The Pygmy Shrew!

Sitting on our kitchen doorstep this morning, in the sun, without a care in the world, was this little one - a pygmy shrew. Nose to tail no more than two inches! It hopped in & out of the crevices between stones in the wall & between the paving slabs.

We did move it though, further up the steps & popped it under the lavender bush where it can get access to more wall and away from being under Jack's nose!

Bees again!

The last week has been the busiest for Crooklands bees! Tuesday saw Sue and James help me go through the 3 hives we now have on site. First was to check that the new queen had successfully hatched, mated and returned to my first hive; and all was successful, as not only did we see new eggs, but spotted the new queen!

Then it was to go through the new hive, as I had not seen any pollen going in for some days. It was evident that the queen had left, so, after some manipulation, hope the new queen cell hatches with the same success as my first hive.

Finally, on Saturday, had to re-unite the queen that had left this pictured hive and taken up residence in the nuc box that I had set up in case the bees decided to swarm. Hopefully that has been successful too. In all, must have spent close on 8 hours dealing with bees in a week! John has declared himself a "Bee widow"!

We have had a number of guests recently who are all keen gardeners, yet all of us do not know what this perennial is! It is about 3 feet high, the leaves are rounded at the base, yet palmated further up. All have admired it, but what it is remains a secret so far!

Have resorted to e-mailing Julie who planted the garden in the hopes she can give us the name of what is a lovely shrub!

The Bees

It's two months now since our new bees arrived making a total of three hives at Crooklands. It's been a difficult year for beekeeping as weather patterns have been different from last year, with early sun & warmth followed by cold & damp, & latterly close & thundery, which has resulted in grumpy bees!

The Clapham Bee Group, of which Crooklands is one has been trying to "grow our stock" by encouraging new queen bees to develop. With the help & advice of our BBKA inspector(www.bbka.org.uk), we hope to raise 3 or 4 more queens this season.

As we only began a year ago, it is still early days - we are very much still on "L" plates - we do not expect to take honey from our hives yet, but hope to soon. Home produced honey for the Guests' breakfast table? - not yet, but we, or they, the bees, are working on it!

Ingleborough sheep gathering

Bright & early, 5am, Monday 27th June, meet at Bleak Bank Farm, our neighbours, a quarter mile down the road. A glorious morning, almost cloudless, a party of about 12 people, set off for the summit of Ingleborough, where at 6am we meet farmers from Cold Cotes. Other farmers are on Simon Fell to the north-east and under the cliffs of Ingleborough to the west, to drive sheep and lambs off the fell for shearing.

Jack, our Jack Russell terrier, out on this sort of exercise for the first time, meets collies & herding dogs about their business, rather than in the farmyards or on walks. Actually shows some instinct for herding too!

With people staked out across the fell, we sweep across the hillside, gathering sheep down to Clapham, Newby, Bleak Bank & Cold Cotes, then after a hearty breakfast start the business of sorting sheep & lambs back to their respective farms. Only after lunch did shearing begin.

My job in all of this was to feed sheep in to the shearers, & once shorn hold them to be marked & released. Sheep can be, NO - ARE difficult.. Needless to say, I am black & blue all over my legs. clothes & boots covered in poo, red marking paint, and wool snippings but return home at 7pm exhausted & having had a wonderful day. Thank you John (Dawson) at Bleak Bank for a great day. Thanks too to Judy for great food & the photo above.

Tawny Owl and chicks

More of our resident owl...

A few nights ago, having seen the owl at dusk, I went out quite late & heard two soft squark/squeek calls coming from different parts of the tall ash tree at the corner of the garden. Young ones? So, I stayed out & in the gathering darkness could see movements from one branch to another & occasionally, the adult bird coming back to the tree. Later still one of the chicks flew onto a branch only 15ft from me, but it was so dark that I could only see a bundle of fluff!

Yesterday afternoon, walking Jack in the field, he set off after a rabbit which chased off into the barn. Rabbit, then dog, then I chasing into the barn resulted in owls retreating to ash tree in broad daylight! Hence pictures above!

Repeat Visitor

Here's our latest repeat visitor, but, as you can see, not universally popular!

It's been seen both morning & evening at both recent weekends. First indication was a disgorged waste sac of fur & bones left on a tree stump.

We are also playing host to dunnocks & blackbirds nesting & have seen willow warblers in the garden, but haven't seen their nest yet. And jackdaws in the neighbouring barn.