Gav still loves me... I don’t deserve it. I loaded him into the car without breakfast and left him in Leyburn for 3 hours before reuniting him with his mother later that morning. I was dreading the rounds that evening but Gav rushed up for cabbage leaves as if nothing had occurred and was still keen for a cuddle and a scratch. He had a small mark on his head where his horns would have grown had they not been debudded by a lovely vet called Dan, who seemed loathed to hand Gav over.
Gav seems to melt everyone’s hearts and is turning out to be rather more user friendly than his brother, Blackadder who was despatched to Knaresborough after being quite boisterous.
Doris, Gav’s mother, has forgiven me too and is more concerned that the daily rations at feed time are all in order then holding a grudge.
On a larger scale we seem to be collecting bulls at the moment and we have the frightening prospect of having 4 bulls within yards of each other this week end, and as only one of them is mine it is quite a responsibility.
The lucky South Devon cows were introduced to Fortune Maker last week, a stunning Short Horn bull who has been kindly lent to us for a few months to see if he could tighten our calving pattern next summer.
Fortune Maker arrives to a rather quiet welcome from the brown cows.
Our South Devon bull hasn’t summered well but he will chase up the cows once Fortune Maker has gone home. The black and white Friesian bull is very interested in all the extra visitors and Callum the black Highland bull is coming off the hill this week to head off to the seaside.
Fortune Maker meets the locals.
With the best looking bull in the county for company and lush grass - the grass still always appears greener over the fence.
One of my other companions on the feeding rounds Miss Cream Legbar, christened Geoff by everyone else (it wont stick) went missing for a day. I was convinced she had jumped into one of the delivery vans while checking our orders, and just as panic set in she turned up cool as ever - I would miss her as I try and catch her out by doing the rounds in a different order to see if she can still keep up! She is an amazing hen having laid a blue egg every day since march and no sign of letting up now.
Miss Cream Leg Bar.
Other more high maintenance breeds of hen are facing terrible bad hair days - I fear this golden partridge brahma will have to wait till spring to return to her former glory!
A bad hair day
On the pig front it appears Duchess is not ‘in pig’ judging by the extra demos of Sherlock, our boar, doing extra piggy back rides to the delight of the group on the farm tour - so no extra rations yet for Duchess as she had totally fooled me into bags of extra apples. However, Guilty and Auntie look like they will have piglets imminently so we will move them closer to home.
Sherlock the boar with the Hampshire crosses Guilty and Auntie.
On a walk recently I was interested to find out what the 3 dogs were sniffing on the wall side, it clearly wasn’t feathered as it would have flown away, but it was very frightening judging by the way the dogs were hesitating, and this is what I saw in the wall.
Kittens, they would have fitted into one hand. So brave of them to stand up to 3 Spaniels.
Talking brave - Olly, our son decided to do the West Witton Fell race at the last minute, having done a few runs in London, and was surprised to find that a break of 10 years makes a difference! I think he shot off with the front runners only to regret it after the first bend, but he won the first local home shield, and was not to too crippled the next day. It was a glorious evening for those of us not running.
We enjoyed several events over the Bank Holiday, the Heather and Honey run went well and we made a healthy donation to the Air Ambulance charity.
Followed by the Music Evening where the performers organised by music teacher Colin Bailey, played and sang with many encores in the Courtyard to make money to enable primary school children in the Dale to learn a musical instrument. We made around £800 to this end which was a terrific result.
We were delighted to have a free cask of Semerwater beer, kindly donated by Wensleydale Brewery with the sales going towards both charities.
Tim testing the beer!
Our Falls are living up to their name again, and are much enjoyed by walkers and those staying in our yurts. There are still some vacancies for the final month of the yurt season in October if anyone fancies an autumn break, the trees will look stunning on the river side.
The falls in full flow
We were sad to see Matthew leave after a loyal stint in Berry’s Kitchens - he leaves to fulfil a dream to run his own tea room in Thirsk , we wish him well and success with the new venture.
Berry’s will be closing on Mondays from next week. After 6 1/2 years of opening 7 days a week we need to train staff and spruce up the buildings. However, we are able to open on a Monday for Breakfast and /or lunch for parties of 8 or more, so we are very flexible.
Going forward we have some fun evenings planned for the darker evenings. An Italian food pop up supper on Friday 5th October. The ever popular Folk music evening on 12th October and our own very talented singer Vinni who will entertain us while we eat our very own highland steak on 16th November. Tickets are on sale now for all events.
My garden is full of surprises this year, we have grapes and butterflies and a great crop of apples on a very young apple tree, I have enjoyed spending more time in the garden which will change once the frost arrives.
The fun thing about Berry’s is you never know who is going to drop in. We had a lovely Dutch couple who are touring Europe and asked if they could sing some songs for us - luckily they were in English!
And last week, 4 riders on a trek arrived on lovely horses, they were tied up while the riders had cake and tea which caused a bit of a stir with the bulls but the horses were very calm with what ever passed by and never blinked at the goats and pigs setting off for the barns.
Horses having a rest in the sun at Berry’s
Never 2 days the same!
Happy Autumn.
