Saturday walk, and a bit more history

We had a lovely walk yesterday up through Morwenstow a tiny cluster of buildings on the North Cornish Coast. It is almost as far North on the Cornish Coast as you can go before you move into Devon. There is a fabulous Church at Morwenstow and a beautiful old rectory. Close by at what is actually Crosstown but also considered by many as Morwenstow is the lovely old pub 'The Bush' which serves excellent food and good beer (sounds like an advert, but it is one of our favorite eating pubs).

The walk itself is circular and passes through open country, secluded glades and includes part of the South West Coastal path. This part of the Coastal path is not for the faint hearted, some is quite vertiginous (and I suffer from vertigo so had to 'cling on' for a few bits). There are also some very very steep bits. Sadly the weather was very misty yesterday but the views must be fantastic on a clear day. (I have added a link on my links to the website that has this walk on it). The walk also includes 'Hawkers Hut', this is a small Hut (I am sorry, completely forgot to take a picture, but we will go back there and I will take one then)built into the cliff by the eccentric 'Vicar of Morwenstow' Robert Stephen Hawker, who used to sit in the Hut and smoke opium and write poems. Some say he is the inspiration for Daphne du Maurier's Vicar of Alternun, but Hawker was not a naughty vicar, he was one of the only clergymen who would busy smugglers and pirates in the churchyard. He is also known as the person who gave us the Harvest festival as we know it and who wrote the words for the Cornish Anthem. He loved bright clothes, the only black items he wore were his socks (apparently). You can still find his writings in old book shops and the most well know of his biographers is Baring Gould, but it is difficult to find this book still in print anywhere.

The walk was well worth it and I would encourage anyone visiting this area to do it, stout walking boots are a must and a pole would be useful (wish I had not forgotten mine, might have made me feel less dizzy!). At the end of the walk there was a good pint of beer at the end in the garden of 'The Bush' or you can get teas at the church house down by the Church itself (St Morwenna).

Summer is here!

I had heard that someone in South Devon had seen a swallow on the 1st April (I thought it was an April fools to start with) and did think that I had heard one at around that time but never saw any until yesterday when I saw 3 flying about late afternoon. Today I have seen one sitting on the electricity cables, so they are definitely here. Makes you feel all summery when you see them again.

Edited 24th April: Just looking back at last year, seems the swallows are 5 days late this year here, maybe they got delayed due to the ash!!!!!!!

Animals

As I think I have mentioned, we have two cats, one long haired tabby and one short haired. When they were young I was always worried that they would get run over or hurt in one of their fights. They are now 11 and apart from a few minor problems have always been well.

Charlie Cat (the long haired one) has always seemed the more robust of the two, but ever since he was a young cat he has had a bit of a thirst. I have mentioned it at vaccination time to the vets, but no-one ever seemed very bothered about it. Also, since we have been down here and not working 9-5, they have tended to be fed (now and then) on a 'demand' basis (mainly because I cannot stand the nagging). They always have fresh water, but Charlie prefers to drink out of; the sink; your water glass when you are not looking; standing water outside and any other water that looks pretty horrible. About two weeks ago we noticed that we were having to fill up the fresh water next to their food alot more regularly and he seemed to be sleeping alot more. Also Charlie had developed a snore (he has had it for years, but it has got worse recently). Finally we decided that we really had to take him to the vet; now this is not a simple event, he is not good in cars (although behaved impeccably when we moved down here, involving a 6 hour car journey); he is known to be sick, wee and the other thing within 5 minutes of being in the car, so we have to plan well and try to make sure he hasn't had anything to eat for about 8 hours before the journey. On Wednesday evening last week we took the food away and Thursday morning we set off for the vet (he did wee, puke and the other thing but it was close to home, so I brought him back, we cleaned him up and went off again). The upshot of this is that A) he has a slight heart murmur (only minor panic on my part) and B) he is Diabetic (major panic). We really can't believe it, but here are some things to know about Feline Diabetes:-

1. It is common, 1 in 500 (some say 1 in 400) cats have it.
2. It is predominant in obese and/or male neutered cats (Charlie isn't fat, but he is a neutered male).
3. Bengal cats are particularly predisposed to it.
4. Signs of diabetes are; increased thirst (yes), increased hunger (yes), loosing weight (no).

Cats should not be fed on demand (smacked wrist), and some dried foods can cause problems as they are high in carbohydrates (it can also cause kidney problems if insufficient water is provided and can cause impaction of the cats gut - one of my parents cats developed this and did survive but it could have been otherwise).

Since his diagnosis we have had to feed him (and the other cat) at 12 hourly intervals followed 30 minutes later by a nice quick injection of insulin (I never thought my nurse training would be put to use on one of our cats). He is very good about this but is starving most of the time. We tried to keep them in at night to stop him filling up on mice, but this has proved challenging and last night he went AWOL when it was time for us to go to bed, so we left him out; thankfully he was waiting downstairs when we got up this morning. He is off to the vet hospital tonight for a day of checking his blood glucose tomorrow and hopefully it is good news, he is certainly alot more lively than he has been and has cut down on his drinking considerably. Our poor other cat is very fed up and cannot understand why he cannot have his food when he wants, we have been giving him a mid afternoon, small snack to keep him a bit less miserable.

So an adventure for us all! Hopefully Charlie will get stable on his insulin and hopefully we can feed him a bit more than his is currently allowed as he is so hungry. He is never now going to live to a great old age, life expectancy is about 2 years (on average) for diabetic cats, but he is 11 now, and the average age for cats is 14 years (although most people I know with cats seem to keep them going up to 16 or 18 years). He has had a good life and hopefully we can ensure that his quality of life for the rest of his days is not compromised too much. I will update for those animal lovers amongst you when we have more news.

Nutty weather

This must be the longest cold snap we have had in decades, I cannot believe that it is Easter and Scotland and N.Ireland are being swept by blizzards (although we have had snow on my birthday when I was a child; end of April; when we lived near London). The Cairngorm ski resort is closed down because of the conditions and thousands of people are without power! Even down here we are not exempt from the conditions. I had a particularly exciting drive across Bodmin moor yesterday morning in blizzard conditions. The temp gauge in the car dropped 6 degrees in under 30 miles/40 minutes as I drove from home up to the moor. Yesterday and today we have gale force winds and sleet, hail and the odd snow shower!, last night the temp dropped to 1 degree and today it hasn't got above 3! Thank goodness we looked ahead before planting out seeds last weekend, shall have to wait a bit before the spuds, runner beans and shallots go out! All the lovely daffs that had come out are now battered and broken and our poor hen (who hasn't been herself recently and maybe coming to the end) is really fed up and crouches in a sheltered outbuilding all day.

Apparently the Met Office are no longer going to do seasonal forecasts as they have been badly bitten with their mistakes over the last two years; remember our barbecue summer last year and our mild winter this winter! However, I saw a report on one news website that said a group of academic forecasters who rightly predicted the terrible weather we have had over the last 2 years have said it will be a hot dry summer. Difficult to imagine it at the moment and I am not holding my breath, but it would be nice to not be cold any more!

Edited Wednesday 31st March. Dartmoor has a snowy top and Exmoor does too. Still bitterly cold, very very very very windy! What an end to March.

Green and Yellow (with a bit of history thown in!)

When it was still dry, and we hadn't had rain until last week for some time; the farmers were busy spreading muck on the fields to fertilise them in readiness for silaging and summer grazing. It was a bit smelly but you get used to these things. Until the rains came, the fields were very brown and dry and the mud was cracking...now the fields are green again and you can tell which ones have been fertilised and which ones haven't, there are definitely different 'greens' out there. (The field in the the background of this picture has been 'mucked' the field in the foreground hasn't)

An interesting story about this part of the world and relating to fertilising the fields is that centuries ago this area; from Hartland across to Bideford and down to Launceston (Lanson) and back across to about Wadebridge; was very rough ground and mostly heath and moor land, you can still see it today in fields which have not been managed. The land was pretty much unusable (probably why this area is still relatively 'remote') and the only way the farmers could make it productive was of course to use fertiliser. The best fertiliser for this land was sand, so farmers would go down to the beaches in their carts along the dirt tracks to get the sand, you can only imagine how much work this was. Then in the early 1800's someone had an idea to create a canal that would bring sand in from the coast to the inland farms. This eventually (after alot of work, planning and trying to find funds) resulted in the Bude canal, a small part of which can still be seen at Bude. Tamar lakes near to Kilkhampton were created as feeder lakes for the canal. Sadly when the railways came (and of course round here went; they had a shorter life here than the canal did) the canal was no longer financially viable. If you are interested in the Bude canal and its history, I can recommend 'The Bude Canal' by Helen Harris and Monica Ellis (1972!). Fascinating reading, the feats of engineering are quite amazing. The map above shows the route of the canal in red (taken from the internet), the picuture to hte left shows the remaining part of the canal by the sea at Bude Also interesting (and equally sad in its way) are histories of the railway in this Bude/Holsworthy area. Just a note to say, that generally this land is used for stock rather than arable farming, and you can see the moorland trying to take over in places still. If the farmers stopped grazing the land and fertilising it, it would soon revert to how it was 200 years ago.

OK, so enough history and 'green', what about the yellow. Well the spring flowers are now making a real effort, thanks to the rain and the odd bit of sun. I just hope that with the forthcoming cold spell over next week, it doesn't put everything back again (apparently Spring flowers are late this year). We would normally have planted our runner bean seeds (under cover) by now, but we will wait until it gets warmer again. Have been busy digging though and the veggie beds are looking good and all will be ready when it is time to plant out.

Spring is on its way.

Oh dear, 6 weeks since my last post, it has been very busy with work for both of us and just no time to keep this up to date; must do better (reminds me of my school reports!).

Been trying to get the veggie plots up to scratch again, lots of compost from our own little heap and some lovely well rotted chicken do dos that has been maturing for over a year in plastic bags in an outbuilding - nice! Had I heard about it in time we would have done the no dig method of gardening - look it up. It's too late now, but will definately look at it for next year, but will need to start collecting the chicken do dos again! Have planted marigold seeds out and getting ready to do peas, runner and french beans soon. I would have done this a while ago, but up until less than a week ago we were having severe frosts and night time temps of minus 5. Have to say mind you that we have very impressive coriander going in the porch which has survived the cold nights very well.

Been on some lovely walks round Hartland way and M bought one of those silly foil kites (the ones that lift you off the ground) so we have been flying that from the fields (in amongst the silage, yes it's spreading time again and they always seem to do it when I have the washing out, some of our clothes have a lovely 'eau de countryside' aroma about them!). The kite is great and can really pull you around, you have to keep tight hold of it as if it crashes it can seriously damage it (and anyone standing underneath it I expect), it certainly makes your arms and shoulders ache. We also took it to the beach yesterday, but the wind wasn't really strong enough and you do have to keep an eye out for stray small children or dogs that might get swept off the ground if it flys too low... lots of fun.

The snowdrops are out and have been for a while, and we have crocuses. In the last couple of days the first primroses have poked their faces out, they obviously think Spring is here, but I do wish it would get a bit warmer, we are still very cold with a fierce (most of the time) easterly or northerly wind; really had enough of being cold now. The cats are enjoying the sun though. This is a picture of Charlie enjoying some rare spring sunshine!

The yellow hammer is also back, he/she disappeared for ages, so its really nice to hear it again, only not so early in the morning. We also have a chaffinch, this is a newbie as I haven't heard him/her before round here, so the word has obviously got round that this is a nice place to stay. On the subject of birds we still have only one hen we just haven't had the time to go and get any more; it looks as though the two Easter weeks are going to be quiet on the work front as most of my work at the moment is with people in the tourism and leisure industry (not surprising really bearing in mind where we live) and they won't want to see me over the Easter hols; so it should be a good time to introduce some more birds to our hen house. We are not sure that our current incumbent will be very pleased as she gets all the food and all the treats, but it will be good for her to share again!

Meanwhile I have been trying to get on top of my wine collection and have now bottled the banana (15% ABV) and racked off the gorse (25% ABV - that can't be right) and the primrose (our own flowers, I didn't destroy the wild ones of course). The banana looks good but tastes of just alcholol, maybe it needs to be treated like a vodka, but it is a bit disapointing, I think I left it on the lees (the yeast and bits) too long.

I have also restarted to use my bead loom, something I learned from my sister who in turn learned it from the native Cree in Northern Canada. Sadly my eyesight is not what it was and even with glasses it is difficult. I am going to get myself a proper loom and some slightly larger beads and keep at it. I do find it quite relaxing. Photos will follow.

Right must stop procrastinating and go back to some work.

Still no more chickens

I went to look at some hybrids last week so that our poor little girl isn't lonely after her friend went to the great hen house in the sky. Hybrids are generally bred for egg laying and lay more eggs than pure breeds, however they are sometimes not as hardy as pure breeds and don't live as long. You can get hybrids bred for meat birds too. Most eggs that you buy from a supermarket come from hybrid layers whether these be from the nasty battery hen system or free range. Most commercial egg businesses tend to replace their hybrids after 18 months, even the free range ones. That may or may not be true if you buy your eggs from the farm gate or from farmers markets (I don't know to be honest). After about 18 months the shell quality of some of the more commercial hybrids can not be as good as with younger hens.

So you may ask why am I looking for hybrids and not pure breeds? Well it comes down to cash in some ways, as hybrid pullets (pullets; or POL, point of lay; - hens of about 18 weeks that are just coming into lay for the first time) are not as expensive to buy as pure breeds, however of course the pure breeds may last longer (as long as they don't get eaten by Mr Fox or get egg bound or develop other problems). Some hybrids are bred specifically for free ranging and lay more eggs (not as many as some of the really commercial hybrids such as the ISA's, warrens etc) and are good hardy birds that can live good long lives and these are the ones I was looking for/at. Problem is that I have rather fallen in love with a pure breed, the Welsummers, they are so so beautiful so now I am not quite sure what to do. The most hardy of the hybrids (the Black Rock) seems to be difficult to come by at the moment and their nearest relatives that I can fine are mostly very black!! (some have lighter head and neck feathers than others). I thought I liked this but when I went to see some similar hens I did think that I do really prefer the brown hen; you can get brown hybrids (I am thinking here of the Calder Ranger, also known as the Columbian Black Tail) that are hardier than the ISA's (these are the ones we got first time), but I am not sure if they are as hardy and long lived as the Black Rocks. What of course we could do is get a couple of the Calder Rangers and a couple of Welsummers. Need to put my thinking cap on about this one. The other option would be to raise some chicks, but this takes a lot of time and care and attention and we currently are not set up for this logistically, so something for the future perhaps.

It's quite fun looking at all the different breeds and there is a poultry auction at the agricultural market next Saturday so I might go for a look. I am not sure that I would buy from auction as you can get caught out and end up with cockerels rather than hens if you don't know what you are doing, sorry to say that there are some unscrupulous folks out there who will try to pass off a young cockerel as a hen. Also you really need to know that the hens have been vaccinated against the nastiest hen diseases, mareks for one. I will go and have a look anyway and report back. Who knows by this time next week we may be the proud owners of more girls.