To Market to Market to buy a Fat Pig

Our new Saddleback weaners

With pork supplies in the freezer running low and countless conversations had about how we must get some more pigs, we finally welcomed our new crew of porkers to MFC. (Jet the Boxer is utterly delighted with his new friends, and I think he has yet to realise they are not dogs). We had a great day experiencing the phenomenon that is a Livestock Auction a few weekends ago. What an adventure. And an education. Next time I will have to ride shotgun with my neighbor (who is a bona fide farmer and has an intimate understanding of the auction experience, unlike myself, a mere tourist!) Nevertheless, we got what we went for, in fact we got MORE than we hoped for. We won a lot of 9 Saddleback weaners (we really only want 3). As luck would have it a friendly man bought 2 off of us there and then, so we currently have 4 pigs needing to be sold. Next challenge. Nevertheless, it is great to have some pigs back on the land here, with all their character and comedy, I love them. And they are already beginning to work their magic on the earth. Nothing beats a four legged rotavator, and the taste of home-grown and happy pork!

Snapshots

Iris Katharine Hodgkin

Hellebore

Somerset Sky Blue

Tripod the Cockerel and his Hareem of Hens.

I went out with my camera to capture a flavour

of this beautiful Somerset day. The chickens were happy to see me, that's what I tell myself

( it was cupboard love really, I had some scraps for them). The sunshine and drier weather has got them more contented, so they've decided to grace us with a few eggs.

Surprises in the garden: the Hellebore is flowering, Snowdrops just out, and little Iris Katharine Hodgkin always catches me unaware, somehow I'm never expecting to see her when I do, she reminds me to keep my eyes OPEN in the world!

And as for the sky over my head today, well...all I can do is smile (and be deeply grateful).

Little Lamb Little Lamb

It's that rather special time of year when lambing starts (for the breed of sheep we keep). After last year's disasterous lambing (of our small flock of 4 Portland Sheep we lost 2 lambs, one ewe, and nearly lost our ram too), we've been holding our breath to see what happens.

Because we let our ram run with the ewes pretty much all year round, it's anyone's guess as to when that actual lambing will begin. We bought in 3 more ewes late last year to up the numbers of our dwindled flock, and have had some exciting and unexpected moments in between. For example when our neighbour's randy and determined ram, Ricky, broke through boundary hedges to come and pay our ladies a visit! After having his way with the girls, and a couple of rounds of vicious head-butting with our rather more timid boy, Ricky was caught, and taken back home! Leaving us to wonder has to who would be the sire of our lambs, we hadn't bargained on having Portland x Pole Dorset babies.

So far so good, as to date we've had two healthy little ram lambs born over the past week (who are 100% Portland, I am relieved to add), and are waiting on our 3 remaining ladies to give birth! Touch wood! I can't wait to see the littluns all gambolling about and bouncing and cavorting as only lambs can. 'Spring' will definitely be in the air!

Sleep Peacefully Aunt Eileen

Got the sad news that my precious Aunt passed away late on Tuesday evening. It was a call I had been waiting to get for weeks now. Yet somehow when the phone rang gone 11.30pm, and I heard Uncle Vivian's voice, trying to hold back his emotion and get on with what needed to be done, somehow, I just wasn't ready. Are we ever, can we ever be? To say a final goodbye to the souls we love. I am so sad, for my loss really. For the hole you leave in this world, in my world. You have shown me only warmth, and love and wisdom. You have always been rooting for us, for Casey, Emily and I. Always a champion for our dreams, encouraging us to go for it, enthusiastic about our plans and undertakings here at Manor Farm Cottage, always interested in what we were doing or hoping to do. I am going to miss being able to share these moments and adventures with you.

But I know you are at last resting.

You have shown me what true grace really means, shown me what it is to endure growing older with a spirit of dignity and determined optimism. Thank you, for the gift of your life. It has touched mine in a way that will stay with me forever. Thank you for the dream I had last night, for the opportunity to say goodbye.

All around me snowdrops and crocuses are nosing their way through the frozen earth. You loved flowers, you loved watching them come into bloom. And so I will remember you and honour you in every single flower that shows it's smiling face in my garden. Sleep peacefully dear dear Aunt.

Making Magic

What better way to start the day than a bit of creative making eh? Finishing off two mini-mosaic projects I've been working on this week brought a little magic into this grey winter morning.

One - a beautiful flat pebble I collected on Blouberg Beach on our most recent trip home to South Africa, it just asked me to decorate it, and now it makes me think of a fairy-stone.

And two- borne of the need to find a creative solution to a rather unsightly hole left in the kitchen floor after a spot of building work at Manor Farm Cottage (this hole, I might add, had long overstayed it's welcome, considering the building work was done nearly 2 years ago!).

I have spent lots of time cursing the hole every time I saw it catching all the festering -gummings that inevitably end up on the kitchen floor, reminding me of our half-arsed builders, reminding me of the fact that I still hadn't fixed it, feeling irritated at the thought of having to replace the entire tile for a hole that in relative terms wasn't all that big (only about 5x6cm). And then this week it occurred to me that instead of being annoyed by this hole and wishing it wasn't there, perhaps I could look at it differently. I had a little lightbulb moment as I was working on another bigger mosaic piece: I realized that the very space this eyesore of a hole created in the floor was an opportunity to do something creative, I could mosaic into the space, rather than replacing the tile! A-ha!

So I contemplated what I could mosaic into a spot so small. The idea of a heart came to me (I do like hearts), but didn't feel quite right. And then, just in looking carefully at the shape of the hole, quietly and all by itself it dawned on me .... I realised what that hole was after-all .... a home for a ladybird!

I'm grateful for the reminder of what magic can happen, when we step out of the stuck places we find ourselves in (our 'holes'), and consciously seek to find creative solutions. And I can't help but smile when I think that this week, a little hole reminded me again, of an important truth.

I'm going to be on the lookout for more holes!

Happy February 1st

Well, I got in there before a year between this post and my last entry, so I think I shall call that Progress. It's been quite a year in the Life of Lala. 2011 finds me in a reflective, thoughtful place. Seeking healing and clarity and hope for the future.

Lots to catch up on, new journeys for this year ahead. Latest news on the homestead is that lambing has begun, and Saturday morning welcomed our first new baby of this season to the flock of Portland sheep here at MFC. We have four more pregnant ewes, and are wishing them smooth and speedy deliveries. We also hope to invest in 3 new weaners, its been a year since pigs have been part of the smallholding, and I am looking forward to having some on the land again. I'm poring over seed catalogues and drooling over Sarah Ravens latest planting ideas. In my minds eye - lots of sunflowers, dazzling bejewelled plots full of dahlias, and green things to eat. And as my hands touch the earth, I can feel Mother Nature herself reaching back to enfold me with her abundance and love. I wish that feeling for you too.

21 Days and Counting...

Who knew it would be a mere 17 months between posts...now that has to be some kind of record. I am shocked at how the time has gone by. To tell the tale of the missing months, well that would take a while, and a couple of bottles of good red wine (for starters).

And life finds me here, in this moment. With so many thoughts and ideas. The smallholding - Manor Farm Cottage is still here. We've kept pigs, and now have a well stocked freezer, we've had the experience of keeping sheep and lambing - the highs and the lows. The vegetable garden started it's growing last year, and kept us in a steady supply of gemsquash from July until October ( if nothing much else). This year the plans are a little more ambitious. Starting with a Working Party Weekend next weekend - where willing and coerced friends and family will gather to help us get the patch up and running properly. And then I forgot to mention the chickens, we've gambled on these funny old birds quite recklessly over the past year or so. We've won some, and had the joy of gathering our own eggs daily, the fun of incubating and hatching a couple of broods, and lost bigtime to Mr Fox and his family.

Yes, we're about ankle-deep now in the proverbial smallholding puddle. And I have the feeling that we're just getting started. So, 21 days ...to my next post ( if you're lucky) ...to the Summer really coming...heck maybe - we live in hope here in the UK .... . But, it's really 21 days til the next hatching of a brood of home-grown Manor Farm Cottage chickens ( just in case mr Fox pays us an unexpected visit). Emily, my 10 year old daughter already has the hatching weekend all planned out - at least 2 friends have been invited for a sleepover so that they can play midwife to the hatchlings... I anticipate a weekend of no sleep, and great excitement, and hopefully, many fluffy chooks at the end of it all.