Time to Build an Ark ..... Again

I think I  have written a blog post with this title before. I'm getting quite fed up of the weather now. For the last three years in a row, my field has flooded once or twice during the winter, this year, thanks to my neighbour narrowing the river downstream of my field by about 2 feet with gabions, just so she could make a seating area that no one uses, my field has been under water more often that it has been above. Yesterday was a particularly bad day for hideous weather and when I went to check the llamas in the afternoon, this was the state of one side of my field. Luckily, the llamas were in the other side as my field is a big field divided down the middle by a fence so I can alternate between sides in the summer. In winter they stay in the side without a flood risk so I don't have to teach them to swim and as such, they were fine, if a bit wet and muddy. It would never occur to them to go and sit in their field shelter out of the rain!! I will now have to mend my field fence again!!

I tried to upload a video but it did't work :-(

Spoke Too Soon!

Well, isn't that just typical. In my last post, I was just saying how we were lucky that we hadn't had any flooding this year and lo-and-behold, by 9am this was the sight that met me when I went to feed the llamas. A big old mess in the field which appeared between 8.30am when I checked the boys and 9am when I carried their bucket of food through to the field. Luckily, the llamas were safe in the side of the field which doesn't flood.

                                 River before                                                              After

                               Pond before                                                                        after

But despite the hideous flooding, in the hedgerow I found these ....... daffodils in January!!

Happy New Year

Well it's 2014. I have no idea where 2013 went, it just flew by so fast. It was a mixed year. Some good but a lot of sadness and bad times for my family and I'm hoping that this year is going to be a happier one for all of us. I have a big long list of things I want to accomplish this year, not so much resolutions but positive steps to getting my life finally sorted out. I want to develop my market stall and increase my product range so I can make it more profitable and I am absolutely determined, no matter what, to get my garden sorted out. Last year, because my horrible neighbours made my life miserable and made going out in my garden practically impossible, the garden suffered. It looked like a jungle and I hardly grew any fruit or veg at all. This year, all that is going to change. The neighbours are gone, I have started a list of things to sort and I will be working through them one by one as the weather gets better and I have started saving for a greenhouse. My daughter Megan gave me a Terramundi jar for Christmas and the greenhouse fund now has begun. I have picked out the greenhouse that I would like and I can't wait. In my greenhouse I intend to grow lots of tomatoes and cucumbers and things but I also intend to grow lots and lots of basil. I want to start making pesto to sell at the market. I'm so glad that I did the food hygiene course last year, even though, at the time, it was something I would have preferred not to do. It has allowed me to begin selling things I bake at the market. 

I have gradually been doing more cooking and baking, not particularly for the market but really just to get back into the swing of things because, lately, I have found myself falling into the convenience food trap. Not really something that I generally like to do but, when I was feeling fed up and miserable, cooking a meal was the last thing I wanted to do and it was much simpler to nip along to the local supermarket and buy something to simply bung in the oven or microwave! This will now have to stop. Not only are these meals filled with calories and additives but they are expensive too and this year is all about getting things sorted financially before hitting the big 50 next year!

Sausage and Cheese Pinwheels - with some of my gorgeous Christmas pressies from my lovely daughters, a beautiful heart-shaped plate, a gorgeous flour dredger and a fabulous pinnie ..... I'm so lucky.

The weather here in Cornwall is awful. It's been awful for days now. It's wet and windy and has forced me into hibernation mode and in between dashing out to sort out the animals, I seem to spend a lot of my time watching cookery programs and house renovation programs and dreaming of warm weather, strawberries and walks on the beach. At the market, we were extremely lucky not to lose the marquee just before Christmas when a tree was blown down right next to where we are. It missed the marquee by about a centimetre and then a couple of days later, a huge pine tree was blown down blocking part of the road. Luckily there were no cars driving past when it fell or it could have been a real tragedy.

Tree number one which missed the marquee by millimetres. Festively adorned with tinsel in the true Christmas spirit :-)

Tree number two which fell down blocking part of the road.

Well, it's now lunchtime on New Years Day and it's already been an eventful day. This morning, about 9am, I went out and checked the llamas and lugged another bale of hay through to them for their breakfast. At 9.30am I checked them again because the weather has been just awful and once again they were fine, happily munching away and then at 10ish, I nipped out again and found this ........

Within the space of about 30 minutes, one half of my field is flooded. In the 10 years I have lived here this is only the second time this has ever happened. The llamas were fine, there is always part of that half of the field that is safe from the water because it's a lot higher than the rest of the field and so a bucket of food each and move to the other paddock and they were once again munching away happily. I, however, was wet, cold and muddy and still in my PJ's with my waterproof coat over the top :-) 

Ah well, another year another crisis ...... not much changes. 

Mad woman in muddy pyjamas rescuing llamas ..... I feel like Mrs Noah ...... maybe I should build an ark.