Hedging - Part Two

If a job is worth doing, it's worth finishing. So having cleared all the unwanted growth in J & G's hedge and given J a few days to lay all the thorn we left in place, it's time to reconvene for a bonfire party. This time Alan joins us with his silage grab.

Get Out Your Bucket And Spade

Someone seems to like the seaside

Steady Tiger

How to Dry a wet Spaniel

Following a walk on High Pike and a few swims in Carrock Beck - in freezing temperatures.

Hedging

Another working party suddenly happenend this week. John and Gill  have decided to lay the hedge in one of their paddocks in preparation for refencing. So that's about 30 years growth to fell before the thorn can be laid. Many hands make light work, and with a good 150 yards to do, many hands make much firewood too.

A well earned break for the workers - well three of the four at least

Gold Rush

A new record for us today, around 70 Goldfinchs in the garden for a good lot of the morning. Twenty odd is not unusual, but a charm this big was unbelievable.

It made for good viewing.

A Room With A View

What better way to start the day than a cuppa with a view like this.

Followed by a walk like this

Make the most of it Breezey, it's thawing fast.

It's Snowing!

Somebody likes catching snow flakes.

Clearing My Desk

When we moved here we started a wildlife diary which I promised to try and keep going. For quite a while I succeeded in updating it on here each month........

While much of the UK has been having white out conditions for days, we are getting our first glimpse of about 1cm of the white stuff today, so after about six months of looking at the paper records floating on my desk, finally I have got round to transferring it into a more user friendly version!

Play Time

I remembered to get my camera out for Jess' weekly visit. They are the best of pals and both get stupidly excited when they see each other - it's hard to believe that looking at these pictures!

Winter at last

What started out as a beautiful sunrise

Seems to have turned into a winters day

Busy Breeze

What a week for a little dog. Wednesday morning was here regular play time with Jess, her springer friend who is six weeks younger and has been a weekly visitor since they were both tiny (I must get my camera out next week!), then in the afternoon it was off to see Aunty Janet, who has plenty of dogs of her own as well as taking in boarders and residential trainers. Breeze was a little overcome by all the dogs running around the garden!

Then on Friday it was down to the local river for a walk and a swim

Followed on Saturday by a walk up West Fell and over Old Fell. Little fells for a little dog!

Up above the snow line at 1500 feet.

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop To Drink

Another first for Breezey today, one that has been a long time in the planning - her first trip to the seaside. Getting the forecast to tie in with the tide times and a day when we had no other committments seems to have taken months, but after a very sad day yesterday it was lovely to be doing something a bit different today. And she's off......

Leaving a long line on her was a precaution which proved unnecessary, she came running back

and running back

and running back

and then she turned into the CREATURE FROM THE DEEP

A skull as big as her own - what treasure!

One soggy dog

And a few Hebridean Sheep, here as part of a conservation project to help protect the Natterjack Toads which are found in this area

After all that exercise, it's off to our favourite Silloth Chippy for Sunday Lunch

2012 Rainfall

In a year when much of the country has seen drought followed by floods, we have been blessed with a year of fairly consistent Cumbrian weather. With the exception of a dry spell in Feb and March - when we were still recovering from a horrendously wet December 2011 - it has been just a little bit wetter each month than average for around here. But when it's all added up at the end of the year, it doesn't seem so bad. 56.4 inches in an area that (according to the EA) averages 50, or to be precise, averages 55. Mind you by the water pillows in the field the other day and the state of our back lawn, which looks like a hen run; it isn't hard to see that the land has been at saturation levels for an awfully long time.

Christmas Day

A different bird to greet us this morning, not the usual festive turkey, but a Snipe who spent a good hour or so just outside the kitchen window. Aologies for the picture, it wasn't really light outside!

Our Kind of Christmas Present

Relatives here for a number of days over Christmas and a housefull on Boxing Day, meant the freezers were better stocked than ever. Then this arrived......

One that I nutured back in March! Luckily, friends in the village have an old freezer they keep 'in case of emergency', and it worked when needed. Yum, Yum.

Brrrrreeze

It's warming up outside, 2' and raining, but it is so miserable, there's nothing better than sitting by the fire on a day like this.

Foreign Travel

We're not known for our foreign trips, but as Trina has just had a new hip at the ripe old age of the same age as me, we thought that Sunday lunch in Scotland was in order. Anyway, it would be a good opportunity for Breeze to meet Tug and Tummel. So passports packed, off we went on Breeze's inaugural foreign trip.

First job when we arrived was a walk to introduce the dogs

She's not too sure about Tummel to start with

But once she finds some water, all her shyness is soon forgotten

Classic springer Ears as she gives her Dad (and Tummel) a fly past

Tug gets a bit close for comfort, so Breeze legs it out of his way!

60% Legs, 25% Ears and 15% tongue.