After the marvellous weather of the first half of October, and the fabulous conditions for our summer holiday, this week Autumn is really getting into its stride. Storm Benjamin took people's attention in the middle of the week, and although for us, the wind speeds were mostly in the annoying bracket, an official weather station about 5 miles away recorded 103kmph, so something around 60mph in old money, which is quite strong enough thank you. There are some fabulous autumn colours out there, and while the storm took some of the leaves, the liquid amber maples are still looking amazing, as are our strawberry leaves.
It is also the time when, rather like the exotic birds of summer, second home owners arrive to "winterise" their houses and depart until the warmer and longer days are here again. I have said Happy Christmas a few times this week, which doesn't seem right!
In addition this week, there was a permanent departure, as another second home owner finally sold up and left. I always find this bittersweet, as I am happy for them, that they have achieved their wish and have sold a property that must have become a burden or a challenge too far. On the other hand, it is extremely rare that the new owners are as nice, if we even meet them at all, and while some who sell, come back to visit, in most cases, there is the nagging doubt that we will ever see certain people again.
I did finally get round to my biennial autumn task, and by Tuesday lunchtime, the Christmas puddings were wrapped up in greaseproof paper and foil and tucked away to mature for 2 or 14 months.
That certainly keeps the winter blues away for the moment!
Well before Storm Benjamin hit, I brought in one of the trail cameras that had been sitting in a secluded spot since early August, to check the batteries and the contents of the disk. I was worried as the strap seemed to have come loose and I wasn't sure if the poacher or the hunters had been meddling with it. After inspecting all 850 files, I have narrowed the suspects down to two. This is the first.
We've known we have red squirrels for quite a while, normally because Donald the Cat brings us a carcass from time to time, one year it was a Christmas present. Whether Donald is losing his touch as a scourge of squirrels or whether there are more about this year, I don't know, but this fellow spends a lot of time around the camera, while one visited the Garden area, and got chased up a tree by two well fed cats, and had a lot to say about it!
The other possible culprit doesn't stay still long enough to do good photos, but there are some excellent video streams of my lovely pine martens doing what they do. Clearly there is a family of these in the area, but with so much dense undergrowth and so many large trees, I am not sure where they sleep. I do keep finding places where they play, eat, and do other things. I'm still working out how the links work, but so far I think you have to Go Back from the YouTube page to get back here and follow the next link - technology!!
I find pine martens quite the most enchanting animals to watch, particularly when you watch their eyes coming towards the camera at night, so you get the full effect of their lolloping style of running. They were eating apples - it appears there is an apple tree around there, which attracted them as well as badgers and deer - I have way too many short videos of deer eating apples. This is a bit weird as none of them seem to eat the nicer apples in the Orchard or down the side of the Meadow. I guess the shelter is an added attraction.
Yesterday we found evidence of hunters taking liberties on our land, laying bait and marking a tree with a smelly substance roughly where the boar use the tree as a scratching point. We assume they attract deer and boar with the corn, and hope they will pick up some of the creosote-like substance on the tree, which makes it easier for the dogs to track them. We hid the corn and today John sprayed the creosote with lemon-scented washing up liquid. During the week we will pressure wash the tree too. There are too many boar and deer, with no predators, so yes, the hunt needs to do its thing, however they are not allowed to leave polluting stuff on our land, and certainly not near a spring that is a source of the local river!
Have a good week!
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