A Busy Half Term

Well - that half term just whizzed by and such a lot happened.

Calving got off to a very good start.  Jonathan spotted the cow readying to calve and went off to get some hay for her to munch.  When he got back, there was her calf laying on the ground!  I took this photo just now, so it's two days old now.

But I'm jumping ahead of myself. 

On Wednesday we had the Heart Hanging workshop, and Julie has sent me a picture of her finished article which she is going to use as a table mat:

It's so bright and cheerful it makes the one I made, and was planning to send to Victoria, look very dark and dreary:

Perhaps I'd better keep it!

Then, that evening, we had quite a surprise.  A helicopter had been circling around for quite a while, which isn't unusual, but then it got louder and louder.  I rushed to the window and couldn't believe it when it landed in our field at the bottom of the garden.  Apparently it was a Puma.  I round down and took photos (which weren't very good), watched the men jumping around inside, and then it took off again!

On Thursday I went on a little trip to visit my sister in Devon.  We had a lovely couple of days visiting the Pannier Market in Barnstaple,

 

where I bought some bits and bobs including a nice piece of linen.  The last time I was there was on my honeymoon and I remember it's where we bought the telephone we have the kitchen.

Then in the afternoon we had a lovely walk through the Valley of Rocks on Exmoor; it was amazing with all the rock formations and I loved seeing the wild goats and their little bleating kids (apparently the herd was started when three feral goats from Northumberland were introduced, in the fifties, and now there are over a hundred!, but there were goats grazing there as far back as 1086).  We then walked down to a little beach (I can't remember what it was called) with beautiful views across the calm sea.

What I couldn't believe, when I looked at my pictures, was the gold bar right under my nose!

I wanted to go back for it but......

The next day we went to Clovelly - such a pretty little place.  We walked all the way down the cobbled high street,

and in and out of little alleyways

We could go into a little cottage decorated as it would have been  when a fisherman lived there

and I loved the crocheted bedspread (I want to know how to make the long chained flowers)

and I thought this tiled floor is just begging to be made into a quilt!

and then we just sat in the lovely sunshine on the Quay looking back at the village.

On the way back we passed a man bringing home his weekly shop - hard work when you can't drive your car to the back door - they all use sleds.  He said I could take a picture but that he couldn't stop because he needed to gather momentum!

What a lovely day - in fact what a lovely stay I had.

The only problem with staying in a house that is absolutely pristine is coming home to your own, rather more lived-in house.  There was not one, tiny bit of straw anywhere in my sister's house - I couldn't believe it!  In fact, it was so clean that at one point Carolyn pointed to the floor and said "What's that?"  It was a piece of cotton I'd dropped!!