Quick visit to england

We made a lightning visit back to England last weekend, mainly to say farewell (yet again) to Fran & Jen who are going back to New Zealand. However we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drop in on Kath & Mick Walsh who have a house with a view (see above) back in Darwen, Lancashire, where we used to live. Although we haven't seen them for a year or two, it felt like we had only been away a few weeks, although we had lots of news to catch up on. With children and now grandchildren on three different continents, they understood our feelings as we contemplated saying goodbye again to Fran & Jen.

We went on to the Wirral to stay with Jen's parents and took the opportunity to go for a walk in some lovely woodland nearby. This is a strange sandstone rock in the middle of the woods, which is being rapidly eroded by water into deep gullies, the process being hastened by people carving their names all over it.

Unfortunately the clutch of Duck eggs we were hoping would hatch that weekend failed to happen. Not sure of the reason, as they were being looked after by our current gite tenants, who had instructions about keeping them damp etc. Mrs Broody has hatched a brood before very successfully, so who knows what went wrong. The eggs each contained a fully formed, but dead, chick - bit sad really.

We have been able to get lots of stuff done in the garden this last week - more fencing round the bottom field, finishing the bramble cutting on the top bank, and planting strawberries in the fruit cage. Photos to follow when the rain eases up again!

Indian summer

We have had some really lovely weather this september and october, which has given us the chance to catch up a bit with gardening and also to have a day out...

These pictures were taken at Loguivy de la Mer, on the north coast. There was a stiff wind blowing, but we spent the day exploring the coast north of Paimpol.
For map see: http://www.multimap.com/s/eSP6UuaJ

We have fenced in the top field for the sheep, leaving enough space between fence and our boundary bank to get the tractor & topper round the outside of the sheep field. You can just see in the field the pile of dead brambles ready for burning, that were cut from the bank. The sheep enjoy eating the bramble leaves, which often results in sheep arriving down at the barn trailing yards of bramble from their wool - dim as toc-H lamps!
This is the bank round the bottom field, down towards the pond, where the brambles haven't been cut for a few years. There were lots of blackberries this year, but the brambles have got to go, which is a bit of a job - yet to be finished, as you can see. The posts are in place for fencing in the bottom field. We will need this soon, as we are borrowing a ram (Sean II) soon and our ram lamb will need to be securely fenced elsewhere.
This is our fruit cage - yet to be planted-up, but now both small bird-proof (fine green net) and hen/duck proof (chicken-wire round base). We have some gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes in the garden, that are regularly stripped by the birds so we will transplant these into the fruit cage. We have also bought four types of raspberries, a redcurrant, a whitecurrant and loads of strawberries - I just hope we have enough room for them all ....
The orchard is coming back into some sort of order again. The hawthorn hedge round th outside will be laid this winter, and hopefully I can keep the grass under better control next year!
Our Indian Runnner ducks are thriving - the only photos I can get are of them running away from me at high speed! We are starting to get duck eggs, although the egg rate has dropped off lately, as there is probably not enough daylight now.
This handsome lad will be our new cockerel. He is called Bilbo, as he's got feathery feet. He was hatched this year, the offspring of Iggy, who is getting on a bit now (about 4 years!) and starting to get stiff joints in his legs (tell me about it). Iggy will become stock shortly once Bilbo has grown a bit bigger and the hens have stopped pecking him.
Finally, the lovely daytime weather has meant that there have been some frosts overnight and the cornus leaves have suddenly tuned this beautiful colour. Here comes winter once more....