Jackeys Marsh

Top. Paddy the sheep and cattle dog

1. Abandonded farm machinery
2. View from farm
3. Wiltshire cattle
4. Hereford cattle
5. Nearby self-built house
6. Sunrise at High Marsh Farm

Currently i am staying at a beef and sheep farm.
It is a first time. The area is hidden and surrounded by mountains. My marvellous host is taking me around to meet all the characters who live in the area: fugitives, dreamers, eccentrics, craftsmen, reclusives, throw backs to an earlier age, religious zealots, a real live soap opera!

Here i have been helping in tree felling, bridge building, rounding up sheep and cattle with Paddy and really getting my feet under the kitchen table with the local community.

Western Creek

1. Ripening applesHouse, bike and backdrop
2. House, bike and backdrop
3. Large blueberries from garden
4.Yoga studio made from straw bales
5. Saraswati altar
6. Cow dung used for a religious ceremony

I stayed at a yoga retreat in Western Creek, with mountains as a backdrop. Meditation was also practised. Sheep and a large garden supplied most food needs. The Saraswati practise their religion with chanting and also make offerings using cow dung, which has an acrid smoke.
it was so nice to eat bread that was made and baked daily in a wood-fired oven.

Almost every night I heard wallabies being zapped on the electric fence next to my bedroom. Possums clambered noisily on my roof trying to get into the garden where they wreck fruit trees. There would be a stunned into silence after they too were zapped by the electric fence, before they tumbled noisily back down the roof.

I enjoyed hearing the noisy roof-climbing possums getting zapped by the electric fence; they tear down the fruit and other trees.
Wallabies also run up against it with a stunned bump. They eat the vegetables. Daily, wood-fired
sourdough bread, was a great treat.