August 2006

I am happy to share that there has been a change on the farm and much goodness is flowing this month.

Mark and I took a "holiday" this month. Well, it was a weekend when we had no markets so we thought to take a few days to ourselves and take it a bit easy... hummm... didn't quite work like that... we did meet our daughter, Anna, in Henley for some lunch, but then we needed to bring in the last of the hay bales... oh and then the neighbour needed a hand with carting some straw... for a couple of days... then we visited my Dad in London and helped him clear some junk from the garage... and in between all that, we had a little steer with a poorly eye who we nursed... and mum had her calf and it took them a few days to get the suckling thing going... oh yes... and we went to collect a new bull!

Mr Parrot. Very handsome chap. We collected him from his owner in Bromsgrove and brought him back to Vowley Farm. He was not amused on arrival. Totally fed up with all this travelling around and really just wanted a pair of slippers, an easy chair and someone to bring him his dinner! He stormed off the back of the trailer, kicked out at the couple of girls we'd lined up for him in the yard, plonked himself down on top of the hay and lay there for the rest of the night! The following morning they were all very happy to see the field and I'm happy to report that he's forgiven us and is quite happily courting Mum, Snow Moon, Venue, Begonia and Elegance in a very gentlemanly fashion.

My father has invited me to go on a real holiday with him to Lanzarote in October. Coincidentally (?) it's the weekend of no markets and Mark has persuaded me that this would be a good thing to do. So I opened a "holiday fund" as I do not feel it's appropriate to take money from the farm at this point in time. As a result of an email I sent to update our friends and family, I have been gifted money towards the cost of this holiday and I'm feeling quite blessed by the love being expressed. Funny how this brings up the old unworthiness issues - well, it does for me.

One of our friends also wrote that she was unaware of how dire our financial situation was and that she would like to help. As a consequence, we have negotiated a cash injection that helps us pay off our overdraft, pay our outstanding bills and buy the stock we need to take our business forward. The universe moves in mysterious ways... what a gift and how unexpected. Last month it felt as if we were looking down the barrel of a rather large gun, this month we can breathe!

Thank you.