Spring is coming

Well, I'm improving, it's only just over a month since my last post!!
Today was a beautiful day, and after walking the dogs this morning I wandered round to my pond and was surprised to see an orgy going on. The edge of the pond was heaving with at least a dozen frogs and there was a large amount of frogspawn, so they'd obviously been busy!!
It was too good an opportunity to miss, so I nipped inside for the camera, and they were completely unfazed as I set up a few feet away.

Another year gone, and the rest.....!!

Where did the year go to? It was very dry from the spring up until November, and only then did we get enough rain to raise the water table so that the (still unfinished) pond actually contained water. What it does mean, again, is that probably I will be unable to reprofile and line the pond until the amphibians have stopped breeding and the pond has dried out again in the summer.

Things do seem to be proceeding though, at last. I will be clearing an area by the pond, that is always covered with bindweed through the summer, and trying to establish a wildflower meadow there. The area behind the house will also be cleared, so that I can get the greenhouse erected and get some vegetable beds set up. I also want to move part of the boundary fence back, so that my brick shed is actually on my side of the fence, and this will give me room to construct a garage/workshop and give me some extra storage space. The new chicken shed is almost finished, so when that's done the chickens can be ousted from the log shed, and then I can stock it with logs for next winter.

As for the animals, I now have 2 dogs as my father went into a home before he died and was unable to look after Ruby, who I got from the RSPCA when mum died. I said from the start that if he was unable to look after her, I would take her on, but it was a bit sooner than we'd expected. She's settled in well with Meg, but she needs to be watched as she chases sheep!! The 2 cats are still happily wandering the countryside, and I now only have 2 ducks (the mother and her only surviving daughter) 2 hens (the black bantam and black speckly) and my big cock continues to strut around the place.

I keep getting flocks of finches in the treetops by the orchard, and a couple of days ago spotted a pair of bullfinches with them - my first here, and always lovely to see. I intend to set up a hide soon so that I, and others, can watch the badgers, and I now stock trail cameras so will be setting some up to see what visitors I get during the night and when I'm not here - fingers crossed it won't be thieves again!!

That's about it for now, but hopefully I can get into the habit of adding to the blog more often.

Martin.