Introduction
As explained on Home page, this site started on a blogging platform. Slowly, that material is being transferred to this new site. This means the new posts may appear anywhere on the site and not just in the current year's page. The best way to ensure you miss nothing is to visit the What's New page where you can find how you can subscribe to our newsletter..
2017
15 October 2017 - The Pheasants Think It's Spring
I continue to play with the wildlife camera to see what results it produces. This afternoon, just after 15:55 it seemed that a male pheasant thought forgot it was autumn and acted like it was spring. After a sudden flurry of action as the start, as boy chases girl, you then have to wait until around 00:27 for the girl bird to reappear, only to discover the boy's in hot pursuit. It makes you wonder what was going on while they were out of sight.
12 October 2017 - Munjac Mother With Young
I've been concerned that we haven't got much useful video material from the wildlife camera. Probably, that's because I have it set to capture some still images before taking the video and by that time the action is all over and often the subjects have left the field of view. However, here's an exception. It was captured at 04:26 this morning. With these infrared shots taken in darkness the eyes shine so much when looking directly into the camera!
27 August 2017 - Male Munjac Deer Caught On Video
We bought a "wildlife camera" a while ago. The hope then was that we could get images of what were believed to be voles that had been burrowing in the bank from close by the house to near the arbour seat. That was unsuccessful. We now hope to discover the range of creatures that visit the grounds overnight. It's taken a while to get the kind of still and video shots we had hoped to capture. This is our first "successful" video, captured last night.
27 June 2017 - At Last A Squirrel!
Seeing a squirrel will not take most people by surprise. However, after the misidentification of a Stoat in 2013, today is the first one that I have been able to capture on camera. It had always seemed worthy of note that we did not see squirrels around the site. There's plenty of trees and a good number of oaks, which drop plenty of acorns, so you always suppose the place would be attractive to them.
11 June 2017 - New Deck For The Ruston Bench
After its arrival the Ruston Bench was moved to its permanent position overlooking the part of the lake we call "The Pool". Within the year it was realised that it was slowly sinking into the peat there We clearly needed a similar platform to that on which the Tree House stands. It took a further year before we could get Roger back with the request that not only was he to build a deck for the bench but also to make a new balustrade to replace the one that had necessarily been destroyed when he had re-decked the bridge before our wedding.
30 April 2017 - Lake Views For April
It's time for another collection of lake views. This time they were taken on 2nd, 8th and 18th of the month. With the previous image taken on 7 March we can, at last, see that spring is on the way. To the right, there's a lot more growth on the willow and just to its left there is now growth to be seen on the Mountain Ash on the island. To the left you can see the daffodils are in flower. The clump on the lakeside is the one which I always associate with the First Gosling we saw after moving to Ruston House.
31 March 2017 - Lake Views For March
It seems I only took two images of the lake from our bedroom window this month. The first image was taken on the first of the month. Comparing it with that taken Last Month there seems remarkably little change. The shallower shadow in the dyke tells us the water level is higher but that in the lake seems similar. This other image was taken on 7 March and again there is no obvious change in the vegetation, dyke or lake level.
21 March 2017 - Daffodils Around The Tree House
Today was a gloriously sunny day and the daffodils around the site, especially on the island seem to be at their best. Having crossed the bridge to the island you approach the tree house from the south. It's not a tree house in the conventional sense, but its main supports are old trunks and branches of oak trees that grew on Hickling Marshes and had died rather than being cut as live wood.
7 March 2017 - Bank Clearance Remains Still In The Lake
We're still suffering the after effects of the strimming of the lake banks. Here's a collection of photos taken since I reported on the messy lake last month. The first photo was taken from the boardwalk on the main island. This is the area we call "The Pool". The Pool is overlooked by "The Ruston Bench" and the Tree House and the grassy area at the tip of the peninsula, accessible from the cottages next door to Ruston House.
28 February 2017 - Lake Views For February
Today was a gloriously sunny day and the daffodils around the site, especially on the island seem to be at their best. Having crossed the bridge to the island you approach the tree house from the south. It's not a tree house in the conventional sense, but its main supports are old trunks and branches of oak trees that grew on Hickling Marshes and had died rather than being cut as live wood.
25 February 2017 - Bank Trimmings Fill The Lake
This is the third year in the cycle and it was time for the lake banks behind Ruston House to be cleared. The basic problem is that a strimmer was used. This may speed up the initial cut but it generates many short cuttings which are sprayed in all directions with at least half going in the lake. This is not something we want to see happen again. Wild strimming will be banned!
10 February 2017 - Swans On The Island
Having seen the geese inspecting the duck house on Wednesday, now we have a pair of swans on the lake. Unlike the geese, there was no sign of interest in the duck house. They were content preening themselves for the period they were on the bank. When looking back at these posts, I often find it's the areas in a picture that are not supposed to be the subject that are of most interest.
8 February 2017 - Geese Inspect The Duck House
Having the geese back on the lake means that spring is on its way which is always a good feeling, but it's tinged with concern for the cottage owners for whom the geese create a big problem especially for bookings during the school holidays when children are likely to run into the cottages with shoes covered in the mess the geese leave behind.
5 February 2017 - A Better Than Average Sunset
Sometimes you become particularly aware of a "Shepherd's Delight" sunset and today was one of those occasions. Getting the exposure right is always a problem as you don't want a completely dark foreground, yet if you take a slow enough exposure to get some light into the foreground the sky becomes over exposed and it appears too light with little of the red that makes it so spectacular.
