the daydream fund challenge thread

lostinrates

edit: oh...and ground cover ideas for the top of the septic tank are welcome! needs to be shallow routing and shade tolerant (on a west facing wall with a north facing wall nearby....will get some sun.). I'm starting to think of plants for the whole north facing wall area and the bottom of the west facing one.....starting the garden from the most difficult end so it can start getting established.

choille

Went for a wee run today. More mini kids born - like teddies - wonderful, but what weather. One wee thing was bleating its head off - but watched and it finally ran up a slope towards a herd - hope its Mother hadn't abandoned it but it wasn't there when we came back. Took photos - will blog later.

Walked up to a new bird hide that's been put up in a wood that's been devastated by the saw mill. The hide is near a pond that is nothing other than a bog, a dirty big puddle - really. There's a white board on the wall where people are asked to record what they see.

Robins.
Red Squirrel
Dipper & I also saw a Diver & Fieldfare.
I saw a shark! ( accompanied by a drawing in felt tip)

Glad to see that anarchy & imagination still exists amongst all the 'Please Keep Off The Grass' nature trails.

Warms the cockles o' me heart.

RAS

Well, the hard rain we were due yesterday and today never arrived, so I spent 6 hours on the plot yesterday.

Still windy, lost one of the covers to the cold frame and had to retrieve the fish box from three plots away; first time that has taken a walk in 10 years.

I managed to leave a mug on the plot last Sunday. This Sunday morning it was full - 10cms of rain in less than 7 days.

Needless to say, no real digging. Managed to clear out on of the compost bins and get that on the ground - 10 wheel barrow loads - and start refilling with partly decayed stuff. Also chased loads of wretched bind weed that sneaks in under the rhubarb from off the site and piled that ready to burn.

There are early signs of spring; my snowdrops have started to flower and the hazel catkins are flowering. And for the first time in years we have redwings; the last two years the ground was under snow and ice and they seemed to have given us a miss. I love their constant calls.

alfie_1

try again...keeps losing my post ??

a few weeks ago we saw a swathe of birds across the field, i got the binnoculars and it was hundreds of redwings...never seen so many !
lovely sight.

spent most of today doing not a lot! its wet,windy and cold... i wandered round the garden trying to decide where to put some large standard shrubs as theyve outgrown where i put them last spring. they are blocking other shrubs light so have to shift em... everything grows really well [too well sometimes!] in this soil.

also trying to work out where to put the greenhouse chooks as they cant stay there all the time. the lame one cant go with the others. the 2 polish are too stupid and the silkie well....

i got what was a brand new bench seat bit from the skip outside the hotel again [im getting to be a regular and the workmen tell me whats next !!] its upholstered in good fabric too. the "interior designer" had changed his mind apparently and hoiked em out 10 mins after putting them in !! i am using it for the dogs to sleep on, in the hall under the stairs....perfik !!

Davesnave

The wind died here at about 3.30pm, and with everything being abnormally quiet, I realised again why we bought this place. Standing in the garden, with the overgrown hedge gone, we can see to the end of our land. (We can also see the twin septic tank vents, but that's only temporary!)

Like lir, I'm wondering what can be grown over a septic tank and just how deep the soil there will be. At present, there's dormant nettles and not much else.

The digger is coming next Saturday to sort out the roots of the tree muddle we removed. The retained trees can now go to full size, unimpeded. Shortly, we'll plant a new shrub border that we can trim & still see over. We're also giving the neighbours a new hedge because, with a huge trampoline and a mini Alton Towers in their garden, they need one. Although they won't see us after a year or two, they'll keep their view of the fields and hills, rolling away to Dartmoor.

ETA: We had a flock of redwings last week too. Didn't hang about long, though.

choille

Goodnes feel quite envious of al your hard graft RAS & others who are managing to get stuff done outdoors. We seem to have these biting hail showers still & the ground is really water logged - see it everywhere, gong about.

Female buff orp has a bad injury - internal, probably caused by a cockerel - horrible. Thought at first it may be coccidious - really scared by that. Managed to get her to a vet that does a day in a portacabin down in Gairloch so not too bad 28 miles. He gave her a couple of jabs after having a good look see - anti-biotic & anti-inflammotory. Just have to wait & see. Put her in a house on her own since finding her bleeding. It is sad - I hope she gets better. This is what I hate about keeping animals - I hate it when they are ill, in pain, injured.

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

This is what I hate about keeping animals - I hate it when they are ill, in pain, injured.

Me too. It's like when babies are ill and they can't tell you what's wrong, nor you explain it to them.

It's interesting how local the weather is when we hear about it daily like this. We had a half-decent day and a lovely evening, but alfie who's the most southerly, has had it cold and drizzly. We are still seeing low reservoir levels around here, yet there's folk in Powys being rescued from floods.

I was in the polytunnel propagating all afternoon, so almost missed the weather change. Spent the entire morning on a planning letter for someone else with a much dodgier council than ours here. :mad:

choille

I think a lot of folks have had it very wet. We are kinda used to it in a way - although it has been bad, but a lot of the country seem to have had it very wet & also the strong winds - been bad in a lot of places.

The animal thing is hard - but have them & you'll get problems - I suppose.

WE deal with council/planning stuff & it is getting so much more complex & bureaucratic. I just do boring paperwork stuff but OH has to do the practical stuff, the proper design stuff & calculations. The council here is hardly dodgy but they do seem to have apolicy of development - appear to favour developer over an individual. I think that is true throughout the country. Harder for an extention to be approved than a big development - the world has gone mad methinks.
Wednesday OH sits on a forum that discusses all the changes - whle I will prance around Inverness window shopping - sound like a right air head but I'd rather be pounding pavements than at that meeting - any day.

soupdragon10

Ground still very wet here - so not risking digging at all yet. Sorry to hear about your Buff. Am thinking about getting some more, but can't forget losing my whole flock (14) to foxes a few years ago. Hen house was like fort knox, but somehow they got in and did for them all.

Hoping if we have a run of dry weather (a rarity here in Cornwall ) that I can get out an make a good start on the digging. At least I now have my seed potatoes, rhubarb and some horseradish and going through my seeds only need to buy a few this year.

choille

Cornwall? I think you seem to have had your fair share of wet for a long time?

I have enough seeds too this year so am waiting to get a start & I was not able to really put things to bed late autumn - ao bit of a mess in my garden. In fact a right disaster to clear up before getting owt planted. It's still too cold yet though.