Maybe Baby?

  Meet Baby - a 20 month old Dexter/Belted Galloway cross -

and this is her Mum - Delia - a 10 year old Dexter.  They might....just might be coming to stay with us in a few weeks.   So many things to sort out first, but fingers crossed.  Watch this space..

Summer Loving

I am loving

that it is still light at 11.30 pm;

that my guest room is ready, and the first visitors will be here tomorrow;

taking a boy to the cinema for his first time - and celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day;

the postman bringing treasures from ebay;

the return of the beautiful purple orchid;

spending lots of time here;

running and playing with a boy and his dog.  Hide and seek - can you find him?

Ready now to dance into another week.

Summer is a busy time here on the croft, and so much is going on that I do not want to forget. Each Sunday I will be posting a list of things I have loved in the past week.  Trying to distill the love and joy from this hectic Summer season to remember with gratitude when the days are short again.

Feel free to join me if you like - it doesn't need to be Sunday :)

This moment...

A single image, no words, capturing a precious moment from my week.  A simple moment that I want to pause, savour and remember. 

I am so happy to be joining in with Soulemama  again this week.  I wish you all an interesting weekend. xx

Around the croft.

Most of our crofting this week has revolved around the sheep.  A morning visit revelead an injury to Maddie Beag - a broken horn.  There was a lot of blood and it looked most alarming - especially to us sheep novices.  Infection control was our main concern, and that meant getting her into the pen for a closer look.  Now Maddie Beag, unlike her sister, Maddie Mor, is not the most sociable of sheep.  She is very wary and always waits until the big sister investigates and approves before approaching us.

We did manage to entice her in and got a good look at the broken horn.  It had stopped bleeding by this time, and looked to be scabbing up nicely.  A quick spray with some eucalyptus, tea tree and lavender spray, and some trimming of the blood stained fleece, to keep any flies away.  Mind you, there are not many flies brave enough to venture out in the weather we have been having, so I think we are safe.

This episode highlighted how ill prepared we are to be sheep keepers. At the moment we have only two, but we are planning to expand the flock in the Autumn, so it was high time we invested in some ovine equipment.

Shears - these will be needed in the next couple of weeks, as we get these ladies' hair cut  and send them up on to the hill for the Summer.

A shepherd's crook - this would have been very handy when trying to herd them into the pen.  If nothing else,  at least it makes you look as if you know what you are doing.

And shiny new hurdles.  We had been using our neighbour's as and when we needed them, but we wanted to set up a larger pen to give the sheep a bit more room, and encourage them in. Also, we had to carry them across two fields and  haul them over a couple of fences to get them to our field, so this was a needed purchase.   Look at the length of that grass - we need about 20 sheep in there just now.

So, here is a short video of our two beautiful ladies almost deigning to enter the new pen, enticed by a trug of barley.  Listen to that wind!  This is Summer.

Visit Farmama and see what is happening on farms, homesteads, gardens - and crofts, around the world..

Yarn along 4

I love to knit and read, so I am delighted to be joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along today once more.

I am not much further forward with the Pure and Simple cardigan I shared - gosh - 2 weeks ago?   I had to frog it and start again, as I discovered I had been knitting when I should have been purling, and it didn't look right - sigh. To make up for this, I have found some instant gratification in the form of knitted hairbands.  Great stashbusting projects and a wonderful way of practising lace patterns on a small scale.  i have an arrowhead patterned one in the car, but you can see a sample of it here, and this simple pattern above, knitted in the left over Artesano superwash from this project.  There are a huge range of hairband patterns on Ravelry, and  most of them are free.  These ones came from here and here.

Reading?  Well, I have still not got my hands on the Joel, (my husband is a very slow and careful reader, whereas I am a total skimmer), so I have been dipping into The Sheep Book for Smallholders, by Tim Tyne.  Lots of interesting information on the history of sheep and, obviously, how to look after them.  We will be adding to our flock soon, so really need to be more clued up.  Also, it will soon be shearing time and putting them up on the hill for the summer time.  Yes a big big learning curve, which will no doubt be shared in this space.
We have also discovered the Raggedy Ann stories, courtesy of the Kindle, where it is available free. Sadly without the wonderful illustrations, but still, delightful gentle tales.  James is enjoying them very much.

Hope you are all enjoying your current reads and knits  Pop over to Small Things and see the rest.

Octo Alert!

Despite not having a television here, James has still been very inspired by The Octonauts - a BBC TV children's show about a group of animal heroes who live under the sea in their Octopod, and help the various sea creatures they come across. And that is absolutely fine.  I quite like it too, if I am honest. (We sometimes watch it on iplayer) , and I have actually learned a few facts about undersea life that I didn't know.  True to form, the marketing side of the BBC published an Octonauts special magazine, which was on sale in the Co-op last week.  The free plastic figures of Captain Barnacles, Peso, Kwazi and Daschi were too much of a temptation for a 4 year old boy, so it somehow found it's way into the trolley.  As these things go, it was quite a good comic, and the best bit was the instructions on how to make your very own Octopod.  So we did this  early on Sunday morning, and it took hours, and miles of sticky tape, but our mission was accomplished in the end.  In case you fancy having a go, we present our Octopod tutorial - with pictures.

 Gather your materials (all the best art/ craft blogs say that - I find rummaging around madly as i go along seems be my default style. )
1 large plastic bowl (what an excuse to eat shop bought trifle!)
4 smaller round plastic yoghurt pots (I couldn't find these in a brand I would buy, but I did come across some oval shaped ones by Yeo Valley instead)
Orange tissue paper, or paint
Card (to make 4 thin tubes from)
Silver foil
toilet roll for base
glue
sticky tape - lots

Let's make it!
Cover the plastic pots and bowls with tissue paper (or paint orange)
Make 4 thin tubes from the card and cover with foil
Attach the yogurt pots to one end of each carboard tube. (lots of tape here)
Not attach the other end of the tube evenly round the large bowl.  You will note ours is not even, as you can only see 3 legs - honestly there are 4)
Cut round another larger tube, as in the picture (we used an empty toilet roll here ) and cover with silver foil (not easy)
Attach to bottom of the bowl .

The comic had a page of  scenes to cut out and stick to the octopod, as I have shown, but in all honestly they don't add much.  Maybe cut out an orange door shape and stick it on.

Then carry carefully to the play area and enjoy watching the action.  Pretty soon all the octonauts and various other co-opted figures were deep in the Indian ocean fighting off the invading tomato fish.  Some additions were built - a lego staircase for the octos to get out, and each one was allocated their own boat. (or GUPs as they are technically known ) The action very soon moved to Stornoway, on the other side of the room, with play carrots being involved.
 All in all it was a big hit.  James played with it for a long time, and has played with it several times since.  Different scenarios - rescuing the teddies, finding lost mummies, taking hurt animals to hospital - exploring, rescuing and protecting as the Octonauts do.  Wonderful stuff.

*I would say it is a very fragile construction, but that may be down to my skills with the scissors and glue. So far,though, he is being careful if he wants to move it around.  We found the the toilet roll stand didn't work very well, after a bit of play, so we cut of the end of a milk carton and covered that in foil.  The bowl sits in it nicely, and once I have bought some more (stronger) sticky tape, it will be attached.
The yoghurt pod legs do need to be resting on the ground to give it some stability.

Octonauts at ease - until the next adventure!
(Captain Barnacles Bear)

Summer Loving...

Boys who wear buttercups

Old barn doors

Pink paeonies

Help with the washing up.

Lace knitting on the beach

This man.

Ready now to plunge into another week.

This moment...

A single image, no words, capturing a precious moment from my week.  A simple moment that I want to pause, savour and remember. 

I am so happy to be joining in with Soulemama  again this week.  I wish you all a joyful and fun filled weekend. xx

Around the croft

We have not been as busy around the croft as we had hoped at this time of year.  The storm, which seems to have lasted for the entire month of May finally abated slightly at the beginning of the week, with a brief return for one day, and then - well - all of a sudden it is Summer! That's fine - I'll take it, thanks!
Anyway,we have had a couple of days  taking stock of the damage - lots of water lying around - no surprise there; my mini greenhouse blown away by a sneaky north easterly - thankfully no seedlings were there at the time, and that is about it.  The biggest problem was that we were just not able to get out there and get on with things.  But now we can, so all systems are go.

My favourite task is sowing seeds.  I love the sense of expectation and hope as I sprinkle tiny seeds like fairy dust into a pot of earth - or the sheer magic of pushing a dried shiny bean into dark moist compost.  You can almost touch that potential.  We are very late in starting this year, due to a number of reasons (here and here mainly), but still, we will do what we can, and learn lessons for next year.

We have found it important, in our first year here, not to dive in and make huge changes.  We don't yet know the rhythm of the seasons here - how the land works.  We have to listen and feel. We have quite a few old buildings on the croft, which have fallen into disrepair.  This was originally the lambing shed, and, in the future, may very well be again, with a new roof.  For now, though, we are slowly removing the tattered corrugated roofing and using the building as a giant cold frame, or tiny walled garden.  The plants are nice and snug - protected from the wind, yet still benefit from the sunshine, the rain (oh yes!) and the pollinators.

And we are managing to grow a fair bit already.  Salads, broad beans, chard, celeriac, leeks, strawberries, parsley, peas and potatoes are all coming up.  I am particularly happy to see the potatoes, as we thought we had lost most of them, due to the heavy rains.  One thing we have learned here is that the weather changes so quickly, and within a few days, the soil is drying out, the sun is shining and the place is green.  Joel Salatin talks a lot about the forgiveness of the land - and he is right.  I am so glad he is too.

And if you listen - it whispers to you - lets you in on little secrets.  Shows you that tiny groove in the gateway that means the wheelbarrow can just squeeze in and out of the compost bay. Reminds you exactly how low to bend to get out of the lambing shed without cracking your head. Reveals a  hidden roll of sheep netting in the barn, so you can protect your salads and strawberries from the winds.  Teases you when you sow  pumpkin seeds, after so many failures in your previous place.  But who knows?  This might be the year!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour around the croft.  Farmama is hosting a farm/ garden sharing theme at her beautiful and inspiring blog.  Pop over and see what other folks are growing.

Rear view reflection

After what seems like weeks of relentless rain, hailstorms and gale force winds, it was a relief to see the sun for a wee while. We had a couple of busy days getting on with outdoor things at last. Driving up the hill to the croft yesterday, musing on the overwhelming number of jobs to be done, I checked my rear view mirror, in that procedural way we do things - when WOW! I was overcome by the sheer beauty of that scene and the fact that it surrounds me - envelops me, even when the mists and rain block my view of it.. I just had to stop and capture that moment.

Indeed, there is so much beauty all around us, all the time - where ever we are, but too often our heads are in other places. It is not always as obvious as a stunning landscape, or work of art, but more often in the ordinary, everyday and unexpected.

Look around your world today. Unlock that hidden beauty - what did you see?