Rural Life

Tree planting

Back in February we bought and planted another tree.  To keep the aim of a productive garden going, it is a fruit tree.  Because the theory is that we spend most of the summer in the garden, we have also stuck with the philosophy that the tree should be attractive, as we will have to look at it a lot.

To that end, we have bought and planted a Neflier (french) or Medlar Tree.  Currently it is only about 3 foot high and without branches - technically called a whip.  It is planted between two chestnut stakes, commensurate with its size, and is in a smalled boxed bed in the lawn in line with the young quince we planted 3 years ago to celebrate our arrival as permanent residents here.

We are assured that it has handsome leaves and lovely large blossom, while the fruits themselves are brown.  It should provide an attractive companion to the quince.

We do have wild medlars growing in the One Acre Wood, and last year were able to taste this rather odd fruit as it softened.  However the fruits on the wild version are so small that it makes it difficult to share them with friends or use them in recipes.

The photo shows the leaf buds on the young tree - I will update with photos of the developing tree as it grows.

Introducing Black, White and Spot

We did finally manage to get a photo or two of the new girls - not at all flattering to any of them, but then they are still a bit grubby and tatty from their former lives, or in Spot's case, still growing.

Black is one of the fairly ubiquitous blackish with a gold head variety that you find round here and is a bit older than the other two - you can see this from her comb and beak.  Once we got her home and had a good look at her, we could also see this from a bald patch on her tum where she is coming out from a moult.  She seems to have lived in a shed, as she doesn't really know about scratching or greens, but she is enjoying dust baths a lot, which is good.

White is a Light Sussex, still quite immature (size and development of comb), but seems to be the one laying (second egg today).  She is a good size and will get bigger but is also rather grubby - we hope she will shine a bit later in the year.  White has got scratching sorted out, and is starting to be interested in greens - sort of!

Spot is probably a Marans, but we won't really know until she starts laying as the big hint of a Maran is the practically chocolate colour of the eggs they produce.  She is definitely the youngest of the three and can get shoved out of the way when heading for food, but is also quite adventurous in her own way - she pecked one of the cats yesterday that shoved a paw through the wire.

More tales from the chicken run to follow......

New Chickens

Today is marked in some people's view as having the worst storm of the winter with winds of 82mph recorded at Berry Head and The Mumbles and 105kph winds in land at Cholet.  So it seems obvious to us that today is ideal chicken buying weather.

Yes, we have finally succumbed to the lure of new chickens - well they are such fun, and helpful at ridding the garden of pests, and they lay the odd egg (previous chickens have laid very odd eggs - wind eggs, shell-less, double yolkers).  John checked out the market this afternoon with little hope and called in to say that there was a good selection - he would get the feed and bedding and collect me for purchasing.

Now, we have had a bit of damage from the gales, so perhaps this wasn't the best idea, but what the heck.  We selected a fine white with black bits (probably Light Sussex), a very pretty black with golden head, and a really rather cute grey speckled chicken, and watched them be stuffed into the obligatory cardboard carrying box tied up with blue string (it HAS to be blue).

On the drive home, we reminded Black, White and Spotty that they really were the luckiest chickens in the market that day, as they had found English owners, and once I had lined the coop with all things a chicken needs, rebuilt the cover for the feeding trough and tipped them out of their box, it took them 30 seconds to find the scran and agree with us.

Then the rain started, hence no pictures and actually the chickens might not totally agree with us on their luck.  But we are once again poultry owners and life is good!

Hedgehog paradise

We have a lodger in the garden.  It has been around for a number of years and we have seen some of its children tramping through the raised beds of the kitchen garden.

During the spring it hides out in and around the potager, possibly among the compost bins or in untidy patches under shrubs.  It battles with the chickens (when we have any) for the rights to keep the slug population under control, as we do not use slug pellets.

During the height of summer it goes down the garden and hangs out around the back of our house and our neighbour's house, where it is relatively cool, reasonably well stocked with slugs, no chicken competition and where it might get the odd baby lizard to boot.

During the autumn, we know it goes walkabout, but this winter we found where it made its winter snug (under the black rose bush, and up against a south facing wall).  You can see it in the photo, warming its nose in the February sunshine and preparing for being bounced on yet again by Maigret and Poirot!

Also, if you are feeling compassionate, read the other blog I do (follow this link) or go direct to this point and add to the petition to free Ingrid Betancourt.  She is not nearly as comfortable as the hedgehog.