The Arrival Of The Scout

3 days earlier than last year, the first lone Swallow has arrived on his scouting mission. The rest started to arrive about 4 days after the lone scout last year, so we'll keep our eyes peeled on Tuesday!

A Genius at Work

Glorious spring weather, reaching 19 degrees today. What a day to be outside. After riding out this morning, I spent the afternoon faffing in the garden. The village puddle is keeping me well out of Husbands way, as he cracks on and plants more veg. I did give him a hand planting the tates for what it's worth!

Fingers Crossed

We're not convinced that this isn't just Blue Tits narrowing down their short list of potential new homes.



But we have been getting regular trips to, in and out of the nest box for about four weeks now. First spotted by Mum and Dad when they were visiting while we were in Lincolnshire.

There has been a lot of work on the entrance, and sometimes there is a lot of banging about inside. Laying carpets perhaps?


All we can do is watch, and wait with our fingers crossed.

Red Is The Colour

We have had fleeting visits from the odd Red Poll through the winter, though now is the time we started to see them regularly last year. True to form we have started to see a pair over the last few days. One male and one female. Tonight however, we had two males for a change - and I had my camera to hand too....




Also on the theme of Red, this time last year we had routine visits from a pair of Red Legged Partridge, who went on to rear young (we assume) as we had two different coveys through the summer, one of 4 and one of 17. Anyway. Monsieur et Madame are back in their old breeding territory and paying us a visit each evening at the moment

Windy Wall

A couple of days of showers (heavy ones!) and winds of around 18mph, gusting to 30mph. Little can be done in the way of proper gardening, but sorting out the edges of the new 'Village Puddle' has kept us out of mischief.
First the turf at the far side needed lifting, then the slabs on top of the wall needed to come off. The hardest of all though is building the wall on the right hand side, as this needs to be higher than it was, in order to get the levels right.
Fortunately we have an endless supply of very local, free walling stone. Sadly though it doesn't come supplied with a dry stone wall expert.

Social life stopped play eventually, but a bit more playing around at the far end, and it should be OK.
Plenty more work to do on the inside of the puddle, but it is beginning to look something like we planned.
Oh and just by way of recording, we had the first of this seasons Rhubarb last night!

Wildlife in February and March! Better Late Than Never.

I'm a bit behind. I didn't get chance to update the list for February before we hot footed it to Lincolnshire at the beginning of March, and since then it's been non stop riding, gardening, racing and socialising. Life's a beach!

More Digging

While Husband digs over both Vegetable plots, I start digging elsewhere. A project which had been planned for the autumn, but never happened thanks to the weather. With the forecast predicting a breakdown in the current dry spell for tomorrow, I was keen to get this job well on the way before that happened.
So having planted one lot of broad beans (the others are in the cold frame getting a head start as they are going into a colder bed) and two varieties of parsnip; Husband helped me with the digging in the later stages. Ferrying soil away as I battled with rather large stones to try to get below the 3 feet deep target. Once that deep, it was time to do battle with the liner....

Once in place all that remained for today was to fill with water and leave it to settle for a day or two.

Now it can rain!

When in Hole

Husband spent the day digging on Friday By the end of the day, it was beginning to look as though we may have found the first signs of the old village well. Then I spent the day digging today - mainly with a trowel as by this time the hole was pretty deep and confined; and the work was pretty delicate. Eventually, with a hole that was about 4ft deep and similar in other directions, it turned out to be a medieval drain! We already knew that the house was built on the site of the medieval village, but it was pretty amazing to think how long this had remained in place.

Somehow a stone drain 4 ft in the ground, complete with part of an old bedstead, won't make quite the same feature the well would have done, so two days digging and about half an hour to fill the hole in again!

We'll leave the well for another day.

Spring is Sprung

In time for husbands birthday and 13 days earlier than last year - we finally have our first daffs out in the garden.

Well, Well, Well

Husband has been working his socks off again. This time digging tree stumps. We have taken the odd conifer down in the front garden, but at some point, some pretty large ones have been removed and the stumps left in place.



After a huge amount of digging, chopping, swearing and cursing, two big stumps were finally cleared, leaving two nice holes in the ground. We are pretty sure that the well, which we know was in the front garden and was filled in when the house was built, is in this area. Enough digging for one day, but the excavations will continue....
Meanwhile, I was busy demolishing the bed next to the drive. Removing turf (which is being used elsewhere) to widen it, removing hostas, heathers etc which were in the wrong place and had outgrown it anyway, and planting some new shrubs which we were kindly given by friends last back end.


We still have a lot to do, but it is beginning to feel as though it is our garden now. We are also really chuffed that we have done everything so far by recycling materials that were already in the garden; most of which are naturally occurring stone, plants and soil. Turf has been moved from A to B (and keeps moving. We have not thrown money at anything - except a few plants, and we feel that it is now turning into a garden that fits into the natural surroundings far more than it did when we moved in.

First Gardening of the Year

Finally we have some gardening weather. The ground is plenty wet enough - in fact the heaviest clay areas of the garden are still seriously wet, but at last the plants that I was given from Mum and Dad's garden, plus a couple that were bought last back end but never got planted due to weather, finally make it into the new bed in the back garden.

There is not much to show for our efforts in this area, as spring hasn't really got going here yet. No daffs flowering yet and the plants that went in in the back end are only just waking up. That said, when we look back at the changes we have made, we think we can be pleased with the progress.


We inherited some very urban patios and a couple of rockery beds which were colourful for a few weeks of the year and bare the rest of the time.
The patios both went a long time ago, and the rockery areas were removed, re levelled and restocked. Once the growing season really starts we should be able to see a marked difference.

The site of the old patio still has to be transformed - so watch this space on that.

Visiting Bungle And Ferdy

Our annual 'House, Horse, Dog and Cat Sitting' trip to Lincolnshire gave us chance to catch up with family and friends; in the company of our dear friends, Bungle and Ferdy.

Ferdy likes to show his appreciation of Extra Strong Mints


While Bungle just wants more mints. There was no way he was going to let me get my hands far enough from his nose to take a picture.


meanwhile, Husband was busy chain harrowing the paddocks. No, this wasn't a planned job, but with a completely dry week the conditions were ideal, so while Simon mowed, Sally gardened and did all their post holiday domestic jobs, husband and I went back to our roots!

Two Down

Remember this?




Well this is what it looks like now.....


Now we are finally all straight. Bathrooms are finished (though the sparkie still has to come and do some work in the garage - in theory tomorrow) and although we still have more decorating to do, we are taking a break from painting for a while so have packed all the stuff away and got our house back!

Sugar Beet?

With apologies to those who have really heard enough about beet this season. It seems a little ironic though that in the worst season for beet since way before my time; here we are in late February, digging parsnips which are bigger than many of the roots which get delivered to Newark!



The larger of the two weighed in at nearly one and a half pounds and measured more than 18". That will go very nicely with home grown broad beans and runner beans (out of the freezer obviously!)

If only the ground would dry up, we could start doing some prep work for this years veggie crops.

Ready for The Girls

Having finished the painting a few days ago, we have had a weekend off the decorating to wait for Gerry to come and fit the carpet.


It's hard to believe the difference from the pink to the slightly less offensive cream. I do hope Emma and Rosie like their new room - although something tells me they probably preferred it pink!

Once finished, in no time at all we had it crammed full of stuff from the back bedroom as we stripped that down ready for round two. No pink in here, just a really vile green with yellow woodwork.

.

Hopefully this will look a bit better soon as well

First Glimpse of Spring

What a beautiful day. After a wet night, it stopped raining about 7.30am, and within an hour it was wall to wall sunshine, all day long. It was enough to convince the crocus that it was finally time to open themselves up - just for the day mind.

The World's Original Marmalade Awards 2011

Of all the places in the World, where would you hold the Original Marmalade Competition? Dalemain in Cumbria of course. as it is only ten minutes from here, in aid of a very good cause and a certain Jane Hayward was desperate to know someone involved; I thought I might as well enter a jar. At least I can say that I have been in a World competition.



There you go Jane. I did it all for you!

My Favourite Colour

If pressed, I would probably say pink. although some days it's purple. Today it is definitely purple. Having spent the morning striping this wallpaper, and left looking at walls this colour, I think I may have started to overcome my pink obsession (i did say 'may')

Operation Puppy's Paws

In years to come, the memory of just how awful Hyperkeratosis of the feet is for Hattie will no doubt fade, so I thought it would be interesting to have a record. As most of you know, poor Hattie has to go through a monthly operation to control the excess growth on her feet. This is something that would normally done by the vet, but due to the scale of her problem and hence the frequency that it is required, we do it ourselves (in agreement with Gary our Vet). This at least saves her the stress of monthly, day long veterinary visit, not to mention the costs that it would incur. That said, it is still very stressful for her and requires sedation.
After giving her a sedative, we then go for a bit of a walk somewhere wet (not difficult at the moment) to get her feet softened. Then 45 minutes after the sedative, we start work


Even with a well doped dog, it is still very much a two man job. Even then, she struggles relentlessly throughout.
Hair grows on and between the pads, and as much as possible that needs trimming back so that we can see what we are doing. Her claws grow at such a rate that with just a months growth, it is starting to curl under her toe. So having trimmed the hair on a foot, it is then a question of trimming her claws - up to 1cm off each one, each month.
Then we have to set about each pad, removing all the excess growth. This is what a foot looks like before any attention - the hair is hiding an awful lot of pad growth.

Four feet later, a lot of bribery in the form of milky treats, and three stressed out individuals we are left with a lot of Hattie bits on the floor and a very sleepy dog for the rest of the day (even more sleepy than normal!).



The one positive is that we won't have to go through that for another four weeks.

February Filldyke

Not only have we been battered by winds of up to around 70mph on and off all this week, February has been living up to it's reputation of being a wet month.

Rainfall so far this month has been:
1st = 0mm
2nd = 18mm
3rd = 18mm
4th = 43mm
5th = 11mm
6th = 28mm
That's the best part of 5" already, it was siling down all morning today and after a brief glimpse of fine weather this afternoon - it's just starting to rain again!

The Final Furlong

At last, we are starting to get the house back together. Gerry arrived as planned on Saturday, and we now have new flooring in the hall





As well as the bathroom



Lots of sorting, tidying and cleaning done today, lots more to do, and then we can start decorating all the bedrooms. Deep Joy!

In Days Gone By

It all looks rather different now.....