What a beautiful Spring!

Our woodland is finally FULL of Bluebells!

Well.. I didn't know where to start, so I thought I'd just tell you everything all at once, using lots of photo's and very little gibbering... promise : )

Jingo, Shetland ram extraordinaire

We've been lambing, as you know. Thought you'd like to see a few lamby pics. Jingo (above), is the tup of these lambs and he's a bit up himself at the moment. He loves it in the woods. I let him in there every now and again so he can have an explore. The woodland suits him... he suits the woodland.

Nibble

Now, as this is my first lambing I reserve the right to accidentally be swept off my feet by at least one lamb. This is the lamb. Her name is Nibble.

Nibble still sleeps on her mums back, 4wks old now

Nibble explores our World using her nibble. This is the main reason she managed to captured me. She kept nibbling my welly, my trousers, my hair... then she started a game where she'd jump on to my shoulder then off again, ad infinitum.

Nibble likes a scratch

This has of course now led to the disastrous effect of me being forced to scratch her head. Which sends her into a state of bliss. If I stop she paws me. I am utterly helpless.

In my defence, she does it to my visitors too. None of them have been able to resist the Nibble either.

Pedigree Shetland Black Ram

This little beauty was born yesterday morning.

Shetlands: Moorit mum and wee black ram

 He's coming on well and today I happily, but carefully, removed a really gloopy poo that had stuck to him. Happily because it means he's getting plenty of colostrum. Carefully because it was a giant clag nut stuck fast to his delicate wee bum!

Beautiful Black Shetland Ram

He needs a name for his pedigree certificate. Not come to me yet, any ideas welcome!

Hazel Hurdle

Now to some general news... I made a hazel hurdle. I was supposed to make loads more but life got in the way a bit. I really enjoyed making it and can't wait to get stuck in making loads at the end of the yr!

Exmoor on fire

It was about 8pm on April 17th when Leo and I went round to check on the sheep. We have a view of the moor from the gate and we saw a glow on the horizon. It was about a fraction of what you can see in the picture above. This pic was taken a few hours later. At first we wondered if we should call it in, it didn't look very big, could have been someone having a bonfire. Didn't feel right though and so I dived in the yurt, pulled out my maps and called 999. 

No one else had reported it and I worried I was wrong to have called it in. They took it very seriously though & were on the phone for 15mins with me working it all out. 

The Fire Brigade said that about 8km squared burned that night. An extraordinary sight!

Willows adder bite

Willow got bitten by an adder. It was horrible. The first we noticed something was wrong was when we saw a lump on her face, not massive but definitely there. I investigated it & saw a puncture wound. I though it was a tick bite that had got infected & we took her straight to the vet. The vet shaved her and declared it an adder bite! It's rare that vets hold the anti-venom and so he put her on steroids, anti-inflammatories & anti-biotics.

I drew the blue line around the venom site to keep an eye on it spreading. Adder bites in dogs can be VERY serious indeed. She is fully recovered now, thankfully!

Rocket Stove

Finally we have our rocket stove! Wanted this for ages to replace our little cast iron, single hob ring that runs off a gas bottle. It fires a dream. Yesterday a fried brekkie, today pancakes and of course copious amounts of hot water! All from a handful of twigs. AMAZING bit of kit! We got ours from wildstoves.co.uk for £40 and £3pp.

English yew longbow

This, my dear friends, is a work of art. It is a Chris Boyton yew longbow. Leo did the antler nocks, arrow plate and leather handle. I have improved a million fold in using this bow. It fires like a dream, an extension of me already. Each component of the bow has a story, which I will tell in it's own blog post very soon.

Violet Oil beetle

 In the water meadow there are hundreds of Violet oil beetles! I was very lucky to get this picture of two mating. The green gooey stuff between them is poo and the little flies on their backs are feeding on the oil the beetles exude. The female is the giant one on the right. Thanks to Buglife for the extra information on them!

Otter spraint

I'm consistently finding otter spraint in the river now. Still haven't seen one yet!

Caterpillar

This giant hairy caterpillar lives in the woods. I would dearly love to know what he's going to be!

Caterpillar

I thought he was a bit cute actually... What with those long eyelashes, little tuft of hair and nonchalant chomping away of the grass while I stuck a camera in his face!

Spring foraged salad

I'm feasting on a lot of wild foods at the moment, it's fantastic! I spied a chicken of the woods growing form one of our oaks. Should be troughing on that in the next week or so!

Save Our Woods board meeting

After a long adventure away in Oz, Karen came to stay to catch up on all things SaveOurWoods.co.uk.
We hatched many plans!

Beautiful Sunsets

So.. this is just a taster of what's been going on down here on the farm. I'll try to be a bit more prolific in my blogging to keep you more up to date!

Now I'm just off to do my nightly rain dance... it takes a few weeks to work sometimes *ahem*



hen xx

Beech Trees, Ramsons and Willows Ming Pit

Here are lots of pictures to replace the words that I can't seem to find!

I haven't even fiddled with this photie!  GREEEEEEN!!!!!  It's a little Beech tree.  

Beeeeeeech leaves

Beeeeeeech Leaves

Thems ramsons on the right of the path there 

Quite a perfect spot for being

This is Willows 'ming pit'.  It is a pit of ming.  

Ramsons, ramsons and more ramsons

A ramson flower.. 

'is it?  is it really? you've never had one of those on here before'...  oi, watch it!

Hearts tongue fern poking out of ramsons.  

Male fern poking out of ramsons.  That's ramsons.

Cow Parsley

Hope this puts you in the picture of where I'm at, at the moment  :) oh, and I am constantly weaving baskets too.  Happily it's taking longer for my fingers to fall off!  I'm getting experienced!

hen

x

Basket Giveaway Update! A Hurricane hits our House, in the form of little people.

It looks like the Giveaway winner will be picked in the next few days.  The bud on this Oak twiglet is definitely on it's way to properly bursting!  YippeeeeEEEEEeeee!!!!  

If you still haven't entered please visit the BASKET GIVEAWAY POST and leave your comment about the one thing in nature that makes you smile!

On Good Friday I had a visit from my little brother, his wife and their two amazing little beans.  Here is a snippet of what the weekend was like... mostly...

Willow is, of course, the only being in the house that matters to my niece and nephew.  They ADORE her.  It gives me palpitations though.  No matter how hard I try and train the children and the dog there is always a moment where it's all a bit too loud and hectic.  It's hard to get across to everybody that the children and Willow must NEVER be alone together EVER.  It doesn't matter how lovely Willow is.  

Willow does have her limits and she will just walk away after looking at me and checking.  However, before I could do it, Willow told off my niece for hugging her too tightly.  Just a whip round of the head, but enough to shock my niece into coming over to me very quickly for a hug.  As I said... Palpitation's.

I love that little dejected look on my nephews face.  He spent the whole time following Willow around and wanted to be next to her all the time.  Willow was having none of it!

Exhausting.  At this stage I was about to join Willow for a nap.  This photo was taken 15mins after they had left.  :) 

This isn't just a picture of a bin, well, ok, it is.   It's actually my interim willow soaker until I get a large enough sheet of plastic to convert my trailer into one.

I managed to make a basket with my dodgy willow but refuse to give it to anybody because the willow is just not right.

Would you look at this pendant Leo made for a commission.  I LOVE it!!  I know it was a bit tricky to make, but I really think it was worth it!  I love it when he makes something but hate it when it's not for me!

copyright Leo Singleton thestrawhouse.com

The Heritage Crafts Association

"The Heritage Crafts Association has been formed to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage.

It is unique as an organisation in believing that craft skills should be protected, promoted and recorded as part of our living heritage in their own right, not merely in terms of the objects they produce or their conservation value to old buildings."

- The Heritage Crafts Association website.  www.heritagecrafts.org.uk

Hurdles, Baskets and Objey

What absolutely wonderful weather we're having!  All springy and motivational!  The basket above is a 'Just Really Useful' basket.  

I managed to get out and finish my gate hurdle.  I'm really pleased with it, but have reservations about the fact that the willow was a bit kinky as it was too dry to weave with.  I might end up replacing loads of the weaving!

Tah dah!! Now I just have to fix the bottom of the hurdle to a length of wood and attach that to my gate.  Voila, collie proof and a bit of privacy!

Willow dashed in and took the spoils!

I am not normally house proud, but I decided to display our objey in my living room cubby hole.  Today I thought it looked quite nice.  So here it is!   

Have a wonderful weekend!!

hen

x

Willow's made a nest!

Blogging!!  

I didn't have much sleep last night but after I had slept I came downstairs to this!  It looked so comfy that after I took the picture I curled up around her and we both continued our nap.  It was lovely when we woke up as we cuddled and groomed.  Soo lovely.  It's very rare that willow and I are this squishy as she's a very business orientated working dog.  So I really make the most of these beautiful moments.

:)

p.s.  she's not normally allowed to do this sort of thing and my sofa is normally much tidier than this - honest!!

Berry Picking Basket

I experimented a bit with the handle of this basket.  I used such a lovely piece of Ash that I wanted to leave a bit of it exposed.  Using steamed willow to wrap the handle, but not filling all of the gaps, made a great contrast.  Well, I liked it, my friend said that it looked unfinished.  I told him to 'go away'.  He's  a pesk anyway, so his opinion never counts.

This basket was woven for The Shepton Witch.  I said a little prayer over it, in the hope it might imbue the basket with a little love and positivity for her healing and for very successful berry picking.  :)

hen

x

A Willowy Day of Weaving and Springshine

What a wonderful sight of baskets to come...

I went off and picked up my willow order from PH Coate in Somerset on Saturday.  It is sooOOooo exciting to have all of this ready and waiting to be prepared for baskety action!  I've now got a good selection of brown, steamed and buff willow.  

I spent Sunday pottering in the garden and trying to make it collie proof.  Which is impossible actually but I have to try.  I snuck away with some Lime tree cuttings someone had left in the gutter a month ago.  Finally I've found a good use for them!  I'm going to extend the height of our little gate with a hurdle.

I poked two of the Lime sticks into the ground the exact width apart that my gate is.  I then bent them over and wrapped them round each other to make the arch.

I poked a few more of the Lime sticks into the ground, tying them onto the arch with a bit of string.  

Then I took some of my pre-soaked willow (that had dried out, but still had a bit of bend in it) and did a pairing weave using two withies to hold all of the sticks together and give the hurdle it's strength.

Then I started to fill-in the gaps with some old pre-soaked (and only ever so slightly bendy now they're almost totally dried up!) steamed willow, using a normal in-out slew weave (I used two withies at a time).

It's not finished yet, I'll post up more pics as I go along and finally get it on the gate below.

   

I managed to get up a couple of hurdles to fill in the gaps either side of the gate using some willow I grew myself a couple of years ago.  Lots of lovely colours.  To see them properly you may have to click on the pic to make it bigger.

Willow didn't even notice they were there and jumped up and crashed into one!  It didn't fall over and stopped her escaping - result!

This is a little orange tree that was a gift to me one christmas a few years ago.  I got a little christmas tree decoration from PG over at Middle of Nowhere this christmas past and loved it so much I hung it on my orange tree, where it will stay.  I wanted to share it with you all as I think it's a great plant decoration!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and thank you for the kind words about the Foraging Basket!! :)

hen

xxx