Squalls

It was a wonderfully hot day yesterday which I enjoyed so much I ended up with pink arms and pain in the soles of my feet from walking in sand-shoes without socks.  But my feet will toughen up and after that long winter and spring I cannot bear to waste a moment of this fine beautiful weather.

In the evening squalls complete with rains and wild winds blew past us like trams stopping at the bus stop to pick up rain-coated passengers.  The short storms roared  in with much clanging and banging, paused, rained, then slammed their doors shut and roared off again scattering puddles in their wake.  The downpours watered in all the 100 lavenders I had planted, all the vegetable seeds and the thunder left Ton cowering in the barn.  The man who rents the land that surrounds us from John’s uncle had just finished planting all his soya beans so I am sure he was happy.

We had an unhappy event earlier yesterday. The ducklings had come out to play in their new swimming pool and seeing them I dashed inside to get the camera, in those few moments Boo must have jumped the fence, I was back out literally seconds later and one duckling was dead under the tree with a deeply upset Boo standing over it.  He knew he had done a bad thing and simply bolted. I was wild with fury.  Losing even a little unnamed baby like that through a moments lack of attention made me so mad.  Boo was severely chastised and in the end was grateful to be sent to his chain.  So we began with six and now we have two. Ducks are just not meant for this farm.

Poppy the Wanderer was found in the Salad Bar field with the two plonkers.  When they saw me they all ran over but luckily Poppy got to the gate first so I could let her out. She is a shape shifter that pig. She still throws herself at my feet offering her belly for a scratch.  Sheila is deeply unimpressed by the visitors in the field next door. She stands and stares at them then moving her massive head slowly sideways she stares at them again, sniffing the air for clues then lumbering off. She spends a lot of time sleeping on a hot day.

Daisy is clear again of her mastitis, it definitely seems to be tied to her cycle. When she is in heat she gets sick. It is possible that when we get her pregnant (at the end of next month) that her metabolism may be able to manage it better. I hope so because milking three times a day wears us both out. And milking the bad quarter and then changing buckets and milking the good quarters  so we can all drink that milk makes for a long milking session. Yesterday was a breeze in comparison.

And now the hay is almost ready to cut. It is just starting to flower. So today I shall get in touch with the hay man and we will discuss the weather!

I hope you all have a lovely day.

Today will be fresh and clear after that rain and maybe more on the way!

Love your friend on the farm

celi