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| Antonia sporting this years ruff look. Not sure how she managed to end up with a ruff, but she wasn't sheared to look like that. |
Sometimes spring bursts onto the scene with a wild abandon and sometimes it almost imperceptibly creeps in by the backdoor. The signs are there but we have to look hard for them. There is a gradual greening of the landscape as the grass pokes through the dry, dead thatch. There is also plenty of other greenery poking through and not all are welcome. The docks are some of the first. It wouldn't be so bad if they were tasty, but they are not, they are quite bitter and full of oxalic acid. Not something to eat in quantity and not as tasty as spinach that is also quite high in oxalic acid. Sometimes you can read on the internet that docks are tasty, lemony even. Well kind of, what they are often referring to in these articles are sorrel, not the harsh docks of a field. Then again, I've just read an interesting article on it, so I'm tempted to give them another try.
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| Dock leaves poking through |
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Ian collecting docks
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| On my way back from collecting the milk. |
Other signs of spring are arguing boy alpacas. Generally they are quite good, but every now and again, they get into a right ding dong of a fight as Ian calls them. The most serious ones are between Brencis and his dad Tellus for some reason. Most of the time they are peaceful though. Well kind of! Ian has been digging docks in their field or just outside of their paddock area. He had to listen to continuous moaning the whole time because they spotted him with plastic, electric poles that he usually uses for creating fences for them. This time, though, he was using them to mark out an area to inspect or where docks were for digging up - depending on how extensive they were. They were obviously disgruntled because they thought he was setting out a fence so they could get out onto the grass. Not yet boys! Bide your time! They are clever animals though as they haven't forgotten what the poles are for, even though they've been confined to their paddocks since early December last year.
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| All sorts of wildlife is starting to wake up too. According to my iNaturalist app this is a Poecilus beetle.
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| Aggie looking tired and huge. Two months or more to go. |
The storks have returned to both the apartment nesting site and outside our neighbour's house and they are now sitting on eggs. I walked up to our neighbour's to collect the milk on Sunday because it was a lovely frosty morning and so had time to do that -not much point in gardening before the frost has cleared - and it was lovely to see a stork just sitting there on top of the tall pole. Once I got back we had a leisurely coffee before we got on with the chores for the day.
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| These bright mushrooms pop up everywhere and provide quite a splash of colour on a dreary spring day |
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| Starting on the left, one spare bed, two onion beds and one bed of garlic. |
It was nice to get outside into the garden. The weeds haven't really got started yet and so it was a chance to get some vegetable beds prepared. There isn't a lot to do to them as we don't need to dig them over. They have either been under mulch or or had alpaca manure deposited on them over winter. The sides get a bit untidy though and so I've got one bed sorted and edged neatly, others are raked over. It is nice to see the rich, dark soil that we have due to using the alpaca manure - much nicer than the hard sandy, clay soil underneath. Two beds have been planted with onions, one white and the other red ones that Ian managed to get at a store last week. I ran out of onions this winter and so I got extra this year. I keep meaning to start some off and I always forget. Maybe this year I will get around to starting my own for sets next year, rather than buying them. Then again, maybe not!
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| The garlic is looking happy poking through the mulch |
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| Turnips and tiny carrots that survived the winter betwen bales of hay, two layers of fleece and a blanket of snow. They also survived the shrew that Rocket Ron eventually caught |
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| Okay not quite spring on that particular day (6th April). Every time I looked out of the greenhouse it seemed like a different season.
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The only only white we've seen this week is from some frosts or hail, there have definitely been one or two chilly nights, but still the buds are forming on most of the bushes and perennial plants starting to poke through. It has been a bit breezy at times, but there has also been some very pleasant days. A perfect time of the year for visitors really, but we haven't had any this week. I said last week that now we are officially open people wouldn't turn up. Funny how it works that way. Anyway we are expecting some next week if the weather holds. Not that it really matters. My income is more than enough to keep us going and there are plenty of things to do, even when we are not showing visitors around.
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That hail was rather large. Pea sized!
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| Turbjørn does suit his red coat. |
Now the weather is warmer, Ian has taken Turbjørn's coat off - it keeps riding up his back now anyway. One of the problems has been that we can't use the strap at the back that goes under his tail and helps to keep the jacket in place because the strap cuts into his bum. I think we'll have to work out something for next winter to sort that out, as he's pretty thin, poor guy. Hopefully once he gets out onto the grass he might put some weight on.
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| Errrrr! Hello there! |
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| How does an alpaca get that mucky? |
The caravan has undergone a few modifications since last week. Last year I bought some shelving that has been quite useful but sometimes getting to them has been a pain and the position of them meant we weren't really able to open the window or even the curtains. That in turn meant working in the caravan has been like working in a cave. Ian removed the cushions and opened up the space under one of the seats. The boots and shoes can now go under there. The old table makes another wide shelf like before but now one we can get to and we can use more of the space. He also cut into the wood on one of the benches so that the seat can be lifted up. The table rests on part of it, but at least we can now access some of the space under there. We just have to try and remember that's where spare bags for groceries have been put. Always a problem when things get stored somewhere.
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| Next year's strawberry beds in the making. Alpaca manure being laid out to rot down over summer.
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| The autumn raspberry bed has been cut down too and the strands of electric wire to discourage deer has been removed. It didn't quite work this year, but only when the snow was so deep that the deer walked over the top of the wire. |
We used the spare cushions on top of of the ones we were using for our bed. Those ones have got a bit crushed over time as we've been regularly spending the summer months in our caravan for the last 6-7 years (gosh! that long - good job we have a blog to look back on). The good news is that the extra layer means it is warmer for me. The bad news is that it's a bit tricky sitting down in the caravan as there are two layers of cushions that are a bit bouncy for scrambling on to get seated and a bit high for me to easily get onto as well. If I sit at the end I feel like a kid on a bus seat with my legs dangling. No surprise to anyone who has met me, as you will realise how short I am. I'm sure we'll either get used to it or figure something out.
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| A wispy look in the sky tonight |
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| A closer look at those wispy clouds |
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| Putting away time. |
A couple of months ago I had written an academic paper that a colleague then submitted to a journal. The peer review process is a bit on the slow side for this journal but one we need to use for this kind of publication. Last week we got the paper back and so I've just spent a day sorting through the long list of comments. Most are quite useful comments, but some are mistakes due to a misunderstanding of aspects of the English language. Some are my grammatical mistakes - very embarrassing, but grammar is not my strong point. It is not often you get such a detailed response but when you do it can be quite helpful. It helps to know where others do not understand what you've written. I and my colleagues understand it, but then we've been working with the material for about 18 months or more. Hopefully tomorrow I should make significant progress through it and then upload it for my colleagues to look at and contribute to.
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| Don't forget about us! |
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| We think this is the bark of a silver birch tree but we'll have to wait until the leaves come through to be sure. |
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| A common frog. Seems a shame to call such a glorious creature a common frog. |
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| According to iNaturalist this is an early cellophane bee. It certainly is early in the year and the wings do look like cellophane. It's tiny. |
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