It’s that time of year again, when there are still wintering wildfowl –gadwall, wigeon and tufted duck – on the lakes at Nostell but the summer migrants have already started to arrive. A chiff-chaff, just in from Africa, was singing from the top branches of a birch near the Cascade. It’s performance seemed a bit offhand. It doesn’t set itself up at a song post as a blackbird would, but just breaks off foraging along the branches and rattles off a few phrases wherever it happens to be:
“Chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff, chiff.”
As we arrive at the Adam Bridge at Nostell, a mute swan is chasing an intruder around the Lower Lake. After a few minutes the unwelcome visitor gets the message and flies off.
A blue tit takes nesting material into a cavity in a dead tree on the lake shore. I was pleased to see one taking a beak-full of moss into the nestbox in our rowan. The box has now been there a couple of years but has yet to be used.
Also carrying nesting material, a jackdaw perching on top of the high brick wall around the vegetable garden at Nostell. Its mate emerged and flew off and the jackdaw popped down inside.
The First Cut
The first day of spring and it’s the first cut for the lawn. I push the mower over three times, first on its highest setting to take the top off, then medium and finally – going at right-angles to my previous cuts – on the lowest.
I’ve got an electric strimmer, which might have been useful around the edges, but I prefer to use the hand mower because it’s quieter and I don’t feel the need to put on goggles and ear protectors. It’s a good work-out too.
Mailing List
The first day of spring also seemed like the perfect time to make a fresh start on my Wild Yorkshire mailing list. If you’d like a weekly update, please subscribe below. You can of course unsubscribe at any time.
De Atramentis Ink
De Atramentis Document Ink in my Lamy Vista fountain pen and so far it’s working perfectly, showing no hint of running when I add a watercolour wash. My thanks to dapplegrey for suggesting that I try it.
Link
Invisible Horse, blog by dapplegrey
Great to see it’s working for you Richard! And thanks for the link. (By the way I’m also at deborahrehmat.wordpress.com/blog where I’m me as retired artist rather than retired other stuff) And congratulations on that lawn-mowing…..
It’s working well. I drew two little landscapes during our coffee break at the farm shop this morning. The ink dries so quickly.
I’m so pleased! I know what it’s like to find something that works well when it’s been something that’s been frustrating. The nice thing is how smoothly the ink flows in the pen, too. Also (don’t know if you realised this) all the colours they do are mixable, which some inks aren’t, so you can make your own colour ink mixes and I love this. I make a subtle grey by mixing blue and brown (the brown on its own is lovely and I use this too) – and they also do a transparent thinner so you can make paler coloured ink (I’ve got addicted to a softer, lighter mix of grey). As you can see it’s a bit of a thing with me. I absolutely love what you’re doing with it – the portrait of that bottle is delightful. Can’t wait to see the landscapes……!