Tuesday 14 June 2011

May 2011

06/05/2011

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Cherry time!  This year nearly everyone here had a bumper crop including myself.

 

 

 

 

10/05/2011

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While wandering around near the pond I found another bee orchid with a slightly different pattern to the one in the garden.

It’s now marked and I hope it will flower again next year.

 

 

 

 

11/05/2011 & 12/05/2011

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While clearing out the barn I decided to get rid of a bin of old wheat.  When I opened the lid I found some very surprised mice.

 

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They all buried their heads in the grain bar the look-out mouse.

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I carefully emptied out the bin and there were 12 mice living in there.  I think they were trapped in there a the lid was firmly on.

 

 

 

16/05/2011

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Jewel brought in another friend, a western whip snake as before but a bit bigger this time.

 

 

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17/05/2011

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A walk round the pond revealed the headless corpse of one of the moor hens from the pond.  I’m now wondering if I have a mink around or if something else killed it.

 

 

 

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The hayfield was also ready for cutting over the weekend but I’d not had a chance to check out the baler but was able to get someone else to cut and bale for me this year.

 

 

 

18/05/2011

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This year I scaled down the collection using the small tractor and the large trailer rather than the hay waggon.  When I used the hay waggon a couple of years ago I ended up having to use the kitchen steps to get up onto the waggon and then had to leave a gap in the bales to enable me to stack the bales.

 

DSCF0070 tiny With the trailer I could get around 22 bales on at a time from ground level.  So while it seemed like a longer process, it was actually much quicker.

The first load was used to build a set of steps to reach the hay loft.  And before long the field was half done.

 

 

 

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The field as cleared and stacked the next day with a little help from neighbours J & C and I helped them collect and stack their bales.

 

 

 

20/05/2011

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Today was designated a cherry picking day

 

 

 

 

 

21/05/2011

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And yet more cherries!

 

 

 

 

 

28/05/2011

DSCF0081 tinyMeet the new additions.  This is Pandora with her cria Brandy.

 

 

 

 

 

DSCF0087 tinyWhile this is Tabitha with her cria Bethany.  Missing from the photos is Mr Frizzle.  They are the start of my Suri herd and I travelled up to Brittany to collect them and while they were there they ere entered into a show.

 

 

31/05/2011

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And this is what I came away with.  Brandy, Bethany and Mr Frizzle all won their classes and Brandy went on to be Reserve Champion Suri Smile

April 2011

01/04/2011

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April started with Jewel bringing home a new playmate.  It’s a juvenile western whip shake which played dead on the kitchen floor but once out in the sunshine moved so fast I could only just photograph it.

 

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I started work on the new garden area – the weeds are yet to germinate though.

 

 

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And May Day came a month early!

 

 

 

 

05/04/2011

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Time to make a few more garden stakes.

 

 

 

 

06/04/2011

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Wood preservative goes on and in the background a rose arch for the garden.

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Cutting up a barrel to make a couple of small ponds.

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And the pump house before it gained it’ living roof.

 

 

 

07/04/2011

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Clear blue skies, a portent of the drought to follow and some newly spun yarn hung up to dry.

 

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11/04/2011

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Living roof in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/04/2011

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And in place.

Monday 13 June 2011

January to April 2011

 

28/01/2011

P1280033 tinyDuring the dark evenings I’ve been getting on with carding and spinning and have nearly finished the 4 practice fleeces I have. 

 

 

 

 

 

06/02/2011

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The polutunnel produced lettuce and rocket in February.

 

 

 

 

 

16/02/2011

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Sunny weather brought the cats out to play. 

 

 

 

 

 

28/02/2011

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The bay tree at the back of the house was getting far too high and blocking both the access to the chicken house and around the rear of the house.  Height greatly reduced but I will wait until the end of the year to thin P2280019 tinythe many trunks there, some of which are 6 inches in diameter.  It smelt wonderful while cutting it.

 

 

 

03/03/2011

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Working through the nuts collected last autumn.   I’ve found that using the hammer to crack the nuts rather than nutcrackers produces a much higher proportion of whole nuts.

 

 

08/03/2011

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A bit more dry weather and the whole of the potager has had it’s first going over with the rotovator.

 

 

 

25/03/2011

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The foul drain – not only was there the problems described earlier but it turned out that the pipe was compressed to about half diameter too!  I think I’m becoming an expert on septic tanks but hopefully this will have finally cured the problems.

 

27/03/2011

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I’ve always loved Fritillaries, these are fritillaria uva vulpis.

 

 

 

 

31/03/2011

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The first asparagus and this year I can cut a few too.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

So the saying goes so the next few posts should save me a lot of writing.  Much as I wanted to keep up with the blogging, life has just taken over. 

I have toyed with closing the blog but it is useful as a diary with pictures,(as long as I post to it of course)!  So current plan is to just post photographs with captions rather than full posts to try and keep up with what I’m doing here and if I have the time and inclination I can write more.