Anyone got an ark I could borrow?

As you may know it has been a LOT here in the UK and whilst we are by no means the worst affected, our village is almost surrounded by water! On Tuesday I pottered down to the river to see how high it had got and this is what I saw.

This is one of the drainage ditches that runs behind our house to the river. It was empty last week but is now at least 12" deep.

Here it is just about to feed under the road and into the river. White water!

The brick wall in the left of the shot is where the water from the drain feeds into the river. The river is twice as wide as normal and in the distance is a field (disguised as a lake!)

I wasn't the only one who had popped down to take a look. We all had cameras and all initially felt a little embarrased at being spotted taking pictures. We soon got over that though and enjoyed a good old chin wag! There is normally 2 or 3 feet between the top of the bridge arch and the river.

Looking down strem you get a sense of how fast the water is flowing. Even though the sluice gates had been opened to deliberately flood the marshes the water still engulfed Terry's field to the left.

My friend's boat house - the boats might float out of it soon!

River or lake - you decide!

Geese enjoying a swim in Terry's field. He says the water will be great for the grass its just unfortunate that he needs to put lambs on it! He had to move 130 sheep yesterday to keep them safe and dry.

One of the roads out the village. In the distance you can see a car trying to decide if it can make it.

The care decides to find another route. Unfortunately the water rose even higher yesterday (and I assume today cos it rained all night) and a car got stuck. A local councillor towed him by hand with a rope. After a photo opportunity I think!

Most of us have been enjoying the changing landscape and accept that occasionally these things happen but it has really hampered deliveries - not good when you need things urgently, and made Terry the farmer's life more complicated whilst he is still lambing. If you have been similarly affected by the weather I hope your house is safe and dry. If you are reading this whilst enjoying the sunshine - can you send us some please!

A week of animal adventures

It has been a week packed full of animal adventure. In between working on some exciting papercut commissions I have had to rise to the challenge of various animal rescues and treating ailments.

Terry is in the middle of lambing (last count 40 sheep lambed, 100 and something to go!) These lambs are some of the first born who are now gambolling out and about in the fields. Lambing is an exciting and nerve wracking time in the village. Everyone is hopeful that Terry's flock will remain unaffected by the dreadful Schmallenberger virus that has been affecting lambs this year. (So far so good).

Whilst there isn't much we can do to help Terry and Paul whilst they lamb, as dog owners we are acutely aware of keeping our dogs on a very tight leash. Imagine our horror when we were up at the allotment this week (right next to these lambs) and met a young husky. No owner, no collar, no control. After about an hour and with the help of five other families we managed to catch her. A beautiful and very friendly dog but completely unknown to any of us. Several hours later our neighbours had managed to track down her owners. Thankfully Terry's sheep seem ok even though the dog must have come through their field.

Another rescue was of a beautiful male greenfinch trapped in one of the fruit cages at the allotment.

And the ailment? Well our poor girls seem to have got all sorts of bugs and parasites troubling them at the minute. Terry has very kindly provided some medicine for them and we've been to buy some treatment for their legs. So spare a thought for me this weekend as I throroughly disinfect two chicken coops, feed and drink containers and catch and spray 15 chickens!

Have a great weekend (and if you do have a dog - keep it away from the sheep!)

Ready set grow

This Saturday I thought I'd share a sneak peak of our allotment. It's not going to win awards but we are hoping to make more progress this year in turning our plot into a productive and attractive allotment.

The ultimate 500m walk

Spring seems to have sprung in our village and the sun has been encouraging us to venture out. So for today's sneak peak I thought I would share some of the sights on our 500m walk to the allotment. It really is heaven for my little boys.

The majority of our walk is up a lane. We pass a number of traditional stone cottages including the home of our best friends and a lovely lady my son calls Bertie (Betty)! This little stretch of lane often acts as a meeting point as we commonly bump into other villagers going to or from the allotments. A 5min walk often takes a lot longer than planned!

Past the houses we go past a stables, a builder's yard and a garage where they mend racing cars!

Then we go past the field with Terry's rams. Not long till their lambs are born though these handsome fellas don't strike me as anxious expectant fathers!

 Next to the ram's field is this magnificent walnut tree. Heaven knows how old it is but we had a bumper crop of walnuts from it last year. It is technically in the hedgerow so everyone can gather nuts from it. And we do! Most of the village enjoyed collecting some. The nuts are so sweet and taste completely different to those bought from shops. My eldest became quite adept at cracking open the shells.

A little further up and we turn the corner into the allotment. These girls are always crowding round the gate hoping that you are going to bring them some corn!

One of the families we share ownership of the chickens with keeps bees in this apple orchard which is on the allotment site.

Then it's past Terry's fine array of farm machinery....

And finally our walk ends at our allotment. The pictures below are of some of our neighbours plots.

 On a cold frosty morning when it is dark and raining this 500m can seem a very long way to let the chickens out. On a sunny day or glorious summer evening it is absolute magic and the walk can't last long enough.

Lovely ladies

So today's sneak peak is of the lovely group of chickens that we share with 3 other families in the village. These lovely ladies reside in a purpose built (and very secure) mesh enclosed area at the allotments. Each family is responsible for looking after the chickens for a week in rotation. This week it was our turn again.

We have 15 chickens in total now but I'm afraid that in the year the project has been going we have already loved and lost a few. Looking after chickens is not as easy as it looks and we are very much all still novices. It is mostly great fun though and the girls are generally very tolerant of toddlers. My eldest now can safely help me collect the eggs without breaking them and I can catch laying chickens with relative ease. The only ones I can't catch are the white ones (Light Sussex breed) who seem very jumpy.

The whole village has access to the allotment and so can go and visit the chickens. Lots of people tell me they've been up to have a chat to the girls and all the families who have allotments seem to enjoy bringing the children up to look at the chickens.

Our chickens are all hybrids (I think!) which means they lay lots of eggs. Even through the winter months we generally got 6eggs a week. Now spring is on the way the girls are getting serious and so far this week have laid 40 eggs with today and tomorrow still to go.

My absolute favourite thing about looking after the chickens is my early morning walk to let them out. The short walk is great thinking time.  This walk nearly always results in me meeting the local farmer Terry and his two gorgeous dogs. You'll here more of them in future posts but our five minute chats are often the highlight of my day. My five minute morning chat with Terry normally involves him telling me the farm's tasks for the day and perhaps the progress they've already made - information I can then pass on to my little boys when they ask about the various tractors, vehicles and trailers they see and the noises they hear. So this week I know that Terry and Paul (his son) are hoping to start lambing in 10 days time; greatly enjoyed the fruit cake I made for them; drilled 93 acres in one day (we could hear the roar of the farm machinery all day) and are really hoping to get some willow cut down before the lambing.

I'm hoping we will be able to visit the lambs in a month or so when they've all been born. I promise to take pictures if we do!