Winter's on its way.

The last few autumn leaves are still clinging onto the trees, but a couple of morning frosts in the last week are a reminder that winter is not far away.

 

 

 

While the thistles have already died back to spiky rosettes, my mahonias, which look so exotic, are looking their best as they come into flower. Mahonia is a very important bee plant, for our honey bees will still occasionally come out on warm winter days and there will be very little for them to forage on. Without plants like mahonia, they will just be using up energy worthlessly.

 

 

 

Gerry, too, has been getting into the spirit of Christmas, bringing home plenty of presents. I'm not sure who these presents are for though. I suspect they are peace offerings for Angel, who has never liked him since she moved in, despite his most patient efforts. Maybe it's because we had Mr Charlie Brown, a friends puppy, in the house a couple of weekends back, but something has persuaded Angel to be slightly more tolerant of Gerry of late.

 

Anyway, I went into the kitchen this morning to find a poor vole curled up next to a large tuft of grass.

 

Gerry often pounces into the grass and brings everything away in his mouth, vole, grass and all. This sort of gory find is not unusual, but I was somewhat surprised to then come face to face with these presents placed just inside the patio doors.

 

It seems Gerry had a very busy morning and it wasn't his last catch of the day either.
On the plus side, he has been catching voles since he moved onto the farm and there certainly still seem to be plenty around!
There are still plenty of kestrels, barn owls and little owls around.

Shadowy figures

Does Gerry have a night-time counterpart?

Regular readers or those who know me will know that Geronimo, or Gerry for short, is the only survivor of three kittens which we originally had. The others, unfortunately and very sadly, were victims of the road.

Last time we had snow (and that's not this winter) Don, whose house is on the other side of the road, told us that he'd seen Gerry padding through the snow in his garden. This came as heartbreaking news to us, for if Gerry was crossing the road it would only be a matter of time...

However, the next night I found footprints all around the house, yet Gerry had not been allowed out. I began to wonder if there could, in fact, be a mysterious cat in the neighbourhood. It would certainly have had to come a long way. And that was that. I've been wondering ever since....

Until three nights ago.

The outside light went on. When this happens, I like to just peer outside and check that the gates are still closed. Sometimes I see a rabbit hopping about on the driveway, but mostly I see nothing. But three nights ago I received a great surprise when a black cat scampered off as I looked through the window. Mystery solved.

 

Another shadowy figure has been making more appearances of late. The peacock is regularly this side of the road. I grabbed my camera to try to get a photo, but it is behaving as if almost wild. It quickened its pace and disappeared through the hedge. This is all I could get.

 

Anyway, this morning I was chatting across the fence to Don when I noticed that Mr Peacock was strutting around not too far away. Apparently he has become used to Don's fluorescent yellow jacket! Not only that, but he was in the company of several of my guinea fowl. Apparently they had surrounded him earlier, as they bravely do when faced with an unknown, but he had raised his tail making them all scarper! I think, though, that he may eventually make friends, at least with the guinea fowl, if not me.

Chilling out



Monday 17th December 2012

 

Gerry is quite a nervous cat. Or perhaps I should say a particularly wary one. For in his life he has had to negotiate his way around many dangers; a variety of farm animals; tractors and combines; the hoover...

In particular, he is not at all keen on change, or on loud noises. So we were naturally concerned for him when the building work was due to start. How would he cope? Well, to be honest, it put him out of his stride for the first couple of weeks. He would hide up or wander around miaowing.

But as the realisation came upon him that actually this new challenge came with new opportunities, such as access to loft spaces and wall cavities previously beyond reach and undreamed of, he gradually came to accept the constant change, and even to tolerate the presence of the builders.

But the best time of all is when it's all gone quiet again and we can cosy up in the living room, fire roaring, world shut out.

 

Chill out time.

Odds'n'Sods

Wednesday 4th July 2012
It did actually turn out to be quite a nice day.

My own man
The best part of my new smallholder lifestyle is that I can choose what to do and when, although the animals, the plants and the weather might have something to say about this. I guess that what I really mean is that my day is mostly free of interference by other people! This suits me perfectly as I am an independent so-and-so who doesn't really like being told what to do!

If I want to, I can devote a whole day to one job. Or I can fill a day with bits and pieces. Within my familiar, slowly evolving little plot little things happen and I have the time to notice them. 
I have to choose what to pick out for blogging purposes. So here's just a small selection of those little things from the past few days...

Gerry makes himself at home.

Gerry

Rivalling me for stubbornness has been our cat, Gerry.

He is well and truly better now, but since being given normal, wet cat food when he was ill, he has decided that he no longer likes the biscuits which he spent the first fifteen months of his life eating. Yesterday I won the battle and he ate biscuits, having refused to touch anything for two whole days. His tummy had even be heard to rumble. However, somebody has cracked and given him Wh*skas again!!!

Guineafowl

Lady Guinea has started laying again. I suspected this when G'nea G'nea himself was becoming more and more macho, calling raucously and charging at me (always behind my back). While I was clearing out the weeds from the poppy patch on Weasel Ridge I came across an egg sitting in a hollow on the ground.

Too late to realise, I'd left it totally exposed and it was no surprise that something had snaffled it by the next day. But then Lady Guinea moved to the soft fruit patch and left this behind....

Unfortunately the crows found that one. It would be lovely if one day I couldn't find Lady Guinea. It would hopefully precede her appearance with a family of young guineafowl.

Bird movements
I've not mentioned our fenland birdlife for a while, and that's because everything had settled down to breed. But I've started seeing the first young birds and gangs of young starlings. In the last few days I've seen a few birds of note though. A hobby appeared on Saturday, doubtless intending to try its luck hunting some of the young swallows. It was seen off by the adults though.
The same evening a cuckoo was fluttering about calling, being pursued by some very worried little bird, many times smaller.

Then, on Sunday, the familiar call of an oystercatcher came from afar announcing an imminent fly-past. A common tern drifted over too. Yesterday, two oystercatchers and four lapwings.

None of these birds is particularly rare, but they are noteworthy when they appear here. And for five noteworthy species to appear within a few days shows that something is happening. A slight change in the seasons. Post-breeding movements or failed breeders moving on. As far as birding is concerned, spring is over and autumn is on the way!

Chinese Artichokes

Down in the veg plot I've planted out the Chinese Artichokes. I've not grown these tiny corkscrew tubers before and I don't even know what they taste like! I know they can be sliced and eaten raw and I'm hoping for something crunchy and nutty.

Some Swiss Chard has been left
to flower and produce seed

Swiss Chard
I've sorted out the Swiss Chard too. It overwintered successfully and has grown to impressive proportions. But, being a biennial, it's now thrown up tough central stalks topped with flower spikes. So I harvested what leaves and stems I could for harvesting and left just a few plants for seed (and out of curiosity).

The rest of the bed was needed for some of this year's courgettes and outdoor cucumbers and for Borlotti beans.

A welcome visitor
On Saturday our local swarm collector called in. What a friendly man and a font of all knowledge, not just bees but pigs, geese, chickens...

At the beginning of this post I may have sounded as if I don't like people. That's not strictly true and this was a very welcome visitor, as are most people who visit.

However, I can be a bit fussy about which people I like and which I don't! And call me grumpy but I do prefer animals and birds.

Geronimo is back

Gerry is back in fine fettle.
He's got his appetite back and put on a lot of weight.
I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, but the racing pigeon seems to have moved on!

We think maybe he got stung in the mouth by a bee. No evidence, except that he's being much more careful catching flies in the house. He normally eats them (yes, I know, it's disgusting) as soon as he catches them. But today he seemed to be a bit more wary. Would explain why he seemed so scared that day we thought we'd lost him, and why he's not been eating.

Today was a warm day, so Gerry stayed cool under a parasol.

But what's he looking at?

He can't reach these babies. If he could, he would.
But he does enjoy watching the adults going to and fro.

Squash Tyres

Saturday 9th June 2012

At the moment a pattern seems to be emerging. Grey starts to the day seem to lead on to the better days weatherwise. And so it was today. A day to be busy in the garden.
I had a big job to do. The squash tyres.

Luxury High-Rise Squash Accommodation
Some of my cucurbits (squashes, pumpkins, courgettes and cucumbers) have gone in with the sweetcorn and beans as part of my Three Sisters experiment. The rest though, have their own special area, each with it's own home fully equipped with everything it could possibly need. Firstly, a tyre to keep it warm and to raise it above the ground. Then, a layer of turfs, back to back, to rot down and give goodness. The next layer of the cake, well rotted horse manure for strong growth. On top a covering of topsoil, just to stop the diet being too rich. Atop all this, each young plant, lovingly reared in the greenhouse, would get its own protective cloche made from a milk carton.

When I showed Sue how to do this, she put the milk carton upside-down...and it made a lot of sense. Easier to secure, a smaller rim to push into the soil and a larger rim to catch the rain and allow for expansion. The final luxury, a layer of slug repellent granules.
Now, this didn't all build itself. In fact it took the best part of the day. Just one last thing to prepare before my cherished plants came to their new home. A slug bashing session.

This year has been quite the opposite of last for slugs. So it didn't take me long to dispatch well over a hundred slugs. Just one of these, nibbling through the stem of a young plant, could wreck all the effort put into rearing it. I know I've talked about working with nature, but I'm afraid that doesn't include slugs. Well, not until I've managed to attract more hedgehogs, frogs and toads into the garden.

Luxury high-rise apartments for the cucurbits

A big scare
Mid afternoon our cat, Geronimo (Gerry for short) came miaowing up to me in the garden. When we moved in we acquired three delightful kittens, mainly to help with the rodent situation. They were supposed to be feral, but we are cat people, so these were always going to be loved and mollycoddled. We were devastated last spring to lose two of them on the road within a short space of time. Olly and Charlie are still much missed and lovingly remembered.
Now, Gerry disappears for long spells into the fields or hunting in the dykes, and occasionally he just decides not to respond to us, especially if he is hunting. So it is always a relief when he puts in an appearance. So I put him in the house at 3 o'clock and got on with my work in the knowledge that he was safe.

At quarter to ten, just as I was contemplating stopping for bad light, Sue came down to where I was working and said that Gerry was nowhere to be seen in the house and that he hadn't come to see her since she got home late afternoon. Convinced that I had put him in, and that the door had not come open again, I searched the house, but no sign. The first place we look, with dread, when Gerry does not come, is on the road. Then along the dyke, in case he has ended up in there. But that's when it's light enough to see. By now it was gloom, heading for pitch black.

Well, to cut a long story short, we searched more and more desperately with no luck. He had always come in before dark, but it was now approaching midnight. I still could not understand how he had got out, so searched the house for the third time...and there, under the bed, tucked away behind an old quilt, sat a very devected looking cat.
What a huge relief! But something was clearly up. He really was not himself, listless, no purr and no response to us. We put him on the bed and went to sleep. It wouldn't be long till the morning and we could see how he was there. At least I wouldn't be out searching for him at first light.

Geronimo!

Tuesday 31st January

Hardly a stunner to celebrate a month of sunrises.

Thirty one down, three hundred and thirty five to go.

I have now seen every sunrise in January 2012, though the sun did not make an appearance every day. I have come to realise that the beauty of the sunrise lies not in the sun itself but in the light and sky effects which it produces. The best are when the rays and radiance of the rising sun bounce around in the clouds, though some clear sky is needed for this to happen. Often the most dramatic photo or view is obtained not at sunrise itself, but as the sun pokes its head above the layer of cloud which so often sits on the horizon. (Or is it just that you are looking through all the thick, moist air which is just above the ground?) As the year progresses, I have decided to try to learn more about the sun and the factors which change its appearance and make the sky turn such an amazing range of colours.

Geronimo!

Time for a proper introduction to Geronimo, aka Gerry. He is very vocal and is often heard to emit a distinct war cry, hence the name. Gerry was acquired from a local farm along with his two half-brothers. They were supposed to be feral and we expected hissing and flying claws. What we got was three extremely cute kittens, but still extremely good hunters. Unfortunately we have since lost the other two on the road, victims of their own sense of adventure. This remains a cause of great sadness to Sue and myself. So Gerry is pampered!

Gerry, a vital tool in our anti-rodent toolkit!

As a kitten, Gerry did once slash my fingers with a pawful of razorblades which went extremely deep. However, it was only a panic reaction when I surprised him one day. He had taken to catching rabbits by the time he was six months old, eating the whole carcass from the head down. He is a prolific catcher of voles - Short-tailed Field Voles which are not supposed to be so common. He has been known to catch up to seven in a day - obviously not so rare round here, as he is still catching them, even in the deep midwinter. At the right time of year he is partial to a wide selection of birds too, though he can only catch the young and unfit. I would like to control what he catches and what he doesn't, but he was brought onto the farm to hunt and that's what he does. Amazingly, he has even brought two dead weasels to the door. It is not great that he has taken another skilled hunter, but populations in nature have a habit of finding a balance and replacing the lost very quickly.

Gerry's other function is as a last stage in our recycling machine. Very little goes to landfill from our house. Most importantly, we are not great consumers of packaged goods. Secondly, we re-use and recycle everything we can. Anything that can goes to the compost and any vegetable matter from the garden goes there too, or to the pigs. In the olden days, kitchen waste would have gone to the pigs too, but of course that is not permitted today and would never be allowed to happen on a responsible smallholding. Gerry's role is to demolish any meat waste. As a kitten, he did this admirably. However, as he has advanced to the grand old age of nearly one and a half, he has slowly spurned every form of meat going. He no longer likes chicken, fish, pork, lamb or beef. Not even eggs.

Just a thought, but why don't they make mouse and vole flavoured cat food?