Six Word Story: Enough

A visit to Sedgmoor Market does not only give you an opportunity to buy farm animals. There is a lot more on sale too. When I saw these I had to have a picture. The stall holder was rather amused and he offered to model a pair for me. I declined the offer and also thought better than to explain that I was taking a shot for Miriam's weekly meme Six Word Story. The word to be included this week being enough.

                                         Can you ever have ENOUGH boots?

A Very Royal Birthday

 My Great Auntie Jess was a very keen photographer with her Brownie camera and also kept a very comprehensive collection of photos albums depicting photos of the whole family. Here she is on the left with my Grandma and that's me in the middle.

                  

 I am very lucky to have a lot of her albums. She was also a great Royalist and carefully followed all the news about the Royal Family. Were you to meander through a lot of these albums you would begin to wonder if we were indeed related to the Queen because you would find the latest pictures of the Royals alongside our photos. An indication of how important they all were to her. She would indeed have been thrilled to see Queen Elizabeth celebrate her 90th birthday today.

 So I thought she would approve if she could see me including such a Royal photo in my modern "family album". The picture released yesterday of the four generations  is just perfect for this. One can't help but smile at the cheerful little Prince George balanced on a pile of books.

 Well I shall be busy for most of the day helping to cook and serve lunch to the local senior citizens at the monthly lunch club. We have some bunting and some other Union Jack items to cheer the place up and I have a very special collection of cupcakes ready to share with them.

                  

Snap: Little Brown Hen

Wednesday has arrived again and this week I am showing you some of our many hens to join in with Helena's Snap. You may already know that we have 32 thousand free range laying hens who produce a similar number (slightly less) of eggs a day.

Firstly here is one of our beauties close up.

Beauty may not be the word I use to describe them when they find their way into my garden. They will scratch at anything they can find.

Fortunately Sky the sheepdog is an experienced "hendog" too. She is good at rounding up the strays. Apologies for the quality of the photo.

Lastly a  hen Snap. What are all stylish horses wearing on the farm this year?

The latest camouflage!

Willing Helpers

It is not only the swallows who come to visit us in the Spring. The weather improving brings other visitors out onto the farm. The pet lambs are always a great attraction to a lot of our friends and relatives. We have 7 pet lambs at the moment. Some of these are one of triplets where the ewe can only cope with two lambs. They can also be orphans or lambs who have been unwell. The poorly lambs who were in our conservatory progressed to a heat lamp in a stable by the house.

They have now returned to the shed and are with the other pet lambs. 

There are often volunteers of all ages to help with the bottle feeding including one of my ex- colleagues and her family. Feeding a lamb is definitely quicker than feeding a baby.

My mum and my sister were also keen volunteers.

The ewes and lambs who need an extra eye kept on them are in a small field near the farm. This little paddock is know as Yew Tree despite there being no Yew in sight which in view of it's poisonous nature is probably just as well. The name like many of the fields has been handed down from at least the last two generations. The ewes in this field are having a little extra feed and one lamb has a couple of bottles a day to supplement it's mother's milk. Our volunteer visitors have also been helping with these.

Older daughter soon had Auntie Julie helping out with the new calves too.

Not everyone is keen on the attention being given to the new arrivals.

Do you suppose a cow can actually feel jealous?

Memorandum Monday: New Arrivals

Guess who has arrived back in the last few days? The swallows! Flying around high in the sky and in and out of the barns. We are always delighted to see their return as it's a sure sign that Spring is well on it's way.  So that is the first new thing to happen around here this weekend to join in with Sian on this Monday morning.

Saturday turned out a little more hectic than I expected with a sudden decision to visit Sedgmoor Market for older daughter to buy some more stock. She wasn't looking for more of these.

Definitely not some of these.

Yes, you guessed. A few more of these.

She is getting used to bidding at market now with a little help from dad. The auction ring for calves is an extraordinary moving pen contraption that slides down the pens as the little calves are fed in and out of it. Quite a few were watched being sold before she made her choice for he new stock.

So three more calves are happily lodged on the farm now and have got the hang of the bucket feeding. Well almost!

It was also a weekend for trying out a new dessert on our Sunday visitors. A recipe from a friend that we have sampled many times but I had never made myself. Chocca Mocca Caramel cake which if you are thinking of starting a diet you had better wait another day.

Wishing you all a great week ahead and we will all be adding a few miles to our days to work off this yummy treat.

Primroses in the Garden

I have posted quite a few primroses in our fields and quarry this year but of course the primrose is also a popular garden flower. My mum has a side lawn where they grow quite prolifically and self seed. She has quite a mixture.

This bee was not keen to show his face!

What I will reveal is that I lay on my stomach on the grass to take these. Luckily there was nobody to catch me on their camera.

                                 

There are also quite a few violets emerging albeit a little scruffy.

Blossom Time

When I visited my parents this week I could see the pink blossom of one of their cherry trees as I approached their house. It was looking it's best and looked particularly spectacular against the blue sky.

The bees were very busy visiting the flowers but were too quick for me.

They also have a white blossom cherry with a double flower. This tree is a little behind but will soon be in full flower.

Back at the farm our trees are not so advanced. We are much higher up and more exposed. The cherry is still in bud.

The plum trees are further on. The greengage has quite a few flowers. Fingers crossed for some greengages this year. I love greengages but the tree has produced very little over the last few years.

The Victoria plum is also beginning to flower. The tree was looking a little unhealthy last year but did produce a good crop. So it looks like toes as well as fingers will be crossed for a fruit harvest this year.