Baking, escaping...

Tooey and Benjie are getting naughty. They have lately come under the tutorlage of the Twins Mum. Twinnie is a rare sheep. She is the one who looked me square in the eyes, when we first went to visit the flock two years ago, as if to say, 'You have got to have us. You can't leave us here'. It was the first time I had been looked at like that by any other living animal, apart from our dogs. Straight eye contact it was. And so we bought them. She knew she would be coming to live with us, of that I am sure.

Twinnie is not stupid. If there is a way to get out of the particular field we have put them for the day, then it is her who will find that way out. It is her who will keep calling for attention if she is not satisfied with anything. It is her who, unknown to us, managed to find a way through the hedge to graze on the verges of the lane. We wondered why the cars kept sounding the hooters. We thought that the drivers were just being friendly. I only found out what she was up to when I took the dogs for a walk. There she was, walking down the middle of the lane without a care in the world. When she saw me a ghost of a flicker crossed her face, as if she knew she had been caught out, but instead of doing a mad gallop in the opposite direction, with quiet dignity she strolled ahead of me back to the Paddock, maintaining an aloof expression, not even minding the car which was zooming towards her but which fortunately was brought to a halt, a nasty bump therefore being avoided.

She has passed this tendency towards naughtiness on to her daughters, of which there are three. If there is going to be a break out then the perpetrators will be either Twinnie and / or her girls who are the culprits. And what they do is be alert for any weakness in the gates or fences, and they plot, I am sure that they plot, because they will wait for the right opportunity to come along, when we are busy elsewhere, probably late morning or lunchtime, and then they will summon the rest of the flock, and then they will barge through the weak place. They really do barge as well. Shoulder to shoulder, like a rugby team having a scrum, they push forward, and fast. Then whooppeee! Joyously they will charge around the new territory, getting into a feeding frenzy, eating whatever they can. If they see us, they will charge in the opposite direction, snatching whatever tasty morsel they can along the way. They have often landed up in our neighbour's field. Not the one which has the crops in, but the one which is a meadow. Aha! This is no longer going to happen because Hubs started that line of fencing today.

But that still leaves the hedge copse. There is wire across the lane end of the copse, and there is a profusion of brambles which has managed to thwart any attempts to make a breakthrough. However, the other day I saw Twinnie half way along the copse, and she had a little band of followers with her, Tooey and Bengie being amongst them. Teaching them her tricks, that is what she was doing because since then Tooey and Benjie have been quite naughty. In and out of the field they kept going yesterday. I kept putting them back, they kept getting out. Pure naughtiness. I knew they were being naughty because they had a naughty look about them, they were not coming to find me but seemed to prefer hanging about with the chickens under the Oak Tree, and they were skippy. In the end I put them back in the Sheep Paddock. They didn't like that. They complained no end about not being with their mates out in the field, but 'hard luck' is what I thought, and turned a deaf ear to their complaints. (Tooey on the left, Benjie on the right)

While those two were testing my patience, I had a go at making paté. It was a messy business. I had to use my cheese grater to get the required consistency, not having a mincer at the moment.

.....but by crikey it was gorgeous. I am not a lover of paté, being suspicious about what it is actually made of, but my homemade effort turned out delicious. I used up the rest of the liver from the old ram who has been in the freezer for nigh on eighteen months. He had the hugest of livers, half of which had already provided us with a Liver and Onion lunch, and Liver Sandwiches for Hubs at supper time. You can find more info about the paté here: http://foody-ing.blogspot.fr/2012/03/lambs-liver-pate.html

Further on to the previous blog about getting a proper light in the future kitchen, here is the light itself:

....I wanted an uplighter-type of light because I don't like a light bulbs shining into my eyes when I look up, and this shade works very well, emphasising the shape of the ceiling. It also looks like it has been there forever.
.....and here is the new hotwater boiler:

....and do please note the festoons of cables hanging from the beams. All of the house was like this up until a week ago, because now we have a proper electric box:

....and some of the house is properly plugged and socketed.

PS: Did you know that French electrical sockets do not have an on or off switch? That you just shove the plug straight into the wall socket without first being able to switch that socket off? Strooth, but I always expect an electric shock when I use one of those sockets. By the way, good news about Hubs: no electrical shocks from the Pig Pen fencing for the last three days!

So this is my breakfast:

Homemade paté, homemade apricot jam (from June 2011), homemade bread. Gosh, makes me feel quite encouraged to carry on trying to run a smallholding.