Catching up and Keeping Updated

As usual an apology for the lack of input - the summer months are so busy for me. So in order to keep things simple I'll make a short entry about each 'topic' and hope to keep my public from being bored to death by my rambling.......So First Up and Rally Season is upon us with the Fenlanders 19th East of England Rally taking place at the end of July at Fakenham Racecourse, Norfolk.

As secretary of the Chapter this has been a busy time for me and all of the committee members in getting ready for this years event.

Rugby - The world cup starts early September and finishes 23rd October - with games being televised from New Zealand and broadcast early monring, I can see Beer with Breakfast becoming the norm for a few weekends! M.Chabal is a TV pundit for a French TV station given that he did not get selected for the French squad.

Racing Metro 92 are in Pool 2 of the Heineken Cup and will be playing Edinburgh, Cardiff Blues and London Irish - a superb draw and i shall certainly be booking tickets for a number of games and with any luck get in a couple of trips to Paris.

Garden - well that has also kept me and Woz busy and this year we have planted, sowed and potted up a bumper crop of lovely veggies and soft fruits which should fill the freezer and keep our food bill down through the winter.

The Hens - are currently at peak laying with eggs every day and extremely delicious they are too :)

The Dogs - Ruairi and Izzy get along just fine now with Ruairi now 3 years old and Izzy 5 1/2 and very much settled into life at five sheds. Daily walks keep them and Woz fit and healthy. And talking of which Woz and I have reached the 8th month of our smoke free campaign and feel very pleased with our progress.

The House - slowly but surely the renovations are gradually being completed with just a small amount of work left.

Return to the land of Blog

After an inordinate and quite honestly dreadful amount of time away from Blog Land - I have returned! And boy have we been busy down at the Five Sheds small breeds and vegetable centre! This year sees the launch of the Five Sheds hedge veg, plants and seedlings stall positioned just out side of the gate and offering a variety of good things to grow, eat or just look at. Back in the greenhouse a hive of activity has resulted in seedlings of numerous vegetable and flower plants being sown, potted on and trundled down to the gate. So far sales are slow but as people get to know, so I will be busy potting and pricking out into the wee small hours. The Five sheds garden is blooming and the veg beds rapidly filling with little green shoots promising a bountiful harvest later in the year. The hens - yes we now have three - are doing really well. Sadly we lost Sybil to old age (she was an elderly chicken when we got her) but she was soon replaced by two sweet little things which quickly grew into great hens and who along with Polly, produce up to 21 eggs a week. Sad news also as we lost Ruby - our beautiful German/Belgian Shepherd lady at the ripe age of 14 who very quietly and very suddenly fell ill and within an afternoon had left us to go and chase celestial rabbits in a world where fireworks can't make her shake with fear and Velcro doesn't exist! Yes our Ruby was absolutely petrified of Velcro! We shall also 'gloss over' the whole end of the summer/autumn period when following 'that' car accident (those who know me personally know the full story) I spent weeks repairing from a cracked sternum. Have recently discovered that this is still not completely healed so am having to take things a little carefully and be sensible. Great news - It is now nearly six months since we gained a new German Shepherd - Izzy who is five years old and rescued along with a good history and a love of water - any water, clean, dirty, smelly - doesn't matter - she'll be in it! Oh and she also makes it impossible to water the garden as she chases the water coming out of the hose pipe. Ruairi and Izzy have become very good friends and spend a lot of time playing, chasing in the garden and snoozing together. And for the closing entry to the return of Five Sheds our final momentous news - we have been SMOKE FREE for nearly 6 Months! So a healthier Blog as well!

Poor little Ruairi

A couple of days ago our little Ruairi started limping and licking his left, back paw. So we managed to take a look and his paw between the pads was all red and swollen and looked very painful. So on Wednesday he had a trip to the dog doctor and was seen by Robin who pretty much confirmed what we had already thought which was a grass seed lodged firmly in the flesh. So an appointment was booked for today to have it removed.

Ruairi had to be at the Vets at 8.45am today and had a little operation during which it was found that the grass seed had actually broken in two and was lodged deeply into his foot. This has now been removed and our little man came out of the sedative with no problems. He now has to wear a 'lamp shade' collar for a few days while the wound heals - that will be fun keeping him occupied!

Sybil and Polly have now settled in really well and munch their way through a variety of different veg as well as spaghetti (which I am told they think is worms) and they also get their layers pellets. Woz will be building a run extension to enable the girls to wander a little more freely during the day and allow them to munch other things too.

The house build next door is nearly up to first floor level but with the wind and rain today they'll probably not get much more done this side of the weekend.

Disappointing news is that Woz and I will not be making the Montpellier v Racing Metro trip as hoped. By the time the date for the game had been released, I could no longer book the day off work. So I will now have to wait until 2011/12 season, hope Montpellier and Racing remain in the Top 14 of the French Rugby Union league and that Sebastien Chabal can remain playing for another season - which obviously was the sole purpose (well nearly the sole purpose) of our visit! He will be in his third season with Racing, 34 years old and may start to be 'side lined' as younger talent comes through the ranks. Hey Ho - I will pray to my rugby angel that he remains a player long enough to make the trip!

In the meantime, I have printed off the full fixture list for the 2010/11 season and am working out which games in Paris I can get to. Also there will be the Heineken Cup game against Saracens at some point, so I'll also get a UK trip to see Racing play (and M.Chabal too hopefully).

Over Carnival this weekend - let us hope for good weather that day!! We'll probably have to leave the dogs at home as Ruairi's paw will still be too sore to walk very far - although we could carry him I suppose - lamp shade and everything! We shall see how he is. If its hot Ruby won't want to walk very far anyway.

Next week is also the Fenlanders annual Rally at Fakenham race course which we are looking forward to attending and getting to meet up with lots of friends that we haven't seen.

Oooooooo Woz just brought Ruairi into the office - poor lil fella - all dozy and confused, but at least he is ok. He'll need lots of cuddles and loves this evening :)

Meet Sybil and Polly................

Mum.....Dad.......what are those???????????

'Here come the girls....................................'

Our lovely ladies are now moved in and we have already had the first egg!

Sybil is in the background and Polly is slightly smaller to the front of this photo

New Arrivals.......

Since our last posting time has flown and the garden has become a flowering, fruiting and 'veg-tastic' haven.

Just about to pick cucumbers #6 and #7 with lots of little cucumblets waiting to grow; loads of tomatoes to go red; mini-chillies starting to swell; mange tout by the bucket load; 1 1/2 lbs of black currants picked and frozen; the first courgette and runner beans starting to pod.
And that's just a small sample of the things we are growing some of which we have been eating (salads/radishes etc)

The house build is now cracking on at the plot next door with footings dug and concrete due any day. A by-product of the work has been the number of old bottles being uncovered and making their way into the five sheds collection! The builders a very nice and we fill their kettle a couple of times a day and they have been really lovely and used their digger to remove all the old earth and plaster piled up next to our drive that we needed to order a skip for. Instead they did it for us and the debris went with the stuff from next door. Thats one less expense (and hard work) for us to deal with. Now we are hoping to find a pine tree suitable for a slow growing Christmas tree, plant in in the ground near the fence and then gravel the rest. Then we can pretty lighties at Christmas!

Back indoors and the materials have arrived to start the plastering of the outer wall and ceiling of our front bedroom. Hopefully this will happen over the next few days. Once completed we can decorate and then shift everything from our bedroom to the completed room. That will allow us to sort out the ceiling in our room and finally decorate. We think we have chosen the colour paint for the livingroom (after many different ideas, tester pots and disappointments). A visit to a another property recently redecorated and of similar age to Five Sheds had a beautiful wall colour which will be ideal in our small room. We won't tell you what yet but await further reports once we have done a test area to make sure.

Both Ruby and Ruairi have been to the vets this week; Ruby needed her vaccination but also had a small sore on the right hand side of her lower jaw line probably made worse by her scratching at it. Oddly though Ruairi has been rubbing the left hand side of his mouth for a couple of days and we discovered that the top edge of the side of his mouth was looking sore. Both now have a cream to be applied 3 times a day. As they share a water bowl (and you try telling them they have to drink out of separate bowls!) then it is hardly surprising that one has given the other some sort of infection. We shall see how they get on. Ruairi is in for his vaccinations in August. Ruby also celebrated her 14th Birthday recently - a grand old lady.

So you may be wondering why there is a Fawlty Towers sign to our blog? Well apart from the fact that it is a favourite classic 1970's TV programme it is also the inspiration for the naming of our new aquisition being ....wait for it............

A Hen House!!! called Fowlty Towers along with two chickens shortly to be named Sybil and Polly! Through work we were offered some chickens that cannot move to their owners new home. It didn't take us long (and I do mean both of us) to decide to re-home these egg laying lovelies in our garden. We have room for a modest hen house and run and have sourced a half price brand new wooden first floor apartment, with perch, nesting box, ladder to ground floor with spacious secure enclosure and scope to extend!! Sorry for the Letting Agent speak but it comes with the territory! Fresh eggs - what could be better! Quite how we deal with the dogs over the new arrivals we are not yet sure but it will all work out in the end.

This weekend we are off to Herefordshire to a private mini-folk festival organised by a friend and being held at a Small Breeds and Owl sanctuary. We are camping (so lets hope this wonderful weather holds) and we are taking the dogs. Should be a good weekend with about forty other people and some live accoustic music as well as the odd pint or two of ale!

More to follow after our feathered friends have arrived!!

Six went to Normandy

Having been back almost a week from our trip I thought it was high time to get pen to paper (or keyboard to blog) and get some words down.

A fantastic week with a lifetime of memories; the journeys there and back were tiring but worth every mile; the gite and our hosts just perfect and the beaches, museums and cemetaries both moving and unforgettable.

We departed our meet up point at midnight 29th May and six of us rode down to Dover through the night catching a quick coffee stop on route and arriving in plenty of time so that we ended up taking an earlier ferry. After boarding we took the opportunity to relax and prepare for the onward and longest part of the trip. Arrived at about 3.30pm and after a couple of missed turnings, we found our gite for the week.

Our hosts Sophie and Thierry had transformed an old stone built stable into a cottage and not only was it comfortable and had all we needed, but it was peaceful and set within the courtyard of a working dairy farm.

Over the week we visited all of the D-Day landing beaches, cemetaries for British, American and German soldiers and also a number of musuems, German defensive gun emplacements and stopped at numerous roadside memorials.

We managed a trip to see the Bayeux Tapestry as well as take our hosts sons and their friends for rides on the bikes.

A fuller version of our trip will be published here shortly.

Our ride home was again tiring but everyone arrived home safely.

More to follow.............................................

4 1/2 More Sleeps......................

Can't believe where the time has gone over the past couple of weeks - busy busy busy as usual.

Lots to update you on as you might expect but firstly let me tell you about the photo attached to this entry on our blog. The photo is of St Mary's A.D.S. Cemetery in Haisnes, Pas de Calais in France. (A.D.S. - advance dressing station)

As part of my work on the family history we know about William Wilson who died oN 14th October 1918 at the age of 21 during WW1 and for whom an entry exisits in the Book of Rememberance at Edinburgh Castle. After much searching I finally discovered his final resting place. William was a Private in the 8th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. If you visit the commonwealth war grave commission website http://www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=325114
you will see more information and with his Service Number can actually see where the plot is in the cemetery. Unfortunately our trip to Normandy will not allow enough time to visit the cemetary as it will be too far from where we are staying however there are plans afoot for a trip down to Montpellier either later this year or earlish next and if we go by bike, we shall make sure we visit.

Back to our forthcoming holiday and everything is ready bar packing and putting the bags on the bike. We've laminated some maps in case we need to use them in the wet (sunshine has been ordered for the trip!).

In the garden and things are growing well with the first tiny cucumbers having appeared, first flower trusses set on the tomatoes and tiny little radishes swelling above the soil. Everything is benefitting from this warm, sunny weather but it does mean extra watering. We have a friend looking after this for us while we are away.

All the plaster is now off the walls in the front bedroom and ready for the batten and board prior to replastering; we'll also be getting the ceiling done as well. So much dust though!

Ruby and Ruairi are not overly keen on the heat and as Ruby is an older lady, she is quite happy to stay indoors and lay on the cool floor. Ruairi however still wants to play and tear about the garden - so yesterday he got a bath and a hair cut to help keep him cool, He now looks very handsome and clean!

We've been keeping a check on the birds that visit our garden and for the first time we saw Greenfinches last week feeding on the niger seed so beloved of the Goldfinches that normally munch it all up. The Starlings have been bringing their babies to the garden with lots of chattering and squawking as well as some nervous take offs and landings. Robins, Wrens, Bluetits, Great tits and the occasional Coal Tit as well as Doves and Pigeons and along with Blackbirds, Thrushes, the Jackdaws nesting in our chimney pots and the Dunnocks and Sparrows make for a lovely hour or so early (about 6.30am) each morning. One of the Jackdaws we have called Gammy Leg as he or she cannot lift one leg when flying. This is the third year that this particular bird has nested in the same pot. The Doves who have nested at the front gutter for two years have not returned this year though.

Early this morning after a quick inspection of the garden we also discovered mating frogs in our little pond. We shall have to make sure we keep the water topped up for them. If successful, this will be the first time we will have had tadpoles. I can't begin the imagine what Ruairi will make of tiny frogs!