Working on the barn

Last year around this time we started building our barn. It is all made of timber and we did most of the work ourselves. In the middle of March it looked like this...

The first ewe lambed outside as it wasn't quite ready and she was early, but by the end of March we had a weather proof barn and the ewes moved in for lambing....

It wasn't totally finished and we have done bits and pieces over the year but with lambing time rapidly approaching again, we are trying to get things a bit further on. However, the weather is hampering the work somewhat. The ground is so waterlogged that we can't get any vehicles near the barn and the inside is something of a quagmire. The problem is that the sun and wind dry the field around the barn, but they don't have any effect inside. Anyway, today I finished digging some foundations to put in a concrete door sill and hopefully have proper doors on by lambing time! You can see the quagmire inside and out, and the trench slowly filling with water...

Odds and ends

Have been a little busy but with nothing significant to report so haven'r posted for a couple of weeks.
This weekend I have been helping daughter with homework, making a model of a volcano. Mostly constructed of cardboard and papier mache, I had the idea of using one of those battery operated flickering tea lights covered in tissue paper for the eruption. I think it worked quite well....

Thought I would also add some pics of Fred the cat in his favourite wintertime bed - on the coffee table next to the radiator. He was sleeping quite soundly until I started taking pics, at which point I got the Evil Eye from him!

He is 18 or so and probably thinks himself entitled to his beauty sleep - even though that is about all he does!

More birds

The bird table has been resurrected with a new post! Below are goldfinches and blue tit enjoying it again.

Finally managed to get a (not very good) photo of the wren I had heard.

To add to the species list this time there are a collared dove hiding in the tree,

a male blackbird having a bath when it was raining(!),

and the starlings gathering first thing in the morning on the TV aerial. They roost in the eaves and we only see them at dawn and dusk, they head out to the fields or elsewhere during the day.

And then there were 2 squirrels eyeballing each other on the fencing, this one took off when it saw me - look no feet on the fence!

Bird week

Carrying on from the last post, I thought I would have a bird week this week. Also I thought it would tie in with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch that happened last weekend. For more info on that go to
rspb.org.uk. I decided to take some pictures this morning and managed o see the following birds in our garden. Blue tits in the contorted willow tree and on the willow fence.

Sparrows all over the place but these were on the top of the front hedge, one of their favourite roosting places.

An extra fat wood pigeon on the top of the children's swing.

And a robin that hopped about all over and was singing loudly. This was the best photo.

I also saw (and heard) a wren, but couldn't get a decent photo, and the same for a great tit. Seagulls (Herring gulls) were flying about high up, they had probably come inland to shelter from the recent storms. If I see or manage to photograph any other birds this week I'll post them.

Bird cafe closed due to high winds!

This photo of goldfinches feeding at our bird table cafe was taken yesterday.

This morning after 2 days of extremely strong winds the bird table was horizontal!

This is a close up of a Christmas cactus flower. Amazing shape and colour.