A Loveliness of Ladybirds

Saturday 5th January 2019
A while ago I wrote that I try to notice something nature-related, however small, every day on the smallholding. But today it was Sue with the sharp eyes.
She noticed this conglomeration of ladybirds huddled together in the crook of a sheep hurdle.
Rather delightfully, the collective noun for a group of ladybirds is a loveliness. How lovely!
I feel a bit guilty as they may well have been displaced by my path clearing yesterday. But I can't leave everything untouched all year and at least if I do disturb them there are plenty of alternative places for insects to hide away for the winter.
These ladybirds are most welcome on the smallholding as it is their larvae which will be munching away on aphids next summer. A Seven-spot ladybird can eat about 5000 aphids in its life.

My day was spent at the bottom of the land knocking in a line of fence posts. I drive them in by hand using a very heavy and chunky metal tool known for some obscure reason as a post basher. It is hard work, so in between posts I removed some of the tree guards from the saplings. They should be old enough to withstand any nibbling now and I think they are better off with air flowing around their trunks.

The day flew by and before I knew it Sue and I were heading south deep into The Fens where we were due our annual meal out with the Grow Your Own group. Amazingly I founded this group five years ago and it is still going strong with many of its original members. A lovely evening was had by all. It is funny going out with fellow smallholders. Nobody orders chicken, duck, turkey or lamb as we have freezers full of the stuff. Instead the game pie was very popular, as was the fisherman's pie.
We did a gardening version of Secret Santa too. The presents were awarded at random and I got The Grumpy Gardener's Book. For some reason everybody thought this most appropriate.

Sunday 6th January 2019
I did unphotogenic jobs today. Drilling holes in wood in preparation for making some willow bird feeders. I put willow rods in soak too. They will just need a day to mellow and I can start making the feeders tomorrow night.
After this I started on the decking by the back pond. I broke the back of it and another day's work should have it almost finished. Pictures when it's done.

While I was busy with these tasks, Sue was cleaning out the chickens and then surprised me by clearing all the dead vegetation from the small wildlife pond in the middle of the veg patch. She uncovered some very nice fungi and a delicate mouse's nest.

After dark saw Sue preparing two dozen pheasants which we were kindly given by a friend. It's better than them going to waste and we do appreciate getting them.

ed. How could I forget? Our first duck egg from the new ducks. It's been well overdue and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. It may have something to do with the fact that we had a (very) late start today so the ducks were shut in their stable for longer than usual. But ducks normally lay early in the morning  so I would be surprised if they have been laying outside unbeknown to us.