May 31, 2018 - Thursday morning alarm clock at Riverside Farm

 6:30 AM  outside by myself doing the chicken & duck chores,  6 duck eggs gathered from the Muscovy clan.  Moscovy ducks are one of the few breeds that are not mallard-derived. They are their own species and are closer related to a goose than they are a duck!

 This lichen can only grow in pure organic conditions and is a good sign that no chemicals are used on this acreage.   This is a dying lime tree.  A bract fungi growing on it. 

http://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guides/

Lichens are a type of symbiotic organism made up of a plantlike partner and a fungus. There are three major types of lichen — crustose, foliose, and fructicose — each of which has its own shape, structure, and environmental preferences. Intermediate types include leprose and squamulose lichen, among  others.

https://staff.concord.org/~btinker/gaiamatters/investigations/lichens/typeslichens.html

 Ducks so happy to be let out to run, eat grasses, and get fresh clean water and feed.

Looking down at a the 1700 cob built home from up the hill where the open meadow and duck/chicken houses are.

It's 3 AM in New York and 8 AM in Cornwall.  It looks like the sun is peeking out of the clouds.  Harry and Julie have separate plans to be out all day and I am going to take that surprise chicken I bought at Tesco's yesterday, along with root crops, garden herbs, and some potatoes in the pantry, and make a big pot of chicken soup.  This will be our supper when they come home, tonight.  I have benefited from what Harry did last night using Trager gentle massage; he said he re-programmed my brain and body to the original factory setting as to the way it should be, pain free, and I am no longer in any pain from the 7 hour flight and 5 hour train ride on Monday.    I feel more balanced without pain,  and ready and able to work on the farm. http://trager.com/approach.html  Thank you, Harry  How kind of this lovely couple to treat me so well.

Julie is having company tomorrow so I cleaned the house and made chicken soup, garden salad, deviled eggs with curry and smoked paprika, potato salad, and washed fresh strawberries.  The laundry is outdoors in a laundry shed, and I washed towels and hung them out, and walked Digger Dog down the winding road under a canopy of old twisting gnarled English Oak trees.  And I picked many wildflowers for the table and placed them in 5 vases.   It looks so pretty.   I've whacked my back out and am in my beautiful room with 3 picture windows resting.  Julie has to go back out to a meeting so I'm allowing Harry and Julie to eat alone together.  Resting my back is a priority.   Today was a very productive day.

Wednesday, May 30 2018 Weeding Shopping, Cooking, and Having a Trager Session for my Back

View from my bedroom window this morning looking out at the rain. 

Breakfast was Muesli, Cornish milk, strawberries from the garden, and Italian coffee.   

 Julie made lunch - duck eggs cheese and baked beans.
 The road leaving the farm to drive to Truro to shop at Tesco.

 City of Truro, the biggest city in Cornwall.

 Truro Cathedral in background

A rainy day walking through lovely Truro. 

One of the Gardens at The Riverside Farm

 Julie made a goat's cheese quiche with duck eggs and garden herbs for Tuesday tea.

 Quiche was lush and creamy.

 Harry took me out in the dark to see the temperature of the compost piles.

 Reading the thermometer in celcius temperature.

 Mustard has gone to flower so I'm pulling it out to make room for peppers.

 Ducks enjoying the rain.

 I gave the ducks some mustard plants to eat.

 I fed the ducks some grain in the rain.

 Hoop house is filled with many varieties of onions.

 Hoop house

 It is 5 PM in New York and 10 PM in Cornwall.  Julie went to a show with her daughter, and Harry and I stayed home.  I made a plate of food for Julie then cooked for Harry and me; we had gourmet ravioli and I made a sauce with many veggies chopped up, and we shredded cheese to place over it. but first he took the massage table out and gave me a Trager treatment for my spine, and the pain in my neck and lower back.   He put a fire on and he went to bed then left me in the parlor with the 2 dogs so I could write in my journal.

 wild foxglove growing all along the roadside.

Today was a very nice day.  Feeling sleepy and much more relaxed after a Trager session with Harry.   I really believe the gentler approach to pain relief is much better than the old ways of cracking the neck and back, causing more inflammation and pain.  Tomorrow I will clean  out the ducks houses, water baths, feed them, and then surprise Julie with a homemade chicken soup when she comes back from her day at work.                                                            

Tuesday evening, May 29 2018 in Probus

 Cornish milk tastes delicious.

 Harry made this.   Elderflowers are  in full bloom now.

 This is the kitchen window and what it looks out at.

Julie and I doing the morning work cleaning out duck poop, washing all the water basins with an iodine solution to sterilize them and we filled with fresh water, fed the ducks and chickens, added new bedding.  Then we had a run to the local shops to buy bread and cheeses, and I bought saffron bread just like my Grandmother used to bake.  We looked inside the Probus Church - the tallest and one of the oldest churches in Cornwall where my surname Trestrail originated from.  We looked to see if we could find a Trestrail name on the old tombstones, but we didn't.  This is unusual for a church to be so ornate as they are usually short and plain.

Probus  Church

Probus burial grounds behind the church.

 Margaret Richard, owns this farm shop, and when I mentioned Trestrail, she mentioned the High Trestrail Farm in Probus, and said her Uncle lived and farmed there.

 outside of Margaret Richard's shop.

 Village of Probus.  My family name came from here in 1268.

 May's Country Store in the village called Sticker.

 Product on a shelf

Pengelly Garden Center where Julie bought seeds for the hoop houses like multi-colored carrots, buckwheat, courgettes, and we raided the recycle bin for square pots.

 Back on the farm,,,,,,,,Harry put together the duck and chicken houses.

 Digger Dog - a really cool dog.

 Walking back to the house to get something.

 Letting the ducks out to forage on the meadow.  They were eating elderberry leaves and dock

 Inside one of the duck houses.  Concrete floors to keep critters from boring holes through the ground and coming into the houses.

 Julie letting the ducks out.

 Compost barrels and baby Muscavies -  sadly this excellent Mother duck died the following morning when we woke up and Harry found her dead.  The babies have lost their Mother.

We are having Tea now.  Julie has made quiche.  Duck eggs are the main ingredient.