July ended in a downpour and a brilliant lightening storm that we soooo needed , the ground steamed, soaking up all that lovely rain and visibly heaved a huge sigh of relief.. The husband on the other hand got home one Friday night to find we’d actually finally run out of water just as the rain started ,so a man needs a shower .. what does he do ? You guessed it ,he showered naked in the rain ..
I so wish I had a naked husband shower photo to post here .
The rain didn’t last long though and within a few days we had our summer back .
. The lovely weather was a great excuse to try out my new wetsuit (THANKYOU wendy ) and an
invite from the Wilson tribe introduced us to real open water swimming . The swimming was amazing , but the getting there was just as gorgeous ..This is Woodhall loch about 10 minutes drive and a 10 minute walk from Grobdale.
We love finding new sneaky magical places here in D&G .
Another great place , also not so well known is Rig bay not far from Garlieston and after borrowing the Wilson kids for a few hours we managed a fairy door hunt, swing finding and
making, beach combing, picnicking tree climbing oh and huge stick collecting ! The Garlieston estate boasts all our fave things.. fabulous beaches and gorgeous gardens ..
Am very sure we will be back
August was a month for more animals , our biggest ,oldest (she’s 21 !) and most searched for arrived ,just in time for our besties to enjoy her with us .. meet Lottie our pony .
This is the best bit, when she makes Lauren giggle uncontrollably ( nostril tickling with hay )
I never thought I’d love something beige so much !
Lottie is a Norwegian fjord horse , Or Hardanger as Nos and Ian inform me ( my English / Norwegian chums)
And it seems isn’t too phased by Nora noodle our Tamworth !
August apparently is the best month for mushrooms , so earlier this year I had booked a fungi foraging course for Andy and me . I had been following mark of Galloway wild foods since Jenny and Andy raved about his knowledge last autumn and I must say we were not disappointed !
The cook up at the end , on the beach at Cardoness estate was a wonderful spectacular finale to a lovely and very informative afternoon .. We would both definitely encourage anyone interested in wild food to get booked on a forage with Mark .
Talking of food hmm erm animals,
The Muscovy ducklings have been eating us out of house and home literally ! We moved them out of the house , into the chicken pen and they are blossoming .. They are so lovely to listen to they have such a sweet little gentle honk it will almost be sad to see how Duck a l’orange pans out (sorry Alisa) but not just yet, it’s fab watching them grow , they’re getting more and more tame too .
Anyway it seems we are becoming quite good at filling up the Farm with livestock and after spotting a rather interesting ad on one of my shopping fix / Facebook sites we trundled off to Ecclefechan ( I know sounds like a really good swear word dontcha think ) to pick up 2 lovely new weaners ! Since I failed Nora in our AI (artificial insemination) attempt earlier this year we won’t have any pork to fill our freezer or sell next spring so fresh stock it had to be .. It’s also a great way to try a variation on pure Tamworth pork , meet Thelma and Betty our Tamworth x Wild boar piglets how cute are these ?
So now we have 17 ducks, 16 sheep,10 chickens, 3 pigs , a dog and a very beautiful pony .
So I’m sorry for the visitors on their week or so off general life … Having looked forward to a relaxing break , struggling with wet weather plans .
But essentially I’m relieved we have a full water tank again and an overflow fountain in the loch ..
Cos all that lot drink a lot of H2O !
Fabulous yet again Sarah your blog is brilliant love reading it x
Ah thanks aunty sam , see you soon I hope so you can see what I’m on about in all this blog stuff x
So lovely to read all your news !
I love the pic of Lolly and Lottie. Your daughter is a born Horse Whisperer Lol
What a pity no pic of Andy nude bathing !
Keep up the good work,
LOve
Aunty Rozie
Xxx
Thanks Rosie x I’ve been talking about you a fair bit recently, mainly that I remember you telling me to give Lauren plenty of time and opportunity to just be around horses and not to worry too much about actually getting her riding .. she’s really enjoying her pony time
I’ll work on the nude photo 😱