This little piggy went to Enlli...

We have a new addition to our menagerie - a piglet!   He came over on Benlli from Cwrt farm yesterday and is now happily installed in the pigsty in the farm yard.  The plan is to let him have the run of the old hen enclosure during the day so that he can root it up and clear the ground,. He is very sweet, but we need to make sure we don't get too attached - hence the lack of name (although "Percy" has been mentioned once or twice!).

Ploughing

Well, we have one ewe left to lamb, we're halfway through calving, and it's time to start cultivating the arable fields ........so this week we've all been helping out in various ways.
Here's some photos of Steve's ploughing - nice straight furrows!

Jo helping out with the rolling

Celyn guarding the quad!

Steve having a harrowing time

New Life!

As we celebrate the resurrection life of Jesus this Easter, we're seeing lots of new life appear amongst the animals......
The fields are full of sheep and lambs, with only 20 or so ewes left to lamb, bringing the total of lambs to nearly 400.  Thankfully the cold snap last week was only a short blip in what has been really kind weather so it seems to have gone relatively smoothly...Sooty is Rachel's only pet lamb!

There are 6 calves so far; this one had a lovely set of twins:

Eleven out of twelve goose eggs hatched, giving the mother goose (Holly), quite a large brood of goslings to look after!  Ivor (the gander) is being a very protective father......

A very Happy Easter to all.

New Website

We have recently expanded the "Beauty for Ashes" website to include the crafts, prints and jewellery that we make.  These have previously only been available in the craft shop on Enlli.  Do take a look and if you like it, let your friends know!
Here's the link: http://www.beautyforashes.co.uk

Busy bees

We have recently enjoyed what has felt like the first taste of Spring. Yesterday I spent a while watching and photographing the bees as they excitedly made the most of the calm and warm day . At the hive entrances , large amounts of gorse pollen was being brought in , as well as the odd yellow-dusted worker returning from the willow blossom.

 The Spring build up is quite slow on Bardsey , probably because of the exposed nature of the island and also because their nectar sources don’t really begin to appear in any quantity until late May . The first of these is the wonderful salt-tolerant Thrift (‘Sea-Pink’) which carpets much of the coastal heath and ancient earthen banks (‘Clodddiau’) .Nestled among their taller neighbours are the vivid blue flowers of Squill , which the bees also like to visit. Literature suggests that Thrift can produce a honey surplus in favourable conditions but I have yet to observe this happen . The usual time for the main honey flow has been during late June and into July , corresponding to the flowering of the abundant white clover. Mixed in , for extra  flavour , the bees add nectar from Brambles , Bird’s-Foot Trefoil and Bell-Heather.

 I have been pleasantly surprised at the consistent harvest of honey that we have had over the last eight years , usually a modest 30-40 lbs per hive. I sacrificed some of the honey yield last year for the sake of increasing the number of colonies. I now have six hives. I’m hoping this will help meet the demand for ‘Bardsey Honey’ at our cafe/craft shop which regularly runs out part way through the summer.

 Some of the advantages of having such a unique and isolated apiary include being largely beyond sources of disease and the re-infestations that can affect mainland bees. I have not seen a Varroa mite in my hives for at least three years now ,much to my relief. However , one of the down-sides of isolation is the weakening affect of in-breeding. While I still had my bees in Conwy I would regularly bring nucleii over to enrich the gene-pool. More recently though , without my Conwy bees and with the difficulty of transporting nucs , I have begun to use bought-in queens. I will be watching with interest this season to see how they perform compared with their in-bred predecessors. 

        Time for a refreshing drink !

    The sheep and cow proof apiary.

   Bees bringing pollen loads back from Gorse (orange) and Willow (yellow).

    It's useful to have a landing pad when you're arriving home tired and heavily laden !

    Glass crown-boards enable me to check on the bees without disturbing them too much.

    " Buzz off....this is my flower !"

    Working on the Willow...

  Working on the Gorse....

  Working on the Hebe..

Lamb Surprise

We were not due to start lambing until late March, so imagine Steve's surprise when he found these new born twins yesterday!  Since then we have discovered a few more ewes (well, 35!) that could be imminent.  We'll blame it on a naughty ram.........

Star trails

This last Wed night was lovely and clear with a good moon so Steve was out and about with his camera trying to capture some of the beautiful scenes.
 Most of the following shots were stacks of 99x30 second exposures taken with a DSLR camera.

 The Abbey was briefly lit by headtorch and the cross accidentaly lit by quad break lights !

 Steve took advantage of the presence of workmen at the lighthouse and captured this scene from the top of the tower.

  Looking across Henllwyn towards the lighthouse.The two brightest trails are Jupiter (upper one) and Venus (lower one).

  Cows up on the mountain near Pen Cristin.

January Update

There have been very few clear nights this winter so far, much to Steve's disappointment.  However, he did manage to photograph this Rosette Nebulla during a brief clear spell recently.

We have been enjoying moments of creativity, mostly making items for the craft shop.  We have added a few new candle designs to our current selection, so the beeswax candle production line has been busy!

Last Saturday was a rare calm, beautiful day....it was balm to the soul! Here's the view from Mynydd Enlli, with Rachel in the foreground.

The sunsets and beautiful skies provide an ever changing backdrop to the South End.....no two skies are ever the same!

 However, this is our view for most of the day at the moment:

We are half way through crutching all the ewes (370 in total).......a really important job, although probably our least favourite of the farming year!  Crutching, or dagging, as it is also called, helps the new born lambs find the milk parlour. Removing the thick wool also minimises blow fly strike once it starts warming up in the spring.

Going, Going Gorse.........

A rare, but welcome break from the windy weather enabled us to continue with the gorse burning rotation on the mountain this week.  Here are some smoky photos:

Happy Christmas!

Now we're back in "blogging mode", we thought we would do one more to bring things right up to date and to finish off the year........here are a few photos from around Christmas time.

Ben was given a slack line for Christmas and so much time has been spent practicing the art, mostly in the shelter of the plantation!

Holly and Ivor, the geese we were given last Christmas, produced 5 goslings this year.  Plucking them all before Christmas to send off for friends and family was quite hard work!  I was quite tired of it by the time we came to doing ours......so I didn't do a very good job, as you can see:

It tasted nice though, not too "feathery"!!

 A homely scene!

Some more of Steve's fish eye shots:

This is a blow hole on the West side that has been particularly active over the last few days