Tonight I'm planning a night on the sofa. It may not be the most exciting way to spend a Saturday night, but I'm in the middle of a "six Christmas parties in five days" marathon and I'm shattered! The final one is tomorrow and as much as I've enjoyed them all it has been a bit full on. The picture above shows where I was on Thursday night though - the Houses of Parliament in central London. On behalf of the Watercress Wildlife Association (where Mr C and I are volunteers) I attended a reception that was hosted by our local MP, Anne Main, to thank ... read more
Sunny Sunday
Yesterday was one of those days that was just perfect for being outside. Lucky really as that's what I did pretty much all day. Down at our local nature reserve we had a day's hedge laying tuition where a group of volunteers were learning how to lay a hedge, and practicing on one of our ones on the site. Meanwhile a regular monthly working party was also taking place, along with a willow weaving workshop. Workers always need feeding though - so that was my role. Tea and cake breaks for the workers, plus a BBQ lunch for everyone involved. It was all hard work, and boy did I ache ... read more
Big Garden Birdwatch – Part 2
Whilst the physical location for my second stint at the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch wasn't quite as comfortable as my kitchen there did seem to be plenty more birds on display down at the WWA today.Whilst others took part in the main working party activity the bird spotting team managed to see the following: Bullfinch Redwing Great spotted woodpecker Blackbird (2) Collared dove (14) Greenfinch Robin (2) Blue tit (3) Dunnock (3) House sparrow Song thrush (2) Jackdaw (20) Chaffinch (5) Goldfinch (1) Long tailed tit (5) Wood pigeon (6) Great tit (2) Magpie (2) Wren Mallard (6) Coot ... read more
A wet weekend
After an incredibly wet Saturday we were woken in the early hours of Sunday morning by yet more rain. Looking out of the bedroom window the wind was raging, the road turned into a river and several rumbles of thunder passing overhead. We therefore headed down to the WWA this afternoon expecting to see some degree of damage from the weather. Luckily we were proved wrong. The butterfly garden seemed to have escaped the worst of the wind, and with only a couple of small exceptions, most of the plans were still standing proud. There weren't that many butterflies to be seen today, but the bees ... read more
Pond digging
This morning was one of the monthly working parties down at the WWA and today we started work on the new nature pond that we are creating.Previous attempts had been made at digging the pond out by hand, but we soon realised that doing so would be a little bit more difficult than we first imagined. Instead we hired a mini digger for this working party so that we could make a real difference in starting the pond, rather than just the shallow attempt we had before. Mr C looked like a small child at Christmas when he got to use the digger and I'm pleased to say that he ... read more