Monday, 3 June 2013
Monday, 11 March 2013
Redwings spotted in our garden
This morning we spotted a large amount of Redwings on our lawn, we counted 50+.
One moment they were there, next moment they were gone. The Redwing is rarely seen in gardens as it is typical farmland and hedgerow bird. For more information: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/redwing/index.aspx
We didn't manage to take any pictures - we found this picture on the Net.
(Photo by Mick Dryden)
One moment they were there, next moment they were gone. The Redwing is rarely seen in gardens as it is typical farmland and hedgerow bird. For more information: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/redwing/index.aspx
We didn't manage to take any pictures - we found this picture on the Net.
(Photo by Mick Dryden)
Friday, 18 January 2013
Green Tourism Scheme (England)
We are now a member of the England Green Tourism Scheme and will soon be audited and graded.
Green Tourism Scheme
Green Tourism Scheme
Monday, 14 January 2013
Monday, 7 January 2013
Infrared pictures of wildlife in our garden
Father Christmas left me a lovely present: A wildlife Cam.
This one is now set up to make pictures only when it is dark, triggered by PIR or Passive Infra Red.
When the camera senses an animal it quickly makes three pictures in three seconds. So far we have only managed dozens of pictures of our chickens, on those nights they're still out after 16.00 Hours. But finally....a fine Muntjac buck, and a Fox dog.
This one is now set up to make pictures only when it is dark, triggered by PIR or Passive Infra Red.
When the camera senses an animal it quickly makes three pictures in three seconds. So far we have only managed dozens of pictures of our chickens, on those nights they're still out after 16.00 Hours. But finally....a fine Muntjac buck, and a Fox dog.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Sausage making!
Finally, we had some rain today...;) so a good day to make a fresh batch of sausages.
You may wonder what the relevance is to this Blog: Well, I believe using good, local and seasonal produce is relevant to your environmental credentials. More importantly, if the raw ingredients are of an excellent quality then the end result is likely to be pretty good. You know where it comes from, how far it traveled, and what's in it.
What's in it is of course important when making a sausage: Many butchers (but not all!) will use any old scraps to put through the mincer, add some bought-in ready mixed sausage flavouring powder, add salt (a lot of it), add rusk (even more, to keep the ingredients costs down) and ram it through a machine using collagen casing, made out any unspeakable part of animals.
Well...not here!
Today's batch of sausages is made out of the following list of ingredients:
You may wonder what the relevance is to this Blog: Well, I believe using good, local and seasonal produce is relevant to your environmental credentials. More importantly, if the raw ingredients are of an excellent quality then the end result is likely to be pretty good. You know where it comes from, how far it traveled, and what's in it.
What's in it is of course important when making a sausage: Many butchers (but not all!) will use any old scraps to put through the mincer, add some bought-in ready mixed sausage flavouring powder, add salt (a lot of it), add rusk (even more, to keep the ingredients costs down) and ram it through a machine using collagen casing, made out any unspeakable part of animals.
Well...not here!
Today's batch of sausages is made out of the following list of ingredients:
- Gloucester Old Spot free range minced pork from the Sudeley Estate, Winchcombe (100%)
- Onions from our own garden (7% of the meat weight)
- Sage and Rosemary from our own garden
- Black pepper
- Breadcrumbs (7% of the meat weight)
- Water (7% of the meat weight)
- Virgin rape seed oil
- Curing Salt (0.75% of the total weight)
- Natural hog casings
- Chop the onions, sweat in a little rape seed oil, add chopped herbs and spices, add salt, add the water, bring to the boil to dissolve the salt, cool.
- Mix this with the minced pork and bread-crumps.
- Put in the sausage making machine and press the sausages into the casings to make one VERY LONG SAUSAGE.
- Make a string of little sausages by squeezing and twisting
- Leave to dry in a cool airy place overnight
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| Putting the minced pork mixture in the sausage making machine |
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| Turning out one large sausage, using a hand-cranked machine |
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| Dividing the large sausage into individual linked sausages |
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
We have our own bees at home - finally!
Our own bees having been living in their hive in a farmers field a few miles from here. They are being looked after by Nikki under guidance from the Gloucestershire Beekeeping Association. They will come 'home' in September 2012. We may even get some honey from them this year!
Our second hive has been unoccupied in our garden since the Spring of 2011. In Spring bee colonies that get too lage sometimes swarm and move into an unoccupied hive, attracted by a small piece of comb which contains all the lovely smells bees like. We are on the waiting list of the 'Gloucestershire Swarm Collector' - who will let us know when a swarm is spotted in the area, reported by the public, and needs to be collected.
So, earlier this week Nikki collected her first swarm (see pictures). It wasn't too hard to get them into a box, but it wasn't so easy to get them from the box into the hive. The Queen bee somehow ended up outside the hive and promptly decided that 5 Meter up a tree above the hive was a much nicer spot. There they stayed put all night, only to disappear the next day, alarming our neighbours in the process.
However, within 2 days another swarm or cast was spotted nearby and this time we managed to collect them and transfer them to the hive. This swarm is very small, consisting of a virgin Queen bee and maybe 200-250 bees, but it is a start. Now they are busy feeding on suger syrup and hopefully settle down, start foraging, and expanding the colony after the Queen bee has been mated 'on the wing'.
Our second hive has been unoccupied in our garden since the Spring of 2011. In Spring bee colonies that get too lage sometimes swarm and move into an unoccupied hive, attracted by a small piece of comb which contains all the lovely smells bees like. We are on the waiting list of the 'Gloucestershire Swarm Collector' - who will let us know when a swarm is spotted in the area, reported by the public, and needs to be collected.
So, earlier this week Nikki collected her first swarm (see pictures). It wasn't too hard to get them into a box, but it wasn't so easy to get them from the box into the hive. The Queen bee somehow ended up outside the hive and promptly decided that 5 Meter up a tree above the hive was a much nicer spot. There they stayed put all night, only to disappear the next day, alarming our neighbours in the process.
However, within 2 days another swarm or cast was spotted nearby and this time we managed to collect them and transfer them to the hive. This swarm is very small, consisting of a virgin Queen bee and maybe 200-250 bees, but it is a start. Now they are busy feeding on suger syrup and hopefully settle down, start foraging, and expanding the colony after the Queen bee has been mated 'on the wing'.
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| Moving the swarm from the colection box to the hive |
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| Hmm. They don't like it! |
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| Why not settle in a tree. Much more comfortable! |
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