April 14th, 2014 14/04/2014

After several days of frustrating weather up here, I woke to glorious sunshine burning the curtains, Happy Birthday!!

Quick(ish) breakfast, washing on the line, round up the dogs into the Land Rover and up to the cottage to see to the animals. Hilary is still away in Shropshire on an MSc tutorial weekend, so let the hens and ducks out and feed and muck-out the horses, fill hay nets and walk the dogs in the field and spend a relaxing morning lying in the field beside the burn, taking photos while the dogs played and dug holes (Jack Russells!!). By the time we were halfway up the field, the sun was hidden by heavy cloud, un-forecast and rolling in from nowhere, and the temperature plummeted........



After half an hour I gave up, my fingers had gone white, and retired to the cottage garden and got the only worthwhile shots of the morning, this lovely Dandelion Taraxacum official growing through a joint in the paving....



..and the blossom laden Damson Prunus domestica in the orchard but overhanging the garden and looking wonderful. This tree should be self fertile but has never produced much in the way of fruit. Perhaps we will have to include another damson when we replant and expand the orchard, hopefully this winter.



While I was lying in the field beside the burn, trying to photograph some Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa, some of our neighbour's lovely young Ayrshire cattle came over, they just can't help being nosey......

Spring Flowers at Holly Cottage 11/04/2014

All of a sudden the wild flowers are coming into bloom on the bank sides and edges of our burn, they always manage to keep us on tenter hooks wondering if and when they will appear.

And always very welcome when they do......

Celandine Ranunculus ficaria

Birdseye Speedwell Veronica chamaedrysWood

Anemone Anemone amorosaCommon

Common Daisy Bellis Perennis

Primrose Primula vulgaris

Viola riviniana

Hot Nesting! 06/04/2014

Doris our broody duck is doing sterling work sitting on the varied collection of eggs we have given her. A mixture of Muscovy, Indian Runner duck and Cream Legbar hen eggs. We will need to keep an incubator at the ready just in case she gets bored.

Doris is being more tolerant than Duck-duck was, she is allowing two of the hens to lay in her nest box. The little Vorverk hen is looking especially determined to stay put and lay.



On the banks by the burn, the first Wood Sorrel has come into flower.



On the banks by the burn, the first Wood Sorrel has come into flower.

Primrose 05/04/2014

A much brighter day today, spoilt only by a very rare but particulaly stinking head cold!

Down beside the burn the primroses and primulas are starting to burst into flower, they will be wonderful over the next few weeks as the number of plants is increasing every year. This gorgeous, delicate primrose is right on the burn bank and may well have washed down from Slaley Hall at some point in the past.

This shot was taken with my Nokia Lumia 520 mobile using "Refocus", quite pleased with the result from quite a basic bit of kit.

Pea Soup! 03/04/2014

We have had thick fog up here for the last few days, driving on the high ground at night has been fairly desperate stuff. Today the gloom has finally started to lift, just in time for the Sahara dust and European industrial pollution to arrive!

On the bright side, no pun intended, one of my evening journeys a few miles over the tops on the A68 into Co. Durham, resulted in acquiring some more Muscovy hatching eggs, to replace for breeding purposes, the dear departed Duck-duck, my only unrelated duck. The surprise was being given four Indian Runner duck eggs too! All are now under a very broody Doris, it will be interesting to see how many she hatches though I will be keeping an incubator on standby........

Summer is Almost Over! 24/03/2014

I have already seen lots of lovely pictures of primroses in flower around the country, though ours on the banks above the burn still have a week or two to go.



very sharp frost overnight has certainly made the primroses and other plants think twice. This foxglove was just starting to thaw in the shade under a fallen tree trunk beside the burn.

The cold air first thing this morning was a price well worth paying for the glorious, bright sunshine as the day went on. Sadly, the forecast for the next few days is not so good, with overcast skies strong winds and light rain on the way.....

Barren Strawberry - Potentilla sterilis 20/03/2014

Yesterday in the sunshine, the tiny Barren Strawberrys made their first appearance of the year, on the bank above the burn at the cottage. Tiny, delicate little things, always good to see in the shady areas but peeping out at the sun.

This morning was cold, dull and threatening to rain (it is now!) and the little strawberry flowers remained closed.

Opposite-leaved Golden-Saxifrage - Chrysosplenium oppositifolium
We have swathes of this on the damp banksides of our burn but I always have a real problem getting decent photographs of the flowers. There seems to be something about the yellow pigment which the human eye is particularly sensitive to, or that the digital sensor is not! It has taken me ages to get a picture which adequately shows the yellow flower.