The Big Stink

I'm sitting here with Demelza on my knee, the heater on, wearing two jerseys and still shivering. I wonder if there's snow outside? After a few warmer days a cold southerly has swept up the island and we're bearing the rainy brunt of it.


However this hasn't stopped the spring bulbs from beginning their spectacular show. The farm next door has a "host of golden daffodils" flowering in the field by the road. I have two...The pink camellia bush at the top of the drive has been flowering for weeks now and still looks stunning. I tried to take photos of it last month and Mishka insisted on posing in one of them.

Smedley have been grazing the long acre the road verge)all this week which meant that whenever I open the front gates as I am going out a few minutes later I will have found the cadets have shut them again. As I am venturing out into the big world where the normal people live four times this week making the long trek down the driveway in the bitter wind to open them again is a pain in the behind(I'd say something worse but my swearing has toned down since I've lived here). The cows responsible for all this hoohaa are being held most of the day in the stump paddock next to me. After coming home from grocery shopping the other afternoon I noticed the most terrible smell outside. It was all encompassing making the pungent Peaches' mini tornadoes seem small by comparison! Looked out and saw silage had been fed to the cows. Well at least I now know what that smells like and I'll state here that chicken manure seems like Chanel No 5 in comparison.

A couple of my hens have gone broody already. One is determinedly breaking into my garden where I assume she has a nice little clutch forming. I usually find her loitering with intent near the back gate at various times during the day. Doesn't matter how many times I threaten her with decapitation she still insists on coming back. The call of impending motherhood is strong in this one.