Rural Life

Goodbye 2007!

The final group walk of the year had to be cancelled yesterday due to the illness of our guide - winter vomiting virus strikes, or a surfeit of oysters.  Either way, Hugette looked awful when we saw her, so I hope she feels better soon.

Instead we took ourselves off for a walk - more modest in kilometres at probably just about 6, but welcome for all that.  It was good to get moving after a few days of concerted sloth. 

In the afternoon we went round our wood as well (it doesn't take that long), but as the afternoon was so beautiful, we also wandered a bit around the lanes and found a footpath that we just had to follow for a kilometre or so.  I will need a bit of time with the maps to see where it comes out so we can do a circuit next time.

At this time of year it is so important to take advantage of the good weather when it happens - today is not so appealing for walking, with fog and low mist, cool and dank air and limited views.  Here is a picture with blue sky however, as a cadeau for the New Year!

The Cold Greenhouse

It is a funny time between Christmas and New Year, when you start thinking about the detox and diet, but don't do anything about it, as you still have one more lot of festivities to get through.

One of the nicest things is to go through the seed catalogues and plan the planting for the new season and my Jardiniers de France seed catalogue turned up yesterday to draw me to my armchair.

The unheated greenhouse is providing a refuge for mice (not seen but suspected) and the plants that need a bit of shelter from the cold or the rain or both.  The double geraniums that grace the window sills in the summer are in there, along with the aloe vera, the prickly pear scrumped from a derelict garden at Collias, the distinctly ropey Brugmantia and the agave - not to mention the feral pumpkin.  I haven't dared go up the garden and open the greenhouse for a few days however as I am not sure everything will have survived the glacial temperatures we had up until Christmas.

Perhaps another slice of Christmas cake and another look at that seed catalogue instead!!

Mistletoe time

In the UK, a small sprig of mistletoe, ideally with a few berries on it, is hung over doorways to encourage people to kiss - or so it seems to me.  The Tenbury Wells mistletoe fair used to be the main market for wholesalers to flood the market with this parasitic plant.  Much has been made in the past few years of how little home grown mistletoe there is and how this is due to the dearth of mistle thrushes and the clearance of old orchards.

However it is thought awful to use french mistletoe, as that lacks berries.

Hmmm.  We have 3 clumps of mistletoe in our wood (it doesn't need to grow in orchards).  The one high in the Rowan tree is covered with berries but is a good 35 foot above the ground in a very spindly tree.  The other two clumps are on hazel coppice and therefore close to the ground, but not old enough yet to produce berries (I gather 5 years of growth is required).  The better one is shown here.

The poplar plantations that you see in the area are often covered with huge balls of mistletoe.  In part this is a sign of poor management of the plantation as the mistletoe "roots" damage the wood.  We were commenting to a friend about all the mistletoe around but that it was so high in the trees, and she said that the way to get a good big ball of mistletoe, was to get a hunter, early in the hunting day, to shoot a ball out of the tree for you!

A seasonal thought that!

It's cold!!

Over the past few days here, the temperatures have plummeted.  Yesterday we didn't get a positive temperature until after 2pm and the high was 0.9 degrees Centigrade.  Now I know that isn't much when you compare it with what they are having to put up with in Quebec, but it is more than cold enough for me.  Especially as the goats need looking after.

These are not our goats - they are adoptive goats that we look after when their owners have to go away.  Bessie and Lucy are about 10 months old and Nanny is nearly 2 (Lucy is her kid).  They are dwarf goats and their duty in life is to keep the grass down in their meadow, but they much prefer acorns, oak leaves, brambles, trees and maize to boring old grass.

In this cold snap, they are doing fine - there are still loads of acorns around, plus they have a bale of hay to nibble on if required, loads of grass still and we pop in (theoretically) every three or four days to give them some extra feed and make sure nothing is bothering them or that they haven't trashed anything.  Currently we are having to go over more frequently to ensure they have unfrozen water.  Their bowl doesn't defrost during the day, and their stream has now frozen over as well.

They are extremely podgy and have very thick coats, so they aren't suffering, whatever the goat care mafia might say.  It is just the need to keep fresh water available that causes the worry.  Below are pictures of all three during the summer.

Too wet to walk

We did a bit of a road trip last week - not a particularly green thing to do, but it had to be done for work reasons.

For part of the time, we did our third ever trip to Wales, this time the South Wales valleys and the Brecon Beacons.  I know December isn't a good time to do this sort of thing,  but we did hope that the weather would be kind enough to give us an hour or so's respite to walk up a Beacon and get some good fresh air.

Sadly every time we stopped the car at a likely lay-by, the heavens opened.  Even with boots, walking tents/cagoules and warm clothes, we felt it was too dangerous to set off across unknown territory.  The scenery was stunning however, as demonstrated by the photo.  Next time.....