lots more photos

I'm very disappointed that there appears no visible improvement in Honey's condition.  The implant has been in over a week now but she still walks awkwardly and wobbles, with her wings low, when she preens herself.

The pictures above are from a preening session all 16 up here were having on Tuesday, note the two 'slightly outcast ducks', Honey on the very left, Gertie on the very right.

Coming back from tree clearance this lunchtime I surprised Honey under the Forsythia ball and she looked normal,

but only a short time after she was goose-stepping again following the others into the front garden.

I don't know what else to do for her  - although, she has kept more in company with all the others the last two days and maybe the implant takes more time to be effective?

You may remember that when Native Forestry did the tree planting for us in March they also cleared a section of our overgrown hedge along the ditch, not far from the new nature pond.  Lots of what was cut down was burned as this photo from mid-March shows, but since Monday I've been working in that area again, cutting, clearing and burning as much as possible and today John came out with the chainsaw and cut some more.  Slowly, slowly we're making an impression:

The opening at the back of these three pictures above and right which look a bit like an archway, happened because I couldn't remove a fallen tree, but I did manage to cut away everything underneath.




From the opposite side it looks like this:

The pile of wood on the right is the very same that we were stacking up
almost three years ago when we couldn't get any further in our clearance operation:

                                                



It looked quite neat when we left it at that point - nature has taken over again since then in a big way!

On Tuesday I managed to light a fire to burn all the scrub I'd cut down and it did very well.  When I left to go back for tea I took this photo, hoping it would show the smoke, but you can only see a few wisps if you look close where I've put the yellow arrow in the middle distance.

I took a few more pictures on my way back to the house, of Captain's little 'kingdom', of John mowing in the 'formal garden', and of the gaggle of 16 under the big cherry tree by the former horse fence.  This is a favourite place of theirs, it's where the dirt water from the little pond emptied and where a mole has gone berserk as you may see.  Note the two dark ducks [probably Dash and Vera] inside the fence again which John put there to protect his veg garden the fence mesh is just too large!

 

We were on Luncheon Club duty on Wednesday, these were the colourful bunches:

My lovely friend in America was bowled over by the previous lot with the tulip-forme magnolia in it - do you like these, Pam? Very Spring-like!  If you're wondering what's in it, here's the list:
Big yellow Doronicums, orange geums. purple-leaved Lysimachia [very invasive, don't have them in the garden!], frothy white cow parsley, peony buds, white dead nettle, green/yellow euonymus, periwinkle, rosemary, and a sprig from Carl's Kerria - I think that was it ...

All three huts were cleaned on Wednesday afternoon, and our friend who wants to harvest the hay from our big field came to harrow it to give the grasses a good chance to grow - the harrowing made big stripes:

Thursday, yesterday, was a very mixed weather day with sharp showers and a bit of fleeting sun in between.  John had another go at mowing between the newly planted trees [which are still quite small but growing nicely], and I lit another fire to burn what I'd cut down again, John helped when he'd finished mowing.

In the farmer's field next to our ditch there was a new herd of cattle, the views across from ours to the brook is quite beautiful this time of year, friend Pam in hot Arizona would give a lot for that much green!

There are several quite magnificent oak trees alongside the brook - we'll have a great view of them once I've cleared the overgrown wood, and so will our neighbours!

John has done a fabulous job on his veg patch near the big pond, these are the view from both sides:


                                   

And the bluebells are making a valiant effort to poke through the excessive green stuff: