Phew!

Excuse any mistakes in this post but I've been up since 4.30am and it's not even 8 o'clock yet and feels like bedtime!

We have had a lovely weekend with Coco and Elodie - our young friends from France.  They come over as part of the Hungerford Twinning exchange - their mum came with them two years ago but this time they came on their own.  I'm hoping that we will get to visit them in France next year.  We did so much!

They arrived on Friday and Elodie helped me make some meringues while Coco went off on the tractor with George (their parents are farmers too so we have a lot in common).

After breakfast

 

on Saturday we went to a fete at Axford (we were dancing there) and the children loved the dog show.  In the evening we went to a barn dance and hog roast in Hungerford which was a lot of fun.

Up again early on Sunday for a day in Oxford.  We went on the French coach.  Whenever I go on coach trips with the quilt group I notice that as soon as everyone sits down you hear the click, click, click of seat belts.  Well - this doesn't happen with the French.  The children all sat in the aisle playing cards and everyone was up and down the whole time!  We had a lovely day looking around the colleges

rowing on the river (absolutely hilarious - we rowed up the river while Penny punted from side to side!)

and visiting the Natural History Museum

Then yesterday - Hooray! - all was safely gathered in so with harvest over (apart from the drying) George and Jonathan came with us to the White Horse Show at Uffington.  By lunchtime it was pelting down but we had a lovely time anyway

In between the children played constantly with Rheuben and the other animals

 we had a cream tea when we got home after the show, then fish and chips for supper and then by 5.30am this morning they were on their way home!

Phew.

To use up a bit of time this morning I went through my emails and was thrilled to get one from Denise with a picture of her beautiful quilt she made with our beginners group:

 Another success!

Harvest, Chicks......and a quilt!

I know this is a bit soon after the last post but I've been taking lots of photos!

First though, is a photo taken by Dawn on Tuesday.  Maureen brought her first quilt up to baste and we were so impressed.  She had hardly even sewn before and look what she achieved:

We have been absolutely staggered by the quality of these quilts - each one has been absolutely stunning!

Next, Ava  and Libby came up with Granny to see all the animals today.  They have their own chickens but decided to come and collect some eggs anyway.  I showed them my broody and said I thought her eggs would have hatched by now..... we looked in and...

Four little chicks!  Could be two more by tomorrow.

At 3.00pm yesterday Jeffrey couldn't stand it any longer so the combine is up and running again.  I decided to go down to the Drier at Maidencourt to take some pictures of the 'behind the scenes' work.

George came in with the trailer and backed it up:

waited for Jonathan to come out to open it up but since he didn't appear, did it himself:

Pulled out again and shut the trailer:
 

Where on earth was Jonathan?


Oh, right........

Dreams of leaping around with bells on, perhaps?

Anyway, a short discussion on the merits of power napping and then on with the work:



Testing moisture levels

firing up the drier

 

The rape and wheat being stored - you can see the rape is up to the rafters:

Combine and corn lorry

Baling



Still a bit to do

Harvest Respite

With all these showers we are having (although it's still warm and the sun shines in between) the combine is having to rest for a few days.  We are 2/3 of the way through - just the wheat to finish and the spring barley still to do. 

The other evening there was an amazing rainbow over the house:

 And I could see where the pot of gold must be!

 Anyway, even with the combine on hold, there's always something to get on with and while George is out discing to prepare the fields for sowing, Jonathan has been reinforcing the fencing.

 

He had to do this because this morning they brought over a cow and calf - they can't go in with the others because the older calves kept pinching her milk which would mean her little one wouldn't get enough

Meanwhile I've been getting on with the gardening.  The greenhouse is fine, lots of toms

 and cucumbers on their way.

And I think everyone's getting loads of courgettes this year

I fried some of the flowers in Tempura batter the other day - as recommended by Alice who comes to the Medallion class - she'd had them in Italy.  I put a little Mozarella ball in each one too and they were delicious - I used the River Cottage recipe.

Bit of a disappointment on the bean front - when I looked at them this morning I wondered why one looked dead and thought it must have been knocked by the wind

But no - something had munched through the bottom of the stem

 

 

Still, we got some good potatoes

 

and there are going to be loads of raspberries.

Unfortunately I won't be changing my dried flowers in the kitchen this year.  Because of the wedding all the seedlings, and my sweet peas, went out too late, so my cut flower garden is a complete and utter disaster!

What a wasteland!!