Goodbye April, hello May
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: Personal 2 Comments »
Got to love those cocker ears!
Last month, our family was very pre-occupied with a big celebration. It was an unforgettable experience watching my husband walk our radiant younger daughter up the aisle of our village church.
Not least because of the shock of seeing him in a suit.
In fact it was quite extraordinary for me to see my entire family and many friends, transformed by suits, ties, hats and beautiful, colourful, dresses.
And to spend a whole day with so many loved ones. An experience that not even the wettest month of the year could mar.
Of course my priorities have for the last few weeks been elsewhere than with dog training and the shoot. But now April is done, and as we slip back into our ‘green’ clothes, I am looking forward to this new month with renewed focus on our outdoor pursuits.
Meg as you can see (right) is relieved to have me back again!
The wettest drought in history
We are supposedly in the middle of a drought so serious that a hosepipe ban has been introduced throughout the South East of the UK. However, no-one has thought to inform the sky above Hampshire and Surrey of this fact. It has rained almost continuously now for around three weeks.
The farm is extremely waterlogged at the moment and the usually stunning annual display of bluebells has been somewhat flattened and diminished by the constant rain and high winds. Even in the landrover, straying from the main tracks is fraught with excitement. And not in a good way!
The Queen of the Oceans has been confined to her berth for all but a couple of days for the last few weeks. Overcome with cabin fever due to the atrocious weather for the last few days, himself went down to ‘look her over’ and pump out her bilges on Sunday afternoon. Several gallons of rainwater had been forced under her covers by the previous night’s gales.
Catching up with writing
Fortunately there is nothing too pressing that needs doing during April, and we were able to put the shoot on the ‘back burner’ whilst preparing for our big day, and riding out the April storms.
And in the last few days I have been able to catch up with some of my articles for The Labrador Site where I have been focusing on stopping dogs from pulling on the lead, and Totally Gundogs where I have been delving further into retrieving, and retrieving problems.
I have also set up a facebook page for my gundog site which, if you are into that kind of thing, you can find here: Totally Gundogs on Facebook
Ready for May
May will be a month of pen mending, dog training, stalking and filming roe deer, and stocking the freezer with rabbits, venison, and sea fish. Himself and I also have some plans for a new website dedicated to deer. But more of that later.
Here’s hoping that some of the many vats of water that fell on my house last night, will end up in our desperately low reservoirs. I certainly do not need any more in my garden.
I can definitely relate to the rain/garden issue, Pippa. As soon as we got our seeds in the ground we had Noah’s flood released from the sky. Fortunately, we had built our rows high and everything survived. Last year was severe drought, this year is pretty wet so far – such is life along the Texas Gulf Coast. Congratulations on the wedding! We’ve been through four – two to go
Thanks Cathy, I should imagine our weather is pretty tame compared with yours!