Oh, Deer!

Last night Compostman came running in holding Compostgirl's camera and very excitedly downloaded the photo he had taken on it...

Can you see the deer? on the path in the wood, in the middle of the shot?

We saw the deer again, right up by the garden fence , just as it was getting dark. We all went outside in the rain to see - Compostgirl in her pj's, all of us holding our breath, the cats very worried and thrashing their tails at this "intruder". The deer stood and looked at us and then quite calmly and slowly wandered off into the wood.


Today, we have been outside moving electric fence netting to keep the hens off the newly emerging potato haulms in the raised beds outside of the garden fenced area - it was nearly time to stop for lunch, when to my amazement the deer appeared again!

When I first saw him, he was only about 15 m away from me, right by the hen house and garden gate.

He slowly moved into the wood, apparently unconcerned by our presence,

We think it is a young male Fallow Deer.

Wonderful ( as long as he leaves my veg patch alone!)

Woodland wonderland in pictures

Here are some pictures of our woodland. It is looking particularly beautiful at the moment :-)



Cowslips and Bluebells



More Bluebells



An Early Purple Orchid in the wood.



Yet more Bluebells! They have been spreading throughout the wood year on year as we thin the trees, coppice and generally manage the woodland for maximum wildlife and nature benefit. It also means we get wood in return, which is what a sustainable managed wood is all about, to my mind!


I LOVE this time of year, I am soooooo busy and it is a mad time, what with planting and sowing seeds and tending the veg plot and garden and mowing and compost digging...and also doing much the same at school with the childen....

but I LOVE it all:-)

Spring!

Another beautiful, busy, planting and wood cutting day here today! It is the Spring Equinox, when the length of day and night is balanced and the wheel of the year swings around again towards summer and fruitfulness....I shall be honouring the spring over this weekend, planting and tidying and making all ready for a fruitful summer...and going into the woodland to meditate on the changing seasons and the wonders of nature....



Compostman has been cleaning out all the nest boxes around the sheds and house. Here is Compostgirl examining the contents of one...



which had a Hornets nest built inside...



It WAS perfect and we wanted to carefully remove it so Compostgirl could take it in to school...




but then Cathy hen came along to investigate what we were doing...and trod on it....



Still, it IS good to see her back to her normal, nosy, chatty, annoying self.....

:-))

Spring colours!

As a result of some requests (you know who you are!)

some spring flower pictures from our garden.

Enjoy!

A wonderful snowy tuesday moment.

We woke up to more snow here today, it was very quiet and still. I went to let the chickens out into the orchard and all I could hear was a Robin singing and some Jays screeching at each other ...



I went into the wood paddock, just a little way in by the compost bins,and saw a whole expanse of white, untouched and untrodden except by birds and small animals...and then I saw the Hare. We name her Serena although what SHE calls herself we don't know!



and I was tempted to walk into the wood after her, on that expanse of snowy whiteness, to try to capture her on my camera....

but I didn't :-)

I left Serena the Hare, the other animals and all the birds to enjoy the snow.



At times like this my heart sings with the sheer joy of living where I do.

it is beautiful, simply beautiful...

Spring Greetings!

Spring Greetings!




Today is Imbolc, the first day of the Celtic spring, and truly it IS springlike here! it has been very cold but sunny and the grass is green, the snowdrops are bravely nodding their heads in the cold breeze and I, well I feel the first stirrings of growth in my heart, a need to plant seeds and get into the garden and tend and sow and dig and weed...

I went out this morning and looked, I mean REALLY looked at all the wonderful signs of new life. I was, of course, followed by chickens......






It is too cold and too wet to dig the soil, but I have planted some seeds and potted some strawberry runners up and raked a few beds clear of debris, to allow the emerging daffodils space and light and air...

I picked some flowers in honour of the day...I tend to leave flowers growing, I like them better in the ground! But I felt the need to bring some Spring inside my home today....so catkins, snowdrops, all flowering when everything else is still dormant....a promise of what will be, in the months to come...




I am, as you may know, very fond of the work of illustrator Wendy Andrew, I have several of her wonderful prints in my home, indeed her "Goddess Wheel of the Year" is a favourite of mine! It features in this photo of my seasonal offerings corner, with the flowers I picked today to honour the new Spring.





I shall leave you with her thoughts on this day

Feel Me now as Maiden.
I am the initiator.
I am the twinkle of an idea.
I am the spark that activates and inspires.
I am the light that illuminates manifestation.
I bring the energy that encourages the sleeping Winter world to begin to stir.
Feel My presence.
I am the spark of life in all things.

©Wendy Andrew
The Spring.

A visitor in my kitchen today

While I was wrapping some presents in the lower kitchen today, I went to throw some crumbs to the hens, and the "back door" robin came and sat on a bucket by the opened back door. He/she often does this, and occasionally gets some crumbs or bits of food....

but today the silly thing decided to come INTO the house to get the crumbs...

and then got panicked and couldn't get out again..
I eventually managed to catch the poor, scared little bird in my hand, it let me gently take hold of it and release it outside again.

but not before it had blessed my kitchen floor.....
Sidney was VERY annoyed that he had missed a "lunch on the wing". I had had to throw him out pronto during the robin catching session, as he came to see what all the fuss was about and wanted to do his own brand of "helping"! so I had to unceremoniously throw him out of the kitchen while we caught the Robin and released it.

An especially big full moon tonight.

I was driving into Hereford tonight to do a "big" Pre Bah Humbug Season (PBHS) (known to us as Yule), supermarket shop for loo rolls and tinned stuff and flour and beer and such like..and as I went up over past
The Wonder, up and over the Marcle Ridge, I saw the Full Moon break through the clouds briefly.
I knew tonight's full moon potentially could be a spectacular sight so I stopped and took a picture.

But it isn't very good I am afraid.

Ah well, *I* saw the Moon in her shining, full, closer than usual, splendour, even if I *didn't* capture it to show to you....

So you will just have to use your imagination I am afraid....

Sorry!

BUT I DID get from the evil super more of the flip top beer bottles, full of proper lager, which I can reuse for beer or elderflower champagne making! The price of these to buy means they are a really good deal to get with lager inside!

Have drunk the contents of a bottle tonight...well I NEED to empty it in order to wash it and dry it and store it away, don't I? ;-)

Sitting in the dark

In front of the woodburner, with a glass of home made cider and Compostman and cats.......






And then turning out the lights, to sit and enjoy the purring of the cats on our laps, in the warmth and the dark



and while watching the flickering flames, I saw wonderous things, castles and unicorns and dancers........

what do YOU see when you look in a fire?

A frosty morning.

Everything was touched with frost this morning. There had been a hard frost and all the trees were rimed with glistening silver crystals..

The vegetable garden and the hen Orchard, beyond.



A frost covered sundial in the garden

See the ice crystals?


Our washing had frozen stiff on the line.


Fooststeps in the frost.










The hen's drinkers were frozen solid this morning as well, they were MOST unhappy about it, and told me so quite firmly!

The view from my bedroom window.

This is the sight I am lucky enough to see when I look out of the bedroom window in the morning!



It is so beautiful here, birdsong, fresh air and nature all around. I feel SO blessed to live here!!

A nice cup of tea and a sit on the wall

I have not been feeling too well the last few days, I have some kind of " wobbly legged, feeling achey all over and headachy" sort of thing and have not been able to do much in the garden .

So I pottered around in the polytunnel in the warmth, watering the seeds, the early veg and both the overwintered and newly acquired garden plants.







I have been Freecycling for plant bits and bobs, also have attended a few charity plant sales recently and have been given various stuff by friends, so I have LOTS more new plants to put in the garden. I think I am viewed as a sort of Rescue Home for old plants!!


I spent some time thinking about where I am going to plant the latest shrubs and herbaceous perennials and summer flowing bulbs I have accumulated over the last month or so.








I also sowed a few more trays of salads, some more leeks and tomato seeds and flower seed for my cutting garden.

I then was given a nice mug of tea by compostman, and sat on the west facing wall outside the back door to drink it.

The late afternoon sun shone on my face and a skylark was high above me in the sky singing for all its worth. Bliss!

And this was what I was looking at as I drank my tea.






It was very peaceful and I felt real contentment with life.