sleepy bees

a sleepy bumble bee on a  fencepost at the farm. the sun was shining and they are appearing here and there. there is a frost forecast for this weekend, I hope its not too cold for them.
the farm has a hive and honey bees look quite different. I haven't seen any of them yet.

snow to mud, cold

lots of snow. halted Scotland for four days... its all turned to mud now which Quince says is a much better thing...
I had booked a week off work, just as well as there would have been no getting there. I was meant to travel to visit friends but cancelled with the weather reports... we've re-arranged for a couple of days at  the end of the month.
the horses were out in the big field for the snow storm, with big round bales of hay and extra bins filled with water. there was no traveling to them either so they were left to the farm owner to check .
feelings are generally that winter is too long, too cold, and everyone is fed up.
the nights are getting lighter and hopefully it will warm up soon.

the dumbing down and poisoning

I read labels of food when I shop. sometimes having to choose between affordability and nutrition...
large conglomerates of shops leading the market with their products... not food... non food?
lemon curd as an example. homemade is eggs, lemons, sugar. butter.
Asda... a Walmart shop... er... none of those are in it....
and everything, it seems everything, has palm oil in it. bread, biscuits, peanut butter. like biting into blood....
shop local, shop health food stores... better for you but I can't afford it.
very grumpy about this.

to lighten my mood up a bit, the sun is shining and  I'm having a lazy day, watching Star Trek Voyager.

sunny but cold

the sun is shining on me and Luna the dog so we're snoozing.... the cats have not come back after the screeching over the laptop..
I've a bad cold so I'm slouching on the sofa with dogs and cats for company... and Sam, the cuddliest one, he nudges you just as you drink your coffee...  today he spilled it right over my laptop... oh my.
its taken a lot of drying and 20 minutes of system restore to get it back on... all seems to be working and files are calling up as usual,,, I'm going to leave it on now so that it keeps good and warm and hopefully any residual damp will be heated off. and I will back up files to a store later on too.. just a reminder of how easily things can be lost.
the weather is just winter yuck horrible, snow, that melts into muddy sludge, nice sunshine but freezing temperatures. I'm glad the nights are now showing a noticable difference in lightness.
photograph is of coffee in the bottom of my keepcup that was left in the car.. frozen solid !!

Christmas is coming....

decorating the pony. bless her she's such a good girly.

realised its Winter Solstice today.. wishing happiness and peace to  everyone. x

marching marching

we're getting out and about, marching down the road.

https://plus.google.com/+TourismsaskatchewanCanada
http://www.tourismsaskatchewan.com/

I just watched a tourist video for this town. looks lovely... but in my grumpiness I have this to say,,,
-they do tourist adverts like this for Scotland too, quite different from actually living here, in the cold and the wet. difficult to find decent decent jobs and affordable housing. the violence, not even hidden anymore, the drugs, people seem proud to be involved... children left to fend for themselves... overcrowded prisons.. is there anywhere in the world actually ''nice'' ??-

retirement with a view

Abbey has settled nicely into her retirement and is looking lovely and relaxed. 

Abbey and Quince

 it was always my dream to have these two girlies... this was the morning Abbey was leaving to go to her retirement. hope to visit her in a week or two. this is the one decent photo  from a series of about 20 where they wouldn't stand, moved around, made faces at each other, i had my eyes closed etc... lol
Quince is convinced she can't have her front feet lifted to be picked out... we're working on it... the hoof trimmer is due this weekend so she might not have much done this time. her fronts look like they've been cut too short anyway so they need to recover. Abbeys feet are perfect.

ooops... bought a pony....

I have decided to retire Abbey from riding, she is 17 but has spooked violently all her life and its getting worse, I sometimes think she can't see properly but vets cannot give me any clue.
she is returning to the people I bought her from and they are retiring another welsh cob called Glen, 22, so she will be his companion.

and .... ooops... bought another one...
a horse I know from a few years ago, another welsh cob.. I do like them... Quince, she is 12 and we've been out a couple of walks together now so hope to start  getting out for some longer rides soon.
Abbey on the left and Quince on the right , picture from a few years ago. 

no objection to men in dresses....

 quite clearly a man in the background wearing a dress.... lol

this episode .... wondering if there is a special club somewhere for trek bloopers.

hmmm, blogging as a daily goal..

there might be something in it... but could I commit...
https://medium.com/higher-thoughts/how-one-year-of-daily-blogging-changed-my-life-fc20fb79d1d1

a humorous article?

well its tongue in cheek humour, about how a woman feels about her life now she has given up drinking alcohol ..... and I see echoes of my own thoughts in there... here is the link if you would like to read it https://qz.com/762868

good girls

 Ellie and Abbey,

a rosette each for Horse Agility



the cats whiskers

somewhere in the reflection in those feral welsh eyes is a small sparrow, chirping merrily from the top of the roof.

this is reposted from June 2006. I was just thinking of wee Daisy today. my sweetheart kitty. I miss her very much. 

homemade skin nourisher... video makes it look simple

https://www.youngliving.com/blog/diy-lotion-bar-recipe/?utm_source=oso&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=DIYlotionbarvideo&utm_content=05817

road trip

myself, my daughter Rosie and her wee dog Luna, road trip today to visit friend Sandra who I've not seen for a few years.

set a goal of visiting two people a month to keep friend connections alive.

March..... like time marches on and on.

a warmish day in Januarys where I let Abbey out without her waterproof rug on, she got good and muddy, stayed in overnight to dry off, she was groomed clean and rug back on to go outside again. I think they like to get good and dirty and its because I like her clean and ridable that I keep the rug on.
Abbey is my little Welsh Cob, we're not up to doing much in bad weather.... Endomondo has us at 16 miles for February and that's more than I would have guessed so not too shabby. even at age 17 she needs to be kept in regular work to behave, we rode out with company on Sunday, then by ourselves yesterday, there was a warmth in the air and she was very chilled after some initial ''monsters'' that we have to pass to leave the yard.



I  got a FREE ticket to go to the Parelli Masterclass next weekend to watch!!
er...free ticket... my hotel is costing £140 and petrol costs sharing the drive with someone already going will come to about £60....
so that's my excitement. I put a load of stuff up for sale and have raised £35 towards it , anything helps really.

all my angels

 think all my angels were having a meeting?? there were more on the gravel leading up to the car too. I have a lot of angels, miss all of them

 moved some of the snowdrops from my garden to the farm for 'in memory of', this fat leaved snowdrop I think is 'cats whiskers', nice big flower with lots of green inside, they are for Eric, the farm's old dog.

and a wild type snowdrop with narrow silvery leaves, a gift early on in the garden from my friends dad, who has now passed on, so this brings him to  memory too. these are over Daisy and Smokey. I am a bit sad Tansy is not near them... but its only a body.. and she'll be remembered with them always, many blessings xx

wee Daisy

this is Daisy... on top of the shed.... she's 14 here.
sadly she was put to sleep today, just old age , nearly 18 yrs old.
over the rainbow bridge with her sisters now. good girls. xx

solstice and holidays

I intended to update my christmas greetings... but I couldn't find batteries... eventually found some , then couldn't find lights... then found both , scraped mud off the pony and got camera ready.. then the lights didnt' work... oh well. ... maybe a new picture next year... many blessings xx

and I can't believe I forgot to update on Abbeys picture by Helen Wilson. its been mounted and framed. awesome awesome!!

november

 November seems to be passing quickly, this photograph from the beginning of the month, I think most of the leaves are off the trees now. dark nights and cold weather, I go to bed earlier to keep warm, so read a lot more than do anything else.

I like this photograph except for the pylon in the background. not sure  my editing skill are up to removing that, Abbey is keeping well and I ride out when the weather is not too bad. needless to say this waterproof rug is now in the 'to be mended' bag... again... wish for endless money to buy pony rugs...

ellie learning the 'curtain'

Ellie has a few issues with people and confinement, working with her for a while now. starting off with the plain hoop very high and bringing it lower, today I added two ribbons and here she is being so awesome with that. hopefully have her up to full curtain soon. bless her.

shadow rider

I'm hoping to get a lot of riding miles done in October, I log my rides with Abbey and its surprising to see how far we get. So far we're at 29miles and I aim to do 65miles this month. 

Hempfling - HorseLand - The Movie - A Documentary about a Path of Life-M...

might take me more than one sitting to watch , liking it so far.

reposting from 1.4.2006....Saltheart Foamfollower

This is Saltheart Foamfollower(the name comes from a character who is a sea-faring giant in a novel by Stephen Donaldson) a Valley Nordkapp original, I think they are now calling it 'heritage' instead of original, ha. The beach looks a bit messy as they are doing some building on this island, its a National Trust island I think. This trip to Loch Lomond today being the first I have been on this year! A Scottish Canoeing Association trip run by Mike Thomson, well attended and great weather. I ran out of steam towards the end though so tomorrow I am going to be more than a bit sore!Ben Lomond still showing snow, a seagull obligingly flew into shot just as I pressed the shutter, a good photo moment by accident as usual!
I came home to find this crocus I bought last week had flowered. It is called Barr's Purple and I couldn't find it in any books so I had no idea what it looked like until today, and I like it! It is quite small so I suspect it is an alpine kind of thing. 'Stuff'is germinating away in the greenhouse, veggies and flowers but I am too tired out to make a list- I can do that tomorrow when I am so stiff I can hardly move, great!!

Goodby Smokey Tiptoes

from the top- Smokey, Daisy Tansy



I am suddenly cat-less. it was already organised that wee Daisy will live with my daughter, being 17 she is in good health but her mind is wandery now... she has periods of agitation, if it rains she isn't seeking shelter, and she's been sitting sunning herself on the road... lucky its quiet but neighbours were concerned. I am happy that she will be safely inside and spoilt for the rest of her life.   Tansy was put down last year, age 14 with a very large ''lump''. so I was just  having lovely Smokey, age 10...then Wednesday she was so ill, very not like her,  it was heart failure and she was put to sleep. looking back over a couple of weeks she's maybe not been herself.. but its hard to tell as she rarely got out of bed anyway, an outside farm cat who came to live with me when she was 2 years old... oh my how she loved to be a house cat, bed, sofa, dinner... what a life. she did go outside but was always first back in for the best sleeping spot. I didn't expect her to be gone so soon.

Helen Wilson Animal Art

this is Abbeys portrait,  its fabulous!! I was very luck to win a draw to have this done. its by Helen Wilson Animal Art  and its so completely gorgeous!!

16 Ways To Use Apple Cider Vinegar | Beauty Junkie

I use ACV sprayed on Abbeys hooves daily to keep them in good order, she also gets it in her dinner! A friend of mine told of this many years ago, she used to feed it to her goats.

"Liberty" Mary Ann Kennedy and David Lichman [Official Music Video]

enjoyed listening to this , and it has horses...lol

re-posting garden flowers, from June 25th 2008.

these pretty little flowers are from a sempervivum, a house leek. it lives in the greenhouse and seems to quite like it.
I took several photographs to try to show the bees in the foxglove flowers but this is the only one that shows, its very dark inside a foxglove flower and the bees can dissapear totaly out of sight!
and just look at all the flowers on the broad beans! I imagine every one turning into a lovely pod of beans. everything in the veggy garden seems very behind, some folks seem to already be harvesting these. I am getting great lots of lettuce, some nice baby onions and have had one teeny baby courgette.

some peace

May your troubles be less,
may your blessings be more,
and may nothing but happiness come through your door.

goodbye Granny Ann

not my photograph, lifted from facebook





Rock Rebel Granny, I called her Granny Ann.
nobody in the world was excluded from her world, an amazingly kind woman who will be missed by her family and internet friends.
leads to the discussion of how we could be friends never having met....
the world becomes a small place with the addition of a keyboard and a laptop... or even smaller now you can do everything (it seems) on a pocket phone.

awesome awesome !!

I'm excited!! I won a Pet Portrait from http://www.helenwilsonanimalart.co.uk/ so this is the painting of Abbey she is going to do.. final picture will not have a background or her headcollar on... just the lovely Abbey and she's got such a nice expression on her face in this picture. I spent ages deciding on which photo to use... as you may realise I only have a few.... er... thousand!!

gratefuls for today

 i'm grateful i can continue to afford to keep this little lady, she is such at poppet, bless her

i'm grateful the owner of this lovely young horse is going to let me take part in her education towards learning to be a riding horse. such a sweet horse.

hairdo

wee Abbey had an eye infection which has now cleared up. while we were ongoing with ointment I tied her forelock up in a plait , and then left it in for another week.. nice curly hair now... bless her.

growing away out of sight

lots of mushrooms growing on the muck heap at the farm... no idea what kind they are, and they're quite big.. about six inches tall some of them.

saturdays wee walk

Abbey being a wee star. nice and calm, marching along. she's wearing hoof boot, you can hear them. 

''rescued crocus'' from February 29th 2008

2008 was a leap year like this one. I wrote ''a quick walk round the rainy wind blown garden, the helebores are flowering beautifully, snowdrops, crocus and daffodills, primrose, pulmonaria.....too wet to take the camera outside! I found a crocus with its stem snapped, and it was rolled up tightly so I brought it in and plonked it in a jar, within 20 minutes it had opened up, lovely!''
I do miss my garden, and hope to have another one someday. 

that look... lol

''the look''

this is Abbeys great-grandad on her dads side, also great-great-great grandad twice on her dads side... and also great-great-great grandad on her mums side and also great-great-great-great grandad on mums side.... too scared to keep looking back in her pedigree now....... er...

Tree and Seed Festival

january

 

Abbey is mostly living out in the field now, she comes in overnight once or twice a week to get dried off, cleaned up and have her legs greased up.. waterproofing...  the weather is constantly dull and wet and the fields are sodden.

I have taken these photos with an old fuji camera that someone gave me. its in good working order though I find its 'technology' a bit stodgy and irritating... never look a gift horse in the mouth!! its a camera and it works!! and will have to be satisfied with it until I can raise some funds for something newer.

holiday season

this photo from about two years ago , I think... bless her. I can't find the little string of lights, so many people commented was it photoshopped... nope.
life without a camera is quite frustrating. funds are constantly being used for other things so a camera will have to wait. and I don't see the point in buying a cheap one 'for now' because I know it will irritate me... there is ''somewhere'' in amongst my packed and stored ''stuff''.. a Fuji.. I can't find it, but it would make a decent for now camera till things improve.
I'll keep looking.

''gardening expert'' i'm very flattered... lol

link to the article with Millrace Garden Centre


 here is a small excerpt ... my bit... lol

8 Gardening Experts Share Their Top Tips for Healthy Plants

Claire Gillies - Claire's Garden

Claire Gillies had a good garden education, from the edibles from an experienced organic market gardener who she had a Saturday job with, to the flowers from an avid plant collector that she would weed and help with her garden - and who's 'old plants' made the backbone of Claire's garden. Claire was lucky to meet and work with them. She remains forever enthusiastic by having a 'plant it and see what happens' attitude. If it doesn't grow she tries again, or tries something different.

1. What is the most effective way you've found to deal with garden pests?

I mostly collect by hand when I see them, and use occasional beer traps for slugs. I use a spoon and a jar with a lid I collect everything I don't want, then put the lid on the jar and the jar in the bin...

2. Do you use fertiliser in your garden and if so, which type?

Home produced compost and lots of horse manure. And every so often, mostly when putting in seeds, I sprinkle rock dust.

3. Which plant in your garden do you hold the most love for and why?

Daffodils, because they are so cheery at a miserable time of year, but I love everything so it's difficult to choose.

4. Butterflies: Beautiful garden visitor or troublesome pest?

A very welcome and invited guest! My shed is placed deliberately to leave a space that's out of sight and untended with nettles etc, and many flowers I've planted would attract bees and butterflies.

bravery, pony style!

today we rode through the section of path through the trees outlined in red... about 50-100 yards long... first time along it... ridden.. without ever having being led by me or another horse... whoohooo!! Abbey is awesome. bless her little scared socks...

The big allotment scam: How the system is stopping you from getting a plot

The big allotment scam: How the system is stopping you from getting a plot

Enormous waiting lists, pigeon lofts and 'dead man's shoes'

Waiting lists of around six years are stopping British families from going green and taking allotments on which to grow their own produce.

That's the opinion of an environmentally-conscious green fingered waste management company which says that many council- and committee-run allotment spaces are literally a case of "dead man's shoes", where the same people hold a plot for years and decades at a time.

On top of that, councils that are hard-pushed for budgets are tempted to sell off land for development, meaning there's ever decreasing space, the BigGreen.co.uk company says.

"Just at a time and more and more people are looking to grow their own produce, they're finding that the door has been slammed in their face," says Big Green spokesperson Mark Hall. "So many people have small gardens or no garden at all, meaning an allotment is the only real chance they have."

BigGreen.co.uk spoke to councils across the UK to find out how long the waiting lists were for an allotment. The authorities who released figures led Big Green to find that:

• The average waiting list for an allotment with six years
• A significant number of councils had waiting lists as high as 250 people, with waits of around nine years
• While the press made a big issue of 45-year waiting lists in 2009, there was no trace of any such figures now
• The longest wait one (unnamed) council was prepared to admit was for 12 years

"The major problem is the lack of allotments for the folk who want to work them," says BigGreen.co.uk 's Mark Hall.

His solution is simple: "The average 10 pole (about 250 square metre) allotment is a lot of work for the average family. Split them in two, and double the number of available plots," he says. "Perhaps split them into three or four to give families a taste of growing produce, but on a big enough plot to bring decent results."

People are clearly getting impatient at the long waiting lists, and seem to think that the system is broken or skewed against new blood. BigGreen.co.uk spoke to some people on council waiting lists across the UK and heard:

• "Three years we've been waiting. But you look over the fence and they've got empty plots. What's that about?"
• "We were told we were right at the top of the list, and then they sold the whole field off to a developer. Disgraceful. We're still at the top of the list, but the other site's miles away."
• "We desperately want to grow our own veg but we live in flats, but there's some selfish bloke who has six plots – one's got a pigeon loft and an old car! He can give one up for us, surely?"
• "It's an old boys' club isn't it? We don't fit in, so we don't get a plot"

Those are damning words, BigGreen.co.uk says which lead on to other arguments: "There also needs to be a national debate about preserving allotment land," Hall says. "It's important green space, but all too easy for councils to earmark for development. Once that land's gone, it's gone. And that money only fills a budget hole for a single year."

One of the biggest problems that people on waiting lists find is people who occupy multiple allotments, or pay for a plot but don't use it as intended (or even at all).

"There's nothing worse than going down your local allotment site to find whole plots of land that have clearly not been cultivated for some time. The council direct debit is collected every year, so they seemingly don't care if it's left fallow," says Mark Hall. "We also know of plots which are nothing but pigeons, goats and chickens, and some who cultivate flowers and 'organic' crops sell at a profit. That's not what allotment ownership should be about."

Councils should also be stricter about multiple-occupiers who have a number of plots as well as commercial operations, denying other local people the chance to cultivate some land: "It's clear that many local authorities need to urgently reform their allotment provision. It's easy for users to abuse the system, when keen people are left kicking their heels, waiting for their turn," Hall says.

Unfortunately, such is the way the system works, new tenants have to wait for the previous person to actually die before they can take over a plot. There must be a better way of dividing up land and introducing new blood, BigGreen.co.uk says – "Dead Man's Shoes" just isn't good enough.

BigGreen.co.uk says they recently heard of a council debating whether to increase the annual fee from £5 to £6 per year, and failing to come to a decision. And that's just goes to show how badly allotments are being handled by authorities.

"We'd pay ten times that much," says Mark, "If only we could get to the front of the queue!"

guest post from Big Green Waste Management

BigGreen.co.uk is a leading expert in recycling and waste disposal for businesses of all kinds.

We manage waste and recycling collections for companies in and around major towns at the best possible prices with an emphasis on sustainable solutions.

Our company is committed to reducing wasteful landfill, and works to help companies increase their recycling targets.

BigGreen.co.uk campaigns for tighter laws to discourage littering, wasteful behaviour, and to encourage greater recycling. We're the waste company that hates waste.

Website: http://www.biggreen.co.uk

Is the Hoof Smart? Adaptability of the Equine Foot

Is the Hoof Smart? Adaptability of the Equine Foot


lecture on the barefoot hoof, about an hour long if you have time.

saddle fit

saddle just returned from original makers , it was sent off to be widened  to fit Abbey better.. and had some D rings sewn on at the back to attach the picnic bags too.
now to try to get out on a picnic adventure...

lovely

I love this herd of horses, they're so chilled out , relaxed and feeling safe.