The forecast is for wet or drizzly weather this week, so last weekend we decided that we had better have a fire to burn the huge pile of ‘prunings’ that we had gathered.

The ruling on our site is that fires should only be lit one hour before dusk so before we started on the fire we had a few others jobs to keep us occupied.

I cleared the roots from last year’s brassica bed and did more weeding and hoeing.

Martyn, decided to clear the old lavender plants. The plants had become very woody and straggly and were infested with couch grass. Now that the lavender has been removed we will need to dig out the grass roots. Once the lavender was cleared it revealed an unexpected resident – a rather large frog. He or she was gently transferred to another hiding place.

Our last task before coming home was to have the fire which reduced our huge pile of wood far quicker than you would imagine. The challenge was to keep the flames fed. On arriving at the plot, I noticed that the two hazel bushes on the edge of the plot were flowering. The catkins are the male flowers that produce the pollen. The female flowers develop a little later once the pollen ripens. A video is posted here.

In the garden, our garrya is also producing its long tassels. Both catkins and tassels are other examples of flowers without petals but this time pollination is carried out by the wind so there is no need to attract insects so no perfume.

We spent an afternoon in the garden.

Some of the perennial plants are sending up shoots so at least we know some plants have survived last summer’s drought conditions.

Our first seeds – onions and shallots – have germinated under the grow lights. Martyn, posted about this here.

We had two afternoons at Nostell last week, which I think the waterbirds appreciated as on both occasions we took a bag of food. As soon as the birds think that there may be a chance that food is in the offing they converge from all directions.

The ducks pile into a squabbling heap. I throw some food onto the edge of the lake so that the ducks have a chance of having a share. As I’ve mentioned before the swans can resort to rough treatment if the ducks try to steal food from under their beaks. The swans are becoming wise to this and come out of the water. Sometimes coming rather too close for comfort. They would take food from my hand if I was brave – or is it foolish – enough to let them. They can become rather aggressive and can inflict serious injuries if they are angry.

Clumps of snowdrops are flowering amongst the trees. I don’t think Ruby knew what to make of them.

Ground staff have begun some forestry work. Huge piles of ‘logs’ are piled along one path. It is, however difficult to spot where all the felling has taken place.

Some of the trees that have been felled must have been huge judging from the size of the ‘logs’ so maybe it didn’t take many trees to create the piles.

I’m guessing the wood will be sold but the smaller pieces have been made into chippings that are being used to mulch some of the pathways. Ruby loved this and would have had fun digging had we not stopped her.

The hollowed out tree trunk shown above manages to cling on to its position near the lake.   Some tree trunks are just left to allow nature to move in.

For the past couple of weeks we have altered the course of our walk to take us through a small wooded area. Here some tree trunks are arranged to form a seating area maybe for school parties.

Here we spotted a pheasant that seemed to have lost its tail feathers.

A new route provides Ruby with new sniffing opportunities.

Once out of the woods we cross a field and head back onto the path leading to the car park.

Finally last week I made a risotto using some of our squash, red onion, garlic, frozen peas and frozen sweet corn.

I also made a turkey goulash that used our onion, carrots and frozen green peppers. This was served with some of our potatoes. The recipe seems to have disappeared from the internet but to the above ingredients, I also used tinned tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato purée and yoghurt.

Well, that’s another week that has flown by.  As always ‘til next time, stay well, stay safe and keep warm.