Days 698-701, 1-4 May '16, Goatwatch continues. As daft as it might sound, we really are in the middle of the Circle of Life here in Ireland. Chicks are being hatched and some make it (some don't). We try to have a Darwinistic/Survival of the fittest viewpoint. Stripey is now thriving. But it's not been an easy run. She was pooping like crazy shortly after she was born and, who'da thunk it, it was baby-s**t yellow. Daisy wasn't cleaning her (understandably)...

Days 695-698, 28 Apr-1 May '16, GOATWATCH! And then there were 4! Stripey is Born! In news from the 'circle of life' front, Daisy2 gave birth this morning and is now the proud mum of Stripey. We arrived just after Stripey debuted into the world at about 9.30 am and the pen was immediately inundated with dogs, cats and a chicken who decided to lay an egg in celebration. Having got rid of that lot we noticed that Stripey was particularly quiet for a new kid and we...

Days 687-694, 20-27 Apr '16, Tintern Abbey & The Colcloughs - We are in countryside heaven at the moment. We find that no matter where we go, everywhere has something special - be it the height of luxury (having a spa bath), a comfy king size bed, a fabulous TV with loads to watch via Netflix, a nice car or even a holiday home. And that's not counting when we have lovely animals to keep us company. It has occurred to us this past week that the fact that we...

Days 681-686, 14-19 Apr '16, Irish 'Homecoming' Dublin down to Enniscorthy, Caim (home) then Cahore (for the beach), We flew from Amsterdam on Thursday which was an experience in itself. Let's just say after the package scare at Amsterdam airport the other night and the recent incident in Brussells, security was very thorough indeed. With the 'automated' check-in and 'automated' bag drop (aka... chaos) and then super-security, it took us an hour and a half to ge...

Day 680, 13 Apr '16, Keukenhof - Tulip Mania! We have waited patiently for almost a month for the tulips to kick into gear. Well today was the day. We had planned an obscenely early start to avoid the hordes - but decided there was no actual rush and hordes wouldn't kill us. Eventually boarded the tram (step 1), jumped off at the Rijksmuseum (step 2), got on the 197 Airport Bus (full - chock-a-block - not an ounce of room for man nor luggage), though we got the...