NEWS
AUGUST 2010
Where did July go?! Well the fleece has been spun and is on the way to the weavers. We will have available just in time for christmas throws for sale made with our very own wool, how exciting. The hay in the meadows is poor this year due to snow and then no rain, the spring grass never got a chance to spring, we’ve learnt so much watching the seasons here.
JUNE 2010
Shearing this month. Gordon is out as I type putting up fencing for the shearers coming, a lot of our sheep start to cast their fleeces naturally in the fields. We’re up to about 100 sheep now after lambing. This is the first year that we are going to do something with the fleeces, not becasue we haven’t wanted to but because we haven’t had enough. So we’re sending them to Blacker Designs who will spin the wool and then send it to the weavers to make blankets or throws — sooooooo exciting. We’re also sending a couple of year old sheep to a local company to make salarmies and apparently we can flavour them with all sorts of things, rosemary, juniper berries ……as they say the proof is in the pudding, we’ll wait and see.
MAY 2010
Well, the geese have done well this year they have raised five goslings, all by themselves, no incubation here! The blue bells and oxlips (yellow wild flowers) are wonderful this year, the bluebells are spreding into the goose field. And finally we have a new comer to the farm arriving next weekend ‘Bob’ a German Wire Haired Pointer,(it’s a dog) all the way from Bridgend, Wales! - not Germany!
APRIL 2010
WE HAVE GOSLINGS! Our geese started laying eggs in February and weren’t interested in sitting on them so Gordon enjoyed a few for his tea, then they built two nests lukily in their shed. Previously they have made nests in the field but due to foxy loxy we have to put the geese to bed and therefore they couln’t sit on the eggs. So after sitting for a very long time our geese have raised two little goslings. They are swimming in the bath that is sunk in the field at this moment and they are only a day old, nature is so amazing.
Other bird life - we have curlews, it reminds us of when we lived by the sea in Scotland.
In the kitchen we enjoyed out first bread making course of the year with five local ladies and our returning holiday guest Jackie from London. We had a lovely morning, chelsea buns, bread and pizzas were on the menue. Our next course is on the 17th May 2010 for anyone interested.
MARCH 2010
OUR SHEEP AND THE SCOTTISH CONNECTION IN WALES!
More than 1000 years ago, Viking settlers brought their sheep to the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland, they would have been be small, hardy sheep; most would have horns and short tails. Towards the end of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth, this variety of small, thrifty sheep still provided the mainstay for shepherds in these regions. But gradually the agricultural revolution of the period, the development of new breeds of sheep and the clearance of many farming families from the land began to take its toll and new breeds were farmed. Early in the twentieth century, these sheep, which had been present in the region for almost a thousand years, had all but disappeared.
So here on Llwyna we are doing our bit for Hebridean sheep and we must say are very attached to them, as sheep go. The sun is out today and lovely to see it, the lambs will enjoy the heat on their backs. These good old ewes are fantastic mothers, they lamb naturally out in the fields with no help from us. ‘Wallace’ (after William Wallace) our ram is left with the flock all year, so lambing could start and finish anytime, but we feel it is more in tune with nature this way.
So why scottish sheep and a ram called William Wallace well Gordon is from Bannock Burn the famous battle ground of 1314!!!!! But that is not the only connection.
Even though our address is Llanishen we are very close to Trellech. In 1288 Trellech was the second largest town in Wales, this could have been due to the iron production for the de Clare family. A decline in the town was seen after the male line was distunguished when Gilbert de Clare was killed at the battle of Bannockburn.
So it is all Gordon’s ansestors fault that Trellech is the sleepy little village that it is today!!!!!!
JANUARY 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL
Well what has Llwyna brought in the last 12 months? Lots and lots of lambs, several litters of pigs, 5 kittens, 8 little puppies and the most important of all a lovely little baby boy born at home on 4th November - all healthy and hearty.
So as we move into 2010 we look forward to seeing what the year brings
