Valkyrie

Now that sounds a great idea - pretty with a double function! Thanks for that idea Beannie! I have seen that some people have installed an electrical device that looks like someone walking around with a torch to deter foxes. Might be good for night time sorties, but daylight robberies may be an issue so definitely electric fencing strips are on the list of must haves! Lights too then! Have been perusing the common thing and it now seems that the areas highlighted are for the landowners that have been portioned grazing rights on a nearby common - each have different numbers of livestock to graze (so doesn't refer to the highlighted area as right to graze - it was originally part of a farm). We all have permission to remove stone! So that looks like Chimney Down - are still waiting for the solicitors to check the exact whereabouts now.

Went for a visit yesterday. The field is lovely with wild flowers and a deer that ran off when we disturbed it in the garden. I was oooh lovely . . . until I saw the that deer love flower heads, then it was bah humbug. Oh well, must learn to live with it if we want the wild thangs. Don't fancy looking through deer netting which is expensive either. Also there are lots of foxes around apparently. So the girls will be on supervised run around, but the run will definitely be set up for a bigger fox proofed area when they are shut in. We also were shown another part of the garden that we didn't know existed between the hedge and trees - we thought it was all dense hedging but along the "avenue" was a well! Very silted up so no sign of a drop, but I gather there was a bit of an argy bargy with someone draining off the water down in the village some many moons ago. Pitchforks a-prodding! We visited the nearest town in Bampton which was very nice. It used to be quite important in days of yore being the main crossroads for London and the west and north to south, especially with the railway. The motorways and main thoroughfares took away the need for the town so it's become a very tranquil spot. There are plenty of old coaching station buildings now homes. Also big old storage warehouses (attractive ones too) where the goods were stored before transferring to the trains -now housing too. Bakery is good (nice cake - and yum bread) and has a little tea room too, as is The Swan pub - very nice food with mostly local produce. There's an upmarket restaurant with upmarket prices - menu looked interesting. There's a little bistro and another pub and I'm sure I've missed something. Fruit and veg looked very fresh and nicely displayed in attractive wooden shelves. The butchers has a good reputation too. We went to the visitor centre - in the church (Saxon) and they have a history group - perfect for Murray, especially as they were going to be covering architecture soon. No fabric shop though. Which is probably a good thing! We went to the docs surgery to pick up the forms ready for when we move in. OH is worrying about his heart again (nothing wrong with it, but he wants to be sorted in case) so he's happy now. Apparently Exeter is a very good hospital so made sense to cover those bases. It just happened to be opposite a fire station too - no hunky fellas observed though. Oh well I live in hope. It also has a castle Mott. Apparently parking seems to be "where you want to shop, then stop" regardless of double yellow lines and even triple parking - observed parking that was about 4 feet away from the pavement in places! The police at one stage had a traffic warden to patrol the area - but they gave up! Now that made me guffaw somewhat - we does what we wants so there! The people we spoke to were all delightful, so think we have found a little bit of treasure in this part of the world. It also appears that if you drive along the road and meet a neighbour travelling in the opposite direction, then you chat for half an hour regardless of what's behind. Now that amused me too - probably not so if I had an appointment somewhere though. Yes, we do have grazing rights - for one cow and five sheep! Although it may refer to the extra acreage surrounding the house and not the common down the road - that was portioned in 1993. Still - 5 sheep sounds good - I was thinking more like 3 and then have room for rotating them, but not for a while yet - need to do homework and go on courses first.

Went to new house to be yesterday. The field is full of buttercups and clover - didn't venture further as we spent so much time in the garden and in the house with the current owner. So I wasn't able to investigate further, but it was very promising. Lots of wildlife - butterflies too. And a deer in the garden! Will have to watch out for not so nice wildlife - ticks!

Rhubarb leaves go in the compost. But if anyone wants to try it, they say line the bottom of a potato trench as it keeps the pests off the potato tubers when you plant them. Not tried it because the rhubarb leaves are never that big when I need to plant up the spuds! I'd use some sort of membrane for sowing seeds in the trays. Or use old compost bags as liners with added holes for drainage. Any fancy boxes (not heard of Charlie either) perhaps line with fabric for storage?

Beautiful day yesterday. Rain today - and heavy it has been too. Saves watering the garden! Messed up my lovely peonies though.

OH used to be immune to roller coasters etc. Now he has to take tablets for all things apart from travelling in a car! Might be age related as Patsylab says it does do weird stuff. I was prescribed Stugeron tablets for dizziness - until it was accepted that the blood pressure tablets were to high a dose so I never needed to use them - turns out they are the same things for motion sickness - exactly the same - so was put to good use in Scotland for sea trips for OH. I think his motion sickness is age related.

Crikey! I think we last had rain 2 or 3 days ago. I have had to top up the water for the wildings as that was looking pretty dry! Today is very hot. We have been tidying the shed, tying eglu and cube runs together, garden equipment together and sweeping it all out - needless to say we are exhausted and have had to make sure we had plenty to drink - too easy to forget and dehydrate!

Had a walk around Alresford the other day. Again more fields of rape - but it should have been teeming with life. It wasn't. It's horrid and weird. Finally we spotted one daredevil of a honey bee. All very sad. But - wonderful that you found somewhere close that is bee paradise! I am definitely going to be doing a big nature drive when we move. Well it can't be all bad - I could hear skylarks and they don't eat air, so I have hopes that it is already beetropolis down there so I can make it better and make sure there's plenty for the butterflies and moths!

Was a pleasant start, very cool when the clouds hid the sun, but they disappeared and it became very hot!

Hopefully those poxy storms have now burnt themselves out. Went for a walk to the village this afternoon and it was still hot and humid! DD has had a result with the hail dents as there is a fella on their estate who has said he would be offering discount to the locals to take out their dents. I gather there are a fair few golf ball cars! She said it doesn't show unless you look at a different angle and then you can see the tiny craters!

I think we had a very long winter with wet outnumbering dry days - then there was a lovely spell and then the month that followed was horrid. The wild ones probably didn't get a chance to build up their stocks, while bee keepers probably dished out fondant. Seems even then some smaller hives didn't survive. Hopefully they will make a good comeback later for next year. The only thing we can do is to add early flowering plants for them - dead head the dandelions before they set seed.

Oh yes indeed Plum. Just like the farriers competition - oh yes there were some horses I think! I would love to have goats - I do like the golden Guernseys. I don't mind goat milk but OH hates it. He isn't allowed to eat cheese now since the heart attack and he was just getting into the swing of making it! We have a cheese cave - wine fridge really, so I'm thinking of having alcyfrol in there. He did make super Camemberts though. And then there's the milking - that'll be fun. Although it would be sad to eat the billys. Never mind - we like curry! I think the washing would have to hang from the upstairs windows like Mediterranean houses!

Yes, that sounds possible - very much a sheep area! I can see sheep in there too - like Valaise - don't tell OH! Off to the Bath and West show tomorrow - Rhino greenhouses are there and we want to check out the green energy etc, polytunnels, outbuilding peeps if there are any and the like. I may get distracted by the shearing competition. They also have heavy horses doing demos. Hope it isn't too muddy! We haven't been to this particular show before so it'll be an interesting experience. I do like the 3 counties one - very well set up.

Well here is a (bad - taken off the laptop) photo of the weird building on the right hand side - I didn't realise it was curved! It wasn't originally part of the garden, but part of a bigger field which is now part of the 4 acreage. We've notified the solicitors that the Land Registry is old - it even shows there was another outbuilding in that larger garden - which is now part of the field and oh definitely Time Team needed. On the ordnance survey it shows the new field boundaries so they need to do more research. And so I'm now thinking I could have a raised artillery gun thingy in that bit with movement from side to side over the rounded tops of the curved wall - gerroff moi laaaaaaaand!

Cheers me dear! xx