Black and White

Things have been a bit monochrome today

Except in here of course

Groundcreeper

It is snowing properly this evening after a day of flirty weather, hiding in the hills

and sneaking in with a bit of sleet, a bit of rain, a bit of sun.

I suppose the living things we are most aware of in our lives are the birds all around us. It is easy to see their behaviour through human eyes – the friendly Robins, the flighty Blackbirds, the secretive Wrens…

Recently we have been enchanted by the Treecreeper

(sadly, to our best current knowledge, singular)

Today, perversely, creeping on the ground

Always seemingly oblivious to human activity close by

Meanwhile excavations continue to create Shangri-La in Zenith

And pre-Spring continues to unfurl

While a hint of decay lurks on the doorstep to remind us not to be too optimistic

Salad Days

As we prepare tonight’s dinner, eating something we sowed ten months ago,

we appreciate the necessity for forward planning and Not Letting Things Slip.

So, although skies may play fast and loose

using the polytunnels, we should be able to harvest salad all the year round. But when Autumn comes it is easy To Let Things Slip.

This year we are determined to plant regularly and keep things going. We have so far kept this up for a month, germinating on the hotbed

which still has a core temperature of 65 degrees, and then quickly moving on

This system means we are pricking out salad leaves, which is not normal

(notice the use of slug-deterring bran, which we learned about here)

So today’s sowing, as an experiment, took place in guttering lengths

with a view to sliding the seedlings into a new location.

Also today, Dinah sorts out her maternity quarters

while Bert keeps a nose on things

The wind may still be blowing, the rain falling, and the temperature dropping
but daylight is lengthening and life is insuppressible

Dinah moves house

Doris having moved on, we wake to welcome sunlight

casting strange reflections

leaving snow at a safe distance

With a week to go before her confinement, it was time for Dinah to move to her maternity quarters. Suspense – would a pig follow a feed bucket?

Bert watched closely

As did the pig zone Robin

anxious to keep a check on his desirable patch.

Lottie and Bina kept a watch on their food

While we keep a watch on their nether regions

Not yet up to a senior boar, they are down for a couriered in offering from Ireland – but mapping the cycles of gilts is a millimeter measurement exercise.

Our household group of starlings

Take a few turns over the roof

Resting on its laurels

The birds had to be more than normally acrobatic this morning as Doris violently rocked the feeders

By the end of the afternoon she was moving on, leaving the blue sky swept clean

But also leaving one of the Eucalyptus resting on the neighbouring laurels

Other predators sneak through with less bluster but still cause damage.

These aconites were planted out a few days ago – obviously a rabbit delicacy.

Pethan eraill yn y tyddyn heddiw:

Waiting for Doris

As we await Doris’ arrival

We already feel slightly soaked and blasted by the last 24 hours’ weather.

The run off from the pig area reaches capacity

and we leave behind us aquatic footprints.

Saturation is all around

The hens are pleased to eat their teatime corn from the logs

The Guineas are pleased to be behind glass

The pond is put to the test

to see how the overflow overflows

The starlings head over to their roost

and the Goldcrest becomes slightly blurred

We have heard that Dinah

will have better milk production if fed cabbages

she does not agree

Lottie’s only concern

is that all is ready for breakfast

Meanwhile the hotbed has reached a core temperature of 65 degrees

and the latest batch of salad seedlings have had to be evacuated to somewhere cooler

Bright, Spicy… and Speedy

The hotbed had a top-up last week and has revved itself up to record levels

55 degrees at the core, germinating the latest salad seeds in two days

heat has to be released

to be appreciated by the fig

and the fennel

Pressure is on to keep things moving

Preparing a bed for the previous sowings

Succession salad will be very organised this year.

Outside things are wet and warm

and the spring flowers decide to stay asleep

Let’s pretend it is Spring – just for one day

The skies cleared

the sun shone, the temperature rose – real shirt-sleeves and wellies weather

Bert did a bit of sunbathing and then had to have a mud-bath to cool off

And we nearly had a fatality in the new pond

fortunately, due to the sun, the spider could be rescued with a long cow parsley stem and hung out to dry

Living in your subject

Just received this

In one piece Wendell Berry writes about the failed construction of a pond:
“The ground grew heavy with water, and soft. The earthwork slumped; a large slice of the woods floor on the upper side slipped down into the pond.” and the trauma of causing damage to the land: “too much power, too little knowledge.”

It is indeed a big responsibility to alter the contours, rearrange the soil, making changes that may well exist in some form for many years ahead.

Today we made progress on blending our interference with the surroundings

Wendell Berry says: “I no longer ‘go to work.’ If I live in my place, which is my subject, then I am ‘at’ my work even when I am not working. It is ‘my’ work because I cannot escape it.”

When life and place and work become one – that is contentment indeed.

It also means you are at work in time to see this in the morning

The whole of the Wendell Berry piece referred to, and Paul Kingsnorth’s introduction to the book, can be found here.

Infiltrators

The usual Starling flocks circle around us today

But the colour looks wrong – flashes of pale among the normal black and gold

Looking closer, there are infiltrators

Fieldfares

and Redwing

Also today, through the kitchen window:

Meanwhile the Broccoli is sprouting

the Chard is glowing

the Salad is growing

the hotbed is expanding

and colour is peeping up all around