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.