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Blogs by Linda Watson
Summer in Galloway 5/24/2010 10:29:03 PM
I went out yesterday and discovered that summer has come to Galloway while I was away last week. We have had lovely warm weather for about five days now and the grass is shooting away, thank goodness. Richard has stopped feeding silage. The Ladies just come in to the big shed in the morning for breakfast of sugarbeet pellets and barley, and then they go off again round and round Eastside. Its grand to see them all spread out grazing.
Richard went down to Castle Douglas yesterday to recce the market. We need to buy in some more steers to fatten because of our committment to the new shed (LwtLoLA) and the broken leg (LwtLoLA). Now that we have eighteen certain and three possible new calves arriving next autumn and spring, we won't need to buy any next year, but with only ten yearlings at the moment we still need buy some this year. They are very dear and there's not much profit in them but we have to keep the output of the farm up.
The trees are about in half leaf now and that beautiful fresh spring green colour. The ash at the end of the drive is not yet showing much leaf though, although this could be a sign of a good summer to come. As Mother (both books) used to say:
Ash before oak, you're in for a soak
Oak before ash, you're in for a splash.
She was a great one for weather lore. When I read her diaries after her death (LwTLoLA) I found she had recorded the weather every single day from 1958 when they began to 2005 when she lost the capacity to write them any more.
The roadsides are now filled with bluebells and red campion and here and there large clumps of marsh marigold - so that's bright blue, bright red and bright yellow altogether. Beautiful!! I love the marsh marigolds - I can see a large clump by the pond as I sit here writing. They remind me of the day we first came to Low Arvie (TLoLA) and I spotted them - shining gold pennies - through the rain streaked car windows. Perhaps they are what began to change my mind about the place. (TLoLA)
