We have never had more than two or three very small apples from our tree but this is this years crop.

We had it pruned last winter and we think that, combined with a bumper year for apples - just the right conditions, has produced this brilliant crop.

They are russets and are very nice eating apples.  However as I am the only one in the house who really likes apples I think I have my work cut out!

Twas in the spring of 2018

A gathering and tournament took place in a far flung corner of the globe.

Much merriment was had by all.

Families were invited by scroll and required to respond by supplying their banner to Castle Barrow prior to the day of the event.

The formal competitions consisted of Jousting, Archer, Trebouchet target accuracy and a Meleé.

There was, in addition, apple-bobbing, quoits, a ball-n-shy and much music (though the minstrals were not present; it was magically reproduced through four small black boxes).

As Dill will eventually be a Search and Rescue dog, she needs to travel to training events with me, and her sleeping quarters away from home will be the car.

It rapidly became clear that the little Citroen C3, nice car that it is, will not really be appropriate for SAR stuff.

Hence Vera.

Vera is a Range Rover Vogue. She's quite old but in very good condition. She  currently has a V8 petrol for her heart, but that will change - we'll give her a heart-transplant in summer and she'll be a more efficient (if slower) diesel powered car.

She really does chase her tail

I have altered the way photo's etc are added to posts - the aim is to make it easier to add video's etc..

If you are logged in, at the very bottom of each page you will see some links to help pages (well -there's only one at the moment).

Hopefully that will explain the changes.

Winter has definitely arrived.

Nicky is working in Queensown for a few days. I went up with her for the first night as she was a little nervous of driving up & down the rediculously  steep street that she's staying on. As it turned out, the street was fine. The main image is the view from where she's staying.

I came home yesterday and last night it started snowing a little. This morning we have a reasonable covering.

Dill hadn't experienced snow up to this point - but (like all dogs) she seems to enjoy it.

We are down in Cornwall to celebrate my 65th and Jude’s retirement from Bagshaws. The VW camper we are renting is a 1965 split screen model called Barbarossa. Very very cool - but does require some organisational skills as living space is limited!

We picked it up in Oakhampton on Friday lunchtime and Jude drove us down to Padstow which was our base for the first 3 nights. Very smart campsite within walking distance of the harbour. Had a real bonus the first night as a mobile wood fired pizza trailer visit s every Friday. So pizza for supper with our salad. 

Meet Dilys aka Dill the Dog

She came home with us today from Twizel.

She will one day be a search Dog. Her mum is an avalanche  dog  & her dad is a Department of Conservation predator control dog. 

She is mostly Lab x GSP (which is what Taf was) but she has a little bit of something else in there too from her Dad's side.

Stella (mum) is only three so very much still in the SAR game, so will see each other again at avalanche courses. One of her sisters is also destined to be an avalanche dog, so courses will become a bit of a reunion.

I've made a small enhancement to make it easier to include externally hosted media, such as Youtube videos.

There's an example at Doug's snowy posting, which I edited to embed the videos, rather than simply link them.