May 5th 2014

 

I woke early today and in the distance I heard the gentle hum of a diesel engine under load, it was not yet 6.30am. Looking out of the window I could see Mr Green the farmer who has the fields behind me working hard on a Bank Holiday Monday. So as I was up and raring to go, I set too on a job that has been 4 years in the waiting, the finally decorate the back bedroom, something which has been mentioned before on this blog. By 6pm the job was done. An apt ending to my mini career break, preparing the house for sale so the next stage on my life long journey can begin, with Julie. Where we end up, is in the lap of the gods.  

 

May 4th 2014

 

Rose necked lovebirds are not the normal avian species I find in my garden yet today there one was as large as life. After a difficult morning as we're in the middle of moving from Wiltshire to Somerset but not sure its the best move, (or at least I'm not sure we're doing this right, and it is Julie who is moving this way to reduce the commuting time for me), I arrived back in Somerset and as the sun was shining set too pulling the garden back to some form of normality. I'd finished the lawn mowing and engrossed in a spot of weeding my task was accompanied by the many house sparrow calls here. But one sparrow call sounded quite a bit different, looking up there on the gutter a parakeet (I later learned out what it was called). Obviously an escapee I took a quick photo and then thought I'd try and coax it down and maybe try and find out who's bird this was. But no sooner had I taken this image it flew off and away. I hope if flew back to whence it came as out here in the Somerset countryside it will not last long sadly.

May 3rd 2014

 

Meet Indie. Indie was waiting outside the Broad Hinton village stores this morning as we pulled up to get a paper on our travels. Her owner was inside so I wound down the window and said hello. She was full of the vibrancy of life that a young dog has, at the same time anxious of his whereabouts. Eventually her owner emerged and they headed off for a walk across the Marlborough Downs whilst we headed off to Blooms Garden Centre to off-load the plant pots I'd removed from the shed on Wednesday, and of course have a coffee. As I sat there drinking my beverage I gazed across the garden centre and thought about the rubbish on sale, not a plant to be seen. Most of what can be seen in the picture is not really what gardens need, yet we work hard to buy things we don't really need, a fiscal catch 22. A couple hove into view and manhandled some tin cats exclaiming how good they'd look on their patio. Garden Centres and the Madding Crowds of a Bank Holiday go hand in hand, I wonder what we did before Garden Centres existed. We escaped soon after and headed to Midge Hall Nurseries for some bedding plants, calm, relaxed and a huge choice all at about half the price of the Garden Centre as Julie was discovering.

 

May 2nd 2014

 

Although I'm not back to work until Tuesday today is the last official day of my mini-career break. I wanted to do something special to mark the day so I headed to Woodborough Garden Centre for a 'Big Breakfast' before heading to West Woods near Marlborough. As I munched through the bacon and eggs the garden centre dog arrived (I've forgotten his name) and looked sorrowful beside me. Tempting though it was to fling a sausage his way, I'm sure he's not allowed tit-bits from the table. I therefore resisted, despite how hard it was to resist him. Breakfast polished off to West Woods I ventured and the bluebells there were spectacular. At the weekend the woods are open for the Lions charity but today there were a lot of people about including a fair few photographers such as this chap who was in an area I wanted to go to so I let him finish before spoiling his view.

May 1st 2014

 

I woke today to nature's alarm clock. At around 6am I was in that semi-awake state of mind when we're conscious but not yet fully awake. As I lay there enveloped in the eiderdown I could hear a blackbird calling from outside, that clear fluty call only blackbirds can make; sharp, precise and somehow able to convey the beauty of nature more than many other more unusual songsters. After the curlew, whose bubbling call transports me back to childhood days in Northumberland, the blackbird is my all time favourite songster. Many a time I have sat in the gathering dusk listening to its call, to be replaced as the light fades and they head to roost with a Tik Tik Tik social call which always transports me to winter evenings, smoke rising vertically from a chimney as a frost develops while I listen. At the back of the house is a song thrush and whilst I like their call too, blackbirds are a semi-quaver above in my book. So clear was the call I thought he must be right next to the open bedroom window. Peering out though past the rain sodden newly unfurled leaves of the silver birch I could vaguely make out a shadow on a neighbour's chimney. Sure enough it was he, a full 100 yards away, projecting his prefect pitch into my bedroom slumbers. What an exceptional way to begin a May Day, a time to celebrate fertility and the zest for life. Best of all as I write this at 8.30am, he is still singing, still mesmerising me and still giving me a thrill.

 

So here he is in all his rain soaked feathers with a touch of leuticicm. He needs a proper celebration I feel so here is a low resolution 2 minute video of his perfect alarm call  (with apologies for my camerawork, I was still half asleep at 6.30, was shooting through a window and had this on a x100 hand held zoom).

 

Go on my son, give it large!!

 

April 30th 2014

 

Now I like rats as much as the next man, but there comes a time when in the process of clearing out the house before the new owners move in when rats become the bane of my life. Now we knew rats were in the garden over winter, in fact two or 3 years ago I used to feed one of the rats packet noodles, most entertaining watching them hoover up the pasta. But, they do spread disease and can do a lot of damage. Saying that our unopened box of rat poison in the garage was eaten in February and we've not seen the rats since, so maybe they've inflicted self harm in the process.

 

However garage and noodles aside, this dilapidated shed in the garden must have been a des-res to this most adaptable but possibly most hated mammal in Britain. We'd not been in the shed for months, mainly as there is a risk it will fall on top of us, but today ahead of the move I donned some girly marigold gloves and set to in my pinny. In essence the interior of the shed contained about 200 plant-pots, 40 hanging basket frames and about an inch of rat droppings. Marvellous. In order to hasten the job (or lessen my time in the rat dropping infested shed) I hurled the plant-pots, destined for recycling, hither and yon out the door, much as a dog digs for a bone in sand without planning or ordnance. With the shed now empty, on with the jet hose and the crumbling interior was given a thorough clean out as the new owners have young children. It was only as I emerged from the shed in a Mr Muscle pose, jet spray in one hand, marigold gloves in the other that I realised the chaos I had inflicted on the lawn. I think I'd gone a little potty!!

 

 

And so here endeth the last day of April, a month that began with my trundling up to London to see an exhibition about the Vikings, a month that then saw me in Orkney looking at where Vikings lived in the wind on that northern most island and a month that ends with my wearing of latex marigold gloves and a pinny. How my herring fishermen forefathers from Skien or ancestral reindeer herders from Lapland must be spinning in Valhalla as they look down on this modern Dane. "Mikill Wotan! Doni langaspjot viti!" is all I have to say to that!!

April 29th 2014

 

A day of April showers, longer spells of rain and a few drier moments. As oft happened on these wet days by the time the sun is setting the energy in the atmosphere is decreasing and the clouds begin to part. I watched the light intensifying as the evening advanced and thought this is a good opportunity to try and capture those images of oil seed rape fields I'd noticed around us this week as they are just perfect. So off we went. Julie drove allowing me to leap out of the car and grab the fleeting moments as they happened. To be honest I think I missed the best light by about 30 minutes as by the time I got to the locations I'd sourced earlier the sun was too low in the sky. Nonetheless the contrast between dark skies and the bright yellow of the fields remained. Time for a few quick images, I may return tomorrow if the same clouds and sun conditions prevail. Oh and the image above? I'm rarely a passenger so having a bit of fun taking photographs whilst on the move, quite like this one of speeding through Great Bedwyn main street, our local village, at 20mph.