Wednesday 17 November 2010
The carpet is now clean - well it was before the rain that came today, and I have finished rearranging the furniture! The stove glue arrived today and in about three years I might just find the time to glue the bloody rope back into the door. In the meantime, what has happened. Dante went off on Monday to be backed or re backed more correctly ( that means broken in to ride) he walked into the trailer like a dream I could not believe it, he was good as gold and I have since heard that he is doing well, has been ridden is very good, does not buck or misbehave, and is good near the road and apparently does not mind pigs!!! However they said he was quite keen and forward going, at which point I said that would be a change because when Henry gets upset he is very backward going - at speed!!

Henry was upset to be left alone so I gave him a very good grooming on Tuesday, I had meant to ride him, but as usual things conspired against me, not the least that Nettle was ill. Alice from Eden Tanners came out to vaccinate Henry and so was able to look at Nettle as well. It looks like it is the same thing as last time, being sick and a very high temperature. She is a little better today, but I think we will take a trip to Ledbury with her tomorrow as I am not happy yet about her improvement.

Yesterday was also a very odd day and very properly autumnal, it was dense fog early in the morning, but an hour later it went and we had lovely clear sunshine (Monday was perfectly glorious), then the fog rolled in again, pretty much at every demonstration time, and it was thick enough that we could not see the hedge at the bottom of the field, so no falcon flying happened. It was one of those days where you can see your breath steaming in front of you, the air has a sharp damp bite to it and a strong scent of autumn, you know the sun is there, but the fog densely hides it like a present. I love those days. It was bitterly cold on Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday night until the rain came. Today has been fairly miserable weather wise, poor Henry was very damp by the time I brought him in. However a couple of carrots cheered him up.

Our elderly female Eleonora's falcon died last night, she has been slowly fading away over the last few days, we kept her in and warm and she seemed content, but last night was her final one. For many years she laid, but never a fertile egg, which was a dreadful shame as they are wonderful birds and superb flyers. They are the only raptor that summers and breeds on islands and then migrates to another for the winter. I will miss her and her extremely loud voice.

We now have our own personal face book page, so if anyone wants to be a friend, it is Icbp Newent, and already people have shown interest and there is a lovely video of Greeves hovering last summer. I want to find the Utube one of Sedge small enough to fall down the burrowing owl holes! Talking of which the young burrowing owls have all fledged, she managed five babies!! And their enclosure has just had a good clean and more sand put in, so they are very pleased about that! And they all look very smart in there. We move to cleaning, painting and rewiring the owl courtyard next in the scheme of things.
Its all a bit hectic for the next week and a half, with three owl evenings, then Susie and Pat arriving from the US on Sunday, as well as Nikita from India, all staying in the house. Two more arriving on Tuesday and the course starting Wed - Fri, followed by two owl evenings!! Wow I am going to be exhausted. But its all worth it to be home again.

0 comments:

Hello

I have to say that keeping a weblog can at times become compulsive and at other times a chore. Sometimes I am berrated for not keeping it up and sometimes I get wonderful comments from people who follow the news of the Centre.

It is fun to share the daily goings on here, some good and some bad, some funny and some sad, but all a part of our daily lives.
And as I said before its a pretty cool to be here and it is a great place to visit, you should try coming and watching the birds and meeting the staff and of course the dogs.

Blog Archive

An interesting video on Lead

An interesting video on Lead

I find it staggering that people who want to hunt don't see the value in changing their ammunition from lead to a safer product. We have stopped using lead in petrol, in paint, in our water pipes, but they still want to use lead - ah well, apparently eating it not only kills birds but leads to reduced intelligence in humans......................

NO ONE is asking you to stop legal and genuine hunting, they are just asking you to change your ammunition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHZGQ8i8AwI

HC

Website counter

Followers