Redstart Village

Wow! What a day we have had today, you will have to humour me because there will be rather a lot of photos. We have been very fortunate that our new neighbour came round to give us a hand because he can't do anything at his place because the ground is too wet. How lucky are we? It's difficult to explain where the wall and window was going but I will post this photo and see if it shows you how big a project we have. You see we have a massive open space in the front which is the next project and the one at the back of this photo is where they have been working today. This is the place that takes all the weather so the sooner we get this wall and window in the better and would you believe, the wall is in and the window will go in tomorrow. What a difference having an expert on the job makes, he made it look so easy and Richard was as pleased as punch knocking up the cement and keeping him supplied. As you can see it's all finished and setting ready for tomorrow and then once the window is in, we will "crepe" the outside to match the rest of it, that will be with mud and stones. I just can't believe that this has been done in a day, we were really worrying about it and then this wonderful man comes along and helps us. We feed him and let him use the shower and then when the weather is good, Richard is going to help him get his footings in for his house. Richard will once again keep him supplied with cement etc. I love this bartering, especially for time, such a help.

Now the reason for the heading of this post........ While the men were building this wall, they called me to come and have a look. First of all our swallows were starting to build in one of the old nests which would end up right in the middle of the bedroom and would be sealed in by the ceiling, so we managed to take that one down before they got started. That was bad enough, but then they said, come and have a look at these. There they are, a little street of Redstart nests, 3 of them, I don't know if you can see them in the photo, but there are 2 this side and one the other. What on earth do we do? Richard said we could possible leave the window out this side and let them have 1 brood then we will have to take the nests down. These little redstarts are adorable with their little wagging tails. We also have a black redstart at the other end of the barn, but that's quite safe there.

Lastly I planted up 4 more of my herb pots so I now only have one space to fill. I would like some basil for this one but I will have to wait a little while just to make sure the frosts have gone because I don't want to lose it. Hopefully it will look a little more established soon. I now have mint, thyme, sage, rosemary and the garlic chives. It was good to be outside again because the weather has been so awful, the pond is overflowing and you can see the frogs swimming on the lawn!!! Mind you, it is supposed to be dry for the next few days so it will soon go down, the ground dries very quickly here. Gosh I seem to have rambled on a bit, sorry about that, I better go now and see if anyone else has rambled the same as me. I love this blogging. :-) Goodnight my new blogging family.