Moving on.
After the flurry of recent results everyone is moving on to the next stage of their education. This year including CJS, for today we say goodbye to HB. It's her last day here with us, after 6 years she's leaving to follow her dream of becoming a nurse. Starting in September it's back to school for her on a health access course before moving onto full medical training.
She has become a valued member of the team and we are sorry to see her leave but wish her well in her future career and we promise we'll try not to muck up her Training Directory!*
We've not given you a nature update for a while so here are just a few notes from the diary.
The swifts came, swooped about and have mostly departed back to Africa, there are still a couple screaming around the house in the evenings. The house martins are on their second brood and there are plenty of swallows across the field. Our tawny owls are conspicuous in their absence, no more sitting on the wires in the gable end but there is at least one family that are heard most evenings in the vicinity. It would appear that tawny owls are not doing so well all over although our local BTO ringer says he's ringed more barnies this year than he ever remembers, ringing around 8 or 9 barnie chicks to every tawny. From the number of youngsters in the garden in the blackbirds and thrushes have had a good year and we have two families of great tits too which is wonderful to see. They're all looking towards the garden bird feeders once more so that means it's time to put the big ones back out again. More good news, the village has seen a big rise in the numbers of hedgehogs and - not so good - in rabbits too! They might explain a recent sighting of a buzzard and the occasional fly through by the peregrines; the sparrowhawks are doing well with on the recent fledgling boom. The garden has suffered in this topsy-turvey year, the poor plants are in a constant state of shifting from high summer temperatures and sunshine to autumn gales and heavy rain. Autumn has certainly arrived earlier than ever with the lords-and-ladies berries already coloured in the hedge bottoms and the rowan berries are not far behind; the apples are flushed and swelling up and the hawthorns are already beginning to turn and the berries are a distinct orange colour hinting at the deep red to come, red berries are decorating the yew outside my office window.
*HB's very worried about this - sh, I haven't told her about our plans.....
She has become a valued member of the team and we are sorry to see her leave but wish her well in her future career and we promise we'll try not to muck up her Training Directory!*
We've not given you a nature update for a while so here are just a few notes from the diary.
The swifts came, swooped about and have mostly departed back to Africa, there are still a couple screaming around the house in the evenings. The house martins are on their second brood and there are plenty of swallows across the field. Our tawny owls are conspicuous in their absence, no more sitting on the wires in the gable end but there is at least one family that are heard most evenings in the vicinity. It would appear that tawny owls are not doing so well all over although our local BTO ringer says he's ringed more barnies this year than he ever remembers, ringing around 8 or 9 barnie chicks to every tawny. From the number of youngsters in the garden in the blackbirds and thrushes have had a good year and we have two families of great tits too which is wonderful to see. They're all looking towards the garden bird feeders once more so that means it's time to put the big ones back out again. More good news, the village has seen a big rise in the numbers of hedgehogs and - not so good - in rabbits too! They might explain a recent sighting of a buzzard and the occasional fly through by the peregrines; the sparrowhawks are doing well with on the recent fledgling boom. The garden has suffered in this topsy-turvey year, the poor plants are in a constant state of shifting from high summer temperatures and sunshine to autumn gales and heavy rain. Autumn has certainly arrived earlier than ever with the lords-and-ladies berries already coloured in the hedge bottoms and the rowan berries are not far behind; the apples are flushed and swelling up and the hawthorns are already beginning to turn and the berries are a distinct orange colour hinting at the deep red to come, red berries are decorating the yew outside my office window.
*HB's very worried about this - sh, I haven't told her about our plans.....