Thursday 26 December 2013
Boxing Day, a heavy frost and then mist rose with the sun, but now its a clear and beautiful day, the birds are fed, food ready for tomorrow and late breakfast done. Christmas day was also beautiful, although I did feel very much for all those poor people who were affected by floods and no power. It is time we put all power lines underground, it would make the country far more beautiful, put value on tons of houses, mean far less power cuts or lines affected by the weather and less wildlife would get killed.
I was invited by my cousins over the way for Christmas lunch which was lovely, I had seen them on Christmas Eve because I had the usual drinks party here at home, which I think went well, apart from Shasta landing on someone's lap and spilling their mulled wine - a little tactless but they are not used to lots of people in the house.
The Christmas tree was done just in time and all was ready but with no Midnight mass at the local church, I did get to bed in reasonable time for a change. The weather has not been great, very windy and a ton of rain, I am only glad that I live up fairly high, so flooding is unlikely to happen, although we did have a ridge piece on the Eagle Barn try to lift off, but the lads got it safely sorted before it actually broke.
We just about got away with the weather and the last
Owl Evening by the skin of our teeth. The forecast the previous day was awful,
but it improved as time went on and so the wind and rain was not due to start
severely until after 8.00 pm, so we changed the format for the last one and did
the outside flying of the three large owls immediately after the guided tours
had all finished, then had the meal and ended up with the two smaller owls
flying indoors, which meant the weather did not matter at the end. And it worked,
it was very gusty nevertheless, but the owls managed OK just about. We had a
lovely group and now all the owls are stuffed full of food until mid-January
when some of them will be got going again for the February Owl Evenings and the
early part of the season for our visitors. We have a cunning plan as well, we
are going to start to do Evening Owl Handling and flying experiences in the
Autumn, that should be very special indeed. Only six people on them and flying
owls in the dark – how cool is that!!
The Hospital and Clinic look great, all done
now, and a pleasure to work in, cleaning the boxes and feeding birds in there is a joy with the pull out tray on the floor. I have always wanted to do that design and it works a treat which is very gratifying! The garage for the cars is done and all plus my
trailer are safely under cover which is really nice to know. Next job is to
sort out the workshop in January, and re-roof the tiny owls and the flying owls
because the Onduline has had its day. That should not be too big a job I hope.
We also re-roofed the lean-to outside the Clinic so it does not leak.
The dogs hate the weekends in December and January as there is no
official coffee time, they don’t really like the period between Christmas and
the New Year either as there are no staff around, and they miss them all – oh
and the toast at coffee time. Briza has just eaten my carol sheets!
I went Carol singing last Wednesday, I have to
say it was a somewhat unpleasant experience because it was a howling gale and
pouring with rain, by the end of about half an hour I had not a dry stitch of
clothing on! After about an hour and a half one of the others said they were
too wet and cold to continue, for which I was very relieved, as I was about to
say the same thing. I don’t think I have walked home from the village quite so
fast ever. It took a shower and a bath to warm me up again.
I have to say that the threatened coldest
winter on record for 100 years has not yet materialized, in fact it has been
about the mildest so far.
I am pleased to say that I could get into all my Christmas presents without a chain saw!! And lovely they all were, thank you to all. I got some new hinges the other day for the new cupboards and could I get the plastic off, some is still on there. Its ridiculous, why to hinges need to be shrink wrapped in plastic, I actually scratched the metal trying to get it off. NO MORE PLAS|TIC!!
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