Back to Work – Furloughed

It’s good being back on site, if nothing else it’s a change of scenery. Once again, furlough dictates no work, for now. Time to enjoy our lockdown garden whilst the peace reigns.

A walk around is once again, soothing and relaxing, just what we need. Not quite the experience we had when lockdown was announced last March. This year it’s pigging freezing, no sitting out enjoying blue skies and watching the wildlife bob around. It’s that cold even the rabbits are staying inside.

Not much in the way of wildlife traversing site. Our one muntjac deer appears to have found a mate, we’ve spotted two of them cautiously wandering around. Freezing when they spot us and heading off over the railway line when they realise we are eyeballing each other.

A woodpecker drums on a tree in the Gravel Pits Nature Reserve next to site. The waters in there this year have reached new levels, completely submerging all pathways on our fence line. A few ducks swimming around, hopefully we’ll get baby ducklings again this year, although last year we watched them disappear one by one daily, pretty sure they were fox or stoat fodder.

When blue skies appear the site looks so welcoming, cold but welcoming. Daffodils adorn the banks between the two levels of the site and frame the Goods Shed steps. Snow drops are on their last legs, I think we arrived a bit too late to appreciate them but buds are starting to appear on the hedges and trees and signs of new life as blue tits are frantically going backwards and forwards to our bird boxes.

Sunsets from the site across the railway line just keep on giving. My phone could just be filled with sunset photos as each one seems better than the last.

Listening to the site last night as we settled down for the night was like listening to an episode of Midsommer Murders. It sounded like the stoat caught tea and and that tea went down with a bit of a fight. The muntjac deer gave a couple of barks all starting the farm dog off across the railway line, who, in turn woke the cows up and then the rooks feeling left out, started squawking in protest at being disturbed.