Deptford Goats

I keep going on about those goats. I really must write about them now. I saw them one day recently when we found ourselves cycling past just exploring Deptford, (which was well worth exploring).  We were struck by how incongruous the farm-like scenes were against the backdrop of Canary Wharf - the contrast between big, glossy, corporate and grown-up life, and domestic,child-friendly and human (and animal) scale life.

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Some happy ducks and their ducklings.

Ther farm has the usual cattle and larger animals

(including the goats).  Oh, and there was a particularly interesting cow (below) which s a fake one.  The man man stayed there for a couple of hours, painting it :) .

There was a lot of artwork around the farm including some striking and artistic decorative railings made by a local blacksmith, Kevin Boys. He has a forge actually AT the farm, (click this link for more info) which must intrigue the kids when they get the chance to see him at work.  He wasn't working during our visit, and I wondered if perhaps that was him turning his hand to something different and painting the cow. .

I fell for the smaller animals and fowls. I wouldn't normally call a turkey. "handsome" but this one was in his own way and HE obviously thought so too, as he strutted around.

There were some charming ducks, rather hard to photograph because of their duck proof wire fence, but I got this one rooting in his plastic pond

And I got the babies all curled up together

Even the baby pigs were nice, and certainly very clean

The farm's offices and admin, cafe and people centre is a little wooden structure with a turf roof..  You'll see the wooden railings are decorated with great big cut out animals.   The leaders have their offices there and there seemed to be lots of people milling about - mums and toddlers, some kids on an outing from a local school, and a couple of people with learning difficulties who love to help on the farm.

I was touched and amused by the display of rosettes and prizes won by various animals, and also it seems by children who visit the farm regularly.  Here's a small selection which is kept behind glass in a display cabinet.

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There's also a cafe that is very casual (though clean) and it serves the most WONDERFUL wholefood at budget prices, as much as possible of it is home produced.  I had this delicious salad, with home made bread  that got me wanting to be more creative with the bread I make. There was also some spectacular cake afterwards, which I didn't photograph - maybe it got eaten too fast :)

You can see T's smoked salmon and egg bagel in the background, and he reckoned there were at least four eggs in it.    I had some mint tea made with a huge bunch of fresh mint and some lemon, like they do in the Middle East.  We ate in a kind of a greenhouse structure, which was just right for the weather, and I decided I would make a detour to go here for a meal if I was anywhere in the Deptford area again (postcode: SE16)

Apart from the food, it is great to be somewhere tucked away in the middle of the corporate, money-making world, which celebrates a more down to earth life.
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Vineyard Cultivation and An Interesting Blacksmith

During the recent trip to France I called by to see a blacksmith called M. Solon who makes agricultural implements. He's one of the few people in France who can still make by hand the specialist tools that people have been using to cultivate their vines for 1,500 years. He was particularly proud of this one. My French wasn't good enough to catch either the name or exactly how it was used, but he said it was for vineyards.

He won 50,000 Euros for making it in a competition and has decided to set up his workshop to train craftsmen in the old skills. I don't suppose they'll have to do a seven year apprenticeship or whatever he did, but I would imagine that he'd be interested in people who already have some metal-working skills. And, I suppose, who speak French, since he doesn't seem to speak any English.

He was a very slight and slender man, not a bit like the sort of blacksmith you imagine.

And just by the way he had one of the nicest shop doors I've seen - the handle is a beautifully crafted spade.