The fight, the lambs, the PC........

We have lambs! All in a day they arrived. One minute no little ones, then the next a bunch of them, all tucked up in the sheep barn as if the mum's had used it as a nursery while they went off to graze in the field behind the barn.It is of our opinion that the ram must have had a very busy day a few months before when the ewes had come into season to have so many lambs arrive at once.

Or else it was the weather........ we have had a patch of sunny days when it would have been better to have had little ones, but no, the weather has turned cold and wet and it is now they arrive. Every year this happens. Good weather passes, then as soon as the weather deteriorates we have youngsters.

We counted five or six. Now the air will be full of mums talking to young and young talking to mums, with us going out frequently to see what's up. It is magical.

*****

The computer is all sorted out, and is finished with Windows 7, and all other Windows editions, forever and after. It is a relief. The Linux Manjaro operating system is easy to use, simple to look at on screen, and has saved us the £1500 it would have taken to have replaced my PC because it would not have been able to handle the stress that Windows 10 would have given it. 

Onwards then.....I still have to research Manjaro compatable software for photo and video editing, and the non fiction books I have written and self edited will have to be re-edited. Not to worry, I probably need to update the books anyway. 

I like the Linux Manjaro operating system, it is open source so therefore free, and will never have Windows tinkering with it, with its annoying upgrades which it seemed always to be doing, and which was requiring more hardware to be bought if I was to go on to Windows 10. The software for Linux is also open source, and free. 

******

I had a fight the other day. It was with the new cockerel. There I was, with a large pot of goodies for the chickens in one hand, a large ladle in the other to spoon the goodies out of the pot with, slipping and sliding on the mud to get to the undercover feeding station, all of which was requiring balance and co-ordination if I was not going to go head over heels and land up flat on my back, when I noticed cockerel boy hanging close at my side, very close he was, and his feathers were all uplifted, and I felt a frision of alarm that he might not be feeling very friendly towards me, and so I scattered some food around me, thinking that he might be diverted by it, but no, all he did was do a little hippitty hop skip and aim his beak in my direction, which I fortunately saw coming, so I did a swipe with the ladle to distract him from pecking at my legs, but the pot being quite heavy, and my balance being ruined, and the mud being very slippy, and the cockerel deciding to now go to war with me, well............

.....what could I do, but toss the pot at him, not intentionally, but in an effort to stop myself from falling over, but oh dear, now he was really into warfare mode. Big hops and jumps he was now doing......I was a distance from the exit gate.......what could a girl do, but meet him head on! Oh but the pot was now lying upended on the ground, as was my ladle, so all I had was my blue lacy scarf, which was not a weapon as such, but was all that I had, so in what I thought was a true girl-ninja fashion, I did some flicks and swirls at that cockerel, which kept him away from my person, while I edged my way slowly backwards towards the gate. 

I don't know who won. Probably the cockerel, but it was his patch, and I was wearing red socks, and a cardigan which had red splashes in it, so perhaps he thought I was a very big cockerel boy. But...... I did find myself getting into fighting mode as well. It was just as well that all I had was a scarf as a weapon!

So a bit of a long blog, but it was a catch up one. No 8am dawn photos to upload to Blogger, because I don't have a photo editor for Linux at the moment, which is my next step in the Converting my PC to Linux Project. No lamb photos either.

Bye for now,

Vx

Fabric stash, but no lambs?

This is what I have been doing........organising a seven metre length of 106 inch wide cotton fabric into two door curtains to hang in front of our front doors. The drop of the curtains is 2.25 metres. Thank goodness I have the fully extended plastic garden table to work on. I have two more sets of long curtains to make for the house, but they are patchwork so will take longer to make. These are good projects to be involved with as we go through the grey days of late January. No dawn for us this  morning, just the sun coming up with no grand entrance, as if it was saying, 'Well that's it, I'm here but don't expect anything of me today!'

*****

No lambs so far this year. Normally most of our small flock would have little ones dancing around their feet by now, but so far none have appeared. We are wondering if the ram is done with the effort of producing young, but the ewes do look fat so we still hope for some youngsters to appear. Perhaps the mild and wet weather we have been having has made their fertility cycles go out of kilter.

*****

The drive for my computer arrived today, so I might be off line for a few days. Smiling through gritted teeth! So looking forward to learning a new operating system and all the various programmes I shall need, but know it will be a steep learning curve, but excited anyway. 

*****

I need to get my partner's trolley out of the barn and practice strapping my accordion on to it. I also need to have a go at wheeling it to and fro the van, and investigate how I am to lift the whole contraption into and out of  the van, because rehearsals start soon with the choir I played music with before Christmas.  Looking forward to that. They are a jolly band of minstrels, and we have fun. I shall also see the on coming springtime as I drive across lovely countryside to get to the rehearsal venue, just as I saw the on coming winter as the countryside slowly changed colour before Christmas. 

So, bye for now, 

In love and light,

Vx

Still 'offy'

Five days since I have posted, but I was still feeling 'offy' so without any words to write.

I can't believe how time flies, although the weekend seemed long and I felt I got value from those two days because I made a list of creative things I wanted to do which seemed to give the effect of lengthening the days. It would seem that to not enjoy what I am doing seems to make the minutes of the day seem long, but the day itself seem short.

To get value out of each day it would seem that we need to find pleasure in whatevcr it is we are doing during the moments we are doing it. Be mindful is what I mean, and staying focussed on the present moment and not let my mind go galloping about all over the place. This, I think, will be a lifetime challenge for me!

8am Monday 20th January 2020

My computer is hoping to be sorted out this week. It is starting to get headaches, and tells me that is so because it keeps dawdling about doing its job. I don't know whether this is because Windows 7 is no longer being twiddled about with because Windows are no longer supporting that particular  operating system, or whether it is just fed up. Anyways, my tech husband is going to be doing things to my PC. I shall then be going into novice mode with Manjaro, and the other distros associated with it.  What is a 'distros'? Actually I don't know. It's short for 'distribution'. and is techno language, so I thought I would casually insert it......... ! 

Here is yesterday's dawn photo, taken as usual at 8am. 

It was a dark sky, which I thought was not worth taking a photo of. The previous days had been the same, but darker and with no light showing through. The moon was still up though, and can be seen just above the top of the tree on the right. The heavens are all in motion. 

Bye for now,

Vx

I am having a day off / off day

I am having an 'off' day. whereby I feel disinclined  to do anything  which resembles work, ie sitting for hours on my computer for all the day long getting files downloaded so we can get Windows off my PC. Now this is an important task because it is going to affect my future writing work, but for today......stuff it!.

But it is not to sit idle and bored, for that will only make me feel guilty about PC work, it is to give my mind something else to do, for that which is my head is all jangled up like a tangled skein of wool, so to subject myself to another day of PC work is only going to make that tangle worse. Writing does not tangle me up. Downloading and zipping up files does. Learning new things for the computer does as well. How do I know that I am getting tangled up? Because I get irritated, and my head hurts, which does not bode well for a happy and joyful atmosphere between myself and my partner. He will sense my mood, and it will make him have a reciprocal mood back.

So this 'off' day I am turning into a 'day off'. With great pleasure I am going to sort out my craft area, and to all of you who are also crafting folk, you will know what a good pastime that is to be involved with. First, there will be the 'Tidy Up' process. Unfortunately this means that the present chaos will get more chaotic as boxes will be sorted through and their contents rearranged, but gradually order will prevail, but it will be Vera's type of order, which is a happy, jumbly, type of order!

No 8am photo today. I was still in bed, and on strike. But I did manage an 08.20 photo! Beautiful!

I am off to enjoy sorting through my fabric and wool stash!

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But before I go, this is a question from 'Your Daily Questions' blog I posted on the 13th Jan. 

"What are you most grateful for in your life right now"

I spent a few moments pondering deeply this question, and this came surprisingly to mind: that I haven't fallen into the atrophy of old age, and that because of my mind set I hope I never will, that I am grateful for being who I am, even though I do understand that I have a complex nature.

Crikey, putting that question to myself most certainly brought out a surprising response to myself. 

So how would you answer that question to yourself?

Bye for now,

Vx

'Your Daily Questions'.......

8.10 am. Monday 13th January 2020

Moon going down

Sun coming up!

I am working through all the files on my computer prior to having my computer stripped of its Windows operating system, and came  across  this particular file, which I thought I would share with you. 

I hope the words are clear enough for you to read.

As 2020 is going to be a 'full on' year for me, I am going to put this into my work folder, so that I look at them before I start work each day. I think they will help keep me focussed. 

Bye for now,

Vx

Just five minutes

8am, Saturday 11th January 2020

Another lovely early dawn. Looks like a torch is being shone behind the clouds. I stood and watched the sky for a while, and saw how the light changed minute by minute, and thought how people chase amusement, and then wondered why they can't be patient and look at what is around them. We are all the same. Too much going on around us, that's the trouble. Too many distractions, which eventually makes us ill of mind and body. 

Not to worry, allow time to stop each day, be appreciative of all that is around you, all that you have, and you will be surprised at how much better you will feel in mind, body, and soul.

Just five minutes, that is all it takes. 

Vx

To Make Toast & Water

To Make Toast and Water, according to Mrs. Beeton's book of Household Management 

1876: Ingredients: A slice of bread, 1 quart of boiling water.

Mode: Cut a slice from a stale loaf ( a piece of hard crust is better than anything else for this purpose), toast it of a nice brown on every side, but do not allow it to burn or blacken. 

Put it into a jug, pour the boiling water over it, cover it closely, and let it remain until cold.

When strained it will be ready for use.

Toast-and-water should always be made a short time before it is required, to enable it to get cold: if drunk in a tepid or lukewarm state, it is an exceedingly disagreeable beverage. 

If, as is sometimes the case, this drink is wanted in a hurry, put  the toasted bread in a jug, and only just cover it with the boiling water; when it is cold . cold water may be added in the proportion required. .... the toast-and-water strained; it will then be ready for use, and is more expeditiously prepared than by the above method. 

Thankyou, Mrs Beeton. Useful to know how stale bread can be used in the kitchen instead of being donated to the hens.

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Photoshoot: 8am yesterday (Thursday 9th Jan) didn't happen because I was still in bed and in avoidance mode about getting up. 

Photoshoot: 8am today, (Thursday 10th Jan) produced a grey /black photo because it was raining. 

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Project Manjaro: this is getting Windows 7 off my PC before Windows stop supporting it on Jan 14th. We can put a free version of Windows 10 on the computer, but want to stop being under the rule of Windows so are moving towards the open source operating system of Linux Manjaro. 

I am currently working through my files, particularly the website files, with the intent to save them on to disc, so that Lester can begin stripping Windows off my machine and putting Manjaro on to it. 

I think that this is cool thing to do for someone over seventy! Rather than staying with what I know, to move on into new waters stops me from getting old and set in my ways, a tendency I could have if I refused to learn new things by using the excuse of  'I am too old'. 

Bye for now,

Vx

Sing a long!

8 am. Wednesday January 8th

Across our fields

Bye for now.

Vx

I can do.......I can do.....

8am Tuesday 7th January. 

Watching the dawn from the Half Barn Doors

I was so glad to have taken this photo today, because it shows a true image of there being light beyond the darkness. 

It's one of those days when everything seems an effort, and I have just had an abysmal conversation with a French neighbour who wanted to talk to Lester but he was on a conference call, so Mr Tarrant, the neighbour, only had me to talk to. 

And I have been going really well with learning French with Duo Lingo, but I have spent hours using my English vocabulary over the last few days, which has squashed into a tiny corner of my mind my French vocab even though I do practice every day.

 Saying to myself....I can do this, I can do this, I can increase my French language skills, because that is what you have to do when you have decided to do something which seems beyond you, and you feel like chucking  that particular project out of the window to be gone forever. 

So I took Mr Tarrant out on the farm to see the flood damage, meanwhile raking through my mind to try and remember my French, meanwhile forgetting about the two home made loaves and one quiche which were still cooking in the oven, meanwhile hoping that Lester's conference call was going to end sometime soon and that he could take over the conversation with Mr T. 

None of that happened. I could not find enough French words to hold a conversation, the loaves and quiche were thusly burnt so will go on the compost heap, and Mr T gave up with waiting for Lester, so left. 

Oh well. It was a lovely early dawn, and you can't have easy going days all the time otherwise you would become complacent and not value them, so to have an 'off' day thrown into the pot now and again is good. 

Life is good. 'I can do', repeating that to myself over and over, because there are other Projects which are in urgent need of 'I can do' thinking. 

Bye for now,

Vx 

Light at the end of the tunnel

Monday, 6th January 8 am 

View from the Half Barn doors.

I love how this little project of taking a photo at a certain time each day is making me attentive to how the dawn is getting earlier. We now have ten minutes more each day of daylight since the Winter Solstice in December, which does not sound a lot but it does encourage me to be alert to that the longer days are on their way. It also stops me from getting fed up with the colder weather we need to get through before it gets warmer, which is important to me because our house does not have central heating and so does feel chilly in the mornings. Not to worry, the log burner heats the house up very well, and living in a house with does not have the drying effect of central heating is much healthier for us. 

There is always light at the end of the tunnel, dawn will always arrive, sometimes later sometimes earlier, but it will come. A bit like our lives really. When we are stuck in a hole and don't feel that we will ever get out of it, and things seem to be getting worse and worse, to keep hope that we shall rise up and conquer whatever it is that is getting us down. To keep hope alive, that is what we need to do, that light will come back into our lives, that all will be well even if, for now, the end of the tunnel seems to be far away in the distance. 

Bye for now,

Vx

Giving yourself time.

View from the Half Barn door, 8 am, Saturday 4th January

The sky is not quite looking this colour, but it is raining so perhaps this is the faint blue of the sky combined with the colour reflected in the raindrops. A bit like our lives really. Nothing is quite as it seems. There is the true reality, and then there is our personal interpretation of that reality, which then tends to bias that reality, sort of like warping it, possibly encouraging us to have a different reaction to that which is appropriate.

Stop, observe, and understand what is the truth, then react. Others, though, might think you indifferent, but you know that you are not, you are just giving yourself time, that's all.

Bye for now,

Vx

8 am. January 3rd.

View from the Half Barn doors at 8 am

(Sorry for the white background behind the words, but blogger did it of its accord!)

It is 8am, January 3rd. I am intrigued by how this time of day is different each time I photograph it. Yesterday, the incoming dawn suggested a sunny day, and it was but only after a very hard frost, today it looks as if the sky is holding some rain clouds. 

Late night last night, so late rising this morning, nearly missing my 8 am photo shoot. 

We are changing the operating systems for our computers from Windows to Manjaro, so another learning curve for me this year. It would seem that we have arrived in 2020 up and running. Normally I am sluggish and tired, and drag myself into the new year, but not this year. 

Perhaps it is because of the vitamin D3 I am taking , or the magnesium I put on the soles of my feet, or that I am continually stretching my mind by learning new things, or maybe my Qi Gong exercises I started a few months ago, or maybe because I refuse to let my seventy plus years be a problem for me,  and acknowledge that my soul is ageless while my body is not, so to meditate for a few minutes each day to let my soul keep my body well. 

No Qi Gong exercises again today, because of my late getting up. 

So on to another day, and may it be a good one for both you and I.

Bye for now,

Vx

8 am. January 2nd.

View from the Half Barn doors at 8am


It's 8am, the 2nd January, and I am now in the New Year, after having dawdled yesterday with acknowledging that a new year had begun. But today I have opened my 2020 Diary, made some optimistic lists of what I would like to do with my knitting, crochet, and sewing projects this year, opened my Labartere Web Site Project book, also my YouTube Video Project book, noted some Jobs To Be Done If It Is Not Too Cold Outside in my Gardening Project book, made notes in my diary for what else I need to do, and now I feel quite faint from lack of food and coffee.  Breakfast for me, and tea in bed for my partner to wake him up, because he is a good man and has a long day ahead of him working on the computer.

I have not done my Qi Gong exercises this morning because I have been starting the New Year off.

Meanwhile,  I hope you have a good 2020, and wishing you well.

In love, light, and peace,

Vx