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Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

Attached are a few photos from Cornwall for your website.

A couple of beach scenes from Polly Joke,

a calf spotted on Cubert

Common and a couple of spring flowers to complete the set. Sue Ogilvie

The Barn Owl Nest Box webcam was turned on today. Just before 5.30pm I saw that the Owls were mating, so it should not be long before we see an egg.

The camera that we have supplied is a colour/ mono camera that if there is sufficient light should go into colour mode. I think you will all agree the picture quality is far better than that of last year. A microphone has also been put into the nest box. As soon as time can be found the Trust hope to get it going.

The main Stream that meanders its way through the Farm, also runs very close to the side of the Lake. In places little more than eight foot apart. Unfortunately the past few wet years has caused the Stream to run faster and harder than normal, causing quite a lot of erosion. It would not be so bad but the stream runs at the bottom of a six foot bank with the top of the bank being level to the water line of the Lake, so the erosion has to be stopped.

We had an extortionate quote on stopping the erosion at the end of last year. It made me think that there must be an alternative way of doing the work needed. The intention was to do it my way during the Summer. Last week we had a visitor to the Farm and we spoke about the erosion and he suggested Willow Spiling, assuring that it was a very easy procedure. It was one of the extortionate quotes, that on making inquiries from Willow Growers will cost only a fraction of what we were quoted.

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Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

Its always nice to see sheep, happily grazing. Karen Stoke.

This sheep just stood watching me as I crept along the hedgerow, we stood there ages just staring at each other. They have the most delightful faces. Karen Stoke.

This is the silhouette of a robin, it was singing away we were looking for it for a while before we found it in the barn. Karen Stoke.

Crows, in the Next field to Chester, they are there every week but I managed to snap them on Saturday. Karen Stoke.

More of those beautiful Autumn, Colors. Karen Stoke.

As some of you have noticed, Padfoot is keeping busy and hopefully he is doing his job, we will only know how well if we get any Reindeer Calves. Although Padfoot is eating well and seems lively he has been scouring. We have given him antibiotics, multivitamin and he has been wormed so we hope that the scouring will stop. We went to Cricket St Thomas this afternoon to get a bag of the feed that he was fed on whilst there. It could be the change of feed that has caused the scouring. Another reason could be that there is a lot of good grass feed still in the field. Padfoot when at Cricket St Thomas was in a lot smaller enclosure to what he has at Denbury, so there was little grass for him to feed on. We give the Reindeer barley straw to eat, but when there is grass available they rarely eat it. In the wild Reindeer diet consist of a lot of lichen, mosses and grasses when they can find them. They are also partial to Willow, Hazel and Ivy leaves, I don’t know if they can find them in the wild but they eat them from the hedges around their field. We also cut branches off of the Willow Trees around the Farm, you have probably seen the large Willow branches that we put in the field.

We are clearing around the Lake and Pond so that they can be seen as you drive down our driveway that runs along the side of them. In the area are a few Willow Trees, one of them had grown very large in a very short period of time, so much so that a parts were leaning over. We have cut that down over the past few days and fed part of that to the Reindeer. With the Willow gone it has opened the Lake and Pond area up and there is now a good view from the camera that we put up to watch the Geese on the Island. I will show it on the webcam one day next week.

On my way to Cricket St Thomas today I needed to fill our car with diesel. With the publicity that Tesco had reduced their petrol cost I thought that I would wait until I got to the Tesco petrol station in Chard that is near Cricket, to fill the car. I passed a quite a few petrol stations on the way, all of them had petrol priced at 98p and as low as 95p even a couple of independent stations. When I got to Tesco in Chard their price for petrol was 101.99p. They did have their 5p discount if you spent

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from number six. All we have left are some really good photographs that Lynne has sent in, and that is all we have.

Picky One is a chipmunk taken at Edwards Gardens in Toronto.

Raccoons is Mum and her bagies, in Edwards Gardens in Toronto.

Rosalee the cat. Rosie’s Mum in Toronto.

I have two lots of lilies left this beautiful white one, is one of them. Karen Stoke.

The Border under my front window. Karen Stoke.

It is getting near the time when Sox needs to be weaned off of Emmi. We cant make the mistake as we did last year by leaving Willow with Lady. That was an experience that we don’t want again. The trouble is that Lady’s Foal, that we have decided to name Solo, is not yet ready to be weaned. We need to keep him with Lady for at least another six weeks. But they will have to be weaned together to keep each other company. Weaning two Foals together makes it a lot less stressful for them.

Both Sox and Solo are already very independent, probably Solo more so than Sox. Solo is very often at the far end of the field when the other Horses are waiting at the gate to be let in for the feeds. Going back out after their feed is a bit different, for Sox is always laying down in the stable not wanting to get up until the very last moment, just when Emmi is out of the stable. Just like a lot of human teenagers. Both a very kind Colts and easy to do. Unlike Willow and Gypsy there seems to be very little bickering between them. It looks as if neither will be dominant when they are put together on their own. Gypsy is a bit of a bully with Willow and was from day one, she would have Willow on the run around going from one feed bowl to the other when we fed them. Poor Willow just had to put up with it. We would put their feed bowls at each end of the stable area in the Barn, far away from each other you would think to stop Gypsy from going from one bowl to the other, but she did.

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There are four new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are four new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. Nearly out of photographs.

A perfect winter sky in November, near Oban.There was the most horrendous storm the day after.You could hardly stand up! Lindsay.

The Woodpecker…..Anjela. Connecticut.

I had NEVER seen a starling in our garden! On Friday evening, Chris looked out and saw a couple on the patio. Yesterday, however, there was a mini invasion of at least 12!! They took over the place! Even the local Robin was looking somewhat shocked, and he is usually quite aggressive towards visitors! I’d put out some meal worms – some dry and some rehydrated on a plate of water and within moments they’d all disappeared! It was quite amazing to watch! They were gathering up maybe six at a time in their beaks! So I put out some more, on the patio and on the bird table along with a scattering of birdseed. And they came back to scoff the lot!! I’ll just have to see whether they stay around! Julia.

Red squirrel on the Isle of Wight. Lisa, Eastleigh, Hants.

Last year Ewy would just hang around with Breeze when they were in the Horse field. When we put the Mares and Foals in the field she has been getting very close to them. Since putting Willow and Gypsy in the field last night, she has started to latch onto them as well, this evening when we fed the Fillies in the field Ewy tried to eat their feed with them.

It seems that Emmi is going to be the leader in the field until we introduce Breeze. She wont allow Willow and Gypsy to close to Lady and the Foals, she lunges at them with her ears laid back on her head every time she thinks that they are to close. It wont be to long for the Fillies to get close to the Foal, and for them to run with them for part of the time. Willow has a few scrapes to her chest where she fell over yesterday when we turned them out into the Horse field. I should think that she did hurt herself, but she seem fine today.

The Goslings are getting a little to independent. They are going off on their own to the annoyance of the Goose who has to follow them, if they are not careful the Fox will get them. We took the battery off of the electric fencer to recharge it, to make sure that the fencer would give a good shock if the Fox decided to try to get through it. Whilst it was on charge It looked as if the Goose and the Gosling may have got through it, as they were grazing on the outside on the left hand side of the fenced area. I don’t think that they had walked around the Lake to be where they were, if they did and they do it at night they will definitely get had by the Fox.

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I thought he was a beauty Somebody s prize bull…

I thought he was a beauty.Somebody’s prize bull!.He was near Sumburgh Head in the Shetland islands. Lindsay.

My favourite squirrel. Anjela,Connecticut.

Here are a couiple of photos I took the other evening. Until two days ago, I had NEVER seen a starling in our garden! On Friday evening, Chris looked out and saw a couple on the patio. Yesterday, however, there was a mini invasion of at least 12!! They took over the place! Even the local Robin was looking somewhat shocked, and he is usually quite aggressive towards visitors! I’d put out some meal worms – some dry and some rehydrated on a plate of water and within moments they’d all disappeared! It was quite amazing to watch! They were gathering up maybe six at a time in their beaks! So I put out some more, on the patio and on the bird table along with a scattering of birdseed. And they came back to scoff the lot!! I’ll just have to see whether they stay around! Julia.

Cygnets at Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. Lisa, Eastleigh, Hants.

My Penny Farthing Planter that my Son and Daughter -in-law bought me for Christmas. Quite a talking point. Elsie.

We let the two Fillies Willow and Gypsy out into the main Horse field this afternoon. As usual with the young Horses it was like a rodeo with the pair of them bucking, tossing and generally going mad with the excitement of going out into the field after being in for the Winter. Racing about both Fillies slipped over. We saw Gypsy and it wasn’t a bad fall, but Willow went down in one of the hollows in the field and we didn’t see how she fell. From the distance that we were away from Willow, and the way we could see her head and legs rolling about, just over the top of the hollow, it looked as if she had seriously hurt herself. After over a couple of minutes she got up and the two of them started going around the field at full speed again. They eventually came back to the gate. Willow started to flail her legs out in front of her and lifting her head as if she was in a lot of discomfort. She also had a nettle rash over a lot of her body. For getting for over an hour Willow looked in a lot of discomfort. We checked her over and there was no signs of any injury. She has started to show less sign of the discomfort she had been experiencing and it could well be that it was the nettle rash that was causing the problem. She is now grazing with Gypsy and we will put Breeze and Arnie out with the Fillies at about 8.pm. I should think that Breeze will start herding the Fillies around, but they are quick enough to keep out of her way.

Touch wood the Goose and Gosling have managing to stay alive. Of a night time they spend a lot of time on the water, the Gosling staying very close to the Goose as if they are expecting danger. It could be that the Fox is on the prowl and the Goose knows it. The electric fenced off area that we have put on the near bank seems to be helping. That side of the Lake poses the worst danger area, as Fox are able to get very close to the lake in the bushes. On the far side of the Lake the stream gives a lot of protection, and with the gates we have put at right hand end, it hopefully will give the Goose and Goslings the time to get in to the water before they are attacked. The Magpies still are a danger during the daytime.

The USA Osprey webcam is working again. Unfortunately the nest is higher than where the Osprey chicks can be seen. I should think that there are chicks in the nest as the adults were sitting on the eggs before the Locks Ospreys. The Peter in Delaware had left the webcam working whilst he was away on Holiday for a week, but by all accounts there was a Hurricane in the Indian River Bay area whilst he was away. The Hurricane caused a power cut that made the computer to go off.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Another part of Clumber Park. You can walk for miles here or else take you bikes. Elsie.

This was bought for the Great Tits the Squirrel had other ideas! It took it two days to demolish it and they are now buried all over the garden.Lindsay

We always pass this field on our way to Bristol Airport, it is in the Cheddar/Burrington Coombe area.We have no idea what the Sheep are climbing on??? Rose W’canton.

Amazing pictures… watching a panda bear grow! Elsie. Sent to Elsie by a friend.

For the past few weeks we have been having our hedges cut. We do not cut them every year, some times thay are left for three years. Others we have never cut since we came to Denbury. If they were not cut a lot of the Hedges would grow into trees, they would thin out in the bottoms, allowing the animals to walk through them. From the 1st of March until July there is a ban on hedge cutting and trimming, this is so that the Birds are able to nest in the hedge rows with out them and their nests being wiped out with the hedge cutters.

We have put Lady in the Stable next to Emmi. Emmi seemed to be quite miserable without a Horse in the stable next to her. In the day Lady and Emmi are together in the other corral area of the other stable block. We wanted to keep Lady away from Willow for a little longer and we havent had the time to put the Fillies into the area next to the Sheep. Moving Lady next to Willow and Gypsy hasent been a problem and Emmi seems a lot happier. Lady lets Willow know that she is not going to have her back. Every now and then Lady will put her ears back and show her teeth to Willow, just a little warning, but she does sometimes put her head over into Willow and Gypsys stable, to be a little friendly.

We have been keeping Lady and Emmi seperated by a rope in the corral area. A few years back Lady had a kicking session with a Mare, and the other Mare came off worse. When she was with Woody, Woody was the boss and we never saw Lady get into any fights with any other Horse. Now she is without Woody I dont partiulary trust her. The last thing Emmi would need now is a kicking session with Lady. Lady did push her way through the rope today, when we went to the stable they were very friendly with each other. That could change without any warning.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Sidmouth Devon. The Church at Sherwood Forest. Elsie.

Hello Mr Farmer, Taken when I visited the Dingle peninsular in Ireland, last October, the Robin was so tame we managed to take about 20 pics of it. Thanks, Rose (FF)

My daughter lives in Sydney and I took this photo on a recent visit. Rose W’canton.

We managed to harrow the Horse field today. Harrowing is normally done to take out the dead grass and to breakup clods of earth. We harrow to break up the Horse droppings. Horse droppings are not very good for grass Leos. They don’t break down like Cow and Sheep droppings and kill the grass under them. The harrow breaks them up and spreads them about a bit. The ideal way to deal with them is to clear the fields of them every week. I am not into that with the amount of Horses that we have, we would be working from morning to night every day. There are machines that you can buy that hoover them up, but again it is very time consuming.

We have been putting in a new webcam wire for the Lake area in the Summer, and for the Sheep and Horses when they are in the barn during the Winter. We are also running wires to the Holiday Cottages so that our Holiday guest can access the Internet whilst on Holiday. We have to be careful where we run the wire because of the animals getting hold and chewing them. Arnie is the worst culprit, he chewed through a couple of webcam wires that we are using for the Dove nest. When we were putting the wires in today I forgot about a water pipe that we had capped off. It was a temporary job, very close to the ground and hidden by grass, it was also not a very good job. One of my Lads was helping me as the whole job was getting messy. A rough old high bush was in the way of us being able to get the wires in to the Farm House roof, and needed cutting back, whilst pulling the large cut branches I broke the water pipe, even worse I was standing right over it. Before I had time to move away from the torrent of water I got soaked from top to bottom. I wasn’t best pleased I can tell you. Even worse the pipe hadn’t been used for a very long while and the first seconds or so of the gush was filthy. My Lad tried not to laugh, of course he did, and what a mouthful he got. Mind you I am the worse person in the world for laughing at the sort of things that happened to me, when it happens to others. Half hour later I laughed myself.

We let Willow and Gypsy out of their stable for the first time in a couple of days. We have kept them in to stop Willow having any contact with Lady. We put Branston in a stable and let the two Fillies have the run of the area that he uses. It was the first time that Willow was out without Lady. She went and stood by the gate in the direction of Lady and called out, Lady did not call back. Both Willow and Gypsy were a bit frisky and looked as if they may have attempted to jump the gate. They settled down after a while and went exploring. Once they realised that they had the large area that they had, nothing would have stopped them from galloping around at full speed for a good twenty minutes. If you had been watching the Puppy cam you would have seen them. Once they had kicked and bucked two days of being in, out of themselves they settled down, a little puffed out and a little sweaty. Willow went back to the gate now and then, gave a little call to Lady and returned back to Gypsy’s side. Willow and Gypsy have bonded well, staying close to each other for most of the day. We thought that we may have had trouble getting them back to their stable, but as soon as they saw their feed coming out of the barn they followed it back to the stable. I have decided we will do what we did today for another two or three days, we will then put them in to the barn next to the Sheep.

It is to overcast to put the Astro webcams on tonight.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

This is a photo of a dress made out of recycled materials in the Eden Project. Surf at Perranporth. Sue.

Taken on Abereiddy beach ,and shows a remain of old slate mining that was the trade here ,in the rocks is a most beautiful pool known as the Blue Lagoon ,over the top of the cliff is a railway which was used to transport slate to the next port of Porthgain where it was loaded onto ships, the sand is very dark on the beach from the slate cliffs this is on the Pembrokeshire coast path. Marie.

Dear Mr. Farmer, Just in case anyone had thought of a visit to the Isles of Scilly, but not actually gone…..here are a couple of photos! These were scanned in, so not brilliant quality!
Regards, Julia.

This was taken at 5.20pm Saturday . I think the red really shows up against the blue. Elsie.

Tonight we have left Lady in a different stable block that what Willow is in. Willow is a bit restless, so we will need to keep an eye on her. This is nearly the final stage of weaning her. Up to now it has gone reasonably well and we have managed to wean Willow with the minimum of stress. We have got to keep Lady and Willow completely apart for a couple of days we should then be able to put Willow and Gypsy in the area next to the Sheep.

The Ram wasn’t to good this morning. When I went to feed the Sheep he was reluctant to get up. We helped him to his feet and after a short while he started to eat the hay with the others. He is quite old for a Sheep. In normal circumstance in a flock, he would have been culled a good time ago. This afternoon I let him out of the Sheep pen and on to the grass behind. He had a good munch on the grass, when he had eaten as much as he wanted he tried to put his head through the pen to try to get back with the rest of the Sheep. His horns stopped him from getting much more than his nose in to the pen. I wouldn’t like to guess how long he will live for. As long as he doesn’t look in any pain or distress I will let him carry on as he is. I was going to run another cable so that I could put the Sheep webcam on. I couldn’t find the time to do it today.

We managed to get a much better picture of Saturn last night. It took a bit of doing trying to focus the Telescope on the Planet. The atmosphere didn’t help. After speaking to an amateur astronomer who had seen the website last night, he thought that we could not have got it very much better. The rings are very close to the planet and he thought that we were lucky to have seen any gap in between the Planet and the rings. Tonight I am going to try to show the Moon for a little while before I show Saturn again. When I change over it may take me a while to focus Saturn again.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

A young woodpecker sat in the road luckily it was just a country lane so not many cars. Yet another cheeky squirrel. Lynne.

Arnie and Branston having a chat over the stable door. Julia.

This just shows how big The Eden Project is when you see the people near the domes Sue.

Glastonbury Tor.Somerset. We like to try and do this walk once a year, as a bit of a challenge!! Rose W’canton.

For a few days we have moved Lady back to her original stable, so that Willow can start to get use to Lady not being in the next to her. Emmi is next to Willow and Gypsy. I would rather Emmi be in Lady’s stable as the camera is not in a very good position to watch her. Willow panicked a little. She soon settled down with Gypsy being in with her. We would have had a lot more problems if we hadn’t had Gypsy for Willow to be with, after Woody not having a Foal. Again Lady has not been at all bothered.

The weather has been so good, with a warm Sun that we were able to take the Horses rugs off for the whole day. They are taken off every couple of days when they are given a quick brush over and then put on as it has been cold. With the rugs being off for most of the day it tends to make us take more notice of their condition. Emmi is very big with Lady not far behind in size. Looking at them you wonder just how big the Foal they are carrying will be. If we stand by the Mares we can very often see their bellies moving when the Foal’s move about inside them.

The young Mare that we left in Ireland when we got Emmi and Gypsy, should be going to the Stallion from the end of next week. If she is covered successfully we will get a early Foal in 2009. We have got to hope that she does not Foal in 2008. I would not have taken the chance of mating an older Mare this early in the season, but Maidens are normally a week or two late on their Foaling date. We are using a Stallion called Clodovil that is very popular at the moment. Our Mares Sire was a Horse called Royal Academy. A Clodovil and Royal Academy have been successful match in the past, so with a bit of luck we may get it right. The Mare will be scanned to see if she is in Foal after about twenty one days, if she is she will be coming to Denbury, If not she will go back to the Stallion.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one.

Revealed Wall.

Pictures of a Monarch butterfly. The flower he’s on is a Lantana. Karen, Florida (USA)

Ripples in the sand at freshwater beach pembrokeshire. Some sort of a beetle dont know what kind. Lynne.

A close up of one of the rocks, taken when my Grandchildren were young.
Elsie.

The Contractor came today to cut away the bramble to reveal the Old Stone Wall that we are wondering might be the remains of an Old Water Mill. It is puzzling me more now that it has been revealed than it did before. As you can see in the photograph on the Photo page it looks as if it is just a wall, but there is no reason for it to be there. We still have a lot to reveal properly. To the left of the wall you can see, is as much again covered by Ivy. It looks as if it might go down to the stream that is just out of sight under the wall. It could even be a continuation of the Bridge that our driveway goes across, but the direction the wall takes would suggest there was an opening in the hedge to the small field that you can see behind the Sheep. I made an entrance to the field very near the wall when we first came to Denbury. We had to take away about ten foot of the hedgerow to make the entrance. The hedgerow is ancient as are most, probably many hundred of years old, so a stone wall would have been pointless. It would also suggest that the Farm driveway once took a different direction. But again the hedgerow tell you no, as do the layout of the fields either side of the driveway. It is a bit of a mystery. We should finish revealing it by tomorrow. We then may know a little more.

The weaning of Willow is going very well. She has only been away from Lady for about a day and a half, and already Lady is keeping Willow away from her. When we stabled Lady next to Willow and Gypsy tonight, Willow went over to the wall where Lady is. Lady was not interested at all. Ears back, teeth showing she made a lunged at Willow, as if to say I have had enough of you. Trouble with Lady is that she is a very good Mother. As much as she doesn’t want Willow suckling, she puts up with it. I may try to put Lady back into her old stable for a couple of days to see if Willow stresses out. If she doesn’t I should think we will be able to put Willow and Gypsy in the area next to the Sheep by next Monday.

The Badger with the limp had a quick feed just after 6.30pm. It is eating alright, and moving about without a lot of trouble. I followed it down to the lower feeding place. Just before it disappeared into the cover. It will be in for a bit of a shock, as the rest will, as when the Contractor was here today we got him to trim a lot of the bramble that hides the Sett. There is still ample there as to not give away the Setts where abouts. Enough though to tidy the area.