Category Archives: Nature

Three Little Birds

I’ve said elsewhere that our garden is a wildlife paradise. Turns out that the house is, too. I often see our family of robins just outside the kitchen door, by the hen house. I’ve taken to shaking the hen feeder … Continue reading

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We need medicine

I caught up with Wanda on Friday. She’d managed to inspect the captured swarm the day before, and all seemed hunky-dory. No eggs yet, but you can expect to wait a couple of weeks before a newly mated queen will … Continue reading

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Learning to fly

I’ve written at length about our hens. What I may not have mentioned is that last year we got a hive, and some bees to go in it.  The bees did what bees do, and we had a few jars … Continue reading

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I’m still standing

Big Vet doesn’t want you to read this post. Chickens, famously, do not have teeth. Instead they have gizzards, A gizzard is a kind of bag betwixt beak and stomach in which foodstuff is ground by little bits of stone … Continue reading

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The Country Life

I set up a WhatsApp group for the locals, so I can let them know when I have eggs available. “Hello Richard!” they’ll message, “Any eggs available today?” At this time of year, with an average of 4 eggs daily, … Continue reading

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My Generation

Back in January I predicted that we would hit our 14 kWh daily average sometime around the end of April. I was a little off, as we first passed that marker on 1 March—surprisingly for such a rainy day, I … Continue reading

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Family Tree

We’re blessed to have a larger-than-usual garden (for these parts). Legend has it that when they built this development at the arse-end of the 1980s, what-was-to-become our plot was down for 2 (or even 3) houses, but they didn’t get … Continue reading

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A Place Called England

I planted snowdrops in the green in the woods last Sunday morning, and this Saturday when we visited they were already demurely in bloom. We usually get one crazy forerunner between Christmas and New Year in our garden, but it’s … Continue reading

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One piece at a time

While we’re on the subject of failure, there were a lot of bits of broken tree around the neighbourhood today. And Jenny was greeted by this somewhat alarming sight on the school run this morning. No, not the still-small-but-rapidly-growing boy, … Continue reading

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English Trees

It was a lovely morning, for 1 January. The sun made a valiant effort to warm our faces, or at least blind us as we turned up Bean Lane, and we parked our new, Green (and green) Mini in the … Continue reading

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