This week we have been a bit battered by the high winds and although we luckily had no damage it's been really interesting living in a new home and listening to it creek and groan in the wind and working out what noises we should worry about and what is normal.
We are unsure about the age of the house as its been added to over the years, but a friend spotted a block of stone on a corner of the house just above ground level that he called Binham Blue stone which he thought would have come from the dissolution of the local Binham Priory in 1539. Now I am sure the house is not that old but I am sure after this week whoever built this house and whoever did the later additions and alterations definitely knew how the weather worked here. The reason I say this is for a number of reasons; firstly the prevailing weather with high winds normally comes in from the south/south west and on that side of the house there are virtually no windows and the walls are over a foot thick, along with that is that although its situated on the top of the hill from the rest of the village it sits just below the brow of the hill which is to the south west. So when we had over 50 mph gusts we could hear it howling and gusting but surprisingly there were very few drafts inside. As for windows we only have one tiny one on the north side but we a have 5 large ones on the east which means we get the morning sun (thats if it ever reappears!) The original farmyard is even better, the old red brick and flint barn has large doors to the north but its cattle yard is to the east of the house facing south, so the wind is buffered cleverly by the house. In fact all the doors in the barns, with the exception of the big barn doors (that would have been rarely opened in the winter), open in shelter of the house, who needs architects huh?
Well apart from the high winds and rain this week its been full with the normal trudge of mid winter. Checking for lame sheep, brushing mud off of bad tempered horses, watching the chickens make more mud and basically trying to stay upright, although Potters is blessed with great soil even here in this weather there is mud! Although we did have a lovely end to the week with our lovely barns being used to host a 9 year old birthday party. The theme was a Scooby Doo treasure hunt with all clues leading to Potters Farm and further clues hidden around the farm. This resulted in 7 girls in their Velma glasses running around in great excitement searching for clues and screaming lots with our daft retriever Murph doing a good impersonation of the Scooby!! With a brief pause in the hay loft for spaghetti lucky dip (never seen so much spaghetti, although the chickens will be happy for the next few days) they were off to help with evening stables. On occasions like this my elderly mare Ellie comes into her own and seems to relish the attention surrounded by little people each brandishing a brush. Being the star she is she barely moved, sniffed gently the nervous ones and obediently picked up her feet when asked. Even the big horses dropped their head to investigate the little crowd. I was reliable informed by Lilly's mum later that everyone had a great time but they were all extremely shattered by home time. I know for me this is a sign of a good day as when I fall into bed of an evening after a day outside, shattered, aching slightly, windblown but happy its been a top kinda day. Roll on next week.