I have put up shelves throughout the house, organised the roof and done a litter pick on my local green 'patch' (in preparation for making camps, fishing and general father-child bonding).
The litter pick has been a protracted affair, starting over Christmas/New Year and rumbling on. The final hurdle was moving the piles to near a road so that the 'nice man' from the council could come and take them away.I have just been laid low with flu (real flu, not man flu) and this was a job that I was keen to 'tick off' this weekend now that I am beginning to feel human again.
Thankfully the locals seemed to be grateful and didn't protest when I started piling up stuff outside their houses ready for collection.
An added bonus during the process was a visit from my little boy, Tibs. I knew that this was part of his territory, having met him down here once before. On this occasion he was very sweet company and took great pride in showing me the branch that he uses to cross the stream.
Having cleaned up this patch, the next job is to get up nest boxes (asap) before the birds start nesting. I found time today to buy some plywood from Wickes, so hopefully I can get these made during this week and put them up at the weekend. Part of the plan, hopefully, is to participate in the BTO's Nest Recording Scheme (monitoring what nests, when they lay eggs, what hatches etc). This little valley has breeding blackcap and willow warbler, so perhaps I'll even find their nests...
That's it for now.
