Geese and daffodils in the mist...

It was supposed to be sunny today! 

I’m just back from a business trip to Paris, and all set to do a load of outdoor projects. We’ve got the trampoline to set up, and the swing set, and the picnic table. Joli had her friend Emily come over to play, and we had big plans for a barbecue with chickens and our own home-made sausages, sizzling on the fire pit. I was going to make barbecue sauce and everything. I could practically smell it…

But instead, after a initial tantalizing blast of sun and blue sky, the mist rose from the sea, white and thick, blanketing everything with a haze of damp cold. 

Rich had borrowed a grass harrow from his friend Andrew to try to comb out the dead grass from last year’s disastrous not-harvested fields. He drove an hour on the tractor over to fetch the harrow, and an hour back. He persevered then through the mist, dragging mound after mound of dead golden grass out of the field, until it was time to come inside and watch the Wales v. Ireland rugby game.

But I was more easily discouraged from my plans to dig the grass out of the garden where I want to plant my wildflower seed, and retreated indoors to drink tea and catch up on the diaries…

Before I came in, I went to visit the goats. They’ve settled down a great deal, and now consent to eat ivy ( a great goat treat, apparently!) from our hands. But with stroppy Nessa starting at every sound, and shielding the twins from any human who comes near, it’s hard to see how we’re going to tame Lola. 

I’ve now hatched a plan to put Lola in a little pen with Joli’s baby lamb Mansel. Then the two can keep each other company, and hopefully Lola will see Mansel taking milk from a bottle and become convinced. I read in a goat-keeping book that bottle feeding a kid is the best way to tame them and ensure that you can milk and handle them when the time comes.

Mansel, aged 1 week

So far, I haven’t even been able to tempt Lola out of the stall away from her mother. But I was able to take a stool into the stall and sit in without Nessa trying to hurtle over the wall, which was some progress! The three even ate ivy out of my hand. I took in my book, and sat quietly reading for a while. Each of the twins came up and sniffed me, apparently convinced that I’m not too dangerous. But Nessa is still not convinced…

The chickens, Mr. Incredible and Monroe, are getting big and developing very grown-up looking pin feathers on their wings.

grown-up feathers coming in!

Mansel is getting big, too. She has long legs, like a gazelle, and leaps around rather than walks. Joli is turning her out into the field with the other sheep during the day, and sneaking her into the house (when Rich isn’t around to order her out again.) But at night she sleeps in her little pen under a heat lamp. 

Elly and her boyfriend, James, are at the farm today, eating chocolate biscuits and trying to keep out of the mist. James is a talented young musician who plays guitar in a band called Attack Pattern. He’s also one half of a house electro DJ duo called Vanguard, which will be performing in Narberth Queen’s Hall on Mar. 28…More info at www.myspace.com/levanguardfunk.

James' house electro DJ duo, Vanguard

And in the meantime, we wait for the mist to lift…