Cupcakes at Home

dear controller of Scottish weather........

i know, i know, i have been complaining about the lack of wild and windswept, typically Scottish weather.
but for this weekend
please
please
please
can you make sure that the West Coast of Scotland remains dry

thanks in advance

new sheep owners xxx


yep
we are venturing forth from the East coast over to the West coast to meet our new girls.
part of our new life involves me being a registered crofter
this of course involves rearing and dispatching of your own animals, growing your own fruit and veg and generally looking after your own piece of land.
the trouble for us is the fact that we are Vegetarians.
i have been unable physically to eat meat for as long as i can remember, my mum tells me that i really was not keen on the taste of meat when i was first on solid food
i basically feel that i was born vegetarian

so - we purchased this piece of crofted land and began to think what on earth we were going to do with it apart from building a wonderful and unique house on it (news of build coming soon)

we will of course grow fruit, veg and flowers aplenty

but we also desperately want to keep animals

as readers of this blog will know - we already own a pig called Jo - he arrived before we did!

and we have decided to keep rare breed chickens and hopefully help to increase their numbers.

also on the list are ducks of various types including my favourite - indian runners.

hopefully we will still have our two loaned donkeys and i would one day soon like to have my own horse, but we also needed to have livestock to keep the grass down.

Highland Cows are of course my most favourite option, but we will have to wait until we can purchase a little more land - so in the meantime we have plummeted for sheep.

again the trouble with sheep keeping is the fact that in order to have lambs each year - which i would just love, you really have to sell on excess stock or before too long there would be sheep living in your spare room because of the lack of space outside!

for us there is no chance in us ever parting with any animal that has become part of our family, so we are lucky enough to have the chance to own a small number of very rare breed sheep.

we will meet them this weekend along with the couple who are doing amazing work in keeping this particular breed from disappearing altogether.

the chance to learn all we can on a bit of a crash course in sheep keeping, spend time with our girls and let them know that we will be back to collect them really soon, that we will go home and quickly put up new fences, erect a shelter full of soft straw, but above all else.......

never, ever send you to slaughter, sell you to anyone else or neglect you in any way

instead we will speak to you every day, make sure you are happy and let you all grow old with care and grace x

i cannot wait for this weekend

t x