Staying at home...

There have been no new arrivals of the animal variety this week, though we have been asked to 'adopt' two goats that keep escaping from their current home near the motorway and have to be rescued by the Police and returned home like naughty adolescents. Although the prospect of more waifs and strays is quite appealing in an 'all are welcome' sort of way, the reality is our fencing situation is far too ramshackle. We have already experienced a herd of our neighbours milking cows shuffling around outside our shed-home at 2.30am not to mention his 3 sheep that seem to wander at will around the farm - and therefore our land too.

Still, never mind the sheep, our flock of 3 geese seems to have settled in well though they haven't really moved from their spot near the water trough at the top of the run. Apparently they prefer walking on short grass to the ivy covered woodland floor we've given them. So this week, we've been making a concerted effort to get the veg patch fenced in so we can let the geese out into the field and garden. The chickens have already taken a liking to the salad leaves, particularly rocket it seems, so the addition of more poultry could see us without salad for the rest of the summer.

The veg patch itself is fantastic. It's been so exciting to create our own patch from bare ground - we've felt like early American settlers digging up massive tree roots and coaxing the soil to provide food. Thankfully we can resort to Sainsbury's so the comparison ends there....and actually with a digger on site ground preparation is a darn sight easier! The Old Lady even left us a mountain of nicely rotted horse manure to get things going.

Here's Ian with his favourite gardening tool - though you can see he does still know how to use a spade!

On the house front, our loyal builders, Steve and Lee, who have done so much for us finally left for another job. We've kept them for two months longer than expected due to our rotting roofs, and we have the mixed feelings of being stranded without their expertise, but also the delight of 'having our project back'. We can now make all the mistakes we want to without anyone to tell us the 'right' way to do it.....hmmmm. Come back Steve and Lee.

Actually this week has been quite shattering. It started with a lovely couple of days in Pembrokeshire - where God gave us a one day heatwave by the sea. We then drove over to Shropshire where Ian was sitting on the platform at a farming event, followed by work for both of us. Thursday brought major stress when our window manufacturer refused to accept responsibility for the damage to several of the windows. I do know that these things don't really matter in the grand scheme of things but it hurts at the time. Yesterday kind of made up for it as everything went well so I could enjoy it again. Most of the outside drains have been laid now and stone put down, so it can rain all it likes and it won't turn to mud. That feels better.

Ian meanwhile has gone off to Cornwall for another event (how does he keep going?) while I stay home and crash out.

Return to Wales and a Grand Designs moment

I've had a trip to Wales - lovely green quiet sunny Wales. It was a delight. To meander through the Black Mountains, Brecons and up through Powys, to Ashfield. And to stay with a lovely friend, visit Barney's favourite piece of the River Wye, walk through our favourite beechwood and reconnect with our recent past.

The purpose of the visit? To collect the promised 'Springboxes' - the almost-forgotten Christmas gifts of a garden-in-a-box bought for 6 different family and friends. Pippa is amazing. To get hundreds of little plants to grow in mid Wales in winter ready for planting in the Spring down south - a miracle as far as I'm concerned. Certainly compared to the pitiful achievement of our veg plot back at home (albeit 'gardening in Beirut' as it feels like at the moment). We are humbled and awed at her genius - WELL DONE PIPPA!!

And not only that, she has reclaimed Ashfield almost single-handedly from the weeds and dereliction that had overtaken it a year ago. There were definitely more signs of life there this visit - but still not enough workers to keep it going past the end of her funding in the summer. What will happen to Ashfield? I soooo hope it continues and grows and maybe changes till it becomes something that can last into the future. For the uninitiated, Ashfield is a Village SOS lottery project - an 8 acre horticultural site in mid Wales dedicated to growing food by and for 'the community'.

So sunny was the weather, Barney and I bravely took off to north Wales for a couple of days of holiday. After the initial panic of finding one 'no vacancies' sign after another we ended up at the lovely Farchynys House on the Mawddach estuary near Barmouth. He was even allowed to share my room.... though I hasten to say not the bed.

It was gorgeous walking, cycling, drinking tea amongst the buckets and spades of Barmouth. And I have to say the first time I have enjoyed a 'holiday' ON MY OWN (Ian was holding the fort with the builders). Having Barney helped of course. He is the perfect companion - he's always ready for a walk and even ran 20 miles behind the bike from Dolgellau to Barmouth and back.

Well, back home and back to work. The house project this week has seen a crisis with the stairs. How a shortfall of 10cm headroom over the end of one step can be a crisis I will never know, but that is what it became, with our builder exclaiming such things as "you don't trust me" and "I may as well not continue with the job" before leaving darkly for the weekend whilst leaving me with a double dose of PMT. Still, Monday morning and all appeared as normal, minus one section of ceiling and the replacement of several joists in minutely different locations. No one told me this would be the builders project and not ours.

On the lounge front, the walls are almost ready to receive the long-awaited oak roof frame. Fabricated several weeks ago they will arrive plus crane next Wednesday. This is the BIG TEST. Did we measure the walls right? Will the purlins fit into the pre-made holes? It's one of those Grand Designs moments when everyone holds their breath, and there's either a collective sigh of relief when it all slots neatly into place, or the camera pans around to the Responsible Person (Us) to catch the first sign of tears.