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Well we certainly brought the sunshine with us again which is pretty good going considering how bad it has been. Sitting overlooking Cardigan bay bathed in warm sunshine on the 6th October is pretty lucky, it was a very nice start to the weekend. And the best way to end our stay was being able to sample your fantastic spiced honey ice cream, which was certainly discussed on the way home. Any time you want a sample tasting I am sure I could be available! Cant wait to try more of your creations, you certainly have a talent for it. Hope you have a good day of filming and that you perfect the pork like you did on Sunday.

Love to you both x
Michelle

By: Michelle Butler on October 8, 2007
at 6:13 pm

Thanks for your lovely comments - & thanks for coming to stay, it was wonderful to see you again (as it always is). Glad you enjoyed the ice cream; as it looks like it’s going to be a wet one today, I think I’l have a play with some cheesemaking & do some messing around with variations on the spiced honey ice cream theme, using a darker sugar & richer honey to see what it’s like.

By the way, we had a look at the photos & film on the disk you left - brilliant! Some of those pictures Neil has captured of life on the Ffarm, are really special (in fact they are so good w are considering getting a new camera to do the place better justice); & we were especially over the moon with the video clip of the lamb being born, because the card for our camera with all the lambing photos we’d taken, has become corrupted somehow & seems to have dumped everything. So that’s more than made up for it - wonderful (especially Lucas’s classic line about losing his welly whilst everyone else was ooing & aahhing over the miracle of new life)!

It was fascinating to see all the pictures following the progress of the landscaping of your garden; the end result was certainly well worth the effort, it looks absolutely fantastic. I remember that pile of topsoil in your back garden seemed to languish there for ages, reminds me of that monstrous mound of purple slate on the farmyard which has been there for a whole year now, still awaiting transfer to the veg patch paths once we’ve found the time & energy to take up our spades & start sorting the whole area out. Seeing your stunning garden has given me the incentive to roll up my sleeves & get it done - though ours could never look as lovely as that, alas!

Anyway it’s raining here, now; so perhaps the cataracts will be sufficiently swollen after all, for us to watch those salmon leaping at Cenarth when you visit again in a couple of weeks. Regardless, I’m just looking forward to seeing you again & spending some quality time with folks whose friendship I value as a pearl beyond price. J xxx

By: LittleFfarm Dairy on October 9, 2007
at 9:03 am

Thanks Jo and Tony for an interesting and informative time on your little farm. I hope all goes well for you tomorrow (Thurs) Jo and they appreciate the spiced honey icecream. Loved all the goats and their personalitys, got some nice photos too and the sheep and the geese and especially the pigs - I have a soft spot for them.
May the training of Nanook go smoothly but I fear you have your work cut out - she is a lovely dog.
John sends his best wishes and hopes all goes well for Tony - he is still waiting to see what the company does with their seniority lists but he’s still at the bottom!!!
Hope you have had your snooze and got back on top of things Take care Jo and thanks again for your hospitality love Sandi x

By: sandigarrett on October 10, 2007
at 8:56 pm

Hi Sandi -

thanks for your kind comments - & thanks for coming to stay; it was great to see you & catch up on all that I’ve been missing over there in the beautiful Cotswolds (though I am glad I missed the floods!). People can’t quite believe that here we are in ‘wet’ West Wales, & all we had was a few light showers in comparison. Can’t wait to see your photos, especially with your artistic talent - I bet you got some lovely studies down in the woods as well as of all the menagerie. When Michelle comes to stay in the next couple of weeks I’ll have to send you back a chunk of quartz crystal via her - when you were on your way back it ocurred to me it would have gone nicely with your slate! I’ll also make sure I rustle up some cheese for you (but don’t mistake it for the quartz as one will melt if you put it outside, the other will break your teeth & my cheese isn’t that bad!).

Thanks for your help with Nanuk, she’s a very strong personality & I find that if she’s ‘in the mood’ she can be very tractable & willing, other days she drives me mad (Wednesday being one of them). I just have to take a deep breath, smile & be very, very calm & patient. I’ve been trying her in the submission posture you used, & it does seem to work once she understands I mean business & am not just playing - although she still does her utmost to persuade me I want to play anyway! Like you say, she’s a lovely dog; yet still so much a puppy, at heart.

Give our love to John - tell him Tony has just received his first flying programme under the new merger & it doesn’t look promising; though it’s early days as he has a spell of leave in November so we cannot definitively tell. He has his BMed LPC on Sunday, then another one with the new company, a few days’ later (despite being fully current). However once he’s done the ‘merged’ LPC he can no longer fly with the old BMed crews so is already rostered for short-haul routes instead. So far he only has one day off between trips (with working days being 0545hrs-1530hrs average) - so there’s not really enough time for him to come all the way home. Therefore I’m steeling myself for hard times ahead as he may now only be able to come home after the occasional long-haul trip, or for leave (& he’s allocated less leave, as a result of the merger). I’d meet up with him somewhere in the middle, if I could; but of course I cannot, as I have the farm to look after. (So much for ‘taking into account the different lifestyles of BMed crews’, eh?). Ah well; we’ll see. But I gather there are a lot of very unhappy flight staff as a result of the merger. And Tony sympathises entirely with John - it’s so frustrating to be steadily climbing the ladder to Captaincy one minute, to whizz back down it the next all because of a merger! Trying times ahead for many of the airlines, methinks?? Sadly, many of these large organizations ignore the people who work for them, but do so at their peril - after all, it’s the staff who get them fame & fortune in the first place.

Snooze was all too short (up again at around 0700, after about an hour & a half’s sleep) but to help wake me up I’m working on a new Spiced Honey batch of ice cream - this time using a greater quantity of a stronger, local heather honey; & with a lower quantity of dark muscovado sugar. I’ll let you know how it turns out…but the smell of the spiced honey as it turns to syrup on the stove, is worth it regardless!

Anyway it was a real treat to see you again lass, I’ve missed your sparkling smile, good advice & cheery cups of coffee in your lovely kitchen - give my love to the family, Basil & Daisy - plus not forgetting of course, ‘Tipsy Tup’ Pip!

Jo xx

By: LittleFfarm Dairy on October 12, 2007
at 10:19 am

Hi Jo

Haven’t seen you for a while, hope all is well. Just wanted to let you know that I have been nominated for the ‘Local Food Hero 2008 award’ I have a week to get my votes so feel free if you would like to vote for me, on the uk food website.

Hopefully you will pop in for a chat soon.

regards
Mandy (deli delights)

By: Mandy (Deli Delights) on July 5, 2008
at 5:43 pm

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