Saw no sunlight again. It's slowly getting colder each day. I'm now wearing 90% of my winter clothing again.
In other news I did some basic work digging beds before being taken into the local town to be showing how to get there and back. Mostly because I needed to know how to get around Raglan so I could visit the castle.
After this break I got back to work for a grand total of 20 minutes. Then I was pulled away again to walk with Toby (who I found out is a regular visitor on Friday) and Mrs. Willot over to another farm to say hello to Val. Once there we got to see their chicken farm. With hundreds of chickens you can hear the collective rumble of their sounds. Its a bit frightening almost. While there I also got an amazing view of some green hills. So much green! If only the sun were out it may be greener.
We also got to see their sheep. Or at least the ones which were recently lambing. Such big fluffy sheep. I learned much today about sheep. How they act and how their wool feels while it's still on them. And of course that older sheep apparently have larger irises and that instead of the usual up and down their pupils go left to right. Its a bit disconcerting in some way. I'm too used to cats I suppose.
On retruning I worked on the leek bed for another half an hour before stopping for lunch. Eventually I will finish that bed.. but not right now.
After a while of work I did manage to finish this bed, and went on to do some extra weeding in another bed before stopping for the evening. After some cleaning I found out that Toby's parents would be staying for dinner when they came to collect him. Also something I keep forgetting to mention (I think.) is that Jenny, Toby's mother, is the MP for Cardiff. This is the equivalent of a Congressmen in the States. So fun fact... I've been having lunch and dinner with a congressman over the past 2 weeks or so. XD
Dinner was Dahl, some Chicken Tikka, Papadams, and Pilau Rice. A very traditional British-Indian dinner. Dessert was mincemeat pastry. (Mincemeat being a fruit term, not meat for some reason.)
I retired shortly after dinner, unfortunately I waited too long to write this so I forgot some of the more interesting and fun details. >< I got to be more on top of this thing.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
You Jelly? Mar.15
Freezing cold again...ish... I havn't seen much of the sun for the past few days. This may be where all the sterotypes of English weather come from.
All of todays work was heavier based jobs with Quinton, mostly moving wood that was chopped down yesterday to the bonfire area or into storage if it was large enough. I actually saw the sun through the fog for a grand total of 15 minutes before the sky became a complete gray haze again. How can this land have ever had a sun god? Why is there no legend of the grey sky fighting the black sky every 12 or so hours?
I learned a few tricks for carrying more, namely I must learn how to use rope properly sometime soon.
After work I did reading on Raglan castle again, nearly done up to the 1800's now. Dinner was just 3 of us as Mr. Willot had to go into Cardiff for a lecture. Pasta with peas and more leeks. (We have many fresh leeks which all need to be eaten.)
Dessert was Strawberry Jelly with Rhubarb in it. I had Jelly and ice cream for dessert... you jelly? (Only the people my age may get that joke anyways. XD) Note: Jelly is not Jam in the UK, its actually what most in the states would call Gelatin or Jello. Also it is not sold powdered but rather in a small packet that resembles the bottom of an ice tray or a bar of chocolate. You put the cubes (which are jelly in their own right) into water and dissolve them and add your other things then have it re-set in the fridge. Now you have jelly! And yes I am enjoying myself being strangely obsessed with jelly. (Only my brony friends will get that joke. U Jelly?) XD
Ok enough of that.
After dinner I had a talk with Bob from choir who arrived early. I have officially met someone named Bob... >> You Jelly? (I have got to stop this. XD Its an only today joke I promise.
After everyone else arrived I sang more lovely choir songs in preparation for all our singing for the next holiday in Wales.
That was it for today but I promise to get some stuff done soon so I can get the pictures up. @_@ I am so behind on that... It's not hard to do but I cant seem to make the time for it. Sorry again.
Until next time. ^_^ Have a wonderful day!
All of todays work was heavier based jobs with Quinton, mostly moving wood that was chopped down yesterday to the bonfire area or into storage if it was large enough. I actually saw the sun through the fog for a grand total of 15 minutes before the sky became a complete gray haze again. How can this land have ever had a sun god? Why is there no legend of the grey sky fighting the black sky every 12 or so hours?
I learned a few tricks for carrying more, namely I must learn how to use rope properly sometime soon.
After work I did reading on Raglan castle again, nearly done up to the 1800's now. Dinner was just 3 of us as Mr. Willot had to go into Cardiff for a lecture. Pasta with peas and more leeks. (We have many fresh leeks which all need to be eaten.)
Dessert was Strawberry Jelly with Rhubarb in it. I had Jelly and ice cream for dessert... you jelly? (Only the people my age may get that joke anyways. XD) Note: Jelly is not Jam in the UK, its actually what most in the states would call Gelatin or Jello. Also it is not sold powdered but rather in a small packet that resembles the bottom of an ice tray or a bar of chocolate. You put the cubes (which are jelly in their own right) into water and dissolve them and add your other things then have it re-set in the fridge. Now you have jelly! And yes I am enjoying myself being strangely obsessed with jelly. (Only my brony friends will get that joke. U Jelly?) XD
Ok enough of that.
After dinner I had a talk with Bob from choir who arrived early. I have officially met someone named Bob... >> You Jelly? (I have got to stop this. XD Its an only today joke I promise.
After everyone else arrived I sang more lovely choir songs in preparation for all our singing for the next holiday in Wales.
That was it for today but I promise to get some stuff done soon so I can get the pictures up. @_@ I am so behind on that... It's not hard to do but I cant seem to make the time for it. Sorry again.
Until next time. ^_^ Have a wonderful day!
Train Brain Pains Mar.14
Because the fog was so thick not to let the actual sun shine for most of yesterday, it has been getting colder very slowly. I have never expected to see so much fog past 3PM before. This may be truely what seperates southern wales from GA.
After saying good morning to my hosts and Quinton, I got to work on mulching the remaining trees. This time with music to make the work a bit less painful. This worked surprisingly well but it did have some downsides. Namely I couldn't hear the birdsong and I became much more aware of time spent on each action.
I did this till the tea break, fairly uneventful and then swapped to cleaning the lawn sized chess pieces.. did I mention my hosts had a lawn sized chess pieces?
I finished this within an hour and got back to mulching till lunch, (Vegetable Quiche.) After this I finished up the mulching and retired from work for the day. So much mulching... but its finished with now.
During my 3rd stint of mulching I did get to meet the owner of the next door farm. An ex military man who goes by the name of Shawn. I spent half an hour talking with him and saying introductions, very friendly chap. Also he is very fond of Ireland, pointing out some of their best euphemisms for social issues.
I spent the next two hours getting train tickets to my next WWOOF house. It should have taken me 10 minutes but my route was apparently much tougher than I thought. As I had to buy tickets from 2 different companies 2 different times and there was no consolidation buyer so I had to also register on these sites and this was after finding a very cheap trip there and back. (I will be returning to Wales for a convention come late April.)
This sadly took enough time so that I was not able to assist with preparing dinner today. (Rice, Pumpkin, Pheasant and Sausage stew, Kale, and strawberry pudding? (I forgot to ask what the dessert was but it tasted like strawberry pudding. Possibly Rhubarb.)
I started planning for what I would cook for dinner one evening later in the week and went to bed.
Have a good day everybody!
After saying good morning to my hosts and Quinton, I got to work on mulching the remaining trees. This time with music to make the work a bit less painful. This worked surprisingly well but it did have some downsides. Namely I couldn't hear the birdsong and I became much more aware of time spent on each action.
I did this till the tea break, fairly uneventful and then swapped to cleaning the lawn sized chess pieces.. did I mention my hosts had a lawn sized chess pieces?
I finished this within an hour and got back to mulching till lunch, (Vegetable Quiche.) After this I finished up the mulching and retired from work for the day. So much mulching... but its finished with now.
During my 3rd stint of mulching I did get to meet the owner of the next door farm. An ex military man who goes by the name of Shawn. I spent half an hour talking with him and saying introductions, very friendly chap. Also he is very fond of Ireland, pointing out some of their best euphemisms for social issues.
I spent the next two hours getting train tickets to my next WWOOF house. It should have taken me 10 minutes but my route was apparently much tougher than I thought. As I had to buy tickets from 2 different companies 2 different times and there was no consolidation buyer so I had to also register on these sites and this was after finding a very cheap trip there and back. (I will be returning to Wales for a convention come late April.)
This sadly took enough time so that I was not able to assist with preparing dinner today. (Rice, Pumpkin, Pheasant and Sausage stew, Kale, and strawberry pudding? (I forgot to ask what the dessert was but it tasted like strawberry pudding. Possibly Rhubarb.)
I started planning for what I would cook for dinner one evening later in the week and went to bed.
Have a good day everybody!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Day I Struck Stinged White Gold 3/13
I woke up to a plesent amount of warmth. It's still a bit chilly but overall its been unusually warm for the middle of March in the UK. I really hope its not like that back home. >-o
So after a quick breakfast I was given the task of preparing one of the smaller garden beds for planting. I have come to realize that I dislike doing this task first thing in the morning. As my first action is always to remove weeds from the bed and if there is no sunlight, or has not been much. Then it is very wet and muddy as the soil here is full of clay and clumps easily. This is an absolute mess for trying to remove weeds.
So after my first half an hour with a hand fork, I find one plant with a very large root that just wont come up. So I pull out the big fork, dig in, loosen the soil and pull out a massive fully grown parsnip. I pull out 4 more like this before I go find my hosts to ask why a bed that should only have weeds in it would have such large and rather hard to miss parsnips in it. They didn't know they still had parsnips in the ground there either.
So I go back, look at the leaves end up finding 6 or so more parsnips of an insanely large size. The largest being the length of my forearm, with the top being larger than my fist. I hope these are still edible, as I have been told once a parsnip flowers and grows over a season it becomes woodlike and inedible.
I finished the garden bed and went to finally finish the last of the hay moving from the grass near the pond. With that being done I now had to find a new task but it was also lunch time. So after lunch I was given the task of mulching the fruit trees in the orchard. I have found this task to be particularly taxing on my body. I will need to ask tomorrow for tips on doing it more efficiently. As I am learning that if it starts exhausting me easily, it may be because I am doing it wrong.
After work I had free time for most of the day, helping to make dinner and resting up from the work earlier in the day. I have also found out my plans for part of the weekend. I will be visiting the local castle so I will make sure to have my camera taking pictures of this one (which I still need to upload some pictures >< grr... how can I be so bad at remembering this when I got spare time.)
Dinner was fried chicken, kale and mashed potatoes, leeks, and finished off with Rhubarb pie. The dinner table was ended with long talks about politic and taxes.
Talk to everyone again later!
So after a quick breakfast I was given the task of preparing one of the smaller garden beds for planting. I have come to realize that I dislike doing this task first thing in the morning. As my first action is always to remove weeds from the bed and if there is no sunlight, or has not been much. Then it is very wet and muddy as the soil here is full of clay and clumps easily. This is an absolute mess for trying to remove weeds.
So after my first half an hour with a hand fork, I find one plant with a very large root that just wont come up. So I pull out the big fork, dig in, loosen the soil and pull out a massive fully grown parsnip. I pull out 4 more like this before I go find my hosts to ask why a bed that should only have weeds in it would have such large and rather hard to miss parsnips in it. They didn't know they still had parsnips in the ground there either.
So I go back, look at the leaves end up finding 6 or so more parsnips of an insanely large size. The largest being the length of my forearm, with the top being larger than my fist. I hope these are still edible, as I have been told once a parsnip flowers and grows over a season it becomes woodlike and inedible.
I finished the garden bed and went to finally finish the last of the hay moving from the grass near the pond. With that being done I now had to find a new task but it was also lunch time. So after lunch I was given the task of mulching the fruit trees in the orchard. I have found this task to be particularly taxing on my body. I will need to ask tomorrow for tips on doing it more efficiently. As I am learning that if it starts exhausting me easily, it may be because I am doing it wrong.
After work I had free time for most of the day, helping to make dinner and resting up from the work earlier in the day. I have also found out my plans for part of the weekend. I will be visiting the local castle so I will make sure to have my camera taking pictures of this one (which I still need to upload some pictures >< grr... how can I be so bad at remembering this when I got spare time.)
Dinner was fried chicken, kale and mashed potatoes, leeks, and finished off with Rhubarb pie. The dinner table was ended with long talks about politic and taxes.
Talk to everyone again later!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Return of Toby! Mar.12
I woke up, had breakfast and saw Toby coming back for an additional stay today as his parents were invited to a concert at the melennium center in Cardiff.
I said hello and got to work, I needed to remove more hay from the field and clean the Conifer trimings. At around lunch time I was given a new task... Planting potatoes! ^_^ The cage garden was having some potatoes planted to loosen up the soil and grow something in the areas that just got de-weeded.
After that I spent some time strolling around the garden and exploring the more wooded areas of the farm. A few interesting sights were the old pathways which are now overgrown, a massive network of spider webs with sections glistening in the setting sun, and of course so many birds!
I sat down on a tree branch and played a flute for the next half hour or so. After that it was time to come back inside, say goodbye to Toby, and plan for dinner.
I was helping to make a Turkish phesant dish along with carrots, potatoes, and leeks. The main dish was phesant with onions, walnuts and pomegranates... I do not understand the walnut use in this dish. Dessert was ice cream with shortbread cookies.
Venus and Jupiter are still both visible in the night sky and I need to remember to ask about helping set up the telescope so everyone can get a closer look at all the stars and events.
Most of my time before and after dinner was spent discussing music with Mrs. Willot.
Also I want to wish my mother a happy 40th! ^_^
I need to get back to writing these the nights of. Have a good day everybody.
I said hello and got to work, I needed to remove more hay from the field and clean the Conifer trimings. At around lunch time I was given a new task... Planting potatoes! ^_^ The cage garden was having some potatoes planted to loosen up the soil and grow something in the areas that just got de-weeded.
After that I spent some time strolling around the garden and exploring the more wooded areas of the farm. A few interesting sights were the old pathways which are now overgrown, a massive network of spider webs with sections glistening in the setting sun, and of course so many birds!
I sat down on a tree branch and played a flute for the next half hour or so. After that it was time to come back inside, say goodbye to Toby, and plan for dinner.
I was helping to make a Turkish phesant dish along with carrots, potatoes, and leeks. The main dish was phesant with onions, walnuts and pomegranates... I do not understand the walnut use in this dish. Dessert was ice cream with shortbread cookies.
Venus and Jupiter are still both visible in the night sky and I need to remember to ask about helping set up the telescope so everyone can get a closer look at all the stars and events.
Most of my time before and after dinner was spent discussing music with Mrs. Willot.
Also I want to wish my mother a happy 40th! ^_^
I need to get back to writing these the nights of. Have a good day everybody.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Lunch and Bonfires. Mar. 11
I woke up early today, read up on some news while waiting for the rest of the house to awake. I skipped breakfast due to an expectantly large lunch and as we awoke the house got a bit warmer. Around 11 I was already packed and we were ready to head off as today I was off to meet my WWOOF hosts for lunch and a ride back to the farm.
After a lengthy walk, dotted with interesting sights (a meso-American painted house is a bit of a rarity in Britain, and we also talked with a man who used to WWOOF that was such a nice guy and grew bamboo and bananas on his front lawn.) we arrived at Pippa's house.. apparently 2 hours early. ^_^ So I sat down, helped with the garden and lunch, and we had some exotic tea. A mild almost fruit type tea from Africa. I lack the palette to actually distinguish its finer points. Maybe at some point I shall learn these things, but until then, I shall enjoy drinking all kinds of tea. ^^
At around 2, Mr and Mrs Willot arrived along with Jenny and Andy... and that adorable Toby.
Lunch was ham with spinach, mashed squash, roasted parsnips and baked potatoes (small ones), baked cauliflower with cheese sauce and some bread sauce as well. It was a delicous meal and I found out in my time of waiting that Pippa used to want to be a professional chef and so she was so expertly talented in planning and cooking of large meals.
There was much talking to be had about the local politic, and of Tobias' new words of the day ('cool' for those wondering.) When my hosts began to talk about the garden I spent some time talking with Andy about various alcohols and coffees. And it was at this point I realized that most coffee in the UK is either instant (in the form of dissolving granules) or served in a french press. (Granted it has a different name in the UK that I cannot remember. On that note anything called French "xxxxx" is not called that in the UK) Paper filter coffee is a bit of a rarity and overall the higher quality coffee is abundant here. >> Its a shame I am not a coffee drinker myself.
After a few games with Tobias and cleaning up, we all headed home and I saw planes and a very early bright pink hot air balloon for most of the trip back. There was so much of that lovely hilly Welsh countryside which I plan to get pictures of soon enough.
Shortly after coming back I found out that the bonfire that has been building up the past week from all the chopped wood and brambles, was set to be turned up today. It took most of the night as there were many loads but it was a large and beautiful bonfire... >> And because I changed clothes shortly after ti started to something more bramble resistant... I forgot my camera in my room. T_T;; There will be another bonfire before I leave and I will learn to remember to carry my camera around.
Dinner was beef stew with couscous and for the most part I fell asleep afterwards. Anyways im off to work for the morning of the 12th, update again later. ^^
After a lengthy walk, dotted with interesting sights (a meso-American painted house is a bit of a rarity in Britain, and we also talked with a man who used to WWOOF that was such a nice guy and grew bamboo and bananas on his front lawn.) we arrived at Pippa's house.. apparently 2 hours early. ^_^ So I sat down, helped with the garden and lunch, and we had some exotic tea. A mild almost fruit type tea from Africa. I lack the palette to actually distinguish its finer points. Maybe at some point I shall learn these things, but until then, I shall enjoy drinking all kinds of tea. ^^
At around 2, Mr and Mrs Willot arrived along with Jenny and Andy... and that adorable Toby.
Lunch was ham with spinach, mashed squash, roasted parsnips and baked potatoes (small ones), baked cauliflower with cheese sauce and some bread sauce as well. It was a delicous meal and I found out in my time of waiting that Pippa used to want to be a professional chef and so she was so expertly talented in planning and cooking of large meals.
There was much talking to be had about the local politic, and of Tobias' new words of the day ('cool' for those wondering.) When my hosts began to talk about the garden I spent some time talking with Andy about various alcohols and coffees. And it was at this point I realized that most coffee in the UK is either instant (in the form of dissolving granules) or served in a french press. (Granted it has a different name in the UK that I cannot remember. On that note anything called French "xxxxx" is not called that in the UK) Paper filter coffee is a bit of a rarity and overall the higher quality coffee is abundant here. >> Its a shame I am not a coffee drinker myself.
After a few games with Tobias and cleaning up, we all headed home and I saw planes and a very early bright pink hot air balloon for most of the trip back. There was so much of that lovely hilly Welsh countryside which I plan to get pictures of soon enough.
Shortly after coming back I found out that the bonfire that has been building up the past week from all the chopped wood and brambles, was set to be turned up today. It took most of the night as there were many loads but it was a large and beautiful bonfire... >> And because I changed clothes shortly after ti started to something more bramble resistant... I forgot my camera in my room. T_T;; There will be another bonfire before I leave and I will learn to remember to carry my camera around.
Dinner was beef stew with couscous and for the most part I fell asleep afterwards. Anyways im off to work for the morning of the 12th, update again later. ^^
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The national dish of Britain! Mar.10
I woke up suprisingly warm, the couch makes such a nice microclimate.
Breakfast of tea, and toast followed by an excuse to go shopping. I needed ear buds, and my own pair of wellingtons when I need to head to Scotland. As luck would have it, the Millets outdoors store that was going out of business.. still had loads of wellingtons for sale at incredibly low prices. ^_^
We stopped by the enclosed market so Gog and Nine could look at synth parts and 30+ year old electronic pieces while I got my pair of buds. We then looked at these parts for another half an hour or so but Nine did get an awesome picture of the market... visible here... *finally founds it again*
http://a.yfrog.com/img877/8738/vbjfr.jpg
Ill be learning this site tonight if I get the chance so that I may hurry and upload the pictures I am getting. I expect within a month I shall have gotten more pictuers of the local sights such as Cardiff and Raglan castle, the local museum, a nice hudge garden I saw yesterday, and of course my WWOOF farm.
After these we headed back to have lunch and hang around for a few hours. I got to relax with some music and prepared for dinner. Which would be the national dish of Britain.
After watching my favorite show (which had its time changed recently to air just before dinner so nicely,) we found a restaurant about 15 minutes away and walked out to find that it was full. (A large international rugby match happened today and since Wales won.. most places were full in celebration.) The similar resturant down the street was also full... so we went back to the first, got some take away and headed home to watch Life of Brian while eating the national dish... Tikka Masala. ^_^
Tikka Masala is an Indian type of dish invented in the UK much like Nacho's and Fortune Cookies were invented in the US. Its very mild and semi sweet for a curry and is usually served with lamb or chicken as its meat.
I again fell asleep while watching a movie and managed to spend some time this morning catching up.
Have a wonderful day everybody!
Breakfast of tea, and toast followed by an excuse to go shopping. I needed ear buds, and my own pair of wellingtons when I need to head to Scotland. As luck would have it, the Millets outdoors store that was going out of business.. still had loads of wellingtons for sale at incredibly low prices. ^_^
We stopped by the enclosed market so Gog and Nine could look at synth parts and 30+ year old electronic pieces while I got my pair of buds. We then looked at these parts for another half an hour or so but Nine did get an awesome picture of the market... visible here... *finally founds it again*
http://a.yfrog.com/img877/8738/vbjfr.jpg
Ill be learning this site tonight if I get the chance so that I may hurry and upload the pictures I am getting. I expect within a month I shall have gotten more pictuers of the local sights such as Cardiff and Raglan castle, the local museum, a nice hudge garden I saw yesterday, and of course my WWOOF farm.
After these we headed back to have lunch and hang around for a few hours. I got to relax with some music and prepared for dinner. Which would be the national dish of Britain.
After watching my favorite show (which had its time changed recently to air just before dinner so nicely,) we found a restaurant about 15 minutes away and walked out to find that it was full. (A large international rugby match happened today and since Wales won.. most places were full in celebration.) The similar resturant down the street was also full... so we went back to the first, got some take away and headed home to watch Life of Brian while eating the national dish... Tikka Masala. ^_^
Tikka Masala is an Indian type of dish invented in the UK much like Nacho's and Fortune Cookies were invented in the US. Its very mild and semi sweet for a curry and is usually served with lamb or chicken as its meat.
I again fell asleep while watching a movie and managed to spend some time this morning catching up.
Have a wonderful day everybody!
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