Dw i wedi enill eto!

It's been a very exciting last few days for me as I have won a prize at the Eisteddfod again! I actually got the letter telling me I'd won a month ago, but they ask that you not tell anybody in advance so that it's a surprise on the day -- and it's been really hard for me to keep my mouth shut for that long!

I went up by train on Wednesday from Llangadog station and was amazed how full the car park was -- there was practically nowhere to park -- of course, when I got back today, the car park was completely empty, and poor Beryl looked very odd parked all the way down at the bottom by the road!



There was an interesting information point thing at Llangadog station where you can hear info about the history of Llangadog and walking tours and where to get taxis and buses -- and it's human powered -- you have to generate electricity by turning the crank to hear the messages! I was quite amused to learn that St Cadog's Church is home to a symphony orchestra and choir...

On the train on the way up I noticed that somebody has removed the English spelling of Llanymddyfri from the station sign...

This man is in no danger of losing his train ticket:

Anyhow, I eventually arrived at my destination, which was Flint, where I stayed with my friend Jeanette's brother and his wife. I hadn't quite realised the geography of the area until I got there -- you can see England just across the water from just about everywhere in Flint...

The next morning they drove me down to the Eisteddfod where I spent the day discovering that I can understand people speaking "North-Walian" Welsh just fine!

Here's me with the Archdruid, Selwyn Iolen:

And this is Mair Spencer, the judge who decided that I was the winner of CYSTADLAETH 130. Darn i'r papur bro yn disgrifio digwyddiad (150 o eiriau) Lefel: Sylfaen:

After all that seriousness, I needed to relax a bit, and what could be more enjoyable than a fastest milk drinking completion! :)

This morning I went for a walk with Jack the dog around Flint and saw Flint Castle as well as lots of other interesting things.

(yes, this is Jack...)

This is England across the water again, so you can see why they built the castle where they did...

Is this where Professor Trelawney lives? :)

On the way back, I had to change trains in Shrewsbury (in England!!!) which has a lovely train station...

...but some horrible modern architecture -- this is the faux-Tudor "Darwin Shopping Centre" -- I think poor Charles is turning in his grave...

Spotted from the window of the train on the return journey -- a little red tractor, hard at work!

In other news, we had a big Sunday lunch last Sunday where we roasted a leg of our own lamb:

Yum! With the exception of the potatoes, everything on this plate was grown here at Bwlchyrhyd...

Twpdra

Right, so I can't get the lamb autopsied as the VLA isn't accepting any carcasses or samples at the present time, so I have no way of finding out what he died of and trying to prevent it happening again in future, and the local Animal Health office says that I can't even move the carcass to take it to the incinerator so I'm supposed to just find a quiet corner of my farm and leave him there to rot. Yeah, that sounds nice and safe and healthy...

Mae un o'r wyn wedi maru...

On Thursday morning, Greg spotted that lamb number 3 was breathing oddly. We kept an eye on him, and 24 hours later when there was no change, I phoned Bridget who gave me some antibiotics and penicillin. The penicillin brought his temperature down from over 106 to 103.9, but he never recovered and died yesterday morning. We want to get him autopsied so we know what he died of, but we are now waiting to hear back from the vet as to if the movement ban applies to dead animals as well as live ones...

Clwy'r Traed a'r Genau

Turned on the radio when I got up this morning and the first thing I heard is that there's been an outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm in Surrey... Good thing we got the lambs inspected on Thursday as there's now a nationwide ban on livestock movements... So now we just have to wait and see what happens next...

But yes, both lambs passed their inspection, and are now officially registered Balwen lambs!

We had a bit of sunshine this week (which is now gone) and things are growing a bit. Tomatoes are ripening and beans are slowly growing...

Greg's birthday was Wednesday and we went to Castell Carreg Cennen and then afterwards for ice cream at Heavenly -- yum!

Apologies for not having posted in ages, but we have had WWOOFers here since last Tuesday and we have been keeping busy! Pete and Alyssa have been doing lots of work and I will post photos when it stops raining...

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: