GOING GREEN

Over the last 12 months we have been endeavouring to be 'greener' and all our hard work has now been rewarded with a SILVER award from the 'Green Tourism Business Scheme.

The hide is well & and truly finished and loads more bird boxes and feeding stations have been installed around the grounds. Our project for this year is a nature walk, through the garden and down the side of the field. As soon as we get some reasonable weather and the ground is soft enough to dig, we will get started.

Work has started on our 4th cottage. This will be a single storey, 2 bedroomed cottage with complete accessibility. Hopefully it will be ready by the summer but not taking any bookings as yet.

FOXY BUSINESS

One good thing to come from all this snow is the discovery of a fox living in style under our big barn. After the first heavy snowfall we noticed this strange set of prints coming from the lane and down our drive, skirting around the edge of the courtyard then over the wall into the farmyard. We could then follow them around the barn to a foxhole dug under the floor in the wood store. It is probably the same one who killed the geese last year!. Talk about 'sly'....living rent free with ready made meals to hand!! Anyway, the hens and the geese are now kept in their compounds at night so 'Foxy Roxy' can't get to them. This is presumably why she/he found it necessary to go down the lane to look for sustinance. Don't quite know what to do about it at the moment. Zoe would never forgive us if we exterminated it. (She's already horrified that we now have 2 freezers full of pork/bacon)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

After all that hectic preparation, Christmas came & went in a nano second...or am I just getting too old? Still, it was nice to have the family all home for Christmas. Total 'whiteout' today, hasn't stopped snowing since the early hours and I've a really bad dose of the flu so, feeling really sorry for myself!
It will be a shame to take the fairy lights down from the trees as everyone has remarked how lovely they have looked. 'A Winter Wonderland' was how one guest described it.
We have a beautiful Jay visiting the back garden on a regular basis now. Its colours are just lovely and it looks huge next to the robins!. Alan has erected loads more bird boxes around the site so, hopefully, they will become 'home' to the many species we have around here. 'Ossie' the owl made a rare appearance yesterday, we don't usually see much of him this time of year!

What a welcome change in the weather. Thought it would never stop raining long enough to get the Christmas lights up. We normally get them up on the first weekend in December, but have only managed two trees to date due to the weather! One of the hens fell off its perch this week so now we're down to 4. Will probably wait until next spring now to replace her. Pinky & Perky????????.............Pork chops anyone !!!!!!!

Saturday 14th November 2009

At last, the hide is almost complete. Windows are in, just need a bit of insulation to stop the draughts, and it will be ready and waiting for all you twitchers. The whooper swans have been arriving in their thousands in the last month. The sight & sound as they pass overhead is amazing as they make their way to Martin Mere.
Trying to get my head around this 'Twitter' business. If anyone is interested in following my 'tweets' you will find them on Twitter / Martin Lane Farm   Our home made jam & chutney is going well and, fortunately, the hens are still laying. Pinky & Perky continue to eat us out of house & home, I'm sure they must be fat enough by now for..........

Sunday 1st November 2009

What a difference a day makes! After a beautiful day yesterday when the geese were enjoying the warm, autumn sunshine, woke up this morning to a howling gail and the rain beating against the windows. It then hit me that I had forgotton to bring in all the washing from the changeover yesterday. To make matters worse, I then discovered that the washing line had broken and so all the bedding (from 8 beds) had to be rewashed....hey ho !!!!

Sunday 4th October 2009

What a week. Alan has been away in Stutgart for the beer festival so I have been here on my own. Pinky & Perky are lucky that they aren't bacon !! On Friday evening, when I went to feed them, they had got out into the field and had made a right mess ! I eventually got them back into their pen and settled them down for the night. Saturday morning all was well, fed the beasts and then went off for a round of golf with my friends. Returned Saturday evening ( loooooooooooong game !) only to find that the porkers (no longer sweet little piggie wiggies) had, once more, escaped from their pen.  Not satisfied with just digging up the paddock they had rampaged through the potato patch and devastated it. All our  potato crop eaten in one day. (Roast pork & apple sauce now has a distinctive appeal!)
Still busy in the cottages, only a few days vacant up to the end of October. Seem to be very popular with Germans in two of the cottages this week and next week all our visitors are from New Zealand.
Played golf again today.....absolute rubbish....think I'll stick to watching it on the telly