"So many birds on the feeders at Wattlebury Cottage this past week, Gordon. Lots of little blue tits, great tits, a coal tit yesterday and of course the Starling Gang who vie for the peanuts and Fatballs with the Wilf, the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. Robin, chaffinches, sparrows, pigeons. So many!" Mum told me.
​I nodded in agreement. It has turned cold and their supply of bugs, berries and insects have become scarce. 
​"In 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' at the beginning of December in 1906, Edith Holden wrote:
​'[1st December] For many weeks past the birds have been coming to be fed in the mornings. Today I put out a cocoa-nut, to the great joy of all the Tom-tits, numbers of them were pecking away at it all through the day - mostly Blue-tits.
​[7th December] Crowds of birds came to be fed this morning. There were great battles among the Tits over the cocoa-nut, and once a robin got right into it and refused to let the Tits approach, until he had had all he wanted. I don't think the Robins really care for cocoa-nut; but they don't like to see the Tits enjoying anything, without claiming a share.'
Very little has changed in 111 years then Gordon - only the spelling of coconut possibly!"

Moving on from the sometimes rather gloomy blog of yesterday, I was delighted to be able to point out to the youngsters that spring was really just around the corner. It was a beautiful sunny day at Wattlebury and the catkins were already dancing on the hazel tree.

​We could see buds everywhere once we started looking for them although I explained that if we had a hard winter (perish the thought) - they would wait until the weather warms up before starting to sprout their new leaves.
​Little Dixie and Dougie spotted a rather intimidating sticky bud as it pointed it's shiny finger down at them. 
​"What tree is that, Uncle Gordon?" Dougie asked.
​I explained that it was a Horse Chestnut Tree and of course, being inquisitive, they wanted to know why it was called that. 

I told them that the leaf stalks leave a scar on the twig when they fall, which resembles an inverted horse shoe with nail holes. This association with horses could explain why conkers used to be ground up and fed to horses to relieve them of coughs, and could be the origin of the tree's name. 
​Their curiosity now unleashed, they wanted to know more. So I continued and told them that the Horse chestnut is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to the Balkan peninsula. It was first introduced from Turkey in the late 16th century and widely planted in the UK. A mature tree can grow to a height of around 40m, and can live for up to 300 years. The bark is smooth and pinky grey when young, which darkens and develops scaly plates with age. Twigs are hairless and stout, buds are oval, dark red, shiny and sticky (like the one pointing at you) and  the palmate leaves comprise 5-7 pointed, toothed leaflets spreading from a central stem.
​"Which are great fun to root in!" added Dixie as her friends joined in the fun.

​The flowers appear in May - individual flowers have 4-5 fringed petals, which are white with a pink flush at the base and once pollinated by insects, each flower develops into a glossy red-brown conker inside a spiky green husk, which falls in autumn. 
"Yes! We loved playing with those" Digby enthused. 
​I reminded him of his Great Uncle William the Conkerer who was a dab claw at the game, the first record of which was from the Isle of Wight in 1848. Other uses of the conkers besides horse medicines, are as additives in shampoos and as a starch substitute. Chemicals extracted from conkers can be used to treat strains and bruises. And deer and other mammals like eating conkers.
​"Why are there so many bees and birds buzzing around the flowers in the spring?" asked little Dolly.
I went on to explain that the flowers provide a rich source of nectar and pollen to insects, particularly the bees. Caterpillars of the triangle moth feed on its leaves, as well as the horse chestnut leaf miner moth, whose caterpillars provide food for blue tits. 
​As an afterthought, I added that the horse chestnut leaf miner can occur on trees in huge numbers, causing the foliage to turn brown and fall early. We have often seen this happen to the trees on Wattlebury Hill - but there is no evidence to suggest this harms the trees, as most of the damage occurs later in the season.​

We have had a mixture of weather this November, which isn't unusual as Novembers are often like that. We have had drizzle and fog; strong warm winds from the south-west; strong cold winds from the north-west; bright days and dull days; sharp frosts and ice. And in 28 days, from seeing the trees still in full foliage, they are now practically bare. Even the most resilient oaks that stalwartly  hang on to their bronze  leaves are looking decidedly stark and the once green bracken fronds are now pale yellow. They make the dark bramble leaves along the path to Wattlebury village look even darker.
​Our friend Robin is noticeable by his presence - ever upbeat and Solomon Song Thrush lifts your spirits  as he sings so beautifully to brighten the shortening days. Mr and Mrs Blackbird too are still darting low across the path enjoying the last of the autumn berries.   

We are lucky in having a ready supply of food dished out to us on a daily basis, but we do like to visit Nan and Grandad at the kitchen window for warm toast in the mornings. Gordon xxx

It is raining. Mum had scurried around feeding us early this morning after having read the local weather forecast. Unfortunately she sang at the top of her voice as she fed us. It seems to make her go faster.
​"Oh there you are!" she peered in to Pauly and Lucy's box where we were sheltering. Pauly was in a good mood - luckily for us - and allowed us all to join her in the warm and dry of her stable (and library).
​"Today is Cyber Monday" Mum announced, quite out of the blue. 
​Old Bob the Buff Orpington misheard and started preening himself ready to head off to The Pooch and Pullet for a pint of scrumpy.
​"What does Cyber mean, Gordon?" Mum asked.
​I didn't have a clue.
​Luckily Pauly overheard and rooted in her reference section in order to extract a fairly  unscathed encyclopedia.
"Cyber is a prefix used to describe a person, thing or idea as part of the computer and information age. Taken from kybernetes, Greek for "steersman" or "governor," it was first used in cybernetics, a word coined by Norbert Wiener and his colleagues."
​We all were immensely grateful for this most revealing and earthshattering information delivered by Pauly, who was still in a good mood.
​"Today is the big online shopping day before Christmas. Deals and things. Discounts. Bargains. People are predicted to spend millions of pounds shopping on the internet. And I wonder how much shopping will be done on work computers in work hours?" Mum mused.
​"Who is Norman Wiener?" asked Dandy.
Trust him.
​Shaking the straw from another tome, Pauly cleared her throat in a rather frightening way.
​"He  was an American mathematician and philosopher. A very clever man it says here. He became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication and control systems. A scientific genius - he laid the  groundwork for the last half-century of art, literature and electronic music."
Wow! Hats off to Norman! But it was all too much for Old Bob to take in and he shuffled off to The Pooch and Pullet anyway. Gordon xxx