Wildlife In June

New visitors in the garden this month are the Jay, a brief visit from a Garden Warbler and unfortunately a family of Magpies - that'll teach us to go away for a few days. We are busy doing our best to deter them.
Something that has not yet appeared on my records but should be there, are bats which fly around the front of the house in the evening. When (if) I manage to find out what type they are, I'll include them. We also have bank voles living in the front garden, but as I haven't actually seen them, it is a bit unfair to put them down. Much like the Red Squirrels which allegedly visit the front, but not when we are looking!

Other notable sights this month were a Peregrine Falcon flying overhead as we walked down the road in the village - only a hundred yards or so from home and a fly over one evening by a lone Goosander. Now that one needed looking up!

The Promise Of Things To Come

Since my first days as an agronomist, I have enjoyed this time of year with all the crops are at their best. Sadly I also know only too well, that a good looking crop does not necessarily mean a good yielding crop.
We have high hopes for the veggies - let's hope we are not going to be disappointed!
We were late planting our tates, so they are not quite ready for harvesting. The flower buds are there, but still tightly shut.
Lettuce, rocket and spinach have been feeding us for weeks; Red Beet is not far off giving us the first few baby roots; carrots and parsnips doing well; Broad Beans are just beginning to pod, leeks and cabbages are romping away. The first of the runners are just about at the top of the poles with the first flowers just beginning to show red buds. The first Courgettes are now about an inch long.
I guess to many this all sounds late, but up here in the hills, ours are as far ahead as most in the village.

Waiting for Mother Nature

Before...........



And After........



Finished in time for a visit by an ex colleague and his wife, on their way to the coast for a few days visiting relatives. A really good nights rain would be just the thing to start off the all important weathering it needs now to break it down and get it ready for future plans. A decent shower has arrived this afternoon. Lets hope it is a promise of things to come.

The F Word

England are playing Germany today in the Footie. Husband doesn't normally watch Footie, but as his back isn't up to anything too physical.........
A good opportunity to get on with the (ex)rocket launcher.
This time the rubble turned out to be less than expected, so after walking up to check on Tom - our neighbours horse who we are looking after for a few days - I set to and had it all dug out by lunch time. Return loading FYM to dig into it later (all that time spent dealing with haulage wasn't wasted).
After lunch I set to, digging the most appropriately named 'Bastard Trenches'.


This area was once part of a medieval village, since then it will have been permanent pasture for pretty much all it's life up until about 10 years ago when it became part of this garden as a lawn until it was paved. In other words, this has not been dug over in the history of post medieval man.
Clay, and at best Clay Loam, which is incredibly compacted and as a result completely anaerobic. Considering we have had only around 50% of this areas normal rainfall this year, it is incredibly wet. The addition of the organic matter will no doubt help to improve the soil structure, but all told, this afternoon was a good testament to the name of the method in use - and it's not finished yet!

The good news? Germany 4 England 1.
In the words of a song:

Coming home, we're coming home. Football(er)s coming home....

Domestic Goddess or Destruction Diva?

Only 174 shopping days left till Christmas(No I really haven't a clue, I made it up). It is however time to start the Christmas preparations as the first of the Elderflowers are ready for picking.
This years Elderflower Cordial will be even better than normal. This time, they were picked from our own drive.

Due to the popularity of this particular Christmas Pressie, I am determined to (try) to make more than one batch. Only one snag. I have forgotten to save wine bottles. Oh dear. There may need to be some serious drinking done in the next week or two to free some bottles up.

With Husband still on Light Duties due to his back problem, I decided to do a bit more in the garden this afternoon. The Rocket Launcher is no more............


Still plenty of hardcore to dig out and barrow round next door (it's great having neighbours who want all your rubble!), but at least all the pavers are up now.

Finishing Off.

After a brilliant few days in Lincolnshire, visiting old friends and being extremely well entertained at a friends 50th Birthday weekend, we returned with Husband sporting an extremely Bad back. Can't stand up without help, let alone tie his shoe laces.

Yesterday's trip to the Osteopath has yielded a slight improvement today, so as I am no longer required for every little task - and there is a game of footie on the telly to be avoided at all costs, I decided to finish an unfinished job in the garden.

Remember the two Rocket Launchers we inherited? You may remember that we took the first one up just after Christmas. What you didn't know was that a few weeks ago, in true 'Recycle' mode we relaid eight of the slabs in the front lawn to make a path from the front gate to the door. Not having quite enough slabs, we left the gate end unfinished, needing about 3 or 4 more slabs, when we finally get round to taking the other patio up.
After some considerably hot work ( it was another scorching day here), consultation with Husband about which shapes to put where and much help from Her Ladyship, the path is now complete. Well that is apart from the grass growing over the edged to disguise the strange shapes. I must point out that most of this was already done by both of us, I can't take the credit for it all on my own!

Did I mention it was hard work?

There is still a long way to go with the patio removal, but it will be nice to see the back of it.

By the looks of that sky, here comes the rain that we so desperately need.

Barton Fell

It was one of those mornings. Plans to spend time in the garden and do some housework. But it was beautiful outside, and we had a map on the worktop, just waiting for the right opportunity. We can see Barton Fell from the house, so now it's time to see the house from Barton Fell.
Setting out, we will walk off left of this picture over Heughscar Hill, along Highstreet to Arthur's Pike and then back onto Barton Fell. Our return route will be along the edge of Barton Fell, seen here on the left of the picture. It is from here we should be able to see the house.
Zooming in on Barton Fell, which overlooks Ullswater as seen in the picture above.
Wild Fell Ponies as we start to climb.
Now you really would be doing well to spot it from this, but my camera only has a limited zoom capability. You will just have to take my word for it that, with the help of a pair of binoculars, we really could see our house from here. It's pretty much central in this picture!
Eight miles of walking. Two wind burnt faces and one very tired dog later and we are still back in time to cut the grass and feed the livestock! Barton Fell in the background.


I guess the housework will wait;-)

I Don't Believe it!

There's nothing quite like being proved wrong. I said we wouldn't see the Jay in the garden again, so what happens? It comes back today. Not once, but twice - at least twice when we were in the Kitchen, so who knows how many times it came back in total.

In true Jay fashion, it is very wary, so sliding along the floor on my stomach to get the camera, and then lying on the floor inside the back door was the only way to get photos. Does that mean I've totally lost the plot?

A big bird indeed, but incredibly agile. It was no effort for it to hop in and out of the sheep netting which supposedly protects the bird table from larger birds.
We have also had constant visits from Woodpeckers today. In fact, we have come to the conclusion that there must be more than one pair visiting us, as they fly off in opposite directions. This is one of the males, pausing between mouthfuls no doubt

And talking about pausing. A lovely little Swallow decided to have a stop off on our fence post this afternoon. It was there long enough for me to walk back inside, get the camera, bring it out, past the post it was perched on, to get this shot. Apparently not even batting an eyelid. Shortly after, it just hopped off, into the sky.

Fledglings and a Surprise Visitor

We've had fledgling Blackbirds, Sparrows, Dunnocks to name but a few over the last week or two, but the prize for the most adorable fledgling was on it's way to this rather bedraggled baby Goldfinch............






Until this little beauty arrived today.

Mrs Woody was busy back and forth from the nut feeders into the tree, where this one sat patiently waiting for it's food to arrive.

Talking of food. As we were eating this evening, we had a real surprise. A Jay flew into the garden and momentarily landed on the seed feeder. It didn't stay long enough for me to get the camera. But what a sight. We had no idea just how big they are. Much bigger when seen like that than from a distance on a tree. Known as being incredibly secretive, I doubt we will get a revisit of that particular specimen.

Ouch!

High Maintenance Hattie has ANOTHER problem. This time it is a hind foot. Anilmalintex to the (hopefully) rescue again. She now has another red bandaged foot.

On a more attractive note, we also found evidence of things to come on our walk today. A big patch of what we believe to be Common Spotted Orchids (we are not Orchid experts) in one of the woods just outside the village. We must keep an eye out for them to start flowering in the next week or two.

Protecting the Veggies

You may have noticed that there is not much sheltering our back garden. Great for watching stock and wildlife. Not so good for growing tender plants. In the hope that broad beans will stand up the the infamous village 'West Wind', we thought it best to give them some support sooner rather than later. So job number one today was to do just that.


One of our neighbours has, over the last few nights, had her entire crop of potatoes attacked by pests unknown. There are many theories floating around as to what has done it, but we are both strongly of the opinion that it is Pheasant damage, and we do both have a fair bit of experience in identifying pest damage in crops!

The poor lady had been so organised, she had earlies, second earlies and maincrop. Every plant has been taken off at soil level. Whether it was a pheasant or not, every attempt to protect the tates failed miserably. We thought we'd best do something to at least try to deter it from having a go at ours as well.

It's amazing what you can do with an endless supply of stripped willow!

A Day at the Seaside

Today was not, in hindsight, the best of days to head to West Cumbria. Little did we know, as we walked on the beach just North of Maryport, just what carnage was going on 20 miles to the South. We were blissfully unaware of the whole thing, until a neighbour told us when we returned home. We looked at a house in Lamplugh when we bought this one. That's where the first killings took place. Such a quiet community.... until now.

On a more cheerful note. We fancied a walk, but fancied avoiding the half term tourists. The West coast is not famed for it's resorts, but if you fancy a stroll on wide open sands, with the beach to yourselves, then this is the place to go.


When we started walking it was breezy but very sunny. In fact the beach seemed to be steaming where there were small channels of shallow water meandering across the sands. It was quite eerie. We walked for about two and a half hours, during this time, the 'steam' gradually turned into mist. Apparently it was a sea mist, when the water is colder than the air, which increased as the tide came in. This was just the sort of place and conditions when you could get caught out by the tide creeping around behind you. Luckily we were being careful!

Plenty of birds on the beach. Countless Ringed Plover. Many with young, which were so difficult to make out amidst the stones. A few Oyster Catchers, also apparently nesting on the edge of the beach, and this pair of Shell Ducks, waddling out to sea. Did I mention it was misty?

Wildlife in May

I'm trying a different format for recording what we have seen in and around the garden. This is mainly down to lazyness, as the list grows, I really don't want to type it out every month. Also, keeping it on a spreadsheet makes it easier to compare month with month. I guess you'll have to double click to read it.

More Exploring and a picture for Simon.

As forecast it was a nice morning, but after a late and boozy dinner party last night with friends in the village, a gentle saunter was the order of the day. We thought it would be a good opportunity to visit our neighbours woods just outside the village, which are supposed to be full of Bluebells.
As we walk down the road from the village, the woods we are aiming for are just a field away, on the left of the road here.


As we get into the woods, the bluebells appear. In this younger area of the wood, they really were at their best.
At the far end of the woods we emerged onto the crags, which can be seen clearly from the road. The view stretches south over the fells
Back into the woods and some areas are abundant with Ferns, just coming into full leaf.

There is plenty of wildlife in this wood. A pair of buzzards flew into their nest above our heads, we came across two different woodpecker nests, both with young chirping away inside the tree. On one occasion, both Mum and Dad were in very close proximity. We saw a hare loping off ahead of us, and, rarely caught on camera (by me anyway) a Roe Deer peeped at us from around a tree before dashing off. You'll need to double click to see her.

Last Few Days

Following on from our baby sitting exploits last weekend, we have somehow managed to acquire an additional pet.
Ollie had got used to being fed through the fence, so, as he is soon to be weaned, we thought we might as well carry on till then. The only snag is, every time we walk into the garden, a loud bleating, followed by the thundering of little feet, and Ollie is trying to push his way through the fence.

Only a few more days of milk to go...........

He's quite partial to his creep, but I think we may have a disturbed night or two next week!

Baby Birds

We seem to suddenly be coming across quite a few fledglings in the garden. Today we have had a young Blackbird being fed by Dad on the bird table, young Sparrows being fed on the seed feeders and a young Dunnock on the floor. Earlier we took the dog for a walk in the woods, passing the woodpecker tree that we found a couple of weeks ago http://cumbrianretreat.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-exploring.html we could hear the youngsters calling to their parents from within. We stood quietly, close by for just a couple of minutes and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers appeared. However they were well aware of our presence, and were clearly not going to go near the nest while we were there, so we moved swiftly on. So no pictures I am afraid.


We made another discovery on our walk. We could here an awful lot of squwalking coming from the tree tops. We wondered if it was rooks, but it just didn't sound quite right. Following the noise, we came across what we believe to be a Buzzards nest

I apologise for the camera shake on this next photo, but double click and look at the centre of the nest..........
The gape of two youngsters waiting to be fed.

Bluebells and Runner Beans and A Happy 6th Mensiversary!

Today it is Six Months since we became Cumbrian Residents. We really can't believe where the time has gone, but in many ways it also feels as though we have been here for ages. It certainly feels like that in the village with the way we have been accepted into the community and social lives of our neighbours.
In previous years we would have been heading up this way in a fortnights time, for our summer stay at Foulsyke http://www.crummockwatercottages.co.uk/. By then the Bluebells in Rannerdale Valley are normally over. But we're not on holiday now, we live here (As I keep reminding myself with a big grin), so we can go and visit Rannerdale whenever we like.

We chose to do a walk we have done before on a number of occasions, but in the opposite direction to normal - which meant we went away from all the 'half a mile from the car' brigade. The majority of the Bluebells were saved until the latter part of the walk.
Husband walks through the Bluebells with Melbreak standing proud the otherside of Crummock water.
Looking back up the path you can see the valley is a carpet of blue.

On both sides of the valley.
Getting home in good time gave us chance to get on with one or two jobs in the garden. The runner beans were beginning to outgrow the coldframe, so they have been planted out tonight. Fingers crossed that we don't get any more frosts.

Dates of Note

I have been meaning to start this for a while, but keep getting side tracked.
As this blog has developed into a record of birds and wildlife seen in and around the garden, I thought it would also be a good place to record when things happen that we use as indicators of the season.

On this occasion this will be another list, although my intention is to just record things as they happen in future, but I have a little catching up to do.

First Snow - 20th Dec 2009
Frogspawn found on fells - 16th March 2010
First Daff out in garden 6th April 2010
First Swallow - 12th April 2010
Lunch Outside - 14th April 2010
Plant up Veggie plot - 17th April 2010
House Martins arrive - 19th April 2010
First Swifts - 23rd April 2010
Heard Cuckoo - 22nd April 2010
Snow Fall (Fells) - 10th May 2010
First BBQ - 20th May 2010

The Last Summer Visitors and Other Things!

Another roasting day today 28 degrees registered on the Eastern side of the house - that was before mid morning. Meanwhile, we were busy weeding the Veggie plot. On the whole we are pleased with the way things have come. A wire worm problem has taken a few things out in one corner, but that's hardly surprising as it was grass there until just before we planted it up. Everything in the cold frame is growing like crazy, waiting to go out in about a weeks time when the chance of frost is minimal.

I believe (But may be wrong - so feel free to correct me), that the Swift is the last of our summer visiting birds to arrive. Well I can report that they have reached North Eastern Cumbria. Fitting then that BBQ season is well underway with our own BBQ being lit for the second time tonight, and that makes it our third one of the season.
Would you be surprised if, after reading all that little lot, I told you there is still snow on Cross Fell? That's 2091 ft and just seen here to the right of the trees.

The view of the Pennines from the house is a bit obscured now that the trees are in full leaf!

Baby Blackbirds

Drama in the house today.

A fledgling Blackbird flew in the back door and straight into the window at the far end of the room. Falling to the ground immediately behind Buddy's bed. Luckily I was right there at the time, and Buddy is very well behaved.

The Blackbird was fine, and with help from Husband while I held onto Buddy (Hattie slept through it all as usual!), it was escorted back outside where it flew off.

Buddy's owners have a nesting blackbird in their wall, just opposite us. She has been sitting for a while, but now they have finally hatched. This is what four Baby Blackies look like. Not sure exactly when they hatched, but it must have been in the last couple of days.