Our barn full of animals = lovely

Tara & Nyma

It’s blowing a gale here today, as it is elsewhere in the country.  Lovely to see all of the outside animals in the barn together – sheep, goats, Aunt Dotty the cow and the horses.

Particularly nice to see the 2 new ponies Tara and Nyma – who came to us from the Vegan run Happy Endings Sanctuary earlier this year and who were very scardy girls – joining in.

They had spent a lifetime living outside and being neglected and are now enjoying some of the luxuries in life they never had before Happy Endings saved them.

Bye bye Boris

A follow up to the previous entry on Boris (follow this link), one of our sheep; We had a very sad start to the day today when Boris  had to be put to sleep.  We had found him collapsed in the barn on Saturday night and he never recovered.  Today he was in a sorry state and wasn’t going to get better.

He looked a right character with just the one horn.  He will be sadly missed.

Living with wildlife

from BBC.co.uk website

Our poor old van has been in our local garage this week after it broke down on the way back from Lampeter, with Denise in it!

Nothing too major (big relief here) but we did need the alternator belt replaced – again!

Our van seems a magnet for wildlife and the local mice seem particularly fond of its engine.  Both belts had been chewed by mice, droppings all over the place.  And a while back a journey to the West Midlands had to be abandoned at Monmouth with fuel leaking out of a chewed, fuel pipe.

Whilst we greatly enjoy rural living and love the local wildlife – but we do wish some of them would leave our van alone.

On the TV; quite different roles

Did anyone else see the new Hinterland drama on BBC1 on Sunday night?  It was filmed in and around Aberystwyth which is just up the coast from us and has recently been in the news for taking a pounding in the gales.

It’s really nice to see places you know so well being featured on mainstream television.  And although we are not Welsh speakers here (but Denise is learning and son Bryn is taught in Welsh at school and so will grow up speaking it fluently), its lovely to hear Welsh on BBC 1.

The Old Town Hall is being used as the Police Station on Hinterland, particularly relevant for us as we got married in the registry office their back in 2004

Happy Days.

a break in the weather

In between all this run up to and Christmas celebration we have been dealing with this weather and the issues it brings when caring for our animals on a daily basis.  So it was lovely to see a break in the rain today; we duly rushed down to the coast and the sea looked like this…

and Boxing Day

In our house we do not only have the pleasure in celebrating Christmas, but Boxing Day is a birthday day here as well.  so this year, despite hurting the tendon in my hand 2 days earlier, created (not a brilliant looking) Yule Log = did taste better than it looked !!!