It’s been a busy summer at East Jordeston and we’ve enjoyed meeting lots of lovely new guests and welcomed back regular friends to our cottages during this year’s season of good weather.

As we approach the end of August and families wend their way home for the new school term there’s a feeling of autumn in the air and yesterday there was no better indicator that the season was changing.  This little fellow (caught on camera after  he/she sneaked in to Beili one Saturday morning in June after the guests had left) along with the whole of this year’s magnificent large brood of swallows were circling around our cottages and chatting away for all of yesterday afternoon.  This morning there is not a swallow in sight!   They have left us for their long journey south for the winter.  What an amazing little bird.  We look forward to welcoming them back next spring and wish them, as we wish our guests, a safe journey home.

The glorious spring and start to summer we have been enjoying this year has provided perfect conditions for tomato plants I am proudly growing from seed.  There are huge crops of ‘chocolate cherry’ and ’sweet million’ tomatoes developing in my greenhouse and fortunately the plants have not yet suffered any of the usual tomato problems.

Maybe it’s because I have this little friend who moved in to make his/her home in the corner of one of my tomato growbags a couple of months ago and seems in no rush to leave!  Thankfully, ‘toady’ is probably keeping the insect population at bay and I haven’t seen a slug in the greenhouse  since he’s been there.  He pops out to greet me when I water my crops and I’m sure he recognises my voice!  Then again…..maybe not.  Cute though!

We’re very pleased to say that our poorly lamb has fully recovered after crawling around on his knees.  As his strength returned he raised himself up onto his ‘wrists’ and within two weeks he was back up on all fours frolicking around with the rest of the flock!

Our tipi certainly came to the rescue – providing a convenient and  safe grazing and resting place to keep the patient protected from the sun by day and predators (foxes) at night.  Now… we just need to clear the sheep droppings from inside the tipi before we furnish it for summer use!  Here, in the foreground is our recovered ram lamb.

As I turned the pages of the August edition of  Good Housekeeping, the double page coastal landscape caught my eye as being unmistakingly familiar.  Travel editor David Wickers highlights his favourite  place for walkers – “the 186-mile long coast path that hugs the National Park coast of Pembrokeshire.  The scenery is magnificent, the birdlife amazing and even in the height of summer you can find  yourself alone with just the cacophony of seabirds and the thrashing of waves for company.”

There is something very special about Pembrokeshire and every year we are delighted to welcome more ‘first timers’ to our cottages, as well as lots of lovely regular guests who are already ‘under the Pembrokeshire spell’!  We never become complacent ourselves and are aware of the privilege it is to live and work in our beautiful county.  This image of  ’The Green Bridge’ was taken last weekend when we drove out to see the magnificent Stack Rocks covered at this time of year with nesting guillemots and razorbills – a fabulous sight to behold.   Recent guests have been rising early and leaving to catch the boats to Skomer  Island for a day of puffin watching, taking in seals and the teeming birdlife on the short journey.  Sheer magic!  If you’ve never been, put Pembrokeshire on your ‘to do’ list.  It’s well worth it!

Our small flock of Jacob ewes have produced 4 healthy ram lambs and 5 ewe lambs this year and they are literally ‘mushrooming’ every day.  I can hardly believe they  are only 10 weeks old.

So…it was a surprise for us on Friday last week when one of the ram lambs suddenly collapsed looking very poorly indeed.  There seemed no reason for it – we couldn’t even blame the glorious weather for his sudden ill health.  He was unable to move with the flock as they grazed  and searching for a cool comfortable place for him to ‘pass away’ we put him into our garage overnight.  The next morning we were surprised to see that he seemed brighter but was unable to lift himself up onto his front feet so we had to think of another plan to give him some food.  Why don’t we use our tipi as a hospital?  Fortunately the tipi has been erected but has not been ‘furnished’ with matting and seating as yet this year so it makes a wonderful airy, sheltered, shady place for our ram lamb to graze and recuperate. Three days on he’s still with us hobbling around on his knees occasionally coming outside to graze our lawn.   The vet came to see him today and gave him some shots of vitamins to try to boost his energy – I don’t think he’s visited a tipi before when he’s been asked to treat poorly animals!

After years of being a scruffy old farmyard, our gardens at East Jordeston are developing into wonderful landscaped areas around our cottages and it’s such a treat to receive compliments from our visiting guests.  We also have lots more bees, butterflies and birds visiting which is great for the biodiversity and improves our environment for our visitors.

However, we also have areas of pasture around the perimeter of our farmstead which are grazed by our small flock of Jacob sheep.  Although the sheep and lambs are usually contained in the paddocks away from the cottage terraces and shrub borders, a few weeks ago while we were out for the day one of our guests caught the flock ‘redhanded’ while they munched their way through the fresh spring shoots on our plants!  They had leaned against a gate from their field which had opened and allowed them free access to the cottage terraces where they ‘pruned’ away to their hearts content!  Of course it wasn’t in Andrea’s remit to act as ’shepherdess’ while we were not around – she simply found it a cute picture.   Thanks Andrea for sending me the images and yes Bronwen, looking at the camera – you know you’re being naughty!

Our small flock of Jacob sheep have just had their annual haircut! Lucky them as this weekend summer seems to have arrived from no-where!  Over the winter they grow a long thick woolly coat which is removed by David of the aptly named ‘Caring Shearing’ and after the event they look more like goats than sheep!  We now have enough wool collected over a few years to have woven into luxurious blankets and throws for use in our cottages and also for guests who wish take back as a cuddly memory of their stay with us in Pembrokeshire.

Guests seek out our cottages for more reasons than a holiday  getaway.  Recently we’ve had honeymooners, special milestone get togethers like 40th, 50th and 6oth birthdays (where did all those years go!), pre-wedding get aways and even a group who met at anti-natal class 21 years ago.  What a double celebration this year will be for those ladies who all have offspring turning 21!

I couldn’t miss the opportunity of posting a picture of our cottage, Crofty, decorated up for a recent 40th wedding anniversary – how fortunate that it already has a luscious red theme!  Mr & Mrs Hefin Jones were ‘over the moon’ about their short break just before Easter with their family – they even floated a heart shaped lantern up into the starry night sky.  Ah…. how romantic and one for the memory bank!   Thanks for the photo Angie – it was great to have you with us!

Those of us who work in tourism in Pembrokeshire are delighted to hear that out of 45 Blue Flag awards given to beaches in the whole of Wales, the highest number, 13,  have been awarded to beaches in our beautiful county of Pembrokeshire!
We are very proud that our county usually tops this Welsh league and it proves that if part of a reason to visit Wales is for our wonderful coastline then guests can do no better than choose Pembrokeshire for it’s clean, safe beaches.

The three glorious sandy beaches of Tenby (4 miles away from our cottages) have all been awarded blue flags so East Jordeston is in a good position to boast a favourable location for a holiday in Pembrokeshire at any time of year.  This image shows the 1.5 miles of Tenby south sands leading to Castle beach.  Click the image to get a better view.

It’s not often that we like to post sad news but our friendly cat, Jinx had to be put to sleep yesterday after 14 wonderful years of ‘lording the manor’ at East Jordeston.  I know that many of our regular guests will miss his welcome when they arrive at their cottages.  They’ll miss him popping up on their window cills to say good morning and fussing around in his friendly manner.

We have always said that he had the most magical life at East Jordeston and was lucky to be ‘rescued from the rescue’ from where we brought both Jinx and his much weaker sister to live with us.  He’s seen many changes at East Jordeston over the years, has seen lots of guests come and go and almost always got glowing comments in the guest books!  What am I going to say to ‘new’ guests who ask ‘Where’s this Jinx everyone writes about?’  Ah well… c’est la vie.   Lots of happy memories.