Wildlife in April

Nesting a plenty at the moment, with countless House Sparrows in the Clematis over the shed, Blue Tits in the Nest Box, at least one pair of Blackbirds on our south eastern boundary and the Mistle Thrush next door. Also Goldfinches and Coal tits must all be nesting close by again as they are frequently helping themselves to beakfuls of Hattie hair (along with the Blue Tits and Sparrows).

Pond Life

The Village Puddle is taking on a life of it's own. As hoped, it is already attracting lots of attention.
The Tadpoles are growing - in the region of 50 of them at the last count. Kindly donated by the local commoners.



The birds are finding it a great addition to the birdbath. This was the second Blackie in a very short space of time to make the most of the facilities.



Not the only one wanting a bath tonight. This Pied Wagtail was having a great time splashing about too.



A bit less welcome has been a large number of wasps calling in for a drink. I have a feeling it may be a good year for them.

Meet Jarvis

Jarvis spends much of his life on our boundary. Often he is chaperoning his harem as they come off their nests to fill their crops.



But mostly he is just there. Calling his girls and generally showing off. He is a bit of a loud mouth to say the least.

His 'Cocker' routine starts at about 5am, and continues periodically through the day.

Don't you just love him?

Ridge Walking

Meet Vince. Our ridge tiles needed re pointing - or even reattaching in some places - Vince is our local drainage expert, who also doubles up as a really useful guy to know. He was working in the village this week, and after a brief chat yesterday, he was here today.


The unseasonal weather did present him with a few problems, but nothing that a bit of water couldn't fix.

Is This Summer?

Last Year we had lunch outside for the first time on 14th April. This year we were about a week earlier. Last year we had our first BBQ on 20th of May. This year we had Pimms by the Pool on 17th April.


Our first BBQ this year was on 18th April. Happy Birthday Alison. I don't remember having a BBQ for your Birthday when we were kids! I know you weren't here, but we had a few friends round to toast your big day anyway! We had the odd gate crasher too....

Easter Holidays

School's Out! Emma and Rosie bring their Mum and Billy the school bear, for a Cumbrian holiday.


The forecast was for the dry spell to end on Monday, the day they were driving up. Then it changed to breaking down on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday. By the time they left on Friday, we hadn't had a drop all week.
Amongst all the things we did, we visited Lacy's caves on the edge of the River Eden.

The woods on the way to the caves were a mass of wild flowers and we didn't see another (human) soul.

And Then There Were Two

No hanging around waiting this year. Number two is here the day after the scout....

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!