Introducing … Garry the Greyhound

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Jonathan: Just as a drop of water will wear away a stone, Denise has over the past few months been dropping regular hints about greyhounds.  D: Wouldn’t it be lovely … ?  D [a few mintues later, pointing at website photo]: Look  – Isn’t he cute …?! J: Hmmm.  D: You’re not even looking! J: Hmmph! You know the sort of thing.  Well the stone must have got so thin you could see through it, because this morning I gave way to the inevitable and said okay, in principle – you can look into it. By this afternoon we were … Continue reading →

Buffy and her 20 babies

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Denise: Buffy is a super-mum!  Yesterday, I added to her own clutch of recently hatched chicks all those just hatched from an incubator – last night she managed to shelter 20 chicks, most less than a day old, under her voluminous skirts (Buff Orpingtons have feathering like crinolines!) and this morning they were all present and correct.  What a marvellous mother she is! Today the chicks have been out in the run with her, some even climbing up and riding around on her back! For visitors to the Big Garden, it’s been quite a circus show: if I get round … Continue reading →

Chelmsford

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Jonathan: Working at Mouchel office in Chelmsford today – very near the station.  Took 80mins to travel 40miles there and another 30mins finding somewhere to park. Carrying out an independent check of major changes to a new road already under construction.  The scheme is the extension of a Roscommon Way in Canvey Island, from the roundabout by Morrisons to industrial and housing areas close to the Thames shore.  It was designed as a dual carriageway, but due to spending cuts it is being reduced to a single carriageway.  Over 32 years in this business I’ve worked on lots of ‘dualling’ … Continue reading →

Farewell to August

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Jonathan: Still August -just! – but as everyone is saying it already feels like late September. There’s something about the light, the temperature, dew on the grass, the smell of the soil … and already dry soils and hot winds have resulted in some leaves turning golden already. But how I love this time of year! Winter and Summer are straightforward in what they promise (though rarely live up to!). Spring and Autumn are seasons of contrast and contrariness: Spring of glad relief and untamed hope; and now in Autumn a time of poignant reflection … and a solemn dread … Continue reading →

Blue Rodeo

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Jonathan: Motorhome, Welwyn Garden City.  Bank Holiday weekend – Sunday. Dark outside now, curtains drawn, listening to Canadian band Blue Rodeo – Five Days in July: great stuff.  Introduced to this seriously great band by my colleague Tia Nagi.   Tia’s a Sikh, from Kenya, now living in Hemel Hempstead, but brought up in Calgary, Canada. The only Sanskrit-speaking cowgirl I’ve ever come across! Thanks to Tia I’ve developed a real curiosity about Canada.  Thanks to Google Earth and street view I’ve driven from Calgary along the Trans-Canada Highway to Banff, looked round the shops and explored the back streets.  I’ve … Continue reading →

In Exile

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Jonathan: Here I am in my old motorhome, on a caravan site at Welwyn Garden City (N of London).  This is where I work – well not the campsite, but in an office here in WGC! – designing maintenance and improvement works, mostly in Hertfordshire.  Three weeks away, one long week at home: that’s how its been for the past year and a week: Yup, we need the money! I’m supposed to be designing major works, but the little work that comes my way now is trivial.  Designing bypasses, upgrades to motorway, new tram systems, that’s what I’m used to: … Continue reading →

… wagging their tails behind them

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Jonathan: Further report from home.  Denise arrived at croft this morning to find ewe back with the rest – just her lamb still on the wrong side. Opposite of what I’d have expected, since gaps tend to favour the small and lithe, not the big and rotund.  Best not to dwell on that, not a good time for base assumptions to be challenged.  Anyway, Denise turned off the electrics, opened up all the ‘gates’ in the dividing electric fence – and the little one trotted meekly back to its Mum.  And to think this is my breeding stock – in … Continue reading →

Okay, the grass IS greener …

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Jonathan: Message from home: one of the ewes and her lamb has got into the ‘other’ half of the field. How is currently unknown, why is almost certainly beyond knowing.  Okay, yes, the grass is greener and longer. But that’s not what the draw appears to have been: they just stand there looking back at the rest of the flock, bleating to get back.  Not home for another five weeks (heaven help me) so can’t leave them like that.  If they do find their way back under (or was it somersaulting over?) the separating electric fence, then they may get … Continue reading →