February 2013

Sat in our sun room watching spring arrive…. 4 Robins vying for each other’s attention, 2 Greater Spotted woodpeckers dancing around a tree,  a Red Kite rises from the pond area and soars up to join another circling in the distant sky, a rabbit races away from the tortoiseshell feral cat stalking through the rushes. Primroses starting to flower in the borders, and pink bugs opening to paler pink blossom on a shrub. Distant bleating of lambs for their mothers, and bird song of every description compete to fill the silence.

What a way to start a morning… it is 8am and the alternative would be a commuter dash!  Actually I started the morning investigating a noise inside our wooodburner (which fortunately was not alight) I opened the doors to find a small sparrow looking at me…. It didn’t panic but let me pick it up and release it outside, giving us both a story to tell our grandchildren!

Life here is gaining momentum. I can’t import any livestock yet as I’m waiting for the Holding number to be ejected by the bureaucratic paper merchants.  Time therefore to visit other holdings and get ideas and contacts. Everyone is so friendly and happy to spend over 2 hours touring and talking about their smallholding and livestock. We have seen many sheep. Goats, poultry and horses and got ideas for buildings and machinery (Ian’s must haves!)  , drunk much coffee and made new friends.  I have decided on the breed of sheep I’m getting and even found a lad who will sell me some of his prize winning Llanwenog sheep when I’m ‘official’. 

Another great find was Derek ,who with his wife Mandy run a lovely smallholding  in the west of the county. Derek is a wiz with websites and is doing all the techy bits for us so www.nantygroes.co.uk is developing.  Check it out…. Only a holding page there at the mo but watch that space!!

We have had some visitors come to stay. Ella, my granddaughter, decided she wants to live with ‘nanny and the sheep’.  Eileen and Nick dropped in for an afternoon. stayed the night, booked another weekend to give us a helping hand and a holiday week in July…

Nick helped Ian with the current project. Renovating a duck house and building the pen around it. Ian has made a fab ‘rustic’ gate.  It is a great job and will soon be ready for our first ducks.  Stop press!  A large heron has just swooped down onto our pond. Last week it picked up a mass of frogs spawn and deposited it on the gate post.