Catching Up

Life has been pretty hectic over the last couple of weeks, hence lack of blogging.

Tomorrow is the day we FINALLY move. We have been waiting for this day for the last 6 months - long months during which our landlady (aka "That BITCH woman from hell") has done her level best to make our lives a misery. I cannot believe it is only a year since we moved here. Thankfully, our old landlord had not re-let the farm we moved from last year, he had just let the house on a 1 year tenancy. He is delighted to have us back, and we will have 35 acres rather than the 7 acres we had before (the lack of land was the only reason we moved in the first place!).

Oh well, just another of life's little challenges I guess....

So, as the current tenants of the house don't move out for another few weeks, here is where we will be living in the interim...



Ok, no laughing please. Yes, it is small, but beautifully formed. Seriously, it has everything we need, and provided it doesn't rain constantly for the next few weeks we'll be fine!

So, the animals are all ready to go. The goats and sheep will be collected by the livestock lorry tomorrow at 8 a.m. The goats (who will be travelling on the top deck) have promised not to wee on the sheep (who will be travelling on the bottom deck) too much. It's a good thing they are being loaded so early because it is HOT. The journey will only take about an hour and a half, so they should be fine.

Sam



has washed and ironed his favourite bandana to wear on The Big Day.

Ben




(whose alter ego is the super hero "The Brown Smear") has washed and packed his super hero cape and yellow bri nylon underpants. Ben is a bit concerned that Santa won't be able to find him this Christmas (I haven't the heart to tell him the new house hasn't got a chimney - Ben's a worrier)



So, the house is in a complete mess, I've had no bed to sleep on for the last two nights. Half our belongings are here and half at the new house in a 40 foot container. Roll on tomorrow night!

In amongst trying to move house, and as if we didn't have enough to do, it was the British Angora Goat Society (BAGS) breed show last Saturday. This is the highlight of the breeders' year, and all the top breeders in the country show their goats at the breed society show. Oh, and us, our first year of showing. We were a tad nervous.

But, the sun shone, and Cobweb looked lovely...



(Is it an angora goat or Cousin It??)

But wait, what's this?



Do my eyes deceive me or is that Eddie and Cobweb AT THE TOP OF THE LINE UP???



We won! We won! Cobweb won the Maiden Doe class (Cobweb's the middle one).

Somehow, while all this has been going on I've even managed to do some knitting. The sweater in Swamp from Hip Knits is knitting up beuatifully. I have the whole of next week off and plan to finish the sweater and hopefully knit my first pair of socks.

The only downside of the move is that while we are living in the caravan, and I'm not at work, we have NO internet access. Which means no daily Coffeeshop fix from tomorrow until 4th July!! How am I going to cope?

A busy week

Why is it that when you have time off work it always goes so much quicker than when you are AT work??

I had a whole week off last week, and it just whizzed by. First up was the Stafford show. We got a 2nd, 3rd and 4th with our goats, which we were well chuffed with. There were at least 20 goats in each class, and we were up against some of the top breeders, so we felt we did well. Just one more show to go - the British Angora Goat Society (BAGS) breed show at the Three Counties show in Malvern on 17th - 19th June. We will meet up there with many of our old friends from Devon & Cornwall. It will be great to see them all again.

The rest of the week was taken up with trying to get organised for the big house move - 2 weeks on Friday!! We had a letter from the agents for the house we are moving to, to say the current tenants have had some delays on the house they are building to move into, as he has had to go into hospital for an operation, so would we mind not moving into the house until end of August rather than end of July. Pooh! But we agreed - I mean it would have been nasty not to wouldn't it? And, since we knew we were going to be living in a caravan for 5 weeks, another 3 weeks makes no odds really.

Of course, we have to find a caravan to live in - which we did on Sunday. I'll post pics later. It is "bijou" to say the least, but does come with a huge awning which gives us some additional space. As we'll have electricity and water we can bung a fridge and microwave out in the awning bit, and the dogs can live out there too. They'll have to - poor old arthritic Ben will never make it up the step to the caravan, and there'd be no room for the two of them AND us!

The caravan, though small, is perfectly formed. Comes with cooker, hob, fridge, TV, video, stereo system (I tell you it's a whole new world!). The toileting facilities are a little on the basic side (hey, but what do I care - the chemical loo will be Eddie's domain!), but it does have hot and cold water and a shower.

We'll be fine (we keep telling ourselves). We will be living in it in July & August after all - ok this is British summer we're talking about but even so, we're unlikely to be suffering with frosts!

The most depressing thing about the whole caravan hunt was that the owners of every one we went to see assumed we looked just like caravaners! Aaarggh! They seemed almost disappointed when we explained we'd be living in it for 8 weeks then selling it on again.

So, it was back to work on Monday. Nothing exciting happened in my absence, so I felt it only right and proper that I devote Monday to stalking Hip Knits for the new yarns to go up. Was finally rewarded after I got home, and ordered 400g of Swamp, which arrived today. Feast your
eyes:



This is 100% silk, hand dyed by the lovely Trudie. The picture doesn't do it justice. And it is so soft. This I think is destined to be "Chamomile" from the Rowan Summer Tweed Collection.