The seasons in the forest here are turning again.  After the wet, wet summer start we are now in full sun drenched summer.  I've seen the forest in three of its four seasons now and cannot wait for the fourth.  Not that I should have long to wait.  It's looming grey and wet again!

First we moved in during a winter of snow and ice.  We had so much snow we were literally snowed in the two to three days.  The little valley the village is in is between two forested hills, and looking down from the house onto the valley in the snow with twinkling orange street lights, and the smoke from the log fires (many people here are wood-burning for heating instead of having central heating) lying in the bottom of the valley like a great gray stream.

Then came spring, with acres of blue bluebells, white wood anenomes, and green fern fronds shooting up.  Plus the lambs, most of which are now gone.  Those that remain are as large as their mothers now, but the vast majority of them are, like those in my freezer, unfortunately long departed.  

Now summer, where the ferns are taller than I am and forest blackberries are starting to ripen.  There are thousands of hazelnuts, but the squirrels seem to be ravaging them fast -- which is a little annoying as they're not ripe yet, and the squirrels are only discarding them.  It seems as if the squirrels have to try and discard thousands of nuts just to see if they can find one right one.  The wild strawberries and wild raspberries in the woods I have been feasting on are just about over, which is a shame, and my secret supply of white strawberries (yes there are white ones which are very rare -- go and google them!) are gone for the year.  The barbecue on the deck season has begun, and the lamb is already tasting pretty good.  Amazingly succulent, and a freezer our size holds three lambs plus a bit of spare room for barbecue bits, hamburgers and the like.

When the lamb was delivered, we also asked that we get the bones of the dogs.  Which proved a bit of a mistake.  Every time the dogs were let out in the next week, they headed off down to the utility room next to the garage, and sat and waited to see if the meat fairy was going to come and open the Magic box of bones for them and feed them.  They've never had a freezer before, so don't really understand that the meat goes in fresh and comes out frozen!  They just see the milkman arrive with armfuls and armfuls of meat and put it into the Magic box, and then they get a load of bones and meat scraps.  I think they think the freezer's full of meat just for them. 

I'm eagerly awaiting autumn now when we can pick the apples from our trees -- four trees of different varieties plus a pear tree.  I work very long hours still, but in an environment where it doesn't seem so much like work -- in the beautiful forest.  The bed and breakfast? -- Forest of Dean tourists have been put off by an assumption that the forest is flooded (it wasn't) and as business has been slow, that's been fairly relaxing.  The dogs like visitors a little too much sometimes, and have a habit of sitting looking over the front wall for days after they depart, waiting to see if another lot will arrive.

Those of you who enjoy my blog might be pleased to know that I hope to blog more regularly.  Promises, promises I hear you say.  The thing is I have just bought a copy of dragon naturally speaking voice recognition software.  I have to say it does seem to be pretty good so far.  I've e-mailed people and warned them I'm going to be using it, and many people have actually responded that they have it and have tried using it already, but didn't find it much good.  I am taking the time and effort to train the system, and whenever I find a word that it persistently mis-spells, I just instantly record my own voice saying that word several times, and it seems to train the system and do the trick.  So possibly there will be more consistent blogging in future.