Vacant properties ready now

New build – suitable for flycatchers, redstarts, nuthatches, etc

Second hand tit residence, close to workshop facilities

One previous owner (a bunch of wasps)

Suitable for swinging tits (breezy location)

New redstart fortress (replacing wooden box in same location where nest was predated last year)

Great tit location – near pond and amenities

Come and live in a house where you look like an owl

More social housing

Are you a swallow? Do you like pigs? This is for you – a ready made swallow nest in the pig shed

Plus you can have robins for neighbours

More space for warm winter expanded tit population

and here

This really is social housing

Now if you really are an owl… you might have to boot out the squirrels first

and for swallows who want a place tried and tested last year – although this time round we will be rigging up something to protect the machinery below from your rock hard droppings

Marching on

As the month draws to a close we spot our first swallow. The new Light Sussex duo are settling in

from a distance they are a bit barn owlish and as we only have tawnys here they deserve the names Twit and Woo. They are keeping an eye on their co-quarantined Wellsummers

Juliet and Augusta

Bert has been asking Spot how her confinement is progressing

She is pleased that her maternity paddock is now linked to the nursery quarters

And we seem to have one baby rabbit

We did not know they came in ones.

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Doing the Hen Shuffle

Last night the wind

and snow

blew through. But today it is the Hen Shuffle.

So Fanny, who we rescued from massacre,

is in the pantry.

So his two ladies are inherited by Floppy, who can’t believe his luck

although one member of his previous trio is a little quizzical

Meanwhile Floppy’s ex-quarters are quarantine for four newcomers

arrived today to up our egg production

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Neighbouring newborns

A round of some neighbours today

Back at home it is Fanny’s last day as he learns that being beautiful is no good if you have a vicious nature – Cock of the Coup today – Coq au vin tomorrow

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Present and future pigs

Today was the first day when the mud was sufficiently solid for Spot to consider lying down

in order to have her teats tweaked

Earlier in the day Bert too had been spied lying down outside to catch the sun. Later on he does not want to miss out on the attention

As Spot sniffs the air of Spring

we think that her teats – in a months time when she farrows – will soon look like this

This is Martha who lives at Foldson Rare Breeds and is the mother of these two week olds

who we visited today in search of child brides for Bert. The red marks one of the chosen ones

Exciting pig times ahead

On the cusp

Caught between moods and seasons as we pass through the door into lengthening days.

The full moon rises

just as rain returns after a strange period of dryness while snow still rims the mountains

Animal activity is changing – winter tit flocks have dispersed and chaffinches defend their patches with monotonous calls.

Mr Pheasant affects haughty disdain

and the rabbit has a glint in its eye

Spot is getting restless

while Bert just wants breakfast in bed

The (remaining) ducks just want to keep their heads down

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Down at the sow nursery site the special window is being installed

Blood on the Road

Gribin Isaf is on a minor single track unclassified road. To get here you have to leave a B road and, in a space of half a kilometre, stop your vehicle to open and close two gates. This road also takes you through the middle of an active farm yard before reaching us.

If you were on this journey would you be proceeding with caution, or speeding round blind bends as the driver of a (as yet) unnamed well known major distribution company was doing today

So this morning there were six ducks and now there are three

and a feather in the road

We have to to raise our eyes and see new life in the sheep about to lamb

and, of course, Spot and her contents

as she watches

her new house move to completion

So we end a misty day misty eyed

Equinox

The year tips and light outgrows the darkness – all things are possible.

Some glimpses from the plot today:

Home

Yesterday we we here

(just to the left, and down a fraction, from the N) to celebrate a family union.

This trip emphasised for us further why we are here. In a place where all we can see is what enriches us – some things we saw today on getting home:

Egg lovers needed

As the moon arcs over Gribin Isaf tonight

We have a bit of a problem. This is our crop of eggs from today

and the ducks were on go slow only producing two rather than the normal three.

Multiply up and you will see that 77 eggs is more than a household of four needs in the course of a week.

So we need some people near by who would like a regular delivery (and no, we are not going to pickle the excess).

Elsewhere today….

We have organised our guests’ footwear library

and added a frontage to Spot’s maternity quarters

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw: