Week ending 24th November 2013

It's been a quiet couple of weeks down here on the farm in Devon, with far more going on off of the farm than on it.

Plenty of time has gone into studying in the evenings and on days off (which have actually been quite plentiful lately!). Some of what we are learning even seems to be sinking in which is good, and the general feedback from the work that we have submitted so far has been very positive.

On the farm most of the time has been spent in meetings or preparing for the onslaught of visitors that our children's Christmas Trail will bring, which scarily is due to start at the end of this coming week!

The weekend just gone was a very enjoyable one as Mum and Dad were able to come down for a long weekend and have a good look at where we are working and what we are up to. 

It's fair to say that we were right royally spoiled for the 4 days that they were here, eating out every day which is something we are definitely not used to. Makes a change from beans on toast with Asda value bread and value beans!

We had a great few days exploring some of the local areas including Totnes, Cockington and Plymouth, and remarkably we had the best four days of weather that we have sampled since arriving in Devon so far!

The highlight of the 5 days since our guests returned to Kent has been the cider tasting day that work took us to on Friday. Heading just a few miles away to the Hunt's cider workshop, we were able to try a number of different ciders as well as getting the full behind the scenes tour of how it's all made. 

The cider press

The pulping machine and press were quite incredible, and at 200 years old they were installed by the current owner's Grandfather. It's a real family business that has been passed through the generations, and although in the near future they are having to move operations to a new factory hopefully that family and community spirit will be maintained.

Now that's what I call a bottle of cider!

This entry's amusing news story comes from France, and goes to show why making "bets" over an unlikely event could just come back to haunt you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25038456

See you next time :)

Week Ending 10th November 2013

This edition of the blog is dedicated to the memory of our friend Dub Shaba, who sadly passed away early this week. He will be dearly missed by many of us.

Dub at Vicky and myself's wedding (second from right)

I will never forget the first day that I met Dub. He was a colleague of Vicky's, and had offered to give us a lift up to London (where he went home at the weekends) to save us the cost of a bus ticket each. 

In typical fashion Vicky fell asleep in the back of the car within 15 minutes of us leaving Dover, leaving me the whole 2 hour journey to talk to a person I had never met before! Fortunately one of Dub's biggest passions was football, and was a season ticket holder at his beloved Arsenal (even the best people have their flaws!). Needless to say there wasn't a single quiet or awkward moment during the course of that journey, and by the time we got out of the car at the other end it felt like we were with somebody that I had known for years. Not because he had told me his life story several times over, but simply because he was one of the most open and friendly people I had ever met. To this day I don't think I have met another person who is able to smile so much, seemingly regardless of what kind of a day he was having. 

So now I've got the sentimental start out of the way, it's once again been a busy couple of weeks since I was able to blog last.

During the half term week the farm hosted it's 3 day Halloween trail, and provided all of us staff with an excuse to dress up and scare small children! A series of challenges were set out around the nature trail, and once those challenges were completed the children could come back to the farmyard to claim a packet of sweets and do some free craft activities.

Dressed as a wizard (I think!) helping children to make spooky masks

During the course of the 3 days we had over 1100 children (and all of their families) come and complete the trail, plus quite a few more that had just come to soak up the atmosphere. Considering we were only expecting 600-800 children it's fair to say that we were pretty tired come the end of each day!

The majority of this week just passed was taken up by hosting over 200 children from a local school over 4 days. Most of the time was spent working in the woods down the road, and the activities were focused on team building and fire-craft.

The children seemed to have a great time, with the competitive edge between groups only spilling over on a few occasions! For the best part their excitement was channeled into trying to complete the challenges that we had set them. These included "Cross the Bog" (using milk crates and planks of wood), "Rope Bridges" (build between trees), "Blindfold Trail" (following a rope through the woods blindfolded with a team mate offering advice) and "Marshmallow Fires" (building and sustaining a fire long enough to toast a marshmallow on).

I finished the week by working on a "Migratory Bird Watch" at Berry Head, one of the Trust's other local sites.

While there were not a huge number of species on the move (in comparison to last years event which saw far greater numbers) there were still quite a lot of birds for us to enjoy.

A break in the recent rain made for a great day of bird watching

15-20 Harbour Porpoises had congregated just off of the headland, and flying above hoards of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Gulls were doing their level best to pick up any fish that the porpoises were directing toward the surface.

There were around 150 Guillemots all stationed along the edge of one of the cliffs, and it was quite a sight when suddenly all of them headed out to sea to go in search of food.

Not my best picture by a long way, even with the zoom lens maxed out you can only just make out the Guillemots on the cliff ledges. Locally they are known as "Brixham Penguins"

Cormorants and Shags were frequently spotted as well, while some of the smaller birds including Stonechats, Yellowhammers, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Robins were all in the spotlight at one time or another.

A Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk added a bird of prey element, while Crows, Jackdaws and Ravens also made an appearance. 

Now in that last sentence I noticed "Jack" and "Sparrow" both feature, and that leads me on to this weeks news stories. I bet there have been a few Birthday cakes over the years to feature the lovable Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, but I bet that none of them have been quite like this one...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24852681

Finally this week I have a second story that highlights a breakthrough for women in football, and it comes courtesy of my beloved Dover Athletic's FA Cup match that took place yesterday...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24885560

See you all next time :)