March winds and April drizzle

It's true what they say about Britain, everyone else has climate, we have weather. Over the last week (sometimes the same day) we have had gales, hale,sleet, bright sunshine and now drizzle. Yesterday was T shirt weather and warm enough to eat out in the garden. Our garden is home to a male pheasant and his harem of up to 11 females. He stands sentry over them as they feed, though he does seem to have an hour or so off in the afternoon and this is when other males chance their luck. We also have a pair of ducks who have moved in, paddling in the bird bath. The lambs are all out in the fields now and were enjoying the sunshine yesterday after the dreadful weather of the last few days. The woodland bottoms are greening up with the leaves of wild garlic and bluebells and the dogs mercury flowers brighten up hedge bottoms. Sadly Bramble our pet ferret had to be put to sleep as she had heart failure that didn't respond to treatment - very much missed.

Bramble, pet ferret

Male pheasants squaring up

Male pheasants fighting

Mallards at bird bath

Male pheasant standing sentry

Young lambs sunbathing

I have spent the last couple of days excavating a hare skeleton, cleaning it up and attempting to put  it back together. We found the dead hare during the summer and buried it in a container of sawdust with drainage holes in the bottom and a mesh lid. The bones are beautifully clean and there is no smell. The hard part is putting it together, especially the feet which have some tiny little bones more like flinty stones. It's a crash course in anatomy but fascinating. There are some photos at  the bottom of this post. I noticed this queen wasp in a log I was just about to put on the fire, it has been saved and placed in an outbuilding log and all. Every year the wasps pollinate my gooseberries so it was nice to do them a favour in return. Our pet ferret Bramble looks amazingly fluffy in her new winter coat, hope it doesn't mean bad weather ahead!

Fluffy Ferret (not fat).

Queen wasp hibernating in log.

Excavating hare skeleton.

Cleaned up skeleton.

The fields are full of lambs right now and the cowslips I grew from seed are flowering.

And where is baby Oleg? My pet ferret Bramble lost her toy teddy and we hoped baby Oleg would arrive and keep her company but he seems to have gone awol.

Here she is with teddy just after an operation to remove a cancer from the tip of her tail, she's also had a stomach ulcer and got a cataract. She knows none of these things of course and just wants her walks and plays like a maniac as usual.

Pumpkin

This is the first year I've tried to grow Pumpkins, lots of fruits but only one got big and matured. Very proud but Bramble unimpressed.

I have two pet ferrets. Eric is 7 years old and has neurological problems that cause him to be a little unsteady on his feet when he is tired or being lazy in the house. If he is outside and interested in something he's okay. He had some unidentified infection last April that led to hind leg paralysis and was not expected to recover. I lost a Jill ferret Poley to the same disease.

I also have a nine month old Jill called Bramble who loves going for walks and swimming. Both live in the house, are litter trained and are very affectionate especially when you have food.