Out in the Kayak

 Popped out for a quick paddle around the bay, trying to keep fit. Soon after going out I had lots of friends with me.

The Tadpoles have back legs...

 

Now they have legs they have started to eat meat so we give them cat food. This hopefully will stop them eating the insect eggs and larvae etc in the water and also later eating each other.

We do have a lot to look after.

Tadpoles in the stream

 

The stream was added a few years ago as no wildlife gardens should be without one. Finally this spring the frogs have left us some babies...

We will try and show how they grow, the next stage will be back legs.

Dog Otter in the Harbour

He was very laid back and just popped under the water every few minutes and and would pop back up           with some food    

                                                        

at one point he was scared by the passing of a ferry and took shelter by a fishing trawler, giving us a better view                                                                              

from this you really see his large webbed feet

 

and then he was gone

 

Our Skies

 Here are a few of the dramatic skies we see from our windows

Great White part 2

 It would appear that some of the caterpillars have been attacked by parasitic wasps as they are claiming the apartment wall and eggs emerge and the poor caterpillar covers them with silk and the stays and guards them untill it dies rather than pupate........

This little guy missed the target with his silk, not suppressing really 

also our eight legged friends are waiting in the wings to get a meal from these zombie like creatures

Large Wites

 We had a few self seeded black radis in the front garden, we left them as the bees loved the flowers and now so it seems so do the large white butterfly caterpillars......like the leaves.

Little ones grow up fast

here we have mummy tweety with from left to right Tintin, Thompson and Snowy

Hello Everyone we hope you are all staying safe.....

I would never have guessed that it was a year since my last post, that will change and I will try and post as often as possible so those of you who are cooped up inside can at least get some images of the great outdoors even if it is just our garden.

At this time of great worry and sadness we thought you may like to meet our very latest addition to our gang. This little ball of fluff hatched to surrogate mother Tweety this morning.

we obviously do not know if it is a boy or girl but its mum was Georgina Hennington and dad was Mr White.

Here we have all the hens sunning themselves on the mountain and they are from left to right Tweety, Pebble, Dash and Georgina.

and finally here is the daddy our Silky Cockerel Mr White or Big Daddy.......

This time last year it was cold and wet but this year it is warm and sunny, a good year to come into this crazy world.

Our Neighbours

We have sheep that wander all around the garden and occasionally through it - now is our favourite time as the lambs are here - some even have special coats for our Irish weather !

Number 27 lamb is only a day old and follows mum around like a shadow.

Keeps them warm and dry and just drops off as they grow...

                               
Running, Jumping. Skipping and Butting Heads is how they pass the time

along with eating and sleeping of course.

The mums always keep a beady eye on us humans as we are not to be trusted

A black and white bundle of loveliness.

On the Beach

Now we have the chickens settled and a little more work completed on the house I have had time to spend outside getting to know the garden and it inhabitants a little better

This is the view from our little piece of the shoreline that came with the house - very lucky us !!

The mists and cloud continuously change and no two minutes are the same.

This little guy is a Turnstone and they do exactly what it says in the name.....but you would be amazed at the size of some of the boulders they can turn over to look for bugs underneath.

Every bay along our coast has its resident pair of Mute Swans and this is our female

this little Green Crab ( I think as I am just learning the types of creatures we find here ) I rescued from a lobster pot washed up along the shore he and two others were OK but unfortunately another was dead.

I love the way its eyes come out on stalks so it can have a good look around. 

A Big Day Out

Big day today in the life of Pebble and Dash, they had their first foray into the great wide world ( our mountain garden ) and loved every minute of it.....

they found new wonderful and tasty treats like grubs, worms, centipedes and lots of other creepy crawlies.....YUMMY 

Pebble as always was worried about her barnet as she just could not do a thing with it in this wind.

Dash is just the oposite, could not give a fig what he or she looks like but just wanted more food.......

Getting Bigger

Just a quick update on the chicks progress.....

they are now getting their feathers and look more Punk than pretty, eating anything that they can find that tastes good and fits into their beaks

plus it looks as though the white one
here who is called Dash may be a male as he is getting feathers on his legs, but we hope Pebble below will be a lovely girl like her mum.