It's Been A While!

To say that it's been a little while since I last posted on here would be a little of an understatement! The last 6 months have contained a mixture of times; times when I have been simply too busy to write, times when there has been so little going on that there seemed little point in writing, and other times where my motivation was simply missing.

But here I am, back in the digital world and ready to bring you back up to speed with the wheres, whens and whys of what goes on in our crazy little lives!

Back in September (when I last wrote) we were just about to embark on a holiday (our first since the epic trip around the world) to Iceland (no...not the frozen food supermarket famous for it's £5 prawn ring).

The 2 of us swimming between continents. One one side is the Eurasian continental plate and on the other is the North American continental plate. The visibility is awesome and the water a constant 2 degrees celcius!

Traveling through the "Land of Fire and Ice" was an extraordinary experience. Based at our friend Siobhan's house in Reykjavik the 3 of us explored the south and west coasts of the country, taking in Volcanoes, Mountains (occasionally through the mist), Geothermally heated water pools and Glacial Lagoons to name just a few things.

Nothing like "chilling out" at a glacial lagoon on a Friday afternoon! You can see the glacier (just) in the background and all of these icebergs have carved off of it

Just a few weeks later the snow came to Iceland, making many areas I am sure unrecognisable from how we saw them during our stay. A trip back to experience an Icelandic winter will at some point I am sure become a reality for us.

From a work point of view, both of our contracts with Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust came to an end in November. A few frantic weeks toward the end were eventually completed by me actually having to finish all of my training course work during our leaving party! As far as we know both of our work has met the grade, and has gone off to be externally verified by the examining body.

Occombe Farm is no longer our home and work. While we do miss it we have merely moved on to the next step on our little adventure

When we arrived back in the UK following our lengthy travels nearly 2 and a half years ago, we made the promise to ourselves that we would do everything we could to make our goal of working in the outdoors a reality. After 2 years of working full time without pay, putting in endless hours in front of computers and in books and sticking to a strict budget I am proud to say that both of us have finally seen our dream become a reality!

As of 6 weeks ago I joined the team at Magdalen Farm (near Chard in Somerset) as an Environmental Education Officer on a 6 month contract. The 132 acre farm is organic and promotes sustainable methodology and technology. As well as receiving a full salary, Vicky and I are also given a caravan on site to live in which means we have no housing or fuel costs associated with my job.

Literally surrounded by countryside, you can just about see the end of our caravan in this photo. A 15 metre commute to work means I can hardly blame the traffic if I am late!

I mainly work with primary school children (typically aged 7-11) who come for either day visits or residential stays. We spend a lot of time with the children (on occasions up to 12 hours a day) and we cover everything from learning about organic animal welfare, organic food production, sustainable fuel sources, wildlife tracking/spotting, outdoor survival to team building and campfires.

Why's it all gone dark?! Damn these big ears! At the farm children really get to understand where our food comes from, and that means telling them that in 7 months time these new piglets will become the meat products they eat when they stay at the farm. As far as practical the farm tries to provide itself with as much of the food that it uses as possible. Local and organic. I think I will stick to my lentil loaf and salad thank you very much :)

Vicky has just managed to land a 9 month contract with the Dorset Wildlife Trust based at Chesil Beach. She starts her job on Monday next week, and so I will save further details for this on my next update.

While as yet neither of our jobs are permanent, we are both so pleased to get our first paid roles within the industry. The step from being an unpaid trainee to a "proper" member of staff in someways seems small, but in other ways it can be one of the biggest and hardest steps to actually achieve.

The largest downfall we have found to our new location is our connectivity. Rural Somerset is a little like the land that time forgot in terms of technology, with phone signals varying on a (sometimes daily but sometimes by the minute) basis. As a result sometimes we can go days without a mobile signal. There is therefore of course no mobile data to access.
The farm's wifi network barely reaches our caravan, and so the internet is also an unknown quantity. I actually went to start this blog last night, but part way through the internet disappeared for around 22 hours. Had it not been for the dreary weather I may even have considered sitting outside to get closer to the signal.

I was astonished to find that some small towns and villages here still do not even have broadband, demonstrating how much the technological revolution left them in the shadows. I will try and make regular contributions to my blog as I did in the past, but I am conscious that given the circumstances this might not always be possible.

Spring is certainly a time for all things cute on a farm!

As was always traditionally the case, I would like to finish the entry with a news story that made me either happy or laugh. 
In a week where good news seems to have been thin on the ground I was tempted to go with one member of One Direction having enough and leaving the band ;)
However with Spring in the air and Easter around the corner I had to chuckle at one Scottish butchers contribution to the season...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-32069147

See you all next time :)

Week Ending 14th September 2014

So here I am with less than 24 hours to go until we fly to Iceland, drinking many mugs of Lemsip and sucking on menthol sweets trying to beat this cold that Vicky has so kindly shared with me.

Mum and Dad popped down with their neighbours Michael and Kathy for most of last week. The weather was excellent throughout and so there was plenty of opportunity for getting out and about, eating too much good food and drinking plenty of beer and cider too :)

Their stay in fact began with a trip to our Occombe Farm Cider Festival. In it's very first year the festival ran all of Saturday afternoon and well into the night, with 39 different ciders stacked behind the bar and a whole host of musical talents taking to the stage. Our former "next door but one" neighbours from Deal, John and Irene, joined us for the event and between us we sipped our way through many a good cider during the course of the sunny afternoon.

The first of many ciders on Saturday afternoon!

John, Irene, myself, Vicky, Mum, Michael, Kathy and Dad on Paignton beach

Sunday afternoon was spent out at Berry Head for a spot of lunch at the Guardhouse Cafe, followed by a walk looking for anything interesting out at sea. Only 2 days previous we had been at Berry Head for a bird ID training course, and while we had been looking at sea birds we has seen all manner of things such as Seals, Harbour Porpoise and the occasional Common Dolphin. This afternoon however there was no such excitement to be had, and other than the odd diving Gannet a huge US Navy vessel proved to be the only real point of interest out to sea.
The beauty of Berry Head is that even when the wildlife doesn't come out to play the area is still a wonderful area to sit and let the world pass you by. The dramatic coastline makes for an excellent view, and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore below does wonders to help you relax.

Dad, Mum, myself, Vicky, Kathy and Michael on the headland at Berry Head

Monday was spent on the Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes round robin. We started the day on the Paignton to Dartmouth (Kingswear) train. Michael is a big fan of steam railways, and so it was great that he was able to ride a line that he has not traveled before while he was visiting us. Again the weather played ball, making the views out across the coast and across the River Dart all the more beautiful.

Train just leaving the station to make the return journey from Kingswear

The boat to Totnes was as equally enjoyable with the sun shining down on us. Plenty of wildlife up and down the river could be seen, and even a Seal popped his head up half way through the journey to say hello.

The bus ride back to Paignton was on a traditional open top sight seeing style bus, and while sitting upstairs felt like a good idea when we got on by the time we alighted at the other end several members of the group were using the word "numb" to describe some of their extremities! 

Our final day together on Tuesday saw us go for a relaxed stroll around some of our local area including our base at Occombe Farm and the quaint nearby Cockington Village. A savoury cheese tea at the little thatched tea rooms in the village was a particular highlight, before a trip up to view some glass blowing and blacksmithing the craft studios.

Wednesday and Thursday saw us go back to work before we headed up to Dunstable on Saturday for Vicky's Aunt Susan's wedding. The service and the reception were both lovely, and gave us the opportunity to catch up with a few familiar faces. As we had to do a day round trip from Devon though we weren't able to stay as long as we might have, and so we look forward to catching up properly with everybody at another time.

Vicky, myself, Mum and Dad at Susan and Philip's wedding

This weeks amusing news comes from Canada, and shows what you probably wouldn't expect to find on the green at your local golf course...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29174094

See you all when we return from Iceland :)

Week Ending 31st August 2014

It's been quite some time since I last wrote my blog, over a month in fact, and so I decided it would be a good idea to try and get back into the swing of things again!

Over the last month I have only had one weekend off and have seemed to have worked an obscene amount of hours. So much so in fact that I have racked up an extra weeks worth of holiday to make up for all the extra hours! Writing time has therefore been at a premium, and when a small window has presented itself there hasn't really been that much to write about!

August has been mainly taken up with the children's holiday club that our organisation runs, where parents can pay to leave their children with us for the day and we take them out to do fun and interesting (hopefully) activities in the local area. Much of the time is spent doing more informal versions of the lessons that we run with school groups, however there is much more space for these sessions to be dictated by the interests of the children as opposed to their teachers!

While it has been busy I have ultimately enjoyed the work. Getting to work outdoors all the time is fantastic, and even if they don't necessarily realise it the children are learning new things all the time as well. One of the wildlife photography sessions we were running with the children turned up this beauty, a Great Green Bush Cricket.

Great Green Bush Cricket. They live only in the south of England eating vegetation and other small insects. They can live for around 10 months.

With one day off recently Vicky and I were able to walk part of the South West Coast Path between Paignton and Berry Head. The changeable weather didn't dampen our spirits and we were rewarded when we arrived in Brixham with glorious sunshine overhead. Fueled with a portion of chips and an ice cream we made our way up to the headland where a range of wildlife decided to put on a show for us. A seal was keeping a few of the local anglers company in exchange for a share of their catch, while Gannets, Harbour Porpoises and the odd Dolphin were busy rounding up and catching fish not far out to sea.

Friday night saw us head over to Dartmouth for the regatta, with the Red Arrows leading the line up at 6.30pm. Unfortunately having made the epic trip through the traffic to get there in time, low cloud forced them to perform only their most basic of maneuvers before they disappeared off and out of sight. 

The famous red, white and blue trails as the Red Arrows came into sight above the River Dart

The noise and maneuvers of the RAF Typhoon that preceded them left them upstaged slightly, but in their defence there was only one Typhoon in the sky and not 9 planes all trying to fly just meters away from one another.

Saturday was Vicky's birthday, and so I lined up weekend of surprises for her with the hope that the weather would play ball (which thankfully in the end it did).

After dropping her off for a massage to begin the weekend we made a trip to Kent's Cavern where we received a guided tour of the prehistoric cave system that sits so close to the town of Torquay. Some great finds have been made there over the years including the teeth of Woolly Mammoth, jaw bones of bears and even remains of Neanderthal man.

After a swift picnic in Cockington Country Park we made our way over to the Park's beehives, where a group of local beekeepers were holding an open meeting for people to come and check out the hives and learn more about the bees. We donned our protective suits and made our way inside where we were able to get up close and personal with about 15 bee hives. At this time of year each hive is supporting around 20,000 bees, and with the collecting season over all of the nectar the are collecting now is to make honey that will get the colony through the winter.

All kitted up and ready to go!

The bees are fascinating to learn about, and I think both of us are seriously considering having a hive of our own when we eventually find the right space.

After the bee experience was complete I led Vicky to believe that we were off somewhere for dinner. Arriving at a small farm in the middle of Dartmoor around an hour later, I revealed that we were in fact camping and that we would be cooking our own dinner.

For all of those ladies out there thinking how disappointing this may sound, I will just add that Vicky really enjoys camping and seemed genuinely more excited by this than the thought of going to a fancy restaurant! 

The camp site was perfect and we spent the evening enjoying the peace and quiet of the moors, with just the sound of the river behind us running by. Thankfully the weather continued to hold and we were even warm during the night. Memories of a few very cold nights camping across Europe and Australia came flooding back to us, making us all the more appreciative of the good weather!

Tent up, BBQ on and a cold cider to hand. A great way to spend the evening!

This morning we continued our journey across the moors taking in the wonderful scenery. We stopped at a little cafe for a late breakfast / early lunch, before spending some time basking in the sun on a rock in the middle of the nearby river.

A hop, a skip and a jump got us to our own personal island. A little smaller than Flat Holm was I must say!

Back at home the weather was still so good that we decided to hit the beach. A bottle of wine went down all too quickly, while we lazed in the sun enjoying a good book. Top weekend!

So as per normal I have been scanning the news for a story that makes me smile or laugh, in my quest that news doesn't all have to be bad (even if most of it seems that way sometimes).

This week's story comes from very close to home in Kent. Take a bucket and spade down to Folkestone and you never know what you might find!

http://news.sky.com/story/1326687/gold-diggers-flock-to-beach-for-treasure-hunt

See you next time :)

Week Ending 13th July 2014

And so it is the end of another week down here in Devon, and a very tiring week at that!

We have had schools in most days this week for one type of session or another, and next week looks to be even busier as it is the final week of the school term.

Along with the school visits there has been plenty of work that needed to be done around the farm, as well as some special events such as an extreme beach clean that we took part in on Thursday evening.

A group of volunteers including Vicky and myself took part in the extreme beach clean

This involved donning wet suits, helmets and buoyancy aids and clambering around the cliffs and boulders to retrieve all of the rubbish that had washed up there. We would then hop back in the sea and swim over to the next area that required cleaning.

The session finished with some adrenaline fuelled jumps off of the higher cliffs into the water, before we swam back to the beach to record all of the rubbish that we had collected.

The week finished with the Cockington Caper race that we had spent the last 3 months training for. The race is a 10.6km run through the picturesque countryside around the village of Cockington, and is regarded by many of the runners taking part to be one of the most punishing routes in the area. Having already run the official route in training several times we both knew what times we were aiming for come race day, and I am please to say that we were both able to achieve our goals.

Emily, myself and Vicky back at the flat post-race with our commemorative mugs

I was aiming for a time of 1:10:00 and completed the course in 1:07:48, over 7 minutes faster than my best training time! Vicky was aiming for 1:30:00 and came across the line at 1:29:36, also her personal best and over 11 minutes faster than her final training run the week before!

In the week's less energetic matters we broke out the Trust's moth trap for the first time in a while for National Moth Night. We recorded over 25 different species, including some pretty cool ones.

3 of these impressive Elephant Hawk Moths were included in the results

The Elephant Hawk Moth's underside is even brighter than it's top side! In terms of scale one of these is about the size of my thumb.

We also this week headed out for a walk along the South West Coast Path, this time tackling the stage between Goodrington and Elberry. Along the way we found another moth, albeit a slightly beaten up one, which we rescued from the path and returned to the bushes at the side. This Scarlett Tiger Moth flies during the day, and has a bright red underwing. Who said moths had to be boring?

There's a lot more to moths than people think. This Scarlett Tiger proves that they aren't all just grey/brown balls of fluff that bang against the light bulb in your sitting room at night!

This week's news story comes from Canada, and shows an act of generosity from an airline pilot. I hope this guy is flying the plane when we head to Iceland in September!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28232814

See you next time :)

Week Ending 22nd June 2014

The sun is shining, the beach is packed and it's time for another blog!

The weather here has been nothing short of fantastic lately, but from the point of view of our running training I've wished that it could be just a little cooler at times! We are regularly running the route around Cockington now but the extreme hills in this heat have been punishing to say the least. Hopefully when race day rolls round it will be a little cooler and things will be just fine!

The good weather has seen many positives as well though. When I went out for a walk yesterday afternoon I was blown away by all of the wildlife that was out taking advantage of the weather; butterflies, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, birds, bees...the list goes on.

Common Blue Damselfly

Even a heron came down into the park while I was there

My ice cream maker has already had a couple of outings and Vicky's freshly recovered deck chairs have now also made several appearances on the beach after work.

Sunshine and cider!

Work has been busy as per normal up at Occombe with the Beer Festival having taken place since my last blog. The event was a huge success, and over the course of the 2 nights we had over 6,500 people come through the doors! The clean up operation after the event has taken a lot longer than the event itself, with most things at the farm only just starting to get back to normal.
School groups have been coming in thick and fast, especially for activities like rock pooling which are excellent in the good weather.

Our new bee hive on the farm is now fully occupied with the UK native Black Bee. This particular species is the target of a conservation effort after the species nearly became extinct around 100 years ago. 

New arrivals being added to the bee hive

As well as our new bees we have also welcomed some new pigs to the farm! Bubble and Squeak, as they have affectionately been named, arrived on the farm last Monday and are just over 2 months old. At the rate that they eat I don't think they will stay small pigs for very long to come though!

I was also very happy to find this active Swallow nest in the animal shelter belonging to the goats. Hopefully before long there will be a couple of little ones ready to make the long journey back to Africa.

These 2 eggs have been very recently laid

We have now booked our flights to Iceland for September, and so I am looking forward to my first ever visit to the country. By my count it will be the 28th different country that I will have visited :)

This weeks amusing news story comes from Austria. I would love to see these motorists trying to explain to their insurance companies why the crashed!

http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/18/naked-sunbather-hanging-out-of-window-causes-crash-in-vienna-austria-4766142/

See you next time!

Week Ending 1st June 2014

Where does time go? I can't believe that it's June already! 

Things have been pretty busy at Occombe Farm for the last few weeks now with school groups visiting most days of the week, and weekend work is also becoming more common hence the lack of blogs!

Training for our 10km run is going reasonably well. With 5 weeks left until the race I managed to pass the 10km mark for the first time in training this morning, and that includes some pretty big hills along the way! The terrain around the Cockington route is even more extreme though so more training is definitely required. Vicky reached 8.4km around the same route this morning as well which is her personal best so far, and she is still improving every time too.

I have spent some of my spare time recently in the wildfowl conservation area behind our house where I have been keeping my eye on a group of young cygnets that were born a couple of weeks ago. You can see them growing each day, and in comparison to some ducks I have seen the swans are actually quite good parents. So far all 6 cygnets have survived.

You can see 2 tiny little heads poking out from underneath the mother's wing

For the last few weeks walking around the area has been especially colourful with wild flowers sprouting up here there and everywhere. There are also loads of nesting birds around, and for those of you watching Springwatch you'll know that many of the chicks have hatched and are on the way to fledging the nest.

There's a carpet of bluebells in the woodland at Occombe

We are very close to booking tickets to go to Iceland later on in the year, and this week's news article shows us the perfect way to get us and our luggage to the airport...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27636476

See you next time!

Week Ending 11th May 2014

So here we are into May! A mixture of working at weekends and other projects means that it's been a few weeks since the last blog and so apologies for that.

Things have started to get a little busier on the farm in the past few weeks, with more school groups coming for educational sessions as well as the ever increasing number of animals that we look after. Since I last blogged we have had some little chicks arrive that will go on to become Blue Maran chickens. We are hoping to have one cockerel and all the rest as hens, so there might not be a happy ending for some if we end up with too many cockerels! 

We have had a real mixture of weather in the past few weeks, some scorching sunny days and others that really aren't worth the mention. As I sit and write this in the bay window of our flat the sun is streaming through the window (albeit making it a little hard for me to see my screen) and it looks like it's going to be a wonderful day.

This Peacock butterfly has been out enjoying the sunshine

We welcomed our parents (both mine and Vic's) down for a few days a week or so ago (IT'S JUST STARTED THROWING IT DOWN WITH RAIN OUTSIDE...WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!) and we had a great few days exploring some of the local areas. Probably the highlight was a trip on the "Round Robin", a train, boat and bus trip that runs in a triangle between Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes.

The train on it's way between Paington and Dartmouth

There was plenty of good food eaten over the course of the few days, and numerous stops for cakes and ice creams in most of the places that we went to visit.

Enjoying a sunny afternoon on the boat between Dartmouth and Totnes

We have this week officially entered ourselves for the Cockington Caper, a 10km run which will take place in July. We have started following a training schedule which should help us to build up our performance ahead of the big race, and so far things are going well. The training becomes slightly more demanding next week and so we'll see how I feel after that!

This weeks slightly odd news story comes from Turkey, where it seems one broadcasting station failed to do their homework on this game show contestant!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27349394 

See you all again soon!