Wouldn't you love a Nannette?!

Since the last blog we appear to have been everywhere - and without a single car misadventure!  As soon as I have finished this I need to get back to catching up with other people's goings on in their blogs as since we returned this is the first chance I have had to sit at the computer.

Sam has now had his apprenticeship confirmed and starts an intensive tractor course next week.  He has been helping the Shepherd this morning and spasmodically working at the farm he will be doing the work part of the apprenticeship at - so he has been busy.  He has however, found time to get Sapphire mated and attempt to start Bianca's fitness regime!  He has also managed to remove all the boxes of toys he sorted from the loft.  Now instead of a tidy and organised loft I have a ball bearing run all over the lounge, tractors and diggers lined up everywhere and an extra television has appeared!

We had a meeting of the GWR last night and I am pleased all is going well - including the number of entries, which is great.  Much of the meeting was spent discussing table cleaning in between classes and many suggestions were made.  In the end, however, we have decided to  rely on Andy with his Nannette!   I am still very unclear what a Nannette actually is but apparently it is more than a duster, more than a feather stick and more than a brush.  Andy swears by them and appears to have spent much of his youth wielding them and, apparently, they collect more detritus than anything invented before or since.  I feel a highlight of this years show will be when this Nannette is revealed and wielded in front of the crowds!

On a more sombre note - and miss this paragraph if you are eating - (although remembering the time I had a jelly baby incident and got a foot stuck under my P I would not advise eating near a keyboard anyway) - we returned to a nasty bit of fly strike on Grace.  Grace is my little Southdown sheep who had problems with fly strike and a touch of arthritis before I had her.  This photo is of her earlier in the year.

Sam phoned us on Sunday morning and said Grace looked like she had fly strike and so we raced back and sheared her back end straight away - what we found was dire.  I felt awful and discovered I had no crovect.  The Shepherd was up withing half and hour and sprayed her.  Immediately hundreds of little maggots started dropping from her - it is a horrible thing and I blame myself because we should have sprayed her two weeks ago as a preventative.  I shall not be forgetting that again.  I gave her some antibiotics and she is now livelier but still looks sad - and she is cold.  I have moved her to a paddock with a field shelter and given her lots of hay so I am hoping she will recover.

The wind has been dreadful today with rain, fallen branches and mud - much mud!  Two branches fell in the girl's paddock and they have been steadily stripping them of leaves.  They were not massive branches so no damage done.   For most of this morning we had a power cut which was an excuse for Sm to break open his survival kit!

The weather has been too bad for any new photos so here is a slightly out of focus one of Greeves from last week

Knitting is going well again after a bit of a quiet time and I am now  branching out into what I like to call 'embellished gloves' - a bit of colour or the odd rose or button!  I might photograph one tomorrow.