February 2013

Can’t believe where the new year is off too! February already, but the good news is that Spring is around the corner, really looking forward to getting out there again and seeing all the new young things coming to life.

I think the pic above symbolises that time of year. The photo is of a mother Peahen and her chicks. I actually took the photo a couple of years ago now whilst my wife and I were on a wildlife outing in the caravan to Gigrin Farm in Mid Wales. The mother spent most days hanging around the caravan and didn’t seem to mind Rosie, our mini dachshund. That is until one day Rosie started to get inquisitive and walked in her direction.  Mother hen soon put a stop to that and Rosie came hurtling back to the van and break neck speed, ears akimbo!

Oh well, gonna try and get some z’s now it is 1.30am and I am having trouble with the old insomnia again. It has never really left me and I put it down to my time as a musician during my early years. It’s funny if I stay up until I am ready to sleep, which is usually around 3.00am, I will start to feel guilty!  Why? I don’t have to be anywhere special in the morning, so why can’t I stay up late?

And so the internal argument continues! Oh well…..same old, same old, as they say.  🙂

 

Gigrin Kite

I am slowly but surely getting through my sorting from the summer, but wow! And what is worse, I am planning to go back in November, so I will have another few hundred to sort. Boy I am glad I don’t do weddings! A friend of mine regularly sorts 1,000 photos every week, of the wedding he has taken that weekend.

A Mid Wales Red Kite

I am a Lineman for the County

All I can hear is a buzzing sound?

A buzzard checking out the overhead cables, from my trip to Gigrin in Mid Wales in the Summer 2011.

I am still sorting, watch this space.

If You Leave it…

I’m not telling anyone anything they don’t already know, when I say, if you keep putting off what you should be doing today, you will be lost! And that is exactly what has happened here. I was in full swing, with all the right motives, sitting quietly in the caravan in the middle of a beautiful quiet valley, aiming to write each day as it happened at The Gigrin.  But no, I decided to do the things that I enjoyed doing, opposed to the things that I should be doing.  Consequently, I have 100’s of photos of the stay at The Gigrin, but I can’t remember what happened day-to-day, you know..the news, the exciting bits, who said what to whom.

So, I’m just going to have to dig deep into the old grey matter and try to recall titbits of the trip, (Anyone remember that weekend newspaper called Titbits?)

When I first visited The Gigrin in 2005 there was this great big Peacock who was a little on the grumpy side – on second thoughts he was a lot on the grumpy side – he was a sight for sore eyes. Big, blue and with a tail to die for, and he knew it of course. He would prance about the farm occasionally yelling at the top of his screeching voice.  This trip, he is gone, passed over to greener and sunnier fields.  However, he has left a legacy behind, a young son who has already started to accumulate a Harem of pretty little females.

I know I did get a couple of pics of him, but I haven’t got to them yet, as soon as I do I will post them. But, meanwhile here is a photo of one of his lady friends and their children.

Peahen and chicks

She was a really great mum, no matter what she was doing, eating, sleeping or cleaning, she always had one eye on the chicks. And when my mini dachshund ‘Rosie’ quietly sauntered over to  check her out, she quickly lifted herself up to her full height, plus a bit. Then puffed up her chest and feathers until she looked like the size of a small car and turned to square off with Rosie.  Nothing was said no shouts, no barks nothing. Rosie just stopped on a sixpence, checked out the VW Beetle that was looking at her, and then quietly, but swiftly walked back to me. Mother hen just turned around and carried on with whatever she was doing, showing that this was not the first time she had to confront a possible enemy.

I will see what I can dig out next from the trip.