27th November 2011

This week we went to the Red Lion pub in Pendoylan. This pub has been closed due to renovation. We had a lovely meal. Large burgers served on rustic oak platters. Vicci had a ribeye steak which she thought was one of the best she had ever had, which is quite an accolade.

It has been finished in a typical gastro style. The staff were very friendly. Worth a visit.

Went shooting with the Nicholls family in Wiltshire had a great day out.  Lovely weather and fabulous birds. Having pan fried pheasant breasts Monday night, can not wait.

Puppies are growing at the rate of knots! Will take lots of photos of them mid week. They do look like miniature Holstein diary cows.

Two more calves due soon from Jessie and Trio. We tagged all the calves . They look so silly with these massive yellow tags in their ears, but its required by law.

The berries are out on the Holly bushes. Xmas is coming!.

I have got to get a tree for the courtyard, last year I got a 25ft tree for half price as its was damaged. A week after I erected it the top 3ft fell off!.Try and do better this time

A mate of mine down in Pembrokeshire delivered two large bags of fallen apples. The pigs have loved them.

22nd November 2011

As promised I have taken a few photos of the puppies.  The small boy has been taken by the Renwick family. It has been named Marvic!  Sounds like a comic book character, but it is in fact make out of our names Mark and Vicci. We are very touched.

Here is Marvic with his new mum....

This is the biggest of the 3 puppies... She has slightly longer hair than the other two.

She was the first to open her eyes.. she has started moving about, it will not be long till she is running around, making a nuisance of herself.

This is also a girl. She has  black patches on both eyes, the rest is white. Really unusual markings, very striking.

This is tiny Marvic, the only boy.  We have to make sure he gets his milk every day, as his two big sisters would have it all!

21st October 2011

There was a lot of mooing first thing this morning. We rushed over and bluebell had given birth to a baby girl. She has been in labour for weeks. The Calf as predicted by the vet is very large.

They are both doing really well.

We had some brilliant dogs staying at sutton mawr. They are French Bull dogs.

20th October 2011

We had a full house this weekend.  The Jolly family joined us from Northern Ireland, to celebrate Johnny Graham 18th Birthday. It was a fancy dress party with the theme "The boat that rocked". 

It was great fun! What a bunch..

                                                                                                      
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The Jolly family,

The  Andrews gang

Ready to rock !

The next day it was Justin Jolly's 16th birthday. It was lovely to be able celebrate it at Sutton Mawr.  We all had a massive Sunday roast, ate far too much!

The Birthday Boy

We have finished our alteration to the main reception.. We think its a great improvement. Guests can now relax on comfy chairs in front of a woodburner .

Just been out to check on Bluebell, still no calf!..Will blog photos of puppies on Wednesday, their eyes have just opened.

16th October 2011

Decided to take Dora and Tiger Lily to Barry Island for  a run around.  There was a number of dog walkers, the tide was right out. Took a few photos... to show you what you were missing...

Dora and Tiger Lily loved it..

The sun was just going down...

not many kids on the rides

Rosie puppies are getting cuter and cuter every day.

Their eyes are still closed.

Rosie is quite happy us picking them up..

Bluebell still not given birth, How much longer?

14th November 2011

The days are getting a lot shorter. The sun went down at 4.30pm today.

We moved all the pigs around on the weekend. Stella and  Ruby were too muddy so we moved them to a new paddock. They are delighted. The move went like clockwork... It seems to either go really well or really badly!  There is no in between. As a friendly pig farmer told me, when I first started. " you only have one chance at moving a pig". He right if it doesn't work first time you might as well give up!.

Rosies puppies doing well. Here are a few photos

They still have their eyes closed.

This is the only boy and he is tiny.. The girls at definitely bullying the poor chap!

I am checking on Bluebell all the time. She has still not had her calf. I have been told it can take weeks from when they first show signs of labour.  It must be any day now.

10th November 2011

We had a bit of a shock this afternoon. Rosie and the puppies suddenly disappeared! We spent hours trying to find them. We looked all over the house, in all the out buildings.  We had given up. Then Alice found them in our bed...She had picked them up individually and taken them upstairs. They were very comfortable. We have now made a more suitable bed downstairs.  Polly Daisy and myself carried them down. Rosie didn't put up much resistance.

The two girls are absolutely enormous!  talk about girl power, the boy is starving, so twice a day we make sure he gets some milk. Rosie only has 2 teats working.

Here are some photo...

One of the girls...

all fast asleep....

Bluebell is in labour, we are checking her every few hours. The vet has told us she is having a large calf so fingers crossed

6th November 2011

We had a very busy weekend at the farm.  Moorhen has given birth to a black bull calf.  We are going to call him Mutley Moses or Spooks. They are both doing really well

Rosie had puppies on friday night. She had 6 in all 2 girls and 4 boys. She had them in Polly's bedroom. Polly was a brilliant vet with the assistance of her elder sister Alice. Unfortunately, the first one was still born. Then we lost the smallest black one, the next day, and last night a third one died. The 3 which are still alive are doing really well and we have one girl and two boys left. They are mostly white with small black and brown spots.  Rosie is being a brilliant mum.  Experts do say that jack russells have very small litters. So it possible that Rosie can only feed three successifully.  Rosie is very protective so photos are not easy. I will put loads on the blog when I can.

We have lived in Barry for 14 years and have never been to the Barry Island firework display. Well we did on Saturday night with Polly and 6 friends and it was tremendous. Must of been 7 thousand people all on the prom and down on the beach.  The night was ideal for fireworks and we were not disappointed. Really good display, everybody was on great form and brilliant atmosphere.  Well done everyone involved, which was mainly the Barry Rotary Club.. We will be there every year from now on!

2nd November 2011

The clocks have now gone back, and you do feel winter is on its way.  Its still very mild. but there are massive amount of berries on the Hornthorns, which if,  old wife's tales are to be believed, we are in for a cold one!. I hope its not as cold as last year -15c.

We harvested all our lavender from around the courtyard. This needs to be completely dry before removing all the heads.  We then place the lavender heads into small embroided sacks to place in the guests rooms.

Today we went on a long walk from Barry to Aberthaw. It was beautiful day, lovely walk along very interesting coast line and passed the power station, which is Wale's largest polluter!  The walk took over 2 hours and we got picked up in Gileston by R D taxis.

When we got home on the news was all about a massive landslide at Porthkerry Caravan park, which we walk through. 5 Caravans nearly ended up in the sea. Luckily no one was injured.