Bleats and Blogs

Isn’t it strange that often it’s the briefest encounter one has with another human that has the most lasting impact? During my years as a mineral economist in the City, I was lucky enough to live close to Regents Park and I loved to spend time there, usually walking...

Leo, the cat, has a very odd relationship with food. Put any range of tasty morsels in front of him and he merely sits there looking vaguely offended. He only eats dry cat pellets and more specifically only one brand and one flavour, namely fish. But he does this with...

Ahead of Brexit (remember that?), I was concerned about being able to ship my duvet stock from Italy where it is manufactured. So before any potential window of opportunity could close, I placed a huge order and then shipped the lot to the UK. Our stock room was...

As a child growing up in South Africa I have a vivid memory of that little C5 size magazine called Readers Digest. Specifically I recall the section headed “Laughter is the best Medicine” and I regularly read the amusing anecdotes that followed. They were always very...

I don’t suppose many people give chickens a second thought other than to wonder how to cook them. But I enjoy living with my little clutch of hens and find them really interesting. Did you know that they can change colour? I have, for example, what used to be a...

My sisters and I used to call my grandmother Mrs Cottonreel. She was a ferocious reader, gobbling up 3 books a week, even when in her 80s she suffered from failing eyesight. When she passed away, my mother and I cleared her house, a home of four decades. Imagine our...

As we are told we can start coming out of lock down, I look back on the past 3 months and realise how much I enjoyed it! Yes, I am lucky on the farm with my own space and surrounded by all my animals, who even under normal conditions, represent most of my...

Many folk I talk to say “I got into a lock down haze and days merged into weeks and then months. I look back and wonder what I actually did for all that time?” Yes, I initially felt the same.  But then I had a good look around my farm and, to my relief, I can see what...

Years ago I established a coral reef in a marine aquarium. It was really hard work but I succeeded in creating a hugely diverse micro-world from which l learnt so much. Of all the residents, my Banghaii Cardinals fascinated me, mainly because of their elaborate...

Every year there is one ewe, one story that kind of sums up lambing. This year, it was Proto who was expecting twins. Her first lamb was huge and head first, requiring immediate intervention. Proto stayed down while I got the lamb’s legs correctly forward and helped...