The first day of lambing is just around the corner and preparations are nearly finished. The last job is to build the individual small lambing pens. These are the pens that the ewe goes into once they have lambed. This gives the ewe a chance to mother up with her lambs and it also gives us the opportunity to make sure the lambs are sucking well and that the ewe is eating, etc.
Building the pens sounds like it is a simple task. Relatively speaking it is, but problems can occur if they are not built properly. We are now talking about tight …
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Archives for February 2016
Yellingham Farm Diary – February
News From Payhembury Provisions – March
Last month about 40 of us got together for our now traditional Volunteers' Supper in the Parish Hall. We had a candle-lit meal cooked by Paula, Anne and Roz (venison casserole or vegetarian goulash followed by apple crumble and custard...yum!)
Janet East gave a funny, heart-warming, and inspiring after dinner talk about her farming life and her bed and breakfast guests; where does she get her energy from? We think the evening was a lovely way to thank all our wonderful volunteers and to celebrate the on-going success of the shop.
We'd like …
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Payhembury Poetry Pot – Acrostic
The next poetic form is an ACROSTIC. In its simplest format the first letter in each line is part of a word which emerges when read vertically. Below are two examples I’ve written. There are lots of other examples on the Internet.
I am very willing to look at your drafts and make suggestions but please try to send what you’ve written to me in good time before the deadline.
People have lived
Around the Green for
Years; brick-built
Houses with
Echoes of families past
Making history whilst the
Bells serves the people;
Umpteen memories …
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Churchmouse – March
Hi guys
Oh what a shock I got this morning when I ran outside, frost, hard frost on the ground! Do you know it burnt my little toes? “Aw! Oooh! Aw!” I shouted and “Aw! Oooh! Aw!” again, then out ran Parchina and she joined in with the Aw, Ooh, Aw dance.
Mum came running out to see what all the noise was about. (She’s always afraid that if we make too much noise we will annoy the neighbours and they’ll put out traps for us, but we know the people of Payhembury are far too kind for that!)
Well, we got told off for running outside before …
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Parish Paper – March 2016 Issue
To read or save this issue please click 2016 03 Parish Paper …
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Payhembury Poetry Pot – Limericks
Each month a ‘Poetry Pot’ will appear in the Payhembury Parish Paper. As there may not be space to publish all of the submissions, those published, plus others will be carried here.
The first request was for limericks. Details from John Somers at j.w.somers@exeter.ac.uk and in the Parish Paper.
There once was a boy called Flinn
Who was quite remarkably thin.
He followed a mole
And fell down its hole
And that was the end of poor him.
Tom Weekes (age 9)
I once had a cat called Pippa
Whose fur resembled a slipper.
I stepped …
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Alan’s Nature Notes from January
Hello Everyone
It's a lovely day today (Friday, 15th). Cold, but sunny. Lots of birds in the garden, including Mr. G.S. Woodpecker (or Mrs., I haven't studied it closely enough!) Also, the tits - including several coal tits, plus goldfinches, chaffinches, the odd greenfinch plus the larger birds, of course - collared doves, wood pigeons and jackdaws. I wonder if we will get any visits from the northern birds, such as bramblings and waxwings. We've seen bramblings in the garden in a few Winters, but never waxwings. Here's hoping.
The birds …
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Yellingham Farm Diary – January
I don’t need to remind you all of the terrible weather that we have had over the last month. The River Tale keeps flooding and therefore our 11 acre field keeps disappearing under water.
Even though the shearer came and dagged all the sheep out, they were getting in a terrible state with all the mud. We put out hay feeders for all the sheep, as they needed dry matter to eat. It helps to prevent the wet grass going straight through them !
It was getting so difficult to get to the fields with hay and even with the quad bike, the tracks were …
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News from Payhembury Provisions – February
If it’s still bitterly cold when you’re reading this, why not call in at Payhembury Provisions and see what we can offer for a cosy evening in?
A few suggestions are our local meat and fresh vegetables to make warming casseroles, curries and soups, and maybe bottle of our very popular wine to accompany your meal? Or you could take advantage of the free DVD loan and snuggle up on the sofa with a toasted crumpet or two or a slice of Hoop Farmhouse cake. Don’t forget to stock up on firelighters and matches too.
If the children in the …
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Payhembury Poetry Pot
Our first set of poems – Limericks - are being prepared for publication in the March
issue. Thanks to everyone who contributed. From next month we will publish some
submissions in the Parish Paper, but all – published and unpublished - will be carried
on the Payhembury Website: http://www.payhembury.org.uk/
The next poetic format is a simple one – HAIKU - a type of Japanese poetry that can be written on many themes, for example, love, nature, human nature, fate. It consists of 3 lines and 17 syllables. A haiku does not …
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