Home on the Farm and some surprises, welcome and otherwise
Well I am back home on the farm, have been for a few days actually, but laid low with jet lag and the flu. Thanks Zoe for the reminder to get back to the Blog.
When I was in Brighton one of Jemima's favourite games was pretending to be at the farm with me in her imagination, so we would walk up the hill with the dogs, milk the goats and put the ducks away. I guess she is old enough now to look at the new pictures on the Blog and add them to her imaginary adventures with Grannie Annie.
Things have survived quite well in my absence, thanks to a very mild November and quite a lot of rain the garden is in good shape, if overgrown and weedy. I'm surprised to find that there are still Raspberries, Blackberries and Marionberries to pick! I really thought I would have missed out on them. Also surprised to find that the apricots and plums are already ripe and that the dreaded fruit fly have found them. I've put some traps out and hope I can contain the damage. The fruit is delicious so i will be trying to salvage what I can and we are down to our last jar of apricot jam.
Another surprise is that the duck, who was being bullied, and hiding under the feed shed, has emerged with ducklings. This is amazing as she would sometimes leave her hiding place for days at a time. The little ducklings are very cute.
In the main duck shed two ducks are sitting on a load of eggs as well so hopefully there will be more ducklings.
Peter got some Guinea Fowl eggs from a neighbour and had a couple of dozen in the incubator, so far seven have hatched out but I think the little black one is a ring in!
When I was in Brighton one of Jemima's favourite games was pretending to be at the farm with me in her imagination, so we would walk up the hill with the dogs, milk the goats and put the ducks away. I guess she is old enough now to look at the new pictures on the Blog and add them to her imaginary adventures with Grannie Annie.
Things have survived quite well in my absence, thanks to a very mild November and quite a lot of rain the garden is in good shape, if overgrown and weedy. I'm surprised to find that there are still Raspberries, Blackberries and Marionberries to pick! I really thought I would have missed out on them. Also surprised to find that the apricots and plums are already ripe and that the dreaded fruit fly have found them. I've put some traps out and hope I can contain the damage. The fruit is delicious so i will be trying to salvage what I can and we are down to our last jar of apricot jam.
Another surprise is that the duck, who was being bullied, and hiding under the feed shed, has emerged with ducklings. This is amazing as she would sometimes leave her hiding place for days at a time. The little ducklings are very cute.
In the main duck shed two ducks are sitting on a load of eggs as well so hopefully there will be more ducklings.
Peter got some Guinea Fowl eggs from a neighbour and had a couple of dozen in the incubator, so far seven have hatched out but I think the little black one is a ring in!
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