Suddenly it's spring!...

Two weeks ago, on a cold afternoon, we spotted two eagles hunting around our house, swooping down in the farmer's land in search of a tasty dinner. They ended up landing in a tree, next to the lake. It was quite magnificent to observe these majestic birds and we just sat on the veranda and looked at them for about an hour. Much better than looking at the television...

Notice the tree... No leaves.

  The weather has now warmed up, the deciduous trees are burgeoning with new tender green leaves,

Same tree... two weeks later.

 The birds warm up around the lake after a feed… Yes the water level in the lake has come down!

Spring is here! We haven't had proper rain for a while and the grass is slowly turning brown. So the farmer has started  irrigating his land with this old contraption.

Archaic but effective

 Our first visitor was Phil, our old mate. When he and Svenne went to the tip to unload some rubbish, they came across some…. Firewood. 

So, in the van it went and ended up in the shed for next year's winter.

Unloading from the van

Firewood drying for next year's winter

 We had a blue moon while he was here, 

Blue moon rising

Observing the moon

Blue moon at its best

and a delicious feed of wild hare…

Hare for dinner

 The sky was very overcast for a few days but the wind (which has been constant now for at least 6 weeks) has blown them away and apart for a drizzle now and again, it remains dry.

The cranes have been around the lake at night , waking us up in the morning with their very distinctive and loud call, while flying next to our house to go inland.

Going to the lake...

Going inland

 My irises are flowering...

We can't ignore the seasons here!