New pond

finally finished the new pond system. 3 ponds in all, feeder, beech and lower housing the pump. none are that deep, only about 50cm, so no fish, mainly because I didnt have a pic-axe to get through the flint/clay/chalk that we have as sub'soil'. Quite chuffed with it really!

very happy with the reservoir now, took a lot to get it sorted though! (theres my blood in there somewhere as the roses kept biting me!)


pond levels totally controlled by the 2 waterfalls.. leaving the lower pond for topup


took me along time to get the waterfall right.

my god

cant believe its been so long since I posted... so busy at work, so busy and tired when I get home!! half term now, and Ill try to put some things up here.

the cats are doing well, although weve had a whole load of issues with their health.. but were getting there.

spiders and finches

some amazing garden spiders this year.. some of the girls are absolutely enormous!!

This girl was the size of a 20p! Amazing to see her toes on the web


Sooooo many finches today. During this shot there were another 4 in the tree, and another 4 on the nyger seed feeder. Chaos

6 of 11

Half of our huge Goldfinch flock.. unusually mostly on the nyger seed today. Before I took the shot we had 4 on the sunflower hearts and another 3 in the tree, they never seem to go far from each other. We think its the winter flock of 4 we had, plus their young.

no room at the inn!

not felt like posting for a while, due to our upset a few weeks ago. But looking out of the window today made me want to share!!

There were another 3 or 4 in the tree waiting their turn. We just ordered a 2nd feeder!


The goldie at the top looks totally confused as to why theres no seed!

The Early Bird

While putting out food this morning, this little chap came to say hello.. certainly the tamest and most un-bothered robin we've had so far.

Taken at only 4 feet with a Canon 250mm @ f5.5
(should have been slightly bigger aperture but he got me so excited I forgot to bracket!)

exhausted

well Im absolutely exhausted.. finished at mothers today after driving all the way to devon and back yesterday to get the rest of Kerry's things from storage. We took advantage of hiring the van and cleared the non burnable rubbish from mothers patio area.. old CB aerials from when I was a boy! and 2x 17 year old car batteries. Took it all up the tip so its all out the way now thankfully.

I still have alot to do here next week before work starts the week after.. sometime through this I need to try to do some proper planning for teaching as well! who knows when Ill fit that in!

We're going to bed at about 9 every night at the moment.. straight to sleep usually too.


Was nice to sit in the garden with a cup of tea this evening and watch the family of greenfinches having their dinner. The baby is the size of his/her parents now but still not coming into full colour. They disappeared almost entirely during nesting so its lovely to see them back, and in greater numbers. I have a feeling that we shall have very good numbers during the winter.

Some of the baby goldfinches have started to roost on the feeder during the day.. its covered with a rain cowl and under the dense foliage of the smoke bush tree, so they seem to feel quite safe. Its very often you see them perching there just looking around and not eating anything. Its satisfying that they feel safe to do that.