Christmas spirit in the village.

Our house with Christmas lights.

This was our third Christmas in the village and as in the previous years we had decided to spend it together without visitors. We had done all the family visits in the preceding weeks to enable ourselves to have some time alone. Waking on Christmas day is a lovely experience as the village is even quieter than normal, the only sounds are birds and the sound of horses bing led to the fields along the lane.

We took Boris out for his walk about mid morning and saw a couple of the other villagers doing the same and after talking to them we returned for Christmas lunch, this year we opted for a vegetarian meal which was excellent, we did go for roast beef on boxing day mind you.
Boxing day was so nice I even got out and did some gardening in the afternoon.

The social highlight of Christmas was on the 27th when our friends at the farmhouse opposite invited us and a lot of other villagers for a post Christmas drinks party. It was a really enjoyable evening in spite of the heavy cold I had developed over the holiday. The only bad news was that we found out the New Years celebrations at the village hall had been cancelled, never mind within 12 hours we had been invited to 3 New Years parties in the village.. never had that when we lived in London!

Post Christmas reflections

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, we did even without a kitchen! Victoria asked me the other day if we would be sitting down for dinner in front of a large log fire, well this was the best we could do.

I was very pleased with myself over the holiday as I managed to supply Lettuce, Parsnip, Leeks, Carrots and Jerusalem Artichoke from the garden and the greenhouse for the Christmas meals.

I also managed to get out in the garden for an hour or so on Boxing day and plant my garlic, normally I would do this in November but I forgot! I also turned over the soil in one of the veg beds, I have been growing field mustard in it as a green manure and I thought it was time to dig it in as it was getting quite large.

My sister in law bought us an interesting present. It is a selection of organically raised vegeatable seedlings. Basically you send off a form and when the seedling are ready they dispatch them to you. I think this is a great idea and although I normally raise my veg from seed they do tend to take over the greenhouse. This will mean I have a lot more space in the greenhouse this spring to raise other plants for the garden. I look forward to being able to report back on the quality of the plant when they arrive.

Wordless Wednesday, A gate in the frost

The gate to the horse field one frosty morning.

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

Christmas is coming, let's demolish the kitchen!

Hi all, sorry i have not been around for a few days, but as you can see from the photo I have been busy on a little project. Since we moved here a couple of years ago we have been renovating the house and last week we moved onto the kitchen. I have spent the last week gutting it, removing the ceiling, work units floor and anything else I could hit with a hammer. It is now ready to begin reconstructing, but that won't be until the new year.

I have however also managed to get into the garden a couple of times, mainly to escape the dust! I finally got my broad beans planted out, i like to get them in early as this gives a crop before the dreaded blackfly appears. My sweet peas are also doing well in the greenhouse, i have now pinched out the growing tip so as to make them bush out a bit.

I was amazed on Sundy while sitting under our willow tree to find a large bumble bee probably Bombus terrestris crawling across the lawn, I picked it up and moved it somewhere out of the dogs reach for it's safety! I wonder if anyone else has seen one on the shortest day of the year, it really shows how mild the weather was over the weekend.

A tree I miss

One of the winter sights I miss here in Cambridgeshire is the flocks of Siskin and Redpoll that used to feed in stands of larch Larix at a reserve near my old home.

Redpoll















Siskin

At this time of year these birds flock together to feed performing acrobatics to get into the cones.

Sadly around here we don't have any larch stands and my garden isn't big enough to plant my own wood! Oh well I feel a birdwatching trip coming on!

Wordless Wednesday

Echinacea with Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta

Winter wildlife Pt 2

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the comments for my first 'Winter wildlife' post last week. As everyone seemed to like the Owl picture so much, everyone loves owls I thought I would share another one with you. This is a Tawny Owl Strix aluco and we have several pairs around the village. On a clear night frosty night like last Thursday you can here them calling with the famous toowit toowoo, this is in facy made by 2 owls one calls and the other answers.
As I said in my last post at this time of year the fields play host to a number of wader species. in the last couple of weeks we have started to see flocks of Lapwing Vanellus vanellus ( see photo) also known as green plover in the fields to the East of the village. It is great to see them as they are quite a threatened species nationally.
We also get flocks of Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria in the fields. It is a beautiful sight in the late afternoon with the sun low in the sky when the flock takes to the air, as the change direction the whole flock shimmers in the light, truly one of the sights of winter.

Other visitors include Snipe, Woodcock, Curlew and Dunlin all making use of the food supply the fields provide.

If you enjoy my wildlife photo's do vist my other blog: Painting with light where I will be posting more of them.