Far Lands

Well, almost. At the weekend we found a young kestrel, dead, lying on top of one of the compost heaps and just next to our owl barrel. After taking a couple of pictures I contacted the Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group  https://pdrmg.wordpress.com/  who said they would come and collect it. Cause of death? It had no obvious injury, no obvious disease; Sarah suggested that it might have flown into a tree . 'Yeah, yeah,' I scoffed. When the PDRPG chap (Mike) turned up he posited two theories. 1/ the kestrel had been chasing another bird and had flown into some glass, possibly the greenhouse, and 2/ the young kestrel had still been learning to fly and had, indeed, flown into a tree. The bird will now be sent to a government laboratory for testing; it takes about 9 months for a reply (I'll let you know.) As for me, well, I'm now washing up for a month.

We got back from holiday pleased to be in time (just) for our goosberry crops. We have several green-fruit bushes on the lawn and several red-fruit bushes in the fruit cage. The first night someone ate half the fruit on one bush on the lawn. The next day I hastily picked the rest of the bush and half the second bush. The second night that someone, or a new someone picked / ate / stole the rest of the fruit on that bush. The following night the red GBs in the cage disappeared. Well, not all of them. Carcasses were left on the ground.   My Wanted posters are of badgers for the bushes on the lawn and squirrels for the bushes in the cage. Or has anyone any other thoughts to add to the crime-fighting of modern-day smallholding?

Just back from 2 weeks in Canada; we were in the middle of nowhere (Alberta) but even so it was surprising how little sign of self-sufficiency there was. Ironic too because not long ago the places near where we were staying were frontier towns and that's almost all there would have been. In two weeks I did not see a single chicken and only one vegetable plot. It may be something to do with the size and competence of their marauders. Especially deer and bears, the latter of which can swim, run and climb better than Olympic decathletes. Given a little training they could probably speak a second language and knock up a mean souffle too. However, despite bears' all-round capability, Sarah has her man and was not keen for a replacement . . . Sarah demonstrating correct pepper spray posture (she is also shouting 'Get Back, you nasty bear') Mozzie attack