Time to Build an Ark ..... Again

I think I  have written a blog post with this title before. I'm getting quite fed up of the weather now. For the last three years in a row, my field has flooded once or twice during the winter, this year, thanks to my neighbour narrowing the river downstream of my field by about 2 feet with gabions, just so she could make a seating area that no one uses, my field has been under water more often that it has been above. Yesterday was a particularly bad day for hideous weather and when I went to check the llamas in the afternoon, this was the state of one side of my field. Luckily, the llamas were in the other side as my field is a big field divided down the middle by a fence so I can alternate between sides in the summer. In winter they stay in the side without a flood risk so I don't have to teach them to swim and as such, they were fine, if a bit wet and muddy. It would never occur to them to go and sit in their field shelter out of the rain!! I will now have to mend my field fence again!!

I tried to upload a video but it did't work :-(

Green Shoots and a Bag of Twigs!

What a difference! The weather is sunny but breezy and apart from a short, sharp hail shower this morning while I was feeding the llamas, it's been surprisingly fine. I realise I'm just being a hopeless optimist but it's nice to see the sun again ...... even if it does highlight just how dirty my windows are! Not only is the weather nice but things are beginning to sprout. I went for a walk down the lane this morning after finishing the sad task of burying Amelia Pond, one of my original pair of chickens. My other one died a few weeks ago and sadly, I had to have Amelia put to sleep yesterday. Anyhow, I thought a walk in the sun would be just the thing to cheer me up so I grabbed my camera and headed off down the track. 

It doesn't look like much is happening from a distance but when you get closer, things are definitely starting to sprout.

I have no idea what these little tufts of greenery are but it's nice to see some lovely green shoots popping up.

My daffodils have been out for about 10 days now I can't believe they're so early.  I even had some miniature daffs sprout in an abandoned hanging basket that I had taken to the compost heap and forgotten to tip out!!

As I was walking back home, in the bush next to the road was this cheeky chappie. He was singing at the top of his lungs, I've never noticed before how piercing robin song actually is, he was making a right old racket but he obligingly stood still for a good 5 minutes while I snapped away. 

As to the bag of twigs, About 4 weeks ago, a junk email pinged into my inbox from a well known plant company and I was about to delete it when I noticed they had an amazing offer on. 12 bare root shrubs for £12 plus P&P. I thought it was a bargain so I decided to order some. They arrived yesterday looking a little less awe-inspiring than I had anticipated but nevertheless I can't wait to get them planted up. They're in pots at the moment until I can sort out the ideal spots for them. 

Now, if only the nice weather would hold out for more than a day I could get to it :-)