Back after a blogging break!

But why have I not had time to update my blog?
Here are some clues - a trip to Ikea?

Our van full of things ... including rhubarb??

a bungalow tucked away in North Norfolk???
Yes we have bought ourselves a secret little retreat!
In recent years it has become harder and harder to find somewhere we can stay for breaks etc. that we know will be fully adapted for our son Thomas' needs and located near to some of the places we love best. So when the opportunity presented itself for us to buy this bungalow, we snapped it up! 

But it has been hard work getting it ready for us to use. While Karen started on the cleaning, setting up furniture, tidying the garden etc ...

I had to start the new bungalow bird list!

The fantastic thing about this place is that we can set it up just how we need it. Such as installing this profiling bed which makes life so much more comfortable for Thomas when he's out of his wheelchair and easier for us to look after him without hurting our rather fragile backs! We will also be putting in a ceiling hoist and this weekend some of the doorways have been widened to make it even easier for Thomas to negotiate his way around.

Thomas' room looks cheerful but homely.

Even before starting any work, the bungalow already had some important features for us, including no carpets and a wet-room with a shower.
But another wonderful bonus is this lovely conservatory.

And the garden even has this perfect ramp up onto the lawn!

I made a little nursery bed just to 'heel-in' a few plants we've saved for it.

The bungalow is one of several on a driveway off this Loke ('Loke' is a Norfolk word for a small Lane). Beyond the Bungalow the Loke becomes this unmade track which we discovered is also a pretty footpath. 

One of the things that drew us to the bungalow was the beautiful view from the front.

It is also near to one of our all-time favourite birding locations.

It has an accessible board walk...

And amazing wildlife!!

Of course I couldn't resist finding a few moths there and was delighted with this Puss Moth...

Chocolate-tip...

shoulder-stripe...

Swallow Prominent...

and even a lovely Streamer on the front door!
As well as somewhere we can visit for regular weekends away, holidays etc. maybe when Thomas has finished at university he could make it his home?

Moths at Last!

Yes I know these are rather dull and brown but at the moment, we moth enthusiasts are very grateful for whatever we get! Actually, even the names of these individuals refer to their rather drab appearance. The one on the left is a Common Quaker, the one on the right is a Small Quaker. At the time these moths were given their English names, Quakers were well known for dressing in deliberately dull looking clothes.

This was my first Small Quaker this year and I have just looked back at my previous records revealing very clearly the effect of the prolonged cold weather on our moths. Over the past four years, my first date for recording a Small Quaker is 6th March 2009, 21st March 2010, 5th March 2011, 2nd March 2012 - quite a contrast with 7th April 2013!

One final wildlife treat for me today occurred on my little lunch time walk when I was treated with wonderful views of a Red Kite - my first sighting this year. It flew low, right over my head with the sunlight shining through its forked tail and then proceeded to wheel gracefully and slowly over the surrounding fields - beautiful!

Out in the sun at last!

Although in my profile, I have referred to our favourite local birding patch (Holmethorpe/Mercers), I haven't put up many posts about visits there; so here is a rather overdue post. With a spare afternoon and some welcome sun (at last), Thomas and I popped over there this afternoon.

The other temptation to go there was the fact that a very lovely Little Gull has been gracing Mercers Lake all this week. I know anyone reading this who is not a keen 'birder' may be thinking that the words 'lovely' and 'Gull' do not normally appear in the same sentence, but trust me (or better still Google it), this is a very appealing bird - not to mention, extremely uncommon visitor to these parts.

Access around the area can be pretty tricky for Thomas, and all too often it seems that unusual birds turn up in places that can be hard or impossible for him to get to see. So we were especially delighted that this bird was nicely viewable from one of the better paths. It put on a fabulous display for us too as we watched it feeding rather Tern-like, over the water and showing off its characteristic dark underwings.  But best of all it was a 'lifer' for Thomas :)



Happy Easter.

For this Easter greeting, I couldn't find a suitable photograph from pictures I'd taken this year; I wanted a cheerful blue sky background! So I reverted to one I'd taken a few years ago on a photography day-course up at the London Wetlands Centre.

Secondary Fermentation

If I have any interested friends left in 'blogland' it will be a miracle! However, in the remote chance anyone is still looking in, I'm about to bore you to tears with this the next stage in the great sap wine project. One quick check with the hydrometer shows the gravity reading has now reached 1.010. If you scroll down to my previous two posts, you can compare this against my initial reading of 1.090 (posted just a week ago). As the eventual aim is for 0.990, you can see that about 80% of the sugar has already been converted to alcohol and CO2 by the yeast. However, converting the final 20% could take several months. As the alcohol content increases, the speed at which the yeast can work gets much slower. During the vigorous Primary Fermentation, the yeast is multiplying to fill the volume of the liquid. The yeast needs plenty of oxygen at this stage, so it is often a good idea (as here) to start the wine off in a brewing bucket and stir it several time a day. But now the process is slowing I need to do the opposite and prevent the air from reaching the wine to keep out any spoilage bacteria. This stage is called the Secondary Fermentation and takes place in a demijohn with an airlock fitted in the bung at the top.

Someone once said that the art of good wine making is to spend 70% of your time sterilising everything.
Here is some of the equipment I need after I have sterilised it (including the table top).

Once everything is sterilised I can start to strain the liquid through a muslin before putting it into my demijohn.

Karen let me use her cheese strainer to leave the remaining solids (of orange, lemon and rasins) to drip and eke out as much flavour as possible :-)

Here is the result - I had to improvise with a 4 pint milk carton to take the overflow. Hopefully this will eventually yield 7 or 8 bottles.

Actually, all this wine making in the shed was cheering me up because I've been going down with a rather heavy cold. Karen also decided very sweetly, to help me to feel better by buying me this bag!

Another Wine Update.

I am aware that all my friends in 'blogland' will have been loosing much sleep wondering what specific gravity my wine has now reached. Well let me put you all out of your misery - the reading (on the right hand side of the hydrometer) is now 1.040. Oh wow, I hear yopu all cry. Well I agree, because if you compare this with the picture below, you will see that in just a few days it has already converted half the sugar and made half the eventual alcohol content (I'm aiming for 0.900 which is the mark at the top of the right hand side). It will be several months before it has reached this.  

This evening, I have also put out my moth trap for this weeks Garden Moth Scheme survey. I'm not holding my breath though; outside, the temperature is minus one degrees and I'd be amazed if I get any moths. Oh well, even zero represents a scientific record.

Sap Wine Update

Some people have said they are interested to see how the whole thing progresses and what happens, so here is some information about it all. Yesterday evening, I was finally able to complete the first stage of my Birch sap wine project :) . This second batch of Birch sap amounted to a gallon, so I needed to use our preserving pan to be able to boil it all with the orange and lemon zest. With citrous fruits, I always use just the zest and juice because the pith can impart an unpleasant bitter flavour. I added this to my first batch of sap into a brewing bucket - now I was ready to introduce all the other ingredients; these were: rasins, a cup of tea, a little malic and tartaric acid, some pectin enzyme,  brewing sugar and yeast nutrients.

I love the simplicity of my hydrometer - the amount it floats, depends upon how much sugar is disolved in the liquid. This is becaurse the more sugar there is in the liquid, the denser it is. Toward the top you can see 1.000 - this is the level it would float in pure water (a specific gravity of 1.000). I was aiming to get enough sugar disolved in my 'must' to reach a specific gravity of about 1.090. I have never achieved this first go - until now -yippee!!! Usually I have to fiddle about adding more sugar solution a little at a time until I get it there. As I like dry white wines, I will let this ferment right out. So with a reading of 1.090 I should obtain a wine that is nearly 12% alcohol by volume. The final reading I will aim for is 0.990, right at the very top of my hydrometer (the alcohol makes a finished wine less dense than water).

Once all the ingredients have been added, I'm ready to pitch my yeast. For wine, this is the most important part of all. Yeast is a fungus that basically converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The more you pamper your yeast, the better the resulting wine. A good wine recipe is one that gives the yeast everything that it needs - sugar, oxygen, vitimins, some acid, nitrogenous matter, a little warmth and no competition from other yeasts and bacteria (which is why keeping everything sterile is crutial too). This picture shows the finished 'must' with the yeast sprinkled on the surface. I had to wait until the temperature had dropped to 21deg before doing this, because too warm a temperature can damage or even kill the yeast.

And here it is this evening (24 hours later). This stage, while it is fermenting in my brewing bin, is called the primary fermentation. This usually lasts about a week and during this time, the yeast is multiplying at a phenominal rate. As you can see, it has already started to froth and I need to stir it quite thoroughly, several times a day because the yeast needs plenty of oxygen while multiplying. The carbon dioxide given off helps to prevent airborne bugs from reaching the brew, but as the fermentation settles down and becomes less vigorous, I will then strain off the liquid into a demijohn and prevent the air from getting to it with an airlock. This creates is a much slower fermentation and is known as the secondary fermentation. I'll try to put this up in about a week. If anyone reading this is still awake it'll be a miracle - but if you have read this through to the end - thanks!