A slight gap in blogging, sorry, but it is due partly to busy life and partly because there was nothing obvious to blog about, and we don't want to blog for the sake of it.

But this time something for us that was remarkable. As some will know we use a camera-trap to monitor the garden, and particular any nighttime action. Recently we have had very regular captures of fox and badger on most nights somewhere in the garden, and sometimes hedgehog. 

Now we have always been a bit worried that badger and hedgehog don't mix ... badgers are known to attack and eat hedgehogs ... at least that's what we've heard. Which brings us to some recent video. We set the camera to view a little bit of shrubbery by the end of the main house patio area. We put it here because deep in the shrubs is a hedgehog house put there in the hope we might attract a hedgehog. We know we have one or more, but the question was are they using this purpose built "house". So just outside the place where it sits we put the camera.

And we caught lots of action, fox, badger, hedgehog and even (need a separate post) a wee mouse (we think wood mouse). We also know the many cats who wander through often sit and stare in to this area. Well the reason many come is seed - above in the shrubs we had had a bird feeder and the much-spilled seed is deep in the grass there. Equally clearly, badger, hedgehog and mouse all love this.

But the unusual  - for us dramatic - sequence was when a lovely few videos of hedgehog munching away, then becomes a series of videos with a young badger right in there beside it. For a scary moment we thought a soon-to-be-seen video might capture some ugly scene. But no. The hedgehog just hunches down (does not fully roll up) and stays still, for something like 7 minutes while the badger snuffles away at the seed - seemingly oblivious of, or certainly disinterested in the hedgehog. When the badger has moved on, the hedgehog stays still a few minutes longer, and then, seemingly unperturbed, carries on eating itself.

​So here for you enjoyment are are a few of the 20 second videos - before, during and after.

BEFORE - happy hedgehog

UH-OH - someone is coming

NOW - happy badger time

AFTER - happy hedgehog again ... wholly unperturbed by the encounter

Maybe it was that prolonged and unseasonal cold spell through April and in to May, but the pent up energy of nature seems to have finally burst forth this year. The Gorge View garden seems bursting with blooms. And the bees are loving it!

At first we were very worried to not see that many bees around and were concerned that the extended cold spell had hit their populations. But, at least here, the bee business has got back to normal albeit belatedly.

So as we wander the garden there are places where the noise of the bees if remarkable. Looking closely at flowering shrubs like the deep purple-blue Ceanothus (I had to ask Mary for the name!) you see it is covered in bees of all sort: honey bees of course, but a range of bumblebees (I love their Latin genus name of 'Bombus' - so appropriate), and solitary bees such as the Red Mason Bee.

Another amazing flower is the Passion Flower (see top photo). Mary planted ours on the front corner of the house years ago and it did nothing. We thought it was dying. But then, a few years back, it finally started to grow. And grow and grow. And now it is ballooning out and overtaking the thrusting Wisteria and the long-established Virgina Creeper. The flowers are extraordinarily complex, delicate and beautiful, and the knot of twisting green stems have amazingly tangly tendrils to help catch on to any support available. The bees love the flowers. Often you find a clustered mix of bees all feeding of one flower (and with no fighting). And whilst the 25 foot high tangle of the plant is covered in buds, at any one time only a few flowers pop out for a short but wondrous few days. After the late hard freeze in April the plant suffered badly, was brown leaved and looked very poorly. But within a month the health is back and the bees are tucking in to the nectar again.

They work so hard those bees - busily working before we are up and still going late in to the evening. Phew. We get so much value from these little workers and so it was a relief to hear that the EU has (after long deliberations and lots of lobbying from the agri-chemical industries) outlawed the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that have a hugely detrimental affect on the pollinator populations. They all still face other huge challenges, but at least one step has been taken to help them. Care for nature aside their contribution (for free) has massive economic value, but of course big business cannot grab that effort for profit.

​Anyway this was not meant to be a rant, more a celebration of the beauty of the blooms in our garden. Enjoy the photos.

A few weeks ago we were surprised but delighted to get a visit from our neighbours in Cheddar Gorge. No-one (person that is) actually lives in the gorge, but it is well populated with goats and sheep. The goats were released in to the gorge area to keep down the scrub and whilst they have done a good job of that they've basically gone feral and the population is pretty large. The sheep are Soay an ancient British breed that are also fairly feral.
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Most days you can bump in to the goats and sheep (almost literally) as you drive the gorge road, early morning or late evening when they are down nibbling the verges. Seemingly completely oblivious to cars bearing down on them (and at this time of year) their babies. Luckily I have never seen any sad roadkill so it all works.

Anyway it seems that their populations are growing so much that they are looking further afield for good food. And last year for the first time in most people's memory a few ventured in to the upper village and raided the gardens. It seems they have a strong liking for tulips and a couple of neighbours were very annoyed to have their spring beauties systematically eaten. And now it is happening a second year, and we had a few visits.

This particular mother and her lamb (kid?) seem a regular in Birch Hill and a number of neighbours have tried to shepherd them back to the gorge. Luckily for us we don't have any tulips and nothing at the moment in the garden that would be a huge frustration if it got nibbled.

If you come and stay at the cottage we cannot guarantee any close-up encounters on the cottage patio, but if you do the gorge walk then you'll almost certainly spot some sheep and goats. Some of the billy goats are very impressive with long goatee beards. You will probably also smell them from a distance - the goats have a very soured goat milk odour!

Pretty much anyone in the UK, or indeed Europe, has been experiencing some of the most wintery weather we've experienced in many years. To start with, here in Somerset, we were just suffering the cold temperatures, and in particular the biting wind.

And then suddenly Somerset was in first an amber and then a red weather warning area as storm Emma drove moist air up in to the cold air mass over Britain, and the two weather systems colliding whipped up the winds even more.


In fact because of the winds the snow was not "deep and crisp and even", but much more variable. Birch Hill outside the cottage was pretty much clear of snow whilst in the garden and anywhere, the winds eddied around, the snow piled up in deep drifts. All in all we probably got 6 to 8 inches on average. And certainly it all looked lovely.

For possibly a day on the Thursday/Friday we were snowed in as far as vehicles went (no 4-wheel drive available). Birch Hill at the one end has a short steep bit that was too much for normal cars. But there are two flatter routes in that work fine if taken gently. But why drive if you can walk? So we did enjoy walking down to the village a few times with the roads largely to ourselves as most people heeded the advice to not go out if they did not need to.

And now on Saturday it is all thawing quite fast. The worst is over and life around us is returning to normal.

The snow itself has been rather wonderful as it drapes across the gorge slopes and the trees and the cottages. The nastier thing has been the easterly winds, and whilst the cottage has been solid throughout, and snug with underfloor heating and the log stove if wanted, our house has had two tiles ripped off and we're getting them fixed ASAP (but not for a few days  - so no rain, please). That is the first time in 15 years here that we have experienced any storm damage and it says a lot about the strength of the gusts. Not that we are complaining. Despite the dire predictions we have not suffered in any serious way and we know further afield many have.

Must stop now and finish the snowman!

We're really pleased that the wildlife in the garden keeps growing. Lots of birds & bees of a wide variety, the badgers, foxes and hedgehogs, the frogs and toads and insects that love our ponds, the ladybirds eating the aphids on the veg, and even the slow worms. Now we have a new arrival on the block. Mary was just about to chuck some cuttings on top of one of our compost heaps when she jumped back with surprise. Basking in the sun was a beautiful Grass Snake (see picture). We got a photo or two as (s)he stayed perfectly still (playing dead?) yet keeping a beady eye on us. Finally enough was enough and the snake slid away. One more sighting a few days later this time in the weedy edges of the pathways through our veg plot.

We did have to check this was not an Adder (they're the one venomous native snake in the UK but rarely seen (very shy) and even more rarely in gardens. In all my life I have only glimpsed three Adders and then briefly as they quickly slide off. But no, this was definitely a Grass Snake, which is non-venomous. Apparently they can grow to two meters long. We reckon this one was about 2-3 feet in length, so maybe still youngish. Their one defence, a last resort as they prefer to keep away, is to excrete a smelly garlic-like fluid from their bottoms. Hmmm, something to avoid!

So - happy as we are to have this newcomer, we are also a bit concerned because the main thing Grass Snakes like to dine out on is frogs and toads. We have a very healthy population in our big pond, small pond and polytunnel pond, all helping to keep the slugs at bay. We'd be pretty unhappy if they all got gobbled up but hopefully the whole food chain should keep in some form of balance.

I am at risk of becoming a video blog bore as I feel I must post another two videos of recent four legged visitors. This spate of night camera positioning came after a delightful discovery of not one but two hedgehogs. Driving up at 9.30 in the evening after dinner out with our visiting daughter and husband she spotted a hedgehog in our drive. I am glad she did as reversing in could have been a bit deadly. Mary duly picked the wee beastie up and plonked it in our garden the other side of the gate. At first it wanted to go back on to the drive but the gate seemed to block it.

Just a few minutes later whilst studying the first we noticed a second hedgehog also nearby the gate. This was becoming bizarre. But because they kept trying to move through the gate to the drive, Mary once again picked them up (and yes they are very prickly) and huffing and snorting (the hedgehogs not Mary) she took them much deeper in to the garden and fed them a little cat food we keep.

And so I set up my trail camera on the patio/gate area to see if they would return and try and escape that way. And sure enough we caught some lovely videos, one below, with the long spindly legs of a hedgehog-in-motion very nicely shown.

Next morning we did check with our lovely neighbour, June, who works at Prickles Hedgehog Rescue (the charity we support from each cottage booking). She had mentioned just the day before that she had homed two or three new hedgehogs because Prickles was desperate to move some recovered hedgehogs out. Were these our visitors? It seems not because hers were still in their boxes.

And finally the video also caught another regular visitor - well another pair. Two of the young badgers. We'd wondered where they come from to go through our garden - and clearly it is the lane. One of them has a little trouble gate vaulting, but they are surprisingly nimble.

Do enjoy these two videos.

Any of you who read the blogs from last year will know that a lovely present I got was a trail camera, the sort of thing now popular with some wildlife programmes as they stake out places to photo or video wildlife. Mine was fine for the first two years but then started to hardly capture anything: either wildlife was in our garden was taking a nose-dive or the technology was dying. Well the latter was the case, and yet the makers (Bushnell) did offer a good replacement deal despite the first camera being well beyond warranty. The new camera is even better, and we are happy to say that, having staked out the garden this last week, we have lots of badger activity, the odd tatty fox, and much to our relief because we'd seen no signs recently, a hedgehog. Some clips below.
The badgers have been active almost nightly passing through the garden, and indeed one night at about 10.30pm Mary was out and saw three young badgers exploring at the end of the garden. We've caught them on camera but only two at most on our house patio.
Anyway enjoy these video and hopefully if we get anything particularly good we'll post some more.

I don't often mention guests specifically in this blog but I am making an exception. This last week our guests were Lucille (Lucy) Campeanu and her partner Gino from Australia. They were here for 9 days and managed to pack in a lot in that time including two separate circuits of the Gorge Walk, visits to Wells, Glastonbury and Bath Spa where they literally enjoyed the spa - the new-ish Thermae Bath Spa facility which includes a rooftop pool where you can gaze at Bath Abbey nearby.

They also made it to Stonehenge and took part in one of the special groups allowed in to the stones themselves (normally off-limits) for sunrise. Pretty special but made the more-so by them being in the area when a magical crop circle appeared overnight. A huge 7-pointed star: you can see the images here.

Anyway they also managed some quiet time back at the cottage and because Lucy is amongst other things a creative coach and artist she had chosen to document their travels in England and afterwards in France with an "art journal", images of which she has been posting and "vlogging" on her Facebook page as she goes along. We were particularly taken by the two paintings she did in her journal of the cottage and the patio view to the garden. They are below and you can get a lot more of this by checking out Lucy's FB page here:

                                                           www.facebook.com/artshedangel 

​Another lovely idea of lucy's was bringing with her some painted "Peace Rocks", and then leaving them in various places along their travels. Each has simple instructions on the back encouraging the finders to adopt the rocks for the next part of their own travels and then to leave the rock in turn for others to find - but not before photographing them in their new location and posting this up on Lucy's FB page for her to track their slow migration.

So a different take on how to capture your journey. And do keep you eyes open for a Peace Rock as you travel around.

Of course it is lovely to see the gorge, and our garden, change as the year progresses and the wheel of seasons turns. Yet I have to admit that I love our garden best in May and in to June when then the colours and scents of the flowers are best and the bees and birds are all around.
The scent in our garden mostly comes from huge unruly clumps of Honeysuckle, which not only look delicate and colourful but come the evening they kick out a cloud of scent you cannot fail to be hit with as you wander close by. Of course they do this to attract the pollinators and they seem to love it too. We gain in both ways.

This is to celebrate Mary's up-cycling passion, applied to her even bigger passion for growing things. Firstly you need to know that Mary drinks a lot of water. Whilst at home she now drinks our own rainwater (quality filtered), however if we are away for a weekend she will not just buy a normal bottle of water but a big five litre job. They don't go to waste, they come home with us.
Now turn to the the garden and at this time of year Mary is planting out the baby veg plants she has grown from seed in the safety of the polytunnel. But it can be cold, and it can be windy. Not good for little delicate things like her small broad bean plants. So out come the water containers, bottoms already cut off, and they get well dug down in to the mulch layer. One pot over each plant giving them in effect their own little greenhouse. Of course if the sun shines a lot then off they have to come in case the plants fry, and back on for the night. But that's all in a days work for someone tuned in to all things growing, unlike Huw who seems to have a little blind spot at times!
[This blog updated as I struggle to get  auto-stare to Facebook]