Compare the Meerkat birthday card!

I know it's random, I'm away with migraine then back with a meerkat but bear with me, I haven't lost the plot just yet. This is for my father in law, every year I have to try and surpass last year's card which is getting tricky! He's absolutely mad on the Compare the Meerkats, I think he has all the toys and the book, so I thought I'd do him a card. Obviously meerkat stamps aren't available (to my knowledge) so this is my drawing in pen and ink, coloured in with pencils. All I'm saying is little bits of art take as much work as big ones and I know this card will be kept with the others.

One of the reasons I make cards is because in all honesty most of the ones in shops are awful, particularly for men. It's either an outdated watercolour of a cricket bat or something not very funny. This one took several hours so I only get time to do them for people I care about, but at least I know they're getting something much more personal than if I'd just purchased one off the shelf.

Why I Love North Ronaldsay Sheep

I have two North Ronaldsay sheep - Bobble in the photo above, and Mitten in the one below. They're both wethers and were the first sheep I owned, they're 10 years old now. I'd always wanted sheep and saw these at a local RBST farm. One followed me all the way around wanting a fuss, so I was smitten. North Ronaldsay's are the sheep that famously were walled out on the island and survived by eating seaweed. After several generations on the mainland the need for seaweed in the diet ceases though so no need to worry about regular beach forages! They're brilliant, tough, hardy characters and I just love them. Bobble actually had an operation for bladder stones aged two, and recovered amazingly. Obviously I spend a lot of time with my sheep so they're very tame. They are just lovely characters to be with, Ronaldsay's are always amazingly individual, and quite fiercely so. Tends to blow the "people are like sheep" thing out of the water, Ronaldsay...

Climate, anxiety and depression - a post from the heart

Sometimes I feel like I can't bear to open my eyes and look at the world because I'm so deeply ashamed to be a human being and worried about what's going on. Much as I try to believe in the goodness and humanity in people I am finding it hard to hold onto that faith right now. I think most of the scientific community, barring those who've received a nice sum of money from the fossil fuel barons, agree about climate change. I certainly would never call myself any kind of expert, some of my degree was about planetary science, but like a growing number I feel climate change has probably been vastly underestimated and will be quicker than people think. There are an awful lot of people thinking "it won't happen in my lifetime" who are probably going to be surprised, and not pleasantly so. We actually live below sea level here so I'm very aware of our vulnerability. But it's not just about me, I feel very powerless when I read of people in other part...

Open Reach and the saga of rural internet

Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground due to me having poor or no internet again. This year has been a real battle for us to get internet that's usable. I live in quite a rural location still serviced by copper lines put in when home phones were quite new. Both myself and my nearest neighbours are used to a rolling saga of issues every time it rains even remotely hard with bits of the road having to be dug up because of water in the joints. Our line is pretty shallow and several times that's also been damaged by farmers digging drainage channels into the ditch network. Then there's the ongoing saga of "the hedge"; apparently there is a joint where my neighbours line spurs off from mine under a big hedge. So frightening is the horticultural beast that no Open Reach engineer will tackle the excavation of the thing. In reality a pair of loppers and a spade would probably do the trick but of course it's all health and safety these days - if you can't...

A Little Cottage in the Country

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