Hurry Up and Wait
Time is a funny thing at the moment. On one hand, it seems like the days are flying. Our new normal consists of a rush out of bed and packing orders in a semi-blur, fuelled by coffee and my neighbour's new end of the road cookie stall. I look up and its 2:30pm and the courier is coming up the drive. On the other hand, things like the kids going to school, trips out, swimming in the lake and farm events all seem like a lifetime ago...or maybe an alternate universe.
Like most people in most places, our lives have changed quite significantly in the last few months. In the space and time that events and farm tours filled, we now pack and sell flour to help deal with shortages. Rather than use our garden produce to cater for events, each Saturday a box of veg and eggs goes down to our stall at the end of the road for passers by. Online courses take the place of our workshops (which is good as there wouldn't be room for anyone amongst the flour) and 3 little children and a Kevin join the dogs as my constant companions. The initial shock as worn off and each day I feel like we get better at being this new version of Gartur, the one without visitors and guests.
The first few weeks of lockdown were spent in a flour packing haze, but now that things have quieted down, we are able to turn our attention a bit more to the list of "things we always intended to do, but never quite got around to". Our expanded market garden is shaping up, my polytunnel looks amazing and I have been working hard on pulling together all of the online courses I had meant to start, but never got around to. After this email goes out, I am off to film the final week of our "Intro to Poultry Keeping" course. Then next week, we start filming our new and improved Everyday Cheesemaking course as well. I think maybe an Intro to Keeping Goats might be next? Or maybe "From Sheep to Yarn". I don't know. What I do know is that, in the absence of teaching people here, I am grateful to have the skillset to keep on teaching!!
I still have these moments that catch me off guard - Emmylou, our 8 week old goat kid, will be unbareably adorable and I will get sad that no one else gets the joy of cuddling her. One of the barn cats had a litter of kittens and my first thought was how fun it would be for farm visitors to play with them.
We thought it would be fun to host a virtual farm tour on our Facebook page, so people can come and check in on the animals, meet the current farm babies and have a nose around the polytunnel. Come by our facebook page tomorrow at 4pm BST to join us on a free virtual tour!!
