The Journey: Autumn slipping away

A heavy frost this last week meant that the autumn leaves
that have only just started turning have been falling so
quickly

Autumn leaves are falling, the geese have have been flying over in droves today and winter is beginning to threaten. It can seem such a sad time of the year and yet the riotous colour of autumn should bring us hope I think. I read a meme that said the colours of autumn should remind us of the joy that can be had of letting go. Not sure those are the exact words but that is my interpretation of it. Maybe that is the way we should approach a change in our systems to adapt to a changing climate. We are going to have to let go of a lot of things. We have to adapt to how we live our lives, what we eat, what we buy, how we spend our leisure time, how we support others. So much change is needed that it can seem overwhelming, but we can find joy in doing it together. Working on solutions that are kinder to our planet and supporting those who may lose jobs in the process, hopefully creating better more rewarding jobs to recreate a livelihood in the future.

Hard to see I know but this is one of quite a few flocks which
flew over tonight

Aggie is still not entirely friends with me yet. She hasn't been
too bad though, just a bit grumpy.

We have so much to let go of. Cheap flying, cheap food, cheap clothing. None of it is sustainable. We have to let go of our energy guzzling lifestyles, Says she who is flying tomorrow and meeting her husband at the airport flying in from the UK. I tried, I really did. I looked at every way possible to get to Helsinki by Wednesday but couldn't make it work. I'm not flying back though. I shall be taking the ferry and buses to get back home. One of the options they say is to use offsets, in other words buying trees, but we nurture trees on our land. It doesn't offset the guilt but probably does offset my CO2 emissions.

Before the frosts

Frosty morning. It took till nearly lunchtime before the frost
disappeared

Maybe these would have cheered up grumpy Aggie, but I
don't think so. We were given these happy flowers quite a
few years ago, but there isn't really space for them now, so
they have gone to a new home to cheer up children who are
in therapy at the local school

Anyway besides the guilt trip, it has been one of those weeks. I was a bit overwhelmed midweek with work and tasks to do on the land with the coming frosts, but by Friday I was beginning to feel like I was getting the better of the to-do-list..... then the weekend happened. I was plodding on, sorting through some apples a friend had picked for us. There were a few that would go bad quickly if they weren't dealt with and so I embarked on the task of cooking them in the slow cooker. Only that didn't work so well. In the end I used the steamer, which was much more efficient. The preparation was a bit slow but I got on with other things while they were cooking. A car pulled on and I thought I might have to show some visitors around, but no. I recognised the chap and he spoke in English, I think he is one of our regular visitors but Ian is the one who usually talks to him, so I'm not one hundred percent sure.

Before the frost

Frosty morning

A friend of ours has been in hospital and came out this week
so went to visit. This is the view on the way.

The conversation went like this:
"You have some alpacas down by the road"
"Oh! Okay thanks!" at this point I was thinking that maybe he had spotted the ones that are quite close to the road but behind an electric fence...."Err what colour are they?"
"White!"
"Oh!"...... at this point the topic had become urgent. If it was our new girls then they would be difficult to recapture. I shoved some apples into the steamer and went to see what had happened. Sure enough there were five white alpacas far too close to the road. There was no time to go and sort out the fence to make it easier, they needed moving away from the road immediately. My hand hovered over the phone ready to call in our neighbours to help me if needed. I managed to get between them and the road and slowly, slowly encouraged them in the right direction. It's a good job I've done this before.

The pond has been filling. It is nice to actually be able to see
it again

I love these wispy clouds

The edge of our forest next to our
small hay stores

As we got close to their fence, I saw how they had got out and fastened the wires down in the hope they would go through, but no..... at least by now they were between the forest and their fence and well away from the road. Now I could take a bit of time to sort out the fence. I fastened another section down and two of them went through. I made sure they went through into their permanent paddock. Still three to deal with.

The rosebud opened just before the frosts

Frosty rue

Frosted yarrow amongst the grass

Two in, three to go!

I found some baler twine and fastened it to the hay store and the fence as a barrier to stop them going too far down the path. I spent the next quarter of an hour - or was it more? - trying to encourage them to go through the gap I had made in the fence. Eventually one, then two and finally the third one went through, coaxed by me with two electric fence poles to guide them. I sorted out the fence and then guided them back into the paddock. Confined to barracks until Ian gets back!

Phew! All back in where they should be

Ilvija and Chanel where they should be

Back to the apples! Back to bits of work in between. The afternoon drew on and I needed to ensure the other girls were back in their paddock area ready for putting away time. As I went up, Chanel suddenly started looking around. "Where's my baby?" she was muttering in alpaca speak. Where indeed Chanel? Behind the alpaca house on the wrong side of the fence. Oh great! First of all I tried opening the gate and encouraging her to come in, but the threshold was a scary place and she wouldn't come in. I tried the fastening down the fence trick... no! Then she went to see the other alpacas and they were very intrigued by her and she by them. Intrigued enough for me to catch her. I had to sort of manhandle her to the gate to shover her through it. She sure is growing fast. Her mum did not approve and she started spitting. I was not impressed and my jacket now smells of alpaca spit.

At the boys fence at putting away time from different angles

A misty frosty morning before the sun climbed above the
horizon

Muttering I went back to the apples. In the process I had forgotten to shut the paddock gate, so at putting away time they were back out in the field. Sigh! They were also a bit jumpy after the earlier performance, but eventually they were put away. Normally I gather the trays up from these girls but Aggie threatened to spit at me in her agitated state and so I decided I would look for that one in the morning. Added to which the boys were all over the place and had to be encouraged to all go inside. Are they missing Ian? Probably!

It looks like a painting

Frosted echinacea

The following day little Ilvija was out again. At least she was easier to coax through the gate and I didn't get spat at. I managed to sort out electric batteries for their fence and so tonight at putting away time, all were where they should be, partly because the other girls are still confined to barracks. Ian will have to sort their fence out when he gets back, but they have hay and so should be fine. Tonight it was the boys turn to misbehave and Tellus took exception to being jumped on by Josefs and so Tellus decided to take it out on Turbjørn. Nearly all of them were charging around like crazy at one point. I went and got a stick and distracted Tellus from his charging about and eventually they all calmed down. Normally it is just a couple of them, but the younger ones do like to join in the "fun" and it doesn't help. There were a few uneaten trays of food tonight, as they can't eat after spitting due to sour mouth, when their lips go all droopy.

The pink of these michaelmas daises really popped in the
frosty morning sunshine

A door latch in need of repair too. It's just
hanging on in there.

To add to the catalogue of things going wrong this weekend, I've also bust the toaster and burnt the steamer pan when I forgot to top up the water. Fortunately it is only the juice that smells burnt, the apples themselves do not. However I think it's going to take a while to clean the steamer base out. Another Sigh! At least Ian managed to make me smile. It was our 35th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and he sent me an email wishing me a Happy Anniversary with a link of Slim Whitman singing "Happy Anniversary" with the words "Don't forget to clean the sick up, and have a good day." He knows me so well.