More visitors - human and animal

Still more very welcome guests of late - Guy and Carolyn dropped by on Saturday for a spot of coffee and digger fun - 1.5 tonnes of JCB mega action was had this weekend, as we excavated the pond, the veg beds, and stripped the turf from both hedge lines and the woodland glade ready for autumn/winter planting! Creative destruction.....

Self-explanatory, really....fun!

Two pallet-built wildlife towers are also installed in the woodland glade, and our long-potted Camellias and a new Rowan are in the ground.

More alpha-male nonsense in the garden

Also here on Monday were Oscar and Eric, en route to Portsmouth and the Bilbao ferry - and they even managed to bring Pete and his partner Maggie along too. We all enjoyed some time in the field on the HWT reserve, and up on the Forest too. And a vast cod and chips lunch at the Redshoot Inn....

Finally, Emily came round too, with young Benedict (just two - Fionnbharr behaved beautifully with him, but less so the other two!), and we all ate too much (again).

Somewhere within this social whirlwind (more to come in the next few days!) we've had time to catch some moths (new ones included Red Underwing, Svensson's Copper Underwing, Birch Mocha, Orange Swift and Canary-shouldered Thorn), see some birds (first Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipit of the autumn in the garden, Dunlin and migrant LRP on the reserve) and even do some botanizing. But the end of the holiday is looming.....

Red Underwing

Birch Mocha

Autumn migration underway

Another visit from the Tawny Owl last night, as well as a very lean-looking young Fox. And a new garden bird today - a migrant Tree Pipit, picked up on call, and then seen perched in one of the Birch trees. Excellent!

Meanwhile, on the lakes, still two Green Sandpipers present, and the family of Egyptian Geese (six youngsters) has moved to Rockford Lake.

All go - and lots of visitations

We're now firmly ensconced - which meant that, until today, we had no internet access, so no postings to the blog! But now we're back in the .... er .... 21st century. We've had lots of social visits this week - Teresa and her niece Sian for a couple of nights while they did their sailing course on Spinnaker Lake, Mum, Dad, Mark, Maddie and Jamie for a lunch at the Alice Lisle (poor fish and chips, unfortunately....), Julian, Kate, Felix and Cordelia for a big fish supper (much better), Ian for a lunch in the middle of his mega exercise walk in the Forest, and most recently, Simon, Clare, Sophie, Emily and James on their way home from a week's camping in Dorset. Add to this a meal with John and Sandy over the road last night, and it's been a whirlwind of food and sociability - most unlike us, and quite tiring, but excellent to welcome so many good friends to our little Forest home.

Teresa and Sian visit - our first "proper" guests!

On the practical front, small details have been tweaked (nearly got all the curtain poles up again, having resited them, and Julia is under way with the curtains themselves), and a couple of larger projects have started - e.g. digging some flower beds out the back! And the digger is now booked for ten days time....

Undoubted wildlife highlight was a Tawny Owl repeatedly dropping down onto the floodlit lawn a few nights ago, presumably after worms. Also lots of baby birds about, the Nuthatches again regular at the bird table, and further afield three Green Sands on Rockford Lake, Yellow-legged Gull and Gyppos on Ibsley Water, Grayling just over the Dorset border, and Merlin (in August!), Crossbill and Dartford Warbler up near Milkham in the Forest. We're doing lots of bike rides, walks and so on - and in Simon's case, some of it at 0500, when he's waking up too excited to drop off again!

Perhaps MOST importantly, we have now been joined by three furry felines, who started off pretty terrified, but are now getting used to the idea of a new home in the country - we think! Fionnbharr has already met his new vet, having got himself into a fight and acquiring a nasty bite abcess the night before he got moved (typical!), and the good news is that, so far, hostilities have been suspended between Elli and Cordelia - how long will that last?

Elli and Fionnbharr - still locked in!

Home at last

We really do have our own home now! John Lewis did their business on Friday morning, delivering our new sofa, bed and guest bed, and the place is genuinely like home now we have in bedding, proto-curtains (Julia is still working hard on these....) and all sorts of our own "stuff". These photos don't really do it justice - it's amazing.

Sir Simon & Lady Muck at home

The "spare" spare room - as yet unnamed - it might be
the Yoga Room, the Bamboo Room, or The Office.....

The actual spare bedroom....

...examined by a curious passer-by

"Where's my dinner?"

Madam in her boudoir

Plush and shiny in the bathroom

On the wildlife front, we added several new moths (e.g. V Pug, Poplar Kitten, Peacock, Red Twin-spot Carpet and so on), and an excursion to turn off the trap at 0500 on Friday flushed a full buck Fallow Deer from the field, over the fence and away into the wood. The Great Crested Grebes on Snails Lake have at least one well-grown youngster, and the juvvie Buzzards continue to make their presence noisily felt.

Lift-off!

It's all suddenly feeling very, very real!

Windows have been cleaned inside and out, we can't find another square inch to paint, the place is looking rubble- and plaster-free, and today a massive step forward - the carpets arrived! Garry got here at about noon, and made light work of three bedrooms, a bathroom, a dining room, a hall and a lobby - done by 1600. Nice going!

The dining room before....

....and after! Thanks Garry!

And equally significantly, our excellent sparky Zaz completed his work with the woodshed and rear external light - all done and dusted. Really massive milestones achieved - it really is ready to start feeling like home now.

Thanks, Zaz!

On the biodiversity front, we've added Chorthippus brunneus (Field Grasshopper), and lots of plants - Redshank, Scentless Mayweed, Field Madder and Black Nightshade. The Buzzards have (we think) two flying youngsters, there are Emperors and Brown Hawkers buzzing about, and Julia saw a Roe Deer in broad daylight in the lane. Also a definite whiff of autumn - lots of Phylloscs on the move through the hedges, and a juvvie Redstart down the lane earlier this week....

Nearly there....

More pretty epic progress over the last few days - all the skirting is now fitted (not without difficulty - glue, failed screws and finally masonry nails needed!), painted and looking great, all the filling and caulking is done, all the internal electrics are complete, and virtually all the touching up of paint is done. We are on the verge of being ready for the carpets to arrive....

And we had a very pleasant day on Monday, with a visit from Nicky Plewes and her two young sons. Great to catch up after MUCH too long - and much scoffing of Mini-rolls and other "delicacies" was done.

Nicky with her troupe of semi-house trained Orang-utans

And best of all, Rupert turned up to finish up the boiler/heating job - radiators tightened and inhibitor added. Result!

Rupert helps us lose our inhibitions

Skirting the issue - or "What mitre've been"....

A single issue visit today, with the three essentials for cutting up skirting boards: 20 metres of excellent 6" bullnose boards off t'interweb, an ace £500 bit of kit (motorized circular mitre saw) from Dad's neighbour David, and Dad himself.

Starting shortly before lunch, we scratched our heads and did lots of 3D thinking to get our 45 degree cutting right, but did succeed in a very manly way in slicing and dicing the skirting so it fits immaculately, without the loss of any digits. Good job!

He-man at work

He-man and He-man's Dad

The end result - this was only a small one....

Much progress!

While this is billed as a wildlife blog, and it will become one, news remains dominated by building and DIY!

We're making lots of progress now - all the ceilings are painted, most of the walls are done, Gary has fixed the rising damp problem, even the gloss is under way, and Zaz is making good progress with the electrics - all trying to get the messy stuff done before the carpets are fitted in a fortnight!

Nurse Julia will see you now....

Glossy cover boy

Even more excitingly, there's the natural history! While it's a quiet time of year for birds, there are lots of juveniles about - Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Blue Tits, Greenfinches, even Jay - but no real sign of the House Martins in their nest, which they rebuilt in June....

Day-flying insets have produced lots of garden ticks - Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Comma, Large White, Brown Hawker, Emperor and various grasshoppers to be identified when they've become adults!

By night, a couple of moth traps have turned up 150+ moths per session, with over 80 species already - highlights have been Bulrush Wainscot, Rosy Rustic, September Thorn, Dingy Shears, various Hawk-moths in some numbers and lots of Buff Tips and Pebble Prominents!

Bulrush Wainscot

Botanically, we've seen various unspectacular but new species - and Simon spent an hour with the mower destroying 100s of Prickly Sow-thistles which were about to set seed!

Sad news.... and a family frenzy

First, some very sad news to report - the end of the road for our oldest and much-loved cat - Willow. We were biased towards "The Willows" as soon as we saw the name, but we both had a feeling that he'd be like Moses - never quite reaching the promised land. Goodbye, old friend - you will always be remembered.

Willow, 1992-2010, RIP

MUCH more positively, there is progress to report, wildlife to write about, and a major family conflab to be happy about. We've started mist-coasting the new plaster (lots done actually), although the damp issue in the western wall is a bit worse than we thought, so we're going to have to go back a stage and have a DPC done.

Simon plays misty for us both

Zaz the electrician has done his survey, and is ready to roll very soon, and we have definitely turned the corner ready for a summer of construction to balance a winter and spring of destruction!

Wildlife-wise, we've been blessed with lots of Hobby sightings, plus Lapwings much in evidence (have they got young yet?), deer scat, more baby Rabbits and best of all, lots of Odonata! Top species has definitely been a brief Scarce Chaser, a nationally rare species which has only recently colonised the Hampshire Avon. Top banana!


The moth trapping has been good too, with Elephant Hawk-moth new, plus Lesser Swallow Prominent and lots more. Just off site, but worth a mention here, was a lifer for us in Bob's Blashford moth trap:

Brussels Lace

And on Sunday, a huge descent of Casson and Kemps made it a really fun day in the sun - walks, food, drink, cricket, mower rides and lots of catching up - great stuff!

The wanderers return....and friends visit

Back from a half-term break in Finland, and summer is definitely here. The garden is buzzing with damselflies (mostly Common Blue, we think!), and the odd dragonfly.

Mating Common Blue Damselflies

Soldier Beetle

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers have young, there are junior Greenfinches about, we heard a Cuckoo (species number 81), and there is an unspeakably cute baby bunny rabbit hanging about the bird feeding area.

Cute bunny time - and Simon stalking it!

Best of all, we ran a moth trap, and caught an excellent 133 moths of 44 speces - highlights included four species of hawk-moth (Poplar, Eyed, Lime and Privet), Buff-tip, Figure of Eighty, White Point, Pale Tussock, Small Seraphim, Sharp-angled Peacock and stacks more.

We got lots of clearing up done (the last run to the tip for a while!), and also installed a new sunshade, petrol mower and picnic bench - DIY-tastic.

New garden furniture

We also had to perform some impromptu tree surgery on one of the ornamental cherries, which had half collapsed. Was it trying to tell us something?

Dealing with the fallen tree....grrr

Sunday was further enlivened by a very welcome visit from Jon and Carol, who arrived for coffee and were pleasingly enthusiastic about everything - including the lawn mower, which got yet another test drive (or two!). We had an excellent (if hot) walk around the lakes, and then enjoyed a slap-up lunch back home.

Jon and Carol and Tony

With the house now basically tidied after the building works, and with Rupert and Adie GONE (well, nearly - slight glitch with the central heating to be sorted out....), we are really starting to enjoy the place a bit more! It feels like ours again. Rubble cleared, tiles gone, floors swept, electrician booked for this week - almost ready to decorate.

Julia enjoying the summer heat and the fantastic flag irises