Friday 3 June 2011

Last night,,,

No really, I didn't sleep.  Ten minutes, sometime between 1.40 and 2.00 am.  I got up at 3.20 and roamed around the house disgustedly until the blackbirds started to sing.  I've nearly fallen asleep a couple of times today, but I'd rather not, now it's this late, and hope I'll sleep tonight.

Enough about a singularly boring subject.  I did get a cuddle with Hadrian today, he was awake and tranquil - he doesn't really cry, which is just like his father was as a baby.  Last night, he didn't go to sleep until 1, but only woke once during the night so they felt they'd had a good night's rest.

I phoned Charlotte this evening - you may remember, she's my half-Dutch friend who visited a couple of months ago.  She was very over-stressed at the time, which I didn't say, and she's been in hospital, recovering.  She's fine now, and has decided to live in England again, which will be good.  I rang to tell her about Hadrian.

The front field was cut for hay yesterday and baled today.  Those huge, 6 foot diameter bales.  The grass was short, but full of good seed so will be nutritious.  However, hay will be in short supply, the bales are worth £80 each, but Graham needs them for winter feed, he won't be selling them.  Mind you, that small amount of rain we had has made the grass green up surprisingly.  Big Pinkie, the friendly and elderly cow, will not join us yet.  She is in with a field of heifers, teaching them to take life slow.  400 is quite happy on her own, Jonny phoned earlier, and suggested bringing 77 back now she had settled down.  We said no...frankly, if she wanted to leave again, I'd not stand in her way.

15 comments:

savannah said...

i don't anyone i know had a good sleep last night, ok, maybe the babies did! xoxoxox

Dave said...

Has anyone done an analysis to see if odd-numbered cows are, well, a bit odd, and even-numbered ones more steady and even?

Christopher said...

You do have trouble sleeping now and again, don't you? A mug of Ovaltine was supposed to be a good inducer of sleep, but I don't know if they still make it. In any case, with age any beneficial effects were cancelled by the resulting need to get up several times in the night to go to the loo.

Z said...

Savannah, I should think your guests wake up wondering where they are for a minute. You're all making a lot of adjustments.

I have very little capacity for remembering random numbers, Dave, but I have not noticed any particular correlations. That being said, I know of no actual analysis. I have enough trouble with RAISEonline data.

I think a sweet milky drink would induce night time trips to the loo, Chris, but not particularly because of its liquid content. I slept very well last night thank you, and got up late this morning.

Rog said...

A good sleep at last .... phew!

PixieMum said...

I'm the exception, lucky me for I went to bed about 10.40 and slept through till 8.50, just a short awake at 5pm to go to the loo.
reason for long sleep is loads of fresh air, a two hour walk around Moel Y Ci.

tonight will be an early night, have had along walk at Newborough and afternoon walking around the lovely gardens at Plas Newedd.

weather is delightful here is North Wales, am staying with cousins just outside Bangor. On my own came up by train and without dear husband, it is not often we are apart.

I feel very relaxed so maybe that is why I am sleeping well.

Z said...

I hate to say it, but nowadays I sleep best on my own! The Sage and I disturb each other quite often. He doesn't normally wake me, but if I'm awake and he moves, I can't sleep again.

Glad you're having such a lovely break. It so recharges the batteries and the effect lasts for weeks, as long as things don't go too pear-shaped in your absence!

Anonymous said...

I was travelling a bit on Thursday, over land here. I saw fields with Gerste, much too yellow for the time of the year, too little.
A farmer told me that it developed no grain, or only very few.
In small vallyes around here the wine froze - it may sound silly, but we had some pretty cold nights in the last weeks. Ludwig is a winemaker here, I have his products regularuly, he told me that around one third of the fruits is already lost.
Around here the farmers were quick with making the first hay, and not one single bale was sold.

(Please excuse my bad English, I simply do not know the right words, the "rural" vocabulary escapes me. In fact I'd have problems to find the correct German names for agricultural things.)

Anonymous said...

"regularuly" - it's not always the way it seems ...

"too little" - the single plant is seemingly fully developed, but it is too small. And it is an empty shell carrying no grains.

I find all this a bit worrysome.

PixieMum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Z said...

That's fine, love, I don't speak German and occasionally have to look up words that you use, but that's my ignorance, not yours.

I think that there are going to be great shortages of basic foods this year. If we have a lot of summer rain, the grass will grow and there will be a good second haymaking (aftermath is the second cutting, not one that's often used in its correct context), but still almost nothing here.

My friend Martina in Seattle just emailed, they have had very wet weather there and crops are suffering because of it! No happy medium, it seems.

Anonymous said...

My mother still knew the correct names for the first, second and third cut.
I fear that we will see very high prices for food in the coming year. In America everything drowned, in Europe it's dry, and Russia is only recovering from the large fires - in fact some are still active over there. But I may be totally wrong, hopefully.

Z said...

I don't think we've got a word for a third cut, but then we don't normally have one!

You are not wrong, there were steep price rises last year and there will be more again. It is too late for a full recovery, whatever the weather.

Anonymous said...

They had a name for every thing - even for the slice of bread: My grandfather knew at least five names and the pieces were different in size and cut.
But the language in it's "original form" (there is none) is gone. I am not in full command of my dialect anymore. I spoke with relatives some weeks ago and their speech, their pronounciation was different from what I had learned in my childhood - they frankly admitted that tv, radio and the opening of the inner-German frontier chanced all this.
The area always was dirt poor, the third cut was necessary. Even when it meant to crawl.
They used anything nature gave them - and lived from the forest. All the knowledge passed from my great-grandmother to grandmother and my own mother is gone.
SOrry for blabbing on and on here. (But I don't want to delete it also ... tah!)

Z said...

Regional languages are diminishing and it's a shame, although it seems to be inevitable. And so is lost knowledge. Sorry, Mago, I regret it too, and I feel for you.