Stardate 8th - 17th May 2009

I’ve been trying to leave some areas around the farm to naturalise a bit and was pleased to find a trio of orchids flowering beside the pond.



I was then overjoyed to find this bee orchid that flowered under the cherry tree that had been blown over in the January 2009 storm.



I then went down to where I’ve been protecting some orchids that were growing in a ditch by the road and was really pleased that so many more had flowered this year. From 5 the first year, I counted 25 this year. I think I managed to get 6 in this shot:-


The commune cut the verges and went round most of the orchids but I did find the following that had been cut.

Shearing Time

Stardate 30th April 2009

The end of April is when Colin the shearer visits France and undertakes a whirlwind tour of a large part of the country shearing herds of alpacas. I was down for the 30th of April. Colin would be brought to me by the people he’d sheared for in the day and after he’d done my 5 I was to take him to the next people on the list. It’s a bit like pass the parcel.

I’d remembered to get them into the barn the day before so that I was sure that their fleece would be dry as you can’t shear wet fleece. I’d put in a couple of rings so that Colin could stretch out the alpacas and shear then. I was also very grateful to Sandy who came over for the day to help out; a very needed and appreciated extra pair of hands.



After an hour or so the alpacas had their summer cut.

New Year – New Attempt at Blog

A new year and a new attempt at my blog, last year just sped past and was over before I knew it. Summer passed so quickly with friends and family; then it was harvest time, followed by a car crash and a computer crash.

So New Year resolution is to use new computer and along with current posts try to catch up on those from last year.