Happy Pig Year

When thinking about the year ahead we recommend the best strategy might be work out how you can spend more time close to pigs.

[some of these pictures thanks to kyphorrhinos]

Frost, Mist and Sunshine

Some moments from two days ago…

Several degrees of frost overnight and then the morning sun illuminated swathes of low cloud hovering below us, shape shifting throughout the day, hiding and revealing in a seven-veil dance.

As the sun slinks across the field, it only has the energy for selective thawing

The pigs strain to catch the fleeting warmth

and the new pond, for the first time, has a solid coating

Let there be Light

Yesterday:

Today:

That’s an extra minute of daylight – not counting what might be happening in the morning:

Today that extra minute illuminated the whole day

Blusters and Brussels

The air might have a temperature of ten degrees but it is moving fast

pressing leaves against the wire

The neighbouring sheep huddle in our lea

But a wild strawberry finds a hedgerow niche to produce a December flower

Sun seeps through the gaps

and lights up the Southern hillsides

The hens are appreciative of their Christmas marrow

but sceptical of the sprouts

By ten past four all is calm

and the cared-for hedgehog is safely curled up

Plus

When Silence is Broken

On Christmas Eve, as midnight approaches,
And the darkness clicks over into Christmas Day
There is an old story that the animals in the stable where Jesus was born
Can speak, just for a few hours
Until, like many of us, they wait for permission to speak again.

Listen hard this night
Listen hard for the voices that are normally as silent as stones
Listen hard this night
To the voice that’s inside you
To the voice that sings from your bones.

The Ian McMillan Orchestra

Listen here:

 

Some Gribin Isaf residents with something to say tonight:

Outside paddling – Inside glowing

Much excitement as the ducks have their paddling pool renewed (sooner or later, mainly sooner, their toenails cause slow deflation)

Opportunity for a good wash and shake

Inside we are glowing

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Turning over old leaves (any market for new leaves?)

A few leaves glimpsed around the plot today

and then as we dry some Bay leaves…

we wonder if they can be marketed, as our fifteen foot tree has produced quite a lot

On a High

A record high

which, in deep December, brings mild still air and glowing twilights

A couple of months ago the hedgehog population, not being able to predict this December warmth, settled down for the Big Sleep. There was one little hedgehog, weighing in at under 400g, that did not have the resources to last such a lengthy snooze.

We invited him in. He developed a cough. He visited the vet – worming and antibiotics. Then he became fixated on mealworms, rejecting all other food. Weight went down – then he worked out what was good for himself.

Today – 901g – he is now on a diet!

and moving out of the guest room. (The red spikes are nail varnish we put on to identify him when we initially let him back out only to find he was not able to put on enough weight)

The grass is still growing and the sheep kneel in appreciation

Floppy just hopes his attentions are appreciated

Lucky, from the twinkle in his eye, knows that his are

Dinah is above appreciation

and the Nuthatch doesn’t care

A walk round the plot today reveals these wonders

Christmas decorations

Wandering round the plot today it is easy to see natural decorations superior to any people could devise

Plus we have the Robin

and the two turtle-tits

Floppy would like to audition as a solitary partridge

and Fleur and Fred would like to declare themselves available

Meanwhile Dinah enjoys the dry weather

and, as always, the Starlings gather

and blend

also, as always, the Dryads bide their time

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Top of the Tree