Wildlife seen around the lanes, mostly my OH's photos this time

I mentioned in my last post that my OH has been making regular cycle rides around the lanes in the early evening, for both fitness and wildlife spotting reasons. Most of the photos in this post are his, although as I was getting a teeny weeny bit envious, I suggested that perhaps we could take the car out and go for a slow drive around to see what we could see. Luckily there are a few tracks where there is space to park and we can have a bit of a walk, so last Weds evening we went out together, despite it being overcast and not great for photography. 

I just enjoyed the magic of getting out for the first time in over three months and having a potter somewhere that's not my own garden. I did see a couple of Meadow Brown butterflies, but want to come back when the sun is shining and a bit earlier in the day when I hope there will be more butterflies about. I also got to see one bunny, who was lying flat in the grass in a cow field, amazingly camouflaged as a cow pat (no photo as it took off the moment I raised the camera), and a Roe Deer and her youngster in a field, who gambolled off as soon as they saw us. It was a great experience for me, and just goes to show there's plenty of wildlife still around, I'm just not seeing it so much in the fields around our property.

This first photo is nothing to do with wildlife, but it's been a year since the new septic tank was installed, and it was time to clean out the grease trap. Only it was clean! Very little pong so it seems to be working like it should. You can see how brown the grass was getting over the tank area, as there is only a few inches of soil over gravel, ditto the filter bed, which although has about eight inches of soil, seems to dry out rather quickly too. Thankfully we had about 50mm of rain over four days which got the stream running again, and all this grass has greened up again nicely.

He seems to be enjoying himself.......

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens),
male. OH's photo.

Dirk gets fruity with Rachel. OH's photo.

Meanwhile, out in the country lanes and fields.....

Looks better when the sun is shining!

He's seeing quite a few foxes. The one top right is a mangy one that he's seen in the field
next to the veg patch AND chicken run - lucky there is a 6 foot high fence in between!

I took the rubbish photo of the Goldfinch on the right, he got to see the Stonechat on the left.
I'm jealous!

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata). OH's photo, but shame about the bramble stem!

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum), either a female or juvenile male. OH's photo.

A photo that I took! Wild Foxgloves growing on the field margin.

Himself wandering up a track.

Bunnies - OH's photos.

Roe Deer, including bambi, but very far away. OH's photos.

I'll leave you with the little tinker, aka Bertie, who just loves to sneak onto, and into, my round cushions and make a nest for himself, the moment I stand up. He's so skinny he fits in the hole whereas his rather chunky brother wouldn't!

Health update

Since I got these photos prepared my OH has come back with more interesting photos, but they can wait until the next post. I haven't even been in my garden for five days, due either to rain or (mostly) a rough time after my last chemo which left me feeling pretty wrecked. I even threw up this time, which actually is pretty good going seeing as it was my sixth round, so I'm now half way through! I had managed to get some energy and appetite back in the few days before the chemo sessions and did some cooking for the first time in months. Suffice to say after the chemo it's a different story, and hard to eat anything at all for a while. Hopefully it will pass soon and I'll feel a bit more hunger and energy.  Things are still looking better in the perineal wound department, although it does still flare up every now and again, but it's a lower level flare up, and in general it seems to be healing. My latest blood test shows a slight improvement with four things related to blood so hopefully these weekly jabs for anaemia and the iron tabs are starting to take effect.

I haven't been keeping up with other blogs as some of you post practically every day so no way can I read and comment on all these posts, especially when I'm feeling like carp. I'll leave the carp in as my Kindle's predictive text just changed that. :-)

Edit: Since I wrote the above I did get out in the garden this morning, and can't believe how much things have grown - mostly the weeds/wildflowers in the veg patch but also the lettuce - this cooler weather has been good for it so my Cos has not bolted before hearting up. There are flowers on the courgettes now too! Not many butterflies about and they are nearly all Meadow Browns. I'm going to have another wander outside now but it's rather breezy so carp for photography ;-)