In other words, bindweed, nettles and foxgloves! I just wish they didn't grow in my vegetables patch.
2024
Mobile phone mast at last!
June 2024
UPDATE July - the mast went live some time ago, but we have only just found out that is is O2 and Vodaphone, not EE (yet). EE has some coverage anyway.
To some, it is an anathema, but to many it's about time!
For those of us with businesses to run in the valley - especially when we are out and about, communication is vital and although we have managed without a mobile phone signal for 18 years, it has been a problem at times.
Now we are blessed with both high speed broadband and soon, 4G phone signal. What will we have to complain about? !!!!
From egg to cockerel
Spring 2024
Last summer I incubated 16 eggs, 6 of which hatched and survived. Longshanks, the handsome Leghorn cockerel, is one of those survivors.
Mr Frost lace work!
January 2024
Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? Created by Mother Nature herself (or is it Mr Frost?) with no human intervention whatever. Fantastic!
2023
Leaky dams and overflow scrapes
Spring 2023
Last year we were approached by a charity on behalf of Severn Trent to enter into an agreement to help alleviate excess water flow in our rivers. Being at one of the heads of the river Severn (a long way from it's mouth) we are in a position to help.
Does it work? Who knows, but our leaky dams are holding up water flow at our end and the field scrapes are filling up with all this rain we have been having, so I would like to think that the scheme is working.
Old sheep dip cleared
Spring 2023
A few years ago a beautiful big ash tree fell down across the old sheep dip/pond. The water flow down the stream had caused the bank under it's roots to collapse. I was in teh house at the time and it made remarkably little noise considering how big the tree was - just a little crunch!
As part of the water retaining excersise, the contractors cut up the tree, placing one part of its trunk against the pond bank and removing the rest for future firewood. They then dug out much of the silt build-up in the pond making deeper again.
What Peter calls the 'mad Max' machine
Spring 2023
The contractors who came to do the damming and scraping brought their multi-purpose mini tractor with them. This seemed to do all jobs, from hauling logs to transporting equipment. They had a minidigger for digging the scrapes and dredging the pond.