It is getting necessary to limit my livestock activities and gardening. The front garden has now been rationalised to the point where it is mostly lawn [if one can call it that when Silver has continued to wreak havoc in spite of my underlay of carpark netting!] and the only flower beds are around the edge. I'm trying to stock them with plants that can defeat weeds and don't need too much attention.
I had thought my are was recovering from the shoulder operation gradually but then it started getting worse instead of better. This was a bit alarning until the surgeon pointed out on the latest xray that I had broken my collar bone. So I am slightly mollified on the grounds that one could expect that to limit progress.

Meantime the animals are all well except my dear old Felix, who at the age of nearly 12 jumped the top wall and met his death. So now there are only two sheep.
The photo is Felix RIP in front, followed by Luki [left] and Badger [right].

I seem to have neglected this for best part of a year. It has been a complicated year. The recession has more or less put a stop to my language teaching so I have been selling books on Amazon. That has meant a lot of time checking, cleaning and listing books. Also Dog walking has taken more time, partly because my walking has deteriorated [had my 80th birthday in July] and partly because my dear Emma has not been able to walk dogs as she was heavily pregnant for sveral months. That has a happy ending -- the arrival several weeks ago of baby Noah.  The picture which hopefully will appear below this is Dyfi with emma's Rocky up on the mountain while Emma was still coming. Rocky is part bulldog and part Boxer and is very clever. This year he even noticed what Emma wanted when she was shepherding sheep out of a field preparatory to a game of ball and he took to doing it for her, and not a drop of sheepdog blood in him. Dyfi is wearing a muzzle in case they  encountered any sheep on the mountain; he is not to be trusted.

Emma is recovering from her caesarian and is hoping to get back to some dog walking soon. Rocky wants to see his friends.
Dyfi, meanwhile comes with me every morning to feed my three woolly pets. He stands outside the pigsty while I dish out shee- muesli. He is actually quite useful as without him Felix comes in and stanps on my heels with sharp-pointed hooves. The first day I fed them Badger had forgotten the routine and was inside the pig sty. Finding the way blocked by me and Dyfi he charged and I went on my back in the mud. By the time Badger had extricated himself from the dog lead he had also removed Dyfi's collar. I struggled to my feet yelling 'Paid!' [don't] and found Dyfi faithfully beside me and not giving chase. One virtual gold star for good behaviour.