Time is flying by

Drat, it’s raining again. Note the use of the word “again”. Imagine it six-foot high in neon lights. Hmph.

Sorry it’s been quiet here of late – I am around, just shattered. After months and months of no work, I could (if I wanted) work 40/50 hours a week. I don’t, so I’m sticking to a neat 36. Or 38, as this week’s total will be. Maybe 39…

It wouldn’t be so bad, only I don’t start until 6pm and I’m working 6 days a week. And then have to get up the next morning to do the animals. I’ve pushed my alarm clock back an hour to 7am and some mornings, I reset it for 7.30!

The end result is that I’m tired and simply can’t think of anything blog-worthy. Well, that’s not true, there’s loads to write about, I just can’t seem to put pen to paper, as it were.

Normal service will resume soon. I hope!

In the meantime, the pigs, chickens, dogs and cats are all healthy and happy … apart from the rain. They’re not happy about that. Join the club!

Mobile themes for WordPress.com

I’ve just seen this on my WordPress.com dashboard:

As technology advances, mobile devices are playing a bigger role in our lives. Thousands of you have been using the iPhone and Blackberry applications to post and edit content for your blog, and over 60 million page views a month of WordPress.com blogs have been on mobile devices. New smartphones do a great job with most web sites, but older phones have many problems and may not display anything at all.

Today we’re launching a couple of mobile themes that will automatically be displayed when your blog is accessed with a compatible mobile phone.

The first theme is a modification of WPtouch and will be displayed to phones with modern web browsers like those on the iPhone and Android phones. The second theme was developed from an older version of the WordPress Mobile Edition and will be displayed to all other mobile devices.

Read more here

So there you go. If you view my blog on your mobile, things should look better or load faster, depending on how modern and funky your phone is!

New theme: Freshy

Yes, you’ve read that right (and spotted it, if you’re a regular visitor to my blog, rather than just a feed reader)… Once again, I’ve changed the look, this time using the Freshy theme.

For some reason, the Ocean Mist theme wasn’t displaying properly, so I thought a change was in order.

The current header image is cropped from this photo, taken at sunset last night:

Sunset over my field - 16 September 2009

I love this time of year, especially when we’re lucky enough to have such good weather.

How things change in a year!

Today is my blog’s first birthday and the 12 months since I sat with Jennie in her sitting room setting up the blog seem to have flown by. So much so, that it’s only by looking back at the photos from the past year that I’m reminded of how much has happened and changed in the last year.

As you’d expect (I hope!), for me, those changes are best illustrated by the impact that the pigs and I have had on the field.

This is how it looked when I drove down to south Wales one rainy day last August to build the pig arks before moving the herd down:

Jo (and Snipe!) hard at work building a pig ark - 22 August 2008

Now, that part of the field looks like this:

The field - 27 August 2009

I know I haven’t completely eradicated the Himalayam Balsam or the bracken, but we’re getting there!

I just can’t get over the difference a year makes. Well, one year and an immeasurable amount of hard work… It feels good

1,000 comments!

Congratulations (and thanks!) to Suzy for posting the 1,000th comment on my blog!

Yes, I know that many of those 1000 comments are by me, and that the total also includes several trackbacks, but even so… 1000!

As a prize, I’ve decided to award Suzy with a bar of Cadbury’s fair trade chocolate that Jennie blogged about the other day. Suzy, email me your address and I’ll send it over to you!

Thanks to everyone who has voiced their thoughts on my posts and musings… I wish I could afford to send you all some chocolate!

Looking for a good web host!

I’m getting really frustrated with the limitations of wordpress.com, specifically the fact that I can’t tinker with the look and layout of the themes.

I’ve stuck with them as, 99% of the time, they offer a great blogging tool, not to mention the fact that it’s free, but, of late, the theme problem has really been getting to me.

In short, I really need to get serious about finding a cheap but reliable web host, not to mention a suitable domain.

The following hosts have been recommended to me:

• Fat Cow
• eShire
• Square Space

Does anyone have any other recommendations? Ideally, I’d like a UK company, but for a really good host, I’d be happy to ship my cash overseas.

Also, as I mentioned above, I also need a domain name. Most of the ones linked to “bring me sunshine” have been taken, so alternative suggestions are needed!

Get your thinking hats on!

Ocean Mist theme!

I promise this is the last time, but I’ve changed the theme again… I’ve remembered an extremely good reason why I don’t like the non-customisable wordpress.com version of the MistyLook theme (though I love the theme in general) and so have opted for the Ocean Mist theme, using the same header image that I did for MistyLook.

MistyLook theme!

I’m sure you’ve all got better things to do, but just in case you’re wondering, I’m now using the MistyLook theme instead of this morning’s change to the iNove theme. And, just for Lec, the header image was taken on 30 May of this year and is of the view at the bottom of the field, looking over the tree line:

The farm - 30 May 2009

iNove theme

A few days ago, WordPress.com announced the introduction of a new theme: iNove.

As you know, I like to chop and change the features and look of my blog on a regular basis, so although it’s only got one sidebar, and my usual preference is for two, I thought I’d give it a go.

Thoughts?

Looking back at (a sunny) July 2008

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo so I thought I’d post some photos from last year, back when the sun was something warm, comforting and familiar, not a distant memory like it has been this July!

Midge - 1 July 2008

Bailey and Queenie - 4 July 2008

Brini - 20 July 2008

Captain Flint and pals - 20 July 2008

Harold and family - 21 July 2008

Scrumpy, Tia, Stella and Brusco - 22 July 2008

Snipe, Midge and Teal - 29 July 2008

The view from Mum's front gate - 29 July 2008

Maybe August will see the sun return – and with it, my blogging inspiration!