Nothing Special

Posted on 26 December, 2009 by Val

So. Christmas Day has come and gone. And all that pre-Christmas confusion I felt about the nature of the event has evaporated in the relaxing glow of Life After Christmas. I no longer feel the need to delve into my past and my personality to work out “what it all means for me” and am happy to concur with the profound statement of my wise friend, who sent me an email on Christmas Eve, saying “Just read latest post and I can tell you – Christmas is just another day.” She did go on to add stuff about family traditions and spending all day in her pyjamas, but this did not detract from the simplicity of the message. Continue reading →

Posted in Life | Leave a comment

Brain Freeze

Posted on 21 December, 2009 by Val

My, doesn’t time fly when you’re filling it with endless trips to the North Pole to break ice on frozen water buckets and take food to cold, hungry animals that have no way of getting their own, because some bugger has covered the land in a white blanket of freeze.

Yes, this is today’s pathetic excuse for having not written another post sooner. I’m full of them. Excuses I mean. Not posts. I’m actually woefully short of inspiration for posts these days, For some reason, my tried and tested method of lazing in bed and waking up slowly so that I can access that weird and wonderful creative world of the underbrain is failing me. Sadly, I just keep bloody falling asleep again. What a dastardly waste of precious extra time in bed!

So, I thought I’d try another tack. I thought I’d try the “just write and see what comes out” approach. Hmmmm. Not looking too promising so far.

Apart from the cold, cold and then, just for a change, a bit more cold, there has been remarkably little of note happening lately. Let me see…. There must be something I can write about. Continue reading →

Posted in Cats, Life, Pigs | 1 Comment

Left to my own (de)vices

Posted on 16 December, 2009 by Val

One of the very few things that I resent about our bouncy puppies is that they have robbed me of the regular chance to experience one of the greatest pleasures in Life. It isn’t that I really mind getting up early – there are quite a lot of nice things about getting up at the same time as the sun or, indeed, even before it! What I do hate is the having-to-get-up-straight-away in order to avoid puddles-that-soak-stinkily-into-the-ridiculously-absorbent-floor-tiles-unless-you-clean-them-up-immediately, that the sound of a whining or barking puppy necessitates. Continue reading →

Posted in Dogs, Life | 1 Comment

The Way of Tat

Posted on 13 December, 2009 by Val

Yesterday was a Special Day at Les Briconautes. For those of you unversed in the ways of French DIY, Les Briconautes is a shop where one can buy the sorts of things you might buy in B&Q, along with a small selection of white goods. Except that, whereas in B&Q you can get pretty much anything you might need for home plumbing/electrical/building/decorating jobs for a reasonable price, in Les Briconautes you can rarely find anything you want, and what you do find is usually too expensive for you to be able to bring yourself to actually purchase it – the decision invariably being followed by the statement “I’ll get it from Screwfix next time I go to England”. Continue reading →

Posted in Life | 1 Comment

Not Pigs, Again.

Posted on 28 November, 2009 by Val

Here is another post not about pigs.

Except to say that we still await the arrival of the phantom piglets. Oh, and Fogarty has learnt to sit on command, to get an acorn treat. Oh, and pigs are clearly capable of learning from others’ mistakes (unlike my son, by his own admission). We know this because when Simon erected a little bit of electric fence to close off one of end pigland, in order to ‘prove the concept’ prior to Yoda’s imminent confinement, Fogarty immediately set about providing us with incontrovertible proof using his curious wet, and highly conductive nose. Yoda and Peppa observed his cartoon-like squealing retreat from a safe distance, and have been extraordinarily careful not to touch the offending wire even once ever since. I guess what people say about pigs being intelligent animals is true after all.

But, this post is not about pigs. It is about our roof. Continue reading →

Posted in Dogs, Life, Pigs | Tagged | Leave a comment

New pictures

Posted on 24 November, 2009 by Simon

For those of you who like browsing picture albums, I have started to update and extend our rather neglected picture galleries (links in Other Contacts section on the right and in the bar at the top of the page).

First up is a selection of pictures of the llamas since we moved to the farm at Saint Sornin. Two pages so far (select page at the bottom of the pictures), or you can see them all as a slideshow. Enjoy!

Posted in Llamas | Leave a comment