October 2016 - Part 2

As the Autumn leaves continue to fall and the nights draw in, life in and around the village is preparing for the dark nights and colder weather.  The annual Harvest Supper took place last Friday and a great evening it was.  Everyone brought a dish of their own choice, and fortunately we didn't end up with 40 Pizzas and a lemon meringue pie between 75 people. The variety of dishes was amazing, and the company very entertaining.

As with most village communities most of the activities are centered around the church, and here is no exception.  St. Mary the Blessed Virgin was built in the 12th century and through the years has seen more than its fair share of changes.  It has an original oak staircase leading up to the belfry and one of the oldest stained glass windows of any church in the country. 

St. Mary the Blessed Virgin.  

The church boasts an enthusiastic and very competent team of bell ringers, who practice each Friday night and again before Sunday services.  It's an extremely pleasant experience to sit in the garden and listen to the peels. Who knows, we may even give it a go one day.  The picture below will give you some idea how close we are to the church.

Walking through the churchyard I came across an interesting headstone, that of Squadron Leader Kenyon Bowen-Bravery. As you can see from the picture he was the pilot of the first Lancaster bomber over the French coast on D-Day in 1944.  He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross and also the Croix De Guerre. 

The Church and surrounding areas also played a large part in the Napoleonic wars where one of the neighboring fields was set up as a field hospital, and is still known to this day as Hospital Field.  

Bird Update

A week or so back we spotted a Goldfinch coming to investigate the feeder outside the conservatory window.  We're pleased to say he's returned and brought his partner with him and they have been spending the mornings contenting themselves with Niger seed. 

We're also hearing a Woodpecker in the paddock but have not had a good sighting of him yet.

We've taken possession of the new allotment, and it looks as if we have our work cut out over the next few weeks in getting it organized, but the weather has been kind to us for the last week or so and we managed to start getting to grips with the long grass with the aid of a petrol strimmer and mower.

We've also been told that there is ample wildlife roaming around the site, and we have seen plenty of evidence of Moles, Badgers and Foxes so far. If they want to join in the digging they are more than welcome. 

Wildlife Update

We've seen plenty of activity from Bella the Badger scurrying through the hedgerow into the neighboring farmer's fields. (Check out the video on Facebook).  You can see from the edge of the field the run she has made to get to the other side, so we assume that food and drink as more plentiful in that direction.   Johnny the Fox and his partner are still evident in the paddock and making sure we are aware of this at 4am in the morning. Bless!

Neville the Pheasant introduced us to one of his harem late last week, and we just caught sight of her scurrying down the lane towards the paddock.  He's now regularly in the garden after polishing off some of the Robin's meal worms recently.

P.S. Unfortunately the video page doesn't work on all platforms, so I'll post the videos on Facebook each time I update the blog.  

More later.....