started fruiting but they are doing well and still have plenty of flowers on. The bees seem to like them as well.

On Friday I had arranged to go and see a male goat, I need to get a new one this year as my last year kid is ready to breed from this year, but what sounded like a much better one for me came up, so after pottering in the garden, I finished cutting back the sprouting plants and did some weeding, I went to see my half sister and helped her start putting up her poly tennel. It was a really nice afternoon.

On Saturday me, mother, middle-sister and my brothers girlfriend went on a puppet making workshop which was really good fun, then we came home and I ended spending ages washing up, not the normal day-to-day washing up but emptying the cutlery draw and cleaning that out and the plate racks.

 

And on Sunday, this is very exciting, I got my new stud male goat, Kniteshade. He’s gorgeous. A few years ago I saw a male who I really liked call Holdbrook Ghost, his farther, Fungus was breed champion and also nice but I really liked Ghost. I never stood a chance of getting him though has he was exported to a herd in Holland (or somewhere like that) not long after I had ‘found’ him. When I bought my last male, the breeder that I got him from also had Fungus. I bought a female from him that was put in kid to him, Fuscia, but she started to kidded over a weekend when it snowed, we knew something was wrong with her but we weren’t 100% sure she was kidding. We called the vet but they had just called all the vets back in as the snow was getting worse. We did all the things they suggested, including give her lots of sweet black tea to drink which she now loves and will do anything to drink if you go near her with a cup, but she wasn’t ‘open’ at all so we hoped that one of the kids was just laying in odd way and she was uncomfortable. A few days later she started to kid properly and pushing, but again was having problems and after me, mother and middle-sister had done all we could (me and my sister have been kidding and lambing since we were little and my mother has for even longer) the vet was called again and after a lot of trying delivered three massive male kids, all dead. The vet said that two of the kids had tried to come out at the same time, one over the top of another, and got very stuck. They were all very pretty but none of them were like Ghost. Any way, Ghost is the grand-father of Knitshade, and his great-grand-farther is the half brother of my first goat who I lost during foot-and-mouth. So not only is he gorgeous, I would have had him just for his breeding even if he didn’t look as good as he does.

(Photo of Knitshade taken from his breeders website)

I’m a maple tree

I was send this in a chain email and thought it was nice:

WHAT TREE DID YOU FALL FROM?
Find your birthday and then find your tree. This is really cool and somewhat accurate. Then send it to your friends, including the one that sent it to you, so they can find out what tree they fell from, but don’t forget to change the subject line to your tree. Find your tree below and see what you are like…

Dec 23 to Jan 01	Apple Tree
Jan 01 to Jan 11	Fir Tree
Jan 12 to Jan 24	Elm Tree
Jan 25 to Feb 03	Cypress Tree
Feb 04 to Feb 08	Poplar Tree
Feb 09 to Feb 18	Cedar Tree
Feb 19 to Feb 28	Pine Tree
Mar 01 to Mar 10	Weeping Willow Tree
Mar 11 to Mar 20	Lime Tree
Mar 21 (only)	Oak Tree
Mar 22 to Mar 31	Hazelnut Tree
Apr 01 to Apr 10	Rowan Tree
Apr 11 to Apr 20	Maple Tree
Apr 21 to Apr 30	Walnut Tree
May 01 to May 14	Poplar Tree
May 15 to May 24	Chestnut Tree
May 25 to Jun 03	Ash Tree
Jun 04 to Jun 13	Hornbeam Tree
Jun 14 to Jun 23	Fig Tree
Jun 24 (only)	Birch Tree
Jun 25 to Jul 04	Apple Tree
Jul 05 to Jul 14	Fir Tree
Jul 15 to Jul 25	Elm Tree
Jul 26 to Aug 04	Cypress Tree
Aug 05 to Aug 13	Poplar Tree
Aug 14 to Aug 23	Cedar Tree
Aug 24 to Sep 02	Pine Tree
Sep 03 to Sep 12	Weeping Willow Tree
Sep 13 to Sep 22	Lime Tree
Sep 23 (only)	Olive Tree
Sep 24 to Oct 03	Hazelnut Tree
Oct 04 to Oct 13	Rowan Tree
Oct 14 to Oct 23	Maple Tree
Oct 24 to Nov 11	Walnut Tree
Nov 12 to Nov 21	Chestnut Tree
Nov 22 to Dec 01	Ash Tree
Dec 02 to Dec 11	Hornbeam Tree
Dec 12 to Dec 21	Fig Tree
Dec 22 (only)	Beech Tree

TREES (in alphabetical order)

Apple Tree (Love) — quiet and shy at times, lots of charm, appeal, And attraction, pleasant attitude, flirtatious smile, adventurous, sensitive, loyal in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, many talents, loves children, needs affectionate partner.

Ash Tree (Ambition) — extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with fate, can be very egotistic, reliable, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.

Beech Tree (Creative) — has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialistic, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.).

Birch Tree (Inspiration) — vivacious, attractive, elegant, friendly, unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination, little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.

Cedar Tree (Confidence ) — of rare strength, knows how to adapt, Likes unexpected presents, of good health, not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, a great speaker, determined, often impatient, likes to impress others, has many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waits for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

Chestnut Tree (Honesty) — of unusual stature, impressive, well-developed sense of justice, fun to be around, a planner, born diplomat, can be irritated easily, sensitive of others feelings, hard worker, sometimes acts superior, feels not understood at times, fiercely family oriented, very loyal in love, physically fit.

Cypress Tree (Faithfulness) — strong, muscular, adaptable, takes What life has to give but doesn’t necessarily like it, strives to be content, optimistic, wants to be financially in dependent, wants love and affection, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered at times, can be unruly and careless, loves to gain knowledge, needs to be needed.

Elm Tree (Noble-mindedness ) — pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, Modest demands, tends not to forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but Not to obey, honest and faithful partner, likes making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.

Fig Tree (Sensibility ) — very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, sexually oriented, great sense of humor, has artistic talent and great intelligence.

Fir tree (Mysterious ) — extraordinary taste, handles stress well, loves anything beautiful, stubborn, tends to care for those close to them, hard to trust others, yet a social butterfly, likes idleness and laziness after long demanding hours at work, rather modest, talented, unselfish, many friends, very reliable. Extremely intelligent. Loves life.

Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary ) — charming, sense of humor, very demanding but can also be very understanding, knows how to make a lasting impression, active fighter for social causes and politics, popular, quite moody, sexually oriented, honest, a perfectionist, has a precise sense of judgment and expects complete fairness.

Hornbeam Tree (Good Taste) — of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very conscientious.

Lime Tree (Doubt) – intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough, but is actually soft and relenting, always willing to make sacrifices for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time to use them, great leadership qualities, is jealous at times but extremely loyal.

Maple Tree (Independence of Mind ) — no ordinary person, full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, has many complexities, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Oak Tree (Brave) — robust nature, courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not like change, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.

Olive Tree (Wisdom) — loves sun, warmth and kind f! feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

Pine Tree (Peacemaker) — loves agreeable company, craves peace and harmony, loves to help others, active imagination, likes to write poetry, not fashion conscious, great compassion, friendly to all, falls strongly in love but will leave if betrayed or lied to, emotionally soft, low self-esteem, needs affection and reassurance.

Poplar Tree (Uncertainty) — looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.

Rowan Tree (Sensitivity) — full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Walnut Tree (Passion) — unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often admired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromise.

Weeping Willow (Melancholy) – likes to be stress free, loves family life, full of hopes and dreams, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful, musically inclined, loves to travel to exotic places, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with when pressured, sometimes demanding, good intuition, suffers in love until they find that one loyal, steadfast partner; loves to make others laugh.

The good and the bad

Today has been a mixed day.

I had an interview this afternoon for a local sessional play ranger job, I applied for it last month and I’ve been really hope I’d get it. It sounds like a great project to be involved with and is only just starting in the area. I got the job!

My birthday pressie from Rhys also arrived, a laptop, so I can now start writing sat on my bed which is where I do my best thinking. Having things on computer might mean that I finally do something with ‘it’ (short stories, etc.) instead of just having it all in different note pads.

This evening I found my youngest sisters cat, she’d been missing for a few weeks and we’d all been hoping that she would just turn up but she was under my bed dead, which has put a nasty tint on things this evening. Poot wasn’t our oldest cat but she must have been 12 years old now, it is better to know what has happened then not though.