Winter wonderland, in November

Dear Dasha, our wonderful artist has been sick this week, so we have added photos of the sheep. We wish her all the best and hope she is feeling better soon.

As soon as I told you about the rainy days, it all turned white, outside.

For some reason winter felt the need to arrive in the beginning of November. The fact that this occurred at the same time as our lovely sheep were sheared in time for winter, made it a bit hard on them.

Shearing our funny sheep Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My is hard on our friendly sheep farmers. As soon as our ladies lay their eyes on them, you can feel the collective pulse rise in the sheep pen and we are off... Mindy is the sensible one but as she weighs a ton and has the thickest coat of wool it must be like tending to a polar bear with a built in foghorn.

Mandy did well this time as the clever farmers brought a wide plank with them so Mandy could walk up to the shearing table. Her jumping days are over, having slightly iffy hind legs. She stood looking worried all through her haircut and smiled her nervous smile when she knew it was all over. Her huge head is once again a prominent feature, when she sports a sleek, glossy new coat of wool. My was her sporty self, a danger to all that tried to help her and Molly decided to show extreme attitude problems towards the whole shearing process. So when our friendly farmers are done looking after our animals, I'm the one who looks most tired. I do worry that someone will get hurt, as our sheep look more like Shetland ponies, with every passing year. Tending to them can be a wrestling match, when they don't know you very well. They are also muscular and after a summers worth of good food very, very round animals...

So now they are semi naked and snow has arrived. This made our hens "over the moon" happy as the heat is turned up in the stable and it's cozy and warm for them too. The hens do so love a warm radiator....

Ebba, the dog loves the snow and finds field mice to chase. She stands listening and then plunges in.... Mr. Chip used to do this as well so we are well trained to close our eyes and hope for the mouse to make a run for it. The mouse has a sporting chance with Ebba, because being a bit childish still, she stops mid chase to check that you are watching her brave attempt to save you, so the mouse scampers. Some mice are unfortunately now in mice heaven, enjoying heavenly cheese, I hope..

Ebba is a shy dog and spends the evenings hiding, when guests arrive. Then when they are gone, she checks every room to see that the coast is clear to start playing again. She is a funny dog and the fact that she even checks the sauna for leftover people makes me smile. Small steps, lots of humour and a trip to a shoe shop for shoes with more grip seems to be the plan, right now. We do love her to bits, already and Ebba finds dear husband to be her hero. It's lovely to watch her set out for yet another adventure with her new friend. Dear husband has abandoned any hope of ever sleeping in again. It's like in the army around here - Ebba's in charged of the wake up calls and we just do as we are told. She is not a shy dog around her own people and we are very grateful for that. She is just finding her inner puppy and it seems to be a loud, active little thing. It also seems to be a hungry one because Ebba is starting to eat her food more eagerly and that's a relief.

Being such a kind soul makes Ebba's activeness bearable. She does not bully us, it just seems to be so much fun to be Ebba at the moment and she likes to share this happiness with us. Our indoor plants look as tired as we do but after one cactus incident Ebba learned that some nibbling should be avoided. Our mittens, socks and hats are safe to chew on, apparently and I spend my days trying to remember where I've hidden them from her. Maybe it's a safety thing? I read that Siamese cats chew on wool when they feel uneasy. Maybe Ebba just finds wool to be the thing for showing her happy disposition? Who knows? We just try to save some warmer clothes for the colder days, ahead...

I will now go and try to convince our young hens that all the white stuff around the place is quite safe to step on. I do fear that they plan to stay indoors until the next spring. That will mean lots and lots of cleaning and no rest for their co habitants.

Have a good week and have fun starting the skiing season, you who share our white, cold world.

Queen Elisabeth II was given a Siamese blue point kitten as a wedding present, to celebrate her marriage to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. As wedding presents go, that was quite a charming one. I do feel for their furniture, though....

Full speed ahead for some of us

The rainy season seems to have hit us in a warm, sometimes drizzly way.

This means that our sheep stay indoors most of the day and the hens get to rule the outside world. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My do not mind this at all as they have spent an eventful summer outside in the sun, and are now ready for a rest. The summer has been quite a roller coaster ride for them, when you think about it.

First I had the brilliant idea to add some more sheep to the flock. That was a mistake, if ever there was one! Then we got five new hens to the stable who were the most hyper active hens we had ever met. This, not long after Eric had moved house, so all the hens were already a bit restless. Adding five small fluffy canon balls to the mix made the stable a noisy place, for a while. Then chicks had to be tended to and the summer went on its merry way.

Mr. Chip died and that was sad for us all and our sweet natured sheep kept looking out for him. They had loved our dear dog and his slightly slow movements so when a bigger, bouncier dog moved in I feared this was it. I had a vision of four sad sheep, backpacks filled with hay, heading off to walk the sandy roads; sad and let down by yet another of my brilliant idea's....

So the rain came at the right time. Our four sheep have had a break, been fussed over by us and stopped stressing over Ebba the dog. They still think that she has nothing on Mr. Chip but at least they are no longer sad about her being here.

The hens have probably not noticed Ebba yet. They are digging worms, splashing in puddles and generally making a mess. The three ladies are wandering around doing longer walks every day. They will soon be as athletic as the rest of the gang. They sing as they go along and that is good for us, as we know where they are. We just have to hope that Ebba's presence keeps the foxes away from our yard...

Meanwhile Ebba is settling in. Our bed is still her safe haven so that's where she hides her treasures. One night I found a dried pigs ear in my bed, dear husband gets mittens, socks and her toys. Yesterday morning I woke up, wondering about something uncomfortable under my pillow. It was Ebba's chewy bone. As I have a slight cold, I had not smelled it but Ebba was really pleased and proceeded to munch on it, at 6am, in our bed... Dear husband keeps suggesting a dog-training course, for me, not for our friendly dog. So we wash a lot of sheets and are getting to know each other and we miss Mr. Chip a lot. Life goes on and Ebba seems to like us and that is the main thing.

A friend sent me some good reading material about training a young, frightened dog. I learned a lot from them. After sounding like a distressed puppy every time Ebba chewed on me, she stopped. She did give me funny looks for a while afterwards but started on the furniture instead. Now the table legs are wrapped in up newspapers and it look quite funky.

Walks in the forest are done briskly, to put it nicely. Ebba still does not trust trees to stay put so we fly past them. Smells and small forest mice add to the excitement, as we speed along. Waterlogged areas are scary places, but when Ebba met the sea she did not even hesitate, she just plunged in. As she was on a lead I nearly went after her but we had fun and that's all that matters, at the moment. And now we know that we have a sea loving dog....

The paddock is turning out to be the best invention, ever. After a day of concentrating and working out what we are trying to achieve, Ebba gets to run and play with dear husband. She is a fast dog and to see her run, laugh and play is heartwarming to say the least. The shear joy of it all is what it is all about, at the end of the day. We might not walk in an orderly fashion yet but we do have fun trying to get there. In the meantime we'll just hold on for dear life and pray that our walks are devoid of deer and hares, as I'll never keep up with their speed. Dear Ebba will, there is no doubt about that.

We have set up the outdoor bird feeding places again. This means that some seeds go to the actual bird population that has decided to stay the winter. Most seeds find their way into the hiding places of our squirrels. I say "our squirrel's" but we do not claim them, they found us...

We got our first Christmas flower, an Amaryllis and it gave the house a cozy advent time feel. Do enjoy the long evenings and be well.

Feeding bread to ducks is actually dangerous to the birds. White bread, especially, can cause a condition called "angel wing" to ducks. Their wings start pointing out, instead of staying in line with their body and they will loose the ability to fly. This soon kills them. It's the lack of vitamin D and E and manganese in their diet that does it. White bread is just junk food to them. Not even birds thrive on carbohydrates. Cracked corn, birdseed mix or oats are more in line of what ducks need to keep healthy. Now we know that.

Topsy turvy

We are getting more exercise than we have had for years.

This is not a bad thing and dear Ebba enjoys showing us all the scary aspects of our village. We never knew that we lived in such a state, in such a Dickensian novel. Ebba is not frightened of mailboxes and that is nice. It makes collecting the post a bit dignified, at least. (A long time ago I had a horse that never stopped, suspecting every mailbox he saw of foul play. You had to be impressed by his tenacity in this matter, if nothing else).

Jokes aside, Ebba is doing better all the time; it's just hard for a dog, when all the stuffing has been knocked out of you. Being a complete sweetheart helps and she certainly is one of those. She feels a bit big to us. Why I don't know, as we hang out with Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My, but maybe it is because she is inside our house. Ebba does not believe in the concept of "the long way around" so she moves over things. One stylish leap and the sofa in the middle of the room is tackled, one mighty leap and the shopping bags in the kitchen don’t get her this time either...

Ebba is a young dog with a healthy dose of energy, so it's just for us to grab the nearest bottle of multivitamins and get our act together. We already love her to bits.

Living in the middle of nowhere helps when you take on a frightened dog that is starting to see life as a bit of fun, again. No one next door to complain when Ebba finds her tail highly entertaining at 10pm or when she gets the giggles over the fact that she gets to be in our bed. You just have to wait it out and enjoy the fact that she finds her inner puppy to be in good form, although the timing could be better. At some point I have to tell her to stop, as we do need some sleep in our home. My socks seem to amuse her a lot, too and bits of cucumber can be found under mats....

Why Ebba feels the need to chew on my arm is a mystery she does not share with us. Maybe I am a safety blanket or her teeth feel extra active when we go to bed, we don't know. She does have bones for chewing on scattered around the whole household and my socks...

When Mr. Chip arrived, a long time ago, the company Lumene had a series of skin products made from birch tree extract that I really liked. Mr. Chip was a young fox terrier with a good sense of smell so why I had to walk around smelling like a Finnish forest, was beyond his comprehension. He got so obsessed with this problem that I had to swap to the less forestry line of skin lotion. Now I worry that Ebba might be obsessed with calendula and bees....

It's still early morning. Ebba is asleep on the sofa, stretched out and gathering strength for this day that will slowly start. Our dear sheep are munching away in the stable. I gave them some hay at 6am, as it's raining outside and we don't have to hurry in the morning. The hens will get up with the light, so only Monty is awake, tooting out into the darkness.

It's lovely when the blanket of autumn settles over us again and leads us towards Christmas and a new year. Summer is the best time for our animals but I do feel we all deserve to enjoy some of the mellowness of autumn, too. Ebba is chasing flying leaves, the hens get a break from egg laying and our sheep get to part with their heavy coats of wool. And we all get to start thinking of making Christmas presents...

My dear husband is the playgroup leader for our happy dog, so he does not get much of a break. He does seem happy enough, though, so I'm not worried.

Happy wintertime to all and everyone!! Be well and eat chocolates, it helps....

Some say that cats are not affected by SAD (seasonal affective disorder), whereas dogs can feel the darkness depressing. Cats apparently mirror their owners emotions, so if its people are sad, the cat slows down too. We turn on the therapy lights and hope that everyone will feel the benefit of them. Mice and men....

New friends

We have three new hens in the stable that arrived a week ago. The first day was an introduction day for them, touring their home, tasting all the different food bowls and some general chit-chat. Our own hens were outside, muttering horrid things about me, and my bad management skills. It all seemed calm and nice until Lotta the hen turned up to lay an egg. It was unfortunate that it was her as she has been on edge since her chicks, Matti and Maja. Lotta walked up to the new team, fluffy as a grouse and waited for them to run. Instead the three, much larger birds just grabbed her by the neck and shook her. I intervened and decided that "the new girls" would have to stay separate for a while longer. Lotta was not hurt but her pride got a bit dented. (The truth is that we all felt that she had it coming, the way she has behaved all summer).

A week later everyone has settled in nicely. The latest arrivals are hybrids; they make much larger eggs than ours and are charming birds. They look like three characters from a Jane Austen novel, all airs and graces. They have great taste in food, like to potter and have lovely singing voices. I keep expecting them to pull out their needlework at any minute, while they wait for Mr. Darcy.

They have a long wait ahead of them as they took one look at our dear Monty and decided he was no Mr. D. Little Matti is fascinated by the ladies and keeps bobbing up to squawk at them. Then he gets shy and hides behind a tuft of nettles, practicing his yodeling technic. I found three large hens staring at said tuft, wondering how on earth they had ended up here, in the back and beyond... I tried to comfort them by pointing out that they are only staying for the winter. If all goes well, as we truly hope it will, they will move back home in the spring. In the meantime we just have to make the best of things.

Inside, our home is slowly being turned upside down by our new friend Ebba, the dog. To describe her is difficult, at the moment. It's all bones, angles, long legs and huge eyes, but eventually she will grow up to be approximately the size of an Alsatian, with a thicker tail. Ebba arrived on Thursday so everything is new to her. She seems to be as kindhearted as Mr. Chip but almost everything else about her is different to our dear friend in heaven.

The policy of "no dog in the bed" went out the window on Friday morning when Ebba leaped up and settled herself politely in our bed. She is so thin and long at the moment that it's fine but once she builds up her strength, it will be like sharing a bed with an elk. Dear husband pointed out that as her life so far has not been all roses and festivity, Ebba needs this time to build up her confidence. (Dear husband is also a wet blanket when it comes to waifs and strays...). The sofa is fine for napping and Ebba has her own chair for lounging, in the evenings. This one is next to dear husband so that she can check the news on the internet, too...

Ebba is about one year old and was in need of a new, kinder home. More food and general care is needed too, so we will try our best. She is frightened of practically everything, from people to tall trees. She tries hard to be brave and is slowly letting go of some fears, becoming more of a puppy, every day. She likes to fall asleep holding my arm in her mouth, while mumbling about her day in a happy sort of way. She pulls on her lead and then sits down to apologise for her bad behavior. We are trying our best to make her feel at home and judging by Ebba's tail, we are not doing so badly. Yesterday the tail started wagging as a tail should do and we celebrate peeing outside by eating cheese. (We are going to keep a small dairy farm going, by the amount of cheese this young dog eats...).

We tell her about Mr. Chip when we light the candle on his grave and we feel this was the right thing to do. Our leg muscles are in dire straits, as walking is now slightly brisker than it's been for some time. Thankfully we have one brilliant asset, for this particular sweet dog to enjoy. Ebba gets to run freely, without the danger of getting frightened and running away, in our fenced field. It is unused by the sheep, but loved by the dog and dear husband as a playground. Our dear sheep are still convinced that getting a new dog was a very bad idea, so we have to work on that problem. All we can say is that it feels good to be able to give Ebba a new chance to be happy. We are sure our leg muscles will be up to all these brisk walks, come Christmas time.....

I just read that dogs don't like rain because the amplified sound hurt their sensitive ears. I also read that dogs have a third eyelid called a haw to protect the eye and to help it remain moist. These are two things I did not know about dogs. What I did know is, that they bring joy to a home and are good company on walks. They are quite sweet to like us too....