I hate not being there for the group! I’m missing it! I hope you are all doing okay. I’m sorry that the letters have taken a time to reach you. It’s all my fault for sending it in a weird format that the chaplaincy staff are trying to make work. I’m going to see if Pete can help me change the format and then try sending it again.

Last week I told you about my son harrowing the fields. I have taken a picture of the harrows so you can see them. Evil looking, aren’t they?! The spikes you can see drag the dead vegetation out and allow air get into the soil, so we get a better growth of grass ready for the hay crop.

I am back to snow watch at the moment, watching every forecast there is. The weather is definitely going to go much colder so it looks possible. There is a weather warning for snow and ice which covers this area, but it looks at the moment like it is going to be a small amount of snow followed by a lot of rain. The old farmer that my son works for is keeping the new lambs in, and he tends to know the weather. We will see!

My son has been working lambing for the last 5 days and is doing the same on into the next couple of weeks. They have just moved the last lot of sheep down from the high fields into the sheds and there were 350 in that lot. This week they had one of the ewes (female sheep) give birth to 4 lambs which is rarely seen, it’s usually only twins. Four lambs is way too much for the ewe to cope with so my son had to learn how to skin a dead lamb to put the skin on one of the 4 lambs. The mum who gave birth to the dead lamb is given the one of the 4 lambs, wrapped in the dead lamb’s fleece, so she has more chance of accepting it. The four lambs have a better hope of surviving if they are divided between other ewes so they can have more milk.

***** NEWS FLASH ******

WE HAVE HAD A FALL OF SNOW!!! We have had a good covering of snow, deep enough that the dogs have had an amazing time, racing round the garden, digging holes in the snow, playing ‘tag’ with each other. Gwen and Mali raced around trying to catch the snowflakes in their mouths. I think we are one of the few areas in the country, other than Scotland, to get a decent fall of snow this time. The snow fell for about 7 hours as big white feathers but has stopped now. I think its going to melt quite quickly, but the dogs (and I) enjoyed it while it lasted.

This is ending up being the longest Blitherings to write…there has been lots going on. My middle daughter has been home from university and we’ve been talking through her next piece of work. She has to do a piece on Film Noir which I think I almost understand now, but I don’t think I could pass a test on it. It has to follow the Hays Code….I’m learning here!…which is a 1920’s code written to ensure decency in films, and have lots of shadow, contrast and sharp images. It’s really fascinating learning about the interests of your children, stuff that is outside your knowledge or understanding there available to discuss and learn about. I do love that.

Clyde, the cane corso (who is frightened of dachshunds, shhh!), came back to stay with his family. Their baby, our sort-of-grandson, was 1 year old recently. How did he get to a year old already?? We are going to take him for his first pair of shoes for his birthday because he is just starting to stand up and balance. I don’t think it will be long before he is properly walking. Then I think he’s going to need a pair of wellies very quickly so that he can go running in the fields. He’s such a cuddlesome baby though, with a good chortle when he finds things funny, particularly cats. We have quite a few cats as well, I must start introducing you to them soon.

We still have one more dog to go too….shall I do that now? I think we should.

My husband would say this was leaving the best til last…she is his dog.

Anya. Usually said with a scream and maybe even a bad word with it. She is a Hungarian Vizsla. She is a medium-sized hunting dog with short ginger fur, crossed with a kangaroo, with some added velociraptor just to spice things up a bit. She has a lot of nicknames…Wombat Whiskers, The Muppet, Boiiing, The Evil Sister, Maggot, The Big Ginger Nuisance. I’m sure there is more if I asked the rest of the family. I’m sure some of them may not be approved by the Hays Code!!

She is the first dog that my husband has had all to himself. He swears his undying loyalty to this dog despite her muppety ways. I just think that sometimes, deep in his heart, he wishes he had got a Normal Dog. She is a series of strangeness and contrasts…she really does hate people but the people she has decided to like she has to greet with full-bodied bouncy enthusiasm. She has dished out bruises, scratches and has even chipped my tooth in the name of greeting thoroughly. Greetings are no less than 20 minutes long and require full, individual attention from the greeted. She then has to physically attach herself to anyone she loves, lie across them, lean on them etc.

If she doesn’t like you, she will bark loudly until she decides you aren’t going away and at that point she will very actively ignore you…the sort of ignoring where you completely know you are being ignored, complete with loud sighs, breathy whinges, sitting with her back to you and, her personal masterpiece, belching loudly, frequently and strangely humanly.

She is bred for hunting. She has incredible stamina and can run for miles and miles, for hours at a time. She also demands my husband carries her in from the car so she doesn’t get her paws wet in the winter!! She will absolutely refuse to get her delicate little mudstompers even a centimetre out of the car when all she has to do is walk from the car to the house. You can barely hold her back from leaping with excitement and running to the first muddy ditch to roll and ditch-snorkel if she thinks that she’s going to go for a decent run across the fields.

In order to protect her from some of the rancidness of her ditch-snorkelling and because every so often she re-discovers her inner princess and thinks that the world is just too cold for her, my husband has bought her the most ridiculous amount of coats….a completely crazy amount! She has 4 indoor fleeces that are her ‘pyjamas’, that are made in a solid colour with a leopard, zebra or tiger print collar to contrast. There are her summer weight t-shirts in bold colours for keeping her from getting too hot. There are her winter outdoor fleeces to keep her warm on walks. There are her town-going ‘posh’ coats that have a nice bit of tweed on them, so that maybe, if you saw her at a distance and your eye sight wasn’t that great, you would mistake her as sophisticated.

My husband’s favourite coat on her is one of her outdoor fleeces. The rest of the family all find it quite funny. The thing about vizslas is that they are pretty much all one colour…their fur is ginger, they have a ginger nose, their toe nails match and so, sort of, do their eyes. He has bought her a bright orange fleece. The problem is, he thinks she looks lovely in it, we all think…she looks like a traffic cone in it!!! See what you think….

I don’t think I am going to be back next week, the

Trigeminal neuralgia is still a bit grim and the treatment isn’t

working as quickly as I would like. I am really sorry, I will get back to the group as quickly as I can.

I hope you are all now getting these letters. The technical problem around getting the documents printed out has been figured out between Chaplaincy and my husband.

Blessings,

Elizabeth