I managed to catch up with the news back home in Wales today, the only area to have a red snow warning overnight and judging by what my farmer friend said it has been pretty bad. The farming community had been busy getting extra hay and feed up to their sheep in the out-bye fields, as for the next few days at least, access will be nigh on impossible. From our conversation today it seems that they all acted just in time but the westerly winds threaten skimming the snow of the fields and dumping it in the mountain road, thereby making it impassable even to tractors. Not an unusual winter event where I live.
Locally, in the East of England, lambing is beginning and sadly there are signs of this newest threat to livestock farmers; Schmallenburg Virus has already affected one farm locally reporting a 50% loss in expected lambing rates. Back home, our farmers have only just begun scanning their ewes and the news is mixed with some ewes showing no signs of pregnancy, but that could be due to inefficient rams. There is still more scanning yet to be done, but until birthing time, come March/April we won't know the true outcome of this latest problem amongst our Welsh livestock. Fingers crossed but who knows what that last summer and autumn of warm and very wet weather has in store for the year ahead. Last year was certainly ideal breeding conditions for midges which were still to be seen in large clouds here up until a few days ago when the temperatures finally fell to normal winter level. The months ahead will show how badly this virus has spread.
Locally, in the East of England, lambing is beginning and sadly there are signs of this newest threat to livestock farmers; Schmallenburg Virus has already affected one farm locally reporting a 50% loss in expected lambing rates. Back home, our farmers have only just begun scanning their ewes and the news is mixed with some ewes showing no signs of pregnancy, but that could be due to inefficient rams. There is still more scanning yet to be done, but until birthing time, come March/April we won't know the true outcome of this latest problem amongst our Welsh livestock. Fingers crossed but who knows what that last summer and autumn of warm and very wet weather has in store for the year ahead. Last year was certainly ideal breeding conditions for midges which were still to be seen in large clouds here up until a few days ago when the temperatures finally fell to normal winter level. The months ahead will show how badly this virus has spread.
Here, the plumber arrived to fix drain in the kitchen sink which for the last week, due to a corroded downpipe, had meant regularly emptying the water into a large bin in the unit underneath and ... almost as regularly throwing the water on the garden. Not much fun but could have been a much worse problem and was thankfully fairly easily sorted out
Locally, heavy grey skies threatened to dump the forecast snow onto us, we waited for it.
In the meantime I headed out in the car before the snow arrived to get enough provisions to see us through the next few days. Taking the dog, we went for a walk along a footpath new to us, just as the first light flurries of snow began to fall on the already white fenland.
The 'footpath' was deeply rutted with tractor tyre marks, horses hoof prints and frozen absolutely solid. Above us, the skies were a dark dove grey and the breeze bitterly cold.
Having got safely back to the car we headed off to the local butchers in the hope of getting a really lovely piece of pork to roast as a weekend winter warmer. I love this butchers. He knows exactly which local farm the meat comes from and the quality of his meat is superb. There was my piece of pork in the window ... he was shut! How dare he ... on a Friday? The sign said open all day.
And just look at that in the other window, clearly well hung, good quality beef, I could almost smell the roast potatoes and taste the gravy. I asked at the little village bakers and they didn't know why he was shut either, so I got a fresh baked loaf to take home and a pecan pastry to satisfy my sudden cravings for food, then headed off to the supermarket.
There were long queues at the petrol station and the shop was busy with folk stocking up for the snowy freeze ahead. In the car on the way back the weather news said that the heavy snow previously forecast locally was not going to be as bad as expected, though the gritters were out heavily salting the main roads. During the evening just a light icing sugar dust of snow has covered all the tyre, human and dog prints and later during a very brief walk with the mad mutt to see the ducks on the village pond, even the main road had few tyre marks and the village green was pristine white under the lamp lights just as light snow started to fall again. The pond was mostly snow covered ice apart from a tight, white huddle of ducks in a small area of unfrozen water near the reeds. They swam as close as they could to greet us with their muted voices all saying "Good evening". and amongst them the dark shapes of moor hens jostling for the last available unfrozen space.
And here's a cheery photo to end the day. Butchers broom, so named because it was a plant once used to scrub butchers chopping blocks clean. This was taken last year, here,
but now the bushes have been stripped clean of all their fruit by winter hungry birds.
Today at the supermarket, I bought three new bird feeders and loads of extra bird food. When I arrived here for Christmas there were still quite a few berries on the trees in the garden and along the hedgerows locally but ... just in the last week of temperature change these have all disappeared. There are many different bird species here in the garden and I will try to make a comprehensive list in the days ahead as I monitor the new feeders. One unusual thing I have seen attracted to the existing feeders is rather large and loves bird food ... especially the little suet rich pellets but also peanuts? ... I never knew that the mad mutt was a addictive peanut muncher ... until now.
There were long queues at the petrol station and the shop was busy with folk stocking up for the snowy freeze ahead. In the car on the way back the weather news said that the heavy snow previously forecast locally was not going to be as bad as expected, though the gritters were out heavily salting the main roads. During the evening just a light icing sugar dust of snow has covered all the tyre, human and dog prints and later during a very brief walk with the mad mutt to see the ducks on the village pond, even the main road had few tyre marks and the village green was pristine white under the lamp lights just as light snow started to fall again. The pond was mostly snow covered ice apart from a tight, white huddle of ducks in a small area of unfrozen water near the reeds. They swam as close as they could to greet us with their muted voices all saying "Good evening". and amongst them the dark shapes of moor hens jostling for the last available unfrozen space.
And here's a cheery photo to end the day. Butchers broom, so named because it was a plant once used to scrub butchers chopping blocks clean. This was taken last year, here,
but now the bushes have been stripped clean of all their fruit by winter hungry birds.
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