Wednesday, May 1, 2013

1st day of summer. Happy Beltaine.

Today is the first day of summer according to the Celtic calendar, and the weather did not let us down.  We awoke to a bright warm sunny day and it has remained so, in fact the sun was hot.


The trees seemed to have come into leaf overnight, and the primroses and dandelions seem to be brighter. The grass is growing , everything is bright , clean and new life is around us everywhere.
 A horse in a nearby meadow had her fowl yesterday, it is a beautiful little thing, all legs and shy, we stopped to take a photo of it, it immediately went to mum for reassurance.

Matilda with three of her chicks.
Our live stock has multiplied with a total of twenty four new chicks in the last week, eighteen from the incubator, 100% success and six out of the remaining eight eggs from Matilda. We now have a break for a couple of weeks before anything else is due. 


At last some good news from the EU, they have imposed a moratorium of three years on the use of pesticides containing Neonicotinoids despite protests from the UK and Germany and the  agri chemical companies.
 However the UK still plans to plant more GM wheat come the Autumn despite the people saying NO. The peoples voice is clearly no longer heard or counted.
Eighteen balls of fluff.



We went to a neighbouring town today for a country market which is held every year on the 1st of May, we were hoping to get some fertile duck eggs for our other broody duck, but the people selling had no idea  what type of duck or even hens eggs they had, there was a lot of poultry for sale, mainly mixed breeds, and a lot of elderly cocks, most were in very poor condition even the chicks and ducklings, we left without buying anything and were very disappointed that apparently no effort had been made by the sellers to bring good stock with them.
   

4 comments:

  1. Good Morning Anne,
    Your strawberries look great, mine are just peeking through the dirt.
    I just love reading about Tess, what a smart and sweet dog.
    I am glad to hear about the 3 yeat moratorium.
    We have had no rain in quite some time. The rivers are running low and no rain in sight. I am attending a lecture next week on ways to save rainwater it will be quite timely.
    I love the picture of the new foal and your need additions.
    My best to you Anne and your family.

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  2. I too, enjoyed the snapshot of the foal. My Maddie is picking up her brood mares later this month, and hopefully next year Feb/March there will be foals for the first time on our farm. Kind of excited about it! I don't understand why governments have to bend to the will of corporations. I have such a hatred for chemical farming and Monsanto is on the top of my list! I sometimes wish that Canada would listen and be more like Europe! But I have a quiet tiny voice, and no one I talk to even knows who Monsanto or what GMO is!

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  3. Unfortunately the UK and Ireland seem to be loosing the battle against GMO's in the food chain, we have contacted several of the big supermarkets after the announcement that their own brands would no longer be GM free, so far only one SM has replied saying it's too hard to access GM free feed for livestock and that the government has assured them that there is no danger to health, as no testing for human health has been carried out and the only word is that of the GM companies that these things are safe, I wouldn't believe a word they say, would you?

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  4. Where was the Mayday market? Sad that the animals on sale were neglected. Ireland really has a shameful animal abuse record. Everything has burst into life on your place. Wonderful!
    Bridget x.

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