May 2024
Staffordshire Sunset
It’s officially the start of the sunset season, we are treated to glorious reds and oranges on cloud-free evenings. The light evenings are a welcome relief and make seeing the barn owls hunting in the fields a frequent experience at dusk. The Jackdaws nesting in the house have hatched very chatty broods that make the house sound haunted. If the volume is anything to go by they are a healthy lot.
Coming out strong
New Digs
As a fallout from the Great Flock Wars of 2024, there are now 2 Hillside flocks. Maverick, Liz and Jane (shout-out to namesake Liz and Jane) are now the proud owners of this little 2-storey duplex. Unlike the other house on the property, they aren’t waiting (18 months on!) for HM Land Registry to register the deeds, thereby holding up the mortgage and subsequent renovations to allow for a habitable home. Lucky them! Maybe when the ducks move in downstairs they will have more to complain about. The ramp doubles as a shelter and the girls have started to lay in the nest boxes, which took a day or 2 to figure out. Peace isn’t exactly restored as we do still have 2 cockerels but there are no longer any death fights so that’s progress.
A Site Engineer’s work is never done.
Mo Mowers Mo Problems
After many hours of the resident engineer’s time fixing batteries and springs on the blade, the mower did 4 beautiful laps, collecting huge hauls of grass for the compost heap. Since then a new problem has occurred where nothing happens when the key is turned. Videos on hot-wiring have been watched and necessary parts ordered from the internet so fingers crossed on a return to mowing nirvana. We definitely need it, this month saw everything spring to life and we are fighting to keep areas we have cleared from returning to their previous state. Avvy lost a ball in a patch of thistles last summer and didn’t get it back until November, which we hope to avoid this year. Looking back at photos, it’s a stark contrast between the start and the end of the month, see the big Sycamore tree on May 1st and May 31st.
Sycamore Tree Contrast
As we’re entering into our second year, there’s a cadence that can be seen repeating. Last spring I remember seeing a sudden swarm of long black flies and sure enough they showed up again this year. Having looked them up last year, they are called “St Mark’s Fly” as their short lives typically coincide with St Mark’s Day on the 25th of April. They were a little later into May this year, maybe because of a cold spring.
St Mark’s Flies
We’re ready for the Euros, summer visitors and the solstice and less artic winds!
Thanks for reading, love from Hillside Farm x
PS Avvy would like you to know she’s working on being a garden dog and respecting the no-dig philosophy. She managed to sit on this cushion for at least 3 minutes when peas were being planted.
