Catching up with April's happenings

I know I haven't written for ages but I was more than a little disheartened by the loss of my rabbits and then the loss of my chicks whilst in their own house and run in the old rabbit area.  Presumably the same predator took both lots of animals and I will no longer have animals in the garden run.

I visited Cornwall at the beginning of April, stayed with family and friends and celebrated my 68th birthday several times while I was there.  It was great catching up with family and friends.  My granddaughter, Mia, has now got a pretty wide vocabulary and it was lovely hearing her talking.  Here she is with her Daddy.

My grandson seems to have shot up in height again and is a lovely lad. I spent one afternoon first walking up on the top of St Austell with him, his Mum and friend, Philippa

and later down in Charlestown overlooking the harbour and beach.  Here is Libby with Charlie.

We seemed to find our way to the local, Rashleigh Arms, several times but I also arrived at the Polgooth Inn with my son, Matthew and friend, Brett, for a late lunch in the sunshine.

While I was away my New Zealand house/pet carers were looking after things in St André. Brett was a three times sheep shearing champion in NZ and took care of my five adult sheep.  As we have no electricity on the field each sheep had to be transported in the back of the Land Rover to the garage where their fleeces were removed with electric sheep shears which I had, luckily, bought second hand last year.  

I don't think the blades were the sharpest but I took them back to the UK with me and had them sharpened there ready for next year.   Maybe I'll be lucky and Brett and Di will be around this part of Europe when shearing time comes around next year.

We travelled up for a day on the north coast on Easter Monday where there was a display of ceramic pigs promoted by the artists and pig breeders.  

The day started out with quite a stiff breeze but got much, much hotter and while Brett and Di went for a walk in the afternoon I sat sunbathing with my Kindle on the beach.

The following day we went down to the south coast around Benodet and Concarneau.

The garden changed so much in the six days I was away.  It was very hot and the wisteria and tulips were all out to welcome me home.  

The cats accompanied me on my first trip up to the field to see the animals.  Always good to come home.

I have just finished reading this book by Nick Thorpe which I enjoyed.

On my way to collect a friend's son to work for me I saw this "pilgrim" walking down from Brittany all the way to Santiago de Campostele in Spain.  I stopped the car and spoke to him for a few minutes - I hope the weather is kind to them both.

Three things I like:

1.  Coming home, the Land Rover laden with 500 litres of compost to start the growing season here.

2.  Having my New Zealand house/pet carers from homecarers.com, who were such lovely people.

3.  Doing the first egg collection of the day on the morning of my return.