Unbatten The Hatches .......... Dust Off The Barbie

[Lazarus]

Stunning day today and I allowed SWMBO a day's respite from the rat race: Drove over to the Coast a few km south of Whitby and walked along the Cleveland Way Coastal Path into town for some superb Fish & Chips from the world-famous Magpie Restaurant.

Waddled our way back along the bed of an old Railway Line (think it must have gone to Scarborough before Beeching got at it).

Crocuses and Primroses abounding. Cormorants and Oystercatchers feeding avidly. Gulls begging for scraps outside the Chippy.

Has Spring arrived where you are?

 

[Analoguesat]

Barely - the snowdrops are out but thats it. When the sun comes out its nice out of the wind but the temperature drops rapidly once the sun disappears behind a cloud.

 

[sonnetpete]

Well..................................

despite my earlier posting in the "autumn/winter" section of the forum, I can report some signs of Spring. I have snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses and just a couple of miles down the road, several lambs gambolling in a field. Having watched Kate Humble doing her level best to implore a ewe to lamb live on screen (in HD as well) I think I prefer to see them running around several days afterwards. I wonder if French lambs "gambol"?

Pete

 

[Channel Hopper]

Yes, crocuses in Ham today, but they obviously aren't climbing roofs, where it is a good deal colder thanks to the North Easterly winds.

Same for the rest of the week round here.

 

[sonnetpete]

I wonder if French lambs "gambol"?

Ok, 'Babelfish' tells me that 'gambol' is sautez, which is usually jump or leap. It's just a bit too close to sauté for me, which is usually how the tastier pieces of lamb end up. Oh Tivù, how I envied you that meal today!!

 

[rolfw]

Definitely Springlike down here, if somewhat chilly, Snowdrop and Crocus beds are flourishing, male Blackbird has annexed the old nest in my Pyracantha next to the front door, Pigeons, Robins, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes are pairing up already.

 

[Llew]

I haven't got much coming up at all in the garden yet, even the snowdrops were shy of showing this year.

Yes, blackbirds pairing up, a good sign spring's around the corner. And those chancers the magpies swooping around :-Nooo

 

[Lazarus]

The deep joy continues today with what looks like a repeat of yesterday, and from a slightly milder ovenight temperature.

Shame SWMBO is back at work or the chance might have been taken for another day trip. Instead I have to attend to the mundane but apparently necessary task of getting one of our motor vehicle fleet MoT'd.

Fortunately, while that goes on, I get the chance to walk for an hour down by the river just outside Ripon and have previously seen Ring Ouzel and Dipper there.

 

[rolfw]

Ah, sounds like you know your birds.

Spotted a Raven outside the offices I was visiting in Cwmbran yesterday morning, don't get them up in Berkshire, so was quite a surprise.

 

[Lazarus]

I'm not a deadly serious twitcher, but reasonably interested. We are fairly well blessed here, getting the full array of common or garden birds plus many birds of prey and, of course, there are the rivers/streams and the sea is only an hour away.

Herself even takes books and binoculars when we go on our summer holidays and I myself am especially partial to yer actual Bee Eaters and Hoopoes.

Last June we found ourselves in a lay-by south of La Rochelle, parked up for a breather, when we saw a Wildlife Sanctuary building right there by the road. Popped in and ended up getting a 90 minute Tour around the coastal marshes and to their private Hide, for the princely sum of €3 each! And we were the only punters. Serendipity.

Best of all was a brief appearance by a Short Toed Eagle. Nice.

 

[Lazarus]

Well, no problems with the MoT, but the walk was uninspiring: It seems the flooding last year was so bad that virtually all the trees and shrubbery close to the river banks have been rent asunder. No natural cover and generally a scene of devastation.

All I saw was a Chaffinch and a dead Vole.

 

[sonnetpete]

Scarcely a day goes by without seeing a bird of prey of some sort, hawk, kestrel, buzzard. We also have herons and egrets and the garden teems with chaffinches, blue tits, robins, wrens etc. We get the occasional woodpecker and once had five young Barn Owls perching on the washing line at lunchtime! Oh, we once had a kingfisher flash overhead, though if you go down the the River Mayenne during the summer they are not uncommon.

I've seen wild deer rarely and was recently asked by two French hunters if I had seen a 'sanglier' or wild boar. I hadn't, but have heard of them 'hereabouts'.

And now it's back to Bill Oddie in the studio.....

 

[Lazarus]

And now it's back to Bill Oddie in the studio.....

I thought Kay Tumble had hidden his marbles ...............................

 

[Analoguesat]

Ah, sounds like you know your birds.

Spotted a Raven outside the offices I was visiting in Cwmbran yesterday morning, don't get them up in Berkshire, so was quite a surprise.

We occasionally get ravens around the school I work in They like the food scraps left by the kids

 

[Topper]

I thought Kay Tumble had hidden his marbles ...............................

He wishes

 

[allan238]

How I envy you all with such a choice of birds and animals on your doorstep.
I am limited in what I see in my garden, oh but what a pleasure they bring when they do arrive.
Mostly they are members of the Tit family, Thrush, Starling,Woodpigeon,Robin,
Sparrow, Dunnock, Blackbird and Collared Dove. I have seen a squirel a couple of times, but while all around they keep building more properties the less we are likely to see.

One day, in a not too distant future the children will only read about or watch on film what we have had the pleasure of growing up with, all in the name of progress and the need for more homes.

 

[sonnetpete]

I have seen a squirel a couple of times

We have squirrels too, but the grey one, common resident of the UK is rare here. I quite often see red squirrels hopping about the lawn, though in the Winter their fur turns almost black.

 

[rolfw]

Well let's hope they don't make it over there, as it would slowly but surely spell the death of the reds and blacks.

@ Allan, that's not a bad selection of birds for a built up area, if you like birds, have a look at my thamesvalleybirds.co.uk site.

 

[Lazarus]

Well as it has neither dropped below 11 or 12 deg C here for four or five days, nor has it done much more than drizzle lightly, I ventured forth into "The Lost Gardens Of Out Back" today.

Completely filled a Green Wheelie Bin with moss and other thatch from the lawn - it got really bad over the po*y winter we've just had. Fortunately I've got one of those little Electric Lawn Scarers which takes the back-breaking effort out of scarifying and aeration.

t'Rhubarb is doing well, though.

 

[Analoguesat]

Electric Lawn Scarer???

Whats it do - frighten the moss off the lawn??