March - Spring!

This morning it was a pair of pigeons sitting on the greenhouse roof, making lovey-dovey! Yesterday a pair of rabbits emerged from the hedgerow just below us & chased madly, round & round in the field.

Lambs, just one or two, are being seen in the fields and Ian, one of the farmers in Clapham showed his first born calf of the year in a field, just down the lane.
Diane's bees have been flying, the snowdrops are going over, daffs, crocuses and some tulips are open & the elder bushes are beginning to sprout, holding the promise of elderflower cordial & champagne in a few months time!

Birds are tweeting - we heard our first curlew on Feb25th again, just as last year. The wren is looking for nest sites. Blue & great tits, goldfinches, chaffinches & greenfinches, robins, blackbirds, thrushes & dunnocks are all looking lively around the garden. Everything, including us, is emerging from winter hibernation.

February Snow

Several days of lovely crisp, cold, clear weather have given the chance for long walks out in the fresh air. Here we repeated part of our Christmas day walk, at the top of Crummackdale but in totally different conditions. Then it was pouring, horizontal rain; now crisp & clear & seeing for miles.

Another day, it was up to Little Ingleborough, through 2-3" of snow, but going no further as the summit was in cloud & time late.

And today, after another snowfall of 2½", a walk through the fields between Newby & Cold Cotes, with Jack off the lead & chasing madly to & fro, practicing the "Come!" call. It's a joy to see him at full stretch!

Now, the temperature must be just above freezing, signs of a thaw are all about. The snow, still white is turning slushy, but there are still lovely things to see. And, no doubt, the top of Ingleborough will still be covered & picturesque for some time to come.

12 January - the most fabulous sunset!

We looked up from whatever we were doing to watch the most fabulous sunset for ages!

Christmas

Aaaahh.

Cards are all sent. Preparations made. Presents wrapped. Time for us to subside....into our handkerchiefs & hot Lemsips & Night Nurse, to cough & splutter through the night! probably the worst colds we've ever had! (Di says, even for her, "It's Man-flu!")

However, Christmas Day arrives. We've arranged to meet James & Sue, friends from Clapham Village at their house, for a walk & in spite of the rain, off we go, heading for Norber Erratics.

Fortunately, the rain is at our backs, all the way out. We perch behind a wall to eat our sandwiches, slurp damson gin, nibble mince pies & drink soup, then stand...and wow!, the rain has stopped!

It's still blowing a gale, mind.

We drop off the high ground at Sulber Gate & head towards Austwick, then cut across a corner for a quicker way back to Clapham. By now its dark. We've been out for nearly 5 hours. Home to a hot bath & soak, clean up.

Get the meat in the oven. Lay the table. Soon enough, James & Sue arrive with the veg & the brandy butter & we are sitting down to gloriously tasty, locally farmed, roast pork with crisp crackling & all the works, followed by flaming Christmas pud & that brandy butter! And chatter is continuous too.

So, thank you James & Sue, for joining us, leading the walk (new ground for us) and making our Christmas Day really special.

What on earth do you want an allotment for?

"What on earth do you want an allotment for?"!!!!
We've got a big enough garden & don't have enough time for that.
But Di wants space to grow squashes & courgettes in the summer, & we need a decent patch for all the strawberry plants we have, and.....and.....
So when Eddie says "Who wants an allotment?", guess whose hand goes up first!

With bookings tailing off we have more time for 'home' projects - emptying gutters, weeding the polytunnel site (Yes, that too!)(Still in the planning stage), general maintainance to do,& so on. So last Saturday a group of us met at the allotment site to begin to prepare paths, make space for the shed & to start work on our new plots.. Lovely sunny day, thank goodness. And we will be looking forward to gleaning info off some of our gardening neighbours.

And so, this Saturday afternoon, John actually got down to work on our plot (another nice day - not bad for mid-November!)& found (despite weedkiller treatments a few months ago) nettle & willowherb roots & plenty of big stones in the first 4 or 5 feet of the plot. At the same rate it'll take another 8-10 hours to clear! And then there's the Orchard Group's plot, just opposite ours, which will need doing as well and....

But, no doubt, it'll all be worth it in the end & there'll be some wonderful produce to eat & share next year & make all those aching muscles seem a distant memory.........................?

Thermal Imaging

We took an opportunity presented at Clapham's Energy Day, organised by the Clapham Sustainablity group, to have our house checked with a thermal imaging camera.

The images have a temperature scale at their base (the air temperature at ground level was 10.5°C), so on the left, which shows the roof above the two B&B bedrooms, shows a roof surface temperature of around 5°C - well insulated & nice & cosy!

The photo on the right shows the road side of the roof & the stairs window. Despite showing red walls, the temperature scale still shows that this was at or below air temperature.

The temperature in the top left corner is that of the spot in the middle of the image.

Visit Britain Inspection

A busy week, but successful.

Old friends visited from Canada, Greece and the south in the same week as the overnight stay by the Visit Britain inspector. Di, not satisfied with our 4* silver award last year, wanted a 'Breakfast Award' as well, which meant an overnight stay, rather than a day visit.

The standards had been raised in the last year which had meant extra things to do, just to retain our existing award. So, new fittings and extra touches done, little touch ups of scratches and dents in plaster repaired & painted, winter hanging baskets planted, etc, etc...

Several experiments - smoked salmon with scrambled eggs, fruit muffins - meant an overfed husband(!); ideas from neighbours - marmelade muffins - (to die for! - Thanks Rachel!) resulted in success!

Needless to say - thrilled to have retained the 4* silver, and to have been given the Breakfast Award too!