Week Ending 14th September 2014

So here I am with less than 24 hours to go until we fly to Iceland, drinking many mugs of Lemsip and sucking on menthol sweets trying to beat this cold that Vicky has so kindly shared with me.

Mum and Dad popped down with their neighbours Michael and Kathy for most of last week. The weather was excellent throughout and so there was plenty of opportunity for getting out and about, eating too much good food and drinking plenty of beer and cider too :)

Their stay in fact began with a trip to our Occombe Farm Cider Festival. In it's very first year the festival ran all of Saturday afternoon and well into the night, with 39 different ciders stacked behind the bar and a whole host of musical talents taking to the stage. Our former "next door but one" neighbours from Deal, John and Irene, joined us for the event and between us we sipped our way through many a good cider during the course of the sunny afternoon.

The first of many ciders on Saturday afternoon!

John, Irene, myself, Vicky, Mum, Michael, Kathy and Dad on Paignton beach

Sunday afternoon was spent out at Berry Head for a spot of lunch at the Guardhouse Cafe, followed by a walk looking for anything interesting out at sea. Only 2 days previous we had been at Berry Head for a bird ID training course, and while we had been looking at sea birds we has seen all manner of things such as Seals, Harbour Porpoise and the occasional Common Dolphin. This afternoon however there was no such excitement to be had, and other than the odd diving Gannet a huge US Navy vessel proved to be the only real point of interest out to sea.
The beauty of Berry Head is that even when the wildlife doesn't come out to play the area is still a wonderful area to sit and let the world pass you by. The dramatic coastline makes for an excellent view, and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore below does wonders to help you relax.

Dad, Mum, myself, Vicky, Kathy and Michael on the headland at Berry Head

Monday was spent on the Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes round robin. We started the day on the Paignton to Dartmouth (Kingswear) train. Michael is a big fan of steam railways, and so it was great that he was able to ride a line that he has not traveled before while he was visiting us. Again the weather played ball, making the views out across the coast and across the River Dart all the more beautiful.

Train just leaving the station to make the return journey from Kingswear

The boat to Totnes was as equally enjoyable with the sun shining down on us. Plenty of wildlife up and down the river could be seen, and even a Seal popped his head up half way through the journey to say hello.

The bus ride back to Paignton was on a traditional open top sight seeing style bus, and while sitting upstairs felt like a good idea when we got on by the time we alighted at the other end several members of the group were using the word "numb" to describe some of their extremities! 

Our final day together on Tuesday saw us go for a relaxed stroll around some of our local area including our base at Occombe Farm and the quaint nearby Cockington Village. A savoury cheese tea at the little thatched tea rooms in the village was a particular highlight, before a trip up to view some glass blowing and blacksmithing the craft studios.

Wednesday and Thursday saw us go back to work before we headed up to Dunstable on Saturday for Vicky's Aunt Susan's wedding. The service and the reception were both lovely, and gave us the opportunity to catch up with a few familiar faces. As we had to do a day round trip from Devon though we weren't able to stay as long as we might have, and so we look forward to catching up properly with everybody at another time.

Vicky, myself, Mum and Dad at Susan and Philip's wedding

This weeks amusing news comes from Canada, and shows what you probably wouldn't expect to find on the green at your local golf course...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29174094

See you all when we return from Iceland :)

Week Ending 31st August 2014

It's been quite some time since I last wrote my blog, over a month in fact, and so I decided it would be a good idea to try and get back into the swing of things again!

Over the last month I have only had one weekend off and have seemed to have worked an obscene amount of hours. So much so in fact that I have racked up an extra weeks worth of holiday to make up for all the extra hours! Writing time has therefore been at a premium, and when a small window has presented itself there hasn't really been that much to write about!

August has been mainly taken up with the children's holiday club that our organisation runs, where parents can pay to leave their children with us for the day and we take them out to do fun and interesting (hopefully) activities in the local area. Much of the time is spent doing more informal versions of the lessons that we run with school groups, however there is much more space for these sessions to be dictated by the interests of the children as opposed to their teachers!

While it has been busy I have ultimately enjoyed the work. Getting to work outdoors all the time is fantastic, and even if they don't necessarily realise it the children are learning new things all the time as well. One of the wildlife photography sessions we were running with the children turned up this beauty, a Great Green Bush Cricket.

Great Green Bush Cricket. They live only in the south of England eating vegetation and other small insects. They can live for around 10 months.

With one day off recently Vicky and I were able to walk part of the South West Coast Path between Paignton and Berry Head. The changeable weather didn't dampen our spirits and we were rewarded when we arrived in Brixham with glorious sunshine overhead. Fueled with a portion of chips and an ice cream we made our way up to the headland where a range of wildlife decided to put on a show for us. A seal was keeping a few of the local anglers company in exchange for a share of their catch, while Gannets, Harbour Porpoises and the odd Dolphin were busy rounding up and catching fish not far out to sea.

Friday night saw us head over to Dartmouth for the regatta, with the Red Arrows leading the line up at 6.30pm. Unfortunately having made the epic trip through the traffic to get there in time, low cloud forced them to perform only their most basic of maneuvers before they disappeared off and out of sight. 

The famous red, white and blue trails as the Red Arrows came into sight above the River Dart

The noise and maneuvers of the RAF Typhoon that preceded them left them upstaged slightly, but in their defence there was only one Typhoon in the sky and not 9 planes all trying to fly just meters away from one another.

Saturday was Vicky's birthday, and so I lined up weekend of surprises for her with the hope that the weather would play ball (which thankfully in the end it did).

After dropping her off for a massage to begin the weekend we made a trip to Kent's Cavern where we received a guided tour of the prehistoric cave system that sits so close to the town of Torquay. Some great finds have been made there over the years including the teeth of Woolly Mammoth, jaw bones of bears and even remains of Neanderthal man.

After a swift picnic in Cockington Country Park we made our way over to the Park's beehives, where a group of local beekeepers were holding an open meeting for people to come and check out the hives and learn more about the bees. We donned our protective suits and made our way inside where we were able to get up close and personal with about 15 bee hives. At this time of year each hive is supporting around 20,000 bees, and with the collecting season over all of the nectar the are collecting now is to make honey that will get the colony through the winter.

All kitted up and ready to go!

The bees are fascinating to learn about, and I think both of us are seriously considering having a hive of our own when we eventually find the right space.

After the bee experience was complete I led Vicky to believe that we were off somewhere for dinner. Arriving at a small farm in the middle of Dartmoor around an hour later, I revealed that we were in fact camping and that we would be cooking our own dinner.

For all of those ladies out there thinking how disappointing this may sound, I will just add that Vicky really enjoys camping and seemed genuinely more excited by this than the thought of going to a fancy restaurant! 

The camp site was perfect and we spent the evening enjoying the peace and quiet of the moors, with just the sound of the river behind us running by. Thankfully the weather continued to hold and we were even warm during the night. Memories of a few very cold nights camping across Europe and Australia came flooding back to us, making us all the more appreciative of the good weather!

Tent up, BBQ on and a cold cider to hand. A great way to spend the evening!

This morning we continued our journey across the moors taking in the wonderful scenery. We stopped at a little cafe for a late breakfast / early lunch, before spending some time basking in the sun on a rock in the middle of the nearby river.

A hop, a skip and a jump got us to our own personal island. A little smaller than Flat Holm was I must say!

Back at home the weather was still so good that we decided to hit the beach. A bottle of wine went down all too quickly, while we lazed in the sun enjoying a good book. Top weekend!

So as per normal I have been scanning the news for a story that makes me smile or laugh, in my quest that news doesn't all have to be bad (even if most of it seems that way sometimes).

This week's story comes from very close to home in Kent. Take a bucket and spade down to Folkestone and you never know what you might find!

http://news.sky.com/story/1326687/gold-diggers-flock-to-beach-for-treasure-hunt

See you next time :)

Week Ending 13th July 2014

And so it is the end of another week down here in Devon, and a very tiring week at that!

We have had schools in most days this week for one type of session or another, and next week looks to be even busier as it is the final week of the school term.

Along with the school visits there has been plenty of work that needed to be done around the farm, as well as some special events such as an extreme beach clean that we took part in on Thursday evening.

A group of volunteers including Vicky and myself took part in the extreme beach clean

This involved donning wet suits, helmets and buoyancy aids and clambering around the cliffs and boulders to retrieve all of the rubbish that had washed up there. We would then hop back in the sea and swim over to the next area that required cleaning.

The session finished with some adrenaline fuelled jumps off of the higher cliffs into the water, before we swam back to the beach to record all of the rubbish that we had collected.

The week finished with the Cockington Caper race that we had spent the last 3 months training for. The race is a 10.6km run through the picturesque countryside around the village of Cockington, and is regarded by many of the runners taking part to be one of the most punishing routes in the area. Having already run the official route in training several times we both knew what times we were aiming for come race day, and I am please to say that we were both able to achieve our goals.

Emily, myself and Vicky back at the flat post-race with our commemorative mugs

I was aiming for a time of 1:10:00 and completed the course in 1:07:48, over 7 minutes faster than my best training time! Vicky was aiming for 1:30:00 and came across the line at 1:29:36, also her personal best and over 11 minutes faster than her final training run the week before!

In the week's less energetic matters we broke out the Trust's moth trap for the first time in a while for National Moth Night. We recorded over 25 different species, including some pretty cool ones.

3 of these impressive Elephant Hawk Moths were included in the results

The Elephant Hawk Moth's underside is even brighter than it's top side! In terms of scale one of these is about the size of my thumb.

We also this week headed out for a walk along the South West Coast Path, this time tackling the stage between Goodrington and Elberry. Along the way we found another moth, albeit a slightly beaten up one, which we rescued from the path and returned to the bushes at the side. This Scarlett Tiger Moth flies during the day, and has a bright red underwing. Who said moths had to be boring?

There's a lot more to moths than people think. This Scarlett Tiger proves that they aren't all just grey/brown balls of fluff that bang against the light bulb in your sitting room at night!

This week's news story comes from Canada, and shows an act of generosity from an airline pilot. I hope this guy is flying the plane when we head to Iceland in September!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28232814

See you next time :)

Week Ending 22nd June 2014

The sun is shining, the beach is packed and it's time for another blog!

The weather here has been nothing short of fantastic lately, but from the point of view of our running training I've wished that it could be just a little cooler at times! We are regularly running the route around Cockington now but the extreme hills in this heat have been punishing to say the least. Hopefully when race day rolls round it will be a little cooler and things will be just fine!

The good weather has seen many positives as well though. When I went out for a walk yesterday afternoon I was blown away by all of the wildlife that was out taking advantage of the weather; butterflies, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, birds, bees...the list goes on.

Common Blue Damselfly

Even a heron came down into the park while I was there

My ice cream maker has already had a couple of outings and Vicky's freshly recovered deck chairs have now also made several appearances on the beach after work.

Sunshine and cider!

Work has been busy as per normal up at Occombe with the Beer Festival having taken place since my last blog. The event was a huge success, and over the course of the 2 nights we had over 6,500 people come through the doors! The clean up operation after the event has taken a lot longer than the event itself, with most things at the farm only just starting to get back to normal.
School groups have been coming in thick and fast, especially for activities like rock pooling which are excellent in the good weather.

Our new bee hive on the farm is now fully occupied with the UK native Black Bee. This particular species is the target of a conservation effort after the species nearly became extinct around 100 years ago. 

New arrivals being added to the bee hive

As well as our new bees we have also welcomed some new pigs to the farm! Bubble and Squeak, as they have affectionately been named, arrived on the farm last Monday and are just over 2 months old. At the rate that they eat I don't think they will stay small pigs for very long to come though!

I was also very happy to find this active Swallow nest in the animal shelter belonging to the goats. Hopefully before long there will be a couple of little ones ready to make the long journey back to Africa.

These 2 eggs have been very recently laid

We have now booked our flights to Iceland for September, and so I am looking forward to my first ever visit to the country. By my count it will be the 28th different country that I will have visited :)

This weeks amusing news story comes from Austria. I would love to see these motorists trying to explain to their insurance companies why the crashed!

http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/18/naked-sunbather-hanging-out-of-window-causes-crash-in-vienna-austria-4766142/

See you next time!

Week Ending 1st June 2014

Where does time go? I can't believe that it's June already! 

Things have been pretty busy at Occombe Farm for the last few weeks now with school groups visiting most days of the week, and weekend work is also becoming more common hence the lack of blogs!

Training for our 10km run is going reasonably well. With 5 weeks left until the race I managed to pass the 10km mark for the first time in training this morning, and that includes some pretty big hills along the way! The terrain around the Cockington route is even more extreme though so more training is definitely required. Vicky reached 8.4km around the same route this morning as well which is her personal best so far, and she is still improving every time too.

I have spent some of my spare time recently in the wildfowl conservation area behind our house where I have been keeping my eye on a group of young cygnets that were born a couple of weeks ago. You can see them growing each day, and in comparison to some ducks I have seen the swans are actually quite good parents. So far all 6 cygnets have survived.

You can see 2 tiny little heads poking out from underneath the mother's wing

For the last few weeks walking around the area has been especially colourful with wild flowers sprouting up here there and everywhere. There are also loads of nesting birds around, and for those of you watching Springwatch you'll know that many of the chicks have hatched and are on the way to fledging the nest.

There's a carpet of bluebells in the woodland at Occombe

We are very close to booking tickets to go to Iceland later on in the year, and this week's news article shows us the perfect way to get us and our luggage to the airport...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27636476

See you next time!

Week Ending 11th May 2014

So here we are into May! A mixture of working at weekends and other projects means that it's been a few weeks since the last blog and so apologies for that.

Things have started to get a little busier on the farm in the past few weeks, with more school groups coming for educational sessions as well as the ever increasing number of animals that we look after. Since I last blogged we have had some little chicks arrive that will go on to become Blue Maran chickens. We are hoping to have one cockerel and all the rest as hens, so there might not be a happy ending for some if we end up with too many cockerels! 

We have had a real mixture of weather in the past few weeks, some scorching sunny days and others that really aren't worth the mention. As I sit and write this in the bay window of our flat the sun is streaming through the window (albeit making it a little hard for me to see my screen) and it looks like it's going to be a wonderful day.

This Peacock butterfly has been out enjoying the sunshine

We welcomed our parents (both mine and Vic's) down for a few days a week or so ago (IT'S JUST STARTED THROWING IT DOWN WITH RAIN OUTSIDE...WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!) and we had a great few days exploring some of the local areas. Probably the highlight was a trip on the "Round Robin", a train, boat and bus trip that runs in a triangle between Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes.

The train on it's way between Paington and Dartmouth

There was plenty of good food eaten over the course of the few days, and numerous stops for cakes and ice creams in most of the places that we went to visit.

Enjoying a sunny afternoon on the boat between Dartmouth and Totnes

We have this week officially entered ourselves for the Cockington Caper, a 10km run which will take place in July. We have started following a training schedule which should help us to build up our performance ahead of the big race, and so far things are going well. The training becomes slightly more demanding next week and so we'll see how I feel after that!

This weeks slightly odd news story comes from Turkey, where it seems one broadcasting station failed to do their homework on this game show contestant!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27349394 

See you all again soon!

Week Ending 13/04/2014

Wow! Here we are in April already, and again it's a couple of weeks since I have been able to get round to blogging.

We have now officially moved into our new accommodation, and I have the pleasure of looking out across the beach and the bay each morning as I sip my coffee and eat my breakfast. While I do in some ways miss our little quirky caravan, I am rather enjoying having a little more space and a solid building with plumbed in heating.

The upstairs flat of this building is our new home!

Work as normal has been pretty busy, and this last week we have been running one of our ever popular children's trails as it is currently their Easter holidays. Over the 4 days that the trail ran we had nearly 1,000 paying customers, and so I think that we can again class this one as a success.

The theme on this occasion was Wonderland at Occombe (essentially Alice in Wonderland avoiding copyright issues) and as per normal a series of challenges that our team built lined the way ending with a chocolate prize for the kids.

As per usual dressing up was on the cards, and I spent most of my time dressed as the Mad Hatter. The character is nearly a perfect match for my personality, and so I spent many an hour spouting nonsense at a load of children and running around like an idiot.

Dressed as the mad hatter with a girl who has just finished the trail

Vicky and the other girls also filled the role of the Queen of Hearts, and although I was spared this role a dare on the final day to wear the dress around the farm did see me don the outfit for a few hilarious minutes. You can't say that we don't have a good team spirit in our little group!

We have had some new additions to the farm since I last blogged. 10 young quails have been introduced as an extra element for the children to see, and in about a fortnights time we will also be getting a new batch of little piglets too!

Cute little quails!

I have now completed all of the work required for my level 2 diploma, and I will now just have to wait to have it marked. Vicky is not far behind, and so hopefully by the end of April we will know how we have done (fingers crossed).

This week's news story comes from New Zealand where miraculously an engagement ring that was lost in the sea has made it's way home...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26920809

See you next time :)

Week Ending 23rd March 2014. Catch up time!

Apologies that it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but things have been just a little bit hectic lately!

So, since my last blog we have started our new trainee placement at the farm and so far it has been a busy but enjoyable few weeks. Vicky and I have teamed up with 2 girls called Emily and Jenny, and together we will make up the voluntary education team here at the farm. There is a good team spirit around the office and so hopefully we will all have a great summer together. 

Hopefully all being well we will be moving into our new accommodation tomorrow, so we will be living right by the beach for the next 8 months which will make a very welcome change!

The first few weeks of the new placement have been mainly getting the farm ready for the upcoming season. I have finally had the chance to fill in the drainage ditch that I made behind the Anderson Shelter quite some time ago, and directly next to this we have now leveled the ground as we are going to be introducing a couple of bee hives to the farm too!

A few photos of the Anderson Shelter for those who wanted to see more previously

Don't think we can fit 150 people into ours!

The inside is also getting some TLC after a tough winter. I love the old fashioned wireless at the top at the far end.

We have also made a lot of effort to get the "wartime garden" ready for the coming season. All of the growing beds have been re-edged and dug ready for planting, and we have even added a few new beds for extra space. All of the crops that will be planted in the garden will have been grown during the war, and we have developed a crop rotation plan for future years according to a dig for victory poster that we have at the farm. All of the children that come with their school to do WW2 cookery will be able to pick some of this veg and use it in their cooking project.

Part of the "wartime garden" before work started

Our level 2 diploma is very nearly at it's end now, and indeed I am half way through the final assignment. While I have enjoyed the course incredibly, I will be ready to have a little bit more time where I don't have to feel guilty about not working all the time! We have also started several units of a level 3 diploma with the trust, and it will be interesting to see how those develop as we go.

This weeks news story comes from right here in the UK, and is all about a pair of guide dogs who found their owners love... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-26705194

See you next time :)

Week Ending 2nd March 2014

And so we find ourselves in March already, and most of this week has been spent gearing up to start our new placement at Occombe Farm tomorrow. The week has flown by, and we have once again spent large chunks of it studying away!

We had been hoping to complete the course before taking on the new position, but alas we've not quite been able to do it. As we will be taking on more units of a Level 3 diploma as part of our new placement it looks like we may be working a 37.5 hour week as well as trying to study 2 diplomas simultaneously! Nobody can say that we do things the easy way!

At least there is not far to go with the current diploma, as we are currently mid way through the final unit. Probably around another 4 weeks and we will be there. We will have packed a 12 month course into 6 months, and as such we only have to pay half of the year's tuition fees which is a bonus!

The most exciting moment of the week was had over at Berry Head, where we went to help release a few Guillemots and Razorbills that had been contaminated with oil following the recent storms. They had been rehabilitated by the RSPCA and after several weeks rest were ready to make their way back out into the wild again. Vicky helped release some of the birds from their boxes, while I took up my position alongside the BBC camera crew to get a few snaps of the action.

These 3 weren't in a hurry to go anywhere!

Most of the birds immediately flew away off of the cliffs, while others seemed keen to hang around for a bit of publicity before making their way off out to sea. Hopefully the conditions out there will treat them a bit better this time around!

A Razorbill (near left) and 2 Guillemots freshly released

A short video of one of the releases is available here: Guillemot Release

Amusing stories have seemed a little light on the ground this week, but the idea of this potential new sport made me smile....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26270603

Have a good week everybody!

Week Ending 23rd February 2014

The couple of weeks since I last blogged have been certainly some of the busiest, but equally possibly the least exciting in recent history.

The good news that comes out of all of it is that Vicky and I have both been accepted to stay and complete a full 9 month training post with at Occombe Farm, which puts to bed weeks of speculation over what was going to happen next. We didn't find out until our very last day of work, which meant that had we not been selected to stay we would have had to pack our caravan and move out in the space of one evening! Fortunately though we needn't pack anything just yet, and although we will be moving to new accommodation (this time actually made of bricks and mortar, and with a sea view!) that will be a gradual process over the coming weeks.

Most of our recent days have been pretty boring to the outsider as we have sat in our office studying, writing essays and presentations to try and finish our diploma. Indeed some nights, having arrived in the office at 8.30am, we haven't left until 1.30am the following morning (with suitable breaks to check on the score of the curling though!).

The half term week saw us help out with the children's trail that the farm was hosting. While it was still very busy, with around 470 children taking part, it wasn't half as bad as the 1100 children that attended the Halloween trail in the October half term. The recent weather I don't doubt will have played some part in that, with some parts of the trail now looking more like a pig wallow than a woodland!

As per normal dressing up for the kid's trail was compulsory!

We did manage a short trip home (only back for a day and a half) to celebrate Vicky's Dad's 65th birthday, and 14 other family members also battled their way through the horrid driving conditions to be there on the day as well. The food at the restaurant we chose was great though and a great time was had by all. 

The last 2 days have been a revelation as we have finally achieved 24 hours without rain! We took a break yesterday from the relentless studying to go for a walk down to Cockington Country Park. While snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils have been evident for a few weeks now (such has been the mildness of the winter), we were still not expecting to be seeing bees and butterflies yet which are now already starting to make an appearance! Let's hope we don't get a bad cold spell come along and kill them all off.

The rangers have been busy clearing the paths between Occombe and Cockington

This weeks news story comes from the USA. This has got to be the most over the top way to deal with a vending machine that didn't quite work properly. Enjoy....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26282532

See you next time :)

Week Ending 9th February 2014

So here we are, into our final week at Occombe Farm! 

The last week has once again brought more than it's fair share of rain, and if it carries on at this rate I could be asking for snorkeling equipment for my birthday this year!

Although it has been wet it has in truth been an incredibly busy week, and all said and done I only worked one day actually at the farm.

This little Great Tit made the most of a break in the rain!

Throughout the week Vic and I have been helping to run a teacher training course down at Warren Barn, our local bunkhouse residential site. People have come from across the area to stay for the week and learn all of the information and skills that they will need to teach children about the marine environment, and over the next number of months they will put what they have learnt into a diploma style scheme in order to achieve a qualification.

We've looked at recreational uses for the marine world, looked into the processes and feasability of sustainable fishing, covered rock pooling techniques and identification skills and most importantly how to keep everybody safe while they are by the sea.

On Wednesday Vic and I went to Honiton where we spent the day taking a course in riding All Terrain Vehicles, quad bikes in this case. It's surprising how many jobs require you to be able to use one of these, especially if they cover a large area or have awkward terrain.

In keeping with the rest of the week the weather was terrible on the day, and a 40 minute journey ended up taking us over 2 hours with the number of roads blocked by trees, floods and power cables. Driving slightly further afield from the farm really highlighted how luckily we've got away with the recent bad weather, as we have no rivers to burst their banks and we are a couple of miles from the sea. Some of the fields we were passing were under 4 or 5 feet of water, and in most cases the very tops of fence posts sticking out of the water were the only indication that the water was not supposed to be there.

Despite spending all day riding the bikes around in the rain and hail, we did enjoy ourselves and our waterproofs actually kept us bone dry! Both of us passing the course was obviously the main priority, and our aching bodies were very relieved when he handed us the forms to say that we had passed!

Through the rain spotted lens 2 very wet riders heading back to the dry and warm office

So this week the Winter Olympics in Sochi got under way, and congratulations must go to Jenny Jones who has won Britain's first ever medal in an event held on snow. Well done Jenny! 
Some of the athletes haven't been impressed with their accommodation in the Olympic village though, and among them is Johnny Quinn whose bobsleigh training earns him the honour of making it into my amusing story of the week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26096612 

See you all next time!

Week Ending 2nd February 2014

It's February already, and I've spent most of the week wondering where the last 5 months have gone since we arrived here at Occombe! We have only 2 weeks remaining on our contracts here and the future is still not really any clearer.

The rain has continued to fall most days, washing away the paths around the farm yet again. At least the ducks seem to be enjoying themselves! Needless to say that the drainage ditch project from the Anderson shelter is still not finished, and with preparations for the farm's next children's event in full swing it seems to  be sliding even further down the priority list!

Vicky and I went to Berry Head (a local nature reserve run by the Trust) for our biggest project of the week. Our diploma requires us to complete a practical habitat improvement task which we then have to report on, and so we chose to go and lend the Berry Head team a hand in clearing some of their heathland which has become overgrown.

Before: Very overgrown and inaccessible

Lowland heathland of this nature is now a scarce habitat in the UK, although what we do have makes up 20% of the entire world's lowland heathland area. By using brushcutters and a variety of other tools, we systematically removed all of the scrub that had grown across the area to allow the heather (which is currently lying dormant under the soil) the light and space that it will require to regrow. 

After: Back to bare earth so that the heather can regrow

All of the removed scrub was burnt in a controlled fire, to avoid it rotting down and adding unwanted nutrients to the area. 

This morning saw the first real patch of sun that we had seen all week, and being our day off we decided to take a slow walk through the meadows and the forest around the farm to see what bird life we could find. 

This Pheasant was trying his luck for any food dropping from the feeders above

At the bottom of the orchard we were privileged to see a male Cirl Bunting (a very rare bird in the UK whose distribution is limited to the south coastal region of Devon). 2 Goldcrests (the UK's smallest bird), a Heron, a Green Woodpecker and a male Pheasant were all on the mornings sightings list along with many of the common birds that are seen in their hundreds around here.

This Green Woodpecker's loud call gave his hiding place away!

This weeks amusing news story comes from America, and goes to show how far a man's love for his motorcycle can take him...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25987743

See you all next time :)

Week Ending 26th January 2014

It's the end of what has been a mentally rather than physically tiring week for us down in Devon.

Most of our spare time has been dominated by the question of what happens once our last 3 weeks here at Occombe are finished. For several weeks now we've been trawling through the job adverts weighing up pros against cons, and trying to judge whether swings or roundabouts are better for you. The answer after all of this soul searching is still not clear.

It's especially difficult when your head and your heart constantly pull you in opposing directions, and you are never quite sure which one to listen to. We've now sent in applications for a couple of different jobs (including one to stay here at Occombe), and I guess we'll just have to see how they get on. Sod's law is the one that we want the most is the one that's last to recruit, and so we may take another job only to find that we could have got the one we wanted. Equally if we turn down another offer first there's no guarantee that we'll even get an interview for it!

Whatever happens I'm sure we will have fun whichever direction we go in, and the only truly bad situation would be that we end up with none of them! 

Going for a walk through the woods

Our drainage trench at the back of the Anderson Shelter is still not completed as the flooding did not subside until the middle of the week, and pressures on out time meant that other things had to take priority when the weather actually did play ball! When it is finished (and the rain stops for long enough to get the camera out) I will take a couple of photos of the shelter and pop them on here as I know a few of you are keen to see it.

This week has seen us down at the seaside for a couple of days, with a coastal geography lesson on the cards for a few groups of school children. We have been helping them to discover the problems of coastal erosion by making them build a mini Torbay coastline out of sand, which is then subjected to some imitation waves (courtesy of a bucket of sea water). The challenge for the children is then to rebuild their model, but this time with coastal defences (such as sea walls built of rocks and stones) and we compare what differences their defences make to the erosion that their model suffers.

On another day we were filmed taking a small group of children rock pooling as part of a new promotional video for the Trust. So before too long there will be such a video out there on the internet with both of us being interviewed!

The great office reshuffle of 2014 is still in full swing, and much of our time has been taken by helping to pack up various offices and all their resources and move them to a new location (normally to find that the builders haven't quite finished yet!). 

This last weekend we got a chance to catch up with our friend Stuart with whom we worked on Flat Holm. Stu is now a trainee with the Devon Wildlife Trust living just up the road from us outside of Exeter. A few drinks were enjoyed by all as we caught up on our latest escapades!

Wildlife sightings have been few and far between this week with most of the animals doing the sensible thing for once and staying out of the rain! There were still a few birds down at the hide though where I was trying to keep myself dry during one of the showers!

A Bull Finch and a Blue Tit enjoying some sunflower seeds

This weeks news story is all about birds and comes from the Vatican. The white doves that the Pope releases are of course a well known sign of peace. However a Herring Gull and a Crow show what they think of this display of peace. They always say never work with animals....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25905108

See you next time! 

Week Ending 19th January 2014

It's been a quiet (and rainy) week here at Occombe Farm, with very few people tempted to come out in the bad weather. The weather continues to be remarkably mild for this time of year, although one day this week did bring quite a crisp frost with it.

The frosted details on the leaves looked amazing!

The main task of the week has actually been prompted by the bad weather, as the Anderson shelter in our wartime garden has been continuously flooding in the heavy rain. With anywhere up to 2 feet of water inside it has remained off limits to the public for quite some time, and so the decision was made to install a drainage system.

With the shelter already being buried half way into the ground there was a lot of digging involved to simply reach the base of the shelter where the pipe would be installed, followed by an even deeper trench that the pipe would then run off into. Finally even more digging would then create a soak away at the end of the pipe to take away all the water. The largest issue came in the form of the ground already being saturated, making the heavy clay soil here even heavier.

The start of the great dig, before the monsoon that followed around an hour later!

With the rain continually falling while we were digging the trench began to fill up around us, with our bailing out efforts not keeping pace with the water coming in! After 4 days of battling the elements we had to accept that the weather would have to improve and the water subside before we can finish the job. At the time of writing the water level is still an inch or so above the top of the trench, so finishing the job tomorrow is not looking likely!

Despite the bad weather, the birds have still been out in force with flocks of redwings, several herons and woodpeckers all being spotted on the farm.

Great Spotted Woodpecker hiding in the tree

Green Woodpecker down on the ground searching for ants

While the squirrels may be a nuisance eating all of the bird food they are still pretty cute!

Our application to work on the Calf of Man has unfortunately been unsuccessful. After making the shortlist we were not selected for an interview, but it is good to know that we are not falling at the first hurdle for these types of  job now. We still have a couple more irons in the fire so to speak, and we will wait and see what comes of them. 

This weeks odd news story comes from Japan, and highlights an old tradition for bridegrooms that I am glad we do not have in this country!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-25777727

See you next time!