Wendy Bathurst
Look To The Heavens
It's that time of year again, and the frogs have arrived in droves down at the wildlife pond. The **** heron thinks it has died and gone to heaven; so many delicious frogs to eat that it doesn't know...
Januarys Darkest Hours
Darkest January and how black the mornings are. I like to take Ted, our young Labrador, for a good walk as soon as I am out of bed and at the moment its still dark until after 7 o clock. I do not...
Garden Friends
The 1st of February and already there is a bit of a dawn chorus. The robins have paired up, Spring must be just around the corner! At this time of year I always spend a fair bit of time digging up...
Sights To See
I was surprised and delighted when the crop planted in the fields behind Scatterdells Lane turned out not to be oil seed rape but turnips planted as winter feed for sheep.The sheep arrived just...
Redwings And Red Berries
This year's abundance of berries, particularly on holly bushes, is providing a real feast for the birds. On New Years Day we took a walk into Scatterdells Woods and were almost immediately greeted by...
Things That Scream In The Night
January and early February are the months when foxes pair up and mate and this can make for some jolly noisy nights. Surely there is no more blood-curdling sound than a vixen calling for a mate? This...
Wintry Weather
A week or so of relatively hard weather at the end of February has brought even more birds to the bird table and peanut feeders. The most numerous are the great tits, the largest of the tit clan....
The Year Of The Frog
Some years it seems are better for frogs and toads than others and 2005 will go down a record breaker with us. I have never seen so many at one time in my life. The wildlife pond was seething with...
May All Our Troubles Be Little Ones
The garden is full of babies; six lambs, and baby birds by the score. Lambing has not been so easy this year, the ewes seemed very reluctant to release their loads! Berletty was the first, but...
Even More Little Ones
Cheeky Chops, the lamb that I had to bottle feed has gone from strength to strength and is now only slightly smaller than her twin sister. She soon got the hang of bottle feeding and would start to...
Autumn's Fruitfulness
I have spent the morning gathering the first of autumn's fruits, blackberries, plump and delicious. These first early fruits came from alongside an old chicken house at my mum's farm. I guess the...
Summer "flies" By
My word where has the summer gone, already I am writing October's Notes for Chipperfield News? My lambs went for the "chop" early yesterday morning( 6 Sept) and the first tints of autumn...
Rainy Days
As I write these notes ( 6 Nov) rain is hammering down outside, too wet even for me to be in the garden. At least the wet October and November weather has filled up the wildlife pond. Even with a...
Young Mischief
YOUNG MISCHIEF Easter Sunday seemed rather an appropriate day for the first of our lambs to arrive. Much to my surprise Katy, our youngest ewe, was the proud mother of twins. In the past...