The only good thing about the shorter days is that I am up and about nearer to day-break and get a chance to see the animals that tend to hide in full daylight. I have had some nice sightings of Roe Deer in the last couple of weeks as they grazed on the stubble at [...]

Finally at the beginning of September the grain harvest is all gathered in. In my younger days it was never finished until the middle of September and I never wanted to go back to school while the combine was still out. As I got older my father was not keen to send me back either;  [...]

At last, a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon! Today as we sat outside the Wendy House having tea there were dragonflies flying over the ponds. They have been few and far between this year and we have missed them. There were plenty of butterflies on the buddleias too. It has been a funny year for them [...]

I usually write my News Notes sitting at the dining room table glancing out of the window down to the wildlife pond, but today I am sitting in hot sun on a beautiful beach in South Devon casting my eyes over the rocks. In the last few days we have seen a common seal come [...]

The 1st of April, All Fools Day, and we are having old friends to stay. As I trot up and down to get the Wendy House ready for tea I notice that Katy, the ewe that is due to lamb, is in one of the little red portable shelters. In a previous life they were [...]

A nice, dry and often sunny week at the beginning of March has found me at the top of a ladder pruning some of our old and unruly John Standish apple trees. John Standish are the only apple trees I know that like to grow straight up, like sky rockets, and we never seem to [...]

At last, a proper winter and my toboggan has been out of the shed! It has been jolly useful for carting bales of hay to the sheep and first class for whizzing down hills. It was my best Christmas present when I was about 10 years old and I have treasured it ever since.I find [...]

Spring is just around the corner- but as I sit writing these notes and looking out of the window it is hard to believe. The haw frost has not left the trees all day and it did not yesterday either. The weather man said the cold snap would end in a couple of days, but [...]

The dull damp mornings of the last week of October and the first week of November have been brightened by the noisy arrival of skeins of geese flying out on to the stubble to graze. As Ted, our dog, and I take our first walk of the day, V formations come over head honking, seemingly [...]

It has been a very good year for hornets. Not the ones that give me times of great sadness and occasionally great joy at Vicarage Road Watford, but the ones that look like wasps on anabolic steroids. Actually, they are more orange and brown than yellow and black, and half as big again as wasps. [...]

It has not been much of a summer so far, but the wild flowers that were sown last autumn on an ugly heap of clay have loved it. What was once an ugly scare is now covered in wild carrots, yarrow, ox eye daisies and knapweeds. The butterflies, bees and hoverflies love it, and so [...]

Oh the joys of keeping livestock! I am just about to serve dinner, asparagus fresh from the garden to start, when glancing down to the pond I see Bill, the lamb that I bottle fed, pruning the cornus behind the pond. He is out again! I turn off the grill and run down the garden. [...]

I love to hear the skylark singing on my early morning walks with Ted, our young Labrador. Even on the rather barren, open field behind Scatterdells Lane there are still plenty about. The path runs beside a nice thick hedge, the next one across the field must be half a mile away! The other side [...]

On Friday we took Ted, our Labrador, for a glorious walk along the River Chess from Latimer to Chenies in wonderful spring sunshine. Even without jackets it was quite warm. Today, Sunday, as I look out of the window everything is white with snow; two inches have landed on the patio table!The ewes look fit [...]

Some time ago I went to a wildlife talk where niga seed was recommended to attract Goldfinches. I went out and got some straight away. Every now and again I have had to throw it away as it went damp or mouldy, but I have persevered. Imagine my delight, it has been 2 years or [...]

Some visitors are more welcome than others and it is just the same in the garden. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the frogs and toads to spawn in the ponds. After that they should be quite hungry and eat a nice lot of our slugs.The herons that come to feed on them will [...]

We had a bumper crop of apples last autumn and, even after we had juiced and bottled a lot of the fruit, there were still hundreds of windfalls on the ground. The sheep enjoy a bucketful each day, but they can only manage rotting ones, or even completely black ones, as their teeth are designed [...]

With the clocks going back my early morning dog walks are once again in day light, for a few weeks any way. I can manage the dark evenings, crumpets and a roaring fire, but I hate getting up in the dark.Getting up to a fine sunny morning is a real treat and Ted, our young [...]

Many people who walk across ” our” footpath (from the Land Rover garage to Scatterdells Lane) have noticed the large number of small shallow pits that have been dug in recent weeks. They are 4 to 6 inches deep, some filled with dark coloured poo, but not all. These are the handywork of the local [...]

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, early September, the lambs had gone and I was grazing the two ewes and the ram on the lawn in an effort to find them some grass. Expecting the same again this year, I had arranged for the lambs to visit some friends in Kings [...]