Wildlife at Night (Video)

Wildlife Camera

A few weeks ago we noticed that some of our hedging plants were being eaten by something. The hedging was only planted in the spring and although it has become established and is growing well it is still quite short, some of the plants are only a couple of feet tall. The hazel and plum were the main targets and they seemed to be eaten from the lower branches upwards so we ruled out deer activity. In an attempt to discover our intruder we bought a little wildlife camera and I thought I share a little post showing what we caught on camera (you might need to expand it to full screen to see it!).

You can just see a pair of eyes at the bottom of the picture where the branches are moving and then a hop hop along the hedge line. Yes, it looks like our culprit is a rabbit. Hopefully it won't take too much of the hedge so it will grow next spring.

We also manage to get a couple of pictures of our local fox, another very good reason to make sure the chickens are locked up safely at night. Finn did spot the fox one day who seemed pretty surprised to be challenged by a black lab in the field and soon legged it.

M set the camera up in the byre to see if we could capture some footage of our barn owl. The video isn't great but he/she is definitely in residence. Hopefully we'll be able to get some video of the deer in the woods soon.

Winter arrives

Cold days.

After a very mild Autumn I think we were caught out with the early arrival of winter weather; snow, hail and very cold days have arrived.

The woods looked lovely with a covering of snow but unfortunately it meant that any thoughts of gardening had to be put on hold.

I think we'd almost forgotten how cold this old house could be and so there was nothing else for it but to light the fire. It never takes Jess long to notice when the fire is lit. To be honest I love having the fire lit and snuggling up watching a good film or drama. We eventually managed to finish watching Dickensian and War & Peace, both of which we had recorded ages ago.

 

At the very end of October we headed off to the SECC in Glasgow to visit the joint Crafts for Christmas and Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts shows. We had a great time and it was so easy to get to by train. Although we didn't buy very much we couldn't resist this absolutely gorgeous bowl by Muggins Pottery and the funny piggy salt and pepper set (can't remember the name of the seller) where the salt and pepper comes out of their snouts. There was also the wonderful stand by Beth Currie, she produces beautiful hand crocheted jewellery which is definitely worth a look for that very special and unique gift.

 

I think the pigs were slightly confused with their first experience of snow and were running around very excitedly. Unfortunately after it melted we realised that their enclosure was becoming pretty waterlogged. They didn't seem to mind the mud too much but we were worried about the effect of constant wetness on their feet and so started to look for alternative accommodation. Also after M's face plant in the mud it was getting difficult to walk through the area, sadly I didn't have a camera to catch the moment of him lying in the mud being nuzzled by Ginger.

 

Although part of the byre roof is missing we decided that we would be able to make a dry area for the pigs inside along with access to an outside grass area. Jess and Finn were slightly bemused at losing part of their paddock but needs must. We were dreading trying to walk the pigs to their new enclosure but with 2 buckets of food they followed us. Yay, we had a major pat on the back after this as we had visions of them running off around the woods.

 

It took a wee bit of getting used to but they settled in quickly and the nice new grassy enclosure was completely de-turfed in 24 hours. After a few adjustments to the sleeping area they can be found cuddled up together snoring away in the afternoons.

One of the best things about rainy cold days is that they become our craft days and M has been very busy. He has made some Christmas decorations but as Christmas doesn't officially begin in our household until Dec I'll save those photos for later. However, he did also make this charming owl who is now very much at home in our garden. I have been knitting but I'll come back to that at a later date.

I mentioned a while ago how we are fortunate to have so much wildlife around us; well, this little fella somehow found his way into the kitchen. I didn't even spot him at first, I thought it was some grass/dirt (not that our house is that dirty!!). M noticed him and it was lucky that I hadn't stood on him, funnily enough the dogs hadn't even investigated him. M was very brave and relocated him back outside again.

  

For us November is always a very important time for remembrance and so we went to our local church for the Remembrance Day service. It was a wonderful service with numerous poems and writings from past servicemen and a very important message of learning from the past. The organist also played the Last Post on his trumpet which was beautiful and always brings a tear to my eye. After the service we stopped at the local war memorial. We have passed this point many times over the last year and never been to see it. The gardens are so well tended, always full of beautiful flowers and the standing soldier is always freshly dressed at this time of year.

We had an attempt to harvest our sweet potatoes in October but decided they needed a little longer and this was our harvest. Not the most spectacular display but oh they are so tasty. It hasn't put us off trying them again but I think fewer plants to the pot and an earlier start may produce a bigger harvest.

With a birthday and wedding anniversary in November and another birthday just after Christmas this is always a busy pressie time of year for us. This year M bought me the complete collection of The Good Life, it is loosely what our lives are based on but hopefully without quite so many disasters. If you've never seen it then it's worth lighting the fire, snuggling under a blanket and spending a few hours giggling - it's good for your health.

I nearly forgot to say massive congratulations to Andy Murray for finishing the year as World Singles number 1 with a magnificent win at the ATP World Tour Finals. Also huge congrats to Jamie Murray (sorry, couldn't find a photo) for finishing as World Doubles number 1. (There are some great pictures posted by their mum on the BBC News.)

Phew!!!

And Breathe

Well, it took a while but I got there in the end and managed to complete a round up of our first year on our smallholding. If you read it all then congratulations that you made it through; hopefully you got a sense of what we are up to, our challenges and how we are getting along.

It's been quite intriguing to look back at what we have been doing, what we achieved and how the landscape has changed in a short 12 months. I love the picture above as it captures so much of what we have been doing; from the orchard and hedging to the veg patch and the pig ark, it's all here.

I didn't even get around to mentioning the wonderful wildlife we have here, the deer we see in our field and woods, the heron, frogs and ducks in the midden, our resident barn owls and the local bats. We have been mesmerised by the variety of birds and since my recognition skills are so poor we just had to get a book of British birds. It is a shame they don't stay still long enough to give me a chance to find them in the book. At least we could identify robins, sparrows, crows, magpies, buzzards, kestrels, willow warblers and I think curlews. Unfortunately we never seem to have a camera when it's needed.

We had numerous house martins nesting around the barn and at the side of the house and had to rescue a few of the babies who weren't quite ready to fly. The most exciting moment was watching a fledgling learning to fly, it was running down the yard flapping until eventually it flew.

There was a commotion one day with some wrens making a lot of noise and then we realised that a chick had got it's leg caught in some twine used for it's nest and was hanging upside down. The mum and dad couldn't get it free and then it fell quite a distance and bounced off some old crates. Thankfully we were able to rescue it and put it back in the nest, after M had remove the dangerous plastic twine.

 

In an effort to combat the intrusive weeds and generally tidy up the veg patch M built wooden edging around the whole area. it definitely neatens up the whole place and will hopefully make it more manageable next year.

One unexpected and unwanted surprise was the discovery of this little family in the barn, yes, they are baby rats. It probably explained the ripped pig food bag but M took these off to the far side of the field and put preventative measures in place to deal with the parents. The pig food is now secure and will hopefully be eaten just by the pigs now.

Talking of pigs, they are growing really big now and are still as entertaining as ever. They are loving the apples and rooting around their large enclosure. We have learnt that they are very quick to notice when the battery is flat on the electric fence and will then try to disconnect the whole thing. Hopefully this is one mistake we only make once.

 

I love this time of year, the change in colours can be so dramatic and the gorgeous deep red of the blueberries is heart warming.

As the leaves turn and fall we are able to roam more freely in the woods again although it does mean there are lots of jobs to do before the onset of winter. Thankfully M is a dab hand with the mower, strimmer and brush cutter!!! We also coppiced a lot of willow, clearing out as much dead wood as possible. It's a pretty big job which we have yet to complete as there's nearly as much willow as ash around our woods.

Although it's been a mild autumn we have had a few wet and windy days which call for indoor activities and so emerged another bench made by M. Unfortunately we didn't have any paint left over and so we had to buy some more, this was half price for some reason!! It wasn't until a few weeks later that we realised how bright it really was as we could see it from the road, 3 fields away.

 

Another great thing about this time of the year is the end of the main harvesting and preserving of vegetables, which in our case meant the last carrots, peppers and Jalapenos. We are fortunate to have an old, highly productive apple tree and some autumn raspberries and in a last ditch attempt to use them all I embarked on another batch of apple and raspberry/blackcurrant crumbles. We also had some bananas well past their best so I made a couple of small banana loaves with the aim of freezing one but they didn't last the weekend - too tasty.

This is the very last picture of the kitchen, I promise, but I had to include a little photo of the final touch, our blinds arrived and for once we didn't pick plain neutral colours. I just love them.

I often think autumn can be as busy as spring in the garden as plants are lifted, divided and potted up before the cold weather, tender plants are brought into the greenhouse, pots are replanted with autumnal colours and bulb planting beings in earnest. Having removed all the dead lobelia and marigolds from the hanging baskets we managed to give them a lift with some ivy and winter pansies which I hope will start to flower soon. We were pretty disappointed with the lack of bulbs/flowers around the woods last year and so set about planting lots of daffodils, tulips, ferns and primulas in areas where we will get the benefit of their colours. I can hardly wait until Spring.

One last job for M was a second coat of black paint on the yard gates which look great and match the house now. We were thrilled when a car stopped one day and a chap (with 4 children) got out to chat about the history of the farmhouse where he spent the majority of his childhood when his grandparents owned it. He was a lovely man and the memories he had were fascinating. We are still so delighted to be here and hearing his stories brought the farm of old to life for us.