After some steady rain and a few downpours the pond here is completely full and the wetland full of water. We returned the water level in the wetland to the height it would have been before the land was drained, years ago. and also excavated the pond in '98 ..there had been one previously, but that had silted up and grown over with marsh grass after the field was drained.  

Lil' red rooster's been gone

Our old rooster died the other day, very sad really, we'd had him for ages.. but he was looking very down after some wet grey days.. he seemd healthy enough, just old age and a loss of the will to live I reckon, its gets to us all this time of year. With the winter solstice around the corner I guess there is hope .. the light will return. The sun finally shone yesterday and today so it was nice to be able to get out and about again without the wind and rain.. here's the chooks enjoying some winter rays cand contemplating a life without their Daddy Rooster to look over them  

Fluff gets a 100,000 mile service. Head pussycat and senior citizen Fluffy Orange Cat on walkabout yesterday. A recent visit to the vet and a couple of jabs and she's looking good for a good few more miles yet. She has been suffering from swollen paws and nose, which sort of comes and goes a bit, but its seems better for the moment after the jabs she had.  

Here is a red campion flowering on Dec 16th. You'd normally expect to see it flowring in May, thats how warm it is at the moment 

Simon yesterday at Brynllwyn. We were looking at the water levels in the field and discussing the evolving plan to plant more coppice trees in the wetland. The theroy is that it is slowly eutrophying , ie getting run off of nutrients from the surrounding farmland so that it becomes too rich for the wetland plants growing there. If it get richer adn less acid then nettles brambles and braken will jsut take it over adn we'll lose the some of buidiversity that has been improving there until now. A section of willow and a section of ash was what we agreed. Ash as its such a useful wood, grows well here and is easy to burn for heat as well as make things out of. Willow, we will chose varieties that are good bee fodder as we are planning to start a beehive this year. That would be an added bonus to the willow rods tthemselves, which we can se for making things, or perhaps on other garden project we get involved with else where. Any surplus can of course go to heat the houses.