Living The Good Life

Marigold

Marigold

Moderator
PKF Supporter
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
8,130
Reaction score
193
Location
Hampshire, U.K.
I suppose HenGen comes close to this?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/01/six-chickens-60-families-live-good-life-pandemic-grow-food
 
Well no fruit or veg here. Too exposed being on a ridge. But mutton, eggs and seafood is usually OK.
My greatest pleasure though comes from my little wood. Its about 50yds x 30yds but an impenetrable tulgy wood of alder, Rosa rugosa and various trees. People questioned my sanity 17 years ago when I spent £6000 on walls and wind proof fences but it now keeps me sane. Just today on my drive I found four barely fledged wrens scuttling about whilst their parents called from the undergrowth. My spirit soared.
Wish I had more resources to fulfil various other dreams. Some friends down island have created a large pond fed by a small spring. No fish so invertebrates and frogs abound. And various visiting birds call in.
It’s not about some obscure fantasy. It’s about living in a place where in large parts people live in harmony with nature. No commercial fishing here (it’s a marine protection area due to some rare kind of whelk) so people take from the sea only what they need. And though fertiliser and silage making have denuded the lowland areas to some extent some are moving towards organic farming and lower stocking rates.
As you can see these things are central to my happiness. A whimbrel on my lawn or a car? No contest!
 
Whimbrel on the lawn if only. We have had Curlew over the house. Great white Egret, Cattle and Little Egret have graced the garden. Spoonbill has flown over. Best bit for us. Nightly sightings or early mornings of Barn, Tawny and Little Owl what more do you need, and this year Nuthatch have bred in an Oak tree
 
bigyetiman said:
Whimbrel on the lawn if only. We have had Curlew over the house. Great white Egret, Cattle and Little Egret have graced the garden. Spoonbill has flown over. Best bit for us. Nightly sightings or early mornings of Barn, Tawny and Little Owl what more do you need, and this year Nuthatch have bred in an Oak tree
Click to expand...
Sounds pretty good to me. We have one pair of Long Eared owls most years and that’s it on the owl front.
Egrets sound exotic too.
One third of the island is protected, either SNH, RSPB or SSSIs. I rarely leave so it’s easy to forget how poorly protected most of the U.K. is. Glad to hear, BYM, that your area is safe and so rich in wildlife. Mature woodland and wetlands are just magical.
 
Lucky to be surrounded by wildlife friendly farmers, although sadly huge swathes will be going under the new Lower Thames crossing in the not too distant future and various road widening schemes to accommodate this, and Amazon are trying to buy up land by offering farmers mega bucks to sell up. Luckily the farmer in question has on one reply to them which I wont repeat the second word is "off"
 
I've never seen or heard an owl round here but OH found a pellet the other day with various things in. I don't know if it's only owls that have pellets? There's a female sparrowhawk that sometimes raids our shrubbery for starlings and that clears them off for a while. The 'farmers' round here are crofters tending their sheep although they all have other jobs. Our neighbour has a big lambing shed and it has been used as a shearing shed the last couple of weeks. Everyone seems to bring their ewes here to be shorn. Polycrubs are now big business in the islands, springing up all over.
 
Birds of prey and some seabirds cough up pellets containing bony bits.
OH remembers the good old days when they used to gather owl pellets and get the children at the Wildlife Trust to soak them and work out what rodents had been eaten, there were lovely little charts with all the bones of the various rodents. Then health and Safety reared it's head and said the children could catch some nasty disease from it, so it is banned, even our lovely collection of skulls had to go.
latest missive from the council is to refer to children by their surname, in case any of them identify as gender neutral and find "Suzy" or "Sam" insulting
 
Plus we have to ask, is a parent or grandparent collecting you mustn't say Mum, gran or dad etc. OH said she is glad she doesn't work with the education dept, wildlife much easier
 
Hen-Gen said:
bigyetiman said:
latest missive from the council is to refer to children by their surname, in case any of them identify as gender neutral and find "Suzy" or "Sam" insulting
Click to expand...
Blatant specism. Some may prefer Rover or Spot or Tiddles or Pussikins.
Click to expand...

Good grief! The lunatics really are taking over the asylum.
 
I loved this article.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/21/a-moment-that-changed-me-meeting-the-rescue-dog-who-comforted-me-through-unfathomable-loss
 
I wondered what Margaid would think of the idea of taking all of her cats for a walk?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/02/on-a-short-leash-walking-our-cat-in-the-front-garden-has-become-a-daily-ritual#comment-151032942
 
I know attitudes to cats in Australia are very different. Cat hunts are not uncommon (at least in WA). When our rescue boy here was young we would effectively take him on a walk, without any lead, because he would just follow us for an evening stroll (its quite safe here, no traffic). It was just 1km, and his little legs couldn't quite manage it so we'd have to carry him home after about 750m. Its one of my most happy memories, his tail would puff up to twice its size with excitement and he would bound along, particularly off road. Now he can do the distance, but he doesn't want to be seen with us, typical teenager!

Years ago we left a moggie with my parents with strict instructions not to let him out for a week or two because he wouldn't know where he was and his brother had recently been run over. My parents bought him a lead and harness and attempted the garden exercise routine (large garden). However, the cat was having none of this and took off over the low boundaries, pursued by my father. About an hour later there was a knock on the door. It was the local police 'we have had reports of a middle aged man in a red jumper seen in the back garden of No5 sir, etc etc' My father was still wearing his red jumper....
 
Wonderful stories! That must have been rather an embarrassingly unlikely excuse for trespass in a private garden to have to offer to the police. I hope he got the cat back OK!
 
In Australia, in many areas, it's feral cats that are hunted. My sister works for a local Council, and she said that we shouldn't think in terms of our pet cats- the feral cats are much bigger and extremely aggressive.

My two cats have to be indoors only because they're cat flu carriers, and they were very sickly when they were young. By the time I had both of them healthy, they were over a year old, and had no smarts at all. However, I'm astonished at how many more birds are here now that there are no cats outside regularly. There's a couple of strays that wander through, but they don't hang around.

Sent from my SM-A415F using Tapatalk

 
Yes, no fathers or cats were harmed in the making of this episode! I do understand the Australian view, there is an antipathy to the amount of indigenous wildlife harmed by the cats which were brought into the country, especially in areas which are very sparsely populated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top