November 2009

Dougal disappeared on one of his days off... it's not like him to leave the farm unannounced... but he did, for hours and hours. When he returned he carried with him a bucket and tubes and bottles... then he donned rubber gloves and went out foraging... for nettles! 3 or 4 days later, he opened a rather explosive bottle of something muddy looking... "nettle beer" he exclaimed! Well, it was drinkable and it made his lumbago disappear, but you wouldn't want to serve that to guests... the second batch was much more palatable with a champagne-like quality - even had a nice label on it. Think he might be on to something there.

Bonfire night gave us an opportunity to light a fire in the firepit, dust off the Dutch Ovens and have a cook-out. We invited friends round and had a right royal (if rather chilly) feast of spicy beans, beef stew and pumpkin pie, washed down with hot mulled apple juice... yummy, and you can still drive afterwards :-)

Mark and I spent a weekend away from the farm when we took Natural Horsemanship Magazine to Your Horse Live, an exhibition event run by Your Horse magazine. We were so well received that we really didn't have time to look around or talk with other people. If we had any doubt about what we're doing, this must be put to rest now. People were clamouring to take up our event subscription offer and sometimes we were dealing with a crowd 6 deep! Amazing and we were so blessed to have the help of Clare Cracknell (working with us to increase circulation), Dena Schwartz - an animal aromatics professional, (please link to www.animalaromatherapy.co.uk) and Leanne Wrentmore - an equine iridologist - (please link to www.naturallyanimals.co.uk) to deal with the interest. We came back to the farm for a rest!

But of course, rest was not really on the cards... there was the post exhibition flurry of following up leads and entering new subscribers on the database and getting the December issue off to the printer.

Farm-wise we had a nice bit of frost which will help put some fat on the turkeys... a bit more please over the next couple of weeks would be good.

Christmas is tugging at our skirt hems now. We took our burgers along to both Devizes and Calne Christmas Lights festivals. The weather took a turn for the worst at Calne and we ended up paddling and dripping our way through the evening. At least we were able to shelter under the gazebo, I felt for the young ones and their guardians who had made lanterns and paraded through the streets with great sogginess. It wasn't one of the most lucrative events we've attended, but stallwartly British!

And finally, Father Christmas arrived at Vowley. He is a rather splendid needlefelted figure with a wonderful curly beard made from Arwen's fleece, she's one of Emma's Cotswold sheep here on the farm. He also has a bell in his hat and a sack to lug around. Needlefelting, quite a wonderful craft which I'm enjoying on my day off. There's something darkly freeing about stabbing balls and strips of soft mohair tops with needles until it all sticks together. There are some unmistakable sounds on the planet, like the sound of fingers on a keyboard, a woodpecker on a tree, running water and a group of women needlefelting in harmony!