There's a pheasant in my greenhouse! and other stories

Where is this year going? I can't believe it is April already. I love the anticipation of the coming spring that the late winter months bring; watching for snowdrops and daffodils tentatively poking their heads above the soil, and those teasing days of blue skies and mild temperatures before another flurry of snow reminds us we are still in the clutches of winter.

Then, all of a sudden, the chiffchaffs are back from Africa, trees and hedgerows are becoming greener everyday and the whole season seems to have crept upon us with a shout. People around the country are already reporting sightings of swallows; perhaps the birds knew about the mini heatwave we seem to be having at the moment.

I've been spending several hours of each day down at the allotment. There is still plenty of digging to be done, and I seem to have fallen behind with the tasks despite taking on the plot in early winter. I have managed to get quite a bit done though, and the plot is gradually taking shape.

The gales we had a couple of weeks ago destroyed a couple more of my greenhouse panes, and I spent a lot of time picking up each shard of glass (as Sybil joins me on the allotment now) and putting new panes of glass up. Despite all of my hastily-acquired DIY skills, I arrived on the plot on Saturday morning to a sudden commotion inside the greenhouse. A pheasant had somehow managed to squeeze its way in and was panicking and flying about inside, desperately looking for an escape route. I quickly cornered the pesky bird and managed to pick it up, but not before it threw itself with some force at one of my larger panes. I sent the bird on its way and set to trying to fix the now gaping hole in the back of my greenhouse. This is the best I can do:

but thankfully the greenhouse is still plenty warm enough for my seedlings to germinate. Here's some I prepared earlier:

Pea Kelvedon Wonder

Sweet Pea

The sweet peas are ready to be potted on, and I finally seem to have come to an uneasy truce with the mouse living inside the greenhouse. We had an ongoing battle last month; I would plant the pea seeds and during the night, he or she would thank me for the free feast and eat the whole lot. I now leave a large scattering of peanuts on the greenhouse floor, and the little mouse seems happy with this arrangement. He/she has snaffled a few more of my sweet pea seeds, but my Kelvedon Wonder peas have germinated and will hopefully be feeding myself this time.

Parsley, Mint, Chives

The herb bed in the picture above was a tangled mess of couch grass, brambles and various other weeds whose names I do not know. I cleared the whole lot and put some concrete slabs around the outside to create a herb garden. I have cheated and bought some herb plants from the supermarket, but the other varieties I want to grown will be (hopefully) grown from seed.

The frogspawn I introduced to my pond has now hatched, and I have several happy tadpole residents. They get free room and board in exchange for mopping up the pesky slugs when they are fully grown.

Tiny tadpoles

Picture of some soil (aka wildflower seeds)

Next to the pond I have sown a huge amount of wildflower seeds. I love wildflowers, and the bees and butterflies the packet claims they will attract. Whether they grow or not remains to be seen. I will keep you updated.

I have also finished the strawberry bed. I would love to learn to make my own jam, so I bought loads of strawberry plants from the Aldi and dedicated a whole raised bed to them. Apparently the weed control fabric will keep the fruits off the soil and help prevent them rotting. It won't stop the birds or the wasps getting to them first, though.

On the way to and from the allotment, I pass a delightful area of my estate that has been planted with tons of daffodils, cowslips and primroses. They are really in their prime right now and look amazing; if only more estates were planted up like this in my town.

Thanks for reading :)

Kinder Scout via Crowden Clough

 

Hi readers. Sybil and I ventured out to the Peak District yesterday. It's been way too long since we last visited the park, and I was determined to make the best use of an otherwise empty Sunday.

We left the busy train at Edale, after Sybil had, of course, made friends with most of the passengers and train staff. Her habit of sitting on my knee in order to look out of the window always manages to bring a few smiles and friendly comments; at 20kg, she isn't your typical lapdog.

Our destination today was the plateau of Kinder Scout. I wanted to climb this via the less busy route of Crowden Clough. We joined the Pennine Way out of Edale and headed towards Upper Booth Farm. Today the farm was pretty much deserted, save for a few chickens pecking around, as it is still fairly early in the walking season.

A few hardy campers had pitched their tents in the field. Rather them than me, personally, as even my flat gets pretty cold during the early spring nights. Mind you, I am rather strict when it comes to turning the heating on.

We soon reached Crowden Clough. The path here winds rather lazily through the valley alongside, and sometimes through, the thankfully fairly shallow stream that is Crowden Brook. What the stream lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in natural beauty, particularly in the form of waterfalls. Here are a few pitiful attempts at photographing them:

Sybil, however, isn't too keen on getting her feet wet, and sometimes convincing her to cross the stream was a job in itself.

Hmm, really not too sure Mum. It looks all wet.

Is there a boat somewhere?

There is certainly no water-loving breed in this dog's genetic makeup. Posing, however, is a different story; that is, if you can get her to sit still for long enough.

Stopping for a quick rest.

Come on, Mum. The path goes this way.

The final scramble on the plateau was a huge undertaking for someone of my (non) fitness level. The path was so steep in places, and the footholds were far enough apart to make me glad I was blessed with such long legs. The large stack of rocks that is Crowden Tower loomed above me, drawing me forward by reassuring me that I was almost at the top. I had a vision of the tower being an optical illusion, that upon reaching it I would be confronted by another sizeable hill to climb before I crested the summit.

It's that a-way

Thankfully this was not the case; instead, the scene that greeted us was rather breathtaking. Rocks of every size, shape and texture dotted the plateau, some smooth and flat, whittled down by years of  rain, wind and snow; whilst others were huge, round boulders, taller than I was and three times as wide.

We rounded the corner, sticking to the most obvious footpath, only for myself to sink straight up to my calves in a huge patch of boggy peat. Sybil's delicate paws barely dented the surface, yet my not inconsiderable weight swallowed my feet and ankles whole. I proceeded to perform a strange kind of shuffle-walk, trying to walk forward without loosing either of my boots. Finally managing to reach firm ground again, I was relieved to see that we were heading towards a thoughtfully constructed flagstone path.

 



We passed through the amazing landscape that is the Woolpacks, a collection of misshapen rocks even more curious than those we had already encountered. The magnificence of them could not be captured by my amateurish photography skills, but the image that my mind conjured up was that the landscape was rather moon-like in atmosphere. Of course, never having been to the moon, I am less than qualified to compare the two, but it certainly is worth going up Kinder Scout to appreciate it.

 

Pym Chair, I believe?

Nice place for a lunch break



We stopped for lunch beneath another huge tower of rock I believe to be known as Pym Chair (please correct me if I'm wrong). The view was one not to be sniffed at as I sat and scoffed my sandwiches, watching people in the distance climbing the monstrosity that is Jacob's Ladder. With the mist beginning to roll out behind us, I decided that we shouldn't linger and curved round to meet the top of the Ladder. Descending this way with Sybil on lead was not really an experience I would like to repeat, but nonetheless we managed to reach the bottom unscathed and I let Sybil refresh herself in the river near the bridge before we joined the path back to Edale.

 

Rather delicately taking a dip

A helicopter suddenly appeared over the hill as we began our journey back to the village. I know the guys are doing some restoration work on Kinder, so hopefully this helicopter was involved in that work and not rescuing someone from the now mist-enshrouded summit.

   

With an hour and a half to wait until the train home arrived and now that Sybil was of drinking age, I decided to risk taking her in her first ever pub. I peered around the pub door rather nervously, mentally mapping out where all the other dogs were sat. I had little reason to worry though, as my usually leash-reactive Sybil was quickly making friends with another collie once she realised that well-behaved dogs got delicious chips.

 

She also got a fair share of the treats from other customers; in fact, one customer crouched in front of her to ask her to sit and give paw for a biscuit, and she rather shamelessly threw herself against him for a cuddle, eliciting the desired aww's from the room. My dog can be such a creep, sometimes.





A short stroll with the hounds

Yesterday I took Sybil and her friend Meg, a yellow Labrador, for a good walk around Scholes and Keppel's Field. We do this walk fairly often, but yesterday I decided to take my camera as there are usually a few interesting birds around.

It wasn't a great day for photography as it turned out as it was rather overcast, but we still enjoyed the walk. We headed up across the fields and into Scholes' Wood, where Sybil chased her usual squirrels and Meg trotted along rather faithfully by my side.

Pine cone in Scholes' Wood

Leaving the woods, we walked alongside the cow enclosure. There have been several cows, the Highland breed I think, on Keppel's Field for quite a while now. They don't cause any trouble, but at first I was a bit peeved that they take up a good portion of the field. There are several footpaths running through the cow enclosure, but we never venture inside unless the cows have been moved elsewhere.

The Head Honcho

Breakfast time

I also spotted the kestrel in with the cows. With the long grass, Keppel's Field must make a fantastic territory for a pair of kestrels, and I certainly see at least one bird everytime I'm here, either perched in a tree or hovering low over the grass. This time, it was a female:

A rather bad kestrel photo

Then the dogs did some posing. Meet my friend Meg, and of course you all know Sybil.

Meg

Sybil

Meg proving she can move just as fast as Sybil:

Labrador attack!

And we found a bit of snow to play in.

We went back down the other side of the large field, and met up with our kestrel again.

Another shockingly bad couple of kestrel photos.

I stalked the bird for a good twenty minutes, trying to get close enough for a decent photo of her hovering. However, everytime I set my tripod up and zoomed in, she would wheel away and carry on hunting even further out of shot. These are the best photos I could manage. It is now my mission to get a decent photo of her, even with my limited camera skills. Watch this space!

A random photo of grass poking through the ice

And a rather surprised-looking Sybil.

See you soon :)

Plot 23

I'm back again, with another update on my allotment plot. Life has been getting in the way of time spent down on my plot, so I've been doing my best to squeeze in the odd hour here and there. Hopefully, now the nights are retreating as spring draws close, I will be able to get a huge move on and start planting some seeds.

Greenhouse

I've been tidying the greenhouse. Not so much as you can tell from this picture, but the inside has gone from plain chaos to organised chaos, which is how I usually bumble through life. I managed to get two cotoneaster plants from Morrisons priced at just £1.50 each, so they are ready to go outside once I figure out where they are going. Most of the missing panes in the greenhouse are now replaced, so it will be a good place for my tomatoes in the summer.

Digging and weeding

I've started doing a little bit of digging. The ground is a bit too wet at the moment for this job to be pleasurable in any way, but it needs to be done. I've dug up several of what I think were rhubarb plants; it seemed the roots had rotted anyway, so they were probably no good, but I'm not particularly keen on rhubarb anyway so I have made way for vegetables I will actually eat. The dog food bag comes in handy for filling with weed roots and taking them up to the fire hut to be burned.

That's the stuff!

There are two piles of compost, all nice and ready to be thrown in the veg beds. I've emptied one of the piles, filling another dog food bag and lugging it up to the greenhouse to shake over the beds in there. The soil was really dusty and no use at all, but now with a good load of compost mixed in, my tomatoes will hopefully thrive.

You can see the difference in the quality of the soil in the above picture. The grey soil underneath would have been exhausted of nutrients and I would have struggled to grow anything at all in that.

The next job...

The picture above shows one of the next jobs to be tackled. Behind the greenhouse is a homemade shed, currently full of rubbish and scary cobwebs. The brambles on the land here need chopping down and the grass tidying up; perhaps in the future I will have a few hens on this area. I could modify the shed into a henhouse, with perches and a nestbox, and the land is a good size to section off for them. Just hope there aren't many foxes that visit the site...

Down on the Plot

Greetings! I've spent a few hours on the allotment plot, and most of the grass is now cleared. I now have several huge piles of grass, waiting to be burnt. I've also cleared the goosegrass and brambles from the fences and now have a fairly clear boundary.

Coming along nicely

I've discovered two compost heaps at the bottom of the plot, which I plan to bring back into good use. There are a few borders already marked out, and I will probably use these for herbs this year. I've also made use of a pile of aluminium sheets; these now make a nice fence. I just need to dig a couple of holes for some more fence posts and nail the sheets to the wood so they are secure. Don't want Sybil roaming onto other plots!

Underneath all that grass, a path of paving slabs was hiding. I've cleared a lot of the grass and need to secure the stones as some are a little wobbly, but this is one of the jobs last on my list; for each morning, as the wind blows down the makeshift fence during the night, I lift it up to discover a vole scurrying about in tunnels under the aluminium. I gently guide the vole onto the next plot along, which is currently empty. Don't want to be standing on the little fellow.

Vole tunnels in the grass

It's nice to see a bit of wildlife making use of my little garden. As long as the creature stays away from my seedlings in the spring, I'm sure we will all get along fine.

The next job now is to mark out where the vegetable/flower beds and paths are going to go. There are some handy planks of wood in the greenhouse which will make a nice system of raised beds. Shouldn't be too long with the next update, if this weather holds out!