I knew today was going too well!

God I've been so busy, sat down for the first time at 4.45 with a cup of tea (well apart from 10 mins for lunch and 10 mins at the farm for a quick coffee with Kate)

I went swimming again this morning, short session but had about half an hour of practically non-stop. Popped in the vets to pick up Emmas heart pills, came back and just had time to dry my hair, eat a bowl of Special K (lunch) and then up the farm to feed the lambs. As I got out of the car, Mr R Kite was swooping and gliding around the yard to say hello, really low, I'm sure he likes me. It also answered a query I had, I don't think he's the same one that comes over here, because there was another one in the village over the graveyard as I drove up there, and he wouldn't have got to the farm as quickly as that if it were the same bird. I also saw my first pair of Swifts, yay! The female Kite is definitely sitting on the nest, we clearly saw her forked tail. Kate is putting the lambs onto two feeds a day from tomorrow, so it will be a later one from now on, 4.30 instead of 2 pm.

Got home and cleaned out the guineas, budgies, hoovered, changed the bed, parceled up the bin bags to take down the end of the road for collection tomorrow. As I went out with them, the naughty yellow lab from down the other end of the road was charging around excitedly, so I took her home, knocked the door, and as I shut their gate to come back out, I smashed one of my finger nails on my right hand. Okay not a disaster normally, but somehow its ripped across halfway down the quick and poured with blood. I've had to put a plaster on it, I've never done that before, hurts like hell, and it will be weeks before it grows the same length as my other nails now. Sob. Just when I need to look my best haha.

Anyway, last night I had a new hoggy come visit the dishes, no paint marks and very wet, so don't know where he/she came from but seemed ravenously hungry, ate and ate for ages. All my other three that I've marked came at various times too, so they're all okay.

Took a quick pic of my baby blackbirds in the nest, looks like they are doing fine and will be off into the big bad world very soon. Hope they make it.

Looking forward to the footie on tv tonight. Hope Thierry Henry is playing from the start, and I can swoon away for 90 mins. Well, I can still look can't I? ;o)



The Newby. If it's a male I'm calling it Andy. I will explain why another time. :D

Okay so I've been busy doing stuff. Today went for physio on my back and it hurt like hell! Also went to the farm for the 2 o'clock feed, and walk the dogs.

Yesterday had a great day out with the man. We went to the car boot sale, then coffee/lunch, then shopping, then took Emma down to the coast for a walk at Ferryside. So much more relaxed this time, got on really well, had a good laugh, found out more about him, and I really, really like him now. Haha, I'm so fickle!

No, he's good fun, has a great sense of humour, have loads in common, and what's more, I fancy him like mad too.

Can't wait to see him again. God I hope he doesn't ever read this. In fact if there's ever a chance of that, I shall remove this bit of my blog and the one I did from before!

I am trying to keep my feet firmly on the ground though, playing it cool, cos I've been there, done that etc before about 6 years ago, and it didn't work out. I am also a pessimist, but for once I am going to live for today and enjoy myself.

I've challenged him to a game of tennis, I bought racquets and balls yesterday in the sports shop, got a real bargain too. Also Kate says she'll give me a game in the near future, she used to play for her school same as me years ago! We both have bad backs so it will be just a case of hitting it to one another, not much running about lol. Some great news too, she says I can take Alan up there to help me if I want when I'm doing my holiday stints, so I'm sure he will be chuffed about that.

I've just now been up a ladder halfway up my oak tree to check out the blue tit's nest box. Seen nothing happening for days and days now, and assumed it had been abandoned like last year, it's a bit exposed and there were 6 little cold eggs left last year. Anyway, struggled to get the lid off, and it broke in half, and I found one little cold egg inside. Aww. So I took out the egg, was about to take box down off tree, and there was this little blue tit with nesting material in his mouth looking at me from the hollybush, waiting to go in, looking very worried! OMG, they are still active. So now the lid of the box is in two halves, and will leak when it rains. So I quickly went and cut out a square of heavy duty plastic, shoved it under the two halves, screwed it back on and retreated quickly. Oh and of course put the little white egg back first. Will see what happens. Can't work out what has occurred though, because a couple of weeks ago, they were too-ing and fro-ing hour after hour and I assumed they were even feeding chicks or a male was feeding a hen sitting on eggs. The only thing I can think is maybe they've raised chicks, and they've fledged. No youngsters spotted in the vicinity though. Weird.

Awwww...

I was hesitant about bringing Alfie in the from aviary, as I'd read that when you have had a pet budgie living alone indoors, and it was "humanised" it would never accept another one after three years. The photos disprove that theory I'm pleased to say. Although Chippy can be a spiteful little git sometimes, he is still possessive over his "toys" which are the other budgies in the mirrors lol, on the whole they get on really good. Such a relief that they can share a cage too, saves me a lot of work!

I could be famous...

Lol, no not really, but next week I, along with some more of the Wind Farm objectors group will have our mugshots in one of our local papers. This morning, we had a photoshoot with the photographer for the Cambrian News on top of the mountain near Brechfa forest, where Red Squirrels have been seen. It's our lifeline, Red Squirrels are protected and their habitat must not be disturbed.

So we stood in a howling gale at 11 am this morning. The photo will not be flattering. My eyes streamed, my nose ran, and my hair was probably all over my face, although maybe that would be a good thing!

After I took Emma on a bit further on into Brechfa forest itself, where I used to walk with Irene last year before she moved away, not been there since. It's a bit lonely really for walking alone, but nobody else around so I went for it. Sheltered in amongst the trees, and didn't see any Squirrels either.

Sadly, Emma can't walk as far now, didn't want to overdo it with her, she can only do about half the walk she was doing this time last year, and me with my weight loss and wanting to get fit can do double, so it's not all that satisfactory really, lol, poor little thing.

Anyway took loads of photos of the area, scenery to die for, like looking down out of an aircraft at times. Some of it is very bleak up there on top though, bit like the Yorkshire dales, sheep roaming around, some with little lambs, it's a hard life for them up there.

Beautiful gorse in bloom everywhere, took my breath away on the lane up to the mountain.

Cass

Cass just came to the front porch feeder, couldn't see any paint thought I'd got a new one. I think maybe she is the one using the box, will have to check sometime, so afraid of scaring the inhabitant though and they won't return. Have to be so careful.



Squirt just arrived on back door dish, that's a relief, not seen him for a few days. :o)

Friday

Only bits and pieces to report really, been so busy again, and as for next month, I am exhausted already just thinking about it!

I've been up to help feed the lambs three times this week, but not been able to walk dogs until today because the farmer was doing stuff in the fields.

I had doctors yesterday and she advised I try some cardio exercise on my legs to try and tone them up before I make a decision about having the surgery done on my veins! 8 weeks of intensive before I have to go back to the hospital. She suggested I cycle (which I try to keep up with anyway with the bike) swim, and ask in the gym at the leisure centre what's the best exercises. So with this in mind, I went swimming last night! Was pretty good, can't say as I really enjoy it, but its a means to an end, and I enjoy the fact that it's doing me good hopefully. Had a good chat with a couple of the ladies after in the changing room, they both go regularly, so hope to see them again. There were only 12 of us, which was nice really, meant we could all keep out of each other's way, I found it a struggle to do a whole length straight off, so was dodging back and forth doing widths! One of the women told me about another swimming pool where you can have a sauna and jaccuzzi as well, so may take a lookie at that one too.

Erm what else? Found a poor dead Rook in the garden yesterday. I'd noticed one a few days ago which looked slightly too tame, they normally fly off as soon as they see any movement from me in the kitchen, but this one was just stomping around in the grass. Anyway, found him dead under the bamboo, poor thing. Been there a couple of days I think. Wouldn't have been able to do anything though, he was painfully thin, maybe had a tumour or something.

Last night, brought two more hogs indoors and marked them, the little one had a couple of small tics, one right by his eye, but I couldn't get it, he just curled right up tight. Will call this one Trice, (cos it was gone in a.... )marked with white spot on mid-lower left side, as opposed to Squirt who's marked on the other side. The larger one is a female. Going to call her Cass (after Mama Cass) Marked her with a white spot centre, behind head. It was funny watching them on the cam, the female was doing a jig, sort of bouncing around in a circle. I wonder if that's courtship display or not, must find out.

Opened the shed earlier and suprised one of the mice at the dish, and it ran behind the rolled up rug. So I said hellooooo, and it came back out and was looking at me twitching its whiskers, awwww. Then I saw another one which had run up the rug. Both of them were slightly wary, but not terrified. How cute.

Sorry, but this made me laugh...

I was just outside in the garden, dumping some stuff on the rubbish heap, er compost heap at the bottom of the garden, and looked into the field next door, the sheep were right over my side. Lots of black ones this time. But it looks like No.23 has been playing away from home, naughty girl! Hahaha.

Early morning at the farm, and I'm changing my name to Mary..

Had a wonderful time this morning, doing the early shift as Kate had to go off at dawn to pick up her car.

Did the lambs and then let them into the field and just stood watching them for a while in the early morning sunshine. Trouble is, little Daisy thinks I'm her mummy (well I expect she's the same with Kate) and follows me everywhere, she didn't want to stay in the field with the other ones, oh no, she wanted to come back out with me, awww bless.

Took the dogs for a walk, and saw Bernie up in the tree, but he wasn't interested in coming to see me today, sitting looking sternly at me as I called as if to say, yeah, I should cocoa.

Back to the house, fed dogs, washed up, made myself a coffee and just sat in the conservatory-come-huge porch and felt the sun on my back, watching the birds on the feeders, and then the Grey Squirrel came, and there was nothing to hear except bird song, particularly a huge Wood Pigeon, whose call I absolutely adore, and I thought this is the closest I've come to bliss in a long time.

Went back to check that Daisy and co were still settled in the field, and then saw the female kitten in the window of the barn, so funny, glad I took the camera, then the other two cats posed for me too, the sunshine has such an effect on them it seems!

Came home and reality hit in, after I'd just fussed and cooed at those cats, found that one of the bloody things that comes in my garden had killed one of my mice. It was laying under the cover near the hog's dish, minus its back end, with guts hanging out. Poor, poor little thing. It wouldn't be so bad if the sodding cat had killed it to eat, but they just do it in play, and I can't tolerate that. So no wonder there was no sign of any mice on the cam last night, the cat must've been outside in wait.

And to end on a happier note, I went out front and saw that the Blackbird hen wasn't on the nest in the bush, and saw four sleeping little babies had hatched! Yay, hope to god they will be safe from you-know-what. That will just do me in if they get mashed too.




First time I've got all the lambs and mums together in one place!

Daisy

Bernie in the tree

Bernie keeping an eye on the nest



I was a bat in a previous life...



Awww, look at his little pink thumb



Give us a kiss!





Why is the sky so blue?

Let's try again now I've calmed down

Okay, so as I was saying. It rained as anticipated when I walked the dogs this afternoon. However, Bernie my pet Kite (I've named him) was watching from the shelter of the trees at our every move. So I called him to come, (Iolo Williams-style) with a "come on then, come on" and you could have knocked me down with a feather when he did just that. Wow, I was blown away, nearly literally of course as it was still windy as hell! He has no tags that I can see on him, so not been caught and identified, but he is so unafraid, I'd love to take him some meat up and see if he'd come down for it, even though I'm squeamish. Trouble is once you do it, you have to keep it up, else it's not fair. Anyway, he swooped around me for a bit, then got fed up with getting wet and went back and perched up in a tree near the nest. I guess the hen will be sitting on eggs or maybe even chicks by now - can't wait to see.

Because of the rain, the only in flight shot I got that didn't get blurred still isn't that great, but he was only about 20 feet away for it. Hopefully he will still be around when we have some nice days, trouble is Kate doesn't normally walk that field near the nest, we go further up and he doesn't seem to come up there, I've not noticed him anyway.

Boy Am I Livid with this Sodding Blogger website

Why can't they get their act together? Because America is now awake I suppose and everyone is doing their blogs, we may as well give up.

I just did a long post with photographs of the Red Kite, and it's wiped the whole bloody lot, wouldn't even auto save, and I've now got to do it all again. I am livid! I just love wasting 20 minutes of my time.

Even more...

Yesterday, the farmer who uses the fields to the side ran his whole flock of sheep through the yard, driving them with a dog and quad bike, to another field round the back. Nice to watch actually. Anyway, when I went up this morning, I saw there was a sheep still in the original field, on its own, right up by the bank, far end. Oh no, I thought, not again, like the one I had to chase before to get back to the herd. Well, it would be out of the question of course this time, I couldn't drive it out of the field, down the lane, through the farmyard, and I didn't even know where the other flock was exactly. Anyway, when I went back up at lunchtime, said sheep was in the same place. So I thought even more oh no, is it sick/caught in something/dying? So after I'd already walked the dogs round three fields, I trudged the extra quarter of a mile in the field behind where this one was to see if I could do anything. Answer? No. Why? See below.





Aww, not been born long, mum still has some yucky stuff hanging out of her. It does concern me that the farmer doesn't seem to bother, I mean this was lunchtime, it's been there all night, presumably he knew she was about to lamb, that's why she was left, and yet it appears that he hasn't been anywhere near. I guess they do survive out on the moors unattended, but seems a bit uneccessary to me to leave it like that when he has the facilities. Just can't be bothered I guess.

I could kill myself...

It was raining as I left to go up to the farm, so I didn't take my camera AGAIN. So what happened? It stopped. Windy as hell, and some gusts nearly blew me off my feet as we walked the fields, but my pet Kite was undeterred, and bloody followed me again. I only had the Nokia. He actually was posing, hovering for me. I can't believe it. So angry with myself. I bet if I take it later (a) it will piss down and (b) obviously he will be nowhere to be seen. Grrrr.

Other excitement - saw my first swallow of the year. Yay. They don't come here, nowhere for them to nest of course, but plenty of places up at the farm. Hope they are sensible though and manage to make them out of the cats' reach.









It's hard to tell from these just how close he was, but believe me, I could almost touch him. No more than 12 feet at times. Sigh.

Squirt update

Just brought Squirt indoors to check on the tic situation. There was one on him still, but it was dead, shrivelled up but still kind of hanging on somehow. Squirt is a boy. He is so cute, really let me handle him ok tonight, didn't attempt to curl up, let me tickle his tummy believe it or not, awww bless him. Ran off of course when I put him back out. He was engaged in battle earlier with the other hoggy who is at present nameless. Will have to mark him too I guess. He's back right now. No sign of Colin since the sighting last week. Hope he's ok.

A tic-less Squirt, just returned to the dish again at 11pm

More fun at the farm

Why oh why didn't I take my proper camera? The Red Kite practically landed on me! He was flying over and around us whilst we walked round the field, I think maybe he was hoping we would frighten a rodent and he would spot it, or unless they feed on insects a bit like swallows. I could have wept, he was so close and so unafraid of me or the dogs.

Oh well, had to satisfy myself with the Donkeys, who all came across to see me, but soon lost interest when they saw I had no food! One of the farm cats (sorry pusscat, I can never remember your name) appeared at the top end of the field, and walked with us. So funny because Emma has always been taught to chase cats out of my garden, but she is so good and knows that she's not to touch these. The cat was going right up to her sniffing and she was jumping away. I managed to get them to pose a bit, hilarious photos. The second one looks like Emma is just about to take a chunk out of his back!

Also spotted to my amazement two Canada Geese in the next field. Wow. They are mere dots though on my photo taken with the Nokia. Sigh.

Feeding the lambs was fun as always, and the male kitty (Biggun) always follows me about and was sitting on a bale watching. Frank the ram gave him a good sniffing too. Started to rain when I'd finished so I shut the lambs and the three mums in the barn. Kate asked me to shut them in later anyway as it's still so cold at night, and I didn't want them getting soaking wet. Course, then it stopped and now feel guilty as they all wanted to go back out in the field. Oh well, saves me the job later I suppose, it won't hurt them to be in, they've got all they need.

















My favourite, little Daisy