END OF A DAY

  Today was kind of busy one way or another so I didn't get much chance to use my camera until the sun was starting to set. That's when I dashed out of the back gate onto the fen to capture the view, but my attention was diverted by the clucking of some rather large chooks!  Now ... these ladies were part of the morning chorus a few weeks ago and when I looked out of the bedroom window across the fen, I thought they were geese, they seemed so large. Today has been the first chance to get close to them and though I don't know their breed ... they are gi-normous chooks!

But tonight they were friendly enough for me to get close, seemingly wanting feeding. I wouldn't mind some eggs off these three.

Now to go back to the start of the day ... at five this morning I woke to the normal dawn chorus ... only to hear a cuckoo, or was it a pigeon or a dove being innovative. Well, I woke again at five and there it was again, more distinct this time ... a cuckoo. Now, I probably haven't got the record, but that, is early!! Last year at home, the first I heard was April 21st, but this year so much is happening early, mebbe the cuckoo calling too.

Anyway, at the end of a rather busy day one way and another, the sunset was just quite amazing and out of several photo's this one is my favourite, taken on zoom to capture this tree against a fire bright sky, I was entranced by it all tonight ... a really wonderful sky.

and as for tomorrow ... who knows what may happen! 

WATER WAYS

  The other day I took a small walk along a footpath in an area of the fens not far from here. The mad mutt loved it, scenting all the new smells of a place strange to us both.

The weather was non too bright, so the photo's are rather dull but it rather amused me to see amongst a whole load of rushes to see a fen dyke turn at right angles ... 

<<< don't believe me?

It's the kind of thing you get used to round here, water behaving in in unnatural ways.

I am so used to free flowing water courses back home that it still seems a little alien to me.

And then you also get T-junctions                                                              >>>

the things one normally associates with roads but not in this case.

Confusing to the uninitiated in fenland waterworks, but I'm learning!

It's almost hard to believe, looking at the water levels here that a drought seems almost certain as the water table has not yet recovered from last years lack of rain!

But at least one water loving tree seems to be drinking deeply enough to start donning her spring time greenery ...

soon this tall old willow will be well dressed in her spring finery ready for a summer ball!

FIVE IN A ROW

Today was a rugby fest for those fans of the oval ball and the RBS Six Nations. It was great to see Italy finally win a match, they deserve it, though I felt sorry for the Irish losing on St Patricks Day. As for the Welsh winning the Grand Slam, well this is all I need to illustrate how good that is, just a group of very happy looking, rain watered daffodils!!!

Also one little special surprise in a corner of an old shed in the garden ...

Over the last few days I have been taking photographs of the nest with an egg added each day, then finally last night I caught sight of a bird in the nest. This morning I was lucky enough to get a photo of the female robin peeking over the top. I know it is a female because the male takes no part in the incubation, he just has the job of standing guard and waiter service. Today I also managed to get a photo of the eggs ...which are laid one a day and only when all are laid will the mother start incubating them as she did last night.

So, hopefully in about a fortnights time there should be five healthy young robins here.

Something to look forward to!
Just to let you know that these five eggs, all turned out to be healthy fledglings and since I left, have all flown their secure little nest and are exploring all the garden!!

A DOG DAY OUT & ABOUT

  Everywhere I look at the moment trees and hedges look as if they are covered in snow as the petals have responded to the warmth of the spring sun. The amount of blackthorn hedges around this  area is quite phenomenal ... a good area for any sloe gin enthusiasts! The trees next door are bullace plums, should be a good crop this year if the forecast drought doesn't hit too badly. But today was a very gentle pottering sort of a day with a few hours out in the garden getting rid of last years dead stems and leaves, just tidying up a bit really and burning it all to go on the compost heap, so I smell of the wonderful scents of wood smoke and my creaky achey body is grumbling but I'm a contented gardening soul tonight and bit by bit the garden here is beginning to take shape ready for summer.

  The dogs all had a good day too ... out in the sun having fun  and enjoying scent sniffing.

Millie just loved being out with me, just look at the gloss on that coat! A rescue and still full of little insecurities but she is a sweetie.

Jilly on the other hand is a total tartlet and loves trying to chat up any man in her vicinity including Ffin, but who is that beyond the fence ... another handsome collie who'm she quite fancies ... such a shame there is a big black barrier between them, oh well, worth a try ...

If a lady is patient enough, she might just get a brief encounter with the big guy!

But she gave up and found other scents in the big hedge by the veg garden ... where she dug a hole and got those lovely amber-golden paws all covered in good dark soil. Not to mention the moss caught up in her petticoats but she was a happy dachs!

So for now, the love hearts are just bird bath shadows in Spring sunshine.

A PILL BOX

  The mad mutt and I went for a pre-sunset stroll along the river, which was slightly chilly but lovely, fresh air for me and clean water for the dafft, stick chasing,  diving dog, who now smells clean. His coat is gleaming and smells wonderfully  sweet after his fen water bath ... blessims!

As for me, my wellies just got muddier as I sploshed through water soggy grasses, trying to take photographs of things that unexpectedly came into view like this wartime pillbox.

Approximately 28.000 of these were built in 1940 ... of which there are about 6.500 still surviving in U.K today, quite amazing!
The odd name comes from their similarity in construction to hexagonal or cylindrical boxes which medicines were sold in, this one was square! But just imagine the view down the fen, you are on duty, all kitted up with your uniform and out out of one of the slots in the wall all you can see is this ...

Unless you are a bird watcher, I guess it must have been fairly boring in the daytime, let alone on night duty, stuck in the outreaches of nowhere for hours on end ... yawn!!!
And, I'm sorry folks, that's what I'm doing right now ... yawning so I will share more with you another day but ... tonight the sunset was just  wonderful and I took so many photo's.

Unfortunately some rather startled geese set the ripples going for this one ...  the stretch of dyke beyond, the pumping station. Built in 1945 and still working to change the water levels where dyke crosses the River Cam. Amazing!

Ah ... but now for getting late back to the car and sunsets moments

this one ... as seen through the teasels, seeded heads

which were once used for carding sheep's wool , a tedious process before mechanisation

STRANGE THINGS ...

   

Well, today, unusually for me the camera (normally my constant companion) didn't get used once. So ... I thought I would go back to some folders of photo's since I've been here ... only to find that some of them are completely missing including the ones of the water buffalo that I mentioned hugging not long after I got here. Some have since had calves which I have not yet seen ... so unless I get down to the reserve and take more photo'ss ... a buffalo blog post will have to wait until another day. So ... I trawled through other folders ...

and came up with a few oddities that don't really link together but that I liked at the time ... like the lichened old wood above that just caught my eye as I walked past it, but then more indoors ... and the giant toy that had the trio in a bit of a state about an intruder in their territory and didn't quite know what to make of it ... even Jilly failed to flirt with it ...

She even later, tried to bite it's legs off, but then Millie joined in the offensive ... 

One dead, stuffed toy! Ffin just stood back looking slightly amused as they attacked an obviously non violent toy. In the end it had to get hidden away out of sight, out of mind!

G'nite!

STILL STANDING

 Yesterday morning dawned sun smiley bright with the air alive with birdsong.

Taking the trio around the garden for their first boundary sniff and check of the day, I spotted the first hyacinths blooming shyly under the shade of the parasol tree whilst a small stone frog kept look out. The warmth of the day brought shy, night cold buds into full bloom by the end of it.

But during the afternoon  I took my mutt for a small walk along a track ....

now the other day I pointed out a nissen hut in a photo, so took the opportunity to get a close up, it's dilapidated, but still standing 

and ... being used to store old farm stuff in. Some of which must have come in the other end before the brambles almost totally obscured the roadside entrance like this old wooden sided cart, made in the days before the modern metal ones became the norm around these parts.

It was great to be out and about with the sun shining so warmly but the old legs and hips couldn't take much, so a short walk down to the bridge and a look at old Ely Cathedral in the far distance, then much to Ffin's disapointment we turned back for a slow amble. Him hedgerow sniffing and me just enjoying the spring warmth. Sadly there are already drought warnings for this area.

So, these lush green fields may be suffering if the weather continues to be dry.

DAFADS DAFFS

"RBS Six Nations ... us versus the Italians ... reckon all these daffs are a good sign boss, so just make up a log fire and I'll be happy laid out in front of it whilst you watch the rugby! ... Ok?"

So that's what I did this afternoon and what a win, 24 - 3. Only France to beat next week and we will have won The Grand Slam. So ... 

with all the hundreds of daffs getting ready to to bloom fully in the gardens here I am hoping that it's an auspicious sign that we will have something to really celebrate next weekend. It's been a lovely day here, a bit overcast but warm enough outside during the day for the threesome to go out and play. Watching the rugby with a trio of dogs was just lovely but who was watching who ....

Ffins two miniature lady friends also enjoyed a whole afternoon in front of the fire getting thoroughly spoiled and all three got groomed. Millie the smooth black beauty produced any hair, just looked highly polished.

Jilly the fluffy little tartlet, guess who she is looking at?

Yes the man who produced the most loose merle fur!

She just flirts outrageously with Ffin, not a chance of having offspring but she quite obviously adores him.

He is so gentle with the pair of them, blessims.

So ... much as I would like to see the Italians win a game, I'm just glad it wasn't against us today. I've chosen a special daff to celebrate ...

FROM FANG FARRIER TO FARMING

Well what a day, this broken mouthed ewe went to the fang farriers today, and after over an hour in the recliner came out having had quite a bit of work done and up to the eyeballs in an anesthetic haze. So, to clear my befuzzled brain I went for a walk around the 800 year old St Andrews Church. A place with a fascinating history and it's resident squirrels .

It really is a lovely building and the stained glass from the inside is just wonderful, naturally this one caught my eye due to the fact it had ... yes ... sheep in it!

Now that got me feeling a bit as if I was missing something (apart from bits of old teeth) so I headed out with the daft dog and found a footpath through a large area of arable greenery and along an old fen dyke. I needed the fresh air to clear my fuzzy head and the dog needed to have a bit of a swim to clear the dust out of his coat so it was an ideal place to go. He got all excited at the sound of two tractors heading out from the farm, only to find they didn't smell right and didn't stop to have a chat with us like those at home do. We certainly got some odd looks from the drivers though, me in my farmers wellie boots and stick with a merle collie off the lead but well behaved.
Anyways we found a bit of farm machinery, not the usual rusty old stuff that I photograph ...

Then having had his swim in the dyke, we turned along a wooded footpath and found ...

a gate that led to a field full of molehills and a footpath sign leading up the side of said, seemingly empty field. That is until we espied in the distance ... sheep! So ... being in a foreign country, Ffin had to go on the lead and we progressed closer towards the flock so I could identify the breed only to find out they were Texels. Now that really did make me feel a yearning for home but at least they weren't Welsh Mountain sheep, but boy can these Texels jump an electric holding fence ...

They were just leaping over like popcorn jumping out of the pan and into the butter! But at least I had my sheep fix for the time being. As for the mad mutt, was he interested? No!
He had his snout deep down a fresh dug rabbit hole. Nothing for the pot though, sadly.

But to cheer me up ... the first celandine I've seen this year. Cheers!

SUN & MOON

  Waking up this morning was quite magical. My bedroom here looks over the back garden and beyond that, fenland. I lay there listening to the birdsong and when I eventually stirred my creaky old body and looked out of the window, I was amazed at the mass of activity in the orchard. Birds of all kinds (too many to list here) were flaunting their stuff, strutting along the walls and fences and basically just showing off how they could swoop, land & fly! They were just full of the joys of spring, blessums. 
It was a very sunny start to the day and ... despite doom laden warnings of solar activity threatening to muck up our sat navs etc ... (personally I read maps but there you go)
it promised to be a gloriously sunny day and so it turned out to be, but with visitors and such like, little time for photography of any note, but these two, in the sun caught my eye.

  Where the rest of the day went, I don't know really ...
A weekend shopping trip to a superstore I don't know well, took what seemed like forever. Navigating aisles strange to me, with a trolley that had a mind of it's own, as well as shoppers who seemed to be more like bumper car drivers at a fun fair (you know the sort I mean) neither brain nor trolley in gear). Try as hard as you might, to be polite there is always some par blind, obstinate soul who just gets in the way and ... you seem to meet them again and again down every isle ... Groundhog Day! Well I eventually got back, all the list bar a few items ticked off the list, what was there to subtly photograph? ... nowt! That is until tonight after we'd eaten and as I let the trio out, moonshine
(no ... not illegal liquor but the real thing). So, with my pocket sized, slim-fit camera and apologies to Patrick Moore ... this was the best I could do ...

But that is a full moon and as I take the mad mutt to sniff the days news in the hedges ... well no sat nav probs getting around the village green, no solar incovenience! Just a very brief trog with the dog and then for he and me ... deep sleep!

SPRINGING UP

   Where does time go as one gets older? It's like pulling the plug out in the bath, one minute the tub is full, next things it's all gone down the plug hole and it's time for bed yet again! Dad was in hospital for an Oncology appointment today and left on the transport at nine, so I took the chance to get the hoover out and tidy around a bit for when he eventually got back late this afternoon. They too are really pleased with his improvement. Then he had visitors, we ate late and by the time he was safely in bed and I took the mutt out to say good evening to the ducks on the village pond (they always have a chat with him, dafft ducks!) the day has just gone from wet rainy sun to an almost full moon and I'm almost ready for bed. Yaaaawn! So, with the moon in mind and the fact that judging by the birds and flowers all springing into action, I thought I would share this photo taken yesterday. A hedge full of new blooms, plus we've had very refreshing, much needed rain too.

Here in the garden the hundreds of daffs are really heading up for a fantastic display, and in one corner of the vegetable garden, hellebores are soaking the sun in a sheltered corner.

So the spring is sprunging, the grass is growing, the birds are getting very matey ... and the fenland flats are showing signs of this years arable shoots, greening up the view.

It's just a pity that the pylons march across the landscape like skeletal metal giants. And ...
if you look very carefully at the photo below ... yes ... that really is an old Nissen hut.

PEACE & TRANQUILITY

  This afternoon Dad had to go to see his Doc for an up date and the great news is that he has improved greatly with the implant and it seems that the scales that were so delicately in balance with the cancer have tipped,  on to the positive side! The blocked lymph system has drained well and he is able to cope with less of the other drugs. So he's passed his personal M.O.T and may soon be able to drive short distances. Great news for all of us!

  I took my camera with me and whilst he was in the Surgery I went for a short walk down the road to see a place, where you can buy tractors, now these are not your hill farm type.

These are arable giants and if you see some of the large loads they tow behind them, they are the slow moving diplodocus that seem to dwarf all us mere velociraptor motorists who traverse across the fen's windy roads. Here, a man may be in the fields all day and never speak to another soul from start to end of working, with just the on board radio to keep him company, what a day shift?!

This area now faces severe drought problems after last year and all the dry weather. It seems whether you be an arable farmer facing drought or an animal farmer with the threat of Schmallenburg virus, this area in particular is going to be hard hit this year. 

As lambing is only just about to begin we just do not know how badly effected those that farm sheep, cattle or goats are going to be effected by this apparently midge carried virus.

We are already losing so many farmers due to various hardships, now this. It's sad.

  But looking back to the days of windmills and the hard work endured by men and women then, here's another windmill for you ... well at least it was in a former life ... 

This once can you believe was once a working mill, not for flour but used to grind down coprolites (fossilised faeces to you and me) to be made into fertilizer by a local factory. Then it "lost it's head" and was given a sort of comb over, a thatched roof that made it look more like an Oast House but was actually used for storage for all sorts of sadly decaying, decrepit and defunct farm machinery.

Now, on the way back, the light was just right to take photo's of The Chapel of Rest

I've been waiting weeks for the light to just slant right across this place, because the trees here are so graceful even with their midwinter bare foliage they seem like elegant dancers. I've tried several times to capture these trees in different light, also in the snow.

I stopped the car for this photo opportunity, then dropped Dad back home before heading into the fens again with the magnetic mutt. Yes you read that right ... to help his juvenile joint problems, Charlie, an expert dog trainer recommended a magnetic collar, it seems alongside his anti-inflammatories to be working but poor lad, just under five and from working collie stock. his joints demand less exercise now which is hard on this eager young lad, but if he's to get the best out of life,  we have to be careful.; I know that feeling!

But I also have to know when my arthritic, bent  body needs a rest and though I am not a Christian, churches are peaceful places where one can just take the calmness into the soul.

Tonight, from a distance, St Lawrence's Church seemed almost ghostly as once again the sun was setting, a beautiful balm for the troubled soul sight. Wherever you are, whatever your personal beliefs, may peace be with you tonight. Love, light and peace on all paths.