Om Nom Nom

Just me and Ted for Valentine's Day today as Rob is away all week on resettlement courses. Whilst I do miss him loads, I'm also pretty content with my own company - plus Ted is great fun to be with - so we potter along quite happily.

Today we stuck to our usual Saturday morning routine and headed into Salisbury for breakfast at the 'Spoon (Wetherspoons!). True to form, Ted ate all my sausage and beans, leaving me wishing I'd ordered a 'large' breakfast! We had a quick wander round town then stopped in at the local 'community farm' on the way home. It proved to be a bit of a disappointment (not many animals about!)...

When we got home we headed straight out for a walk, Ted on his balance bike, around the village. I find that if we are inside during the afternoon the TV ends up being turned on and before I know it he's watched hours of DVDs, so if it's not peeing with rain we try and get some fresh air. I'm glad we made the effort today because we quickly managed to trump our community farm experience as we passed a barn where a farmer was helping a tiny calf, born just a few hours previously. The calf wasn't feeding so was getting colder and weaker, and as we arrived they had tied up the mother to try and force the calf to latch onto a teat. In the meantime someone else had gone off to the local farm store to buy a bottle. Exhausted by its unsuccessful efforts the poor calf collapsed onto the hay where Ted got to stroke its head as we waited for the bottle. The farmer milked the mother and when the bottle arrived they managed to get about a litre of the warm colostrum into the calf. The difference was immediate and incredible - it staggered to its feet and went straight to its mother who was then fairly stressed and upset having been restrained for so long. We left them in peace to get to know each other, and hopefully sort out the feeding. The breastfeeding peer supporter in me was really feeling for them! I hope they manage to crack it tonight. Ted and I will pop back up tomorrow to check on them.