Hello there
In the garden, this is the time for lots of the new young birds, which have left their nests. We've seen young goldfinches and greenfinches, as well as house sparrows and starlings. It's lovely to see the youngsters clamouring for food from their hard worked parents. This scene will carry on for a month or two.
We recently took some visitors to Topsham, and walked round the Goat Walk, which skirts the estuary. Most of the Winter visitors (birds) have now gone back to their breeding grounds overseas, but there were a few black …
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Archives for June 2015
Alan’s Nature Notes from June
Yellingham Farm Diary – July
The phone call came late on a Friday night – it was the shearer, thank goodness. At this time of the year, the main worry for most sheep farmers is fly strike. This is caused by he large blue bottle flies laying eggs in the sheep’s fleece, which then very, very quickly hatch into maggots. It is a horrible experience, firstly for the sheep, but also for the shepherd.
Good shepherding is the best way to prevent it and the most important thing is to make sure your sheep are clean, particularly their rear ends. So getting the wool off is always a …
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Church Mouse – July
DearFriends,
Just look at what Parchina and I have been up to. We are learning to play music, I’m learning the French horn and Parchina is learning the clarinet, she wants to play jazz but I want to form a mouse marching band , I just love all that noise. We both love it when Rev Danny comes and plays his guitar as well as Babs on the organ, what a great noise. We especially loved it when little Sebastian was christened a few weeks ago, lots of happy music and he obviously didn’t notice some of the wrong notes that were sung as he laughed …
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Parish Paper – July 2015 Issue
To read or save this issue please click 2015 07 Parish Paper …
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Alan’s Nature Notes from May
Hello everyone
Have you heard the cuckoo? Well, I haven't heard it for many years, but John Horrocks has not only heard one, but he's seen one! He wasn't sure what it was at first, but looked it up in a bird book, and sure enough, it was a cuckoo. A bird the size of a collared dove, but with a long tail and different markings. Cuckoos are now quite scarce in Britain, nobody seems to know the exact reason for this, so young cuckoos are being fitted with tracking devices which follow their progress to Africa. There has been some success, but the …
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Yellingham Farm Diary – June
May is a great month on the farm. The cattle are starting to lose their winter coats and beginning to look like they are wearing a mink coat. As I write, I think they wish they had a mink coat on as it is lashing with rain and freezing cold. We sent off a few cull ewes last week, which is never a great thing, but they have to go if they are no longer able to get in lamb and/or rear lambs successfully. Tough decision sometimes but always the right one. We have just a few remaining lambs from 2014 which are now a year old and are commonly …
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Payhembury Past
Here are two photos taken of the pupils of Payhembury School, the first dating from around 1927 and the second dated, by the look of the clothing and hairstyles, a decade or so later.
If children who currently attend the village school are wondering where the pupils’ uniforms are, they may be interested to hear that it wasn’t until 1969 that the school’s PTA suggested that pupils adopt an outfit of blue and grey, so prior to this, it would have been non-uniform day every day! …
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