A Year Living on a Private Estate

BIRTH OF SPRING

I'm awoken by the Mrs. A bird has fallen down the chimney. Thankfully the fire guard is in the way preventing it flying around the room spreading ash. It’s a rook but covered in black soot making it more camouflaged than normal.
I move the guard and quickly put my hands in. The watered down blue in its eye. Circling the pupil. This colour will stay with me for ever. He or she is a strong bugger. Doing its best to jump out of my hands. I hold tight.
I let it out of the back door and watch it fly to the trees. A little wiser I’m sure I’m wandering if it thought of using our chimney for a nesting site?

A wood pigeon flies to the trees as I sit gazing out the window. What I realise I have just seen is something remarkable. First one comes to the two pines quickly followed by another. Something dangles down as if maybe the pursuer was carrying something. But then I realise it was his penis. The love of courtship being happening outside my house.

Slugs have devoured my plants. Celery, suede, lettuce and cabbage have all been attacked. I have used bottles for cloches but still they find a way in. The bottoms that have been cut off the bottles I have filled with beer as slugs can’t resist.

Potatoes are starting to shoot. Green purple flowers pushing through the soil. It’s a joy to see your own food coming through. There may be a time in the future when all homes will have to produce their own food. Potatoes are so easy to do. Dig a hole place a seed, that’s it. Nature does the rest. How much money would we all safe if we did? All the gardens that are just lying there dead, full of weeds and metal memories, cables and broken toys. Maybe the councils will have to have allotment specialists.

A great spotted woodpecker hangs from one of the nut feeders. I have never seen one in our garden before. His blob of red on his head and beautiful black and white feathers. There’s a lot to be said about the art in nature. It is truly indulgent for the human eye.

A male nuthatch tries to woo a female on the lime tree. I watch him harass her while she jumps from branch to branch.

The rabbits are now bounding about the top of the lane. We had a warren last year under the old chicken coop. You would see them of an evening running around. But then the cat started to see them and would occasionally bring one back to the back porch. Sliced in half as if by a meat cleaver.

The house sparrows are back. They’ve set up nests in the outside porch, right under a loose tile. At the back of the house we have a pair in a hole on the gable end. They zoom in and out all day. There is also an old porch light that they use to perch on. Singing and telling us off if we’re having tea outside on the bench.
When we first moved here I was shocked to see a two inch hole in the stone work being used by a blue tit. Marvellous how they found such a place comfortable. Unfortunately this year we have wasps in it. So I have had to deal with them accordingly.

On the bus to work I find something crawling on me. A cream spotted ladybird. I have never seen one of these before. It’s brown with cream spots on its back. I hope he or she gets off when they need too.

In the bathroom is a seven spotted ladybird. I make a note to transport him to our polytunnel later. They are very handy indeed for greenhouses and such like.

The polytunnel has only been up one day but already it is full of life. A mining bee is stuck in there. Also the beetle, PTEROSTICHUS NIGRITA, is walking around the floor. Two large bumble bees have also wandered in.

To prevent the dogs wandering on my allotment I have put up a fence around it. The last occupants have left all sorts of stuff lying around the gardens. Rolls of fencing, double glazed panes, bricks, and tree off cuts. So I rolled out the fences and tie them together. Occasionally using the tree stumps for posts. In one corner I have also used our old metal bed. Tapping the ends into the ground and cable tying them. Pallets have also been used, it looks a typical allotment fence!
The bricks and glass panes have become small cold frames. They are great for salad leaves, cress, mustard, spinach, and spring onions. But I haven’t decided where to put them in their final positions so the bricks haven’t been mortared.
When we moved here the back garden had five foot nettles. Too much to dig up and too much for weedkiller. So I have strategically placed black weed guard all over the garden. Starting at the top and working my way down. It has been a test of patience but when I moved them in January the results were fantastic. For weed guard to work quickly you have to place weight on it which then prevents any air. This was something I didn’t do apart from the edges but it was still amazing to see weeds growing under it, creating a black mountain landscape.

Peacock butterflies are around now. Fluttering their way through the march winds. Most probably the easiest to spot what with its white circle in each corner of the wings.

I move a piece of carpet that had been sat on the grass for months. Only to find five slow worms underneath. It must be a family of them. With parents and children. One is really big while the others are possibly half its size. They are light coloured brown with a dark stripe going down the side.

Last year had an episode with the cat, Ernie. So called by the way because we thought she was a girl. Found it he wasn’t! So the name sticks. Ernie is a bugger for bringing stuff into the house. For days she was sniffing the fridge area, and we knew something must be under there.
Then one morning the Mrs got up and found a dead mouse on the floor. Which we were all relieved as they can cause a lot of damage in a house. When we moved the fridge to check it out a nest had been built. The mouse had taken off pieces of foam from the back of the fridge and made it into a ball.

This week I have removed forty slugs, some well hidden others caught in the act. How dare they eat my plants! Truly horrible things. I don’t see any sense in them at all! I know all living things have a purpose, but slugs! I need the birds to get searching better. I am trying to keep the garden as organic as I can. So no slug killer will be put down. Though I don’t believe it is much cop.

This week I have made three raised beds from old shed panels. Weed guard is on the floor with the panels on top. It looks rustic to say the least. A proper allotment feel now!
When we first moved here I had plans for a picket fence, box hedging, railway sleepers, gravel pathways, etc etc. But the cost would be enormous and it would lose some character too. Gardens aren’t meant to be formal. They are meant to be an expression, I look at it now with more pride than if I had gone with my first ideas.

Four of the eleven bird boxes have been taken up. Two great tits, one blue tit and one sparrow. They ping in and out like cannonballs out of a cannon.

I spot my first orange tip butterfly today. Skating across my garden. I love the flash of orange on the ends of its wings. Reminding me of Dennis Bergkamp and his skills for the Dutch team.

The Blossom tree is sending white petals to the ground. It’s scattered all over the gardens like confetti. Willow and Chestnut are shooting leaves too. I have found conker seeds starting to sprout along the garden. These are now placed in a tub to help them start off. Where I will put them God only knows!

Me and the Mrs decide to have some fish and chips in Llangollen. The sun is warm enough and the air clean. It’s a beautiful moment. The river cascades over the rocks, which only a few weeks back were hidden by a great torrent coming down from the mountains.
Looking across the river I spot a bird on a stone. I have never seen this bird before but instantly know what it is. The bobbing legs and white breast give it away. It’s a Dipper. A marvellous character.

We venture to the Glassblobbery in Corwen. Where I see my first swallows of the year. They have a nest in the outside porch and dart in and out with glee. I am still yet to see them on the estate though. Last year they were here by mid April.
Unfortunately human society has defecated the scenery here. Three wind turbines have been erected. It’s an absolute travesty that they can build such monstrous things. I am all for using the earth for energy but these things are a boil on our landscape. It’s a real shame.

In the woods at the back of our house I find a fox skull. It’s front canines two inches long. Jaw thin at the front but teeth white clean. I wander how long it has been here for?