Anyway, without any more waffling I will share my photos with you, but in a slightly different order to her list.
Disaster
We own several fields nearby and spend a lot of time 'playing' up there. We don't have any livestock but it is a great place to go to (when the weather permits). Back in February 2009 Beloved (and with some help from myself) planted some willow whips. They have grown but there is a problem. Cue photo!
Water from our neighbour's property runs all the time now through the wall and past the willows.
Beloved noticed some time ago that some of the willows are falling over because of this.
Something had to be done to avert a total disaster.
Cool
Now this is an interesting word with so many meanings. I have decided to use the meaning of desirable, eg, that's a cool car.......
Here I am looking very cool..... seems I am destined to be linked to mud!
The fields are still so very wet that we are unable to get Beloved's digger into the field
and dig a trench for the water to use rather than flowing through the disaster willows.....
So I set to with my border spade and dug a trench!
Here I am nearing the end of my second stint.... I decided to throw the gloves
away, well they were rather worn.
Yes, I nearly fell over once and my boots were nearly left in the mud
on several occasions! What fun it was. I like a challenge.
Movement
As I was making my trench and water started to flow in it, I noticed a collection of bubbles, swirling around and around; ah MOVEMENT I heard myself say. I am hoping if you click here you will see a short video clip!
Fence/Fencing
Back at the previous house we kept chickens for about 30 years. Sadly in our new house I've decided not to bother with them as I want less work!!!! Anyway, I used to spend hours making covered runs for them, as I did not want cats etc to jump in with them nor did I want them to jump out and go and play in my garden.
In the top photo you can see an example of the fencing I used to do.
It did take several hours to dismantle the run, move it etc.
The chickens always loved their new run and would
eagerly wait for me to finish the construction.
The ground was very stoney so knocking in the uprights
was not easy! When it snowed the top net would sag
and I'd have to go out and sort it out.
Then one day I had a brain wave.
Rather than make little runs and move them, I could extend the fencing upwards!
So I'd no longer need to use a top net!!!!
The bottom photo shows you the extended fencing 'reaching for the skies'.
Did it work??? Oh, yes, like a dream.
Wish I'd thought of this sooner....
Spiky/prickly
Back to the fields where we have a long hawthorn hedge, over 100 metres in length. It is spiky and the spikiness varies from virtually no spikes to massive ones. We hand cut it as I can't face the thought of Beloved zooming along with his petrol driven hedge cutter and leaving me to pick the bits up. Did this once on a short section of hedge and never again!
I hope you can see the spikes! Bottom right is the hedge and it
looks lovely now, despite my hands getting spiked!
At the end of March 2015, we moved to our current house and the vendors said ducklings should appear soon. And indeed they did, coming to the garden with mum. Since there, whilst we have had plenty of visiting ducks, we have had no ducklings. Until the first week in May this year!
The fifth duckling in the top photo had just zoomed off somewhere.
It showed no sign of coming back and I was confident the others would
soon run off so I had to be content with this shot.
In the bottom photo is mum with her 5 little ones. All having a siesta.
I was amazed to see how fast the little ones can move.
Even more amazing was to see a crane fly slowly move down the patio door window
and for a duckling to dash and catch it. Yes it ate it in one....
Well I hope you like my photos and thanks for taking the time to look at them. Don't forget to pop over to Hawthorn to see her photos and what other people have found. It is great to see everyone's efforts. As usual I will be saying 'Why didn't I think of that?'.
