Saturdays seem to be the "happening days"

On Saturday 9th the troupe of ducks moved away on a forage through the garden and I grabbed my chance to empty the frog pond - its clean-up was long overdue.

This appears to be a new romance, I've never seen Gertie and Ben cuddled up like this before.

A very nice visitor turned up on Saturday afternoon with a bunch of flowers, and I couldn't finish the pond cleaning and ~filling operation, nor did I feel like doing that on the Sunday ... much to the disgust of the ducks who sulked until the pond was full again on Monday.

They only got to enjoy their fresh water for a couple of days until the cold weather really set in and the pond froze and they chose instead to spend their days around the half empty big pond ever since.  I've only been hacking the ice on Dotty's little pond, she's more comfortable in the water.

Saturday 17th was a cold and sunny day, just right for son Carl and two friends, Jason and Ryan, to do lumberjacking on a grand scale. First they chopped enough wood to fill up my wood store and load up their cars with supplies for their own wood burners.  Then they went into the hedge to do woodland maintenance at the spot where I abandoned it last year when John became so ill. They exhausted themselves using all the "boys' toys" like chain saws, axes and ride-on mower and were happy.  I had a grand day too just supplying food and drinks, and had lovely company with add-on daughter Val and Ryan's wife Max and their little boy Oli, a real charmer!

Carl had brought me his family calendar which I await eagerly every year.  I love the funny way he writes up the history of the previous year as much as I enjoy the photos.

On the following morning I had a walk around the frosty field and garden to see the wonderful work Carl and his friends did the day before.  I was impressed and thankful, I hope they soon come for a repeat performance! Here are a few photos from my walkabout:

 

 

On the left, for comparison, was how I left the site last year - I couldn't get those fallen trees out of the ditch.  On the right how the boys left it on Sunday.

One of my requests had been to clear a patch full of blackthorn trees in front of this great ash, and the boys certainly did the job well!

There was more water in the nature pond than I'd seen before, and I expect the tall ash covered in ivy at the back of the photo on the right will be the next one to fall across our ditch .....


On my way back I disturbed the ducks by the big pond once more, they grumbled, but soon settled down again.

I took a quick snap of the calamondine in the conservatory which Annie gave me as a Mothering Sunday gift several years ago.  As you can see, it is still producing fruit!