Sunday, 5 January 2014
Well Christmas is over, the New Year is
over, which as usual I saw in in bed fast asleep! I think the last time I saw
in the New Year was the millennium with a good friend of mine Arthur Middleton
and I am still kicking myself that we did not think to go up May Hill, it would
have been tremendous, never mind – next time!
 |
| A ford near us! |
Christmas Day and Boxing Day were lovely,
sunny and dry, and I think that one other day was good too, otherwise it
rained, and rained, and New Year’s day was I think the wettest day I can
remember for a long time. I went through three sets of clothing and was so cold
and wet after feeding round that I had to stop and get warm again before going
out to finish the cleaning up and bail water from in front of the weighing
room, that gave me the second set of wet clothes and taking the dogs out for a
walk did the final set – though to the skin all three times!
It’s raining now, we had a respite on Thursday,
it was good to see the staff back in, although Mark is not well. The hawk walk birds
all had a day out on the lawn, a good bath and a good clean, before having to
go back under their compartments again as the weather got worse.
We have five pair of birds on eggs, but
three are probably not going to have hatched eggs, they have been somewhat sketchy
in their incubation, however those pairs will probably relay. The Griffon
Vultures are on an egg, which is good, we will take and hatch it and then
return the chick at about ten days old if all goes well. Adam organised CCTV
camera’s on all the nests in Barn One and it is great fun to watch the birds
playing with sticks, completely demolishing their beautifully made nests, or
sitting on their egg. Sadly we can’t put it live on our website as the Broad
band here is too slow. So much for rural areas being looked after!!
There are rooves to fix, gutters to mend,
the old Secretary Bird aviary to sort out and make safe and birds to get flying
again (if it ever stops raining) all before we open again on February 1st,
I just don’t know where the time goes.
We are going to be filming the Burrowing
Owl’s nest, we have been asked to work with some Harris Hawks on a project at
Oxford University and my sparrow hawk Deneb is in demand, I am getting him out
this week to start flying.
I also have to go to India sometime this
month as we are going to be working with some of the parents and chicks to see
if we can improve on our breeding successes. Not likely to get bored I think!
Friday, 27 December 2013
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| Adult Male African Fish Eagle (Linda Wright!) |
Time for a bit of a rant I think. I just
watched Earth Flight well at least I did until I got too angry to watch it.
Someone needs to give all these cameramen and probably the editors a
lesson in ethics. If you know your birds you can see that to get the large
flocks flying dramatically (away from them please note) so that they can have
dramatic film, they are either flying a remote helicopter with a camera or a small plane over to
upset the birds, it is so obvious and in my book totally unacceptable. If these
birds are stressed in that way and yes of course it is stressful for them, it
just makes their survival that little bit harder. I don’t know my mammals as
well as my bird, but I have concerns about how they get the footage they do
with many of the hunts. A little more thought about the wildlife and a little
less about dramatic film would be a good idea.
 |
| Ruppell's Vulture |
The pictures from the Ruppells vulture and
the African Fish Eagle which are from camera’s mounted on their backs are very
poor and very misleading, as I suspect the backgrounds were put on afterwards
in most cases. The species of the vulture that is being spoken about changes several
times – do these people think we don’t notice!!!
No your average vulture does not fly at
five miles high, one Ruppell’s vulture was recorded at 36000 above sea level,
and please note that is sea level, it did not state how high the land was below it, and this a onetime siting I might
add. And normally vultures are flying at up to 10,000 at the most. Why do these
presenters always want to give you the utmost fact without qualifying it with
the norm. Its again misleading and can be dangerous to the species. However I
suspect they don’t think about consequences, they are only out to get the most
spectacular film regardless of how they get it.
 |
| African White-backed Vulture |
I was just sent a link for a CBBC series –
Deadly I think it was, the camera crew actually came here and we tested their
ring of camera’s for them in my field, and actually the birds were amazing and
I think we could have got some great stuff. They said they wanted to get wild
footage of a Bald Eagle snatching a fish from the circle of camera’s – I have
to say, knowing raptors as I do, I was pretty sure they would fail, and what we
got was some very average footage of a trained Bald Eagle with overly long
jesses picking up a floating bit of plastic with a bit of fish tied to it!! – out
of a large black bin full of water. Then you saw some very poor flying of a
trained peregrine (the usual 200 MPH quoted) flying to the presenter swinging a
lure, well sort of swinging it. The back ground was heavily treed and the bird
maybe got to about 100 feet, the speed was probably about 50 – 60 mph!! They
would have done better to film it here with us, our falcons don’t have over
grown beaks, and the background is a lot more open.
Oh and by the way team, the Bald Eagle is
not one of the largest eagles in the world. The White-tailed Sea-eagle is
larger as a general rule and the Steller’s Sea-eagle makes a Bald Eagle look
tiny!!!
Why don’t you ask experts to help you with
your commentaries, it would be far more sense.
Have you noticed how many adverts there are
for gambling on the TV, all this bingo rubbish, how to get people to lose their
hard earned cash, it’s a great shame in this age of hardship, still not to
worry there are about as many adverts for loan sharks on there as well so if
you lose all your cash gambling you can borrow more at an exorbitant rate of
interest. And then if you fall over a stone, or trip down some stairs, you can
use one of these lovely lawyers who tout for business, I have always thought
that the fact that you see the adverts of the back of lavatory doors is
extremely telling!!
Ah well, back to work!
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!!
Monday, 16 December 2013
I have been painting, it is that time of the
year. First I painted a new cupboard that has nearly been completed in the
utility room. The cupboard is designed to keep everything, bins, wellies,
shoes, salt for the water softener – all safe from thieving Labradors!!! Then
over the last two weekends I have been painting the inside of the clinic. I
have to admit it is a holding job because the walls in there are very damp and
what we really need to do is take out all the kitchen units, strip off the
plaster board and start again. But for the time being, we have a ton of things
to finish before opening again in February and so it will have to wait a bit. A
good coat of oil based paint will do the trick temporarily I hope. So it’s starting
to look pretty good, John has done all the second, third and fourth coats!!! It
should be finished by tomorrow. And the hospital is just about done so we had a
major clear up in there today, it is looking stunning. Some staining of wood
tomorrow and a couple of other things and it will be a done deal.
Subject:
Continuing poaching of migratory birds in Cyprus, in breach of the Birds
Directive 2009/147/EC, and violence against members of CABS
In Cyprus, there is widespread poaching of migratory birds flying across the island, with a thriving illegal market. This is due, in particular, to the existence of a local traditional dish called ambelopoulia, made up of small wild birds that are skinned and grilled whole, or pickled in vinegar. This dish has been illegal on the island since the 1970s, but sadly, is still widespread. Twice a year, therefore, CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) organises an anti-poaching camp aimed at removing the tools used by local residents to capture live birds, such as mistletoe sticks, clap nets and electronic decoy devices. If these tools are on private property, the volunteers report the matter to the local police, who then seize the tools and start criminal proceedings against those responsible. The volunteer activists also seek out dishes based on these birds, which are illegally sold in restaurants, grocery stores, butcher shops, etc.
As reported by the CABS volunteers, cooperation with the local authorities responsible in particular the APS Anti-Poaching Squad, Game Fund guards and authorities on the British SBA military base was particularly successful in 2011 and 2012 and paid off with an increasing number of poachers being reported. However, the 2013 anti-poaching camp was characterised by a U-turn by the Cypriot authorities, who have withdrawn their support and obstructed the volunteers, despite the latter reporting the dangerous and isolated situation they were in and despite repeated acts of violence against them. The volunteers, in fact, have had the tyres of a car parked in front of the entrance to the Cape Greko National Park slashed, have been repeatedly chased by cars, threatened, were once beaten up and bludgeoned and, last but not least, robbed of a camera and a mobile phone.
Can the Commission therefore answer the following questions:
1. What measures does it intend to take to ensure compliance with the Birds Directive in Cyprus and react to the infringements currently taking place?
2. Does it not agree that the time is ripe to commence infringement proceedings in relation to this matter?
3. Will it contact the Cypriot authorities to discover why have changed their attitude, when previously they had given their maximum cooperation to the CABS volunteers?
 |
| Adam Crisford asked me to put this up, go to his website, he is selling it and some of the funds will go to the hospital |
Owl Evenings have been going well and Chris
Sperrin from the Hawk and Owl Trust came up and did an Owl Prowl for our
members. It was the day of all the wind, but thankfully the wind dropped in the
evening and the event went well. I hope that we can do a few more, although it
will be hard to be as good as Chris at mimicking owl calls – he is quite
brilliant at it!!! Still there is always a phone apt that is pretty good!!!
We had a corporate Christmas Do on Friday,
which was seamless, and they definitely got value for money. We started at 2.30
pm and finally finished up at nearly 10.00pm. My staff are wonderful, they
worked really hard, including serving and clearing up afterwards, we did have
fun though!!! Then on Sat we had the second last Owl Evening, boy we were lucky
with the weather. The wind was very strong and made the guided tours a little
tricky, but it kindly dropped in time for us to fly the owls outside and then
the rain did not start until people were gone!
The new garage is just about finished, it is
so nice to see the trailer, land Rover and new Range Rover sitting comfortably
under cover. The van is also under cover outside the clinic.
 |
| Briza |
We are down to just a few birds flying and
all the owls will be grounded over Christmas. Then in the New Year we start
again. We are keeping a couple of Harris Hawks going for staff that want to
hunt them over Christmas and we are flying the two new eagles up until
Christmas Eve, also the new Striated Caracara who is lovely.
Sorrel was NOT pregnant, which was very disappointing,
we will try once more and then I guess the local sheep dog will probably
succeed!!
Question for
written answer E-012751/2013 to the Commission Rule 117 Andrea Zanoni (ALDE)
Subject:
Continuing poaching of migratory birds in Cyprus, in breach of the Birds
Directive 2009/147/EC, and violence against members of CABSIn Cyprus, there is widespread poaching of migratory birds flying across the island, with a thriving illegal market. This is due, in particular, to the existence of a local traditional dish called ambelopoulia, made up of small wild birds that are skinned and grilled whole, or pickled in vinegar. This dish has been illegal on the island since the 1970s, but sadly, is still widespread. Twice a year, therefore, CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) organises an anti-poaching camp aimed at removing the tools used by local residents to capture live birds, such as mistletoe sticks, clap nets and electronic decoy devices. If these tools are on private property, the volunteers report the matter to the local police, who then seize the tools and start criminal proceedings against those responsible. The volunteer activists also seek out dishes based on these birds, which are illegally sold in restaurants, grocery stores, butcher shops, etc.
As reported by the CABS volunteers, cooperation with the local authorities responsible in particular the APS Anti-Poaching Squad, Game Fund guards and authorities on the British SBA military base was particularly successful in 2011 and 2012 and paid off with an increasing number of poachers being reported. However, the 2013 anti-poaching camp was characterised by a U-turn by the Cypriot authorities, who have withdrawn their support and obstructed the volunteers, despite the latter reporting the dangerous and isolated situation they were in and despite repeated acts of violence against them. The volunteers, in fact, have had the tyres of a car parked in front of the entrance to the Cape Greko National Park slashed, have been repeatedly chased by cars, threatened, were once beaten up and bludgeoned and, last but not least, robbed of a camera and a mobile phone.
Can the Commission therefore answer the following questions:
1. What measures does it intend to take to ensure compliance with the Birds Directive in Cyprus and react to the infringements currently taking place?
2. Does it not agree that the time is ripe to commence infringement proceedings in relation to this matter?
3. Will it contact the Cypriot authorities to discover why have changed their attitude, when previously they had given their maximum cooperation to the CABS volunteers?
This will be
interesting to watch for the answer, its about time the EU put its money where
its mouth is.
Sunday, 17 November 2013
The second Owl Evening went well although it was a little more tricky than usual as our electrics are playing up, and neither the underground lights, or the PA would work without blowing everything!! Rob Moore (electrician) is coming on Monday to change and add some RCD’s ( I know all about RCD’s – don’t you!) and hopefully the problem will be if not sorted, at least more manageable. We will do some restructuring early next year and make it all less fragile.
The new hospital
room is looking great and we are starting to use it, there are still a few
things to finish off but it’s a very useful room and will be a huge advantage
to us. The first injured wild bird to go in is a Kestrel who looks like she
will recover fine, which bodes well for the future.
We have got the
brooder room all sorted out with proper electrics and it’s been repainted, so
there is just a good clean to get done and that will be ready. Next is the
clean out of the incubator room and all incubators to be thoroughly cleaned,
Holly wants to keep that all to herself!!
The outside of the
new building is all level and gravelled over and looking good. We have to knock
through the new door from the clinic to the hospital room – which we need to
give a name too. That will make a big mess, but gives us the chance to have a
good clear out and redecorate in there, one wall is damp and I think I know why
so we will sort that out before painting. Then the whole block of rooms will be
done and dusted – phew!! Just in time to go charitable and then build a new
brooder room and incubation room so we can turn the old ones into a treatment
room and small lab!
It’s a busy week
next week, I have two meetings, one in Bristol, one in London and I am hoping
to go and collect my (newish!) Range Rover from Jinny. There is however a doubt
because we don’t know if Sorrel is in pup or not. She is large (but could be
too fat!) is digging furiously (but she does that anyway) is very grumpy to the
others at times (but she can be a grump). Penny Carpanini thinks she is, I am
vacillating and generally the jury is out, and of course we don’t really know
when they are due as she was mated over about an eight day period. I need to be
here for her, so the car may have to wait, but I am hoping not as being in
London for a meeting helps me to get most of the way to collecting. We shall
see!! Here is hoping she is going to produce lots of lovely puppies.
We are also doing a
film job here with the Great Grey Owl on Wednesday and we have a group of MSc
students coming as well, plus still being open and an Owl Evening on Sat. It’s
good to be busy!
We close on December
1st, but as that is a Sunday, if the weather is good we will be
open, so watch the forecast and ring us to find out. We close for sure on the 2nd,
apart from a couple of experience days and the owl evenings.
Oh and if you are
looking for a good Christmas present, we are going to reinstate the Owl
Experiences, but in a different way. We are going to do Half Owl Days, which
will be great fun. We have a good team of owls now and will be able to have
guests handle and fly a good number of them. We are looking forward to it.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
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Well, that is the
last my travels abroad for this year,
and I have to say I am not sorry!! Ever since I got back to Newent, and
understood finally what it was I had nearly lost, I am much happier at home
than travelling. I guess that makes me a sedentary bird,
rather than a migratory bird!
The trip was good,
although started off a little poorly, my train from Ledbury to Paddington was
an hour and a half late, so my plans to meet Ian Newton and Rhys Green at the
check in were scuppered. I have to say that BA did not get good points for
their helpfulness at check in, so as well as being stressed because I was late,
I was annoyed before even getting on the plane. However things improved then
because as I had to check in alone, and so because they were over booked and I
was travelling alone – I got upgraded!!
On arrival at
Delhi we got on a bus to the domestic
terminal and eventually caught the plane to Bagdogra in West Bengal. Most of
the trip from Bagdogra to Alipurduar was done in the dark, but it was on much
better roads than we travelled last time I went there. The hotel was OK, there
were 88 steps from my room to the meeting room which sadly was in the basement
. As I am not keen on Indian food, that part of the trip I did not particularly
enjoy. The meeting was good and we had good representation from several new
countries that were within the vultures range. There were good papers and
plenty of good discussion. All in all I
think the SAVE Meeting went well and we seemed to achieve a good amount of work
and decisions.
On the first day
there we went bird watching, sadly for me we saw mainly LBJ’s which pleased all
the rest of the twitchers!!!! But I wanted to see more raptors – they were
hiding!! We did however walk across a river bed with a little water (that was
fun) and crossed into Butan for about two minutes – which we did because we
could!! We went into the forest but did not see a great deal apart from some
lovely trees, but some of us did manage to pick up leaches, I had one on each
foot, and Toby was bleeding dramatically from his leg. Of course we had to make
up for lost blood later on, Toby and Chris replaced it with beer and I worked
on Gin and sweet lime soda (no tonic). I have to say that the gin left a great
deal to be desired, but if you drowned it it was bearable.
The meeting was held
in the basement of the hotel and after three days it got extremely depressing
as by the time we had finished each afternoon, it was already dark. So we
rarely even saw the daylight, let alone anything else. We did have one short
trip to the Centre and on the way back one of the other cars saw an elephant,
and some pied falconets, did I – NO!
The
trip back was extremely long, we left the hotel at 7.00am, with a short stop
for a cup of tea we got to Bagdogra by about 12.00 noon, our plane to Delhi
left at 2.30pm and the flight back to London did not leave until 3.40am! The
flight was uneventful apart from the fact that there were four squalling
children in our compartment, roll on child free planes. However when we got to
Heathrow things started to fall apart, it took ages to get off the damn plane
because some idiot decided that it was nice to let his small child walk rather
than carrying the damn thing. There was a huge queue at the immigration and
then I got to the Heathrow Express with just enough time to get the 7.58 train,
which would have got me to Paddington just in time, but it was cancelled, the
next one finally left at 8.20 and my train at Paddington happily left at 8.22
without me. I bought a new ticket (the bill for which I intend to send to the
Heathrow Express) and got on the next train to Gloucester, which was then
delayed because the doors would not
lock. So until my trip back from Argentina which was great and seamless
was not replicated on this one!! It
appears that all of us on that trip had the same problems and we all missed our
trains!!
It
is lovely lovely to be home, its quiet (Alipurduara was incredibly noisy at
night) my bed is blissfully comfortable (the one in India was rock hard, which
they all are), the gin is great and the dogs were really pleased to see me home
again. The Hospital is nearly done, the new smart hospital boxes arrived today
and very smart they are too, I can’t wait to get the whole thing finished!! It
will make a huge difference to us all and the injured wild birds that come in.
Our
new lawn mower is coming next week, I chickened out of collecting it and so
have got it delivered, it is coming from Carters of Swanwick who I have to say
have been wonderful so far in all they have done. I am looking forward to
trying it out!!
My
Hobby is flying really well, I am very excited about her, particularly as it
has not been great weather, she is called Killigrey. I want to be able to get her flying strongly in
case we do get very cold weather when I will have to stop flying and feed her
up. But so far the possible forecast worse winter for 100 years has not appeared,
although admittedly it is early days.
Friday, 1 November 2013
Argentina was good, the food was great, much
better than India that is for sure and I fell for the Chimango Caracara’s who
are enchanting birds of prey. The trip there was pretty reasonable, no
disasters which is always good, although it is a bloody long way that is for
sure. 
The conference was excellent, the World
Working Group for Birds of Prey and Owls did not show up, which I have to say
did not surprise me. Miguel was more tolerant about it than I would have been.
However I will say no more, but I will think it! The Neo tropical Network were
there and it was great to see them. The papers were excellent, the company very
good, the wine first class and all in all it was a great success. Ruth and I
had planned to go on three trips, we did two of them and they were very good,
but tiring, and I am not a serious birder in comparison to many on the trips,
who were very serious. There are only so many ducks I need to see before I get
bored, now raptors, that is a different matter, but LBJ’s – hummmmmmmmmmm. We
cancelled the last trip as we realised that with the trip and the travel,
meaning that we would arrive back in Buenos Aires after midnight, this was not
a good idea. So on the Sunday we went with friends to the airport to see if we
could get an earlier flight. The whole trip back was amazing, we kept thinking
that something would go wrong but it didn’t. We got on the 10.30 am flight,
went to the hotel that Miguel had recommended and it was great, had a lovely
lunch and a walk, rested for the rest of the day, got to the airport on time,
got through immigration and security like a breeze, got on the plane home and
got upgraded to business!!! Hooray, what a pleasure, thank you BA. 
I got home at about 12,00 noon on Tuesday, in
time to fly birds, have tea and see all the staff who were in. The hospital has
come on a treat, it is looking really good on the outside and right now the
plasterer is in and hopefully it will be completely plastered by the end of
Sunday. The boxes should arrive soon as well.
We have to wait until the plaster is dry
before we can paint and the tiles on the floor can’t be done until the painting
is complete. I wish I was going to be here for it, it is very frustrating not
to be.
The birds were all well, the dogs pleased to
see me, and I hope the staff as well. It is lovely to be home. It has been a
little damp towards the end of the week, but was a stunning autumn day when I
arrived back. My Hobby is going really well, and so are both the Merlins, the
Red-footed Falcon has a way to go, but he will be fine and Helen’s American Kestrel
is going really well. All three Lanners are coming on as are the two new
eagles, Steppes and Steller’s. My Red Kite is good but bitey! Holly’s is a
brilliant flyer but not focusing yet. The owls are all pretty much ready for
the first Owl Evening which starts while I am still away.
This next trip to India is mainly a big
meeting and reporting from all countries involved with SAVE to see where we
are, and what we need to do to get to the point where we can release vultures
back to the wild, and stop worrying about NSAIDs. It will be a while yet that
is for sure. I leave on Monday and am back at about the same time as the last
trip on the 11th, and then apart from a couple of meetings, I am
going nowhere!!
Everyone has worked really hard on the
hospital, and although there is still some stuff to do, it is getting there. It
will be a huge relief when it is done, it will also make a huge difference to
us all to have a proper facility to deal with injured and sick birds.
The aviaries are being sorted out ready for
the next breeding season already!! The volunteers and staff have been doing
really well with the nest building, Holly had a picture of John wearing one
which I think has gone on Facebook. I still have not worked out how to get onto
Facebook. Some of the birds may lay early, so we want to be ready. The
incubation and brooder rooms will be refurbished after the hospital is done and
Holly is looking forward to getting it all neat and tidy and ready to go.
The grass seed on the front lawn is coming up
nicely and we start pruning in the gardens next week. We still don’t know if
Sorrel is pregnant or not, I am certainly not laying any money on it anyway.
However by the time I get back things should be much more obvious.
Still have to get clothes ready for India, so
I must put in the last of the washing now.
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