Wild weather

Last week the weather was wild here although the sun shone. Barney and I ventured onto the common, me with a woolly hat and him with his ears blown upright. The hawthorn berries were bright red and shone like jewels on their stiff twigs, breakfast for hungry blackbirds in the weeks to come. High in the sky a heron was struggling to make progress, but the wind blew him about. He looked like a kite without a string. Eventually he gave up, landed and perched near the fence in a grumpy manner, looking cold and fed up. Barney is so slow now, joints painful but still positive about exploring rabbit holes....

Owls

Three years ago we had two baby tawny owls in the garden. They stayed awake all day like toddlers who wouldn't go to sleep and their parents must have been exhausted. As they got bigger they hopped about in the upper branches of the willow tree and if I walked underneath  and looked up, there they would be looking down at me in astonishment. It was a magical summer that year but sadly it has never happened again even though we have a perfect owl box set at just the right angle in the pear tree. Recently Jo asked me if I had found the owls in the cathedral and showed me where they were. So here they are, identical twins, who have watched the congregation from high on a pillar for centuries.

Harvest

Now I don't want to appear smug and after commenting on the winter stash  tendencies of our squirrels, but I'm just going to swank about my jam jars. Which are full. All of them . Barney and I have been tottering around the blackberry bush on the common everyday for weeks. Me picking a small bag of berries daily and him lying in wait for any very slow rabbits who might pass by... Now the berries have been converted into jam. Not only blackberry, but balckcurrant, mulberry ( due to husband's scrumping efforts on the tree at work), and strawberry, due to a lucky buy in the local shop. The slugs have enjoyed my strawberries mightily! Lovely Jo sent me an appropriate postcard too which made me laugh, we both have favourite jam jars which have been reused over the seasons.

Winter larder

In Lincolnshire our Horse Chestnut trees are stricken with two problems. One makes them ooze a sticky tar like substance and the other makes the leaves die. In our garden the  tree near the house looks very sick. Never the less there is an annual replanting process going on. People with  bushy tails  are very busy, rushing about, burying conkers... anywhere will do....flowerpots, the middle of the vegetable patch, in the lawn.... What few conkers we have are being distributed around the garden in a random fashion which denotes  a short memory span by our population of grey squirrels. They also steal peanuts and bury those. And walnuts and bury those too. And my tulip bulbs have disappeared, the alium bulbs never got chance to appear at all, and I can guess who dug them up! And I won't  mention the hazelnuts, but I can hear  the squirrels as they run along the sewing room roof, between the hazel tree and the  back garden, so I know what they are up to!

Winter larder

Now I don't want to appear smug and after commenting on the winter stash  tendencies of our squirrels, but I'm just going to swank about my jam jars. Which are full. All of them . Barney and I have been tottering around the blackberry bush on the common everyday for weeks. Me picking a small bag of berries daily and him lying in wait for any very slow rabbits who might pass by... Now the berries have been converted into jam. Not only blackberry, but balckcurrant, mulberry ( due to husband's scrumping efforts on the tree at work), and strawberry, due to a lucky buy in the local shop. The slugs have enjoyed my strawberries mightily! Lovely Jo sent me an appropriate postcard too which made me laugh, we both have favourite jam jars which have been reused over the seasons.

The Humber Estuary

The Humber Estuary is in North Lincolnshire. It is very wide and spanned by the Humber Bridge which I think is very beautiful. Over the weekend we visited  The Ropewalk Gallery at Barton on Humber for the first day of the Max and Jill Marschner exhibition called 'Sights: Sites'. They are amazing artists and I am so lucky to be living next door to them. After seeing the gallery display we walked out along the Humber estuary bank path. It was a hot sunny day and the tide was out. Wading birds looked for afternoon tea in the mud and the light shone in pearly pinks and blues across towards the bridge. It's a marvellous place to visit and we can recommend the cafe too.

Work ethics

This weekend it was cold on our beaches in Lincolnshire. The wind whistled across from the north sea and we wore jumpers and jackets as we strolled along looking at the beach hut exhibition. But some of us were carrying on with their jobs stoically. Giving delight and raising a smile on the faces of small children. Carrying on  work with a long tradition; a job description  little changed for fifty years. At the end of the summer season there is a  prize for the best turned out employee, maybe with the most  professional attitude to their work.... and then there is a long holiday, a chance to relax, run round a field, eat lots and reflect on a job well done... So here they are Buzz and Bart , two chaps from a team of seven, cheerful, brushed, saddled, and waiting to be ridden....