Tag Archives: spring

Back to Basics

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All these specialist bird reserves are alright, but today it was time for a trip back to the duck pond. It’s not as exciting as reedbeds and saltmarsh, but you can pull in a visit between getting a new watch battery and buying the ingredients for meatballs instead of making a full day of it.

I haven’t been for a couple of weeks and it seemed emptier today, with no gulls and only a couple of Tufted Ducks instead of the normal 20 or 30. There were five pairs of Greylag geese, which is more than usual, though I doubt there is room for five nests on the island.

The Mandarin Duck was there again today, following the geese around. I’ve never seen him with a female so he may be lonely.

Moorhen and Yellw Flag shoots
Pigeons!
Mallard drinking from puddle
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That, apart from the numbers, seems to be the main difference – they now seem to operate in pairs more than they have been. Apart from the pigeons. They just seem to operate as a mob, and as soon as I even thought of feeding anything they gathered like vultures using ESP. They can’t, of course, read my mind. If they could they wouldn’t be so keen to get that close to me.

The pictures include a Mallard drinking from a puddle at the side of the pond (presumably on the grounds that he knows what ducks do in ponds) and a Moorhen standing beside the shoots of yellow flags, one of the few signs of spring produced by plants in the park. The landscape shot uses the “Dramatic” setting, which could equally be called the “Dark”setting.

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“Dramatic” photograph

 

Hospital,taxis and optimism

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What did I do today?

I’m having difficulty working it out, to be honest. I did spend several hours in hospital having tests and filling in forms. I was also weighed, bled and patronised. The good news is that I am lighter than I was when I was weighed before Christmas and I will be able to replace the blood. As for the rest of it, they probably interpret it as me being irascible and curmudgeonly. They aren’t wrong.

The diagnosis is that I’m riddled with poor health, if not actually at Death’s door, and I need lots more pills, tests and treatment. This is strange, as I’m feeling pretty good and doing more exercise, so you’d think I was OK. It’s just that if you give doctors equipment they are going to look for a reason to use it.

Worst bit of the day was the taxi service. Their new automated system locked me out twicwe and I ended up being late, which raised my heart rate and blood pressure despite my best efforts.

On the way back it cost me more than the journey to hospital. I’m not sure why this should be, maybe it costs more going up hill.

The photos are from last year, just to remind us of what is to come. Unless you’re in the Southern hemisphere.

Comma
Peacock on the roof
Red Admiral
Ringlet
Day Lily
Grasshoppers
Mint Moth
Poppies in wheat field
Puffin and Kittiwake
Wild flowers

 

 

 

Spring has sprung

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I’m finally confident that spring is here, though I’m still waiting to see how good it will be.

I had an errand to run in North Nottinghamshire today – the car temperature gauge rose as high as 21.5 degrees C and there was no wind. It was so nice I actually took off a layer of clothing. Even now at 6.30 pm the farm weather station is showing 19 degrees.

Add that to multiple swallow sightings and an increase in butterflies (one Orange Tip, two Brimstone, a Small Tortoiseshell and I lost count of the whites) and it’s a definite step up in quality of days.

One creepy thing that happened this morning was that when I switched Google on it was showing birthday cakes. Nothing too creepy there, I admit, but when I clicked to see who was having a birthday it turned out to be me. That’s just a little bit too much marketing for my taste. I half expect to turn on to a picture of a corpse and find the message “Google knows what you did last summer , Simon”. Not that have I killed anyone, but having a major search engine wish you a happy birthday is a strange sensation.

Today, in the photographs, I’m going for a cuteness overload. And a picture of good weather.

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401!

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As I published the last post I noticed that it was my 400th. I’d been looking forward to it when I was in the 380s and didn’t seem to be getting much closer. Then I wrote it and missed it! It’s not that I have any erudite observations on the number 400, but it does make the title easier.

Only another 99 to the next milestone and , as I get more casual about blogging, probably no milestone for 500 after that. I wonder if I will find myself linking back to this blog when I reach 500, or even 1,000?

Of course, once you start thinking about number of posts you also have to start thinking about the quality of the content. At that point I have to face up to the fact that what was meant to be an intelligent and focussed blog about Care Farming and sustainability has turned out to be something of a miscellany.

Julia has just read this over my shoulder. I take it from the muttered “rag bag” that she thinks the term “miscellany” may be a little charitable.  This just goes to show that it’s true that behind every successful man there is a woman muttering abuse.

They say that no man is a hero to his valet (well, not so much now, but they used to say it when they had valets) but how much more is that true of wives?

Anyway, back to work.

I’ve put the Guinea Fowl at the top of the post because the photo made me smile and because they haven’t been mentioned much lately. However, that’s the only mention they will be getting in this post.

I now have all the permission slips I need so next week we will be launching personal pages for the group.  It’s a while since I put a new page on the site and it could be a lengthy process as I do it and then correct it…etc. However, when it’s done it will give everyone  a chance to talk about what they like doing and give friends and family an insight into what we do here.

Jody gave us a talk on trees before lunch, with a power point presentation and some tree-themed cards. It was quite interesting though if you look at the photos you may see one of the group is finding it less than gripping. I will mention no names.

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After that we had gardening to do and spoon scarecrows to make Yes, it’s that time of year again – watch this space for details of our long range virtual spoon scarecrow competition (though I may have to do something about the name before launching it).

Then one of the neighbours appeared, driving a goose and seven goslings he had found proceeding up Lodge Lane. It isn’t very busy, but it still wasn’t the best place to take goslings. We are going to have to have  a serious look at the fence.

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Finally, one of the remaining ewes has given birth. She was one of a small but stubborn group that seems determined to hold on to their lambs until the summer. Hopefully the last three will take the hint.

We have had swallows and a couple of Large Whites fluttering about (the butterfly, not the pig breed) so with a bit of sun it has had all the makings of a lovely spring day, if only the cold breeze would stop.

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Friday

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I’ve now caught up with myself.

First call today was the dentist for my regular check up and to let him look at my broken tooth.  It’s been a problem for over 30 years and a three weeks ago, after Julia treated me to some of my favourite sweets (sugared almonds), it finally disintegrated.  I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand it’s been aching on and off for five years or so, and gradually crumbling for the last year, so it will be a relief to get rid of it. On the other hand, apart from wisdom teeth, It’s the first adult tooth I’ve lost and it seems like a big step towards senile decrepitude.

I may not actually be standing on the crumbling edge looking down into the grave, but I’m getting close.

It has been smoothed off, and in 15 days it will be removed.

“Do you bleed a lot?” asked the dentist.

“No,” I replied, “but I am a coward.”

He laughed. I think he thought I was joking.

We saw two Brimstones and an unidentified white butterfly as we travelled to the farm, though there were none when we arrived because it’s cold and windy again today. We have had a lot of birds in trees by the roadside, including bullfinches (presumably after the buds) and greenfinches, which we don’t see often. Looking at some photographs from yesterday I see I have a good photo of two pied wagtails in the field with the sheep. I hadn’t noticed them at the time and they are, unfortunately, too small to show up in blog-sized photographs.

Julia went to Men in Sheds when we arrived, whilst I started looking for instructions on how to take my camera apart. I only found one, and that showed how to replace  a screen, which doesn’t show enough of the interior for me to feel confident about mending it myself.

Repair charges start at £30, and that is for much simpler jobs. I have a feeling we are looking at £50 plus and in the end I will have a clean sensor but the rest of the faults such as a scratched screen and intermittent fault with the zoom action will still be with me.

Time to do some thinking.

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Julia, meanwhile, emerged from the Shed with a big smile on her face. Phase One of her mysterious plan is going into action. It involves pink paint and plywood, but I can say no more.

 

The first day of Spring – again

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For the second time this year we have had the first day of Spring. It was actually yesterday (Sunday 20th march) but for some reason I had the 21st stuck in my mind.

This time it’s astronomical Spring rather than an arbitrary calendar date, as it’s the time of the Spring Equinox. From now on the days will be longer than the nights. Next weekend we put the clocks forward and move onto the optimistically named British Summer Time.

Lambing starts in six days, though we had a good look at the sheep by the side of the lane this morning as they are not quite as accurate as the calendar.

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Another day, another meeting

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I may have used that title before. I may even have moaned about meetings before. 😉

Today, I’m not going to waste another thought on negative things. There will always be meetings, and there is nothing I can do about it. But, using my new meditation techniques, I can imagine that I am in a summer meadow with the droning of bees in the background.

As long as I don’t (a) get caught out by a question or (b) snore this technique makes meetings a lot more bearable.

It’s the First Day of Spring (or the first First Day of Spring – there’s a second First Day of Spring on 21st March), it’s 13 degrees Centigrade outside (about 10 better than yesterday) and though the weather is a bit squally it’s somehow more springlike than it was a week ago.

There’s a wren on the verandah looking for a nest site and goldfinches on the feeder squabbling over the best perch. We have snowdrops, we have daffodils and we have blackthorn blossom.

We have quite a lot of flowers in fact, when I go for a walk round, but many of them are already suffering from the wind, which, as usual, is blasting across the fields.

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The vinca, which was one straggly piece bought for 50p from the bargain corner of a garden centre just two years ago is 4 feet across and contributed half a dozen cuttings last year, which are starting to fill out too.

I’m trying to see if I can get a photograph of a Peacock butterfly on a crocus again, as I did last year, but I fear it may be too windy this year.