Mr Toad of Suttons Mill (by sarah)

A toad about 10cm in length was lerking on the step of the Mill so I cuaght it (gently in a well practiced have to relocate wildlife at Thirftwood in an ecologically sound manor) and then released it with the wiggly pets and camera. The photos arent as good as the shrew ones as a) it was dark so could not use the mode for lots of consecutive frames for animal and children photography and b) the thing hoped in the wrong direction - still the are passable photos 🙂

Now all I have to do is think up a sutiable storyline to go with the pics for the webcomic!

Good job I like wildlife living here 🙂

Weeding the Veggy Plot (by sarah)

Last night I decided that the courgettes had to be planted out - unfortunatly this ment I had to weed the veg plot first - so of I went. I got a bit carried away and weeded more area than I needed and went all faint and stuff but the veg plot is starting to look more respectable now and i think it counts as my aerobic excersise for the day 🙂

Unfortunatly the deer have desimated the peas so I just cleared the area they were in 🙁 But I also found several more potatoe plants I didnt know about 🙂

I've just taken 3 barrow loads of weeds to the compost heap! Full barrows too 🙂 I'm proud of myself 🙂

Of course the plot should never have been allowed to get in that state in the first place but as my health returns hopefully I'll be able to maintain things better 🙂

On the down side I've just found the magpies eating the butternuts - the little fruits were intermediate between ping pong ball and tennis ball and now they've been munched 🙁 - oh well I've already made ratatooey with courgettes from the compost heap (these are Babaras plants that she told us we could harvest from whilst shes away).

The Taming of the Shrew (by sarah)

People were round for the Jazz on the Common and Dads Birthday this weekend. This ment my perants were in the Mill - cries of theirs a baby mouse in the Mill went up and my brother David as always spent the next day trying to catch it - to no avail. I was taking up a coffee for mum when the cutest little shrew ran basically over my foot (well the edge of my sandle anyway). Without really thinking I put the cup of coffee down on the floor and picked up the shrew - it obviously tried to escape so I ended up holding it by the tail - expecting to be bitten at any moment but lo! It just wiggle flipped itself and scampered up my arm and round the back of my neck.

Dad cuaght it from its position on my shoulder and I went to get something to keep it in till the time of release 🙂 I heared dad giggling only to find when I got back that it had escaped and gone up his arm to the armpit and was tickling him!

We got it in a wine glass and dad showed it to the others whilst I grabed the camera and some wiggly pets. I put the wiggly pets down on the drive and set the camera up then did a quick check that the wine glass was going to be in shot the got dad to release the shrew 🙂

I'll try and blog the picks later 🙂

The silly creature wouldnt get out of the glass which was really sweet 🙂 It ran off and hide in the grass at the edge of the drive though me and dad knew where it was exactly! Later I checked and it had moved but less than 1/2 hr later Al reported that he had almost trodden on the thing trying to make its way back into the Mill so he hurridly made sure all doors were closed (hmmm... I suspect that little shrew is back in its cozy little nest somewhere in the Mill! Though how it avoids Tim and Besty is anyones guess!)

Olives olives every where and not one to eat! (by sarah)

Mysterious olives keep turning up every where - I know I collected them as a child as thought they were brillient along with the tap fittings off of stop cocks and those ball bearing mount things, but this is rediculous! Today we found another one in the stable near the washing machine! Are they teleporting in just to confuse us?

Randomly popping into existance? Like the paper clip at the biginning of time?

Maybe they are my collection from when I was little - I have been unpacking the boxes from mum and dads house which they packed up whilst I was at uni! It is conceeivable I just didnt notice them and have some how scattered them everywhere? These are mostly uncrushed olives some in brass and some in copper! Oh well perhapse I can make them into some funky sculpture or something?

Salsify (by sarah)

The salsify are beginning to seed! When in flower they are a lovely purple dandilion type flower that only seems to open in the morning. Their name is supposed to be the corruption of the latin for 'follows the sun' I dont know if that is true but it sounds fesible. Anyway we like the to eat the roots which are tasty - basically thanks to the constriction of British tastes with all the rationing and stuff.

Unfortunatly the roots are only tender enough to eat the first year and becuase they have tended to seed themselves its not obvious which ones are old roots and which are new. Some of the roots are huge and ancient and as tough as old nials - I run on the supersition that if I cant get the knife to cut the roots easily from the roots then they are old tough ones that need discarding.

Now this plant is also could purple goats beard and the oster plant (as the root is supposed to taste like oster I dont think so as I dont like osters but I like this plant!). The seed heads are giant brown fluffy dandilion clocks - this is what I have been haversting.

The reason? Why not let them seed themselves?

We are fed up with digging up the old nails! Therefore we pull all the plants this year after they finish seeding and sow the seed ourselves insuring that we have all new plants and therefore yummy tender roots for us to consume. I am also sure that we are going to have far to many seeds - so if anyone whats them they are 50p for hundred seeds whilst stocks last! (erm p&p extra but hopefully you'll be visiting us! or we'll be visiting you!).

Even if you dont want to eat it its a lovely plant - with pretty purple flowers 🙂 Bring on the purple!!!! Also these plants were rare in the 70's so probably still are - I havent checked mind! Now these are cultivated plants not wild ones we've dug up or anything so we are not depriving the wild but if people like this type of old English rareness then this is the way to go. (this isnt ment to be a sales pitch I just love my veggies!)