Sold Bluebell

It is quite sad really. But we decided it was the best thing to do. She has a bit of a tendency to drink milk from Buttercup which isn't fair on Buttercup, also we are cutting down the number of cows so the cows and horses have more to eat in the winter.

Her new owners are working on becoming self sufficient and look like they should provide a lovely new home. They are getting a beautiful sweet cow, so win win!

Bluebell's new home

They gave us a few bales of hay for delivering her which is very useful as they are a good size to move around (smaller than normal round bales)

Beautiful weather and a horse ride

The horses both have soft feet from all the recent wet weather. This is the first horse ride we have had this year which is UNBELIEVABLE! First there was skiing, then we got busy with the cows, then the weather has been awful.
We took it gently to harden their feet off and went for a short ride and a nice paddle in the lake.

A couple of friends cycled up to say hi

Daisy rolling her giant horse belly in the air (which shows she must be nice and relaxed)

Paddling

Rhoda on Daisy

Doug on Owen

Getting ready to go home

Happy home again!

Potager finally almost under control

I thought that as I am not working the potager (vegetable garden) would be immaculate this year and we would have time to plant loads more things than normal
However this is not the case. Where does all the time go!
It would have been done a bit sooner if we hadn't been having such awful weather - or so I claim anyway.

Today I planted a butternut squash, a pumpkin, a melon, 6 beetroot, 15 lettuces, 6 kale, two chillis and a vervene bush.

The sage is doing really well. Probably our best plant! It is a shame I only use about 4 leaves a year!

The garden looking quite neat

I planted a new fruit bush a few weeks ago. I thought it was a gooseberry, but the fruit seem very small, I think it is a red current!

Preparing wool for spinning

Before I start preparing it, usually straight after shearing I remove bits from round the neck and legs and bottom which are dirty and matted as well removing any particualrly short bits.

Then comes the preparation for spinning.

First I wash it.
I do this in a giant pan, one fleece at a time. One day I will have a second sink in the kitchen to help with things like this. At the moment it is a faff doing it in the shower - the water doesn’t come out hot enough so lots of kettlefuls of water needed.
I fill the pan with water that is 55 °C as lanolin melts around 45°C. I add either fabric washing liquid or dish soap depending how I feel.
I put the wool in and plunge it up and down very slowly a few times to make sure the water has got through the wool. If you swish it around too much, it felts.
I then leave it for quite a few hours, perhaps over night.
I then empty the pan and refill with warm water at about 30°C and again swish gently then leave.
I repeat this with 30° water one more time. By this time the water is clearish. If it is not I rinse again.
Then I drain it well on a cake tray and then dry it on the clothes drying rack somewhere warm but out of the sun.

Next I pick it
This is basically going through the whole giant mess of wool that you have and pulling it all apart in to fluffy lumps. You can get tools to do it (one day!) which are basically two sheets of nails which are repeatedly pulled through the wool. By hand you just pull out bits and put them in a bag. It should be really fluffy when you finish this with no obvious lumps. You remove bits of grass and stuff as you go. Best to do somewhere you can easily hoover as all kinds of grott comes out if the fleece.

Poppy likes to help with picking

Carding
I then card it. You can do this with hand carders, but at the moment I always use the drum carder as it is auucjer. The hand carders look interesting when you want different preparations, but my spinning isn’t ready for that yet.

Now it is beautiful fluffy fleece ready to spin!

Spring (again) chicks and shearing

We have had rain and rain and wind and more rain for AGES (a month?) and everyone started to despair of summer ever arriving. It finally has - but with spring like thunder storms because of all the wet in the ground. It feels even more like spring because the 2nd batch of chicks has hatched and we have been shearing the sheep (we normally do that in early June but it has been too wet to face doing it - it is important we do it quickly now before fly strike season)

Shearing Dagmar who is our most obliging sheep

Raasay looking natty

Dagmar finished. The pink is an anti insect treatment that we put on every 6 weeks in the summer - mostly to stop flystrike, but it deals with ticks too.

Yakamein soup

Doug read about this on the bbc and suggested that we try it. It is fusion cajun/italian/chinese I cannot say whether it was authentic or not, but it came out delicious. Perfect quick dinner if you have suitable meat left overs.

I broadly followed this recipe though it had way too many ingredients and I just made enough for two.

500ml beef stock (from concentrate is fine)
1/2 tsp slap ya mama cajun spice (or suitable amount of something similar - needs a bit of chilli in it ideally)
Spaghetti for 2 people (I did 100g)
Toppings (I slow cooked some beef and put carrots in to the stock to cook)
2 soft boiled eggs

Cook the spaghetti and the eggs
While they are cooking heat the stock with the spice in it and heat the meat and toppings
Put the spaghetti in a bowl then pour over the spicy stock and add the toppings

Bibimbap

It seems these are often made on the cooker, however stone bowls will not heat up on an induction hob, so I made it in the oven.
There are traditions about what goes on top and the different colours of food are good for different things. I am afraid to say I ignored this and used it as a great way to use up left over pork char siu.

Cook the rice and toppings that need it.
Heated the bowl by putting it in the oven which is at about 100°C, then slowly increase the temperature of the oven to 200°C over about 15 mins.
Put a tablespoon of sesame oil in to each bowl and swirled around, then put the rice in to the bowl and press it in to the bottom.
Return to the oven and heat for 10 mins - or until the rice starts to crisp up a bit.
Add any topping that need heating, for example cooked meat, bamboo shoots, spinach and return to the oven for a further 10 mins.
Serve with a raw egg (whole or just the yolk) and chilli paste on top.

Stir to cook the egg on the hot bowl before eating.

Trip to Saint Jean de Luz to see Rory

Rory my cousin was cycling down the Atlantic coast of France on a recumbent bike, so we went out to the coast and met up with him. We went to Saint Jean de Luz as we have never been there - we weren't sure if it would be as good as San Sebastien, so never took the risk!

To make sure the dog was tired before we got there we actually met Rory at Erromardie plage which is about 10 mins drive from Saint Jean de Luz. It is a nice sheltered beach good for swimming - and stick fetching.

Doug had a swim - I wasn't convinced

But did eventually brave it... It was pretty warm!

After a couple of hours the dog was knackered

Rory arrives

We made Rory go for a swim too as he had come down the whole Atlantic coast without swimming once (except apparently in a large puddle when he fell off trying to get through it...)

Aargh rocky!

Phew less rocky

We then pushed on to Saint Jean de Luz which is a very pretty little town (unfortunately no dogs allowed on the beach, so just as well we had tired Poppy out).

Nice local cider...

...in a bar overlooking the beach...

...with an amazing view (and some very tasty tapas)

We had sea food for dinner. It was HUGE, and very very yummy.

Rory had a seafood selection

Doug and I had Paella

Nice market

The harbour (not so sunny on the second day)

Hard working harbour landing all that seafood for people to eat

Cuddles!

We walked on to a headland at the edge of the bay where Poppy could run off the lead - our lives are ruled by her needs! Lovely view of the surf.

Good luck with the rest of the trip Rory!