Thursday 14 January 2010

Looking across from our yard to our top field.



I was out clearing snow from the path down to what was my mum's flat, when I heard a scraping of wriggly tin and out of the corner of my eye, saw several of Next Door's calves escape into the snow! Hardly surprising, as the tiles were falling off the collapsing roof and the back wall long fallen down and only partly blocked by the wriggly tin . . . I am sure they will bring themselves back in when it gets cold and they get hungry, but I last saw them frisking down the track into a neighbouring field, so I have left a message on Next Door's answerphone . . .

Today there is a slow thaw and it is good to see pathway on the areas we have shovelled free from snow. We had to go to Carmarthen again, and walking around in town was horrid, as the Council have "gritted" the pavements with duff (used in mixing cement) and it is unpleasant to walk on. Yet there was a short piece in last week's local paper that the Council had a full warehouse of salt and grit and there would be no problems. This week's paper carried a disclaimer that the Council was under no obligation to grit ANY roads in Carmarthenshire. So there!

I found a new cookery magazine which I have bought as there were s many recipes in it I wanted to try, and it was only £2.20 introductory price. Look out for goodtoknow Recipes.

Still plenty of takers for the food on offer. Today we had lots of Starlings - they are allowed to be hungry too, so I don't begrudge them a mouthful, as long as they give the other birds a look-in.


It's been a cold, foggy day . . .


Of course, the rubbish has been a casualty of the bad weather. Ours hasn't been collected for a month now. Next week it will be five weeks. Having had to travel to Llandeilo yesterday, we found that there was a similar state of affairs there - on the main roads - HUGE piles of rubbish on the roadside. The demands of Health and Safety again I assume . . . What about OUR health and safety - we're fed up with having jackdaws and foxes ripping holes in the bags when we put it out (as it's getting dark, on collection day, the rubbish goes back in under cover again . . .


The calves were totally unrepentent!








7 comments:

  1. We've been fortunate and bins have been emptied more or less on schedule. Neil and Ces in Suffolk haven't had theirs emptied for a month now. I just love those photos of the calves! Your letter arrived on Tuesday, nice surprise as I hadn't thought you could get out to post letters. Glad G got away OK.

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  2. Those calves have mischief written all over their faces!

    Good to hear that you got into town for supplies today. I did the same here as the thaw is well under way.

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  3. Lovely pictures, Jennie. What norty little calves :) Good luck with the househunting, I'm feeling the need to move again, but maybe next year. I'll see where you end up first ;)

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  4. Lovely pictures of the calves. Hope your house hunting is going well, we too are thinking of moving this year into the country a bit more but near enough to get into work! Like you my wishlist is long....too long!

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  5. I love those independent calves! May I please have your permission to try to draw the one that is a close up, head and shoulders? I'm not the greatest artist in the world, so I like to copy photos which attract me.

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  6. ChrisJ - please feel free. I can draw horses, and can copy any drawing, but lose the plot when I try and paint it as I never got past poster paint at school which, let's face it, is not a good painting medium!

    Goosey - good luck with your house-hunting too. I was looking in Dorset yesterday, just idling and thinking it would be nice to be nearer friends and family again.

    Yarrow - you had better come and be a neighbour or I shan't speak to you again!

    DW - we are back to Total Green now, which although it comes with heavy rain, is bliss after Total White and all the problems that brought with it.

    Rowan - we were lucky and had a break in the weather in between one bit of snow and the next! I hope your son and family got away safely this time.

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  7. We have a bit of trouble with wood pigeons and magpies scaring away the little birds.

    We've been quite lucky with our rubbish bins and have had them collected on time. Our recycling bin hasn't been collected for about a month now, but with the rain washing away the snow hopefully they'll come for that this week.

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