May

From one extreme to another. Having dried out from the North Somerset Show it is now blazing sunshine which, while wonderful has the plants all of a plether. The roses are now all out but also stressed as the change here was so swift. Blackspot abounds I will have to throw on the comfrey tea and hope that they feel better. Banksia is fabulous and set off by the Campanula on the steps up to the herb garden. Its so covered in blooms that I cannot bear to spoil its fun with too much pruning. Cecile Brunner sets off the wonderful dark red of the rose on the side of the front door. Not much action lower down but once it has found the sun the blooms are fantastic. Do I sound over enthusiastic? But they are magic and I must find something else to cover the 'squirrel runs' lower down. Perhaps it might put them off, though I doubt it. I bought some seed for a flowering vine at the Eden Centre which I've managed to germinate and will try that up the house. Here's hoping that a picture will follow!

Our RDA group had a wonderful day out at the regional competitions and came home covered in rosettes and all very exciting. Two qualified for the National Championships and the others are fired up for next year. The day was jut right for weather, unusual, and a friend from up the valley came and took magical pictures of a fun day out .Our team leader summed up the prize giving as 'Joy'. Says it all really.

BT Chaos

RDA was flooded off on Tuesday which gave me time to bail out the stables to find that horses had lost shoes here and there, too much deep mud sucking them off.

On Wednesday our BT line went down. I spent quite a long time speaking to India. I thought the gentleman was chaming but he spent an amazing amount of time telling me that I would be paying £99 for the engineer to call if it was our fault.  I had checked all our kit and while we have broadband we have no phone, which is difficult when you have a BnB business. I booked an appointment for 8am til 1pm Thursday which they sent me 2 text messages to confirm. Having to go to a funeral on Thursday we paid our part time lawn mower chap to stay in the house to meet and greet the engineer after we left til 1.15pm when he gave up and went home. A no show.

We returned at 9pm to an intermittent dialing tone and I tried calling 152 and this time got the Phillipines! They were Talktalk and had no idea what was going on. Today I spoke to India again and they said that the line was mended, then agreed that actually it was not and after some discussion said that they would make it a priority with the engineer. Meanwhile some poor lady from Westbury on Trym had had to drive out here as she had a meeting with my mother today which she couldn't make and had been onto BT who had informed her that there was a cable fault not to be repaired til May 9th. Does anyoine know what is going on?!

Another lady bringing a group round the house next week sent a desperate e-amil that she too was unable to reach us on the landline and when she enquired was told that the line had been cancelled so she was worried that we had left and there would be no visit! How great, such misinfornation.

The BT engineer has just called and stated that they mended a different number yesterday because we had reported it not working. He had no information on 393141. News to me! It turns our to be the burglar alarm line but we hadn't noticed. Where I wonder did they get tha from?? Anyway they tell me they will sort it out within the hour. Might I be excused for being sceptical?

Norwegian funeral, muddy moments

I sit watching rain run down the window panes watching the emerging wisteria framing the window and the abundance of Choiysia outside the study window. Slightly disconcerting if one catches the greenish old glass as it turns the flowers a strange colour. At the bottom of the green walk the newly planted day lillies have enjoyed their natural watering and look very well.  The fields have turned from green to brown and we slop about again in mud which we had hoped to have seen the back of for a bit.

It was off to Norway last weekend for the funeral of my oldest friend's mother. We have known each other all our lives even sharing a birthday which was incedentaly last weekend so it was a birthday breakfast with another birthday girl friend here and a party in Olso 14 hours later with my astrotwin. How amazing when travel is smooth but for me it was surrounded by people with cancelled trains and missed flights I sat on a crowded train in a booked seat. stepped seamlessly from train to Heathrow bus followed someone who looked confident as no signage and found a lift hidden behind a tower which whisked us up to departures. As I had discovered my out of date passport in time to hasten to Newport for a remedy I felt that al in all someone was smiling on my efforts. That the plane was 1 1/2 late was I suppose almost a necessary inconvenience.  Plane train car party at the new house where environmental courses are already being held by Julio combining old world and new techniques, very interesting. Apples, Raspberries (they can only grow summer varieties) Plums all mulched up. Kindergarten amended to study room and loads of room. Met up with 4 of the 6 siblings and had a very jolly hour or two. Lightened the travel bag with the requested cheddar and duty free wine soon consumed with much catching up.

A noisy breakfast bacon (they like English we like Norwegian), eggs, cheese (Chedder of course) and ham, home made jam.Oceans of tea (Typhoo only will do). Off to exceedingly pretty cafe on the edge of the Oslo Fjiord for open sandwiches for the post crem bun fight then on to the crem a truly depressing building circa 1970 of pebbledash concrete flat roof and dripping wooden slats overhead (yes it was raining while the day before was light, bright and sunny (swapped with England who did the opposite on both days). To a funeral in Norwegian interspersed with an English oration and 'All things bright and beautiful' played as my brother said the 'B' tune at a million miles an hour with not a pause for breath. The vicar while having the most wonderful voice not leading as he did for the Norwegian hymns which was a shame. It made me wish that I was not completely tone deaf. They don't stand for hymns but do for the comittal (dropped a couple of feet, I suppose for suggestion of burial, then stays there in sight.

On to Karin's catching up with various people that we'd not seen for years. I was amused taht The owner of a horse that I had 'rescued' from Denmark didn't ask how she was. I wonder how much she knew of her endrometritis which has made getting her in foal very difficult. Ah well. I am a sucker for that. Very good to catch up with the next generation. We are now the oldest, such a strange feeling. Met also the step children. One a very compliant 11 year old who is still very grateful for being rescued from a haphazard life in Chile. The other a rfebelious late teenager who is not reallt sure why she is rebelling and turned up to the funeral in a red tarining outfit and then clearly wished she hadn't despite being completely ignored by all and sundry. It just was not 'her day'. So difficult to be 19 going on 14.

The bro and I were really pleased that we had attended and had a relaxed journey home. The only people through the face recognition passport control so no waiting at all. Queue? What queue? It was 10.30pm but nice not to have to struggle through endless masses. Then onto the new pod system to the carpark. What a revolution. We must get it in Bristol. After all it was developed in Bristol University and we should be flying its flag. Something to work on.

A Smashing Time

At last I am back on line having spent several weeks doing my best to get rid of all my IT technology. How disabling! First the dear small dog ate my mobile. That is to say when I came down one morning there were the deconstructed bits in her bed. No apparent ill effects from mangling the battery glad to say. I replaced that and back in action. We had a great 2 night break in Tavistock at the Bedford Hotel a wonderful old place where neither the corridors or the walls are level but the food was excellent and the staff charming. Midnight mass in the church 100m from the hotel was magical with the church lit by real candles such a difference. Full of people standing room only.  We spent 2 days walking on Dratmoor sometimes in low cloud but we all enjoyed it enormously.  On Christmas Day we went up to the sister Hotel Two Bridges and walked up to the old oak wood of stunted trees. A good prelude to a large lunch and back to the Two Bridges for coffee. Not really possible as they had had a fuse go and only just sorted out the problem by 11am. What a terrible thing to happen to an hotel on Christmas morning. No power!

Not our fortunately and lunch was very good except why the chef or whoever plated up felt that it was necessary, after making excellent crispy roast potatoes, to cover them in turkey and make them soggy I cannot imagine. A lack of understanding of the basics. I love Christmas pudding but hate brandy butter/sauce etc and sadly the poor pudding had been drowned in a very sweet overbearing sauce. That aside it was a very good lunch and they can be forgiven the detail as it stopped me eating far too much!

We headed home on Boxing Day via a pub for lunch in Woodbury Salterton. Excellent. We had been given the 'Good Pub Guide' and found it there.

On getting home yet again...no phone. Sat down to write a bit of blog and caught the mains lead in my foot. Disaster hard disc destroyed. All documents and photos lost. I'd only backed up to the hard disc...Serious mistake. I now have a new hard disc but fidning all my user names and passwords has been a marathon task. As for the info the geeks are trying to reconstruct but I fear they may not be able to. I must get an external hard disc NOW!

As to the phone I now have an android as have been challenged to be able to use it and it has a GPS so I can find it if it gets lost so they say.  I found the other one eventually when the floods receded. Not a well phone.

LET THE VILLAGE BUY A WOOD!

Long Ashton, a very long village by Bristol, has just found that a wood in the village is up for sale, last bids tomorrow morning.  We are trying to raise £100,000 by then! Its all quite exciting as we have only had 4 days to bring this bid to reality. £50,000 and rising will we make it?

Ancient Woodland..A chance for all the village to learn old woodcraft, copppicing and the like. Lots of exploration possible. Easy learning in a natural environment what could be better. How much fun is a wood?         Endless.

We have been trying to buy these woods for the village for 40 years. Now is the moment!  We are trying to alert all of Long Ashton to this fantastic opportunity to get a piece of old England for everyone.  Henny was on Radio Bristol this am.

It would be great if it works!!

 

Among all this we are still crushing apples. A great season all who come are so pleased not to be wasting their apples. The juice is sweeter now and even the Bramley cookers are tasting good. We have crushed our pears, apples and have added some home grown beetroot. that 'superfood' which gives a wonderful colour to the juice, sweetens it up and gives a certain earthiness to it.  I even ate a ripe blackberry coming down from the hen palace yesterday. David has done a wonderful job on the grass roofed abode and the girl's are coming up the valley at the end of the week to take up residence.

The B n B is ticking over, very cosy with heating and after a few trips through the rest of the house I think I'll move in!

Loads of apples

In the last 6 weeks the apples pressing business our 'Court' industry has been working overtime. Not something to suit all as we are madly busy for 2 months then nothing til next year's harvest. One does not the n get bored of apples and the heady scent of juice, the roar of the chopper, watching juice run down the press adn feeling good that so many apples are not being wasted.  The wasps have had a field day and buzz around while the dogs think that its great sport to try and catch them. From time to time they get stung but seem to mind not at all, just shaking their heads and carrying on regardless. Pip is curled up behind me now getting ready for a days apple pick up and 2 builder's bags of apples arrived for pressing.  We have had some wonderful feedback from customers. 'Wonderful labels! Took a bottle to a dinner party last night was a HUGE success. Very very delicious. Such fun.'  Well it is down to the quality of the apples and theirs were excellent so that makes our job easier but it was the first time that all their apples had been used and they had also had a good pick.  They will keep (if not drunk) for a year or two.  So for me a good ethical business.

French guests

We have just had some delightful guests to stay who came for their wedding anniversary. Specificaly to visit Casa Mia an Italian restaurant in Bristol which has a Michelin Star. Luckily I asked them if they knew how to get there and they happily produced a google map (clearly pleased with their preparation and rightly so, they had seen the restaurant on tv and decided it was the place to visit). Unfortunately google were not aware that one of the major roads that they were directing them to take has been closed for well over a year and for the forseable future. We lent them a street map of Bristol, suggested another route and off they went. Good thing, had they tried the google route they would have had to go at least another 6 miles and might still be searching for their supper.

Next day they reported that they had had a lovely time and showed us photos of the different tasting dishes that they had eaten.  It looked very interesting the final course full of dry ice and funstuff which had rounded off the evening well.  It just happened that it was the Bristol half marathon when they headed home. One of my liveries had taken hours to get out of Bristol as many roads were closed so I suggested to our guests that again they should ignore google and take another route back to London. Nothing like a bit of local knowledge.