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James and William had a fantastic afternoon out on Friday. We visited Boydells Dairy Farm at Wethersfield just the other side of Finchingfield. At many places you walk round reading the signs about what they do with the animals. Not at Boydells. There you get to do it all yourselves!

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We have had no substantial rain here since the beginning of March. I had a look in the diary just to check the other day and the last rain of any note that I recorded was 11mm on 3rd March. The ground is parched and the gardens need watering already.

So what does this mean for the donkeys? Well their electric fence is so much further across the field than normal at this time of year. They are grazing the bottom field this year near the river. (River? Well small stream that is just about running at the moment but always known round here as ‘the river’). I use an electric fence to divide off the field so that they don’t have too much grass at once to hopefully control the laminitis. But this year the fence is almost three-quarters of the way across the field - unheard of. In previous years they have needed no more than one third of the field all summer and then they gradually graze the rest of the field back over the latter part of the year - October/November. Usually they have grazed it all off by Christmas and we then have an electric fence free period for January/February before starting all over again in the top field.

But this year so far I’m still moving the fence back into fresh grass. Just a little bit each day keeps them going. I have a feeling that as soon as it rains that old grass is going to come springing back, Pru will be hopping about with sore feet and I will be bringing that fence way back again. In the mean time, its looking more like autumn rather than spring down there from the grass point of view.

The word pyrography comes from the Greek word ‘pur’, meaning fire, and ‘graphos’, meaning writing - fire-writing. It is literally the burning of patterns into wood with a hot poker or similar instrument and another name for pyrography is pokerwork.

It is one of the oldest forms of wood decoration and has been practised, probably since the discovery of fire itself. It was very popular during the 17th century in Europe when it was used to decorate small wooden items. Later it became fashionable to decorate larger furniture with painted and burnt wood panels.

An early Victorian pyrography tool kit would have comprised a portable charcoal pot or store, perforated all the way round near the top by a series of holes into which painted pokers with varying shaped ends were inserted for heating in the hot charcoal held inside.

Towards the end of the Victorian era, gas and electric stoves and furnaces were introduced along with platinum topped pokers.

In the early 1900s a soldering-iron type of tool was developed. Now Susan uses a ‘hot wire’ pyrography machine with thermostats to control the heat.

Susan became interested when a friend showed her a decorated fire screen which she had done with a red hot poker. She has worked with children who were interested in having a go at burning their names in wood - up to 60 in one class! And she has done demonstrations for many local groups.

Susan finds the best woods to use are beech, sycamore or oak. Pine tends to be too soft.

To find out more about pyrography have a look at the Pyrography wiki.

Are you looking for an unusual gift? A special birthday, house warming or wedding perhaps? The one of Susan’s hand-crafted designs could be just the thing you are looking for.

Have the wedding church engraved on a rolling pin or board. Designs for celebrating the birth of a new baby, wedding, birthday or anniversary - all can be catered for! Contact Susan now for a really special gift.

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