September 2025 Video Diary
04 September 2025
August’s wildlife sightings
A compilation of August’s wildlife sightings taken at Nostell Priory, Temple Newsam and Fountains Abbey.
15 September 2025
Bumper year for tree fruit if not much else
16 September 2025
National Trust Dunham Massey in September
We wanted to visit the rose garden at Dunham Massey in summer when the roses would be at their peak. Somehow, we never managed it. By early September only a few flowers remained. We were surprised to see a small kitchen garden within the rose garden. There were some spectacular looking borders in the main garden. Once we’d walked around the garden we took Ruby on a walk through the deer park. At first we only got some long distance shots but towards the end of the walk we found deer much closer.
19 September 2025
Ruby attacked by 2 dogs in Springhead park
We walk our dog, Ruby – a miniature poodle – at least twice a week in Rothwell park. She is always on a lead. Yesterday afternoon 16 September around 2:00pm, Ruby was attacked by two Staffordshire terriers – one was grey and the other a sandy colour -which had been let off their leads. We were some distance away when first one dog came running at us, obviously in an aggressive mood, so I called Ruby to come close to me. The dog launched an attack on Ruby, grabbing her side. My husband could only think of kicking it to get it off. Then a second dog came at us so I scooped up Ruby to protect her but the second dog kept jumping up at me grabbing at Ruby’s back end so my husband gave it the same treatment to protect both me and Ruby . Fortunately, Ruby’s thick fur protected her from serious injury but the outcome could have been very different had I been walking alone.
20 September 2025
Planting winter onions and garlic
I’m not sure of the exact time winter onions should be planted. I’ve found that planting them in September gives them a chance to establish themselves before the winter weather kicks in. Ours, for better or worse, are now planted.
22 September 2025
Ruby’s spa day- a shower and blow dry much to Ruby’s dislike
Ruby is clipped around every 6 to 8 weeks. This involves us giving Ruby a shower before she gets clipped. It’s not something Ruby enjoys. After her shower, she gets a quick rub down with a towel before a blow dry and then brushed to finish off.
24 September 2025
Aerial plot tour – mid September
An aerial view of our plot in the middle of September. At last, we’ve had some rainfall, allowing beds to be cleared and dug over. It’s amazing how much of the plot is cleared of crops ready for winter. We still have to lift and store our carrots. Hopefully, we’ll have a few sprouts for Christmas. Our parsnips will be left in the ground to harvest as required over winter.
29 September 2025
A surprisingly good crop of carrots
I wasn’t expecting much from our second bed of carrots. After the dry summer, I thought that, at their best, we might get some small carrots. I’ve found that smaller carrots don’t keep as well through winter as larger ones do. I was in for a surprise.
29 September 2025
A load of goodness delivered and our old strawberry beds cleared
We have sourced a supply of horse manure and our first load was delivered on Sunday morning. We also managed to clear our old strawberry beds, although I didn’t get time to dig them both. We managed a bit of harvesting too.