Foxgloves in the Garden at Midsummer

Yesterday was Midsummer's Day, the longest day of the year. It is now all down hill until Christmas! My garden is beginning to blossom but a lot of the bedding plants are still getting going. Certain corners are looking good. The foxgloves are still flowering well. These two following pictures show the same view about a week apart. 

                                                                      

The pink ones have naturally seeded.

These apricot ones are cultivated from seed.

                                                                         

     

Somebody was feeling left out while the foxgloves were photographed!

                                                                  

     

In Need of a Trim

The sheep are always sheared in June. This year it is a little later than usual having had to wait for the shearers to be free. Brian and the girls were up at 5 to get the ewes in ready for an 8am start. The ewes were gathered ready and waiting.

Shearing the fleece off obviously helps to keep the sheep cooler for the summer. They are more likely to suffer with fly strike if they have a long coat. Equally it is important that they are not sheared too early as they are more difficult to shear if they have not recovered condition after lambing.

There were two shearers today. One local man who travels all over the world shearing sheep.

Then a shearer who comes from Uruguay who speaks very little English. It is not uncommon to have shearers from other countries. They are frequently from Australia and New Zealand.

Both shearers were very experienced and the ewes seemed relaxed and comfortable while being handled.

The shearers sometimes bring someone to roll the fleeces. A lot of girls do this as a job whilst travelling. This year the job was left to Kate and Brian.

A great Fathers Day job!

The fleeces are rolled and stored in large bags ready to be sent to the wool marketing board for processing. We are paid for the fleeces but it is not a large amount.

The sheep look rather bare to begin with especially next to their growing lambs.

Battle to Stay On

It was once again time for the school garden party in the setting of their lovely garden.

I had intended a very brief look round but as usual spent quite some time talking to various people. I captured a couple of events on camera. The guess the number of balloons competition in Trotters Robin Reliant.

Then a modern safety conscious greasy pole tournament. 

She was not going to give in! I can remember similar antics at college during Rag Week. Only we really did have a greasy pole and when we fell we were in the river!

The First Flower

The conservatory has been very congested with all the bedding plants growing in there. They are now all outside and it is nice to have the space back to use. We have several flowering plants growing in it. We have just had our first Morning Glory flower (Impomoea). I grow these from seed each year. The flowers only last for one day so it is fun to look each day to see how many blooms there are.

Most of the plants have a story behind them. This trailing geranium is from a cutting I took from a friend's plant last summer. When I look at it I think of the lovely weekend I had with old friends. I don't think she knew I snipped a bit!

Then this last flower has very special memories. My gran gave me the original pant many years ago. She died 17 years ago. I still have the one she gave me but this is a newish cutting. It is a Hoya and has pink sticky scented flowers. She had one in the window of her front room.

Do you have stories behind your plants?

Summer Sports

Yesterday was school Sports Day. I went along for a couple of hours to see some of the events. Emma was taking part in the long jump. Not her favourite event but I did mange to capture her in mid air.

There was of course action on the track. This young man managed to photo bomb my picture!

There was plenty of support for the steadier runners. This lad persevered with the company of these girls encouraging him round.

Meanwhile the trophies awaited presentation. 

Aquilegia Pairs

This week for Helena's Pairs I have chosen two pictures I took in my garden. Hopefully I will get round to showing the other pictures soon. We have a lot of Aquilegia/ Columbines/ Granny Bonnets growing in the garden. Most of them are pale pink or purple and they generally self seed on their own. In the back garden we have one rather different one. Here it is.

Front View

                         

Side View.

                          

It does not seem to be so prolific at self seeding. I will have to try and remember to collect some seed from it this year.

Teaching the Calves

Yesterday Kate bought 6 new calves. They are around 2 weeks old and are Aberdeen Angus cross.

They have settled into their new home well.

They do however need a little help with feeding. They have up till now been fed initially on their mothers and then on an automatic system with teats. They are now being introduced to bucket feeding. We both helped her to make up the milk and give them their first bucket milk.

This involves allowing them to suck your fingers with milk on and then gradually putting their noses into the milk. They then drink the milk as they suck your fingers. Gradually they will learn to drink the milk on their own.