Nature red in tooth and claw

We seem to have had several rather gruesome days at the caravan!

A couple of days ago I looked across the field to see a large gull tucking into what I thought looked like the remains of a young rabbit. It was quite a big and elegant bird with a black back, a gull that I don't recall seeing in the field here before (we usually have herring gulls), our neighbour from across the field reckons it was a Great black-back gull. He was sufficiently intrigued to take some video of it (eek!) and told us it actually stood on the rabbit and then tore off strips of meat. Two herring gulls were standing by looking hopeful, but they didn't stand a chance!

Yesterday it rained from around 5am, very hard, and with a strong south-easterly wind, blowing hard on the side of the caravan. John was making lunch when he began cursing - water was dropping down on him from one of the spotlights in the kitchen! Not a lot to do at the time, as it was raining too hard to investigate. So we called our landlord, who said he'd get in touch with Gwilym to come and take a look. We suspect the vent/skylight over the shower is the weak point, especially since we were getting water coming into the shower.

Despite the rain we had some rather bedraggled goldfinches feeding on the niger seed and the sunflower hearts for most of the morning. The rain cleared soon after mid day, though it still looked rather nasty over the mainland. We watched a kestrel hovering over the fields by the farm, and then over our field, and it stooped over the next door field further over to us.

Meanwhile we had about seven goldfinches trying to feed from the niger seed, and it only has four perches. Two of the goldfinches got into a kerfuffle, flying up into the air with an explosion of wings, circling each other and making a racket. Suddenly a brown bomb descended from the sky, a flurry of brown wings flying away, with a small body dangling from its feet. So we think that the kestrel had missed its prey before, and taken a goldfinch instead.

This morning there was a similar altercation between a couple of the goldfinches. For a while nothing happened, but then there was another avian explosion. I missed the hunt, but John saw a large bird dive and chase a small one into the hedge. Suddenly it was there, sitting on a post just outside the caravan window. Bright yellow eye, yellow tallons, but nothing in beak or tallons - we think the little bird got away this time! I managed to take a photo, and from that we think it was a male sparrowhawk this time.

Amazing clouds

These clouds are really amazing!

Not doing very well at the mo, just more of the same old...

House is a complete mess with all my folks stuff here. Well, we've got rid of a lot, but it all just takes so much time! Plus we still have to keep a whole load of paperwork "just in case".

We've been planting courgettes and tomatoes this week (and gazenias and lobelia), but I reckon my carefully germinated peas at the caravan will have had it over the last week as it's been pretty hot. The back yard is looking really lush. :-) Guess we'll do a bit more work in it this weekend if we don't get the heavy rain that's forecast!

Intended to go to the caravan this weekend, but have felt too ill to pack and then travel. Plan was to stay on alone while John came home to work his 3 days. Maybe next week instead!

It's very muggy here today, and I think that kind of weather is very enervating, even for healthy folks. Plus there's been thunder near (not that I've heard, was on the weather news), I find that I seem to feel kind of agitated when there's thunder around. On edge.

I don't know if it's the electricity or the air pressure, but something makes me feel very uncomfortable. And I only realise why when the storm has broken and I suddenly feel much better.

Wish we could be using our new table and chairs on the deck this weekend, but I know we'll have time to enjoy them later in the year.

Day Trip to Abersoch

January has been quite a difficult month so far, but I think things are improving now.

Saturday morning we got a phone call from Harold, our landlord for the caravan pitch. He's found us a second hand caravan and wanted us to go and see it. Phone calls round all the family, and arranged to visit Sunday morning. Sunday morning Helen got here around 8am and we set off.

The new (to us) van is nice - much paler "wood" furniture than the old one, so seems much brighter inside. Nice big windows across the front, similar to how they were in the old van. (we had been put off many of the more modern vans by their small windows at the front)



One double, two twin bedrooms, the twin beds can be pushed together to make double beds. The cooker looks as if it's never been used, as does the gas fire.



The curtains and bedhead fabric in the bedrooms is not really what we'd have chosen, but we'll only be sleeping in there so that shouldn't be too much bother! The living room curtains are thankfully plain, a sort of burgundy colour. Upholstery in the living room is patterned and not really to our taste, but it's livable with.



It's double glazed and fully insulated (that'll be a big improvement on the old van!), but hasn't got central heating. Harold will arrange for the manufacturers to install that for us.



Only downside is that the loo, washbasin and shower are all in the same room. In the old van we had separate toilet with washbasin and shower room with another washbasin. But we'll fettle up the loo in the shed for emergency use, so we can live with that.

Harold gave us lunch, so we didn't get to the old van till about 2.30. Helen and John packed the kitchen stuff up and took it to Harold's shed in the next field for storage, and I packed up all the clothes and stripped the beds etc.

We left the caravan around 6pm. It was clear, and the sky was full of stars. Seemed strange to see the constellations so different to Summer nights! Cassiopea and Orion were clear, and Mars was bright above. Could make out 5 of the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). It's just fabulous to be somewhere where the night skies are dark. Can only see the occasional star from Liverpool - too much light pollution.

We still have more stuff to pack up and bring home, so John has taken a day of work on Friday, and we'll do another day trip. We can't stop over as it's the time when the caravan site is closed, and besides Sarah is coming up for the weekend and we want to see her.



Primroses growing in the bank by our caravan

John went to Abersoch yesterday

All photos in this post taken by John, and used with his permission.

I have been gifted with a cold from John's work again. Feeling better now than I did this morning, but still worse than I did yesterday. Still haven't got out to buy seeds yet, should have bought online. Maybe will yet!

John had a swim yesterday morning, and then brought me breakfast in bed before heading off to Abersoch to visit the caravan and see how it had weathered the winter.



Some of the plants are doing really well.



But the oregano always seems to thrive!



So far it looks as if there are 3 buds coming on the agapanthus, but more may appear still if last year is anything to go by.



This hydrangea has some good looking buds coming. This is the one we "pruned" at the end of last season, and took the flowers to GranMary in the rehab nursing home she was in following her op last summer (she's back home now). I hope we get such beautifully coloured flowers this year.

Some plants aren't doing quite so well!



These were left on the table over the winter. I think the greenest one may be chocolate mint. The twiggy one with a few green shoots is Blackcurrant Sage I think, and others are maybe thyme (looks totally dead) and Curry Plant (which looks a bit questionable as to life). Ah well, yer win some, yer loose some.

There are two new caravans at the bottom of the field. These are called 14 & 15, there isn't a 13.



The row of tall trees behind the site have been chopped down over the winter. This should make a lot of the site much sunnier I think, especially late afternoon and evening in autumn time. Here's what it looks like now looking up the field across our neighbour's area.



Oh yeah, as well as the 2 new caravans we have a track down the rest of the field now too.



But the lushness of our bit of hedge hopefully makes up for the loss of grass.



I wonder how the bunnies are doing this year - forgot to ask John last night, and he may not have remembered to ask the rest of the folks on the site. Looking at my plants, I think maybe there are fewer than last year. Time will tell!