Over the past two days we have had lots of new photographs emailed to us. It may take a while for them to be put on the Photo page, but all will be. Today’s start from number one.
Sorry Lynne, I somehow forgot to put your name to your photographs.
Picture 1 is of Marley in our suitcase. We were packing getting ready to leave for Jamaica on our vacation and Marley thought if he would sneak in our suitcase he would be able to go with us. Needless to say, he didn’t get to go. Karen, Florida (USA)
Cobwebs in the garden in the autumn.
A taste of spring !! Cherry blossom on a nearby road to. The picture of the heron was taken through my back window in the rain he was eyeing up my fish in the pond for breakfast !! Lynne, Sheffield.
Here is another one that my grandson sent to me of a baby mouse, taken with his phone. Pat(H)
We have had our fair share of rain today. The roads around the Farm are flooded, as are some of our fields. I don’t mind the rain. If we didn’t have it we would complain a lot more. I cant say that I liked the flood that we had last year. It was the first time in the fourteen years that we have been flooded at Denbury. It was the clearing up that we had to do that was a bit of a nuisance, but it had to be done and was just another days work.
We don’t really get an awful lot of rain at Denbury. A lot of the times that you may see it raining on the Valley camera, it is very fine, the camera in the valley seems to accentuate the rain. On the other cameras you have probably seen that it looks dry.
We stable the Horses in the Winter, not so much for the rain and cold but because Horses poach the fields when the ground is wet. We are letting them out more this year than we want to. That is because of Willow. If Arnie and Breeze were in the own stables, they can get exercise in the corral in front. Being that they are on Lady’s block, until we finish the corral over that side, they cant come out of the stables. Branston is free range n that side and is a Colt, so we need to turn them out in the Horse field. The corral is nearly finished. We were to do a bit of concreting today, that would have let us finish it early next week, but it was a bit to wet.
Horse dung is not good for grass, and takes a long time to break down. That is part of the reason we harrow the fields. It breaks down the Horse dung as well as getting the dead grass out. Rain like we have had today makes the dung soft and easier to breakdown. Don’t use Horse manure on your gardens, unless it is well rotted. The dung breaking down will take much more out of your soil than it will put back. Well rotted Horse manure is probably the best manure you can get. Any one holidaying at Denbury are welcome to take some of ours home. People fishing here can get a ready supply of worms once the manure is rotting. We have literally hundred of tons of manure, we will have to get it spread on the fields.
There is only one time when I do mind the rain. That is when I feed the Badgers. Both of the places that I put food down are not easy to get to as they are quite steep to get to. That an understatement, the lower feeding site is a nightmare to get to at any time. If it is or has been raining, it is outright dangerous. To access it I have to climb a very steep bank of at between thirty to forty feet. Getting up it is not that bad, a bit slippery. Coming down can be horrendous. How I haven’t broken something I don’t know. Many times I have slid down that bank so fast, if it had been a ski slope I would have won a medal. Many times I have had to have a complete change of clothing when I got back to the Farm House.
As I said at the beginning of this Diary, I really don’t mind the rain. Even in the rain Denbury is a lovely place to be. I often walk down the valley, in or after the rain, looking for animal foot prints, the Birds seem to be singing more and the fast flowing stream is always interesting.