Pied Flycatcher

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As I was walking back from the yurt, on one of the many trips we make to and fro, I spotted a pied flycatcher flitting around the hedgerow. I followed him all the way back over to the barn, where he promptly popped into one of the nesting boxes we have put up, then I spotted the female. Such a sweet little bird and it is eagerly scoffing all of the insect life it can. The hedgerows are buzzing with life. Goldfinches are singing lustily, bees are drinking up all the nectar that they can get, swallows are diving around the place  and it is most assuredly spring!

Spring has sprung

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Carmarthenshire has the wonderful advantage of a lot of wildlife, much of it seemingly on our land. Over the last week or so we have seen six female red deer (who seem to have moved in), hedgehog activity, noctule bats, shrews and voles all over the field, bumble bees, toads, frogs and newts are set up nicely in the pond,  celandines and wood anenomes bursting into flower, an enormous array of birds including: linnet, pied fly catchers, house martins, gold finches, red kite, buzzard, willow tits, bullfinches, wild duck, dipper, herons, Canadian geese, chiff chaff, nut hatches, barn owls, tawny owls, pied wagtails, grey wagtails, song thrush, robin, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit etc!

Asparagus & Potatoes

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Spring arrived in a flurry this weekend, warm weather and a burst of energy from everything. Flowers bloomed, visitors arrived and we planted vegetables. This weekend we needed to get in the 50 asparagus plants bought us by some dear friends. James dug two 15 metre trenches in our beautiful soil, which we have been culturing for the last 12 months from mulching and covering to the digging and rotavating. The instructions were specific, the one year old crowns had to be 10cm below the surface, any more they could rot in the damp, any less and they could be killed by frost. It was a serious undertaking and Lyndsey’s dad and little brother got stuck in! Each plant was soaked then gently laid out in the trench, the root ball teased out to sit flat, then buried with excitement at the thought of the asparagus parties to come.

We also had 100 potatoes to plant these included Lady Charlotte, Kestrel, Pink Fir Apple, Nadine, Desiree and then some others.. however we mislaid the names!  That’s 40 metres of potato plants!