Kids & Knits

On the move......

2010-02-25T15:59:00.002Z

Gosh, such a long time since I blogged. There are many reasons behind that, not least of which has been lack of time. Recently though I have had the time, and what's been putting me off is the thought of wrestling with Blogger again (so NOT user friendly), and the fact that the name of my blog was no longer wholly relevant, and too constraining - I want to be able to blog more about our life here in France, and France in general, as well as the farm and knitting - and I'm damned if I can find a way to change it in Blogger.

So, I took the plunge and moved to Wordpress. You'll find me here http://gasconyfarm.wordpress.com . Come on over, I've lots to tell you!

Winding down

2008-10-05T19:28:00.005+01:00

The world’s teetering on the brink of global financial meltdown has kept me from your blogs and mine for a couple of weeks, but today is a travel day so I find myself stuck in another faceless hotel room with time to finally catch up.

Coming back to the UK this morning was a bit of a shock – we have had a beautiful September with temperatures hovering in the mid to high 20s so arriving at Stansted to driving rain and a cold wind was not pleasant! A reminder, though, that winter is not far off.

Last Sunday we had lunch with friends. It was a glorious blazing hot day so we ate outside, but I think that’s the last time we’ll do that this year. The mornings and evenings have definitely cooled down – Saturday morning was 5C, the lowest since last winter. We have resisted lighting the wood burner so far, but it won’t be long before we need it, for the evenings if nothing else. For the time being, however, an extra jumper does the trick.

Tigger and Barney are being primed for the day when the mice move back in for the winter. They certainly do a lot of “play” hunting, but I’ve yet to see any evidence of a kill.

I’m very pleased to report that Cosmo has taken a turn for the better. He is still not very mobile, and has to go out accompanied by a responsible adult, but he seems much happier in himself, and is not quite as doddery on his back legs as he was. Perhaps it’s the cooler weather, I don’t know, but I certainly didn’t think back in June that he would still be with us now. Here he is with his now best friend, Ben (Ben keeps him company in the barn during the day - I always imagine them nattering away to one another, chewing the fat like two old codgers)

It’s been quite weird these last few weeks realising that we have been through a full year in France and are now experiencing everything for the second time. On Friday we had the first snowfall in the Pyrenees, and now that the heat haze of summer has gone they have once again become the backdrop to our lives. It’s wonderful to see them again – the only time we see them during the summer is a couple of days before we have any rain – but it’s yet another sign that summer has come to an end.

There’s a sense that everyone is preparing to “hunker down” for the winter. The fetes and festivals are over, the last of the (relatively few) tourists have gone, and the Gers has returned to its normal sleepy self. The main activities now take place in the fields and woods – the hunting season has started, the grape harvest has begun and the maize is waiting to be cut.

Still, the quieter months should see some progress on the knitting front. I have, in fact, knitted several small items recently, though I am lacking in photographic evidence so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Two baby hats for a colleague at work’s newborn son, and a cowl – everyone seems to be knitting cowls this year and I figured even I could whip one up without too much trouble. The knitting part is done; I just need to block it so photos may follow if you’re lucky. I’m now working on a lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today which is destined to be a Christmas present for the female half of a French / Dutch farming couple we have got to know and who have been such a huge help to us this year.

As ever there are loads of things I’m dying to knit. Once the scarf is done I’m torn between the February Lady sweater – I’ve seen so many nice ones – and a simple top down V neck raglan. I think I might just plump for the raglan. I’m more in need of basic everyday sweaters than I am a lacy cardigan. Plus, I plan to spend the winter evenings listening to some audio books so some mindless knitting will be ideal for that.

One year on

2008-09-07T18:36:00.004+01:00

Well, I never intended there to be SUCH a long gap between posts (even for me, it’s a long gap!), but I reckoned without the lethal combination of the Gascon party season and an unusually heavy summer workload.

July & August seemed to consist of one huge hectic social whirl (I have to say our social lives have improved enormously since moving here!). July was fete season – every village seems to have their own fete, large or small – and we were kept busy visiting friends during their villages’ fetes, not to mention the Beaumarches fete which took place over the last weekend of July. Things kicked off with a treasure hunt on the Friday evening, which was great fun, and finished with a “Giant paella” on the Sunday night. It seemed as though for the whole weekend we were only home to occasionally bung some food at the cats and dogs, and provide water for the goats and sheep, plus the odd few hours’ kip.

Just ten minutes away from us, the Marciac Jazz festival takes place in the first two weeks of August, when the town (well, large village really) swells to accommodate up to 100,000 visitors. It’s a fantastic couple of weeks – bars and restaurants crop up all over the place, there is free live music day and night, and hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of weird, and not so weird, stuff.

Work being so busy was an even bigger shock to the system. Normally July and August are lovely quiet months with a nice steady workload – not too little to get bored, but not enough to cause stress. This summer though we decided to install a massive new client management system and I’m the lucky person who needed to deal with the customisation of it to our exact needs. Thank goodness for Skype (the software comes from the US) – I seem to have spent most of last month with a headset stuck on top of my head. It doesn’t look as though things will be quietening down this side of Christmas, but at least I’m starting to feel as though progress is being made.

It seems hard to believe it is now just over a year since THE HOUSE MOVE FROM HELL. In some ways the time has flown, in others it feels as though we have been here much longer. It’s been a time of taking stock and looking back on the past year. Do we regret it? Not in the slightest. We’ve had our ups and downs but not for one nano-second have we regretted the move.

I have been thinking about the pros and cons though, as of course life is not perfect here, and I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the good and the not so good. I asked Eddie what he missed about the UK. His first response was “Nothing”, but then I asked him to think again, but imagine I don’t make regular trips back to stock up on some of those things he can’t do without. So, here’s our list:

Pros:

We are happier than we have been for a long, long time. When I say “happier” I really do mean that. I’m generally a “glass half full” kind of person so tend to be pretty positive about life, but when I look back now on the last 5 years or so I really wasn’t happy. I am now.

We are healthier. That is down to the climate, the outdoor lifestyle, the general lack of junk food, and – to be honest – the relative lack of choice here. It’s easier to eat healthily when you don’t have a Sainsbury’s close at hand. We have several great local markets, and a reasonably good supermarket but we have nothing like the choice available to UK food shoppers. I think on the whole this is a good thing. We eat more locally, and seasonally, and don’t stuff ourselves full of crap.

We have made good friends, both French and English. Much as I hope that I will one day be pretty fluent in French I have learned to accept that there are always going to be slight differences in the nuances of our language and culture. It’s brought home to me that you do NEED to be able to communicate in your own language too. It’s those little quirks of the English sense of humour (and no doubt the French) that are simply never going to translate. We have great English friends and I have lost count of the number of wonderful, laughter filled evenings we have had with them. I’m also pleased that we have some good French friends (mostly neighbouring farmers) who we are not only getting to know socially, as friends, but also who we know we can turn to if we need help. We already have, and their generosity with their time, advice (and machinery!) has been humbling.

We have a real sense of belonging to a community. We have been made so welcome, and included in so many things going on in the village. We feel very lucky to have found this wonderful little spot.

Work works. It might not have. Technology could have let us down. The commuting back and forth could have been problematic. So far, it’s all gone pretty smoothly. The evidence is that clients are perfectly relaxed with the arrangement and are happy that I can still provide the high level of service they expect. My partners are happy with the arrangement too, and have in fact been incredibly supportive.

The climate. I love the climate here. Spring was just beautiful (and started in about February!), summer was hot, autumn is warm and last winter was short, cold and sunny.

We can have cats again. We couldn’t have any for the last few years and I have missed having them. Tigger & Barney are turning into very, very lovely cats.

We got to have Cosmo in our lives. Who knows for how much longer, but I’m so glad we got to be his owners, even if it’s not likely to be for years and years.

The animals have all settled in well and seem very content.

Ok, I could go on, buts let’s have some of the cons:

Tea. French tea is awful (weak as water). You can buy English tea but it is VERY expensive (our supermarket sells bags of 40 PG Tips, which says on the box 89p, for €4). Luckily I can stock up on tea when I come back for work.

Shopping. I’m not a huge girlie shopper, which is just as well as there are NO clothes shops less than 50 minutes away and for anything decent it would be at least an hour and a half. Again, I can at least still buy my clothes in the UK. Even so, shopping for anything other than day to day stuff tends to involve quite a long journey. Still, that’s what you get when you choose to live in deepest rural France.

Being at the mercy of the currency markets. We moved over at a time when sterling was very strong against the Euro. Since January it’s lost almost 20%. That’s been like having a 20% pay cut. Tough, and whilst we factored in some currency fluctuation I have to say we didn’t factor in things being this bad. Maybe one day the UK will join the Euro....

The frustrations of not being able to speak French as well as I would like. I’ve improved a great deal over the last year, but I’d so love to be better. Still, I’ve started dreaming in French and I’m told that’s a good thing! Eddie has struggled too. Bearing in mind he started with nothing, he’s probably made greater progress than me relatively speaking, but learning a new language in your 50s is not easy. Still, he happily pootles off all over the place now, when 6 months ago I would have had to go everywhere with him. He’s willing to try (and we know quite a few English people here who don’t) and that’s the main thing.

Lack of knitting. The change in our lives has had perhaps the biggest detrimental effect on my knitting – something I have tried to address and I think / hope things are slowly improving.

It’s difficult to know if the cons list would be longer if I weren’t regularly travelling back to the UK. I don’t think I’d miss the country itself, but I might miss a few more of the conveniences we tend to take for granted in the UK.

On balance, I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Which is a relief!!

Tigger & Barney

2008-07-17T21:09:00.007+01:00

I mentioned in my last post that we had two new additions to the family: meet Tigger & Barney.

They are just coming up to 10 weeks old and are absolutely adorable. They are either chasing around like mad, and kicking hell out of each other, or fast asleep. There’s no inbetween.

They are proving to be very affectionate and love to be cuddled. So far, they’ve not ventured out of the house very much – little do they know what a wonderful world awaits them!

Sam & Ben have been really good with them. We have had cats before, so they are used to them. The kittens were raised in a house with a dog, so that helps as well. It didn’t take long for a little bit of bonding to take place

The only slight fly in the ointment is Cosmo. We’ve been quite worried about him over the last few months. He is finding it more and more difficult to get up, as his back legs are starting to fail him. When he has been up and about he’s fallen over a couple of times and not been able to get back up. The last time this happened he was down at the edge of the lake. Normally, he lets us help him up, but this time he must have been in some pain as he started to snap at Eddie when he tried to lift his back legs up. We ended up calling the vet out. He put a muzzle round his nose and mouth and we were able to help get him back up the bank. The vet gave him a couple of injections and didn’t seem too concerned. He saw him again the next day and said he was fine. Our biggest fear is that he might be suffering, and we might leave it too late to make the decision that we think is not too far off. The vet assured us he was fine – just suffering from old age.

What is clear is that we can’t run the risk of letting him wander around by himself at night, or let him out from the confines of the garden when we’re not there. This means he can no longer do his nightly patrols of the farm – something I’m sure bothers him as he will lie in the chai and bark after we have gone to bed, but we just can’t bear the thought of him falling over in the middle of the night and lying somewhere helpless for hours, or worse, being stuck in the heat of the sun if were away from the farm during the day.

One thing’s for sure – he can bloody well move alright when he sees the kittens. We’ve had one near miss (I’m sure he’d kill them if he got hold of them) so we are keeping them well apart. This isn’t too difficult as Cosmo now spends almost all of his time in the chai (the barn attached to the house) where it is cool, only getting up when he needs to go to the loo, so we can shut the chai doors when the kittens go into the garden. We just need to make sure they don’t slip past us when we go out from the house into the chai. Sadly, I don’t think it’s a problem we’re going to have for too much longer. Cosmo’s health isn’t going to improve and to be honest we’d be surprised if he manages to see out the summer. We love him to bits and he’s going to leave a huge hole in our lives when he’s gone. I just hope, after the way he was left alone so much before we bought the farm, that in his time with us we’ve given him the life he deserved.

A walk in the mountains, and a meme

2008-06-15T14:06:00.014+01:00

I’m at the end of a two week break from work. It’s been lovely to have time to help Eddie out on the farm rather than sitting in front of a laptop all day. In the first week, some of Eddie’s family came to stay, and we got loads of jobs done on the farm that would have taken the two of us days to do on our own. Work was interspersed with trips and meals out, and a bit of lounging in the sun when it put in an appearance. After a lovely early spring, summer has been late arriving in south west France. Although warm, we have had a lot of rain – so much that May and June will enter Meteo France’s history books for the region! Forecasters say that the weather will finally turn next week, so we’re hoping for the long hot days to be with us soon.

Yesterday our walking group had a day trip to the Pyrenees. Thirty one of us set off in convoy from Beaumarches at 7.30 a.m and arrived at Cauterets just before 9. We parked just outside the town and set off along the GR10. To begin with, the weather wasn’t too promising

but the scenery was stunning. It’s amazing to think this is all virtually on our doorstep.

We climbed gradually upwards for 500m which took about an hour and a half – steep in places but not too bad. Our destination was this refuge,

and as we came over the final ridge the view was unbelievable

Some of the walkers were a bit knackered by the time we arrived!

During the walk we were lucky enough to see some Pyrenean wildlife – griffon vultures, the Pyrenean Chamois, and an animal I had never heard of before – the Marmot. I even managed to get a photo (kind of - looks better if you click on it!)

The wildflowers were wonderful too, particularly these Gentians which carpeted the area around the lake.

At the refuge we had a leisurely picnic lunch which everyone had brought with them in their rucksacks, enjoying the warm sunshine. Then some rested while the rest of us went for a walk around the lake.

The walk back down the mountain was much easier, and we finished off the trip with drinks at a cafe in Cauterets. We got back to Beaumarches about 6 p.m giving us just enough time to feed the animals, have a quick shower and change before the evening’s “pouletarde” – a communal village meal of chicken and frites. We had a lovely evening, and it rounded off a wonderful day.

Whilst I’ve been away from the laptop, Clarabelle has tagged me for a meme, so here goes:

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago? – In 1998 I was living in a cottage in Cornwall and the only “livestock” we had was Ben, then 10 months old. I was working for a firm of accountants, running their financial planning department (that sounds grand, but the “department” consisted of me and my assistantJ). Most of my clients were Cornish and Devon farmers, who I loved to bits, but I can’t say I was really happy in the job.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today/tomorrow: Hmm, well as it will be my first day back at work after two weeks off, I doubt there’ll be much time for non-work stuff but items currently on the agenda include: go to doctor’s for second tetanus jab (yay!), try and take photos of new additions to the menagerie, make inroads into the washing mountain (sub item - clean curtains peed on by new additions to the menagerie); go to dinner with friends.

3) Snacks I enjoy: Crisps, peanuts, chocolate, homemade cake, jaffa cakes (it’s a wonder I’m not the size of a house).

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Whilst I would love to say I’d give it all away, I really wouldn’t, but what I would do is - Give up work; pay off the mortgage; renovate the house; build stonking new barns for the sheep and goats; buy Eddie all the “boys toys” farm machinery he would love, and which would make his life so much easier; install a gigantic swimming pool; start a Pyrenean-sized yarn stash; set up an elephant sanctuary and an orang-utan sanctuary (though not in France, obviously).

5) Places I have lived: Liverpool, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cornwall, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Gascony. I’m not moving again.

6) Jobs I have had: Kennel maid, cleaner, barmaid, stage manager, admin assistant, financial planner / investment manager.

7) Peeps I want to know more about: anyone who reads this blog!

Late spring in the Gers

2008-05-05T14:55:00.017+01:00

Having emerged relatively unscathed from the end of tax year mania, life was just beginning to get back on an even keel when lambing started.

Unlike the goats, who are considerate enough to only kid between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., the sheep favour lambing between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. So, for the last 3 weeks we have been subjected to night after night of only a few hours of sleep. I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again – how do those of you who have had children cope with the sleep deprivation?? By the end of the first week, we were both exhausted – Eddie more so as he is the one who makes the routine checks during the night, and ends up getting up at 3 a.m. and not getting back to bed at all. I just about managed to do my normal work each day without passing out in front of the laptop, but other than that I could barely function. If I wasn’t working, helping Eddie or eating, I was asleep. Even dragging myself into the shower more than once every couple of days just seemed like too much effort!

I think one of the hardest things to cope with during lambing, when you are so tired, is the fact that any sense of routine to your life just goes out the window as we are completely at the behest of the needs of the ewes. One night, when we sat down to eat our evening meal at 10.30 p.m. I could have cried – I didn’t know which was more important at that particular moment in time – to feed myself or to just go to sleep. At least we only have to put up with it for about 3 weeks though – I don’t know how parents cope when it goes on and on and on...

Still, that’s all behind us now – we just have one ewe left to lamb, so life is gradually getting back to normal.

So, time to catch up. Knitting first. I mentioned in my last post that I had two FOs to show. First up is Adamas:

I would like to be able to say that I loved knitting this but that would be a lie. I pretty much hated every minute once I’d got past about 3 pattern repeats. This was not the fault of the designer, but entirely the fault of the knitter, who simply couldn’t get the pattern to stick. There was copious usage of life lines, and much frogging. The only thing that kept me going really was that I knew the end result would be beautiful, and it is. This was knit in handpaintedyarn.com merino lace and used quite a bit less than one 100g skein.

Next up is a pattern from Yarn Forward, whose name escapes me. I knit this in the recommended yarn – Rowan Kid Classic - as I just happened to have the right amount in my stash, but the gauge given in the pattern bore no resemblance to the gauge given on the ball band of the yarn so I ended up winging it quite a lot. The end result is quite cute I think.

Last time I posted we were going through a spell of pretty awful weather – it seemed to rain pretty much constantly during March and the first half of April (although looking back through our weather diary it wasn’t actually as bad as it seemed at the time!), but we seem to have turned the corner. The last week or so has been glorious – temperatures in the high 20s, clear blue skies, and the landscape has just gone bananas. Our fields are covered in wild flowers, many varieties I’ve never seen before. The hedgerows and trees are in full leaf now and the countryside is incredibly green. I guess that’s what you get when it suddenly warms up after 4 or 5 weeks of rain. It’s like Cornwall on acid – you can almost watch the grass grow.

Last year was a bad year for fruit trees here, but this year looks like it will be a bumper crop. We’ve had great fun finding out what we have on our land – apart from the usual apples and pears we have plums, at least two dozen cherry trees (could be more – I don’t think we’ve found them all yet), half a dozen walnut trees, and my absolute pride and joy: an almond tree

The animals are all doing well. The pygmy goats LOVE the sunshine

The mums and kids prefer the shade

The kids are coming on really well

As are the lambs

and one of the hens has just hatched some eggs

No, not four chicks

THIRTEEN!

So, life is good at the moment. And made even better by the arrival of a lovely gift of the knitterly variety – Caroline made me socks!

She cleverly left the stitches live on the toes, in case they weren’t the right size but they are a perfect fit, so I just need to find half an hour to graft the toes and they’re done. Aren’t they beautiful?

Right, off now to catch up on my blog reading. Bloglines is telling me I have 91 new entries to read, so this may take some time!

Ok, where did March go????

2008-03-30T13:30:00.001+01:00

March is always the busiest month of the year for me, work wise. In the weeks running up to the end of the tax year my workload seems to increase 100 fold – I seem to spend the whole month fighting against things spiralling out of control. Still, it does make me realise how cushy life is for the other eleven months of the year.

Hence, my nose has been well and truly glued to the laptop all month, with hardly a moment to do anything but work, work, work.

At least the weather hasn’t proved to be a distraction – March has been cold, wet and windy. We are in the region’s rainy season, and we certainly need the rain so that the clay soil can build up reserves ahead of the (hopefully) long, hot summer, but at times – especially after such a wonderfully balmy February – it has felt as though we are slap bang back in the middle of winter. Somehow a wet and windy day always seems so much colder than a dry, crisp frosty day.

Believe it or not, I have two finished knitted projects to show, but a combination of the poor weather and lack of time mean I haven’t had a chance to photograph them yet. Both were finished before work became manically busy – there’s not been much time to knit in the last few weeks.

We are also bang in the middle of kidding – 15 kids so far, and 3 mums-to-be still to go. We reckon that we should just about have finished with kidding by the time lambing starts! Again, no time to take photos but I will try and take some in the next couple of weeks.

Right, as I am stuck in the office on a grey Sunday afternoon waiting to check into my hotel I have a few hours to myself, so I’m off to catch up on all your blogs and see what you’ve been up to!

La Tue Cochon (The Pig Killing)

2008-03-09T15:04:00.008Z

Warning: post contains pictures of a newly slaughtered pig.

Years ago, most families in the village would have raised their own pig for meat, and each year neighbours would go from house to house helping each other with the killing, butchering and preserving. In an attempt to maintain something of that tradition, and the coming together of the community to help one another, each year Beaumarches holds a pig killing in the village square.

We were in two minds as to whether to attend or not. On the one hand, we hope to raise our own pigs one day, so to see the procedure for killing and butchering one was of practical interest to us. On the other hand, we were concerned that what we might witness was an incredibly stressed animal being slaughtered in front of a baying crowd. After some deliberation, we decided to attend the killing.

We got to the village just as the pig arrived. He was in a small trailer, which was driven into an area cleared for the event in the market place. Saturday morning is market day so while all of the following was going on villagers were going about their normal business of buying their fruit and veg, etc. A crowd of about 30 or 40 people had turned up for the killing, including quite a few children with their parents.

The pig was on a comfortable, deep bed of straw in the trailer, and was completely and utterly relaxed. So far, so good. A group of men had several fires going on which were large cauldrons of boiling water. Eventually, the pig was led out of the trailer. He did squeal a bit at this point, but showed no real signs of stress. Chains were placed around his back feet and he was hoisted into the air. He made no noise, and did not struggle. Very quickly, the butcher plunged a long knife straight into his jugular. Whilst this does not cause instantaneous death, the loss of blood is so incredibly rapid he would have been unconscious in a matter of seconds. I’m happy to say that in my opinion the animal was treated with the utmost respect, the kill was swift and clean, and he did not suffer. Having taken our own animals to the abattoir, I feel this was a far less stressful end to his life than theirs.

The blood was collected in a large metal container, and then whipped away to the kitchen in the village hall were a group of women had been toiling since 6 a.m. preparing lunch.

The pig was then lowered into a long wooden trough.

Boiling water from the cauldrons was poured over him

and the men began to scrape off the bristles.

Once the pig was clean he was hoisted up again to be gutted and butchered.

The offal was thoroughly cleaned ready for cooking.

I’m glad we went. I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to watch an animal be killed, but I sometimes think as a society we’ve become too far removed from the animals we eat. Sanitised plastic wrapped packages of meat are a long way from a living, breathing animal. People don’t seem to want to be reminded of the fact that they are eating something that died to feed them. That’s their choice of course, but I can’t help wondering if the £1.99 chicken, and the truly appalling way in which some of our meat is raised isn’t a direct knock on effect of this.

Lecture over.

Once the pig had been butchered and all the offal cleaned and prepared it was lunchtime. A communal lunch had been prepared and we sat with a group of villagers to enjoy a plain but hearty meal. We were the only English people who attended the killing and the lunch. I lost count of the number of times I was asked “Do you do this in England?” Somehow, the very idea is laughable when you think of what DEFRA, the Food Standards Agency, Health & Safety officers and all the other bureaucrats who determine what is and isn’t acceptable would think of it!

We returned to the village hall in the evening for what was really the main event – the eating of the pig. Course after course of pork in all its many and varied forms from black pudding to pork cutlets (some less palatable than others – the tripe wasn’t something I’d be in a hurry to eat again). Over 200 villagers gathered for this celebration, and once again we witnessed their kindness and generosity towards us. A screen had been erected on the stage as France & England were playing in the Six Nations Cup, and even though the Gers is a rabidly fanatical rugby region they didn’t hold it against us when we won :)

We finally staggered home some time after midnight, feeling just that little bit more integrated into village life.

Sprung!

2008-02-20T14:25:00.007Z

Spring seems to have arrived early in the Gers. It’s as though someone turned on a massive switch on 1^st February as from the beginning of the month we have had a virtually unbroken run of warm sunny days, with temperatures often nudging the mid 60s. We’ve still had a few frosts first thing, or the odd bit of mist or fog, but by 10 the sun has burned through and we are all enjoying basking in the warmth.

As a result, the farm is slowly waking up from its winter slumbers

There is a photographic display in the mayor’s office of all the different varieties of orchid that have been recorded in Beaumarches – I think there are about 16 altogether. We have quite a few on the farm, though which variety they are remains to be seen.

I’m hoping the goats will leave them alone – the sheep haven’t touched them throughout the winter, but then I did have a single solitary daffodil I was planning to photograph but one of the sheep ate it!

Even the house is starting to warm up. It’s amazing the difference a few days of warm weather have made. I’ve even reached the stage where I no longer need to keep the electric blanket on all night! I’m hoping that the warmer weather might encourage our winter tenants (field mice) to move out. We’ve learned to live alongside them over the last few months (they moved in in November when it turned cold), but I’ll be glad to see the back of them. Sometimes I can’t believe the things I put up with here!

I'm sure we're not quite out of the woods yet (it snowed in March last year) but I do think the worst of the winter might be behind us and we can look forward to longer and warmer days in the weeks ahead.

Life has been a bit of a social whirl this month. A couple of weekends ago there was a meeting in the village hall attended by a number of minor dignitaries from our region (fonctionnaires – the French equivalent of civil servants, only more so). This was to inaugurate the awarding to the village of its official status as a SOHO Solo village; to officially record the fact that the village has access to ADSL for all; and the official opening of the first stage of the after school club. The mayor gave a very stirring speech about the need for villages like ours to move with the times and ensure that Beaumarches had a healthy future ahead. He’s absolutely right – so many rural villages in France have become virtual ghost towns, populated by the elderly and second home owners. No chance of that happening here I don’t think! The official bits and pieces were followed by aperitifs, and a light lunch. Lots of villagers turned out for the occasion, and we were amazed how many came over to us to say hello – going on the Saturday morning walks has really helped us to get to know a lot of faces – and there was much shaking of hands and kissing of cheeks.

Last Saturday evening was the annual meal for the walkers. The hard core group who turn up every week (which includes us!) turned up at the village hall early to put out and set the tables and prepare the food (the mayor cooked the chips) before everyone else arrived. About 50 people turned up and it was a great evening. I finally now feel confident enough to spend the evening chatting (after a fashion) in French, and I had great fun chatting with one of the walkers, Raymond, a retired chap who loves walking, playing the trumpet, hunting with his dogs, and gardening.

This Saturday is the annual village pig killing. Yes, a real live pig gets brought to the village, is killed, then butchered and eaten in the evening. Not for the faint hearted.

Playing catch up

2008-02-01T12:06:00.000Z

After a hectic week back in the UK last week (my first trip back since mid December), I took this week as holiday to try and catch up with things here.

The move here, and particularly registering the farm, has seemed to involve a continuous steady supply of paperwork to complete. As the only French speaker in the family it falls to me to deal with all this stuff, and it’s hard to find the time when I’m here and working. France, or at least the Gers, still closes down between midday and 2 pm (our local supermarket shuts at 12.15 and doesn’t open again until 3.15!). Shops tend to stay open longer after lunch (normally until 7 pm) but offices don’t, which means anything that needs doing that involves one or other of the numerous government departments can only be done between 9.00 – 12.00 or 2.00 – 5.00. It’s sometimes a bit of a pain, but overall I like the fact that the Gascons take their precious lunchtime so seriously.

Anyway, we are now all caught up. Until the next wave of paperwork arrives!

Jean Claude is doing fine. He was joined by twins (one boy, one girl) the following day – also doing fine – but that seems to be it. It’s good that the twins have arrived as it means Jean Claude will have some playmates. It would have been a bit lonely for him otherwise!

On the knitting front, I have a couple of things on the go but not interesting enough at this stage to photograph. After having hours of knitting time over Christmas and New Year I have done very little over the past month – there always seem to be a thousand and one other things that eat into my knitting time. I sometimes wonder how it was that I had so much time to knit when we were in the UK, and I haven’t yet figured out quite what’s changed.

I said last time that I would tell you about New Year’s Eve, Beaumarches style.

Every year a party is held in the Salle de Fêtes (village hall), which is decorated by the Comité de Fêtes. This year’s theme was Asterix the Gaul (I have no idea why) and the room was wonderfully kitted out with models of Asterix and his chums, and numerous “trees” to create a woodland feel.

The evening kicked off at 8 pm with the local aperitif “pousse rapière” – an evil liqueur which has been known to bring seasoned drinkers to their knees. About 250 villagers were in attendance, ranging in age from just a few months to well over 90 (at a guess). We sat down to eat at about 9, at long tables amply supplied with bottles of local wine. There then followed eight courses of local specialities, which included young wild boar, scallops, duck, and another evil liqueur “Trou Gascon” with a dollop of lemon sorbet in it. Pud was eventually served at about 1.30. Throughout the meal we were entertained by a disco playing mostly French techno-pop (can you imagine?) which went down a storm as the dance floor was always heaving, with both young and old.

Wine flowed throughout – we never seemed to have anything other than full bottles on the table. Champagne was served at midnight, and Armagnac with the coffee and petits fours. Yet, even though there was enough booze to sink a ship, not one person became any the worse for wear, and I think this was perhaps the most startling difference between this evening and a similar one in the UK – no slurring drunks, no fights, no vomit. I do have to say though that I did miss singing Auld Lang Syne!

The people of Beaumarches certainly love to party. It was still going strong when we left at 4 am (we thought the dogs would have their legs crossed by then!) – in fact the soup was just being put on the stove for the remaining revellers. All in all it was a thoroughly wonderful evening, and we can’t wait for next New Year!

Bonne Année, and.......... SURPRISE!!

2008-01-15T20:54:00.000Z

A slightly belated happy new year!

There was so much I was planning to tell you about what I’ve been up to, but then everything got swept aside yesterday afternoon when this little chap arrived

Now, I have to confess that we were not expecting this. Based on the dates we put the bucks with the does we are due to start kidding in about mid March. This little chap proves that there was some unscheduled hanky panky in early September. This would have been when the goats were still housed while Eddie was working flat out madly trying to erect electric fencing for them. I do have a vague recollection of one of the bucks breeching the defences but I thought we had caught him before he could do anything he shouldn’t. Appparently not.

So, we have our first animal born on French soil. In honour of this momentous occasion we have christened him Jean-Claude. He is fine, but we are a little concerned because his mum doesn’t appear to have a huge amount of milk. Normally, we increase the does’ rations gradually over the six weeks up to kidding, but of course this didn’t happen for her. She is getting extra feed now, and we’re hoping that plus the act of him actually taking milk from her might increase the amount she’s producing, but to be honest as we’ve never had this situation before we’re not sure if that will happen. We’re offering him a bottle several times a day in case he does need topping up. The problem with kids is that, unlike lambs, they can be very reluctant to feed from a bottle, even if they are hungry. We’re hoping we can get him used to it so that as he gets bigger, if there is no increase in milk production by his mum we can make sure he always has enough.

So, what else is news? Well, the Reversible Rib Shawl did not make it to the party on New Year’s Eve. Funnily enough this was not because I ran out of time, or because it was too short. No, it was something far stupider than that. I started the third and final skein and merrily knit away for a few inches, looked at it and thought “Hmm, seems a bit lighter than the other skeins – but only a bit” and carried on knitting. After about six inches I could ignore it no longer – it WAS lighter. Much lighter, as I discovered when I took it out into daylight (can I just say in my defence that our house was built so that the “living rooms” are protected from the prevailing direction of the weather - the west - which means with low sun in winter the living room gets no natural light. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)

I had about five minutes in serious strop mode, then remembered my mantra “It’s only knitting”.

So, Clapotis went to the ball instead, and all was well. It was a fabulous night, but more about that next time. For now, just for clarabelle, I’ll leave you with some photos of the Pyrenees taken from the garden (they look much better if you click on them to enlarge them)

Brrrrrrr!!!!

2007-12-21T13:52:00.000Z

We’ve been experiencing a severe cold snap over the last week or so – the first prolonged spell of cold weather so far. Overnight temperatures have been as low as -7 and each morning we’ve been greeted by brilliant sunshine and thick, thick frosts.

Although we do have central heating (which actually works now that we have a new boiler!) what we don’t have is very much in the way of insulation, so as turning the heating on seemed akin to setting fire to a pile of Euros, we haven’t. Which makes life “interesting” here at Pedemont.

Fortunately we have a HUGE wood burning stove in the lounge, which comfortably heats the lounge, kitchen and bathroom – rooms which flow one to the other (yes, I know, having a bathroom off the kitchen is less than ideal. It’s on The List). The only other room in the house we are using is our bedroom WHICH HAS NO HEATING WHATSOEVER. We do have an electric blanket, so we’re fine once we’re under the duvet, but it’s not a room you want to hang around in otherwise. Although we haven’t yet woken up to ice on the inside of the windows, it’s been close. So tomorrow, we plan to go and buy one of those oil filled radiators, which will hopefully take the chill off, and won’t cost a fortune to run.

On the knitting front I am making progress on the shawl

(that woodpile is all that stands between me and abject misery!)

I managed to persuade Ben to take some time out from his busy schedule (that would be the one that involves lying in front of the wood burner 24/7, only reluctantly venturing out when Nature calls) to model the shawl for me. You can tell he’s keen can’t you?

I still have two problems with the shawl: either I won’t finish it in time, or I will, but it will be too short. I have about 120g of yarn left and I estimate it will be about 50” before blocking. It’s very stretchy so I may be able to block it to a decent size. Time will tell. So far, it’s been a great knit. I thought acres of 2x2 ribbing might be deathly boring but the cable rows are frequent enough to keep me interested. I think the finished shawl will be pretty, but I can see how much lovelier it would be in KSH. Maybe one day....

Last Sunday one of our local villages, Marciac, held their Christmas market.

This is the first time I’ve seen Santa in shades, and I love his little helper, balanced on the horse’s back. Santa spent the afternoon taking children round the square in his cart and that little dog stayed stuck to the horse the whole time!

I very much doubt I'll post again before Christmas, though I will try and let you know if the shawl is finished in time for the New Year's Eve bash, so for now, may you all have the Christmas & New Year you wish for!

Toute seule

2007-12-02T13:14:00.000Z

I am here on my own this week (well, that’s if you don’t count the 3 dogs, 9 chickens and 100 sheep and goats :0) as Eddie has gone back to the UK for a few days. It’s actually the second time he’s been away in the last few weeks and the first time he went away I did wonder how I would feel being here on my own.

I had no worries about how I would cope if some sort of mini (or major) crisis occurred – I can think of at least eight people off the top of my head who I could phone and who would do all they could to help, which is very reassuring. Whilst we have no intention of living in some sort of ex-pat enclave, and we hope to eventually be able to count some French people amongst our friends, the advantage of knowing other Brits is that everyone, to a greater or lesser degree has been through the settling in process we have, and every one of them at one time or another has needed, and received help. For that reason, people really do seem to rally round, and there’s a fabulous spirit of “pay it forward”. We’ve been blessed with meeting such lovely people since we moved here, and I know if we were ever called on to help out another Brit (or anyone else for that matter!) we’d be there like a shot.

What I did wonder was how I would feel being alone in the house. We’re not isolated, but the nearest neighbour is not within screaming distance and I wasn’t sure what the house would seem like with just me in it. It is a big, rambling old place, but – as I’ve discovered – not at all spooky. From the outside it is really welcoming and has an air of calm and tranquillity about it. Inside, it’s snug and cosy and warm. The only things that go bump in the night are the mice that have taken up residence since the weather turned colder!

We had rain yesterday. Hardly “hold the front page” stuff you might think, but it was the first time I had seen rain here since mid September (we did have one day of rain in October but I was in the UK). It was really quite odd to see grey skies, as so far this autumn / winter we have been blessed with gloriously sunny days, so even when it’s been cold (and it has been down to -4C) it’s still pleasant to be outside. Today is beautiful. The temperature must be in the low 60sF, which can’t be bad for the beginning of December. What’s more, the goats are still out every day

which makes life so much easier for us (and I’m sure is better for them). Since they would have been permanently housed in the UK from about mid September every day they have been out since then has been a bonus. It’s just another little thing that makes the winter seem so much more bearable. They’re also now grazing a field which can be seen from the village so the locals are finally getting to see them. They are a subject of huge interest on the Saturday morning walks we go on. We started going on these at the beginning of October. A group of villagers meet every Saturday morning for a 2 hour “randonée” around the commune. There is only one other English couple who go besides us so it’s proving to be a great way to practice my French in a social situation, rather than just when dealing with shopping or bureaucratic stuff. Everyone has made us feel very welcome in the group, and during the walks most of them will make a point of walking alongside us for a while and chatting to us. It also means that now when we go into the village we are much more likely to see a face we recognise; someone we can pass the time of day with, which all helps to make us feel part of the community.

On the knitting front, after much dithering I finally plumped for the Lily Chin Reversible Rib Shawl.

My goal is to finish this in time for New Year’s Eve when there is a large village gathering for a six course meal and general knees up. I think I should have enough knitting time; my only slight concern is whether I have enough of the yarn dyed in this colour (as I think the chances of my being able to repeat it are virtually nil). I have just over 300g, which should be about 900 - 950 metres. Fingers crossed!

Beaumarches

2007-11-23T10:32:00.000Z

I feel slightly as though I’ve been MIA recently. I’m not entirely sure why as life hasn’t been any busier than normal, but still the last few weeks have flown by.

I’m in the UK this week, flying home this evening (hurrah!) and though I should be working, I always view these “going home Fridays” as a bit of a dead loss work wise. So, I have spent the morning getting up to date with all your blogs and catching up with what you’ve all been up to. (There’s an awful lot of Christmas knitting going on – I’m doing none, so far at least).

To distract you from the lack of knitting content in this post I thought I’d show you some photos of our village. These were taken at the end of October (just look at that sky – wonderful!)

The road leading up to the village

The church

Beaumarches lies on the Bastide & Castelnau route, and as a result many of the buildings in the village date back to medieval times

A (more modern) mairie.

In France, the mayor of a commune wields an awful lot of power, and they are definitely not someone you want to get on the wrong side of. Our mayor is lovely. He has been elected, unopposed, for the last 22 years. For deepest rural France he’s an incredibly forward thinking mayor. He was absolutely determined that the entire commune would have access to ADSL and when France Telecom couldn’t pull their finger out and get it done he bought three wireless masts for the village, strategically placed so that even the remotest houses can have high speed internet access. He works very hard to keep the village alive and growing.

The bakers

The lady who runs the bakers must be one of the jolliest people we’ve ever met. No matter what, she greets everyone with a smile. It makes a simple thing like buying the daily baguette an absolute pleasure, and as this is one of Eddie's jobs she's also helping him with practising his French!

You can find out more about our village (should you be so inclined) here. It’s in French, but if you Google Beaumarches then find the link to this site you can translate the page from Google. The translation is a bit of a hoot but you’ll get the gist!

I hope to have some knitting to show you next time, though it won't be the top down Malabrigo sweater. I am simply bored with it at the moment. Daft really as the body is done and half of one sleeve so one final push would see it finished. But I'm itching to knit a shawl for some reason. Most likely a lace shawl, though I'd love to try out our own kid / silk on Lily Chin's Reversible Rib Shawl but I'm just not sure if it would be "ethereal" enough, given it's 4 ply rather than the cobwebby lightness of Kidsilk Haze. I have enough Kidsilk Haze to knit it, but have to admit that while I love how it knits up I really don't enjoy knitting with it, and I do really want to knit something in our own yarn. So, when I get home I'll have a good rootle through my patterns. I did find this on Ravelry this week and am quite taken with it. There are also lots of scarves I'd like to knit at the moment (probably best for UK knitting which only happens in short sporadic bursts).

Oh, choices, choices....

Shades of Autumn

2007-10-21T15:53:00.000+01:00

Before we moved over here we weren’t sure the extent to which we’d experience a definite changing of the seasons. If we didn’t, it would definitely be the change from summer to autumn I would miss the most.

We needn’t have worried. Despite the high daytime temperatures, early mornings have a definite autumnal feel to them. The last couple of mornings there has been a heavy mist in the valley below us, so thick that the village on the hillside opposite us has looked like an island floating in the ether.

The Virginia creeper on the back of the barn is gradually displaying its autumn hues

And I’m waiting patiently for these to ripen.

These are Persimmon and I have a tree laden with them. If they do ripen I actually have no idea what I’ll do with them!

In keeping with the autumnal theme my WIP reflects the colours of autumn

This is the basic top down recipe from knittingfool.com with the lace pattern from Licorice Whip down the centre of the front. I knit Licorice Whip last year in the recommended Blue Sky Organic cotton and it is my favourite sweater. I’m hoping this slightly snugglier version will be just as wearable. The yarn is Malabrigo chunky merino, in unknown shade. The chunky yarn doesn’t have that buttery softness of the worsted but it’s still lovely and soft.

It’s good to be knitting again. When we first moved in things were just too hectic to even think about knitting, then it was too hot, and then I wanted to knit but hit a slight stumbling block. Now, I’m not one of those knitters who can pick up and put down their knitting at the drop of a hat, or knit while waiting for a bus / at the dentist / in the supermarket checkout queue etc etc. I like to SIT and KNIT, for a couple of hours at a stretch. In the past this has meant that 99% of my knitting was done in the evenings, while watching TV. When planning our move, we had a number of options regarding TV:

Buy a new TV in France and watch French TV

Take our UK TV and subscribe to one of the UK satellite TV packages for Brits

Have no TV at all

Take our TV and just watch the occasional DVD

We chose the last option. We really didn’t want to have UK TV programmes in our new life. Many English people here do, and that’s fine for them, and who knows by the time the middle of January is here we may be so bored of an evening we’re crying out for it, but I hope not. Watching French TV would be pointless on two counts: we don’t speak the language well enough, and French TV is crap.

However, we did think that on a cold winter’s evening when we’re snuggled up in front of the wood burner it might be nice to watch the occasional film. So for the last few months before the move I bought a DVD every week when I did the supermarket shop.

So far we haven’t turned the telly on once. We’ve sat outside, when the weather was warm enough, just chatting, we’ve read books, listened to music, occasionally surfed the net, but not once had the urge to watch TV. Ergo, no knitting.

I couldn’t let this continue, so last time I was in the UK I got a couple of audio books out of the library. Bliss! Now I can knit to my heart’s content, whilst being read a good yarn.

Problem solved.

Back to life

2007-10-16T19:56:00.000+01:00

I can’t begin to describe how lovely it was to get back home on Friday night.

On Saturday morning I went for a wander around the farm, camera in hand, to “reclaim” my home.

Sitting beside the lake on such a beautiful day the stress of the past few weeks simply melted away.

Since I went back to the UK the maize has been harvested on our neighbour’s farm.

If the other farms in the area are anything to go by this land won’t be laying fallow for long. In the meantime the “chasseurs” are making the most of the empty space to shoot (and more likely than not miss) anything that moves.

Umtata has been given a group of girls to play with but just like any bloke he’s more interested in the ones he can’t have

Two of our hens have gone broody again, something they seem to do at the drop of a hat.

Little do they know but they are sitting on two plastic eggs each, which we use to encourage the hens to lay in the nest boxes. Bottom of the queue when the brains were being handed out.....

The tree frog is still living in the well

Middle of October and the animals still need to come into the shade in the middle of the day. Can’t be bad

Clarabelle asked how Cosmo is doing. Well, he’s doing great. As so many of you mentioned in the comments that you thought he was a puppy (doesn’t say much for my skills as a photographer!!) here are a few photos showing him more to scale

Ben is a Labrador cross, and quite a big dog we thought, until we met Cosmo

Eddie is 6’2” (when he's standing up :0 )

I’m a midgety 5’2” (Sam is an Old English / border collie cross)

Brace yourselves because the next post will contain knitting content.....

Ups and downs

2007-10-09T08:52:00.000+01:00

Well, we always knew it was never going to be all “hullo birds, hullo sky” (as Fotherington-Thomas would say).

Long time readers may remember Smiley, our beautiful little buck who did so well for us when we showed him as a yearling last year, culminating with him winning Supreme Champion at The Royal Show. Sadly, ten days ago Smiley contracted tetanus and died.

I tell you, the guilt hits you like a hard punch to the stomach. I felt so responsible for his death – my train of thought being if we hadn’t brought the animals to France he wouldn’t have died. Rationally, there’s no point thinking like that, but it’s hard not to at the time. Tetanus was something that just wasn’t even on our radar in the UK – it just wasn’t something our animals were ever likely to contract. When we called the vet out I asked him if tetanus was a problem in the area. He said it wasn’t and that farmers here don’t routinely vaccinate sheep and goats against it. Horses and donkeys are vaccinated, but they are much more susceptible to it. The vet said they had the odd case from time to time in a sheep or goat but it isn’t very common.

So, it seems it’s just a case of bad luck, plus I think the fact that our goats don’t necessarily have the right level of resistance to what they’re going to face here. It wasn’t something I thought about before the move, but I guess it makes sense – after all, humans are affected by moving, and can pick up bugs etc so why should animals be any different? Thank goodness for the internet. Via a forum for people living in (and wanting to live in) France I’ve made contact with a number of people who have brought animals over, and one lady in particular who brought over angora goats. It seems we should expect them to pick up bacterial infections more easily, simply because the strains of bacteria here are slightly different and they have no resistance to them. I think that we are going to have to keep a careful eye on them, and vaccinate against things that we wouldn’t have vaccinated against in the UK. The new born kids will be especially vulnerable, until we have bred several generations on the farm and resistance has been built up by the mothers.

Still, things could be a lot worse. At least we aren’t staring foot and mouth or blue tongue in the face. Having gone through the 2001 F&M epidemic my heart really goes out to farmers in the UK at the moment. Life is generally tough enough for them without this being thrown into the mix.

In other news, my parents have been with us for the last two weeks which has caused stress of a different sort. Ideally, Eddie & I would have liked to have put off their first visit until next spring, for a number of reasons: having taken August off and now being in a very busy period for the firm I knew there was no way I would be able to take more time off before Christmas; we didn’t have a spare room fit for habitation, and with so much else to do Eddie could really have done without having to get that room renovated enough for us to be able to sleep people in it; since Eddie had to devote a lot of time at the outset to getting the house basically habitable for us, there is a huge amount of work still to do outside – chiefly fencing, since the only fence we had when we moved in was the boundary fence around the perimeter, so he is mad busy as well.

All in all not the ideal scenario for visiting relatives, and we really could have done with a bit of a breather, and not had any guests before next spring. However, as she had been going on and ON for months before we moved about coming over I knew that if I suggested that to my mum she would have been devastated. So, guilt well and truly piled on, we agreed for them to come over now.

Putting aside the awful oscillations between feeling guilty that I couldn’t spend more time with them, and anger that I was feeling guilty (ah the vicious circle of emotions the grown up “child” can go through!), two weeks was just too long. Not only because we actually live in a region that is pretty much 100% agriculture and nothing else and in French terms is geographically the middle of nowhere and there is NOTHING to do (and no matter how much I told my parents that they WOULD NOT believe me – until a few days after they arrived when they realised they had two weeks of BOREDOM ahead of them), but also because the week before they came over with me I was in the UK, and now I’m back in the UK for a week, so I feel like by the time I get home again on Friday I won’t have seen Eddie properly for a MONTH!

So, the last two weeks have been a bit pants, one way or another.

But what about the ups? Well, the glorious weather for one. Warm sunny days where that fierce heat of summer has given way to a more mellow warmth which still tops the high 70s during the day, coupled with balmy nights when the tree frogs serenade us as we sit on our covered terrace after the parents have gone to bed, snatching a precious hour or so together.

If we were still in the UK the goats would have been in for the winter for a couple of weeks by now, so every day they continue to be out is a bonus for us. We still have plenty of grass after the unusually wet summer, and whilst the warmth continues it will keep growing. Goats out = far less work, so that’s a definite up.

Horse riding – something I haven’t done since I had my own pony in my teens. Now I go riding with Fran on a Friday. Ambling round the lanes and over the fields for a couple of hours is just wonderful.

And last but not least, who could stay down for long when this is the view from their back garden that greets them in the morning??

Cosmo

2007-09-16T15:22:00.001+01:00

I mentioned in an earlier posting that during all the shenanigans surrounding our move we agreed to take Mr S’s dog – under duress. It was not that we had anything against the dog, we had met him a couple of times when we had viewed the farm, and he was slightly distant and aloof, it was simply that we were worried that if he didn’t get on with Ben & Sam we would then be left with the problem of trying to rehome an old, enormous dog.

Anyway, due to a combination of severe emotional blackmail and the fact that when it comes to animals we have the breaking strain of a Kit Kat, we found ourselves with a new addition to our family: Cosmo.

Cosmo is a Pyrenean Mountain dog. Imagine a small Shetland pony, and that’s pretty near the mark. He is 10 and has lived all his life on the farm. At first, after the sale had eventually gone through and we had moved in, the best way I could describe him is “depressed”, and we thought at first that he was missing Mr S. Since then we have learned that Cosmo was often left on his own at the farm for weeks on end. Sometimes a neighbour would come by to feed him once a day, but often Mr S just left him a couple of kilos of food to see him through.

We feed our dogs morning and evening, and that was the routine we wanted for Cosmo. At first, every time I fed him he would leave a lot of the food – I think this was because he had got so used to being on his own, and didn’t know how long the food was supposed to last him, he daren’t eat it all. Thankfully, he has now worked out that he will ALWAYS be fed twice a day – in fact if we’re a bit late in feeding him he will come and bark as if to remind us.

When we moved in Cosmo was a matted ball of fur. I discovered that he LOVES to be brushed: no wonder – he must have been so uncomfortable – so I gradually removed all the knots and burrs and other assorted crap, and then Eddie gave him a haircut.

As for Ben & Sam, there were a few tussles to begin with as Cosmo and Sam tried to work out who was going to be top dog (poor Ben is always going to be bottom of any pecking order he is so easy going), with the end result that Cosmo IS top dog, but he is happy most of the time to let Sam think he is.

Cosmo is a totally different dog to the one we inherited six weeks ago. He is loving and so gentle – a real gentle giant. Now, rather than spending all day in the barn, as he used to, he spends his days outside with us, or patrolling his territory. He even plays with us from time to time. He is an outdoor dog – we have tried to get him to come into the house, but he won’t (that may be no bad thing - I dread to think of the damage he could accidentally do with his hulking great bod). Maybe that will change when the weather gets colder, but he’s obviously bred to withstand the cold.

In short, we are very glad to have him. This breed is not long lived – I think 11 or 12 would be a good age, and he already has some problems with his back legs getting stiff, but for however long he has left we will do our best to make him know that he is loved and wanted.

Cosmo was not all we inherited when we bought the farm

We have a cockerel and 4 hens (one missing from photo!). One hen we only found after we moved in, when we discovered her in one of the stables sitting on eggs. A week later she hatched 5 chicks. Unfortunately two were killed by rats, so we have moved them all to a rat proof house, and put down copious amounts of poison in the outbuildings. One of the other hens had a single chick when we arrived – we’re not sure yet if this is a hen or a cockerel.

Apologies for the lack of photos in the last few posts. Here are some pictures of our new home.

View from bucks paddock up to the village

View from paddock above house across towards the Pyrenees

View from paddock above house looking back to the house

House and barns

House and barns

Diary of a move: Part 3 - Settling in

2007-09-02T15:53:00.000+01:00

Saturday 4^th August dawns bright and sunny again, and for the first time we can have a good look at what we’ve bought. There is so much work to do. Putting aside the structural work, and the renovation of the parts of the house that are to a greater or lesser extent uninhabitable, Mr S has left an incredible amount of crap behind – old furniture, clothes, disgusting mattresses covered in bat droppings, stacks of kitchen utensils, a fridge full of dodgy looking items in varying states of decay. The house is filthy. But it’s ours.

The only thing to do is make a start somewhere, so I attack the kitchen while Eddie clears the lounge so we can move our camp beds out of the barn and into the house. As all of the habitable rooms need a good clean, and a fresh coat of paint as an interim measure, and as several window panes are missing in the bedroom, the lounge will have to be the Centre of Operations to begin with.

We make good progress in the morning, and after a trip to the supermarket to get some basic provisions, and a leisurely lunch in the sunshine, we have just got going again when we hear a vehicle coming up the drive. It’s a tractor, driven by our new neighbour who owns the vineyard next door. He has come to introduce himself and explain that he plans to collect the hay bales from the fields the following week. He has a pretty strong Gascon accent but I manage to understand most of what he says. Needless to say, in such a small community, word of what has gone on in the previous week has reached him. He asks us about the animals and I offer to show them to him. He seems impressed – particularly by the sheep, which compared to the local French breeds around here do look pretty good.

I ask him if he would like a beer (stupid question!) and just as we’re getting to find out a bit about him, and tell him a bit about us we hear another vehicle coming up the driveway. It’s the gendarmes, a man and a woman. They get out of the car and ask me if I am Mme Gowen. Yes. Have we brought animals from England? Yes. Then I think he says that our animals are sick. No, I say, they’re not sick. No, he says, there is a “maladie en Angleterre”. What disease? I ask, but even as the words are leaving my mouth I know what he’s going to say. I don’t know, he says. Foot & Mouth? I ask. Yes, he says.

I feel sick. During the last outbreak we were living in Cornwall, and I worked in Devon, where most of my clients were farmers. Many of them lost their entire herd or flock and I saw sights and heard tales I never want to experience again. I can’t believe the disease has returned to the UK.

The gendarme asks me to show him on a map where we came from in England. He explains the outbreak is in Guildford – that’s a good couple of hundred miles from Bedford, but of course we don’t know the route the livestock lorry took. It’s highly unlikely they went through the area, but even so, it’s bloody worrying. The gendarme then makes a phone call, and explains to me that someone from the state veterinary service will be coming to inspect the animals. The gendarme also explains to our neighbour that it would be safest if he left. Great introduction to the community: “Hi, we’re Mr & Mrs Gowen and we might have brought foot & mouth to France!”

Within an hour the guy from the state veterinary service turns up with the local vet. They get out of the car, don protective overalls, hairnets, plastic bags over their shoes, and gloves. Life on Planet Gowen just took another detour into Surrealsville. They inspect the goats and sheep and tell us we are now under restrictions. The animals must not leave the barn. We must handle them as little as possible – just feed and water them but that’s it. We must wear protective clothing which must be taken off immediately after going into the barn, and we must set up a disinfection area. The dogs must not leave the farm. We should only make essential journeys. And so it goes on and on. To be fair they were both very pleasant, and only doing their job, but it made us feel as though there was something wrong with the animals even though we were sure there wasn’t.

After they had gone I rushed for my Blackberry and logged on to the BBC’s website. There it all was in black and white. Only time would tell if the disease would spread as it had in 2001.

Ok, l think that’s enough doom and gloom. Let’s fast forward a bit to today, 2^nd September. We’ve been in the house a month. The kitchen, lounge, bedroom and office have been scoured and given a fresh coat of white paint. The revolting bathroom fittings have been jettisoned and Eddie has fitted a brand new shower, basin and toilet. It has been scrubbed clean, painted and tiled. We have unpacked a good proportion of our belongings (though the barn still seems to have an awful lot of stuff in it) and it is so nice to have our things around us. The events of a month ago have dimmed and they’re no longer important.

Last Monday I returned to the UK for my first week back at work. It was a wrench to leave, but it’s the job that enables us to be here, and all in all it really wasn’t bad. The weather wasn’t great, but the time went quickly and just before midnight on Friday I was back home. While I was away, France Telecom activated our ADSL (apologies to those of you who have emailed me – I’m not ignoring you, just couldn’t actually access my emails until yesterday afternoon! I will reply soon, I promise!) which means working from home is a reality.

On the foot & mouth front, we had an inspection by the vet in the week following the outbreak, and then the following week, once we were well outside the incubation period, another state veterinary official came with the vet for another inspection. They verbally gave us the ok, but after checking with the powers that be rang to say that they needed to take blood samples from every animal, which they came back and did the same day. A week later, we officially got the all clear, in writing and our restrictions were lifted.

So, what’s life like here at A Pedemont? In a word, wonderful. We’ve had a few minor problems to cope with getting the various utilities sorted, and a troublesome boiler, but without exception everyone we have dealt with has been friendly, helpful, patient with my less than perfect French (though it’s a damn sight better than it was a month ago!) and efficient. Life definitely moves at a much slower pace here, yet things still get done. I’m sure there’ll be a few more curved balls headed our way, but after that first week I think, and hope, that we should be able to cope.

No knitting has been done, but perhaps that's no surprise! Now that we're settled though, the lure of the pointy sticks is starting to tempt me, so I think I'll be clickety clacking away again before too long.

As I write this I’m sitting under the shade of the umbrella at our garden table. It’s a balmy 78F with a gentle breeze. The angoras and the sheep are lying in the shade of the oak tree, happily chewing the cud. The pigmy goats are lying out in the full sun, which they love. In the distance I can see the faint outline of the Pyrenees in the heat haze. It’s all exactly how I imagined it would be.

We’ve come home.

Diary of a move: Part 2 - Arrival

2007-08-30T18:05:00.000+01:00

Sunday 29^th July – 11:30 p.m. Leave the Eurotunnel and hit the autoroute. Our game plan is to get past Paris before stopping, mainly because I’m dreading trying to negotiate my way round the city and would prefer to do it in the dead of night when there’s very little traffic around. However, Paris is nearly 4 hours away, and we’re not sure we can stay awake that long. With the combined help of The Kaiser Chiefs and Ross Noble we do manage to make it, and the navigation turns out to be a doddle (thank you AA Route Planner!).

Once we’ve cleared Paris we start looking out for a place to park up and eventually pull up at a rest area off the motorway about 3.30 a.m. Spotlessly clean toilets and wash basins.

Get the dogs out to let them stretch their legs then try and settle down for a few hours’ kip.

Monday 30^th July - 06:30 a.m. Finally give up the struggle to try and get some sleep. I’m cold, stiff and tired, but keen to get back on the road (easy for me to say. Eddie’s the one doing the driving!)

A quick wash and brush up and a coffee from the flask we brought with us and we set off. One of the great things about driving in France is the fantastic motorway network – we haven’t been on anything other than (empty) motorways since we left Calais, and about 95% of the entire journey will be motorway. We stop at the first service station we reach and grab a quick bite of breakfast. Next, a rest area where we can give the dogs a walk and give them their breakfast. So far they have been so good, happily settled in the car. They must be wondering what on earth is going on!

We’re quickly eating up the miles. Just before we leave the motorway network we stop at a service area to buy some lunch. Once we leave the motorway, the excitement starts to build. Here we are in rural France, just a couple of hours from “home”. We stop in a small village, by a river and eat our lunch in the shade of the trees. We take the dogs for a well deserved walk along the river bank then its all back in the car for the final leg.

We are staying the night at the b&b we have stayed at each time we have visited. F & R have guests but have kindly offered us their spare room and a hot meal. We arrive about 5 p.m. and after a quick beer and catch up we head off to the house to meet E and Mr S.

Arrive at the house to find total chaos. Mr S is in the stages of moving out (thankfully) but looks to be a long way from finishing. He and E are having a flaming row about the dog. I try and explain to Mr S our situation and why we felt we couldn’t take the dog. Mr S seems to be in a highly emotional state, and when he grabs a kitchen knife and thrusts it at E telling her to “kill the dog” we step outside for a quick conflab. We agree we’ll have to agree to take the dog and just sort it out later, rehoming him if we have to.

As soon as we tell Mr S we’ll take the dog he immediately calms down. He says he will give us €400 for food for him. He then quite happily shows us where all the meters are, the stop cock, the gas tank (virtually empty by the way) and shows us the hay he has cut for us in the hayloft. There are quite a number of large round bales in the fields which have been cut for our neighbour and he will come and collect these shortly.

By the time we leave everything is much calmer and we’re all set for the appointment with the notaire at 9:30 next morning to sign the final contracts.

Back to F & R’s for a lovely evening of good food, and good company. Collapse into bed at about 11 and sleep like a log.

Tuesday 31^st July – 07:30 Wake feeling refreshed and excited. It’s finally here – the day we’ve been dreaming of for the last 5 years. It hardly seems real. F has made us a lovely breakfast and at 9:00 we set off for the short drive to the notaire’s office. We have to take the dogs with us as we have nowhere to leave them, but they are quite happy in the car and if it gets too hot we will just have to bring them into the notaire’s with us!

Arrive at Villecomtal and meet E and her husband G. Time for a quick coffee and G says he’ll keep an eye on the dogs while we’re at the notaire’s and will take them for a walk along the river.

Arrive at the notaire’s a few minutes before 9:30. It transpires that Mr S is already there, in a meeting with his lawyer, the notaire and his ex wife. They divorced 10 years ago and she has been waiting since then for him to sell the house to get her divorce settlement. In the interim, she took out a mortgage on the house to provide her with some cash and she is here to sign a document to agree to the mortgage being repaid. Unlike in English law, where the solicitor would simply pay off the mortgage with the sale proceeds, in France the borrower must agree in writing to this.

After about half an hour E goes to find out what’s happening from the notaire’s clerk. He says that there seems to be a slight problem in that the ex wife is refusing to sign the document. No real problem as legally she cannot refuse to sign it.

Time ticks on and eventually the notaire appears. He explains the ex wife has decided right at the eleventh hour that she will only sign if Mr S agrees to pay her more than the sum originally agreed from the sale of the house. The notaire assures us she has no legal right to do this.

More time passes. Mr S appears looking absolutely livid. As he passes us he spits out some invective in French about his ex wife.

11:30 and G turns up with the dogs in tow. He was expecting the signing to have been completed by now (as were we). We’re all a bit nonplussed by what’s going on. And so we wait, and we wait.

And so the day wears on. The notaire comes out periodically to update us (she still won’t sign); Mr S and his lawyer appear every so often for huddled conflabs. And we wait.

Eddie’s mobile rings. It’s the livestock haulier to say that due to their stopover on Sunday he has not had to stop so often en route and will be arriving this evening. Let’s just hope we own the farm by the time they arrive!

Finally at about 3:30 the notaire, Mr S and his lawyer appear. The ex wife has left, without signing. She categorically refuses to sign unless she gets more money. The notaire explains that she has no legal right to do this, but she has. Eddie asks what on earth we are supposed to do – the removal lorry is waiting at the house, the animals will be arriving this evening and we have to be at the farm to look after the animals. The notaire explains that an enforcement order can be obtained to force her to sign, though this might take “some weeks”. In the meantime, it may be possible for us to rent the house. Mr S is livid and trying to leave. Before he does, we manage to obtain his permission to unload the furniture (though not into the house) and that the animals can be unloaded when they arrive. As for us, well at least for tonight we’ll be sleeping in the barn with the animals (F & R have more guests arriving tonight and their house is full to bursting).

Eddie, me, E & G are all basically shell shocked, as is the notaire. He has never come across this situation and it seems to be almost as big a shock for him as it is for us.

For now, all we can do is go back to the farm and get the furniture unloaded as the lorry has to go straight back to the UK, wait for the animals and then see what tomorrow brings. I ring F (she and R have been on standby to help us unload the lorry) and explain what’s happening. She agrees they’ll meet us at the farm. We drive back almost in silence. It’s surreal, as though this is all happening to someone else, not us. This wasn’t how we’d imagined this day.

We get to the farm and we all get on with the unpacking. There’s no sign of Mr S. A few hours later and the lorry’s empty, all our worldly possessions are in the barn, F&R have gone home and it’s just us, the dogs and one hell of a huge mess.

Mr S returns. He sees the furniture in the barn and throws a complete wobbly. Yes, the guy is definitely a fruitcake. I ring E for some support and she and G arrive soon after. E & I try to calm Mr S down, and eventually he disappears into the house, appearing about 20 minutes later showered and changed (lucky him!), and he gets into his car and clears off.

E & G don’t want to leave us on our own but we assure them we’ll be fine. There’s nothing more we can do today so let’s just see what tomorrow brings. E & G leave.

Eddie and I sit on a bale of straw completely numb. Earlier Eddie had suggested we ring the livestock haulier and tell him to turn round and take the animals back, but we decided not to. Right now I need to see them so badly. They have become my lodestar, what represents normality in this nightmare we have found ourselves in. We try and eat something but neither of us can face food. And so we sit in the gathering dark, waiting for the animals to arrive.

11 p.m. The lorry arrives. The driver and his son reassure us that the animals are all fine and the driver suggests we give them some food and leave them on the lorry for the night as they are perfectly settled. Peering in at them through the slats in the sides of the lorry they do indeed seem to be remarkably calm so we agree it’s best to leave them where they are.

Midnight. We have set up the camp beds we use when we go to shows in the barn, and surrounded them by a little wall of straw bales so the dogs don’t go wandering off. As I climb into my sleeping bag I can’t imagine being able to get any sleep, but within minutes I’m out for the count. That’s shock for you.

Wednesday 1^st August – 06:30 a.m. Wake to a lovely sunrise. Things can’t be all bad on such a beautiful morning can they? Think of the positives: we have each other; we have French law on our side; the animals have arrived fit and well. Things could be worse.

Manage to sneak into the house to use the loo and have a wash before Mr S returns. He comes out to see us. He explains he is seeing his lawyer later on today, but he thinks the sale might be off. He refuses to countenance giving his ex wife any more money, and if the price of that is the sale not going through then so be it. I ask him if he realises that if he does that, under French law he has to pay us a considerable amount of compensation? He says he does. I just can’t figure this guy out, but in my less than perfect French I’m going to have to find a way of connecting with him. He needs to see us as real people in an awful situation over which we have no control, not just a couple of strangers he has no interest in.

Funnily enough, it’s the animals that provide the catalyst. The lorry pulls round to the barn to unload them, and as they come off the lorry his face actually lights up (he did used to farm sheep and cattle before he lost his leg in a car accident). As he watches them settling in he says wistfully “It’s good to see some life back in the place”. I cling on to that. There is a human being in there. I dredge all that French vocabulary lodged firmly at the back of my brain and I just start talking, asking him about when he farmed, what he did, what were his animals like, questioning, questioning, telling him about us, what we do, about the animals, their characters, their foibles. It seems to be working. He relaxes and I get a glimpse of what he really might be like when he’s not involved in his hateful battle with his ex wife. He shows me where there is a water tap and a hose, he offers his old troughs for us to use. He volunteers information and asks questions. I move on from the past to his future. What was he planning to do when he sold the farm to us? I figure if I get him to talk about it he might see that pulling out of the sale doesn’t just bugger up our plans, it affects him too. He tells me about his plans to go back to Germany and work with his carpenter brother in law. Maybe I’m making some progress.

9 a.m. E arrives with a bag of croissants and pastries for our breakfast. I could kiss her feet. The driver makes us coffee. The kindness of strangers.

By lunchtime the animals are settled in, the lorry has been washed down and they are off to pick up their next load. Mr S has left for his meeting with his lawyer. Once again it’s just us. One BIG positive to come out of the day so far is how settled and relaxed the animals are. You simply wouldn’t believe they have travelled 1,000 miles over 2 days. It’s as though they’ve always been here. The question is, how long WILL they be here? We discuss our options at this point in time:

1. Get back in touch with the removal firm and livestock haulier and organise going back to England

2. Stick it out here. If the sale falls through, find somewhere to rent, find somewhere to store the furniture, find land for the animals. Then start house hunting again.

I’m definitely in favour of option 2. I can’t bear the thought of going back, and feel we’ll be in a much better position house hunting if we’re here on the ground. My only problem is my job, but as long as we can rent a house with internet access I can make that work. We talk it through for a while, and agree it’s option 2. It feels good to have made a decision. We’ve got some control back over our lives, and it’s good to cling onto that even if at this precise moment in time we are just about in the deepest shit we’ve ever been in.

After lunch F arrives to see how we’re doing and we update her on where we are. She tells us to come round that evening for a shower and a meal and in the meantime she’ll get the jungle drums going. She’s sure that if necessary she can help us find somewhere to rent, somewhere to store the furniture and some land to rent for the animals. Not for the first time since this all kicked off I give thanks for these kind people around us who are there supporting us. They will never know how badly needed that support is right now.

About 4 p.m. Mr S returns. He’s smiling so something good must have come out of the meeting. He comes over to me and says he thinks he has good news. It is possible to get an enforcement order to make his ex wife sign the document. Then he just slips in “My wife wants an extra €17,000. Of course, if you were to agree to pay it we could sort this out very quickly”. I pretend not to have understood his French and smile sweetly at him, whilst thinking “You absolute bloody bastard. Why am I not surprised that we’re being asked to pay more money? Somehow I just knew that was coming”. I tell him I think it’s best that we all meet with the notaire to discuss matters the following day. I think he takes this to mean I’m agreeable to paying him more as he agrees straightaway. After telling Eddie of the conversation I ring E and tell her what’s happened. She is outraged. She gets straight on to the notaire and a meeting is arranged for 3:30 the following day. She rings Mr S and he agrees.

We get some stuff together and set off for F & R’s. Give them the latest news. It’s good to have someone other than each other to talk this over with. Maybe we should pay the extra if it means we can still buy the house? Alternatively we could refuse and take the consequences. Opinions and thoughts are bandied about for a while. F has various ideas about somewhere for us to rent, she offers her own land for the animals as a short term solution, and has found somewhere the furniture can be stored already. It’s an escape route. It’s an “if worst comes to worst” plan B. It takes some of the pressure off. It makes me want to weep with gratitude.

Then we both have a much wanted (and needed!) shower. Clean and changed into fresh clothes things don’t seem so bad and at least we have the meeting tomorrow when hopefully we can resolve things one way or another.

For the rest of the evening we don’t talk about the farm. We eat good food, drink good cheap wine and laugh, laugh, laugh. It’s JUST what we needed. At about 11 we head off back to the barn for a second night on the camp beds.

Thursday 2^nd August – 06:30 a.m. Another beautiful sunrise, another beautiful day. Once we’ve seen to the animals and been out to buy some food for lunch, we’re in a kind of limbo before the meeting this afternoon. We don’t want to leave the animals for any length of time so soon after the arrival, so we set up camping chairs in the shade by the barn. Mr S is around, but apart from saying good morning first thing he stays in the house. We discuss whether we should pay the extra money. God knows it would stick in my throat to do it, but we agree after some discussion that to get this farm that we have so fallen in love with we would agree to pay another €10,000. That’s our bottom line and if it’s not acceptable then the sale’s off and we’ll sue him for the compensation we’re entitled to under French law and we’ll find somewhere else. We agree we won’t go straight in with this offer, but see how the meeting develops.

Everyone arrives on time for the meeting, including E’s boss who’s been brought in as reinforcements. The notaire starts by advising us that he has been in touch with Mr S’s lawyer and it has been agreed that we can stay in the house rent free for a period of up to 4 months while they try and sort out the situation with the ex wife. On the face of it this might sound wonderful but the house is an absolute crap hole. The man has been living in worse conditions than an animal. There are panes of glass missing in the windows, it needs cleaning and redecorating, the bathroom is too grim to think about having to use it other than for as short a time as possible. I explain all this to E and say there’s no way we can rent the place, even if it is for free, and live in it in its current state. E explains this to the notaire. Mr S looks slightly bemused. Eddie asks if at the end of 4 months there is any guarantee the sale could proceed. The notaire says he can’t give that guarantee. We therefore reject option 1.

The notaire then explains what options are left:

1. Mr S pays his wife what she’s asking for, which apparently nets down to €10,000 and not the €17,000 he mentioned to me, and the sale proceeds

2. Both sides agree to walk away from the sale on a “no fault” basis

3. We don’t agree to walk away, Mr S refuses to pay his ex wife, the sale doesn’t proceed, and he then has to pay us €35,000 and E’s boss €17,000 in compensation. We would all have to sue him for this. The case is clear cut, but as he has no assets we would not get paid until such time as he sold the house.

We advise option 2 is not on.

The notaire and E’s boss try to talk some sense into Mr S. Clearly the most sensible route is for him to just pay the damn money to his ex wife, but he seems adamant that he won’t. Eddie, E & I leave the room and let the men try and get through to him.

When we go back into the room, the meeting has been going on over 3 hours and no progress appears to have been made. E’s boss then lays it on the line and tells Mr S that both he and we will pursue him for our compensation no matter how long it takes. The bastard then suggests we pay his ex wife. In spite of what we’d agreed before the meeting Eddie and I both immediately shout “Non!!!” and I then absolutely let rip at him (in no doubt poorly constructed French) telling him exactly what I think of him. He says he won’t pay his ex wife on principle. Eddie says his principles are worth Jack shit if he’s happy for US to pay her for him!

The notaire (who I have to say was just brilliant) calmly says “Mr S has asked Mr & Mrs Gowen to pay an additional €10,000. Mr & Mrs Gowen have refused. Mr & Mrs Gowen, thank you.”

By now we’ve just about had it and have come to terms with the sale not going through. Eddie explains that if this is the case then we will find somewhere for us, the animals and our furniture and asks Mr S if he will give us a few days to arrange this. Amazingly, after what I’d just said to him, he agrees. In fact he seems really quite happy. E, bless her heart, says we and the dogs can move in with her and G until we find somewhere to rent.

So, we get down to the nitty gritty of what happens now. The notaire again stresses to Mr S the financial consequences of his actions. Mr S confirms he understands. Eddie asks how we get the 10% deposit back that is held in the notaire’s account. The notaire explains that Mr S has to agree to our having this money back. Mr S agrees. Eddie says he wants that in writing now. Mr S agrees and takes pen and paper. Before he starts writing, he lets slip some snide comment to E that she forced him to sell the house too cheaply. E asks the notaire to ask Mr S if once he’s broken this contract he’s planning to put the house back on the market at a higher price. Mr S confirms that’s exactly what he intends to do. He’ll sell it for enough to pay us and E’s boss the compensation we’re owed, give his ex wife what she wants, and still have more in his own pocket. Both E and the notaire tell him he’s mad, the house is only worth what we’re paying for it. Mr S shrugs and gets ready to write. Then the notaire delivers the killer blow (who’d have thought a French government official could be so dramatic??):

“If you sign to confirm you are breaking the contract that makes you liable for the compensation payments. But you are NOT released from the contract – not ever. You cannot put the house back on the market at a higher price, and you cannot sell it to anyone else. You have signed a contract promising to sell the house to Mr & Mrs Gowen at the agreed price and you can only get out of that contract if they decide they don’t want to exercise their right to buy. So you would have to pay Mr & Mrs Gowen their compensation, but you would ALSO still have to sell the house to them at the agreed price”. In other words buster, you’re stuffed. Woo hoo for French property law.

There’s a stunned silence which seems to last forever. I can now say I truly know what someone looks like when they realise they’ve been backed into a corner and there’s no escape. As the reality of his situation slowly dawns on him, he finally says: “I will pay my wife”.

The notaire wastes no time in getting that in writing from him. He dictates to Mr S exactly what the wording should be. Eddie, E & I leave the room – this is an embarrassing climb down for the man and much as I’d like to give him a good slap I don’t really want to witness his humiliation.

We all go outside. To say relief is washing over me is an understatement.

After a decent interval, we go back in. Mr S has written out the wording and now his pen is literally hovering over the page as he fights whatever demons are battling within him. He must hate his wife pretty damn badly. We all stay absolutely silent. Finally, he signs. Then he flings down the pen and leaves.

The atmosphere in the room improves dramatically once he’s gone. It’s now 8 p.m. – I can’t believe we’ve been here nearly 5 hours! The notaire explains that he will get in touch with the ex wife this evening. He is hopeful that with this obstacle removed we will be able to sign the contracts tomorrow or Saturday.

I thank the notaire for both of us for all his hard work, and thank E and her boss. We have only been here a few days and we are already so indebted to so many people helping us with our situation. These people this evening have gone way beyond what their job descriptions demand of them.

We head back to the farm to see to the animals (a bit late!). We are feeling a mixture of elation and deep, deep relief. Eddie asks me if the ordeal has affected how I feel about the farm. I think about it for a minute and say, yes, it makes me love it even more because we’ve had to go through so much and fight so damn hard to get it.

When we get back to the farm there is no sign of Mr S. While we’re feeding the animals, E rings. The ex wife has signed her document and a meeting has been arranged for 5 p.m. the next day for the final signing. We’ve done it.

After we’ve fed the animals we walk up to the restaurant in the village. We are finally thinking that we can start to call this home.

Friday 3^rd August – When we get up Mr S has returned. We decide it’s probably best to keep out of his way today so after we’ve fed the animals we put the dogs in the car and head off. We go and buy something for lunch then drive to the local lake. We walk the dogs round the lake then find a shady spot. We spend the next few hours reading, dozing, and taking it easy.

E & G told us to come round to their place for a shower before the meeting so we go back to the farm after lunch to collect our stuff. When we arrive it is a hive of activity. Mr S is moving out. He comes over when he sees us and apologises for his behaviour the day before. He explains the bad history with his ex wife makes things difficult for him. Today, I can be magnanimous. I no longer have the urge to punch him, so I tell him it’s fine and we understand.

We go to E & G’s and have a lovely shower and a civilised cup of tea in the garden.

We arrive at the notaire’s and Mr S is already there. So is his ex wife. She has come in to sign something else to do with the extra money she is getting, which the notaire is explaining to her. This time, the clerk assures us, there are no problems. Nevertheless, time drags on and I can see Mr S starting to get more and more wound up. He obviously thinks she’s deliberately making him wait. Eventually the notaire appears and says he needs Mr S to go with him. The document that needs signing has to be signed, a copy by each of them, at the same time, in separate rooms. Mr S goes off. Another wait. This isn’t good. Signing a simple document should not be taking this long. The notaire appears. He looks seriously fed up. He SAYS he is seriously fed up. Mr S has a problem with the document because his lawyer hasn’t seen it and he doesn’t want to sign it until she does. The notaire has faxed her a copy and now Mr S is waiting for her to call back. Surprisingly, the notaire asks me to go and have a word with him! I go in softly, softly “Is there a problem Monsieur?” No, no problem he says, he just needs to talk to his lawyer, he might not be able to sign the document. I say what does he mean he might not sign it? He says it might be prejudicial to him. I then lose my temper with him. I tell him, no. Enough is enough. We’re not going through this bloody palaver again. I tell him he signs it soon or the deal’s off. He starts getting worked up again and I just walk out. I’ve just had enough of his bloody rollercoaster moods.

Eddie, E & I go outside to cool our heels. Eddie is getting really pissed off with the whole thing now and quite prepared to just walk away. Still, he says he’s hovering near the exit because there’s no way Mr S is leaving without signing what he would have signed the day before, even if he has to rugby tackle the bastard.

The notaire then suddenly appears. “It’s done” he says. “Come, we can sign now”.

Off we troop into his office. Mr S is there already. We take our seats and the notaire starts to read the contract to us. As the church bells ring 8 p.m. Mr S puts the first signature on the contract. Every page has to be signed and it takes some time for him to finish. As soon as the last page is signed he says “Can I go now?” The notaire say yes, and off he goes without another word. I did shout “Bonne chance” to him as he left though whether he heard I’ll never know.

The notaire made it quite clear he was glad to see the back of him. We started to sign and finally at 8:50 it was all done. The farm was ours.

I so wanted to give the notaire a big hug – I’m sure 9 out of 10 notaires would not have put in the effort he did to try and get the sale completed – but I wasn’t sure this would be appropriate behaviour. Still, I did manage a squeeze of his arm and a whispered “Thank you sooooo much”.

More effusive thanks to E and we set off HOME. Too late now to move in, but one more night in the barn won’t kill us. Strangely, after the elation of the day before, tonight we feel pretty deflated. I guess it was that last minute stress that took any joy out of the occasion. Still, no matter how we feel tonight, the farm is ours and tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of our lives.

You think that’s the end of the story?? Oh, no, there’s more to come. Third and final part to follow soon.

Diary of a move: Part 1 - Departure

2007-08-28T10:41:00.000+01:00

Monday 23^rd July – The countdown begins. Tasks for today: Go to bank to arrange cash transfer to currency exchange dealers for final payment to the notaire for the house purchase; go to vets to collect wormer and Frontline for the dogs; take load of rubbish to the tip; Pack!!! The house needs to have all our belongings moved into one of the barns ready for loading on Sunday.

10 a.m and ready to set off for Bedford. The left hand drive Landrover Discovery we have bought to take to France won’t start – flat battery. Slightly worrying as the car had a full service at the Landrover garage in Bedford last Friday. Eddie phones the garage and they send someone out who confirms battery is flat (duh), and jump starts it. He thinks the interior light may have been accidentally left on.

Finally set off for Bedford at 11:30. Eddie drops me at the bank while he goes to the tip. Wait in bank to see one of the Personal Bankers. After half an hour am finally introduced to a lad who looks no more than 14. Explain I need to make electronic payment to currency dealers (who also bank with my bank so the transaction should be pretty straightforward). The 14 year old takes the details, which seems to take forever, and assures me the payment will be made today. Am not filled with confidence.

Eddie arrives at bank having parked the car, which we return to to go on to the vets. Car won’t start. Flat battery. Eddie walks to nearest Halfords to buy jump leads then flags down a motorist in the car park to give us a jump start. Decide to go to Landrover garage and get new battery. Wait an hour in garage for new battery to be fitted.

Go to vets. Eddie leaves engine running while I collect the stuff for the dogs.

Arrive home at just before 5 p.m. After seeing to the animals not much time left to pack. Still, we have all day tomorrow.....

Tuesday 24^th July – 9:30 a.m. Currency dealers phone to say they haven’t received payment. Try to ring bank but can’t get through. No choice but to go back into bank. After another wait the 14 year old appears. My money appears to have been lost in their system somewhere. An hour and a half later and they have managed to track it down. 14 year old assures us the transfer will be done today but based on his record so far we are not inclined to believe him. Ask to see someone higher up the food chain. 14 year old looks worried but Eddie makes it clear we’re not going anywhere until we do. After another long wait the branch manager appears. She at least has the decency to apologise and then spends the next hour hassling people to get the transfer done. 2:30 p.m transfer is complete. More precious hours wasted, but we do at least get home in time to make a start on the packing.

4 p.m – phone call from vets. They still haven’t received our export licence from DEFRA which we need to take the animals to France. Eddie phones DEFRA. They advise they are still waiting for the route plan from the livestock haulier. Eddie phones livestock haulier. His wife advises he is in Romania, due back this evening, and will fax it to DEFRA as soon as he gets back. Eddie calls DEFRA back to advise them.

Pack until too tired to do anymore.

Wednesday 25^th July – The day starts well. DEFRA confirm they have received the route plan and are issuing the export licence to our vet, who will come and inspect the animals on Saturday and complete their part of the paperwork.

Manage to get a lot more of the packing done. No furniture left in the lounge or the bedrooms, and from now until we leave we’ll be sleeping on camp beds in the kitchen, but feel we are at last making progress.

5 p.m – Our estate agent in France, E, calls. She has been trying to get hold of the vendor, Mr S, to arrange for us to go to the house on Monday 30th (the day before we sign the final contract), in the evening, so he can show us things like where the water and electricity meters are, where the water stop cock is, etc etc. Turns out Mr S (who is German and moving back to Germany) is currently in Germany and wasn’t planning to return until Monday 30^th. For some bizarre reason he didn’t think that when the sale completed that meant he had to have moved out and we would be moving in – he was planning to move out a week later! E has told him in no uncertain terms that he needs to have all his stuff moved out before contract is signed on the 31^st. Another slight problem – Mr S owns a Pyrenean Mountain dog, old and not looking in the best of health. When we first had our offer accepted he asked E to ask us if we wanted the dog as he had spent all his life on the farm. We did think about it seriously but decided that we couldn’t take the risk that he might not get on with our dogs, and felt that the upheaval for our dogs was enough for them to cope with without having a strange dog thrown into the mix, so we had told him that we were sorry but we couldn’t take him. At that time we were told this was not a problem as Mr S would be able to rehome him. E now tells us that Mr S has done nothing about trying to rehome him and is assuming we will take him. Tell E this is not really fair on us and he must find an alternative solution before we get there.

Continue working on the packing until collapse in heap.

Thursday 26^th July – my last day in the office before the move, so a relatively calm day for me. Not so for Eddie. He gets a call in the morning from DEFRA who advise that the vet in our practice who is going to do the inspection on Saturday is not on their approved list. The only vets in the practice who are on their list are both out of the country on holiday. A frantic morning of phone calls ensues, and finally the vets manage to find someone in a practice in Wellingborough who is approved and can do the inspection on Saturday.

In the afternoon Eddie gets all the animals into the barn where they will now stay until they are loaded onto the lorry on Sunday morning. He notices that one of the lambs has lost fleece along her back and has some nasty scabs. Could be a simple skin infection, but worst case scenario is that it could be sheep scab, which although no longer a notifiable disease, is nevertheless highly contagious and would scupper our export to France. Eddie arranges for vet to visit on Friday.

Eddie picks me up from the station and fills me in on the day’s events. Thankful a vet has been found, but very worried about the lamb.

Get home and get straight on with the packing. We stop to eat at about 10, and then Eddie starts cleaning all the carpets with the machine he hired for the day. Finally crash out on the camp beds about 2 a.m.

Friday 27^th July – Today is our last chance to get the packing finished. I have just a few loose ends to deal with – emails etc, but when I try to connect to the internet am unable to do so. Weird as Eddie has arranged with BT that the phone and internet connection will be switched off at 6 p.m today. Ring BT and spend a frustrating hour being passed from one department to another only to finally discover that they turned off the broadband at midnight on Thursday! Make my feelings known to BT who offer £20 compensation, but really give the impression they could not care less.

Vet arrives to examine lamb. We discuss with her the likelihood that it is sheep scab. As we are a closed flock and there have been no cases in the area in the time we have lived here we all agree it is highly unlikely, but she feels it looks similar enough that she feels she should take a sample for testing. My concern is that even if it isn’t sheep scab, if a vet spots her on one of the various inspections they will go through on their journey they might, like our vet, think it looks similar enough to sheep scab to be a possibility. It could cause huge problems and at worst the animals could all be turned back. The vet agrees this is a risk and after further discussion we come to the sad conclusion that we just can’t take the chance of putting her on the lorry. We can’t risk all the animals being refused entry into France, or turned back at an inspection point. Our only option is to cull her. It’s an awful decision to have to make but the vet agrees it is the wisest course of action under the circumstances. I phone the local hunt who come out straightaway to shoot her. The vet phones later to say the samples she tested were negative for sheep scab. So, as we suspected, we killed a healthy animal. We feel absolutely dreadful about it but we really had no choice.

The house is now empty except for two camp beds, a kettle, a few bits of crockery and a fridge. We go round to our neighbours for a farewell supper – it’s good to get a break from things for a few hours.

Saturday 28^th July – Tasks for today: worm all the sheep and goats and drench them for protection against blue tongue (not a problem in England or in the area we are moving to, but they may pass through an area in France that does have it and it is best they are protected) before the vet arrives at 1 p.m. Things going well and we are working our way through the goats when Eddie’s mobile rings. It’s the livestock haulier. The lorry was booked on the Sunday evening ferry but he has just heard that they have been “booted off” (this apparently happens quite a lot – the ferry company gets last minute bookings for more cars or coaches – which pay a lot more than a lorry – and they just cancel the lorry’s booking). The livestock haulier says he will now have to collect the goats and sheep on Monday instead of Sunday. Eddie nearly has heart attack. Explains this isn’t possible as we have to move out on Sunday. Thankfully livestock haulier advises he can collect the animals as originally planned and take them back to his depot which is a DEFRA approved staging post and they can stay there Sunday night and get the ferry on Monday. Originally, if they had got the Sunday ferry they would have arrived at the house on Wednesday, now they won’t arrive until Thursday. Still, once again we have no choice and at least it will give us a bit more time to get the barns ready for them.

Vet arrives at 1 p.m and THANKFULLY the inspection goes without a hitch and he is able to complete the export licence stating the animals are all fit and healthy and can travel.

Spend the afternoon sorting out stuff in the barn, and cleaning house. We’re ready to go.

Sunday 29^th July – Early start to get animals fed and dogs walked before removal lorry arrives. Lorry arrives at 8 with the driver Dave and his grandson who is spending his school holidays going on trips with his grandad. Two lads from the village, who’ve been hired to provide much needed muscle, also arrive. We all set to, and everything is packed and ready to go by 1 p.m, just as the livestock lorry arrives. Perfect timing. The removal lorry sets off. We’ll next see them on Tuesday afternoon, after we’ve completed the house purchase.

Livestock haulier gets lorry in position to load the animals. Boy is it posh! Feeders, automatic drinkers, air conditioning (controlled by a computer in the cab which constantly shows the temperature in the lorry). Am feeling much happier about their journey. We chose this firm because they specialise in transporting top quality breeding livestock and have a reputation for looking after them well, and I know we made the right choice. The driver is lovely, and explains that he won’t be taking them to France but the guy that will be is very experienced and will really look after them.

We get them loaded quite easily. A few of them seem a little uneasy but the driver assures me they’ll be fine.

2:30 p.m – the animals have left and now it’s just us and the dogs. It seems really weird, wandering round the empty barns.

We take the dogs for a final walk round the fields. Strange to think we’ll not do this again.

Then it’s time for a quick shower and pack the car. 4:30 pm we leave Langcroft Farm for the last time. Hit the motorway and head south. Arrive at the Eurotunnel port at about 8 p.m. We’re booked on the 9:30 and were hoping we could get on an earlier crossing but they’re running late. We finally board at about 10. How spooky to be sat in a car on a “train” hurtling miles under the sea. 35 minutes later and we reach Calais, local time 11:30 p.m. It’s been a hell of a week, but we are finally on French soil.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment......

Back - briefly

2007-07-15T10:01:00.000+01:00

Crikey, I can't quite believe that 2 and a half months have gone by since I last posted! As you can imagine, things have been pretty busy.

So, here we are with just two weeks to go. We're making good progress and the only two major things that are still outstanding are the export licence for the animals (DEFRA are waiting on the route plan from the livestock haulier and he is currently in Romania) and confirmation from the notaire that everything is ready for us to complete the purchase on the 31st. I really hope there are no last minute hiccups from either of these - everything is organised for us to leave here on the 29th and I just can't bring myself to think about what we do if the date has to be moved. Staying positive for now though, and fingers crossed these two things will be sorted this week.

I think it's fair to say that we pretty much think about nothing but the move at the moment. Eddie has to go off to Chester this afternoon for his final "proper" job and he's been finding it very difficult to turn his attention to that when there is so much going on here. Still, from this Thursday on he'll be able to devote all his time to the move.

I hope I'll be able to make one last post before we go, but if not I'll be back once we're there and have sorted out our internet connection. After the 28th I may not be able to read your blogs and leave comments but I'll catch up with you all as soon as I can!

Yarn for sale

2007-05-22T08:50:00.000+01:00

Thanks so much for all the comments and good wishes. Things are pretty exciting (and scary!) at the moment!

Some of you have expressed an interest in our yarn. I've listed some of it on eBay, and you can see it here and here.

Exciting news!

2007-05-07T12:37:00.000+01:00

So much to tell you, where to begin?

Let's start with the knitting. The top down cardigan is finished and it turned out exactly how I imagined it would (how often does that happen??)

It fits perfectly, the yarn is soft, I just love it. I'm really impressed with the Knitting Pure & Simple patterns - this is the third one I've knitted and each one has been very well written and turned out beautifully. Definitely a pattern I would knit again, and would also definitely use the Sublime yarn again.

Ok, on to the exciting news.

What happens when a dream becomes a reality? When something you've hoped for, wished for, planned for, for years is suddenly there, within your grasp? Well, we're about to find out, because in just under 13 weeks (gulp) we are moving to France.

Regular readers will remember that we went on a house hunting trip back in January, and fell in love with a small farm which was waaaay out of our price range. The agent advised us to make an offer as the owners have divorced and were keen to sell, so we offered our maximum price (25% below the asking price!) and amazingly, it was accepted! We signed the initial contracts at the end of March, and we complete the sale on 31st July. So, may I present to you A Pedemont.

The house

The barns

The lake

The view from the back of the house to the village

The view from the village to the house

As you can see, the house is perched on top of a small hill, surrounded by its own land (14 hectares). The view from the front of the house is a simply stunning panorama of the Pyrenees - so beautiful it makes me cry. So far I have singularly failed to photograph the view as the only time the mountains weren't obscured by either cloud or a heat haze I didn't have the camera with me :(

The house is a 10 minute stroll from the village of Beaumarches - a really pretty medieval village, and only a 5 minute drive from the b&b we have been staying at each time we've visited. The owners Fran & Richard have become friends and I'm so glad that we have ended up being nearby.

Ten minutes drive away is the nearest small town, Marciac, a beautiful bastide town renowned for its international jazz festival.

The house is, shall we say, a "project". It is habitable (it has electricty, gas, water, heating) but is only partly renovated. There is sooooo much work to do on it. Still, we really don't care. We can live with it how it is and we will gradually do the work as we can afford it. We think it will probably take us about 3 years. One thing I am absolutely sure of is it will be beautiful when it is finished, and the location is just so stunning. It was the location that really sold it to us - the views, within walking distance of a village, and in exactly the part of Gascony we wanted to live. Only an hour from the airport so easy for me to commute back to the UK (I will be splitting my time between France and the UK working 2 weeks in France then a week in London). Even better, Eddie will be able to give up his conference work and concentrate solely on the farm. I think the goats and sheep will love it - the land is all really good grazing, and full of wild flowers and herbs.

We have to keep pinching ourselves - we can't believe that after so long our dream is finally coming true. We went over last week for a few days and it was great to see the house again - although not quite so great to be reminded of how much work there is!

The next 13 weeks are going to be a blur - so much to organise, not just to move us but all the animals as well. Still, one step at a time.

Oh, and on Friday 27th April, we got married ;)

What have I been up to?

2007-04-15T11:18:00.000+01:00

It seems an awful long time since I posted about any knitting, so here’s a swift recap of what I’ve been up to lately.

I finished the lace scarf with the beautiful alpaca handspun which Caroline sent me

I’m delighted with the end result. A lovely soft, but light scarf.

I whipped up a quick cropped cardigan (Blue Sky Alpacas pattern) in Garnstudio Drops Alpaca. Fabulous yarn and great service. This is the first time I’ve ordered from Garnstudio and knit their yarn. Brilliant on both counts. The cardigan fits great, and was a very fast knit. I can see me getting good use out of this.

I knit an entire sweater in Jo Sharp Silk Road double knit but was very disappointed with the end result, so that’s been frogged and consigned to the stash. I do have another pattern in mind for it though. Loved the yarn, just not the pattern.

On the needles at the moment is a top down cardigan (Knitting Pure and Simple pattern) in Sublime Cashmere Merino. I bought this double knit yarn at the Knitting & Stitching show last year. It’s beautifully soft and lovely to knit with. I have high hopes for this as a useful cardigan for those cool summer evenings.

An exciting event last Friday - our yarn finally came back from Woolcount! I’m so proud of our goats – they made beautiful yarn! We have 17.5 kgs of 80% kid, 20% silk – it’s a 4 ply yarn and oh so soft!

Plus 16.5 kgs of a double knit yarn 80% kid, 20% merino. Again, beautifully soft.

I’m glad we chose to use the first clip kid. We always knew our goats produced very fine fleeces and it’s so gratifying to see such beautiful end results. Now I just have to work out how I’m going to sell it all ;)

Over Easter we got all the goats and sheep out, so it finally feels as though winter is over. We’ve been having a fabulous spell of weather lately and it’s lovely to see them all out enjoying the spring sunshine.

MIA

2007-03-18T10:41:00.000Z

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF A GOAT GIVING BIRTH

Where did the last 3 weeks go?

The last doe kidded on Thursday afternoon, and bang on cue the first lambs were born 2 a.m on Friday morning! So, no rest for us then. Eddie is pretty exhausted, as he’s already had several weeks of not enough sleep, and now he gets no more than 2 or 3 hours at a stretch. Still, at least we only have to go through this for a few weeks. I have nothing but amazed admiration for parents with babies and young children – how do they do it??

Kidding has gone well. Apart from losing one of Holly’s twins, we just had one other stillborn. We have 22 healthy bouncy kids, and Holly’s daughter, Hollyberry successfully gave birth to twins, both of whom are doing fine.

The kidding pens have been taken down, just leaving a pen which only the kids have access to which will be their creep area, where they will be fed food for little people which the mums can’t get to, and there are heat lamps in case they get cold.

There’s still a lot of “eat, sleep, poop” going on, but they’ve now added PLAY!!!! to the mix.

Here are a few photos I’ve taken in the last couple of weeks.

Butting is a favourite game, especially amongst the boys

But climbing on Mum is the best game. The poor things, they get no peace during playtime!

Then it's time for a rest

They've made a den behind the feed troughs where groups of them like to curl up together and sleep

I did manage to take some photos of one of the goats giving birth. Not as detailed a step by step as I’d hoped but it all happened quite quickly.

The first stage is the water bag appearing

Then the kid appears in its birth sac. Eddie had to lend a hand here (that's 2 front legs and the nose/mouth you can see)

After clearing the kid's nose and mouth of gunk, and checking it's breathing properly, Eddie gives the kid to Mum and she cleans him up

Eddie helps the kid have its first drink

And last but not least, a couple of photos of the new lambs.

There has been some knitting going on, but that will have to wait until the next post…..

New borns!

2007-02-28T08:45:00.000Z

Typically, within a couple of hours of posting here on Sunday we had our first kidding. Of course by then I'd put the camera batteries on charge so couldn't take any photos, and with being in London on Monday didn't get a chance to take any until yesterday.

Anyway, meet Harry

Harry was one of twins, but unfortunately his brother was born dead (not a great start to the kidding season). His mum Holly has kidded 3 times now. Each year she has twins and each year only one survives. It's such a shame as she is one of our best goats, and she produces really good kids - which is the only reason we have kept putting her in kid. Her first born, Hollyberry, will be kidding for the first time this year so it will be interesting to see if she has similar problems. Fingers crossed it isn't a genetic trait she will have passed on.

On Monday Mally had twins, a boy and a girl

(These two are under a heat lamp with a white bulb, Harry's is red, in case you were wondering).

Not the most exciting pictures, but in the first few days life consists of just "poop, eat, sleep". Soon they'll be skipping about and at least Harry will have some playmates.

Sunshine in my hands

2007-02-25T13:21:00.000Z

I finally finished knitting the alpaca / silk shawl and it's now blocking

I immediately cast on for one of the scarf patterns in Victorian Lace Today in the alpaca yarn Caroline sent me

Unfortunately, I don't think any photo could accurately capture the beauty of this yarn. Each time I look down at my knitting the colours delight me all over again. You know how something looks if you hold it so that the sun shines right on it? That's what this yarn looks like. I know Caroline had been aiming for darker shades of the colours, and when I gave her my chosen colours I had expected darker shades too, but I'm so glad it turned out lighter. I swear the yarn is infused with sunshine. The alpaca is soft and will make a lovely warm scarf, and the colours will bring a zing of colour into the gloomiest winter's day.

Still no kids yet, but Eddie's pretty sure some will be born this week. I certainly hope so as some of the poor does look pretty uncomfortable!

I won a prize!!

2007-02-11T11:16:00.000Z

I was fortunate enough to make the 100th comment on Caroline’s blog, and yesterday I received my prize

This is 450 yards of alpaca, which Caroline spun and dyed herself. What a talented lady! Isn't it beautiful? I gave her some pointers on the colours I liked (autumn colours - reds, greens, mustards, browns) and she got it absolutely spot on. The yarn is soft and fine, but not too fine (I find lace weight yarn scary) – it will make a wonderful lace scarf and I already know what I am going to knit with it. I’m itching to get started but first I must finish this

Doesn't lace knitting look awful while it's in progress? I'm hoping the wonders of blocking will transform this!

This is a shawl from Victorian Lace Today (again), which I’m knitting in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK. The above represents a week’s knitting – I’m only managing a couple of pattern repeats each evening, with a little more at weekends. I need the finished shawl to be about 6’6” so I think I have another couple of weeks until I’ll be finished. Mind you, I am getting quicker as the pattern gradually melds itself into my brain. It’s not a difficult pattern – in fact with the odd exception (clearly labelled with the warning sign “Experienced Lace”), most of the patterns in this book are pretty straightforward. That, however, hasn’t stopped me from having knit and frogged several patterns several times. I finally worked out what my problem was – I have to admit defeat and accept that I cannot follow a chart. It all seems so simple, and I merrily knit away but sooner or later I end up missing a yarn over or half a repeat and before I know it all I’ve got is a fugly mess. You won’t believe how long it took me to work this out. At least a week’s worth of precious knitting time lost before the light bulb went on, I wrote out the pattern rows and lo and behold, problem solved.

I have no idea why I should be so crap at dealing with charts – but I do know that generally I’m a word rather than a picture person. Give me any kind of report and it’s the words that explain it to me, not the charts or graphs. So why should I really expect knitting to be any different?

The pattern in the book has a border knitted on after the main body of the shawl is finished. I won’t be adding a border for the following reasons:

1. The thought of adding a knitted border scares the bejesus out of me
2. I’m after a finished item much like Cozy – my first foray into lace knitting and a shawl I love with a passion
3. The thought of adding a knitted border scares the bejesus out of me
4. I don’t want to add any further delay to when I can start knitting Caroline’s yarn
5. The thought of adding a knitted border scares the bejesus out of me

So, there’ll be no knitted on border.

On the farm front, no births yet, but we really can’t be too far off as some of the mums-to-be now have quite noticeable udders. It’s when these look like they’re about to explode that we know the kids will soon be here. This year I really want to try and photographically document the whole birthing process. That might sound a little odd, but I know it’s something I would have found immensely useful when we started out. We acquired 9 heavily pregnant does in mid December and they started kidding at the end of the following January. We had no idea what to expect – beyond the real basics, obviously – and we practically lived in the barn for the couple of weeks it took them all to kid, terrified to leave them alone. We’re much more blasé about the whole thing now. We know that the time between when the doe first starts wandering around, “nesting” and talking softly to her unborn children, and the actual birth can be several hours, and our presence really isn’t required throughout. We’re much better now at just popping in and out of the barn to check on them, and knowing when we need to hang around. So, I’m going to attempt to document the process, with words and pictures. I like to think of it as my contribution to the wonder that is the world wide web ;)

You have been warned!

Getting back into the swing of things

2007-01-28T13:44:00.000Z

With Christmas & New Year being closely followed by our trip to France, it is only now, the end of January that I finally feel as though life has got back into its normal.

There has been knitting. I even have an FO to show you! I was lucky enough to receive Victorian Lace Today from my parents for Christmas. Despite the fact that the book’s patterns consist entirely of Victorian lace patterns, the shawl and scarf patterns are very contemporary, and many are simply breathtakingly beautiful. All of the shawl patterns feature knitted on borders – something I have never tackled before. I decided to start with a simple lace scarf, unimaginatively titled “Scarf”. Even though the lace pattern is very straightforward, it involved a new technique for me. Basically you cast on and knit the first border (sideways), then bind off (all bar one stitch), turn the work and pick up stitches along one edge. Then you knit the main part of the scarf, then cast on stitches for the border at the other end, and knit the border whilst at the same time knitting off the stitches for the main part of the scarf. I’ve made that sound horribly more complicated than it actually is – really it’s pretty straightforward.

I’m determined to overcome my irrational fear of charts so am forcing myself to use the charts in the book (this is helped by the fact that the patterns are not given in any other format!).

Anyway, here is the finished “Scarf” pre-blocking

The yarn is the Handmaiden Sea Silk in shade Lily Pond which I frogged from the previous scarf I was knitting with it. The yarn stood up very well to being frogged. I used 5mm Addi Turbos and the whole thing took about 12 evenings to knit.

It actually looks very nice as it is, but I think blocking will really help the pattern to stand out.

Those photos suck. I'm really not sure how best to photograph lace. Outside shots of shawls artfully draped to display the lace pattern work well (though outside shots are not really an option here at the moment!), but scarves, being so much narrower, seem so much more difficult to photograph well.

I’ve already cast on for another scarf pattern from the book, so it looks as though the lace bug has bitten me!

The goats were all sheared a couple of weeks ago, which has given us the chance to have a good look at the does in kid and see how they are doing (impossible to tell when they are in full fleece!). Thankfully they all look very well, and all 14 have the tell tale rounded tummies.

They now spend a lot of their time doing this (they always make me think of galleons in full sail!)

And who can blame them when they’re lugging this extra weight around?

Kidding should start anytime from the middle of next month. Yesterday we got the pregnant ewes in so that we can start feeding them up ready for lambing in mid March. A busy few months ahead!

A (belated) Happy New Year

2007-01-14T13:42:00.000Z

We got back from France on Friday evening. It was a very interesting trip. Over the course of 4 days we viewed 10 properties and drove many miles. The weather was fantastic – low 60s and sunny the whole time – though people were forever telling us this wasn’t normal for January!

Highlights of the trip:

The cattle farm we viewed. Very typical French farm run by two brothers who looked to be in their 60s, in the middle of nowhere. The brother who showed us round had got married just a few days earlier to a Russian lady who spoke no French, who he’d found via the wonders of the www, having been unable to find a French bride. Dad also lived on the farm, and was 93. He slept in a room opposite the kitchen, which was full of general assorted crap, in a bed next to the deep freeze. With great pride, one of the brothers flung open a door from the kitchen to reveal a huge cow’s arse. The kitchen led directly into the cowshed, for ease of access during bad weather / late night calvings.

The house in the hills near Isle en Dodon. The elderly owner was born in the house and his parents had lived there until they died. His mother had died 2 years ago, and although the house had not been lived in since then, it was still full of his parents’ furniture, and the walls were covered with old black and white photos of the family, going back to the 1940s. The house was pretty much uninhabitable, but with time and money spent on it could be so beautiful. It faced towards the Pyrenees and when I flung open the shutters in one of the bedrooms the view made me cry. It was that breathtaking.

The goat farm. Again we were showed round by the owner, an elderly lady who had run the farm with her husband until he died. Unfortunately they have a lazy bastard for a son who now lives in the house and does sod all, all day. The goats have been sold and the farm and house have gone to rack and ruin. I felt so sorry for the woman who was clearly very embarrassed about the state it was in. You could see that once upon a time it had been a well loved home.

None of the above was the home for us. We did see one lovely farm, which pretty much ticked all the boxes, and managed to squeeze in two viewings, but it is a little bit out of our price range. The agent believes it is over-valued (something every agent said about every property we viewed – it seems the French have an over-inflated idea of the value of property!), but whether the vendor would accept an offer within our budget we really don’t know. Eddie is going to phone the agent tomorrow and see what she thinks. If not, then we’ll be going back for another house hunting trip at the end of April.

Eddie is a bit disappointed that we didn’t find something within our budget on this visit, but realistically I always knew that this could be the case. I’m determined to try and not get too stressed out by the whole thing. I honestly believe that the right place is out there for us. We just have to find it.

What was heartening was that we still love the area and still really want to move over there – even more so if that’s possible!

Nothing much to report on the knitting front. I knit two thirds of a sweater over Christmas but it was too big so it’s gone into the Naughty Cupboard until I can face frogging it. Last night I frogged the Handmaiden Seasilk scarf. The pattern was just doing my head in with the tedium of it, and at the end of the day I knit for pleasure not duty. I was very lucky to receive Victorian Lace Today for Christmas. It’s a beautiful book, with many, many patterns I want to knit, so I will cast on again with the Seasilk later today.

I was tagged by Iris to do the meme doing the rounds to tell 6 weird things about me, so here goes:

1. I talk to myself. A LOT. So much so that I’m sometimes not even aware that I’m doing it. I don’t do it out in public (yet), but Eddie will often come into a room and ask me who I’m talking to and I’ll have been prattling away to myself without realising.
2. I can’t ever finish a hot drink. I think this stems back to my childhood when my mum bought tea leaves rather than bags, and never bothered with a tea strainer, so you had to leave some tea in the cup or you got a mouthful of leaves. Unfortunately the habit applies not just to tea, but to any hot drink.
3. As a child, I desperately wanted 2 things: a dog and a pony. I especially wanted a dog that would sleep on my feet at the bottom of my bed. Every night, my parents had to shoehorn me into a bed FULL of various cuddly toys, and then carefully place a pile of books on and around my feet, so that I could imagine they were a dog.
4. I have a tendency to make snap decisions about whether I like someone before I get to know them, and often before I’ve even met them. However, I’m not often wrong in my judgment.
5. I have strange reactions to some religious buildings. I get weak kneed, short of breath, feel faint. I don’t get this reaction every time I enter a church / cathedral etc so never know when it will strike. It can make sightseeing a tad difficult.
6. I have never felt lonely. I have spent, and do spend, a fair amount of time on my own but I am perfectly happy in my own company. If anything ever happened to Eddie I think I would live the rest of my life alone, and that thought doesn’t fill me with any kind of dread. (I think this characteristic may be linked to #1 :0 )

I’m not going to tag anyone to do this meme but feel free to share your weirdness with the world if you wish!

An FO!

2006-12-17T11:50:00.000Z

Looking back at what I’ve knit so far this winter I seem to have been remarkably unproductive! True finished objects number one sweater and one scarf – pretty pathetic really. Of course there was “the project” that went horribly wrong but took up a fair amount of time. But other than that, I wonder where on earth the time went and why I have so little to show for it.

Well, I do have one more FO to add to the tally. Cosmic Pluto’s top down cardigan

Here’s a pre-blocking shot

You'll just have to take my word for it that it's going to look great after it's been blocked!

Pattern: here
Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic in Bear. I used less than 5 50g balls, so it hasn’t been quite as big a stash buster as I thought. I have enough left for another reasonable sized project (cardigan, short sleeved top), or a number of small projects – scarf and gloves would be nice.
Needles: 5mm Addi Turbos
Time on needles: about 3 weeks I think

The pattern is excellent. Clear, well written instructions. Top down means the body is knitted all in one piece so no seaming! I love coming to the end of a project and only having a few ends to weave in. The shaping at the waist really helps, and I love the seed stitch edging. I didn’t bother with buttons and buttonholes as I never wear a cardigan closed.

The yarn is also highly recommended. It knits up beautifully, no splitting, and I didn’t come across a single knot (which is unusual for Rowan yarn in my experience). It’s much softer than it looks – definitely wearable next to the skin – and the mohair is not the sort that’s going to shed all over the place.

I’m extremely picky about finished garments and their wearability, but this one’s definitely a keeper! I love it. It's a perfect fit (another huge advantage of top down knitting) and I think it's destined to become a wardrobe staple for me this winter.

The Handmaiden Sea Silk scarf is not making such good progress, but I only knit it a couple of evenings a week – any more than that and I’d want to slit my wrists. The only thing keeping me going is that it does look very pretty.

In other news, our fleece finally went off to the mill this week. I’m not sure how long it takes to be processed, but I’m guessing we won’t have anything back for a couple of months. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

I can’t believe it’s only just over a week to Christmas. This is usually a pretty quiet time at work but this year it’s been manic the last couple of weeks and I’m just hoping I can clear my desk by Friday. We’re delaying our Christmas "do" until the New Year as one of the partners has gone off to Australia for a month to visit his daughter who’s working over there, and our year end is 31st January so we decided to have our “do” in February when we can celebrate what has been a very successful year for us. It’s only the second full trading year for the partnership but the business is already going really well. Things look good for the coming year too, so fingers crossed we can continue to grow the business while still having fun. Having had some truly dreadful experiences in my past I am continually thankful that my partners are such wonderful people to work with.

Only 3 weeks until we go back to France. Via the wonders of the internets we have managed to line up appointments to view 6 farms during the week we’ll be there. I can’t wait to go over again. We’ve started French lessons with a very nice lady who comes to the house on Friday afternoons. Eddie has his “beginner’s” hour with her first then I have an hour with her just chatting in French, reading French texts and newspapers. I’m finding with each week that more and more vocabulary is coming back to me so I’m hopeful that by the time we move I’ll be a lot more confident.

Eddie has taken a batch of goats to the abattoir this morning. It’s a hateful job sorting those that are going from those that are staying with us, and no matter how often we do it, it never seems to get any easier, but although we feel truly miserable I’m glad we feel this way. I don’t ever want the day to arrive when we can send our animals to their death without a second thought.

Getting into the spirit

2006-12-09T11:44:00.000Z

I’ve been laid low with another cold the past couple of weeks. Ugh.

So, to try and get myself into the festive spirit I thought I’d do this meme, which is popping up on knitting blogs everywhere. I pinched this from cpurl.

NAME: Carolyn

Q:Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
A:Hot Chocolate definitely. Mind you, I’ve never had Egg Nog. I’m not even 100% sure what it is. Does it involve advocaat? I do have a secret love of the odd Snowball, which I always partake of over Christmas.

Q:Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
A:Wrapped

Q:Colored lights on tree/house or white?
A:No lights on the house, but both white and coloured on the tree.

Q:Do you hang mistletoe?
A: No

Q:When do you put your decorations up?
A:Eddie’s birthday is 15th so we don’t put the tree up until after that. So usually the 16th!

Q:What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
A:Leftovers. All those lovely cold meats, cheeses and pickles. Yum.

Q:Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
A:Waking up on Christmas morning to find a bulging pillow case full of presents at the end of my bed.

Q:When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
A:I really don’t remember a defining moment. I think I just sort of worked it out.

Q:Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
A:No.

Q:How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
A:That’s Eddie’s territiory, and he makes a pretty good job of it. Motley collection of lights, baubles and tinsel, plus a dash of design flair!

Q:Snow! Love it or Dread it?
A:Love it as long as all I have to do is look at it out of the window while curled up snug and warm, or playing in it with the dogs. I hate it when it turns to grey slush.

Q:Can you ice skate?
A:Are you kidding? I seriously think I missed out on the evolutionary gene which enables man to walk upright so to stick blades or wheels on my feet would only lead to disaster.

Q:Do you remember your favorite gift?
A:A pony. But that was for my birthday not Christmas ;)

Q:What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
A:Not having to go to work. For me it’s a vital time to recharge my batteries, mull over the year past and think about my dreams and goals for the coming year.

Q:What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
A:Are After Eight mints a dessert?

Q:What is your favorite holiday tradition?
A:Bucks fizz, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on Christmas morning after the animals have been fed.

Q: What tops your tree?
A: A star

Q:Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
A: I’d be lying if I didn’t say I love receiving gifts, but if I could only choose one I’d rather give than receive.

Q:What is your favorite Christmas Song?
A: I think Silent Night is a really beautiful hymn, but the two which are absolutely guaranteed to have me blubbing like a baby are “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Little Donkey”.

Q:Candy Canes...
A:Not a british tradition, so no thanks. Give me some vanilla fudge any day!

Knitting ADD

2006-11-26T14:08:00.000Z

Eddie’s chunky scarf only took a couple of days.

Since then it’s taken a while to decide what to knit next. There are so many projects I would love to knit, and so much yarn in my stash…… Actually, I seriously think the size of my stash has become a hindrance rather than a help. Like a kid in a sweetshop I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of choices I have. I have nothing in my stash that I don’t really really want to knit – some yarns are still waiting for inspiration in the form of the perfect pattern to arrive, whilst others have been notionally allocated to a project for months.

Added to which, whilst rummaging through the bags (and bags) I can’t quite help feeling slight pangs of guilt about just how much yarn I have. I’ve never felt this way before and can’t explain what’s brought it on now, but I think I must just STOP buying yarn until I use a fair proportion of what I already have.

There, I’ve said it. Now, can I do it??

In the end I, unusually for me, decided to start on two projects. I saw this from a link on the Yarn Harlot’s blog and immediately fell in love. As luck would have it I have a skein of Hand Maiden Sea Silk in my stash. Perfect!

I found the stitch here, but I’m using ktbl as per Clapotis, rather than the method described here to keep the stitches either side of the dropped stitches nice and neat. So far, so good. But knitting a scarf on 2.5mm is sloowwwwww. Also, does anyone else find stitch markers really slow them down? I have 10 in this project and I really do think that without them I’d be zipping along a lot faster. Anyway, 4 repeats done, 43 to go…….

For more instant gratification my second project is a top down raglan cardigan

In Rowan Kid Classic which has been in my stash for nearly a year. This is more like it; I only cast on last night so not bad so far. Of course the increases will soon mean it takes me a good 10 minutes to complete a row (it’s always such a relief on a top down garment to get to the point where the sleeve stitches get put aside).

I’m not entirely sure how working two projects at once will work out – maybe I’ll try knitting each one on alternate days. Or something.

Not much to report on the farm. The goats that hadn’t yet been brought in (this year’s doe kids, the pygmies, the wethers, and the does not being bred from this year) have all now decided they don’t want to go out anymore. It’s so odd how they suddenly decide they’ve had enough. They still have access to the fields now, but haven’t moved outside the barn for the last week. I think once we have a cold snap and the grass stops growing they lose interest in eating it. Unlike the sheep who will only come in if the weather is really bad, and will happily graze all year round. You’d think they’d want to go out, if only for some fresh air and to stretch their legs a bit, but no. Of course, we’ve caved in and they’re getting hay morning and evening now, and the kids are still getting hard feed too, so now that they’re being waited on hand and foot there’s really no need for them to go out!

The breeding does have been taken away from the bucks now and are all in the “Nursery pen”. They are starting to show the first signs of pregnancy, and are all taking life very easy. The bucks are all back together, so that’s their excitement over for another year!

Our fleece is cleaned and ready to go the mill for processing into yarn. I’ve eventually decided to have half of it mixed with silk (70% kid 30% silk), which will be a lace weight yarn and half of it mixed with merino (80% kid 20% merino), to give a smoother yarn that will still be incredibly soft. This should hopefully end up being double knit/sport weight. I think it will be a few months before we get the final product back but I can’t wait to see how it’s going to turn out. Of course between now and then I have to think about how I’m going to sell it……

Laughing in the face of adversity

2006-11-19T14:12:00.000Z

For the last two weeks I have been working on a “project”. It was a design I could picture perfectly in my head: Top down, slightly boatneck, lace detail at the top, closely fitted body, widening to an A line, with lace detail repeated. Three-quarter sleeves, ending with the lace.

In a nutshell, I couldn’t make it work – at least not as well as I wanted it too. To be fair, the body worked well – probably the most flattering item I have knit if judged on the shaping alone. But it just wasn’t quite right. The problems were with the sleeves. With the double knit yarn I was using, for some reason the weight of the sleeves seemed to drag on the neckline, pulling the garment off my shoulders. I couldn’t stand wearing something I constantly needed to hitch up to cover my bra straps. So, the whole thing has been frogged, and the yarn will become something else. Someone else’s design, while I try to learn more. I have absolutely no desire to be a knitwear designer, but I love the thought of knitting something specifically for my body.

Oh well, it was a start, and a good learning process.

Yesterday, Eddie asked me out of the blue if I would knit him a scarf. So I let him choose any yarn he liked from my stash. *Sigh* he chose the Jaeger Natural Fleece in a black & white fleck I had earmarked for a sweater. Well, I love my man, so the Jaeger Natural Fleece it is. Lucky it’s a chunky knit, and even I can’t make a balls up of a 2 x 2 rib.

Since my last posting autumn has definitely arrived. The trees have turned, and on a beautifully sunny day like today the colours zing. The creeper that grows along the back wall of the house is laden with berries.

I wonder if this means we are in for a hard winter?

Only 38 days to Christmas, and so far this year I have no plans for any Christmas knitting. Last year I knitted scarves for my two younger nephews and my brother, and a beautiful silk Clapotis for my sister in law, but this year I haven’t been inspired to knit for my relatives. Maybe it’s because Christmas this year will, for us, be superseded by our next trip to France – booked for 7th January – which we are looking forward to so much more, as it will be our first proper house-hunting trip. We’ll be busy between now and then scouring the web for properties that might be suitable, and trying to get viewings arranged. Exciting times.

Just in time

2006-11-03T14:41:00.000Z

The sweater is finished.

Well, it needs washing and blocking. You can see how much yarn I had left over. That’s what I call cutting it fine!

It strikes me that this is not the most stylish garment I’ve ever knitted, but it is warm, and perfect for pulling on to walk the dogs on a cold winter’s day.

Talking of which

We’re having a wonderful spell of weather here – crisp frosty morning walks with the dogs, and glorious, sunny – but short – days.

So is it winter? Not according to the woods at the edge of our land.

(I love the way my shadow appears in these photos - I look like the Michelin Man!!)

Is it me, or is autumn very late this year? For trees still to be in full leaf at the beginning of November doesn’t seem right.

So, the needles are empty and I have to decide on the next project. The weather makes me want to rustle up a scarf and gloves, but I’m also itching to start on a new sweater I’ve been planning. Decisions, decisions…….

Oh, and I passed my exam :)

Catching Up

2006-10-22T14:02:00.000+01:00

Warning!! Photo intensive post!

Ok, let’s start with Ally Pally. Here’s what I scored:

10 x 50g balls of this beautiful, ecologically produced, pure wool. It’s lovely and soft. I can’t decide whether to dye it or leave it in its natural colour.

5 x 50g skeins of Araucania Acatama 100% alpaca. Purchased from Kerrie. Lovely autumn colours, and this is quite a heavy yarn, so I’m thinking a nice snuggly scarf and maybe some matching wristwarmers / gloves.

700g of this Classic Elite wool tweed from Texere Yarns. A mega mega bargain. Not the softest of yarn but the lady from Texere assured me it softens up a lot on washing. Plenty here for a big cozy sweater.

Apologies for the poor photo but this yarn is so divine I don’t want to take it out of its packaging for fear of getting it dirty. A sumptuous blend of merino, silk and cashmere. So, so soft. This was my most extravagant purchase (but only £3.99 a ball so hardly in Tilli Thomas territory), and I used money my mum and dad sent me for my birthday. I have a sweater pattern and have just been waiting to find the right yarn.

And last but not least, I picked up my first issue of Yarn Forward

I’m impressed. Ok, a couple of teething problems (some of the photos seem a bit “squished up”), but that’s only to be expected when bearing in mind this isn’t some glossy publication that’s had a shitload of money thrown at it. Having said that, it looks great - really professional and you'd never know it's been done on a tight budget. The most important things are there are patterns you would want to knit, articles that are interesting and informative, and no editorial pressure from big yarn manufacturers buying up advertising space. There is the most beautiful shawl pattern (unfortunately it’s crochet, but it’s almost beautiful enough to make me want to learn!), and a really cool feature of all the patterns is that there are 3 suggested yarns in different price ranges. What a really fab idea! It's such a breath of fresh air after the likes of Simply Knitting and Knit Today. Definitely worth the subscription.

I also got to meet Kira at AP. Unfortunately I didn’t get quite as much chance to chat with her, or the other Knittyboard girls, as I would have liked, but with so many people it’s impossible to stick together as a group. Nevertheless, nice to see them all and compare purchases.

Next, onto WIPs. Here’s where I am with the sweater.

A couple of weeks ago, just after I started on the sleeve, I got terminally bored with knitting it. You’ll note that I’ve also started the sleeve before finishing the body. That’s because I decided half way through the body that I think that I have enough of the one colour to knit the whole thing, but then I started having a mild panic and decided to do the sleeves so I could determine how much I have left for the body. If it’s not enough I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to do (apart from cry).

To give me a break from the sweater I started knitting this.

Oh look, Malabrigo again. And a cable pattern. Hmm, not really so different from the sweater, and boredom’s starting to set in here too. Mind you, the good news is that getting the sweater out to photograph it has made me want to start knitting it again. I think I might try knitting each one on alternate evenings and see how it goes.

Finally, a farm update. I thought I’d take some photos of what the guys are up to. First Geoffrey wanted to say hello

Recognise this chap?

Doesn’t look much like a Supreme Champion now does he? He’s very happy with his ladies, hence the pee stained face.

On to the baby bucks

Otherwise known as the “Pen of Raging Hormones”. Honestly, they are just like a bunch of spotty teenage boys. They are great fun (and filthy from jumping all over each other playing rough and tumble all the time).

Remember Little Man?

There was a time back in the summer when we thought we were going to lose him. He weaned himself off the bottle far too early and for a little while in the summer went very thin and, well, depressed. It was a sad sight. But look at him now (sorry, not the best photo, but he wouldn't keep still!) – full of beans and feisty as anything. And he has a lovely fleece, so fingers crossed he’ll make the grade.

Well, that’s us about caught up I think. Eddie had a good trip to France (it was 24C – not bad for mid October!). The builder pronounced the cracks to be not serious and “certainly not a deal breaker”. The other properties Eddie saw were interesting too. We have some serious thinking to do now.

This must be my 15 minutes of fame

2006-10-21T20:24:00.000+01:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/21/cmoscar21.xml

Phew!!

2006-10-16T17:48:00.000+01:00

The exam was ok. I think I've done enough to pass.

Hi!

2006-10-15T11:05:00.000+01:00

Blogging has had to take a back seat for the last couple of weeks as I’ve been studying for an exam, which I sit tomorrow :( (I really should be studying now rather than writing this!). Work has also been pretty manic again, though hopefully normality will return shortly.

No pics today as Eddie has taken the camera with him to France. He left this morning for a lunchtime flight. He’s going back to see the farm we saw in September, tomorrow morning, but taking a builder along with him this time as there are some nasty cracks in the walls we want checking out, and we also want to check whether our thoughts for renovating it are a) feasible and b) not too expensive. Tomorrow afternoon he’s going to see another farm for sale that we found advertised a couple of weeks ago, then on Tuesday morning an estate agent we visited last time is taking him to see a property they’ve just taken on. He flies home Tuesday afternoon. It would have been lovely to be able to go with him but my exam put paid to that, plus I’m needed here to man the farm.

The raglan sweater is coming on well, although I have to confess I put it aside last week. The body is done and I’m about a third of the way through one of the sleeves. I just got an attack of total boredom with it, so I’m knitting a quick cable scarf to give me a break from it.

Yesterday I went to the Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace. I’m sure there were a lot less people than last year, which made it easier to get round and see all the stands. I scored a couple of real bargains, and treated myself to some beautiful merino/silk/cashmere yarn with the money my parents sent me for my birthday. Pics will follow when the camera gets home.

On the farm front, the boys are enjoying their time with the ladies. The weather has been pretty good so, apart from the breeding groups, they’re all still going out during the day. The weather has been so mild that the grass is still growing so there’s still plenty for them to eat. How much longer this weather will continue I’m not sure, but for the moment every day’s a bonus.

Normal service has been resumed

2006-09-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

I came back from France with a dreadful cold. While we were there it was, thankfully, no more than slightly annoying, but since we got back it’s absolutely floored me. For the last couple of weeks it’s taken all the energy I could muster just to make it to work (taking two weeks holiday then immediately being off sick just wasn’t an option!). As a result, life has been work, sleep, with the odd meal thrown in. This is the longest spell I can remember for some years when I haven’t wanted to knit. At all. I haven’t even wanted to think about knitting.

Then yesterday dawned bright and sunny, the cold is at its tail end and the urge to knit returned. Hurrah! I spent yesterday afternoon trawling patterns and thumping the calculator. Last night I cast on.

It’s going to be a top down raglan, collar and cuffs in 2x2 rib, the rest in plain stockinette, but with a cable braid down the front. The “pattern” is a mixture of the Sweater pattern generator, plus bastardising various top down patterns I have knit before, so there’s a slightly hairy “wing and a prayer” element to the knitting ;). I’m using the last of my wonderful Malabrigo merino worsted. I don’t think I have quite enough of this colour to knit the whole thing so plan to add a contrast stripe in the body and arms, along the same lines as I did for the Anniversary sweater. Time will tell how it turns out, but I’m hoping for a snuggly, slouchy, curl up in an armchair on a winter’s day sweater.

As the end of September rolls around it’s time for the bucks’ favourite part of the year – they get to spend some time with the ladies. They’re all revved up and raring to go! I just hope this weather holds for a few more weeks yet. This time last year the goats were pretty much housed full time, and didn’t go out again until the end of April. Just a few extra weeks outside makes such a difference to our workload / feed bills, and I’m sure it’s better for the goats to be out in the fresh air (they don’t actually agree with me on this point. They prefer to be in and waited on hand and foot!).

In spite of the lovely weather I find my mind is turning to all the lovely snuggly winter knits. I seem to have made very little inroad into my stash this year (it seems that every time I use something up I add something!), so I have stacks of yarn for sweaters, gloves, scarves etc. There is also the Sock Yarn Mountain, but for me, knitting socks is a summer activity so that's not going to get any smaller until next year. Maybe I'll manage to whittle away at the rest of the stash over the coming months. The only major obstacle is the Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace next month. I'd like to think I'll be able to resist the temptation to go completely mental, but as I'll be meeting up with the Knitty girls, I have my doubts!

We're back

2006-09-10T12:38:00.000+01:00

France was wonderful.

Like us, they had very poor weather in August, but from the day the plane landed (30th August), the sun came out as if to welcome us and it got hotter and hotter.

This trip was not, strictly speaking, a holiday, although it was a wonderful break. It was more of a research trip as we plan to buy a small farm there next year and move over with the goats and sheep. Eddie will live out there full time, while I will split my working week between France and London. Extensive research on the internet, and our own existing knowledge of some areas of the country meant we had narrowed down our choice to the departments of the Midi-Pyrenees – the Gers (our favoured area), the Haute Pyrenees and the Ariege.

However, as when we actually booked the flights the Limousin had still been in the running, we flew into Limoges – some distance from the Midi-Pyrenees! It was still useful to drive through the region though, if only to satisfy ourselves we had been right to discount it.

Our first night was spent in the Lot region here. Richard & Alex were great hosts with a beautiful home. I would thoroughly recommend their B&B.

The next morning we set off for the drive south. A leisurely drive through the French countryside, with stop offs for morning coffee and lunch, and we were really easing ourselves into that wonderful slow rhythm that is life in rural France. We arrived at our destination for the next 4 nights by mid afternoon. Now, in spite of the fact that the owners were exceptionally friendly, the room was clean, and the breakfasts excellent, I’m not providing a link to this B&B, since it was not somewhere I would either return to, or recommend.

The next 4 days were spent simply exploring the region, following our noses really. It sounds a bit dull put like that, but wasn’t at all. When you’re looking at somewhere with a view to possibly living there it’s a bit different. We stopped frequently in pretty market towns to get a feel for a place. Best of all, we got to go see some angoras! In the weeks leading up to the trip, with the help of the wonderful www I managed to locate two angora goat farms in the area we were visiting. I emailed both owners in my schoolgirl French, explaining we raise angoras in the UK, and asking if we could possibly visit them. Amazingly, both emailed back and said yes! Both farms were very interesting to visit – and quite different in their way – but I have to give a big shout out to Olivier & Marielle who really could not have been more generous with their time and hospitality. We arrived at their farm at 11 and after being shown the goats by Olivier and having a really good long chat about farming in France we were invited to stay for lunch. A lovely, simple meal but in the stunning setting of their terrace overlooking the foothills of the Pyrenees. I would also just like to mention that if you click on the above link you’ll be taken to their online shop, where they sell a 77% kid, 23% silk yarn – very much like Rowan KSH – for €6 for 25g (that’s about £4 – compared to what, £6.75 for 25g of KSH?).

Last Sunday we had a “day off” and drove up into the mountains. The drive took us round Lourdes, and then up, up, up to Monglie where we took a cable car up to the summit of the Pic du Midi – the highest point in the Pyrenees. It was a beautiful clear day, and the views both on the drive up, and at the summit were just stunning. Here are some pictures, which unfortunately don’t do justice to the actual views.

Our last 3 days were spent here, and again I cannot recommend this B&B, nor the host, Fran, highly enough. By now the temperature was up into the mid 30s each day so we spent some time exploring the area and some time just lying by the pool.

All in all a wonderful, wonderful trip. It has certainly strengthened our resolve to move out there as soon as we can, and confirmed that the Gers is where we want to be. From here in the UK it’s amazing to think that we will be living somewhere where the summers are long and hot, and the winters short, yet the mountains are just 1.5 hours away and the coast about the same.

We did view a couple of farms for sale on this visit, one of which was very interesting, and we’ll explore it further. That aside, our next scheduled trip will be in January 07, and that will be purely a house hunting trip. I can’t wait.

Another FO, and a surprise

2006-08-23T12:20:00.000+01:00

Pattern: Licorice Whip
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic dyed cotton, shade Stone
Amount used: Just under 400g
Needles: Addi Turbos 5.5mm 40cm & 60cm. Also 60cm 60mm for the edging of the body
Size: XXS
Started: 04/08/06
Finished: 18/08/06

The pattern
As you can see I didn’t knit the pattern as written. I wasn’t sure about the lace pattern on the sleeves, or doing yarn overs for the raglan increases, so I omitted the sleeve lace and increased along the raglans using the usual kfb.

I shortened the body from 16” from underarms to 14”. The pattern for the sleeves has you decreasing from 42 stitches to 28 stitches. At a gauge of 14 sts per inch, and even allowing for the fact that the lace pattern would have widened the sleeve somewhat, it seemed to me that following the pattern was going to result in a very narrow sleeve! So I only did 2 sets of decreases, knitting straight after decreasing to 38 stitches.

Apart from this, the pattern is extremely well written and easy to follow, and I would definitely knit it again. Being top down, there is no seaming to do, and the more I knit in the round the more I hate the thought of knitting a large garment flat.

The yarn
What can I say? This yarn is buttery soft. I never would have imagined a cotton yarn could be so soft, and so lovely to knit with. You get great yardage, and it’s not an expensive yarn (I paid £5.95 per 100g skein). Stitch definition is great. This yarn would work really well with a cable pattern. The only downside is that, due largely to its softness, I fear it will not be very hardwearing and may well pill. Nevertheless, I love the finished result.

Now, on to the surprise. Postie delivered this the other day

A gift from Carolyn. It’s an absolutely fascinating little booklet. Written in 1769 by John Wily who, I think, was some kind of government official in the “colony” of Virginia at the time. Not only is it a wonderful essay on producing wool, it’s also a fabulous insight into the thinking of the time:

“I must therefore beg leave to inform the public that I was some years concerned in a woollen manufactory, which thoroughly convinced me a large sum of money might be saved in this colony annually by manufacturing the wool that is raised differently from the usual method (spinning it up into coarse cloth for the Negroes) which I look upon to be next to throwing it away.”

Thank you so much Carolyn, it was a wonderful surprise!

Waterlily Top

2006-08-19T14:21:00.000+01:00

Pattern: Waterlily Top from Interweave Knits Spring 2006
Yarn: Colinette Giotto. Shade Banwy. Used 2 x 100g plus tiny bit from 3rd skein
Size: 30.25”
Needles: Addi Turbo 60cm – 9mm, 8mm, 6.5mm
Cast on: 28/07/06
Finished: 03/08/06

This was a lovely, quick pattern to knit, and I’m delighted with the end result. The top is knit in the round to the armholes, and the large needles make the knitting fly by. Changing gradually from the largest to the smallest needles create the shaping of the garment, and I have to say it is incredibly flattering to wear (though I appreciate it’s not easy to see this from the craptastic photo).

There were a few firsts with this project: first time knitting in the round from the bottom up; first time using Colinette yarn, and first time knitting with ribbon yarn. I’m very impressed with this yarn – it knits up really easily, and the resulting fabric is lovely. I had feared that ribbon yarn might be a bit scratchy to wear, but this top is wonderfully comfortable.

Of course, since it came off the needles the weather has reverted to the usual crap British summer weather but this top will definitely be going to France.

Who stole my clothes?

2006-08-02T12:22:00.000+01:00

The goats were sheared on Monday

I think they were glad to get rid of their fleece after all the hot weather we've been having. Of course, now they've been sheared it's cloudy and cool!

A pretty exhausting day - we started at 7 a.m and finally finished sorting everybody out at 10 p.m. The shearer finished at 7.45 p.m - he sheared 78 goats and must have been knackered.

The baby bucks (19 of them) have now been penned in a barn on their own for a couple of weeks while they deal with being weaned, and we can keep an eye on them - long time readers may remember we lost Smiley's brother Pig Pen last year after his first shearing, the result of his developing an odeama. This year, to try and help with the stress, they all got a dose of aconite spray. I've been doing a bit of research into homeopathic remedies for animals and have also bought some apis mel tablets which, amongst other things, is supposed to help with conditions which result in water retention - which is basically what an odeama is. We've heard positive things from other breeders who have used homeopathy to treat their goats, and to be honest if there is a natural remedy I'd far rather try that than pump them full of drugs.

Anyway, fingers crossed they'll all be alright. A couple of the buck kids have got mild odeamas already (difficult to see when they're in full fleece), so they're getting apis mel 3 times a day. The fact that they had odeamas before being sheared was quite a surprise, as we've not encountered this before. It could well be due to the stress caused by the severe heat in recent weeks.

Today is another first for us. We have sold 3 of our does to another breeder and they are going to their new home this evening. They are going to a much smaller flock than ours, and to a very nice home where I know they'll be loved so it's not too much of a wrench, but it will still be strange to watch them go.

We've reached the stage now where we really must control numbers, and only keep the best of the best, so we will be having a bit of a cull at the end of the summer. There's also no way we can add another 19 bucks to what we already have so these kids will gradually be thinned out over the winter. Hopefully there's another Smiley in there somewhere!

I've already cleaned about half of the kid fleece that was sheared. I hope to get the rest done over the next couple of weeks and then it will be sent off to be spun into yarn. I'm planning to get some done as pure kid mohair, and some as a kid/silk mix (very much like Rowan Kidsilk Haze). I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Talking of yarn, I'm finally knitting something that isn't socks!

This is the Waterlily Top from Interweave Knits Spring 06

I've just reached the point where I divide for the front and back, and hope to finish it within the next couple of days. It's an enjoyable knit so far, but let's reserve final judgement until we see how it turns out!

In my head

2006-07-21T09:09:00.000+01:00

Every once in a while, when I’m least expecting it, reality comes along and punches me in the face.

Life is busy here at Bedford-del-Sol. Catching up on all the little jobs around the farm that got neglected during the showing season. Work, work, and work. And planning our trip to France at the end of August.

The rough itinerary has been planned, flights, car hire, insurance and accommodation booked. Everything has been done online and has been pretty hassle free. In the back of my mind I've been thinking that I must brush up on my French. I studied French to A level, and I was very good at it – I’m not claiming any huge intelligence here, I’m just fortunate to be one of those people with an ear for languages and I pick them up very easily. I loved the language with a passion, and not long after I took my A levels I spent a month travelling through France. It was a fantastic opportunity to cement all those years of learning. I spoke no English. I ended up thinking, and dreaming in French. When I came back to the UK it was a huge adjustment to speak English again. We’ve had several holidays in France since then and I’ve always found it pretty easy to slip back into speaking French.

So, I’ve been thinking, it’s all in there, right? I just need to freshen it up. So, I’ve been trying to think in French.

Rien.

Well, ok, maybe not rien, but certainly only un peu. Where have all those words gone?

When I tried to remember our last holiday to France, I couldn’t be sure of the exact year but I know it was in the early 90s. 10 to 15 years ago. Crap. No wonder I’ve forgotten so much.

Which got me thinking. I took my A levels at 18. That was 24 years ago. Shit. That means I’ve been alive longer since I took my A levels than I had been when I took them. I’m middle aged.

It’s not that I’m mourning my youth, I’m happy being who I am now; it’s just that those years have gone by so quickly. And in my head, I’m not 42, I’m……. well, 21 tops. I know I’m never going to be taken for 21, I’m not stupid, but my mind just hasn’t caught up with my body. I still get a kick out of knowing I can eat ice cream all day, or stay up all night, if I want to.

These days it’s so easy to forget how old you are. Once you reach a certain age people no longer ask you how old you are, so on the rare occasions when I do have to think about my age (like birthdays) I can sometimes find myself subtracting the current year from my birth year to work it out.

These are the kind of thoughts that run through my head when Eddie is away working and the nights are too hot for sleep.

There’s been very little knitting activity chez moi (oh yes, it’s all coming back to me :0 ). A combination of the heat, working two jobs while Eddie’s away, and the learning of the French have left me a sweating, frazzled heap every evening. Picking up the needles just seems like too much effort at the moment.

I did manage to finish another pair of socks last week though.

Not quite identical twins, but not bad. Schaeffer Anne yarn (wool and mohair) in “Parrot”. Knit on 2.5mm circulars. I have just over half of the 100g skein left. Lovely yarn to knit with. Pricey though, so I'm very glad I'll be able to get two pairs out of one skein.

I also have yarn for a new (non-sock) project

Now I’m just waiting for the needles I bought on eBay to arrive from Hong Kong, and for the evenings to cool down a little.

He did it!!!

2006-07-09T11:23:00.000+01:00

The cup awarded to the winner of the Supreme Champion Angora Goat at The Royal Show. And Smiley won it!!

The Royal is the biggest agricultural show in the country, and although our breed society show is a little more prestigious, the best breeders also show at The Royal. I always show Smiley as due to his being slightly small, it's better if I, at 5'2" show him rather than Eddie who's 6'1"! We won our class, Junior Buck, so were put forward for Champion Male. I honestly thought the adult buck would win that, but, no Smiley won. So we were then put forward for the Supreme Champion, against a beautiful doe. Honestly, I couldn't believe it when the judge walked towards me with the Championship rosette. I had a lump in my throat as big as my fist, and it was all I could do to stop from bursting into tears and showing myself up as a complete wuss. As I bent down to Smiley and was telling him what a clever boy he was, there was a voice in the back of my head saying "He's a goat - he hasn't done anything, he just happens to be exceptionally beautiful" but I was soooo proud of him at that moment.

What a wonderful end to the showing season - more than we ever could have dreamed of. Every goat we took was placed, and we were chuffed to bits.

The end of the show season always leaves us feeling a bit deflated, and this year has been slightly worse with the Royal being our last show. It's a long show - we were away for 5 days, and we had such a good time. We only see the other breeders during the showing season - the animals and the distance between us all make meeting up at other times quite difficult. It's amazing that a group of people so different, but with one main thing in common, can spend 20 hours a day in each other's company (not a lot of time was spent sleeping!) and not get sick of the sight of each other. I haven't laughed so much for ages. The weather was wonderful, which helped, and I really feel - in spite of the, it has to be said, basic living conditions - as though I've had a great break.

Little knitting has been done in the last week. But that was ok. Still firmly in sock mode I've been working on some of the patterns in Sensational Knitted Socks, but rapidly coming to the conclusion that the variegated, short colour run sock yarn which appeals to the magpie in me really isn't any good for patterns. So I splurged and bought this

70% merino, 30% cashmere in Crocus from Posh Yarns

It feels wonderfully soft and I'm really looking forward to knitting with it.

I've a million blog entries to catch up on, and haven't been near the Knittyboard for ages so need to immerse myself gently back into the knitting world. Oh, and back to work tomorrow :(

Do you ever feel

2006-06-24T14:20:00.000+01:00

as though your life is spinning out of control?

Why is it sod's law that after a couple of months of work being really quiet, things should suddenly go mental at exactly the point at which you take time off?

With having had a fair bit of time off over the last few weeks to show the goats, each time I've returned to the office the mountain of work awaiting my return has steadily increased to the point where I haven't known what to attack first, as everything seems to need to be done urgently. I hate that. I love my job, but can't stand it when I feel as though every waking minute needs to be devoted to it.

Thankfully, by the end of yesterday I was finally starting to feel as though I was getting somewhere. Hopefully I'll be able to clear the decks next week before I take another week off to attend the Royal Show (our last show of the season).

We did very well at the Breed Society show at Three Counties. This was the major gathering of all the top breeders, which meant stiff competition and classes which took ages to be judged due to the huge number of goats entered. We came away with three thirds and a fourth - very good results for us as we are still very "minor league" and most of the classes had 25 - 30 entries. Smiley continues to attract a lot of interest from other breeders - so much so we were amazed to find that the jungle drums had been at work and people were virtually queueing up to get a look at him as we unloaded him from the trailer! He came third in his class - for the first time his size (slightly small for his age) let him down, the judge preferring size over beauty ;). We had more offers from breeders wanting to buy him, but he's staying here.

I'm still knitting socks. Three pairs completed so far, and a fourth about to be cast on. I made the mistake of deciding to knit a pair in worsted yarn during the heatwave - who would have thought knitting something so small could still be so hot?

Slip stitch rib knit on 3.5mm Addis (two circs method). Handpaintedyarn.com worsted merino in Applewood. These took about 75g.

Is it hugely decadent to knit socks with this yarn? Maybe. They are sooo soft, but I think durability factor will be nil, so these will probably end up being "bum around the house" socks.

As the work mountain reduces to a small hillock I'm gradually getting round to catching up on all the blogs I read, so if I haven't commented on yours for a while, apologies. At some point I also need to try and catch up with the Knittyboard ABC along. We seem to now be at "L", and I don't think I've posted anything since "J". Maybe tomorrow...

Socks That Really Do Rock!!

2006-06-08T08:48:00.000+01:00

Postie brought me a surprise gift from Soapy

Aren't they beautiful? This Socks That Rock yarn is something else. Really soft, but at the same time the socks feel really substantial if you know what I mean. See the G&S Marine thingy she also sent? This has me a bit stumped. I'm thinking cup holder, but I could be totally wrong! Soapy??

Michelle was worried that the fit wouldn't be right, but look

Could they fit me more perfectly? I don't think so! They are lovely and snug - just how I like my socks.

There is something so wonderful about receiving a hand knitted gift. Every time I look at these I think of the hours of work that went into them - it's such a precious gift, it means so much more than something bought from a shop.

I have to say as well that this girl really can knit socks!

Aren't they neat? I can only aspire to knitting socks as good as these.

Thank you sooooo much Michelle. These are going to take pride of place in my sock drawer!!

The boy done good

2006-06-06T12:42:00.000+01:00

Back and recovered from the last two shows.

Last week was Stafford County and we went with our hopes not too high, as we knew several top breeders would be there. After looking round all the goats on Tuesday evening I came to the conclusion that if we were placed in the top six in the classes we were in we'd have done well.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny, but chilly. We had been up since 5, which was when the roadsweeper came past the trailer, and as I had still been awake at 2, I was a bit bleary eyed!

The goats did us proud. Little Smiley won his class, the yearling buck, and we also got second and third in the adult doe, and second in the yearling doe. Smiley was just pipped at the post for Supreme Champion, quite deservedly, by a lovely adult doe with two kids. It was definitely the right decision, as the doe had "proved" herself, whereas Smiley may be young and beautiful, but for all we know he may have no lead in his pencil. We were dead chuffed that he got Reserve Supreme Champion though, and he caused quite a stir. The judge wanted to buy him, as did a couple of the other breeders (he's not for sale!!). One breeder, whose opinion we rate very highly said he'd never seen a yearling buck with such fine fleece. He gave Smiley a thorough examination and said his fleece is still superfine kid mohair - what you'd normally only expect to see on a kid aged up to 6 months.

Sunday was Rutland show. We weren't up against such stiff competition, but nevertheless it was a bit embarassing as we pretty much swept the board, winning yearling buck (and got second place too), yearling doe, adult doe (and second), progeny group, and second in the maiden doe.

We also won Best Yearling, and Breed Champion (Smiley) and Reserve Yearling, and Reserve Breed Champion (Minerva)!

We came home with 3 trophies and lots of rosettes. Smiley was magnificent

All of the show goats are really settling in to the showing now. Even the kids who we are taking with their mums are taking it all in their stride

Cobweb and her daughters relaxing after a hard morning's showing!

Smiley chilling and ready to bask in the adoration of his public.

Next up is the Breed Show at Three Counties (Malvern) on 16/17 June. We really will be up against the best of the best there so it will be interesting to see how we do.

On the knitting front I'm enjoying socks and more socks. I still haven't found anything else to inspire me, but for the time being I'm happy with socks!

A bit of a quandry

2006-05-29T10:45:00.000+01:00

Green Gable #2 is finished.

This was knit in Cotton Fleece, shade Plum Patina, and I used 200g. I knit the size Small this time, spaced out the waist decreases, added hip increases, and knit 3 rounds before the ribbing on the sleeves. All tips I picked up from the KAL, and all improvements on the original pattern I think.

This one is a much better fit than the last one - which may end up being frogged...

My quandry now is that there is nothing I want to knit.

By that I mean no tops, summer sweaters etc. Apart from this pattern I haven't seen anything that really grabs me. I think part of the problem is that I'm not a great fan of knitting cotton, and pastels - which tend to be the predominant colours in the summer - do nothing for me. I love winter knitting. I love knitting with super soft wool, making snuggly sweaters and scarves.

Looking back to last summer I see I knitted socks and shawls. Well, I've a ton of sock yarn in the stash and want to knit more socks, so I'll certainly be doing that. I've also got loads of laceweight yarn, ideal for shawls. My problem there is that although I love the intricacies of lace knitting, and creating ethereal items from knitting cobwebs, in practical terms I don't really have a huge need for shawls.

I guess I need to mull, and in the meantime I'll knit socks. Maybe inspiration will strike when I least expect it. It's one of the things I love about reading blogs - it's great to see what other knitters are knitting.

We're off to Stafford tomorrow for the Staffordshire show. Thankfully the weather forecast is looking quite good. Hopefully this time I'll manage to get some shots of the goats in all their glory!

J is for Jolie

2006-05-29T10:42:00.000+01:00

I've been waiting for some sunshine to photograph my J. Finally, it arrived yesterday.
Clematis "Jolie".

Socks are done

2006-05-19T17:09:00.000+01:00

They fit perfectly, are lovely and comfortable, and I like the fact that they are almost but not quite identical. I have loads of yarn left over - I barely touched the second 50g ball.

Eddie has now announced that he thinks he would prefer to have some thick socks rather than sock yarn weight. It is true to say he goes through socks at a rate of knots, so perhaps thicker would be better? I'll have to raid the stash to see if I have enough worsted weight of anything I could use (excluding anything I want for myself :0 ). I'll need to find out how many yards of worsted weight I need for a UK size 8.

He can't yet decide on the pattern, if any, he wants (told you he was Mr Fussy), so while he's mithering about that I've started my second Green Gable. I'm knitting this one in the yarn used in the pattern - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, in a fetching shade of plum. I'm knitting a size smaller than the last one as I have found that a bit loose now that I've actually worn it. So far I'm enjoying knitting with the yarn.

Eddie took this picture the other day. We're having a flock board made and he wanted a photo of a group of goats to go on it. It was only when we downloaded the pictures that we realised that it was a wonderful shot of the view from the field.

Good results all round

2006-05-14T11:06:00.000+01:00

Thanks so much for all the good luck wishes for the show. We had a pretty good day.

Remember Smiley Miley (aka Tolcarne Gelos, named after the Greek spirit of laughter by Jess)? He's grown into a smashing little yearling buck (though he is a bit on the small side - he seems to put all his energy into his fleece, which is absolutely beautiful). Anyway, he won the yearling buck class, and was also Reserve Champion Male. We also won the adult doe class with Cobweb, and Reserve Champion Female. Plus we got 2 second places, a 3rd and two 4ths. In fact, all 7 of the goats we took were placed in the top 4. I'm really pleased with this as although we were beaten in some classes no other breeder there had the consistency of results with all their goats, so I guess we must be doing something right!

Unfortunately, the weather and the crowds weren't conducive to taking pictures but I will try and take some in the next day or two and post them.

I'm making good progress on the sock. Although knitting like this was a bit weird

Knitting a sock in profile! I'm really pleased with how the heel has turned out. I have never quite managed to achieve such a neat result before

I'm not sure if this is down to the 2 circs or the pattern (from Sensational Knitted Socks), but it did seem much easier picking up the stitches than it does with DPNs.

I've reached the toe now, and should hopefully finish it off this afternoon and get cracking on the second sock.

And finally, I know you don't come here to read about football but I can't end this post without mentioning the other fantastic result yesterday, which rounded off the day nicely! What a cracking match. This man is a god.

Wish us luck!

2006-05-12T14:22:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the first show of the season for us, the Newark & Nottinghamshire County Show. We have 7 goats entered and they're looking pretty good, so fingers crossed!

Eddie has just left with all the goats and assorted paraphenalia so he can get them settled in this evening, before judging tomorrow. Judging is at 9 a.m which means I need to get there by about 8. It's just over a 2 hour drive and I have to see to the animals and walk the dogs before I go. Working backwards that means.... um, an early night for me!

As I must be home by 3 p.m on Saturday (and to see to the animals of course!) I won't have very long at the show, but hopefully my mum and dad are going to come and look after the animals for all the other shows so I will get a chance to catch up with all our "goaty" friends then.

On the knitting front I've had my first major disaster for quite a while. I've been trying to knit Mesilla (without the embroidery). Really, I shouldn't be having any problems at all - it's such a straightforward pattern, but I cannot get the neck to work. If I knit as the pattern is written, only picking up stitches for 2 out of every 3 rows on the neckline, and decrease as written a) it looks awful around the neckline, and b) I end up after knitting the various contrast colours with a hole I'd have trouble fitting my hand through, let alone my head. I've tried picking up a stitch for every row on the neckline instead, which looks much better, but I still end up with a small hole and it gapes at the front - I'm just not getting that nice U-shaped neckline. I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong, and it's really pissing me off. I have to say it would really help if the pattern gave an actual stitch count at this point. These are given right the way through the pattern, but none at this stage. I know guage isn't the problem, I just can't work out where I'm going wrong.

I've put it aside for now and am knitting these instead

Baby cable rib socks, my first go at knitting socks on two circulars. So far, I'm finding it a lot easier than using DPNs. I don't have to worry about stitches dropping off the needles, and it just seems far less fiddly overall. The yarn is Knit Picks Sock Landscape in shade New England Foliage - one of the many lovely gifts I received from bryghtrose in SP6. I'm supposed to be knitting socks for Eddie ( something he points out to me often), but I didn't want to combine learning a new technique with knitting something for Mr Fussy - I'd rather make the mistakes on my own socks. Plus, I wanted a new pair of socks. Plus, I'm just plain mean.

I is for Incredible

2006-05-11T17:10:00.000+01:00

All is revealed

2006-05-05T10:48:00.000+01:00

Now that SP6 is finished I can reveal the identities of my upstream and downstream SPs.

Gifting to me was the incredibly generous bryghtrose - she was the most fantastic Secret Pal. I enjoyed a host of regular emails, postcards etc from her, and her packages were incredibly thoughtful and stuffed with goodies. She will always have a special place in my heart as the person who gave me my first KnitPicks yarn :0. Really, I couldn't have asked for a better SP.

I was gifting to cpurl17 (and her fabulous cats;) ). She's a true Aspiring Crazy Cat Lady knitter, and she was great fun to gift to. She really entered into the spirit of it, and I'm so glad that now I can leave comments on her blog without worrying about giving myself away!

Thank you both, ladies, for making SP6 such a wonderfully enjoyable few months.

xC

Finally!

2006-05-01T11:32:00.000+01:00

We finally managed to get the goats out this weekend. They should really have gone out 2 or 3 weeks ago, but our landlord has been doing some work putting a new driveway in to the rear of the barns.

This meant that some of the existing fencing had to be taken down and hence the fields weren't stock proof, plus great big holes outside the barns where the drains were re-dug, kept them trapped inside! On Friday the workmen had reached a point where we could make a temporary fence with some field gates and let the does and kids out. The sheep and the bucks are still confined to their barn but all the work should be finished by the end of this week so they should be out by next weekend.

Letting the mums and kids out for the first time after the winter is always slightly traumatic for the kids. For their entire lives so far the world has consisted of an indoor space roughly 30m x 20m. To suddenly be confronted with the big wide world is a bit of a shock to their system.

The does on the other hand can't wait to hit the fresh new grass and they take off without a care for their kids. The kids are left behind in the barn with a gaping hole (open doors) where the world used to end and their mums have disappeared to boot. Much bleating ensues. Seriously, the decibel level is astounding. We have to gradually herd them outside, blocking escape routes back to the safety of the barn, and drive them into the field until they catch sight of their mums and run to find them. It can take a couple of hours to reach this point, but it's always worth it.

That pesky pygmy Henry always has to come and see what's going on ;)

Turning now to knitterly things, what's the most fun you can have with your clothes on? Well, I think this would make my Top 10:

A couple of months ago I treated myself to a new ball winder and swift, but this weekend was the first time I actually got them out to play with. Six skeins of Rowan Summer Tweed for my next project arrived Saturday morning, and within about 10 minutes I had these:

I was actually disappointed it took so little time to wind them, and had to resist the urge to wind every skein in my stash!

Saturday's post also brought me, all the way from the US, courtesy of Amazon.com, Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top; Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks; and Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.

I have had just a brief look through each one but already know these are going to become "bibles" I will refer to again and again. All three are incredibly well written and inspire me to create for myself rather than following other people's patterns. Now, I have no desire to become a knitwear designer, but to have the basic building blocks and guidance that will give me the ability to knit myself a sweater (or sock) incorporating a stitch pattern I would like to use / a certain type of neckline / a certain type of shaping, using whatever yarn I want seems to me to offer endless possibilities I can't wait to explore.

H is for Hopes of a Huge Harvest!

2006-04-28T12:28:00.000+01:00

We have a small pear tree in our garden

Last year I think we got about 2 pears from it. But judging by the Huge amount of blossom on it this year maybe we'll have a bumper Harvest?

What we don't need now is High winds which will wreak Havoc with our Harvest ;)

Green Gable

2006-04-28T12:15:00.000+01:00

If you thought the recent lack of knitting content to my posts was due to inactivity on the knitting front, think again;)

Pattern: Green Gable
Yarn: SWTC Oasis (100% Soy Silk), shade Chocolate. I used every scrap of 2 x 100g balls (from the stash, yay!)
Needles: Addi Turbos 4mm & 3.5mm, plus DPNs 3.5mm
Time on needles: 7 days

Despite some sizing issues, which are discussed on the Knitalong (I knit the size 36" when I would normally knit 32"), this is a great pattern. Knit completely in the round so no seaming! I plan to knit another with 3/4 length sleeves, in the yarn specified in the pattern (Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece). I'm really pleased with the result. The Oasis has a lovely sheen to it and is great to wear next to the skin. Knits nicely too. Blocking opened up the lace a lot, and lengthened the body and sleeves. I think next time I'll probably block a little less ferociously!

And, just because I know you'll moan if there's no modelled shot, here's a craptastic photo for you (Eddie's busy with the VAT return).

Lambing is nearly over!

2006-04-28T11:59:00.000+01:00

The past couple of weeks have been really busy as the lambs have been coming thick and fast! We've had several sets of triplets this year - something we've never had before. Most of them are doing fine with their mums and it seems there'll be enough milk to go round but we'll be keeping an eye out to make sure no one's getting pushed out. If they are, we can supplement feed them with bottles of milk.

We have only lost one lamb so far - the third of a set of triplets. He was absolutely tiny and was too weak to get up and feed from his mum. I ended up bringing him indoors as he was getting cold and I spent a couple of hours that evening warming him up and trying to coax him to drink a little milk. I put him in a cardboard box with some snuggly towels and he spent the night by the side of my bed, with me getting up every couple of hours through the night to feed him. I had to go into the office the next day and left him with Eddie. He spent the day in the kitchen quite happily trotting about with the dogs (who thought he was the greatest toy EVER!). He even got to spend lunchtime lying on the sofa with Eddie watching Neighbours! But unfortunately, later that afternoon he went to sleep and quietly died in his sleep. Clearly he wasn't viable, but we did our best and at least he had some fun in his very short life.

Several people left comments on my last post to say they hadn't realised sheep could be spotty!
We have two Jacob rams who are brown and white, and our ewes are a mixture of Jacobs, Dorsets (who are plain old cream) and Jacob/Dorset crosses, who turn out all manner of spots and stripes. But we've never had one like this

Isn't he cute? Here he is with his mum and brother

Note the (complete lack of) family resemblance!
Sadly, he won't stay that lovely black - the lambs are all born black and white, but the black fades to brown as they get older.

We have just one more ewe to lamb and then that's our breeding season over. It can't come quickly enough for Eddie who's survived the last couple of weeks on an average of about 3 hours a night sleep. He's looks like something out of The Night of the Living Dead ;)

First lambs

2006-04-14T13:23:00.000+01:00

We got up this morning to find that our first lambs of the year had just been born. One boy, one girl. Mum and babies all doing well. The ewe is a first time mum so she did really well to lamb all on her own. She's also extremely protective of them, stamping her feet whenever we go near, so apologies for the poor quality photos but I didn't want to upset her too much.

This heralds the start of 4 hourly checks, round the clock, for Eddie so he's going to be pretty knackered over the next few weeks.

It's official - my SP is THE BEST

2006-04-12T17:11:00.000+01:00

A package arrived today.

No, wait, that doesn't begin to do it justice. A ruddy great BOX arrived today - stuffed to the gunnels with goodies.

This is my 3rd and last package from my Knittyboard SP6, and I really didn't think she could top what she had sent me so far. Ha! How wrong can you be?

My SP, who I now know is called Cathy (hi Cathy!!) lives in New England, and her final package included a wonderfully thought out selection of treats from her home.

First up, some cards of Boston

Then these

The (cutest) elephant (in the world) is there (see he's saying hi!) because a) they're one of my favourite things and b) her local uni's sports teams are known as the Mighty Jumbos after P T Barnum's circus elephant. Neat link!
Nestled inbetween his legs is a bottle of wonderful maple syrup - the epitome of New England and one of Eddie's favourite foods (syrup is food, right?). Yum!! Also some "Boston baked beans" (chocolate peanuts). The other sweets are chewy fish, a red herring. A red herring has been included in each package in some shape or form. Damn, she's sneaky!

Next up

A buddha card because again this is one of my favourite things, and some really nifty "jump rings" used for jewellery making but spot on as stitch markers.

Oh, yes, there's more

Woot woot! A copy of Wild Fibers magazine (produced in Maine, so a local link, but also of great interest to me as a bona fide fibre producer!) and, swoon, the current Knit Picks catalogue. I'll be the one curled up in my chair chewing on red herrings and drooling over this tonight.

Oh yeah, and then there was some yarn

Can you believe that - she sent me ALL that in ONE package!!

The beautiful heathery green yarn at the back is produced locally. The Knit Picks sock yarn at the front is called New England Foliage. The green yarn on the right is Knit Picks Panache and it's a lovely soft alpaca blend. The wonderful little yarn cake on the left is Knit Picks Shadow, 100% merino.

To say I am overwhelmed is an understatement. The enormous generosity of someone thousands of miles away who doesn't know me from Adam. Really, it makes my head spin. Just shows though, while there's people like Cathy around there's hope for the human race, don't you think?

Thank you Cathy, this was such a wonderful gift to receive.

Right, now I've got some serious sleuthing to do to find out who on the Knittyboard she is......

Finished!

2006-04-09T15:52:00.000+01:00

Please ignore my pasty arm (roll on summer!)

Pattern: Warm braid cable wrist warmers
Yarn: Knit Picks Decadence 100% alpaca, shade "Grape" - I used approx 65g of a 100g skein
Needles: Brittany Birch DPNs size 5mm (US8)

Each wristwarmer took me about 3 hours to knit. I'm not a fast knitter (especially on DPNs).

Great pattern, very straightfoward, really clear instructions.

Warm and snuggly. Instant gratification!

Little Man

2006-04-08T17:22:00.000+01:00

One of our does, Hebe, had twin boys this year. Unfortunately, just before she kidded she damaged one of the teats on her udder with the result that when the kids were born only one teat would produce any milk.

While the kids were tiny this was no problem, as they very quickly learned which teat to suckle, and there was plenty of milk for them both. But as they got a bit bigger Hebe suddenly started to refuse to let one of the kids feed properly. Every time he went to her udder she would walk away, only very occasionally letting him feed. To start with we would grab hold of her several times a day and keep her still to let him feed, but it was clear that she did not have enough milk for two and one was growing much faster than the other. Our neighbour thinks that she somehow knows she doesn't have enough food for them both and has chosen to favour one over the other - the one she thinks has the best chance of survival. It's an interesting thought.

So Eddie has been bottle feeding the rejected kid. He gets 4 meals a day - breakfast, lunch, tea and bedtime snack. To get him used to taking the bottle he decided to say the same thing each time he took a bottle to him so that he would associate the sound of the words with food. It's worked, and now whenever Eddie goes out with a bottle and says "Come on little man" he comes skipping up to him, mouth open at the ready.

It's interesting that although she doesn't like to let him feed, Hebe is otherwise extremely affectionate towards him and he spends an awful lot of his time snuggled up by her side, more so than his brother who is being fed on demand. All in all, apart from being a bit on the small side, he's a very happy little chap.

And he does manage to snatch the odd drink from his mum every now and again ;)

Progress at last

2006-04-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

The Aran Pullover FINALLY came off the needles last night.

I feel as though I've been knitting this sweater forever, but looking at my journal I only cast on about 5 weeks ago, so it's not that long really. I enjoyed knitting the front and back but the sleeves were a killer. Hmm, the sleeves. They look a bit short, although I knit them to the length given in the pattern (which corresponds to my size). I'll have to have a fiddle with it and see exactly where they'll be seamed to the body. I've no doubt I can stretch them a bit if necessary when I block it - everything else I wash & block seems to grow at least 25% !

The cable pattern is lovely and I got much quicker as I progressed! Here's a close up

It's looking a bit "lumpy" at the moment but I'm hoping a wash and block will sort that out. I'm hoping to do that this weekend, then set aside some time over Easter to seam it and finish the neck.

I cast on last night for a crafty quick knit before I start my next garment. I'm knitting these with the super soft Knitpicks Decadence Alpaca yarn my SP sent me (thank you!). As it's still absolutely bloody freezing in our office these should keep my hands warm on the days I have to go in to work!

G is for The Gherkin (aka "City of London Architecture Part Deux")

2006-04-05T07:59:00.000+01:00

A city as old as London will never be able to boast a skyline of the magnificence or magnitude of cities like New York, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong, but we do have one or two gems.

30 St Mary Axe sounds like a pretty humdrum address, but therein lurks the Swiss Re building, affectionately known in the City as The Gherkin.

You can wander around the City and not be aware of its presence, then suddenly you will turn a corner and there it is

As you approach it its presence begins to dominate the skyline

Up close and personal you can appreciate the marvellous feat of engineering that enabled a glass rocket ship to be built in the heart of the City

The Gherkin may not be the tallest building in the City, but it's certainly one of the most controversial

Those who live and work in the City do seem in the main to be tremendously fond, and proud, of it, but there are many (including my next door neighbour who's a retired architect) who think it's a travesty.

Me? I love it.