Monthly Archives: April 2017

Nature

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Wild Daffodil and Nanacathy‘s one-a-week photo challenge this week is “nature”. So right up my street, but so hard to choose one photo! So I have had to go for a gallery of some recent sightings!

River
Bumblebee
Ground bettle
apple blossom
bluebell
Dandelions
false oxlip

Happy Earth Day

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I started drafting an Earth Day post that was becoming depressing. So I have decided on a list of ten positive actions anyone can do for our Mother Earth instead. Actions to help us live in harmony with the planet we call home.

  1. Go outside. Close your eyes for fifteen second and use you ears to listen and your nose to smell.
  2. Plant some vegetable or herb seeds, even if it is only in a pot or window box.
  3. Walk or cycle somewhere you would usually drive to.
  4. Find a local farm shop and buy something.
  5. If you live in Ireland, sign the petition to strengthen the draft climate change plan. If you live in another country find out what your government is doing about climate change.
  6. If you have left overs from dinner, eat them the following day for lunch. Don’t throw them in the bin
  7. Make a more sustainable choice in one food product you buy each week. For example, buy organic free range eggs, or organic flour etc.
  8. Pick a sunny day, and look in your garden or go to your nearest park and see how many bees and butterflies you can see.
  9. Instead of your usual present when you go to visit someone bring them a nice flowering plant they can put in their garden.
  10. Find a new woodland, nature reserve or other wild place to visit.
Bumblebee on dandelion
Turlough, Co Mayo
Wild garlic
Path through wild garlic

Wildlife Wednesday

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Moorehall is one of our favourite places to go for a walk, here in County Mayo. Here are some of yesterday’s little wildlife highlights. The Holly Blue butterfly is small and delicate. The inside wings are the blue of an evening sky in summer, so seeing them flying along is like watching fragments of sky flutter about.

Dandelions
Holly Blue
Bumble
Arum lily

New Chicken House

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We have moved the chickens to a new area. My husband has been busy making them a new house, adapting a plan from “The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers“, by Harvey Ussery.

The chickens seem to like it.

New chicken house

 

The roof perches are high but all the chickens are using them (even the older ladies). And all eggs are being laid in the nest boxes provided.

High roof perches
Nest boxes, accessible from back

There is plenty to eat in the new area too. It’s an area we’ve grown our potatoes and onions in for last two years. It had become over run with weeds though so we thought the chickens could do a good clearing job.  Meanwhile, we hope to grow this year’s potatoes in the area where the chicken’s have been for the last two years. There wasn’t much growing so it is easier to dig. We hope to get the potatoes that have been chitting in the ground this week.

Moving the hens from the old area to new one was a little challenging and involved the four of us trying to herd them. It was pretty successful with the exception of one of the black chickens who kept breaking ranks. I eventually caught her and carried her to her new quarters, much to her indignation!