~ A Month of Rainbows ~

 

Our computer died :~( 

We now have a very expensive light shade, as the body of the Mac Sunflower is perfect for that! We loved our Mac ~ it was so pretty. I was trying to upload a photo of her in her new guise, but, I have just discovered that we had our camera set to RAW and the computer here will not open them :~( Never mind....

here is a friends' (Dave and Billa's) place where we used to work with willows until five years ago. We have never really left though as we often house-sit, or, as at the moment, I am staying here to help Billa, as Dave is visiting his mother in Australia.

It has been a month of rainbows and the above image is the view out of the window where I sit using their computer. As I type, I hear their cockerel crowing ~ it is almost time to go out to feed the chickens and ducks their evening fare. This morning I moved the ten Welsh Black Mountain sheep ~ an easy task ~ with ewe pellets in a bucket as enticement they would follow me anywhere! The matriarch is now very old for a sheep and I feed her twice a day from a small scoop held in my hands. I squat down in front of her and my heart expands when she lifts her head and gently sniffs my face, never once stopping her chewing!

Four dogs keep me constant company and we have such fun walking around the fields or going down to the very large pond. It has a little island for water~birds to nest on and a coracle to paddle around in.

The willows come into their own right now as their summer dresses fall around them to reveal a field full of colour. From the bright orange of the 'Yelverton'* to the palest most delicate green of one of the purpureas*, and the deep plum purple of several of the daphnoides*. Like plums, they also get a 'bloom' which adds even more to their beauty. To see a field full of these intense autumn shades, not on leaves but on slim, tall, rods makes me sing ~ and I do ~ loudly and unabashedly.

* All different types of willow ~ there are hundreds!

I am missing my husband and my son and our little dog, who could not come and stay this time. My Man and I, except for a week when Jac was a baby, have not been apart at all for over 18 years and it is hard. I will be seeing them tomorrow night though....sigh ~

We are not sure when we will get a replacement computer. We are hoping it will be Saturday, or next week.

We had snow today!! That's very early for us here.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you lovely people in America *