Not one, not two but three!

Can you believe it? Just after the rain Mark spotted a doe and her three fawns in the garden under the pear tree. I've seen her with one before but never two or three. They all looked the same age but I will have to do some research to see if they could all be reasonably from the same family. What a sight! Got them good and proper this time as the camera was handy. They seem to enjoy the pear windfalls very much as well as my garden plants of course!

From this to That!

After a dog walk across the fields of Duns Tew we gathered a bag of Willow Bank windfalls, (well we knocked them off the tree with a broom). Back home I set about turning them into apple sauce for the winter and all those joints of roast pork that we might eat between now and next Autumn. After about an hour of peeling and a further hour of cooking I had nine jars of sauce labelled and stored. Next challenge blackberry and apple jam but that requires another bag of windfalls! Guess I'll have to walk the dog again!

Red Sky at Night

One of the many beauties of the farm.

Corn Harvest

Just as we thought the working day was over and it was beginning to get dark two tractors and a combine arrived to cut the two fields at the back of the farm. The machine soon made short work of the corn which is very poor this year because of a severe lack of rain. The farmer left a patch uncut to prove to the insurance company how poor the crop really is. Within just over an hour two fields were completed and off they went to another farm.

American Hair Cut

If you have read previous entries you will know I had a pretty drastic experience with a Spanish hairdresser. To continue the excitement I decided to get my hair cut and coloured in Orbisonnia at "Primpin' with Style." Well at least this hairdresser spoke English albeit with a funny accent! I am pleased to report that despite her Attention Deficit Disorder, (could have been a disaster) everything went well and I am the proud owner of a full set of highlights and a smart new hair cut all for 50 dollars.

Local Wildlife - No the caterpillar not the child!

Have no idea what this will turn into but the size of the caterpillar was unbelievable! Found underneath the porch steps we were amazed at this creature
but couldn't find any reference to it in the butterfly and moth book. Glad there weren't lots of them though!

Tilling the Land

James faced his fear and took on the Mantis under the expert tuition of Sal in the vegetable patch! How I wished I had had one of these at the allotment once I'd got all the weeds out. No more digging! Well the asparagus survived the experience and so did James, who also kept hold of all ten toes!

I Milked a Cow!

The milking of 35 cows was a surprisingly calm and peaceful event. Apparently that's the way you want it if the cows are to produce the maximum amount of milk. Mary gave us a lesson in hand milking and both Alexander and I were successful at getting some milk out but I wouldn't have wanted to milk a whole cow by hand let alone 35! Contrary to the impression the photo gives, (taken by Alexander), I did actually touch that udder and milk!

What was most fascinating was that each cow knows exactly which stall to go into and will go into the same stall every time to be milked. They sort of all positioned themselves before being hooked up to the milking machines. Also some prefer to be milked from the left rather than the right and here's a weird piece of information some farmers will play their cows music during milking and Sherwin reliably informed us that county is preferred to soft rock!

Mechanical Toys

Charged with the sole responsibility for a small child for 4 whole days and nights James set me the additional challenge of making very complicated mechanical models with the above mentioned small child. Alexander and I unknowingly chose the most complicated one to start with and a couple of days later had a working model. Alexander was very diplomatic and said if it didn't work it didn't matter because he would still have a model! What a charmer. However to our astonishment we flicked the on switch and amazingly the thing walked! Just call me a genius!