Buttercup is in heat

We have been waiting and waiting, I think it is about 5 weeks since last time - despite the average time between heats being 3 weeks. Finally, when we milked her as I was leaving on Sunday, she suddenly leapt on Bluebell which is a good sign. However not 100% good as she had to chose a Sunday to do it on, so we have not managed to get in touch with the AI guy. From what I understand he would ideally come tomorrow morning, but there is a chance later in the day would be ok too. So fingers crossed he either calls back or Doug manages to get through to him first thing in the morning. Otherwise there is another 5 week wait. Which is ok, but at some point the calf would be being born to close to next winter.

She is looking all innocent in this picture, but had just tried to leap on Bluebell (who we think is still getting some milk despite the groovy nose thing, but is losing somw weight it looks like)

Sardinade

What is that you ask! It translates to something like 'festive meal with sardines'. 

The rugby club in Bagneres arranged one on Friday in one of the parks in town. We went along, partially because we fancied an evening out, partially because we had a sardine craving and partially because a friend of ours was part of the entertainment - a line dancing group. The other entertainment was an irish band. We cycled down so I could have a beer or two with my sardines. Unfortunately the dog couldn't come as we didn't trust her near sardines, she LOVES fish. The sardines were delicious (bbqed). Overall it was quite a strange mixture of things. Lots of reasonably drunk French people, sardines (although we live as far from the sea as possible at the Pyrenees) and eclectic entertainment. But fun, regardless of the incomprehensibility of it all...

View in the morning

Very different from the lovely view we have in France, but not too bad to wake up to

I did eventually make it to London on Sunday night although about 4 hours later than scheduled. The flight was 3 hours late and the trains were messed up. Still, such is the life of the international jet setter.

Fingers crossed for better next week!

In France one of the cows was mooing madly so we hope she might be coming in to heat - although it is the other cow than the one we actually would prefer to get pregnant first, but it might be a matter of doing whichever we can as it seems like it can take some time to actually get them pregnant and we are not very expert about when exactly to call the insemination guy.

Two out of two

This is the 2nd time I have flown from Toulouse to Gatwick on a Sunday evening, so I can work in London on Monday morning. Last week it was over an hour late. This week it is estimated to be two and a half hours late. Not a good trend. In addition, last week it landed at the far end of the North terminal rather than in the South terminal where it was meant to be. It took 45 mins of walking and transfer train to get to the South terminal where the trains to London go from... Looking forward to the same tonight!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

With only Doug here for much of the week, and it being the fruitful time of year, we are not eating vegetables as fast as they grow. Quite a lot of broccoli had gone a bit over.

So I made it in to soup.

I just fried an onion in a bit of butter, chopped up the broccoli and added some stock (chicken). Enough to about 1/3rd cover the broccoli. I then boiled it for about 30 mins and added a bit of milk before liquidising the mixture. I will stir in some cream when reheating it. I left it fairly bitty when liquidising. V green and healthy looking.

Power cut

While I was tackling this on Monday morning, Doug was without power for several hours.

V inconvenient as it means there is no water (the pump can't run). And worrying when you don't know what the problem is - particularly as EDF have told us that there is a problem with our line and they need to replace it. They have been several times to survey the site but then all goes quiet and nothing actually happens.

Buttercup's chin

The lump on Butttercup's chin seems to be going down and she is much less sensitive about having it touched. We didn't call the vet so not 100% sure it was caused by worms. But it seems likely as it is getting better after the worming.