The Village during the last couple of days

As usual recently, the weather has been either very wet indeed or lovely sunshine.  The sunsets and the sunrises viewed from the garden and the lane have been lovely.   Here are a few photographs of my trip up to put the animals to bed last night.

 

This is my absolute favourite photo of the year so far - birds, I think starlings, roosting in poplar trees.  They all swoop in as dusk falls, and the swirls they make in the air are like a ballet.

The roof of my house with the moon and a welcoming window as I approach my driveway.

I have also taken photos of interesting things along the verges. The first fungi are at the end of my flower bank on the driveway and I love the look of them and their rusty colour. The celandine buds are almost opening now and are a lovely bright colour in amongst the autumn leaves which are thick along the roadsides. 

We drove out yesterday in my worker's van to collect animal feed.  In the usual shops it is nearly three times the price.  This farmer mixes his own feed and we get it at a seriously cheaper rate per bag.  I bought it initially for the ducks and hens, but the goats and rabbits love it too, so it's a brilliant buy.  We store it in a corner of the polytunnel as the shed and the caravan are full of hay and straw. 

                                                                                              These will last me about five-six months which is pretty good considering all the animals eat the feed.  It is a mixture of wheat, peas, barley, corn and other thing I can't identify.   I used to feed it to the hens and ducks when I lived in Cornwall and realised that the rabbits were eating it too.  When I moved to St André the goats were in with the hens and I noticed they liked the feed too, so I thought well why not give it to all of them and it works really well only having to buy in one feed.  They have hay too in the winter as do the rabbits.  I also give the hens out of date milk, salad and veggies, and of course, all the animals have the stale bread from the SuperU bakers as well.

The ducks have finally allowed me to see them swimming in their new pond.  They are loving it.

Here, one of the drakes is mating with a Khaki Campbell ducks, so there will be the possibility of ducklings later on when they have their own shelter.  They only mate in water, and the drake practically drowns the female gripping the back neck feathers in their beak and, for a good deal of the act, pushing her head below the water while in flagrante delicto.

Here are some of the chickens.  The first lot are the five Lavender Pekin bantam youngsters, who seem to be thriving.  They are climbing over and pecking goodies out of the earth spoil heap which was a result of digging out the duck pond.

The five Light Sussex birds sneaking into a corner as I approached with the camera.

Then my bantam cockerel, not sure what type he is, and one of my large grey hens who have just spotted chickweed which they love.  I'd just pulled it out of one of the raised veggie beds.

                                   

I then walked down the lane and was considering going as far as the little bridge at the end of the village.  However,  two of my neighbours cattle had escaped and although when I first spotted them they were in the old orchard, within moments of seeing me they were walking fast to the lane. I am not stupid and didn't fancy an encounter with them both, so I headed off back towards home and telephoned the farmer to let him know where his beasts were.  

They were loose about six nights ago and my opposite neighbour's dogs barked all night as they knew there was something wandering around near their house. I hope they get them shut in their own field tonight so we can get some sleep!

Three things I like:

1.   My lunch today - calves liver, roasted red peppers and homemade chips.

2.   Seeing spring flower buds in the verges.

3.   Watching the magpies flying down to eat the spare chips off the bird table.