Hello again folks, we finally completed on our house sale at 11.09am today and handed over the keys to The Laurels, said goodbye (tear) to "our" faithful garden birds and as a farewell parting gift chucked out a whole bag of final mealworm treats for them and chunk of cheese for Earl the Crow !! Seemed strange after 9 years there but looking forward to more free time, less garden/housework and more wildlife adventures. At our temporary rental place we are just 3 miles down the country lanes and its really peaceful; a few doors up from where I grew up :) we are on part of a large country estate which is beautifully maintained and so far we've seen a Common Buzzard, Hares, Pied Wagtails, Swallows, House Martins which are nesting above our door ! along with tons of Gatekeeper ? butterflies and no doubt lots of other insects if I wasn't so tired at the moment to wildlife watch ! Here's an example of what we saw yesterday on our first recce outside the front door …………..
Think these are Gatekeepers as we also saw Meadow Browns
was frustrating as 99% of the time they had their wings closed and I couldn't get decent shots
Skipper (many thanks to Hazel for ID)
this next may be Meadow Brown ?
and even a quick glance at a Small Tortoiseshell
The House Martins and Swallows I put on a thread the other day but here's a Pied Waggie outside the property
and yes, I saw the Polo Ponies too lol
poor horses were flagging under the heat and the flies …………...
and almost from our front door we can see a very famous Cheshire landmark ! Jodrell Bank radio telescope
We need a few days to recover from the handover and process but hope to be back shortly with photos of one of the wild hares and anything else that cares to pop its head out !! Only problem is that somebody (not mentioning names here ! ) left a crate in one of the rooms that got packed by accident - it had my two BR camera straps in (thankfully not the cameras or lenses) and also the little Celestron spotting scope which we won't see again for the next 8 months !! I'll have to go shopping at Wex now the bank funds have just been transferred :) !!!!
First it will be feet up on the sofa and chill out (if that's possible in this heatwave) and recover.
We're getting there slowly ! but what a humid night it has been (thunder storm never arrived to cool things down) and this place is like an oven, virtually south facing and cooking us on simmering heat lol Landlord is brilliant, he's been like Santa Claus bringing us in new "presents" every day and can't do enough for us to make sure we have everything we need: so far he's provided us with large new cooling fan, new extra fridge, new fancy steam iron and ironing board, new BT hub …… think we'll stay forever lol @ Bob, LOL, the amount of mealworms I provided at the old house would have needed a larger dish ! thanks everyone for keeping us going with your wonderfully encouraging comments and for the laughs which have helped us through this arduous process. Going to explore outside in a minute …….. after I ring Jim back who's just texted me. Update: we're getting our first visitor today ! better go unpack the tea cups lol
Oh Hazel, photo to die for!
The wagtail with dinner in its beak is fabulous.
I see my breakfast bowl has made it towards your new home.
I used to be able to look down on that from Bleaklow in the Peak District.