Red Kites

Not the diamond shaped floating things that Winnie the Pooh likes but the bird type at Gigrin Farm, Powys.

We had a birthday in the house.. Mr W and so his eldest son and lovely partner came to stay.. bless them having only very recently moved back from Australia they have been bonkers busy moving, organising, sorting themselves out and so the Flu God had struck them both quite badly.. but still they came.. THANK YOU!

So we had a lovely day on Saturday.. a truffle in local antique and second hand shops was fun and then we went to watch the Red kites be fed (I am not sure this outdoor activity in was the best for our poorly visitors with hindsight).

Mr Waen says that he was expecting just a man with a lump of meat on a bit of string but no no no.. it was a sight to behold.. at leas 100 of these ace birds flew down to eat a serious amount of meat.. they use 1/4 tonne of meat per week AT LEAST.. good lord!

The admission to this place is so cheap by today's standards.. only 4.50 for an adult.. its not the longest  activity in the world but is breathtaking!

WOW

More than just a bloke with a bit of meat on string Mr W

 A Kite scooping up his "prey"

What a nice day we had.. and can you believe we woke up on Sunday to more SNOW!!!!! Thankfully its gone again.. just biting winds but at least the ground is not soaked again so more gardening for me this week.. Brilliant! xx

Heron..

My lovely family have toddled off back to the north of England but not before my niece.. who was doing her duck and chicken chores (more unpaid labour/ family abuse) spotted a heron by the lake. We all thought she meant the plastic decoy one that the previous owners left but no.. it was a HERON!!! How majestic he was and when he flew it was incredible.. made me feel even more lucky to live here than I generally do.. Really hope he comes back.

My spot was not so rare but still very cute.. Mr Squirrel sat in the tree nibbling the new fruits.. and perhaps working out how to sidle down to the peanuts on the bird feeding station.

Poor Max...

Well this could be a record even for me.. Max has been my car for less than 6 months and yet I have managed to prang him.. now this will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and has witnessed my diving but still I was in a bit of bother.

I am just hideously thankful that it was Max and Not Mr Waen's car that I moved only seconds before.. that would have been big big trouble.

I was only reversing back into the drive to pop to the supermarket.. and in doing so have cost us more than the shopping for sure... OOPS.. I am a bit in trouble!

Ouch 

EEK!

Money Falls..

Today the family labour continued (don't worry I only abuse family in this way) and we have revived a tired old and overgrown mini waterfall into something that looks much smarter. It is now ready for spring to spring.. Having shifted 10 wheelbarrows full of rubbish, brushed and washed some rocks (yes I know too fussy) and had a jolly good tidy up, I have decided to Christen the mini waterfall after them.. and its Money Falls.. (that's their surname by the way not a declaration of their wealth)

After this we went out on the rowing boat where the mini Moneys squabbled their way around the lake and eventually brought up back to dry land and now its time to chill.. Sadly I wave them off tomorrow .. who will work now.. oh well get them back for 2 weeks in August.. for lawn mowing, vegetable picking, flower cutting .. Such fun :-)

before 

after 

Child labour - eventually !

On Sunday Mr Waen went to the local DIY shop and in doing this went insane it would seem and ordered 3 enormous sacks of logs for delivery TODAY! 2 problems with that;

1.  Today Mr Waen is prancing about playing laser quest with his work chums (team building).. and NOT MOVING LOGS!!!
2. We are not that short of logs and its spring soon?

So my skinny sister.. my olive oil arms (popeye) and 2 children (9 and 11) had to move 1/2 tonne of logs.. thank you Mr Waen.

The kids weren't really up for it and were watching TV so I rang the house phone to annoy them, that worked for a bit but not long enough,  so I flipped off the electricity in the house (the joy of outside fuse box).

After that they were forced to  come and help so we made it into a competition.. 1 kid and 1 adult  teams and first one the empty a bag won.. The niece and I won, but then had to confess (after 8 hours) that we did one log in our wheelbarrow and one into their bag (evil laugh). Anyway after an hour all logs in the store .. next time Mr Waen's company need to team build (??) I can recommend moving logs!!!

Before

After 

What a bonkers day..

Today started peacefully with the stepping stones being dug in by me and Mr Waen doing little DIY bits and bats and then at 1:30 it went mad, in a lovely way when my fabulous sister and her gorgeous family.. including Barry arrived. Loyal readers may remember that Barry on last visit had a nibble of Cheryl the chicken.. and so rightly the sister said not to let him of the lead on arrival.. Mr and Mrs Waen however clearly thinking they are mother and father earth said that it was fine.. let him be free .. BIG MISTAKE.. here   is the entire right side of Hilary the chicken (below). She has survived well.. and even laid an egg two hours later but that was a hairy moment!

So to calm the situation we decided to take the pups on a walk to wear them out.. all was well we went quite far exploring some local woodlands and found a little hut and all sorts.. had such fun and then.. the niece she got stuck in the mud.. So I went to rescue and just pulled her out and made matters much worse when she then completely landed in it..

Stuck

rescued.. kind of

So the next mission was to take the duck house to the island in the lake where Sophie and Blueberry have made their home all on their own bless them as that was the plan.. so off we went maiden voyage in the rowing boat me first.. kids followed.. duck house after that.. 

Duck house on the island..

all in all .. an adventure of a day. The start of 5 weeks of visitors.. I defy any of the following visitors to make such an impact on arrival.

Bee school..

The weekend began with a trip to Bee School .. The Montgomeryshire Bee Association puts on course for buffoons like us who think we can learn to keep bees.. I woke up not in the mood for such things but glad we pottered there as it was a great day. Our teacher a man called Brian Goodwin and he was THE most amazing teacher I have ever seen .. he was funny, knowledgeable, patient and calm. This man had inner peace that I can only dream of.. anyway he has completely fired us up and Bees are the future..he is the President of the Shropshire Bee Keepers Association and just a great bloke.. 


One of the things we learnt is how expensive it is to set up and how easily it can go wrong.. and another thing was how colonies of bees frequently decide to swarm, which is basically the old queen bee and some of her loyal subjects deciding that due to overcrowding its time to pop off and go and find a new home.. they send out scout bee's and its all precision planned.. these are AMAZING creatures..as such our plan is to get the hives in place and see if we can rehome some swarms.. if all else fails next season we will buy some. 

Amazing bee facts; 

- They stopped evolving 1.5 million years ago! (they are now perfect) 
- their eyes are have 40 facets.. they are the all seeing eye. 
- They can carry 2 times their body weight in nectar. 
- At the height of season the queen lays 2000 eggs per day. 

and the ultimate fact.. 

- without them we simply die out!


A lovely friend bought me a bee book for my birthday which I have had my nose in ever since.. I am so excited for them to move in ..

Well there is a question and the answer is set up an artificial swarm.. they are about to split and run.. 

lots to read 

Stepping stones and silly chickens

The chicken house in the middle of a lawn.. not the most practical as we churn up the lawn every time we potter over there so today I bought some stepping stones and began a new garden patch.. phew its all go! Today though the weather was nice so I put on 3 less layers and looked less foolish at least.

So this is the new patch I am playing with.. I can't get deep into the really bad bits yet s the ground it too wet I will just make it worse so this the part where the car park is and the chicken house.. like the rest all overgrown and some dead stuff.. so have today chopped down 3 trees that were dead and  have cut  back lots of things hoping that they ping back to life, buds are there so I am hopeful..

 The problem with gardening when you have chickens is that they want the worms so any digging.. (see removal of dead roots below) is impeded by the fact that silly feathered folk sit on your spade.. whilst sawing a tree today one of them hopped onto the end of the saw.. Brain dead!

 Ducks however are unlikely to get involved in such scavaging.. its simply above them so they just find a spot to observe me digging, chickens getting in the way and at afternoon tea time from their spot they quack like mad until I produce corn (who's the idiot?)

Chickens however they don't wait for corn.. they just steal the bluebird food! Bit Mean given they have lots of their own food to eat!

So tomorrow's job is to get these little babies sunk into the grass.. more digging... more worms .. more daft chickens.. ground hog!

from domestic goddess to labourer

Today I woke up to more snow.. grim ... and it was snowing too.. Pah!

Here we go again!

So I put off, for as long as possible, the whole garden thing.. instead I made Mr Waen healthy spring onion and seed loaf!

But then having foozled about doing anything but hit the snow it was time to venture out.. Worked out quite well though as I finished my patch 2 days before I expected too!

Lakeside patch .. Before

During

after

nice x

I have wheel barrowed and spread  1/4 tonne of stones today.. sleepy arms!

Defiant ducks ..

Its been a freezing cold day here today and I have been gardening on a patch close to the lake which is overgrown with grass which I am aiming to turn right back to the pebbled lake side patch it was before.. its a bit of a challenge but think am 1/4 of the way there.. should be done by the end of the week if the weather stays OK.

It is difficult trying to garden with chickens.. when using shears they stand so close that they risk their claws, when using a spade they stand on top of what ever you are trying to unearth and when using a rake they just stand on top of it.. and today I had 3 picking through my soon to be compost in  the wheel barrow.. throwing it out of the wheelbarrow as they went.. GRR.. but the ducks were looking cute in and out of the lake getting clean and having fun.

Clearly however Sophie and Blueberry  had far too much fun and now are being defiant and refusing to get into their house.. I can hear them on the lake quacking and splashing but can't see them because its pitch black and keep shouting them but nothing.. Well I can't keep popping in and out all night its almost bed time so I am now just going to bed with fingers crossed hoping Mr Fox is occupied elsewhere xx

Pitch black. over the lake 

The empty home of Sophie and Blueberry 

Even Archie is out looking for them .. 

Trellis done, spring has sprung and I have got new wellies on....

... check me out.. another Rhyme.. not quite as good as the aga saga but not bad!

Anyway so back to business.. Its nice that we have had a bit of let up on the rain and the second phase of snow which gladly went in two days and so Andrew has been able to finish off the trellis and walk way.. we now have a trellis that stands up straight, when touched does not break and does not sway in the wind.. Brilliant!

Smart new trellis

A bit of a mess of mud where there used to be grass.. can't be helped in this  weather.

So there is a fair bit of tidying to do now the trellis is up the weather meant that wherever the guys walked mud was made and grass and plants now need some TLC.. Good news however is that they managed to save my precious wisteria and get it back on the trellis .. Brilliant!

Winnie checking out the work

I have had a great day today... finished a patch of the garden and started a new patch next to the lake, its nice to be out and about when buds are coming out and bulbs are growing and the first sign of spring.. we have snow drops all over.. I LOVE spring flowers.

snowdrops .. pretty 

daffodils not far behind.. with a watchful Winnie making sure they are ok

Beautiful little things 

Mr Waen was back from London town yesterday and he came bearing gifts.. Nice.. its unlucky to put new shoes on the table so here are my new wellies suspended in the air. 

posh wellies

And as I have my new wellies thought I better get on with some planting so I have added more seed trays to the bedroom window ledges... but in the allotment the garlic is in the ground whoop!

2 rows of garlic :-)

I am off up north for a couple of days now so back to it next week.. Mr Waen (not a natural gardener) has been left in charge of watering the bedroom seed trays.. he has clear directions.. be gentle, don't over water, remember to water them.. and then a threat of injury if not done properly.. so here's hoping!

xx

Bedroom done..

 A very productive day in the garden, was followed by my next favourite activity a bit of crafting .. this completed all of the things for the bedroom. So at last its all finished. The weather stayed ok ish today warmer but a bit more damp but good gardening weather for sure .. so have finished the patch with the ferns in... hoping that the little bit of TLC will bring them back later in the year .. started a new patch by the lake now .. got a welly full of water but hey ho. Planted some seeds.. flowers only for now vegetables to follow and put them on the window ledges in the guest bedrooms.. so if you are planing a trip soon you will have to share!!! Can't put them in our room its too pretty look...

Pretty 

Wallpaper matches.. but not as well as my friend did it with her 8 foot drop over the stair case .. I have no idea how.. just glad she let me pinch her wall paper idea. 

Mr Waen bought scatter cushions yesterday .. A surprise for anyone who know's him I am sure 

the less floral side..

 

These are painted firewood sticks hanging on the wall which i painted and hung my jewellery  from 

Guess who's side this is :-)

The best bit of decorating is the little touches and I love to craft and so crafted 3 little touches for this room.. 

Plain old bottles.. washed and pained with latex paint.. you cant't quite see but there are  3D words on them.. Peace, Love, Dream, Joy and Smile.

These are sticks from the firewood pile.. scrubbed and painted = jewellery hangers

And my favourite.. Some readers who inhabit a Charity in Leeds may remember these as 2 sets of drawers that I bought from the pile of things we were selling at the Market.. They are now one jewellery box with engraving that we made by blowing up a Rob Ryan picture; 

Mr Waen did this fiddly bit

Tweet 

Pretty 

Next its the big guest bedroom to do.. Got lots of ideas but my wall paper has gone missing in city link world somewhere .. Grrr xx