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....