SHUT OUT
I know. As well as all the other stupid techy problems I have been having then WordPress shut me out asked for my password then would not accept it and then would not accept the new one, then shut me out for a couple of days and there you are. Life is like that. Passwords and taxes. Modern living. What can I say.
And whole posts being lost in the process.
I have been busy with people too which has been a delight!
But now everyone is gone, except for my long-term Airbnb guest. So I can get stuck back into the gardens and the fencing and the blogging. After the airport trip yesterday, which takes three – four hours all by itself, depending on traffic, I moved all the last of the big hay bales into their long term storage areas. There was rain forecast though it never came. It may yet come in today.
The oat hay I am feeding out and the cows are right into it. I did not expect this much enthusiasm as the crop itself was more straw than hay and a lot of the oat seeds had dropped to the ground but all the animals and birds love it. The ducks get a little crazy when I give them their portion, they are thrilled with the hide and seek oats.
This last shot of the calves is a not pretty but shows you how beautiful they are. They have lovely bodies these two.
The farmer who has Aunty Del and Tia has still not seen any action. So either they are fraternizing under cover of darkness (which they will do) or the cows still have not come into heat (which I doubt). They will have another two weeks there just to be sure they cover two cycles then I will hook them out.
Molly is just beginning to show signs of pregnancy. I think.
The ducks continue to calm down and we have a very nice routine going now. They are seekers of shade though and tend to filter out through the fence and into the circular drive to sleep under the trees in the heat of the day which can be problematic. I was going to bring the hay rack home for them to sleep under today but one of the tyres on the tractor has gone flat so that will have to wait until after the weekend.
I am back working on my tablet as my phone would not post yesterdays writing at all. As soon as I start selling again I will start saving for a new laptop. In the meantime I hope this works. I expect too much of this tablet. For a few days this week I had not one device that would reliably send a blog post and if I miss my writing window it is very hard to get back to in the course of a normal day.
I am crossing my fingers.
I have a few days with no visitors in the house so hopefully I can get into my routine again for a bit and get some of these weeds under control. The front of the house looks frightful. Though I love the summer people and the food – oh the food!.
Oh and we are picking sweetcorn! At last.
I can hear the ducks calling for their gate to be opened!
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER: Cooler – much cooler – and a little breezy, with rain coming in after Noon. (I hope)
Friday 80% Precip. / 0.16 in
Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 77F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Friday Night 20% Precip. / 0 in
Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
53 Comments on “SHUT OUT”
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thekitchensgarden 
I see words and pictures so the tablet has done it’s job for this day! I don’t think we have ever had a such a close up of Mr Flowers before. How did you manage that?
There’s a duck in your bucket dear Celi, dear Celi! (sorry, just had to go there….)
Love the duck in a bucket!!
So glad you managed to post! Great pictures, particularly the duck in the bucket who then takes flight.
Sorry about the techy problems.
Love the “duck in the bucket” image! Those sunflowers look great. Do you sow seed or do they just come up from last year’s seed?
oh no – those are my pig pastures – very much on purpose – there is three layers of vegetation in there with sunflowers right at the top – they eat them flat out!
Technology, sigh😟 glad you are back today. Flying duck great capture. Laura
Did you see me flowers flying above me? I love that shot too!
I wonder how the duck got into the bucket! He looks quite happy too! 🙂
I think she flew in there. They are pretty mobile!
Wonderful photos to enjoy with my coffee.
Perfect!
Immensely entertained by all your splendid photos! Have a good weekend!
It will be a busy one!
The bane of my life ‘passwords” I can never remember them so I write them in the back of the telephone book but sometimes they get changed and then I have 2 entries+ and never know which is which….. I have decided that however many posting you missed due to stupid WordPress your pictures and news are wonderful…even if you dont write a word….I love your choice of words “”hook them out”” poor cows.. You might not have had any rain but we sure did…it just got redirected to the wrong country….Mumma Mia ..did it pour down..thunder but no lightening…found a new leak in the roof! Lots of love from Bulgaria
Yes! We have to date them when we change them!!
Love those chunky little calves with their stocky bodies and straight backs. You seem to have got one piece of tech tamed, at any rate, as we’re seeing a post which looks perfectly normal.
Not exactly tamed – the tablet has a mind of its own and I think I expect too much of it. Ah well. It worked this morning!
Wonderful post and pix, Celi! I loved that from Pat R. – “There’s a duck in your bucket, dear Celi, dear Celi..” Got me giggling for the rest of the day! I’ll see that image til sleep tonight and may wake myself up laughing even then!. Known to do that…………..
She does look kind of funny!
I was thinking the same; a bucket duck.
Is that like a bucket of fried chicken?
tee hee (I dislike duck though.) It is not a bucket of just any duck, of course. It is a bucket of Peking duck!
What kicked off that whole tragedy of errors? How does one avoid it happening?
Plus two flat tires today on two separate vehicles. I don’t know. If I knew I guess I could fix it. Glitches?
Good grief; if your were in Ireland I’d say you’d inadvertently kicked a particularly tetchy leprechaun!
Mmm… Possible that Leprechauns have moved around as much as we?
There is that!! ALL my ancestors from
Long long ago were Irish- so it stands to reason that I have one along with my guardian angel.
Aye, and Trees hold a particular draw for me, so right there with you; )
Indeed, some are bound to have emigrated with the settlers, so watch where you tread in future! Did you hear any cussing in Gaelic in a tiny voice?
Maybe a little- actually now that I think about it – he might be in one of the fairy gardens – note to self – no more mowing paths in the fairy gardens. Why are leprechauns always male?
Great pictures in spite of login problems. In my experience WP have been better over the last couple of years. They seem to tinker less and on the whole staying logged in is more consistent, but anything web based can be temperamental sometimes.
I’ve been telling people in Barcelona about your amazing pig garden today.
Oh that’s great! I canny believe how they are clearing their gardens without digging up the soil at all. The sunflowers have seeds now so I guess it Is fatten up time!
Those sunflowers should produce oleic acid in the pig fat, not nearly as much as acorns, but I’m sure it will make for very tasty meat. I hope your restaurants will be queuing up for such high quality pork.
Such a shame I can’t get some across to you!
That would be really amazing!
Yes! You could make your own ham! Ah well / we can dream. Or we can buy me a Spanish farm!
You will have to come and have a look. Land outside of towns with rudimentary dwellings are cheap. I will be trying to make lots of pig farming contacts. I have been amazed (in the last 10 years) by how many people there are producing pork, ham and charcuterie by old traditional methods – but I think that relative to Franco, many things remained unchanged throughout the 20th century and when organic and bio dynamic became interesting, Spanish pig farmers realised that their old fashioned methods were cool and “new”.
Farms to visit too!! Just gets better and better…
I’m very keen on farm to table.
Same.
I find I’m regularly shut-out on my tablet, passwords that I know are right are refused, my blog url is questioned and I often get ‘you have run out of time to edit’ messages. So it’s often back to my old laptop, which means I can’t sit in the sun and do stuff…..important when it’s 5 C (40F) Repeating everyone else’s delight in the duck in the bucket.
Great photos! I have had the same problem recently with WordPress and this week I could not get into my dashboard at all. I had no idea what to do, but after a few days it just worked again. The mysteries of technology…
Oh – good to hear actually- maybe it was a glitch!
Your ducks are beautiful! And black cows, with sunflowers for background, also striking.
I have known the feeling of betrayal by technology this week, but in my case it was email, and not my blog, that was unusable. So I should count my blessings!! I’m glad you got through to the outside world so we can share these images of your “inside” outside world.
sometimes it does feel like I am fighting my way out to the outside world. thank you for popping in!
Oh, that duck in the bucket photo and the first photo of the piglets were just too good! I’m glad you’re back; reading your post in the morning is one of the highlights of my day 🙂
A worm’s eye view of Mr Flowers. Love it ♡
WordPress… sigh. I *just* found an email from them (it landed in my Spam) saying that some accounts had been compromised so they were locking us out until we changed our passwords. SUPER frustrating. I’m glad that you found your way back in. I haven’t yet.
Huh! That must have affected me too! Thank you!
“I can hear the ducks calling…” How wonderful that they’re talking to you, C!: ) Yes indeed, those calves truly are beautiful. And good luck with the techy crap:/
Ugh, wordpress is giving me issues, too. Had to get on the computer to repost this comment.
Anyway, that was my first thought, how gorgeous those calves are! What a smart investment that turned out to be.
I have two recycle bins my ducks love to hop into. I keep them filled as part of their water supply. It’s the perfect one-duck pool, and the look so comical floating in them.
I recently built a small shelter for them out of tree trimmings. It is teepee style with a big opening so I could put their little pool in it. They love it. It provides them with shade during the worst of the heat. There’s space around the pool for them to lay down if they want.
Love love these photos Celi … sorry to hear you were locked out!