A Little Cottage in the Country

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...

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...

If I were to pick one downside of living where I do it would be the need to own a car and have to drive. I'm around 20 minutes away from the nearest town, and sadly in the time I've lived here the village has lost all it's amenities. We no longer have a shop, post office or pub, so even a hermit like me has to venture out into the wider world. I've been driving for around twenty years and honestly I think the standard on the road now is appalling. I'm not just talking about the cheap, infrequent maintenance either. The way people drive is downright dangerous. Until two years ago when I got injured I used to run 10km on the roads three or four times a week. Being responsible I always wore HiVis and ran towards the traffic as there are no pavements. It was always blatantly obvious when oncoming drivers weren't paying attention and hadn't seen me. Many times I was forced to jump into the bank to avoid being run over, and they looked surprised when they did se...

Not very nice is the answer, but that would be a short blog post! I've been very unwell with migraine for quite a few days although I'm thankfully up and about now. Migraines are something I've only suffered with for the past five or so years, they started after a particularly stressful period in my life and unfortunately have never gone. My migraines don't have any form of visual disturbance, the first signs I'm getting one is either nausea or a drilling pain in my right temple. When I first started getting them over the counter medicines did used to help, and if taken early enough could stop one developing but that's no longer the case unfortunately. In fact anything with codeine in it seems to make things worse now. The drilling pain usually increases to the point it's almost unbearable and this is accompanied by retching and vomiting. On Saturday I was retching every half an hour, all day. I couldn't keep down any fluids at all and the result of ...

I was reading with interest about the environmental benefits of not washing your clothes as often - longevity, less shedding of micro particles into the environment and so on. And I will be honest great as it sounds my first thought was: don't these people sweat? I generally try to get all animal jobs and dog walking out of the way in the mornings as much as I can and I'm not kidding you at this time of year I am soaked in sweat right down to my underwear. I can dream of not washing my bra for five days but I think in reality by day five even I wouldn't want to be near me. It's a massive irritation that nearly all bras for sale now are the hideous moulded cup ones, and most don't withstand more than a few washes before the cup distorts and begins to curl. I have to ask: should we be wasting resources manufacturing this crap that can't withstand use in the first place? Years ago M&S was the premier store you bought your undies, yes they were a bit pricier...

One of the things I'm most grateful about living here is the peace and quiet it affords. Our nearest neighbours are some 400m away and we're mostly surrounded by fields. Being an agricultural area of course we get farm machinery, sometimes early in the morning, but it's not 24/7 and to be honest even a combine harvester isn't really obtrusive. In the evenings at this time of year the air is filled with birdsong - we're lucky enough to be an area where skylarks are just about hanging on. Blackbird song is also one of my favourites too. Plus obviously I have my aforementioned noisy guinea fowl, the odd cock-a-doodle, cluck and quack. So it's not silent, but what it is is peaceful. Being an introvert I need regular quiet space to recharge myself. I find a lot of man made noise too much or over stimulating. One of my biggest bugbears is continual music thudding in supermarkets. Firstly music, like art, is a very personal taste, and secondly I don't actual...

This time of year we're into crop spraying season, I can spend many days trapped indoors, and that's not only to avoid breathing in fumes. My local farmer uses the services of an agronomist employed by a local agricultural supplier. Thus the agronomist turns up at all kinds of times to stalk about the fields, scuffing and looking at leaves, and doing whatever it is agronomists do. One morning I was coming home along the bridleway from my normal constitutional with the dog only to see a truck parked in the middle of it a little way up from my house. I didn't really think a lot of it apart from it's a nuisance people just leaving vehicles. That was until a chap jumped out and hastily started to pull up his trousers and pants. He then turned and waved at me before getting back into the truck! To say I was a bit shocked is probably an understatement. I thought perhaps he had a lady in the car with him and they were up to *whatever* (the lady who trims Star's feet ca...

Corvids have been very much centre stage recently, and as with many things views are polarised when life is rarely black and white. We have resident magpies who nest in the hawthorn at the bottom of the garden each year, and also have a few resident crows out in the fields. I fully understand what they're capable of, but I also regard them with respect. The magpies can prove a problem in spring and summer as they've learned where the hens lay, in multiple coops, and will frequently steal the eggs. I've also watched with interest as they teach their offspring to do this too. Thus we have an ever present issue with this each year, however as with other predators I have to admire their intelligence and audacity. I have found a fairly simple way of stopping it and it's not a gun or elaborate trap. Very simply I move my bottom outside at regular intervals and collect the eggs. Certainly it can be a bit of a nuisance at times, but that's all it is. I try to make sure ...

It's been a while since I've blogged, so much so I think blogging has maybe gone out of fashion a little. But that's okay, I'm always happy to plough my own furrow in life. In fact I think it's important to walk your own path rather than try to piggyback on someone else's. I'm Emma, I live in the English countryside with a veritable assortment of feathery, furry and woolly friends. I'm also addicted to making things. About the only thing I've never tried making is my own shoes, or rather wellies would be more practical! I'm probably what's described as eclectic and I have a varied set of interests which make for a rich life. The little chap in the picture is Mr Flump, my Pekin cockerel, he's head of his band of Flumpets, or at least he thinks he is. They seem to see him as a bit of a fusspot who finds them inedible treasures such as twigs! Aside from my Flumps I keep Call ducks, Brahmas, and Cream Legbars. I've a small flock of ...