CHICKEN RUN INITIATIVE.

Underneath yesterday afternoons skies, the combines were busily whirring across vast acres of golden, ripe corn fields. The drive from the village was a stream of gigantic tractors & trailers, heavily laden with massive rectangular bales  so slowing the traffic.

The late afternoon air was perfumed with that lovely scent of fresh golden harvest, it was a lovely sight to see especially after the desperately waterlogged fields that I witnessed earlier on in the year when tractors could not even get on to plough for sowing.
Meanwhile, closer to home, my neighbour who rescued one hen "Beartrice" and 15 very young chicks,has had a bit of a space problem due to the chicks growing so fast ...

her hurriedly bought, flat pack run is no longer adequate enough to cope with them all.

So ... ole Dafad here (who managed to rescue some brand new trellis work from being dumped at the recycling centre) has been kind of busy building a larger run for them all.

It has been a sunny afternoon but the skies kept turning dark and seemed to promise rain ... then blue skies and white clouds appeared again but bit by bit the trellis got changed into wired panels and slowly but surely each panel became chick proof.
Dafad also had several visitors which delayed progress  a bit but towards the end of the daylight day, progress was made.

All it needs now is just a netted "roof" a wee bitty shelter if it rains in the day and a door.
The plan then, after the Beatrice brood have got used to it, is to make the 15 youngsters earn their keep by putting them in the vegetable garden (currently overgrown with weed and full of late summer seeds) where they can all be under gardeners and clear the patch.
A friend the other day suggested I borrow two sheep ... now that ... does appeal to me!
The mad mutt could cope with them but the other suggestion of goats and I drew the line, I can't see him getting on with the more obstreperous  "Capra aeagagrus hircus" yes ... that really is the latin name for the domestic goat! Closely related to sheep they have very different temperaments and I can just visualise the daft dog getting severely goat butted .
Pigs were another "land clearance" option mooted to me but much as they make great weed eaters and soil Rotavators and even though I have just recently learned how to cure  bacon within seven days (indeed the old farmers who lived here kept pigs and smoked their own sausages and hams) I think even I draw the line at borrowing a few pigs!
By the time I had finished constructing the main walls of the chooks new, more expansive run, the sky was turning into its "ready for bed" sun setting tones of cloud punctuated  skies ... the evening remained comfortably warm but I was worn out, ready to eat, long muscle relaxing soak in bath and then heading early for bed ...

then the skies changed

 and I drove out with the mad mutt in the car and went chasing photographic chances ...

Even as I took these photographs, the local combines were harvesting whilst the crops are dry and as darkness dimmed the western sky line, I could still here harvesting machines 

busily working well after the sun had set tonight.

We took a slow walk along the verge, just watching the blazing sky slowly end the day.
The mutt finds it easier to walk on the grass with his arthritic legs whilst I was picking the first blackberries of the year ( eaten with cream when we got home). 

What a pair we make? Very arthritic owner and dog!

Yet with strong determination, we both get somewhere, so be it all very slowly at times.

Goodnight all, sweet dreams.

A FIELD GOOD DAY.

I will explain more about the above badge later, I am wearing it as I write, intrigued?

Well yesterday I had kind of reached a point where all the sorting out of the house, filling a skip with much unwanted junk etc and trying to sort out the good stuff, had got to me.

So ... I decided I needed a break and pottering around this here old garden is good therapy

but it has been in a much untended mess. Two of the lawns were mowed yesterday but the poor old vegetable garden was higher than me in weeds. Some has been done but not enough. It was hot, hard work but rewarding to clear at least some of the seeding weeds.

A shadow of my former self ... here comes the grinning reaper!

 It seemed at times to be snail slow work. Whilst I sweated in the heat, a small golden snail ... was sun bathing!

Some noise over the garden wall got me intrigued so I had a peek and to my surprise ...

I sure could have done with one of these!

Preferably the red one, which was designed by Kendal of Grantham, Lincolnshire in the 30's for use on allotments or folk with just a few acres of land. Only a very few survive, I think the guy said only six are still in working order, but they were ideal at the time.

Too big for the veg garden here. A friend suggested that I borrow a couple of local sheep now that idea ... really does appeal to me! Days here seem to be crazy but sometimes fun.

And today has been one of those days ...

I met a lovely neighbourly lady who asked me to join in a Treasure Hunt for the kids.

Basically a trail of clues leading around part of the village, with prizes for the best team.

So this afternoon I popped down to the Rec just have a look see what was going on ...

and ended up being team leader for four bright young lads. "The Ffin Team" and off we went on a boiling hot, sunny afternoon with a whole list of clues. It was fun and best of all I learned more about the village, The lads were brilliantly well behaved, great to be with and we had a good time.

Question 28 was "What is the missing letter on the sign on Pond Green?" I already knew this because I had spotted this sign a week ago and it amused me greatly, so I took a photo of the lads stood beside it. See if you can spot the council sign departments error? I've never seen an "ehicle" on the greens!

One of the clues related to this house, it was "What kind of chocolate can you see in the driveway?" Well the eejit who lives here didn't get that at all & I walk past it every day.

It was a ... wait for it ... Wagon Wheel. Kindov obvious really!

I picked up the mad mutt and he loves kids, so off we went to get the last clues, hand in our trail sheet with 46 questions answered and  have cold drinks & kid style sticky sweets.

But it was all great fun, we didn't win but came very close. Ffin got to play football with the kids, as always he is as good as gold with the youngsters &  has a whole new fan club! We all got an "I'm Having a Field Day" badge & a sort of snap on wrist band which I am wearing as I digit this. The young ones also got small kites to play with, there wasn't any wind today, but they raced round the Rec with them and got them afloat a few feet above their heads. Happy folk!
 We returned home tired out and after getting fed, just sat in the late warmth of the garden, cooling down and watching this evenings' changing skies (which were amazing tonight) until the sun finally set on what has been a interesting day in so many small ...

... but very lovely ways.

THE OLD & THE NEW,

Well folks this last week has been a strange one in many ways (too complicated to relate) but it has had its highs and lows. On Saturday a dear friend came here to stay, he has been researching my great, great grandfather who was the first to make a collection of English folk songs and I had found more stuff relating to Frank Kidson. Whilst he was here, Wicken windmill was open and working ... so we went to visit it. I have mentioned it before in my post entitled "Home Ground"which has lovely photographs of the inside. The other day this wonderfully restored, working windmill looked so lovely in the bright sunshine and the village is  celebrating her grand  200th birthday this year. 

So from black & white to colour ...

It was just wonderful to sit at the top level, seeing all the wonderfully engineered components turning and grinding the corn on the level below and to feel the slow, almost drum beat rhythm of all the hand engineered wheels & cogs, grinding flour beneath us. Now, I love working with wood, having been in aircraft engineering and working with metal, but there is something so special about machinery that is largely constructed with old trees. In the oldest part of the barn here the uprights are just tree trunks, wonderful.

There is a certain fell and scent to wooden engineering that aluminium and steel simply cannot replace. And to see it all processed from grain into bags of flour is amazing, but ...

only just recently whilst sorting out here, I found some things that are thousands of years old which my father found and carefully collected and catalogued  around the year that I was born ... they are all Neolithic stone tools from The Cameroons, West Africa.

An archaeologist friend  and I, slowly unwrapped the newspaper that they were wrapped in and just sat on an old, low brick wall, amazed. Here was a selection of tools made thousands of years ago. Lovingly crafted by hands that hunted, skinned, or ground. It was just a sun warmed moment of sheer excitement as we handled these lovely ancient tools.

But we also had to handle some thing much newer and as you might say, "Up to date."

She has recently rescued one hen & fifteen newly hatched chicks, none of them Eastery ... 

They are growing day by day at a rapid pace and will soon need a much larger run but they are just delightful, Now the single mum ... must have hatched some other hens eggs, (she could never have laid 15 little ones all by herself) but ... not only being a feral hen, (now caged) and to find herself caring for a brood of 15, she is doing very well, bless her!

And lastly before I say goodnight folks, wherever you are in the world, here's roses for you

May the old combine with new in harmony!

FENLAND FUN.

Today was one of those strange and mysterial days  when nothing quite goes to plan and yet works out better in the end. It started off sunny and bright (washing still on the line which I had left out overnight) but dark clouds loomed on the horizon. Within seconds the patio glistened with wetness and ...  all my washing was soaked. So I had to bring it in off the line and tumble dry it indoors.
Not the best way start to the day, the rain was intermittent all morning almost spoiling next doors birthday party ... but it got better and by afternoon the sun was out, the rain had moved on and everything was dry again. Thank goodness for that!

I had some much needed  help taking all sorts of stuff to the local recycling centre which turned to be a most fascinating place. Fairly recently built, it recycles  almost everything. There is a space (clearly marked) for the usual stuff but one can also get rid of pots of old paint, fluorescent light bulbs and even old footwear.
All is clearly marked & getting rid of old stuff is easy. Plus, they also resell the better stuff and we came away with some goodies, including the wooden trellis work to make a decent  chicken run, more on that a another day! But watch this space for rescued chicks ... adorable!
Two well loaded trips to the recycling centre and much rubbish from here was headed for a new future in life.

<<< even various types of paint are accepted as seen by this notice, which is good news given the many pots of half used paint found here. And even better ... one can make an offer to buy stuff back, which in the case of a new chicken run proved to be a much cheaper solution than buying the wood needed from a local DIY store. The man in the white van who was dumping the wood for recycling even (bless his kind heart) drove it all the way over here for us as it wouldn't fit in the car.
 Anyway I am now tired out but just want to end with a few photographs of this evenings amazing fenland arable fields and some awesome skies.

How one sometimes wishes that one was an accomplished artist to be able to capture such  atmospheric scenes as the above.Thank goodness for the pocket sized, digital camera. 

MOVING THOUGHTS.

I don't know what it is about me, but I seem to be someone who looks after folks pets when they are on holiday, namely chickens and rabbits. Yes even here up in the Fens.

<<< This rather camera shy rabbit is called Toffee, due to its rather gorgeous colouring. The daft dog has a soft spot for rabbits and the two of them have become quite pally, sniffing nose to nose when I feed it morning and night and  then there are the lovely chooks, one rooster & three ladies that lay.

They are all named after herbs which is rather fun. Being bantams their eggs are small but just the right size to go into a fresh bacon and egg sandwich (guess what I have for breakfast) the eggs were still warm this morning before they got hot in the frying pan. Very tasty!

Also spot the dovecote that houses about thirty white doves which fly over the garden in a small cloud and can be clearly heard joining in with the wild birds in the earlier hours of the morning, adding their song to the dawn chorus. Of course, small as he is, the rooster likes to prove how loud a voice he has to add to the morning musicality. Little show off!

Then just this afternoon going to a local artists "Open Studio Day" I came across this tiny, leapy frog on the Village Green.

<<< It really did not want to be photographed and it took me several patient attempts to get just this one semi decent  photo. Also on the village Green there was a bring a picnic and wait for this ... "Duck Race Day". Now as followers of my blog will know, the mad mutt made friends with the old call ducks, but this new lot just don't want to know. As it was so hot, we headed home and got on with other things such as getting a water butt ready for the rain that was forecast this afternoon. The skies certainly turned dark and gloomy for a short time ...

a few spots of wetness fell as the dark clouds almost raced overhead, probably moving faster than the ducks on the village pond! The washing on the line survived being rinsed yet again and the rest of the afternoon and evening remained delightfully dry. Around the "gone to seed leeks" the bees were busy gathering the last tasty morsels of pollen before the beautiful globe shaped seeding heads turned into seeds (for next years leeks maybe) ??

Yes ... moving thoughts. I am seriously considering moving up here. Much to my own surprise I have realised that (despite the flat landscape) I really do enjoy being here.

There is a diversity of nature that is wider than that I am used to in Wales and back home, I certainly don't get Muntjac & Roe deer barking in the twilight. The bird life here is just wonderful, watching all the different species come in to gorge on the many feeders here is a daily pleasure and I have made new and long lasting friendships here in arable country.
I also have to consider the future and with arthritis, a deteriorating spine on top of other medical ailments I need to think more sensibly about my long term future. I know I will dearly miss Wales and it's mountain farmers as well as the many happy years I have spent there, it is a tough call and not a decision lightly made. But just to balance the equation, there are local cattle and sheep farmers. Who knows what path the future takes, but just like my folks who loved rugged, at times barren terrain .I too have changed my attitude about the fenland landscape, it's all very appealing, so folks out there, watch this space!

GREEN & GOLD.

Today started as have most days over the last few weeks, sun shiny, bright and very hot. The kind of weather, sunflowers love! When I was last up here for the first few months of the year, I wrote about how flooded the local arable fields were and the desperation of farmers unable to get tractors onto muddy, sludgy waterlogged ground. How very different that all seems five months on. Now, almost desperate for rain, local farmers have been irrigating their fields. So luckily, the winter/spring weather has topped up the reservoirs and just as I write this post the rain has started again and it sounds loud on the window panes. The good news is that I don't have to water all the pots in the garden but elsewhere, no doubt the earth has been dry as a bone ... not good in this hot summer weather! The great watering can in the sky has almost so far, failed us until tonight.

When I took the mad mutt out for a late afternoon walk today, I was surprised at just how cracked and parched the arable land has become despite some brief periods of rain during the last few weeks, and yet I have witnessed the water sprayers on potato fields!
Everywhere I looked there has been that contrast between green and gold (hence the title for this post) all too soon the arable crops will be harvested in and ploughing for next years rotational crop will begin again, earlier on this year they were harvesting beet here.

The apple trees here are ripening fast,the first being the cider apple tree ... already sweet enough to eat. I wish I knew how to make cider! Yummy (home made) scrumptious! So ... as I look around at the landscape here all I can see is green and gold under ever changing skies. I can hear the rain on the window panes, a welcome sound after the long hot days of drought. During our late afternoon walk I witnessed fissure type cracks in the soil, not a good sign, hopefully tonight's rain will ease the current situation and the fields now dry will drink their fill. 

Yes, the last few cornfield poppies were still in bloom and it reminded me of those that I have lost when I served in the RAF and of course of my Dad who did his national service in the RNVR. I miss him so much. He loved my blog because it helped him to understand my life back in Wales, though (typical proof reader) he often emailed me regards spelling mistakes, for which I was grateful. I missed him lots today, he loved seeing my photographs on the computer when he was too ill to walk anywhere and it was my way of sharing the Fenland scenes that he loved so much.
So, these green and gold photo's are for Dad ... 

He had a heart of gold and also as a keen environmentalist he cared about the countryside. Something that he and my mother instilled in me from a very early age and for which I will be eternally grateful. I also miss my mother who would as an illustrator of fungi, have loved to have seen this on an old apple tree in the mini orchard here ...
a beautifully formed, almost perfectly formed bracket  fungus which I have as yet to try and identify. I'm not that good on my mycological knowledge and I miss her expertise.

 Much as I love Wales, it has been lovely to be up here in the summer months and to see the fenland under different skies, with arable fields ripening in the summer sunshine. Taking the dog out has given me a break from sorting out this place and I have loved hearing both Roe & Muntjac deer calling in the twilight as well as owls hunting in the dim glimmer of hot summer evenings. I have fallen in love with the Fenland landscape despite still yearning for the hill farming community that I have had to leave behind me, all be it temporarily. New days, new challenges and many, many happy memories! Let us wait and see what the future has in store, but here's to both my parents and the crazy pathing path we have travelled in our lifetimes. It has been interesting to be up here during the summer months to see the Fens in a different light and  to have made so many new friends.

Here's to the future, whatever path it leads me.

HAY & WHY ...?

I will explain the title for this post shortly, but the answer is this ... "Just for the fun of it!"

Today was overcast and much cooler, not that I minded and I know how much we moaned about the flooded fenland fields here at the beginning of the year but we could do with some now as the arable fields in this area are rather parched and dry. Here in the garden I have been using the water butts to give all the potted plants a decent drink and they have all perked up and look a lot happier for it. The birds have been busy on the bird feeders especially the starlings, it has been fun watching the parents teaching the young ones just how to eat fat balls in a hanging cage but they seem to leave all the grain to the pigeons. Today I saw the fattest pigeon I have ever seen, that it could fly amazed me.

We also spotted a green woodpecker eating the masses of ants that have invaded an area of the border plants, (I don't think it will get as fat as that pigeon on such a mini meal diet!)

Anyway, this afternoon I had to take the mad mutt to the vets, it was the local veterinary surgery here that initially diagnosed Ffin with crepitus of the joints and he is on a daily dose of anti inflammatory tablets but he had run out of them some days ago & was sore.

On the way there we spotted something rather unusual in a field which made us smile so ...

on the way back home I just had to stop and take a photo to go on the blog, so 'ere tiz ...

A farmer with a great sense of humour ... it made us smile anyway.

A BIRD IN THE HAND...

Today has been a mixed day of  attempting to get things sorted out here as well as going through Dad's address book to get in touch with those who could not attend his funeral.

I had been checking my camera out (guess who forgot to pack the charger) when I went upstairs to get something, only to find a young black blackbird trapped in my bedroom...

I managed to catch it and took it downstairs but before I released it I took a photograph.

There is an old saying ... "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" this means that it is "better to have a lesser but certain advantage than one that may have a greater one that may come to nothing." Well for me it simply meant that this young blackbird could fly free

and that it most certainly did, straight out of my hand and was within minutes happily gorging on one of the many bird feeders I have hung in the garden here. Good luck to it.

It has been wonderful to see so many different birds flocking to the feeders here and to know that those well fed will survive and bring up healthy chicks for the future.

Dad loved watching the variety of birds in the garden here, though I have to be honest in that the fat pidgeons here abouts were envisioned de feathered and pastry encrusted.

It's been an odd day ... ringing folk I've never met, to tell them the sad news but ... it has also been heart-warming to hear stories about my Dad that I never knew and to talk to folk that Dad knew well but I had, until today rarely talked to since childhood. I wish all those who could not attend the funeral ... a feeling of peace and love for a great man. xxx

BON VOYAGE TO DAD.

Yesterday was Dad's funeral, a sad day but also a celebration of a wonderful man's life.

He had been coping well with very advanced prostate cancer until a few months ago when he went into Addenbrooke's Hospital for radiotherapy, a severe and debilitating treatment. He then went into Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge for respite care but sadly for all of us he passed quietly and gently, peacefully away on the evening of 23rd of May, just under a week away of reaching the age of 79, but with good friends there to hold his hand. He had had many loving, caring visitors in those last weeks of his long, varied life.

He used to smoke a pipe years ago but gave up. He always said that if he reached the age of 80 he would smoke a pipe again, something we all thought he would be able to enjoy.

It was a sad loss for folk all over the world.

I was still in Wales at the time, coping with my own health problems and only managed to get up here a few days ago. Meanwhile his solicitor and neighbours all rallied round brilliantly, dealing with the various necessities for which I will be eternally grateful.

It seemed so strange coming into an empty house without Jilly and Millie to greet Ffin,

but they have been re-homed with a lovely lady who has a dog already so they are now two of a trio and I know they will adapt and have a great time being much adored by all.

It was also sad to see the garden so overgrown but yesterday morning it was lovely and sunny and I sat there in the warmth with a small glass of wine and raised it to Dad. All of a sudden I felt a huge feeling of peace and tranquillity come over me and felt much stronger.

I wandered around the garden, which despite being overgrown and the lawns unmown seemed to be so bright and cheerful with all the plants starting to blossom fully and with all the many birds darting in and out amongst the trees and on the bird feeders which Dad's lovely tenant keeps well refilled. All too soon it was time to get ready. Now ...

Dad had stipulated in his will that we could wear what we liked even wellies if we wanted to and some of us very nearly did but bottled out and just chose to dress brightly.

He had chosen to have a Humanist funeral (non religious) at Cambridge crematorium.

I had been asked what I wanted put on top of his coffin and I immediately said "Sunflowers because they are bright and smiley!" Well they didn't let me down in fact they excelled. When the hearse arrived at the house with the car to take us behind it ...

there was Dad's coffin covered in bright smiley faced sunflowers shining in the warm sun.

My first words were simply "WOW!"

There followed quite a long journey to the crematorium, luckily everyone else had made their own way there or we would have held up a lot of traffic and the sunflowers smiled.

Just before his coffin was carried into West Chapel we took photographs of the team.

Even they couldn't help but smile too!

The humanist service was lovely and the lady who conducted it was warm and lovely.

Two very close friends had compiled a very full resume of the amazing life that Dad had.

He was an innovative biologist and very skilled in his field and during his life, worked in the Cameroons, Ardnamurchan in Scotland, was Warden of Orielton Field Center where after two major tanker oils spills he started the Oil Pollution Research Unit, which was so innovative and successful that he was head hunted by B.P to take a senior position an ecological advisor, a job that took him all over the world and on many adventures.

He was instrumental in the need to look at tropical rain forest conservation, which he studied assiduously and wrote three published volumes about, he was a very busy man.

Then finally when my mother became ill, he resigned from B.P and started a recording studio, a job far different from anything else he had done in his life, but he became a well respected sound engineer and recorded everything from folk to classical music as well as spoken word, educational C.D's with accompanying books and many other  varied accomplishments. He was as ever an enthusiastic and very work centric man but one who enjoyed life immensly. During these last few years he has been busy writing articles and proof reading books about one of his passions in life ... sailing. He had owned his own boat at the age of 14, which he and his father restored, he did his National Service in the navy and went on to sail yachts during his time at Bangor University. Later in life he sailed on the tall ship the Phoenix, one of the many highlights of his life and he loved tall ships.

Sadly there were many who could not come to his funeral but it was well attended by folk from all varying areas of his life and it was lovely for me to meet people that he talked so fondly of that I had never met. It really was a lovely send off for a man of many talents.

There will be many across the world who will miss him but remember him very fondly.

One good friend, was brave enough to wear wellies at Dad's funeral. well done that man! 

The sunflowers were (but for the two above) brought back and shared out amongst his close neighbours, there were well over thirty of them on his coffin and made us all smile ...

... just as Dad made so many of us smile and laugh throughout his long and varied life.

He will be  missed by all of us that knew him and his lovely, fun, immense sense of humour.

I wish him ... Bon Voyage!

xxx