Pwy yw hwn???

Some sad news to start with -- I went out Saturday morning to feed the ducks -- and Dai was dead. No idea what happened -- it wasn't a fox or anything as he was completely uninjured, just dead. Poor little Del has been distraught and lonely and missing her Dai, so this afternoon I went out and bought her a new friend -- introducing Dewi:

I got him from Sandra Barnard, the treasurer of the Call Duck Association, who conveniently lives just a few villages over from here. I put him down on the bank of the pond near where Del was and he was straight into the water after her...

Dewi's the one on the left. He's a bit smaller than her, but he's also younger than her I think, so perhaps he's got a bit more growing to do.

Speaking of growing, this is lamb #3, the little wet dish rag I thought was going to die:

Lamb #5 (with his mother) has also grown quite a lot:

And here's the ram lamb, looking nice and manly...

Things are sort of growing the garden as well -- the courgettes have finally started to flower, but the plants themselves aren't particularly big, so I'm not sure how much fruit we'll get. This time last year, we were already starting to eat the courgettes...

Mae hi'n wedi bod heulog heddiw!

Lots of tomatoes but still all green...

...unless this one is starting to ripen? I can't tell if it's just my imagination or if it really is!

Talley Fun Day was last Saturday, and they put down a load of wood chips to stop the grounds of the Abbey becoming mud. In exchange for a donation to the school, we are now the proud owners of a giant pile of used wood chips! This photo shows the pile AFTER I finished putting wood chips around all the fruit trees & bushes...


They make the garden look vaguely tidy! :)

I spotted this little one when doing my daily slug slaughter -- is it a lizard???

We've got two plum trees on the property that pre-date us -- the summer we first saw the house (2004) they had plums on but there have never been any since -- until now!

And the rhubarb is establishing itself well:

Also -- in exciting news -- I sent Cyndy some of the wool from the ram lamb some time ago and she has spun it now so if you want to see what Balwen yarn looks like...

Ffrwythau

Things are sort of growing -- but the weather is just so miserable that it's hard to feel like summer... These tomatoes need some sun to ripen.

The basil is coming along nicely and tastes summery.

We do have fruit, but again, I would be so much happier if we had the weather to go along with it.

These made a lovely gooseberry crumble -- I meant to photograph the finished crumble as well, but it got eaten before I remembered!

The birds are winning the war to eat the raspberries... :(

But we have now netted one of the strawberry beds, so we won't be sharing those!

Mae'r hwrdd wedi mynd

Right, well, today last year's ram lamb went off to be slaughtered. He will be in the freezer by the end of the week...

In the trailer:

This is this year's first ram, who we are hoping to register on 2 August at the Balwen Inspection Day:

The whole flock together:


I finally managed to get a close up shot of lamb number 5 -- look at those markings! Adorable, but not at all what he should look like...

And this is the hillside opposite us, where they have been harvesting the wood: