Christmas Dinner

Christmas can be an expensive time and this year it has been particularly so. We haven't spent a lot on presents and I even managed to keep the catering down to fairly sensible proportions but I have spent loads on bird food. It has been so very cold and snowy for such a long time. How could I look out my warm and cosy living room window, while tucking into my second box of chocolates, and watch birds like this poor crow wading through the snow late in the day. Of course I have had to put out copious amounts of food for the garden wildlife.

On some days it has been like Piccadilly Circus with birds coming and going from the feeders. They have all got on very well with each other except for the pigeons. They haven't been aggressive with the other birds, just amongst themselves and I have seen some awful bullying going on. One pigeon repeatedly stood on another one pecking savagely at it. Then it would fly away only to return a few moments later to lay into the same bird again. I didn't know pigeons could be so nasty but I guess in extreme weather it's everyone for themselves.

Friendly Robin has been bobbing around outside the patio doors each morning, waiting for his breakfast. He seems to be surviving his second winter very well and looks fat, healthy and happy (not surprising with the gourmet food he's been dining on:)

A good number of pheasants have now made themselves at home in the garden thus avoiding the Boxing day shoot:)))) They are so intelligent as birds go and quick to become tame. If they see a movement from within the house they run over to the window making little chirping noises. Needless to say I have a big tub of grain at the ready to throw out the window for them. One of them has also found the small bird's bird table and regularly wedges herself in it to finish off anything that friendly robin has left behind. How can anyone enjoy shooting these lovely birds or any other living thing come to that.

As well as being expensive with food it has also been a busy Christmas as, with snow on the ground, the ponies have needed hay every day as well as having the ice removed from their trough and their water topped up. The hay and water have to be carried over to them so it is heavy work and time consuming but very rewarding when we are greeted with a whinny of welcome from a hungry pony and a lovely way to start Christmas morning:))))))

We also have some additional sheep to check. They are on a site in a beautiful nearby valley. It is quite a walk to get to them but their hay and water is in the wonky barn so we haven't needed to carry it to them. The site they are on goes steeply up the side of the valley and was very slippery in the snow but thankfully most of the snow thawed last night so today's visit was easier. I am looking forward to seeing what wild flowers and butterflies there are at this site in the summer. It also looks like there are some good place for reptiles too.

Finally, I was looking in 'Culpepper's Complete Herbal' (a Christmas present to myself) and found that back in 1653, when his book was first published, Dr Culpepper suggests Holly berries to, 'purge the body of gross and clammy phlegm'....yuk...I wouldn't recommend it though, if you are one of the many suffering with a bad cough this Christmas, as I think Holly berries may be poisonous. On the other hand if you are suffering with a bad case of, 'worms that breed in the ear' you should be ok with a dose of Sage...lol. I love this book but I am so pleased I didn't live in the 1600's:)))))

Happy New Year to everyone.

Spring has Sprung

The lambs are bleating on the hill, the bees are buzzing on the crocuses and at last the frogs have started croaking in the ponds..oh and the sun is still shining..hooray spring has sprung :-)

I love this time of year as it fills me with feelings of anticipation and this year more so than usual as we have the new area of SSSI land to watch over as it starts to unfold its previously hidden flora and fauna. Every time we check the ponies now we notice new shoots sprouting up. The ponies have done and are still doing an excellent job of eating the unwanted rough grass and scrub. It has been a hard winter for them but as you can see from this photo of Tivy looking the picture of health, they have come through it very well.

Sadly the sheep have now been moved so we will not be stock checking them until they are returned again, probably in the late summer. I will miss my tickle sessions with Rambo but it's another place where it will be interesting to see which wild flowers appear. I am dreading the day when they move the ponies as I will miss them so much. I keep thinking about getting a pony/horse of my own but I am not sure I can really afford it.

I have now put the fleece that I collected from the sheep's field around the garden for the birds to use for their nests but so far I haven't seen any takers. It is perhaps still a bit early. Friendly robin and partner have now been joined by a blackbird who is also getting quite friendly and is usually waiting with the robins in the Elderberry for me to restock the bird table in the morning.

Luckily my cat, Lizzy, at 19 years old, is past the age of wanting to catch birds and is just happy to sit in the sun watching them flutter around. It is strange how the birds seem to know that she is not a threat to them anymore. I have seen the same in Namibia where springbok will sometimes happily graze really close to resting lions and it is this body language that Monty Roberts (horse whisperer) uses when working with horses.

Sunny Days

I have at last got round to cleaning up the fish ponds and have been rewarded with the fish making an appearance to bathe in the warmth of the sun. Despite the freezing temperatures we've had this winter I have only lost two fish and one of those was very old. As I stood on the bridge admiring my tidy pond, I was surprised to count 4 new baby fish that had also survived the hard winter. I really don't want anymore fish as I already have too many (that is why we've ended up with two fish ponds) but I can't help enjoying watching them grow especially when they start to develop their colours. We only bought 5 fish when we built the first pond but from that 5 we now have well over 30 fish and two ponds. We also have a wildlife pond but for some reason the frogs prefer to spawn in the fish ponds.

The birds in the garden have also been very busy and I am pleased to see friendly robin seems to have a mate. I have already seen the pigeons collecting bits for nest building so it won't be long before the other birds are at it too. When we do our sheep check I have been gathering some of the fleece that is caught on the brambles and trees. I have then cleaned and dried it in the green house ready to put out around the garden for any birds wanting a cosy, warm nest.

It has made such a change to do the stock checks in the sun. On Friday it was so lovely when we visited the ponies that my husband and I sat on a fallen tree trunk for a while to enjoy the warmth of the sun. Tivy and Rufus who were grazing close by came over to investigate what we were doing. Rufus was too timid to come very close but Tivy spent about 30 mins investigating us. As a small pony I don't think he had ever seen the top of a human head before as he kept smelling our hair which had been freshly washed that morning. Bit of luck we hadn't used apple scented shampoo :-)

New Year Cheer

I am so pleased that we are nearly in 2010... I love the feeling of new beginnings...baby birds, spring flowers and sunshine...all just a few months away:-)

I found I didn't have much festive spirit this year despite a liberal intake of whisky...Christmas is just such hard work. I think that everyone had a good time though and my mother was pleased with a present of a new bird table. This turned out to be a bonus for me as, when we collected her old one for disposal, we found that it was only the table part that was irretrievably rotten so my husband set to work and made a new top. He had a bit of trouble finding wood strong enough on the old roof to fix the new supports...hence they are a bit wonky, but I now have a proper bird table.

My friendly robin is very pleased as no longer will his grubs blow away before he eats them all. Also, at last there is somewhere for me to feed the blackbirds (they don't like my hanging table as it swings about and because of a visiting cat, it is too dodgy to put food on the ground).

I have positioned it on the bank away from the other feeders so now, when I am sitting in my favourite armchair, I can see the bird table from one window and the hanging feeders from the other...just as well I have my stock checking duties otherwise I would be sitting there all day.

Now the snow has gone the stock checking is done wading along paths of mud. Everything looks rather dull and grey but on closer inspection there are a few shoots of new growth here and there, the birds are happily searching out food and the rabbits are able to dig for juicy roots again. The damp has also brought out some beautiful shades on the tree stumps left after the scrub clearance. It doesn't matter how dull the weather there is always something good to look at in nature...even so I can't wait for spring :-)

Happy Wishes for the New Year

Spring

Spring is such a nice time of year. There is so much new life, so many new plans and anything and everything seems possible with the summer ahead. I love hanging out the washing and hearing the skylarks high above me and the lambs calling on the hill and feeling the warmth of the sun on my back but I have to do this before 9 o'clock as this is when Biggin Hill Airport comes alive and then the lovely country sounds are interrupted by noisy planes taking off.

Unfortunately spring has its sad moments too. A young dog fox that left its family home down the valley to make way for new cubs and that we often see in or near our garden has been injured. He is quite mobile so there is little I can do to help him as I don't think he could be caught. I will just keep an eye out for him and hope he recovers on his own...maybe I'll put a bit of cat food out to make his life a little easier while he is poorly. Then, this morning while I was watching the fox, a fledgling bird flew into our window and died. Very sad as it was probably on its maiden flight. We don't often have birds flying into the windows anymore since I have stuck fluorescent butterflies on them but I guess this little bird hadn't quite learnt to control his direction.

Another nice part of spring is being able to move the seedlings out of the greenhouse and into the veg patch. The veg garden is really my husband's province but after temporarily taking over last year while he was decorating our bedroom I found I quite enjoyed aspects of it. The trouble is, just like my cooking, I have no idea of quantity and plant far too much so like last year the greenhouse is fit to burst and I don't think it will all fit into the veg patch. We have therefore decided that to make more room we will put some of the more robust vegetables amongst the plants in the flower bed and the purple kale will definitely be one that goes there as when it goes to seed it produces an abundance of very attractive flowers.

I have just come back from a walk down to the SSSI area of chalk downland that was cleared using heavy farm machinery at the beginning of the year and it is a complete mess. Needless to say most of the hawthorn is re-growing. I was told that English Nature had paid £25,000 to have this work done!