I am back. And so relieved. Not having you to talk to at the beginning of each day was just plain lonely. I would see a picture and have no-one to share it with. The animals would do something silly but no-one to tell. I am so sorry that took so long. But quite delightfully, the wee geek fellow said there was nothing whatsoever wrong with my laptop except that it IS a laptop and one should not load so much, um stuff on it. Oops. Miss C Got a Geek Growling! So I am to get an external hard drive thingy and download all the extraneous material onto it. And hopefully that will do the trick. 
Mad Dog you were absolutely right. Oh me of little faith!!
While we were apart, Mama has been doing a lot of this. Lying down. Flat out. On Wednesday I decided to leave her outside full time as she was literally too wide to fit easily through her barn door anymore. There was a collection of wool being left in the doorways. They are happier outside anyway. Plus it is cleaner for lambing. I taught TonTon to find Mama. 
So on command he will run out to the Salad Bar Paddock and stare at Mama and bark if there are any wild dogs about. Maybe I should put a camera on his collar! Ton has been spending an unusual amount of time voluntarily in the little field with them too. He is a better guard dog than he is a herding dog but to be fair, these sheep are not afraid of him, as he grew up with them from a wee pup. As you can see Mia is back on form being the clown in any photo.
St Joseph’s Day was celebrated early over atThe Bartolini pages this week with my favourite Italian Dish. John’s story explains St Joseph beautifully. So I thought I would show you my little statuette of St Joseph. He has stood on the window sill of every kitchen I have worked in in the many many years since my Mother died. Mum always stood him above her kitchen sink. Now so do I. He has travelled the world and listened to food being cooked in many different countries and languages. 
Speaking of food, while I was offline John had a day off so we zoomed down the country roads to the local seed place and bought grass seed. Then John and the chickens planted the new three acres that we have rented from his Uncle. Two acres are an alfalfa blend for Hay and one acre is to be fenced for grazing. This is a lovely high protein blend for milking cows and finishing grass fed beef. 
Senior Son this shot is for you. The Mia Look!
The little John Deere had the task of dragging this borrowed seeder up and down the field for the day. Poor wee tractor was at the limit of its strength. But this shot once again gives you a visual of the mammoth task of reclaiming this inert and discouraged land. Now all we need is rain.
Good morning. Since Monday I have had all the windows and doors open. The screens have gone back up, the swing chairs are hung, the verandah has been washed down, we are eating outside again, the fly swats have been located, the vegetables are being planted, the flower gardens opened up and my days are full of birdsong. My big work this week is clearing all the flower gardens of debris and covering them with a thick bed of mulch. With a dry summer ahead all the soil must be covered. No bare soil allowed.
But I have lost my summer fitness and so my body is aching from the extra heavy work. And I got sunburnt yesterday! Bad I know, I promise to cover up my Irish skin today but Oh it felt So Good! And a good shot of real Sunlight Vitamin D is so enlivening!
Today it is Friday so it is Old Codger visiting day for TonTon. It is quite a drive there and back so the lady down the road is going to check in on Mama while I am gone. If she does have four lambs and I cannot imagine we will get less now, we will have to be on hand to help out. I cannot bear to lose anymore lambs.
The good news is that the Printer Man has promised me that the Postcards will finally be here by the 16th which is today. I will not bore you with that saga as it was just annoying really, not life threatening, just boring having to drag this company through the process, but it will be great to get our farmy cards at last.
And so to work for me. The grass is growing very fast now, so in a month I hope that I will have the animals back on grass and after a few weeks of additional hay they will be left to graze for the summer. Then My Work will consist of opening and shutting gates! What a joy that will be!
Good morning. Welcome back! I missed you.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
97 responses to “Winter left without saying goodbye.. no manners”
Welcome back! Love the daffodils. They remind me of home.
Morning Yummy, we have lots of daffs in NZ too, esp on the sheep farms. DAFFODILS and lambs go together.. c
Have a Great Weekend:)
Welcome back Celi. We missed you too.
Poor Mama! And I’m glad Mia is back in form.
Great to see you back 😉 Thanks for the name check – full hard drives and fragmentation are quite common and computers do get gradually slower as they get close to full. It’s a good idea to leave about 10% of the total size of your hard drive free at all times for happy computing. Do back up your external drive and all pictures, movies, documents etc.
It looks like John’s been very busy – hooray for spring!
Thanks Mad, as i have been going through i think about 90 percent of these images are rubbish anyway, so i am deleting deleting deleting, then i will back up what is worth it, and i need to learn how to do a defragmentation on this computer, I used to know how but i forgot! I shall look it up, that should help too.. Morning Mad (I know it is not morning but I missed saying that!)
Ah, but it would be worse if winter went out with a long goodbye. Your land is huge and so flat! (Maybe that’s just my local perspective anyway!) Glad that your laptop is back up and running, it’s so stressful when technology collects these little gremlins. 🙂
yes and i think i need to be a bit more clever with my editing and filing!! c
You were missed; I was so happy to see your blog announced in my e-mail this morning. Love the daffodil picture so springy…I too have St. Joseph on my kitchen sill, guardian of workers. Mamma, oh Mamma..how many babies can one lil sheep hold? How is Mia?
take care,
Jess
Mia is great and has begun to do her little sheep dance when she sees me again, she is such a clown that sheep.. fancy you having St Joseph on your windowsill too! lovely.. c
hi celia! so, summer has settled in on you too! we have 80 degree weather here and my radishes came up 3 days after i planted them. not a good sign. i am worried about a drought this year!
Hmm i agree i think we are in for a long hot dry summer, thank goodness i am not overstocked! Morning branwyn.. c
Welcome back dear Cecilia… As always your photographs are amazing… how looking lovely Mia, so beautiful. It is always so nice to read you… Thank you, Have a nice and enjoyable weekend, with my love, nia
Evening nia, it looks like spring is reaching you too.. lovely.. c
I, too, missed you and glad all is well with you. You can have some of our rain!! Although we are not affected by any flooding, here in northern NSW, Australia, it is sooooo wet and soggy. Our Autumn has definitely set in…. Joy
Oh Joy, autumn, can be so beautiful unless it is wet and soggy.. and here we are in spring.. ah.. c
Welcome back it sure sounds like a busy time on the farm, I am feeling tired just reading about it – where do you find the energy? If your Irish skin is celebrating tomorrow Happy St Patrick’s Day.
Actually luck,y you told me as i do not watch the tv or listen to the news and often i am not even sure of the date!! best i dye the milk green then!!! c
Love you photo of St. Joseph…beautiful against the weathered wood.
he is stunning isn’t he! c
Winter is leaving you and making her slow journey round to us.
Morning Brydie, hope the journey to you is a slow one, this is a lovely time of year.. c
I’ve been messing about this week as well, Celi. Played in Victoria today with a good friend so am off to bed. However, I needed to make sure all was well on the farmy! Hope our Ol’ Codger was well today!
Welcome back Celi!
I thought of you when I read about Australia’s first organic dairy producer; they’ve used the same principles as you and achieved amazing results from their soil.
Their cows are fresian I think?; not as good looking as Daisy or Queenie of course.
Enjoy the wonderful spring.
Aahhhh it feels good to be back on the farmy . We have drought restriction in place and its a case of mulch and cover too. I think it’s going to be a tough gardening year ahead, so I better get on and order some more straw for mulching!
i agree claire, we need ot do everything we can to cover the soil and keep the moisture in..c