Worlds In Miniature.

I've spent the whole day weeding. I find it very hard to stick to doing one thing and keep seeing other jobs that need doing but today I stayed on task and cleared several of the heather banks. I did have a senior moment after lunch when I spent about 10 mins looking for my secateurs. I'd raced indoors at lunchtime because it was raining , leaving them - so I thought on a bush. I did find them eventually, under some leaves lower down the bank. There have been a few arial interruptions today. First it was a low flying fighter jet plane probably on its way over to Wales where they are allowed to skim the deserted mountains. Then a helicopter flying low. It was the red air-ambulance helicopter, (funded by charity and very necessary in this rural location). It flew low over the valley up to Indicott, turned and came back at about tree height, turned at the corner of the garden, slid over Paul's hill (I'd walked up the road by this time) and flew at minimum height towards East Down. Then it came back and headed off north, they were obviously having difficulty finding the place they had been called to. I hope the casualty got to hospital safely.

Having decided not to show boring weeding pictures instead I thought I'd show some rock pools from yesterday.

Snakelocks sea anemones. I have to admit to teasing them a bit with some dried seaweed which they grabbed in an alarming manner. I didn't use my finger because the book says that they do have a painful sting.

A more gentle beadlet sea anemone sharing its pool with at least 5 kinds of molluscs.

Finally, a group of dog whelks guarding their eggs with another beadlet sea anemone. All these rock pools were no more than 2 or 3 inches across but contained a wealth of life. Isn't nature wonderful ?

Snow ?

We woke this morning to see the garden white with the hail that had fallen in the night but by the afternoon most of it had melted away.

Up in the hen run this little sparrow waited in one of the apples trees for me to leave so that he could share the corn I had thrown on the ground for the hens. It didn't feel too cold out as there was no wind at all and the sun was shining. It took me a while to get organised to work outside and then I kept getting diverted from my original task of finishing the pond and weeding the heather banks. First I went to put up a new fat ball for the wild birds. This hangs alongside the nut feeder over the stream to stop the squirrel from raiding all the birds' food. Each time I've been out there I've meant to remove some brambles that have appeared and today I finally got round to doing so. Then I carried on and cut back and cleared more brambles growing on the far side of the stream. It's not our land but as it's so close to the house I do have permission to cut back the trees and undergrowth there.

There are several clumps of daffodils there that began flowering at the end of Dec, I can see these ones through the window by my piano in the sitting room. Having cleared most of the brambles that were growing down to the stream I then cut down a 20ft branch of a cob nut tree that was growing picturesquely over the stream but almost reaching the house, (that was with my trusty bow saw).

As I walked around in the stream I was most surprised to see some frogspawn in the flowing water. I expect it had been washed down from one of the small pools higher up the valley. I released it from the stone where it had been caught and let it carry on its journey down to my neighbour's lake. That reminded me that I had planned to do more work at the pond, actually I took my camera to see if there was anything happening up there. No frog or toad spawn but looking down through the clear water there were suspicious movements and bubbles under the pond plants.

There was a thin film of ice over the pond and some clear reflections of the surrounding trees.


I finished off my outdoor work by bringing down and cutting up enough wood for a fire tonight and then doing a bit of weeding before the light started to fade.

Birds.

This morning's weeding session saw the last bit of the pond path cleared of weeds. There is still some grass growing in the water to be pulled out but that will be it for now. In a few weeks I'll cut back the rest of last year's growth from the marginal plants. The alchemilla is a lovely plant but seeds easily so there have been quite a few seedlings to pull out. It always amazes me that a little plant only a cm across will have several inches of roots. I used to look around the local garden centres once in a while for unusual plants and I had to laugh once when I saw pots of alchemilla on sale at £4.50 each.2 eggs today, that's 100% increase in production. At least I should soon be able to stop buying eggs. I could never bring myself to buy battery eggs but free range eggs are not so expensive these days, probably due to increased demand. My hens are such gluttons. Even when their crops are full of corn they wait at the bottom corner of their run to see if I'm coming up with any scraps. When we first moved here I had a little flock that roamed free and they often hung around the front door waiting for us to come out. I have a photo of one hen happily laying an egg in a box just inside the porch.

Right now we are waging war on the jackdaws who plan on building nests in the chimney and loft. The first year it was only one nest, then some of them nested in the lofts (very noisy,) and this year there are at least 12 birds hanging around. One pair build a nest in this chimney (we'll have to warn future owners of this place to sweep the chimney if they plan on using the kitchen fireplace,) and the rest head into the loft. We will put some netting up to block the hole into the loft and we are also gaily taking potshots at them with the boys' air-rifles. We don't actually aim at the birds and it is only plastic pellets that ping off the trees but we hope that they will scare away the jackdaws. Jackdaws are quite clever and now they fly away as soon as we raise a gun to our shoulder. Hopefully they will get the message soon and find somewhere else.
On my way home from school this evening I had another frustrating time trying to get a good photo of a buzzard. I was taking photos through the car windscreen and trying to move a bit closer, first the buzzard flew down the fence and eventually it flew away.

So this was my final photo.

Dark Evenings.

Welcome to all of you visiting this blog. The map on my site manager is showing visitors from all over the globe which I find fascinating.

It gets dark so early these days, no wonder ancient people celebrated the turning of the year. As I drove home along the dark lanes this evening the headlights of my car picked out a large barn owl sitting ontop of a hedge. The owl turned its large dish-like face to me before gliding away majestically.Today was the Christmas Fayre at school. Many of the parents came and took their children around the fayre but I still had 9 children to supervise. Father Christmas has lost a lot of weight since last year but it is so sweet to see how thrilled the children are to talk to him. In the last week of term we will also get a helicopter fly past with Father Christmas waving from the doorway.

We had PPA again this afternoon, I'm finding it strange not to be having to think ahead for next term. There is still plenty to complete for this term and at the same time my fingers are itching to make preparations for next term's topics but it won't be my responsibility anymore. That's good in terms of stress but sad in terms of buzz and adding my input. Oh well, something always turns up.

Close Encounter With A Buzzard.

It was very cold this morning, so cold that I had to de-ice the car before going off to work.

Even so I couldn't resist stopping up at Ashelford Corner to capture the colours of the sunrise, my poor little fingers were frozen by the time I had taken a few pictures.
A little way down the road I was just thinking that now I have a better zoom on my camera I should be able to get a decent shot of a buzzard when suddenly there was a buzzard, standing on the road ahead. I braked hard, the buzzard did his best to do a vertical take off , slid past the windscreen and missed the roof of the car by a few inches with a most indignant squawk. Further down the road there were 2 more buzzards who were sitting sensibly on top of the telegraph poles waiting for the sun to rise and the air to warm. It became a bit warmer during the day as the rain, (not so heavy today) returned. In the afternoon we had playtime outside even though it was raining because the children had spent over an hour in the hall at another rehearsal. The performance gets better each time , let's hope we don't peak too early. My kitchen table is currently covered with strands of silver lammetta being turned into shimmering wrist bands for my 15 stars. Off I go now to carry on making those 30 bracelets.

Home Early.

For the past week there has been a buzzard either sitting on the fence or walking around on the road as I go up the drive. As generally I am driving around in the dark I'm not seeing quite so many buzzards around at the moment.

It has been very windy today but much, much warmer. We even had a few moments of sun and at one point as I walked across the playground it felt positively balmy. This very pretty acer in the school garden is shedding its leaves like golden showers. The ladies who run the school gardening club wanted to cut it down because it overshadows some of the children's vegetable plots but I think that would be a terrible shame.

The single red branch stands out against the cheery yellow that shines out even on the greyest day.

I left school early tonight to get up to the hospital for a physio appointment so for once it wasn't dark for my journey home. There was a hint of pink and gold in the rather grey sunset at around 5.00. I was also treated to some melodious birdsong as I went out to check on the hens. Normally it is just the silly laughing of the call ducks or the hooting of the owls. Peter isn't home yet, I expect they are making him work extra hours for having the temerity to go to the hospital for an appointment with the consultant.

"This Bench Is Occupied."

Back down to cliff above Barricane beach to blow away the cobwebs with some sea air. We decided to head for this bench, handily placed for wave watching. I didn't notice the occupant of the bench until I had walked round it and yes, I did let out a girlie scream, (only a little one).

Closed inspection showed that this adder, (Britain's only poisonous snake) , was rather flattened and somewhat motionless. I guess it had been run over on the road and someone had put it on the bench for a joke. Well it fooled me.

Fortunately there was another bench just below the cliff edge. I was happily snapping away and exactly as happened the week before, my batteries ran out and I had to trek back up to the car to put my spare ones in, must remember to put the batteries in the charger tonight.






The wind wasn't as strong this week and the waves were coming in cleaner but as the tide was going out they didn't look that good for surfing.

Still there were some pretty waves.

Being by the sea is always so refreshing. After our walk we had a nice beef curry waiting for us at home. I'd bought a reduced joint of beef which Peter and Linas had prepared the night before and left cooking in the slow cooker. My job was to cook the rice and heat up the dal and naan. Then we headed into town to see 2012. We thoroughly enjoyed the film as the CGI was excellent and it was a good, well acted disaster movie.

A Bloom Of Butterflies.

We had some sunshine today and the butterflies were out in swarms frantically stocking up on nectar. Although I spent most of the day doing school work, (and some housework including cooking lunch and washing my car), I managed to do some of it outside in the garden. Behind me the lavender was covered in bees, butterflies don't seem to go for lavender but this one must have been extra hungry.

Up at the scree garden it looked like a butterfly house there were so many of them feeding on the sedum plants. The pink one is the most popular at the moment.

Earlier Peter and I had been standing down in the yard commenting on how wonderful it was to be able to take a break from our studies in such lovely surroundings. Suddenly, flying no more than 3ft from the ground a sparrow hawk flew down the drive, whizzed past us as we stood by the step, did a sharp turn and disappeared down the stream towards the lake. Last time I looked there were 2 of the call ducks left and they now actually swim on the lake. I've one more school job to do and then I plan to have a couple of hours chilling out before facing another week.

A walk At Morte Point.

This morning as I went off to my physio appointment the weather did not look good. Lots of rain and the roads already beginning to flood right across. There is some improvement with my shoulder but I wasn't impressed when the physio implied that I might have a low pain threshold, HAH ! I only went to the doctor when the pain was waking me up several times a night. Anyway he said that shoulders usually take 3 months to get sorted so it's going to be a long process. Back home I was all set to carry on copying my negatives when reading Sarah Lee's blog inspired to go on a cliff walk despite the rain. Romas wanted to come with me, that saves me carrying a backpack, and by the time we had made a flask of coffee and packed our waterproofs the rain had stopped. In fact once we got to my favourite place to walk, Morte Point, the rain had vanished and we had blue skies and sunshine.

I think this is such a beautiful place to walk. The sea was several shades of blue, fluffy white clouds dotted the sky and Lundy could be seen on the horizon. The sun had brought out the holiday makers but there is enough space for everyone to spread out and it didn't seem too crowded.

As usual I was on the look out for grey seals. Normally I can count on seeing one or two on this stretch of the coast. First we saw one head bobbing in the water, then another and another.

The tide was quite low and the first seal pulled itself out of the water onto an exposed rock. That started a trend as one by one the other seals found themselves a spot on the seaweed strewn island. There was a bit of bickering going on and for the first time I heard the seals using a 'groaning' noise when another seal tried to get into their space.
Eventually as the tide dropped there was enough room for 5 of them on this rock. There is a 6th seal in the water trying to find its way on as well. There were plenty of other suitable rocky outcrops but this was obviously the only one that would do.

As more walkers came by they also stopped to look at and photograph the seals. (Their rock was just off the bottom right hand side of the picture.) Some of the walkers ventured lower down the cliff to get a better view.

When we stopped for a coffee break Romas was up to his usual trick of frightening me by going close to the cliff edge.

All in all it was a glorious walk and I'm so glad that I decided to be a bit more energetic.

A Gardening day.

Today has been dry but overcast down here in the south west. I understand that the sun was shining in other parts of the country but I'm getting used to the rubbish weather we're having this summer. Peter and I went into town this morning to look at some art work being exhibited by some one he knows but I wasn't all that keen on it. I had a wander round the shops and bought an extra soft fleece bed throw for Romas to take with him to uni. The rest of the day has been spent out in the garden. The boys have finally realised that if they want to earn some money they do actually need to do some work. Linas has been weeding the paved areas and Romas did a grand job repairing the steps cut into the clay bank. I got on with more weeding. It's very annoying that bits of the garden that I cleared at the beginning of the summer are now quite overgrown. All this rain has encouraged growth and stopped me from being motivated to go out and do lots of weeding. I did have to keep stopping to take pictures of the wildlife that rustles, flaps and creeps all over the garden. There were lots of these blue tailed damsel flies flitting about above the grass.
While the grasshoppers enjoyed a spot of sunbathing on the warm stones.

And this tiny, 2cms, toad watched me weeding for a while before disappearing back under the stones.

A Dragonfly Day.

It's been quite warm today. Mainly overcast in the morning but with a few very hot sunny spells in the afternoon. I've spent a lot of time working outdoors alternating weeding with chopping up those branches. The buddleias have been covered with butterflies and bees making up for yesterday's damp conditions which stopped them from flying.

There have also been a lot of dragonflies around. I counted at least 3 species though the golden-ringed dragonfly didn't stop long enough for me to get a picture.

The stones in the scree garden hold a lot of warmth and I often see butterflies and other insects resting on them. This one might be a female black-lined skimmer.

A male Ruddy Darter, what a name.

One of my holiday jobs is to go through all my packets of photos and negatives from my 35mm camera and transfer them onto the pc. First I had to go through my 20 albums reliving all those memories, (the boys were so sweet when they were little), and tomorrow I can start putting dates to the negatives because that was something I didn't do on the actual packets. Once that is done I have a little gizmo that scans negatives. I might even bring myself to dispose of the photos that didn't make it into the albums or were doubles. I also need to get some more spiral bound scrap books which I like to use as photo albums so that I can put in the last few years of 35mm photos.

Garden Visitors.

We had a visitor in our garden last night. Linas spotted this Red Deer hind just 20 ft from the conservatory. I went out quietly with my camera and even though the deer moved up near the pond it stayed there quite calmly.

The light was quite low so the pictures didn't come out that well even though I took lots.It was even relaxed enough to eat though it did keep its eyes on me. Look at those big white ears.

Eventually I tried creeping nearer to it and it ran off up the valley along the little stream. It is all farm land around here with the nearest woods a few miles away but we do see deer occasionally.

We had some rain this morning but it cleared up by lunchtime. Romas and I managed to saw up a metal bedframe and then packed my little car full of stuff for the dump. I felt bad about throwing out a perfectly good tv but I've offered it on freecycle and to Vytas but nobody wants it and it has just been moved from one bedroom to another taking up space.

Before it goes over I had to show this giant surfinia flower in one of my hanging baskets. It is easily twice the size of any of the other flowers. I wonder if the other buds on that branch will also produce such big flowers.

I found this moth, The Lackey, caught outside in some cobweb on one of the windows. I found one of these flying around my pc the other day but the photos were blurry.It was very mild this evening so I went for a stroll up the hill. There were 3 buzzards in the ponies' field. They have been hanging around the valley for the last week calling away and I wonder if they are youngsters who have been turfed out of their nest.
The sky was quite pretty in shades of pink and blue but the air was heavy with the smell of slurry as the farmer had been out muck spreading the silage fields.