Great Tit Nesting Box - Image of the Week #18

Telling a Story - is the prompt for the Image of the Week at Truly Madly Kids, here is what Penny says: "Sometimes a photograph has many things about it that make it precious. It could be the setting, it could be something in the frame, it could be the reaction on a face to something, or even something lurking in the background of a shot. These are the images that tell a story."

My story is all about a little family of Great Tits who chose to nest in the hollow framework of our tractor bale spike, as you can see it makes the perfect nest box!  We enjoyed watching the parent birds flying backwards and forwards carrying insects to feed their young.  The birds have now fledged so must have been quite large when I took these photographs.

There were better photographs than the one I have chosen for the Image of the Week, but this is the one I felt was most likely to 'tell the story'.  Here are few of the others below:

Snowdrops

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday so I headed up to the top of our road to take some photos of the snowdrops growing on the banking.  They are looking particularly good this year.

The view looking up the road with snowdrops on the right.

Looking back down the road toward the farm with snowdrops on the left.

This morning it was -3C but the sun came out again later, of course, I was back at work so didn't get the chance to enjoy it, so will just have to look at these pictures and remember!

Sparkling Snowy Views

Today the sun came out and made the snow look so pretty, but you could be forgiven for thinking that the photos from yesterday were taken in black and white as heavy snow fell all afternoon and evening.

You can see from the snow on the fence posts just how much snow we had, it must have been about 4 inches (10cm) and we had to cancel our trip into town due to the condition of the roads.

Here is the same view I took last week, when there was just a little dusting of snow and frost and still lots of green showing.

Looking down towards the river from the top of the field.

Shadows in the snow!

Looking back towards the farm from the field.

I have lots more snowy photos but will leave you with this view of the overhanging snow on our gutters against a stunningly blue sky.

Weathered - 365+1

Snickerdoodle Designs - Granny Finch's Garden and Outside my Window

The back of our sheds is not a pretty sight. It has been patched up so many times, different bits of tin, now rusty, boards and gates.  When my husband saw me working on this layout, he pointed out what he is planning to do next, something to do with digging out the bottom of that bit with the gap and back filling it with gravel and reboarding it.  The never ending battle against the weather and nature, taking back our man-made structures, goes on.

Don't forget to look back at the layout(s) for yesterday which I only posted today.

365+1 - Wheel

Gingerscraps - Scrap Your Life

We are getting some big drainage pipes put in the burn (stream) in one of our fields, the guy who brought them has left his huge tractor in our yard for a couple of days and I nipped out to get a photo of the wheel which is much more impressive than the ones on our tractors! 

It's the last day of the month and I've managed to keep up with the photos and scrapping them.  Let's see what next month brings!

Biff Bang for Mosaic Monday

Last week we said goodbye to our Lister Engine or the 'Biff-Bang' as it was known because of the noise it made! It was a two stroke engine which was bought around 1913 for the threshing of oats.  It was still in use until about 25 years ago, as Brian's dad used to use it as the power for his band saw to cut sticks.  Anyhow, it has been mouldering in the barn ever since and it seemed a shame to let it disintegrate completely.  Last year we found out that the man who was doing the draining work for us, restored vintage engines and he was interested in this one.  There are more pics of the process of lifting it onto their trailer, but I'll save them for another time. 

Bubbly Funk Forum - Photo Prompt 'Machine'

We had a little mini-crop on the Bubbly Funk Forum a couple of weeks ago and we all enjoyed the photo prompts so much that it was agreed to have them a week of prompts once a month.  

MACHINE is the first prompt for June.

You could have guessed that it would be a piece of farm machinery, this is a 'hay bob' used to turn the cut grass to help it dry into hay. Excuse the mess, just goes to show that farming corners can be just as messy as crafting corners - hee hee!

Out to grass!

Time for the calves to go out for the summer, they get very excited when they see the big field in front of them and go a bit mad.

Their tails go up and they all set off across the field.

Some of them even fly!

Then they come racing back up to the gate again.

The roof is finished

The roof is finally finished, the chimney's have been rebuilt and the scaffolding has been taken down.  It turned into a much bigger job than we expected, but it should last for a very long time now.  The next thing will be getting the house painted as it is looking a bit scruffy.

Spring is a busy time on the farm, so today Brian is taking out some muck/dung/manure that has been 'maturing' in our 'midden' for a year.   Here he is heading off to the field at the top of the road.

A little bit of spring on the farm

Dear Deer

Yesterday we went for our New Year lunch!  Every year we are invited for lunch on New Year's Day at my DH's cousin's farm which is up on a hillside.  Due to the very icy and snowy conditions this year, the lunch was postponed and earlier this week we got a phone call to ask us to come up this weekend.

They told us that they had had a lot of Roe Deer coming close to the house this year due to the lack of grass for them on the higher ground and on our way home we met one of those deer. I only had my phone camera so they are not great shots, but I though I'd share them anyway.

Can you see the deer's white rump flashing as he/she runs for cover?

Looks like there is nothing there doesn't it?

But if you look closely you can see the beastie, how wonderfully they are camouflaged in their natural environment.

Chim-Chiminey

Okay, so I'm no Mary Poppins and our Chim-chiminey isn't quite like the one in the movie, but here are some more pictures. The 'manitou' lifting thingy arrived at the beginning of the week to bring down the sandstone block from the chimney.

Here it is in all it's glory.

The builders have covered over the chimney well while they are away for the weekend.

Here are some of the blocks that were brought down from the chimney.