December update

A cold start to the day with icy puddles and frost fringed leaves yet it was t-shirt weather on the beach at Aberdeen just two days ago according to one of my friends. The deer have moved down closer to Milngavie and have started to visit the garden in the morning. The green manure that I wrote about before has been nibbled since I put it in, and today I caught three young deer red-handed. I just left them to it as the patch of largely mustard seems to be coping well with the grazing, and I'd rather they ate the green manure than my new young hedge of beech, hazel and blackthorn. The veggie patch is still providing kale, spinach and chard for our kitchen. The plants all look pretty healthy, especially since I recently pulled off the lower slug-nibbled leaves to put on the compost heap. I also pulled a lot of large and lower leaves off the comfrey plants that I planted earlier in the year, and put those on the heap where there should add minerals to the compost and act as an accelerator. The new bird feeder in the back garden - mounted on a pole and protected by a Droll Yankee Squirrel Slinky that I bought at Vine House Farm - is getting some visitors although not as popular yet as the one in the front that is hanging from a tree. The main news though about the back feeder is that so far I have not seen a single squirrel on it, whereas the front feeder is continually grazed on by at least 2 grey squirrels. The squirrel slinky seems to work and is less bulky than the more conventional dome type protectors. Lastly, I finally got round to making some bluetit boxes and bluetit box kits for you to make at home with the kids or grandkids. These are for sale and you can see them on the products page here.