Latest News from Kirkstead Old Mill Cottage B&B Woodhall Spa

Wildlife News & Garden Report

Already this week there have been several reported sightings of the Roe Deer family, a couple of barn owls and the grey Heron, all alongside the beck.  The winter jasmine is sporting several sprays of yellow blooms where it can take advantage of the early morning sun along the track side, and the sweet-smelling tiny flowers of the Eleagnus are in evidence as you walk around the drain-side raised beds where the broad bean plants are already promising to do well in the spring, and the rocket is giving us regular pickings for salads.  I'm a bit cross with myself that I didn't plant the lettuces that I planned, but on Friday John popped in, quite deeply, some potatoes that were producing shoots in the corner cupboard of the kitchen.  Tony heard, or saw something on TV, about potatoes being able to over-winter and produce an early crop if they were planted deep enough. so I was keen to experiment.  We've also got some spuds in pots that we intended to harvest at Christmas, but I hope we haven't left them outside to be affected by the frosts that we have had recently.  Most of the geraniums have now been moved to the heated Winter House from the car port where they were being repotted, and John will be taking some new cuttings too.  He has finished planting the several hundred really healthy wall flowers that I managed to buy locally this year, which should help to fill the colour gap in the garden when the daffodils have faded next spring.  Reg is managing to keep the grass in the Wild Garden cut now that he has completed repairs to the ride-on mower.  Today he is going to fill in a few holes on the track caused by all of the rain that we have had recently, and then perhaps he will get the tops cut out of the two large apple trees in the garden whilst John is here to hold the ladder.  It looks promising as the sun is shining and there is no wind.  Most of the excellent crop got wasted this autumn as we couldn't reach them, and I didn't manage to find anyone to turn them into pasteurised apple juice for us to serve at breakfast time.  I did track down a really friendly man who offered to juice them for me if I took them to Wragby, but the rest of the processing sounds very time consuming and beyond me at present.

Innovation Lincolnshire do us proud in Boston's new Enterprise Centre

Our Cottage Museum is 20 years old, or slightly more!

A great influence from the past revisits Kirkstead

This afternoon we had several wonderful experiences, which started as we welcomed Barry Wilkinson from the Lincolnshire Wild Life Trust.

Nature News

Yesterday I was fortunate to spot two Barn Owls as I drove home down the track at about 8.30pm, and then tonight at 7.20pm, on my way to St Peter's Church in the village, a barn owl was sitting on the perch outside the owl box that the Witham 3rd District Internal Drainage Board had mounted in an oak tree last year.  I am hopeful that this means he or she is about to lay claim to this previously uninhabited residence.

This morning we had a visit from a charming local young lady who thinks she might like to become our new housekeeper when Clair leaves us in the New Year, and whilst we were sitting chatting a Greater Spotted Woodpecker flew over several times from the wild garden to feed on the fat balls under the Wisteria covered pergola.