New Year's Eve

 The walk this morning was not the most fun we've had! The strong wind was blowing hail into our faces on the walk back up the hill to our house, making me pull my wooly hat over one side of my face, turning me into a cartoon pirate character!

As we left the house, however, we were treated to a murmuration. The starlings were teaching the jackdaws how to move in clouds. The littler starlings would try their acrobatics first, then the jackdaws would follow in their path, which continued for some time. It was happening over at Bailie Farm, too, a little further away. The clouds of birds became invisible until they turned when the shape they formed grew darker.

Once they had finished their display, a sparrowhawk flew briskly from the wood, clearly determining that the coast was clear. The crows do not like the sparrowhawk.

Then, after the hail, when we got home, we were treated to a beautiful sunlight, casting a rose gold glow onto the turbines, and causing a rainbow over the house.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Whiteout

 There had been more snow in the night, filling in the footprints like in The Children of Green Knowe. The wind was bitterly cold and blowing the snow in drifts. It took a while for the gritter to come down the hill and up again to reach us. Most of the roads in Caithness are closed and Caithness itself is now only accessible by boat. The drifts had piled up against the stone wall to the sheep field. The sheep themselves were huddled in a line beside the wood, having found the most shelter the field offered, when we went for our Intrepid Adventure down the road. We got caught out in another blizzard when it was impossible to see the road. Icicles have started forming around the house, one large icicle dangling near the porch door, and several smaller specimens hanging from the eaves of the boiler room. There is a spider's web in the corner of the eaves, and two small icicles danging from the threads of the web. It shows how strong the silk is! The snow is building up on the roof, p...
Read more

Snowed In

More snow fell during the night, filling in more of our footsteps. The water in all the animals' bowls and waterers was all frozen and had to be chipped away with a small wooden post that was the first thing I found. The chickens are not impressed by the snow, still, and I left them shut in their coop. When I went out in early afternoon, they were all in their house so I put their food, corn and water inside and shut them in for the night. There was thunder and lightning forecast for later, and closing the ramp door would stop the snow from blowing in anyway. The poorly quail was bleeding again, and his feet were red raw. Jude and I put him in a cat carrier in the garage. It's still chilly in the garage but he'll not get any snow, and there shouldn't be the draft. For the others, I draped some weed fabric over their hutch. They still have a small area where they can see out but it should help stop the drafts. When Ginny and I were just finishing with the chickens and qu...
Read more

Christmas Eve

Image
Christmas Eve. The first day of the school holidays. Perhaps some of my colleagues would enjoy a lie-in this morning, but Orlando made sure I got up not long past my normal time. His insistent barking told me that I had quail and chickens to see to, who didn't understand the luxuries of holidays, and I (somewhat begrudgingly) got up and brushed my teeth ready to go downstairs. I switched on the many Christmas lights, a job I love doing, and made up some more antibiotic solution for my male quail who has an abcess. Orlando, and Jess, waited as patiently as they could before I grabbed my head torch and went out into the darkness. My routine is simple. On a day I'm not driving, I go to the garage to get more chicken food and quail food before going through to the kitchen garden to see to the quail first, telling Orlando to drop the log he's inevitably collected from the log store before I open the gate. Otherwise, he collects all our fuel in a pile in the orchard. The quail we...
Read more