The Stone Angels

Nearly forgot to mention, Saturday night was our helping at The Stone Angel gig, it was at St Lawrences church at South Walsham, the lovely church is an Arts centre, it is a beautiful place and the acoustics are amazing, we helped with the wine and nibblys, the music was great, Ken and Joan entertained wonderfully as did the other members of the band, their music is described as acid folk, they have a web site if you fancy having a nose, they have a few CD s out, Circle of leaves, East of the sun, and Lonely waters, mostly about our area of Norfolk and local stories and characters, they play an amazing array of instruments  but check it out yourselves.

Lovely Thurne boat ride!

Well Monday was a lovely day, we had a nice change for a task today we had a lovely long boat trip up the Thurne and into Hickling to pick up some buoys,bit mucky but a great day out, and good fun with the boat handling bit, we started off at Ludham fieldbase, the day was a bit overcast and hardly any wind, we travelled through Potter Heigham under the old and new bridge, had a nose in all the little chalets by the side of the river on the way, went by Martham boats and turned off to Hickling, the Broad looked amazing dead calm, not one other single boat in sight, had the whole of Hickling to ourselves, i couldnt believe it, did all our work ,lifting muddy buoys into the boat and taking them to a little staithe and offloading , then another couple of trips and all done then a nice leisurely journey back to Ludham,

Today Thursday, had a lovely day out to Caistor St. Edmund, had a look around the ruins, walked along the huge ditch which was full of beautiful yellow flowers, then saw a Comma butterfly, then back to the car park and over the road to Chris Skinners, High Ash Farm , what a lovely place, loads of walks every where, rolling countryside, beautiful, then found the Boudica Way walk, that will probably be our next walk, looking forward to that.

The clearing of the Rhodis

The task today was an easy affair,the woods at the back of Ormesby waterworks have been recently cleared of that horrible monstrosity of a plant the rhodedendron or Rhodis!!,the transformation is amazing, there used to be bank upon bank of the detested plant, drowning out every living thing just about, and now we have a wonderful glade a,woodland fiull of snowdrops and we have yet to see what else will appear now there is light and space, some people moan at us "Nature people"cutting down pretty plants, if you'd seen the before and after, you would be amazed aswell, and glad they have gone
All we had to do today is clear a few sycamores, easy peasy compared to the dreaded Rhodi.

The Great Dyke clearing extravaganza!!!!

Well I dont know what came over me, a great feeling of energy,I dont think!!11th March 2011, the great dyke clearing day, a lovely sunny day, I dragged the garden incinerator out of rusty storage and fired it up!!A great tangle of Bramble old cuttings, brash from cut down bushes,and nettles greeted me, and whilst leaning over the fence to collect this rubbish there was an almighty CRACK, the fence gave way, and I ended up in a heap on top of it, laughing at myself like a mad woman!!So there was my excuse to remove the fence.It took me from 7.30 in the morning until 3.30 that afternoon and I cleared it all,cut and burn thats what us nature people love!!

The next plan was to profile the edge, so I have made a gentle slope down to the water, and have planted a couple of water plants which are allowed, I have checked with my conservation officer.Next step is to source various plants ie. cuckoo flower, Hemp Agrimoney, Purple Loosestrife, Wild Campion etc, Photos will be coming soon!! Im so excited, it looks so much better.

Flippn cold and searchin for Redpolls and Short Eared Owls.

Its so cold, we were spoilt with those few days of positively balmy temperatures, I want them back.

The task of searching for the above birds took place on Sunday, it was so cold, and none were seen unfortunately, all likely places were duly scanned Mautby, Stokesby, Runham, Muck Fleet, not a sausage!!but on the goodside I have found some lovely walks to do in the warmer summer days (hopefully) to come!!

We were out on a Trinities task today, also very cold, cutting trees down, along the reed line at the sailing club or by now well past the sailing club, we have done so much work there , making a huge difference!!Cant wait to see it in summer, at the moment we are working almost knee deep in mud!!

Our next task will be Brushcutting, havent done that for a while, am looking forward to it very much, its very theraputic, just have to watch out for ditches where we are going to be cutting, and bumpy ground and trips apart from that all should be fine!! But wish us luck anyway, just incase.

Lots of happenings!

Well lots of happenings, a lovely day out at Hickling reserve, my old work place, lots of lovely memories flooding back, lots of work going on with new flood defences,looks a bit odd at the moment but its all for the best!!Had a lovely trip to Stubb Mill went and had a good look round inside, beautiful old mill, John took us inside and told us the histyory of the place, all very interesting, then we all went for a delicious meal at The Greyhound pub,well cooked homely food, with lots of lovely friends the BA vols!!
This Sunday was our monthly bird count again, it does come round quickly,a Smew was seen on Filby just after we left after our count, typicall, sorry 2 Smew were seen!! At Ormesby Little possible sighting of Peregrine,
Task today, Monday, lovely easy day, tidying up at Filby boardwalk, then went for a stroll at Filby common, probably be working there soon, clearing some scrub maybe.
Nearly fell off my chair the other day sitting watching the birds on my feeders and I was so excited there flitting about in the bushes was a Firecrest, saw it for about a minute looked in my book to check and yes there it was a definite firecrest! !first for my garden!!great stuff!!!

Talked to the fisherman at Filby broad the other day and he showed us film footage of the lovely northern long tailed tits,  beautiful white faces, unmistakable , pictures were taken from his window overlooking peanut feeders in his garden in the middle of Gorleston!!Im so jealous, everyday I get about 20 of them rushing into my garden , and everytime I pray for that lovely white faced long tailed tit to come flitting in , but no such luck!

What a beautiful day!!

Today it feels like spring has sprung!!It was cold and frosty thismorning as i walked into town, but soon became warmer, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, so, when I got back from town I decided to carry on with some gardening, didnt get much done last year, I am paying for it this year, weeds and grass everywhere.


I strarted by planting out my Frittillary plants they are already in bud, I may have made a mistake doing that early, as it has been so frosty thismorning, I hope they are tough, and dont succumb to the cold. Then the weeding began in ernest. Also I had to feed my gasrden birds, I had run out of Sunflower seed their favourite, so whilst in town bought a bag, they seem to be taking their time coming back though, as last week there were flocks of Greenfinches and Goldfinches decending on the garden, pigging out, and scrapping with each other.

I have been keeping a look out for some pretty little visitors Ive heard about who hang around with their cousins the Long Tailed Tits, a Northern Long Tailed Tit, which has a white head and breast. Also along Filby boardwalk some northern Mealy Redpolls have been seen, and at Burgh Common our old friend the Peregrine was spotted again, we usually spot it from either the Filby bird hide, or from Lily Broad .Some fifty odd Bewick Swans spotted at Muck Fleet.

Ive discovered my pond has a leak, there is abit of water in it, when I tried to fill it up it went back to the same level, so i have either got to replace the entire liner or , have a go at repairing it, can you repair it using bicycle repair kits, I wonder, will have a go, and hope I dont poison any of the Newts or Frogs!! Wish me luck!!