Category Archives: Barbara’s Back Yard

Today’s Treasurers – Stalybridge – an Amazing Train Journey

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There are some amazing train journeys from Whitchurch Railway Station.

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One Friday morning, I was travelling by train to a conference in Wakefield.  It was a long journey and I had to change trains 3 times so I was not looking forward to it – I thought it would be really boring – how wrong can you be?

I got off at Stockport to find that I was getting the one train a week to Stalybridge. Evidently it was featured on Paul Merton’s TV programme about ‘Request Stops’ – except there are no request stops on the Stockport to Stalybridge weekly service – as the train has to run at least once a week by Government decree and the train has to stop at every station. It’s mainly a freight train line but has to have at least one passenger train a week in order to stay open.

I was about to get on the train when someone said:  “I hope you’re not planning to come back on this train.”  Puzzled I asked why:  “Because it only goes one way once a week.  If you want to get back to Stockport you have to go via Manchester.”  The speaker got on the train with me – and I discovered that most of the people on the train were travelling for fun – I was probably the only person for a long while who had actually used the service to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’.  One of the passengers was a member of ‘The Friends of Denton Station” who told me all about it along with the conductor who nearly featured in Paul Merton’s programme – but it was his brother who was the guard on the train that day.

The little old train rattled along the track – brushing past overhanging brambles, trees and shrubs, purple with buddleia – it was like going back in time.  I got off at Stalybridge and ran to the other platform where the TransPennine Express was waiting – which brought me rapidly up to date – until I got to Huddersfield and climbed aboard another little old train that took me to Wakefield Westgate.

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So the train journey that I thought was going to be really boring was really interesting.  The scenery from the TransPennine Express was absolutely stunning, rolling hills interspersed with Yorkshire stone villages, old mills and brick chimneys, the railways often follow river valleys and travel alongside canals busy with barges wending their way through locks – so there’s lots to see.

We went under Yorkshire stone bridges, soot blackened from long forgotten steam trains; through cuttings with blasted rock faces, past towering walls, painstakingly built brick by brick, now pink and white with valerian and daisies.  History unfolded before my eyes – labourers laying the rails, stokers shovelling coal on steam engines, bricklayers, stonemasons, signalmen – their presence is still felt in the very fabric of the railways and their ghosts still haunt the train tracks – and the train to Denton station which is often called ‘The Ghost Train’ as it is the least used track in Britain.

New Zealand White Rabbits 3 weeks old

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Eny’s latest litter are just 3 weeks old

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They will be ready for new homes by the end of October – there are 9 babies. They all survived which isn’t always the case with NZ Whites. They can be very sensitive to their surroundings, they don’t like changes, different people, strange noises – some breeders have a radio on all day so the rabbits get used to different sounds. I leave the shed door open all the while so the rabbits can see what’s going on outside and get used to different noises – so my rabbits are used to different things and the babies are too.

I’ve had problems with new does, sometimes it’s because they are new mums with their first litters and they really don’t seem to know what to do!  I have had stillborn and abandoned litters, and often the babies manage to get out of the nest box somehow so every morning and night I check properly that there are none getting cold away from the nest.

Many people have solved the problem with crossing NZ Whites with Californian rabbits.  They are also white but with black tips to their ears – they are a large breed but generally not quite as big as NZ Whites.  They are however far less sensitive and traumatised, they seem altogether a much hardier breed and if you are breeding meat rabbits would be an ideal solution.

Sunflowers

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Sunflowers

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I always grow some sunflowers as the birds love the seeds.  I tried to get some ordinary size sunflower seeds but must have ended up with giant ones – either that or the rabbit manure has worked wonders as these sunflowers are over a foot across – and one of the plants is over 12 feet tall!  It’s a wonder it’s still standing – my time spent staking the plants in the spring has paid off.

I used to spend ages collecting the sunflower seeds but it takes ages scraping them all out and the earwigs seem to like hiding in them too – so now I just dry the whole heads in the barn then put them out for the birds in the winter – they don’t mind the earwigs!

Ducks are a-dabbling

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Ducks are a-dabbling

The ducks have found the pond at the bottom of the field and now the stream is all flooded they can’t wait to rush off every morning to see what’s new.  When there was just Desmond (drake) and the geese, they would stay around the hen house but since the two ducks have joined them (Izzy and Oli) they have been more adventurous.

This picture reminds me of a poem from Kenneth Grahame’s ‘Wind in the Willows’:

DUCKS’ DITTY.’
All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim–
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!
WE like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!

High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call–
WE are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!

Snowdrops

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Snowdrops

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The very first flowers of Spring.  Our very first visit to the cottage each year was to pick some snowdrops and I remember those journeys looking out of the car window searching the fields wanting to be the first to see the new lambs.  That feeling of looking forward to Spring returns with the snowdrops.  Mum used to say:  “If you have good health, you can change everything else in your life.”  As I am getting older, I have good days and bad days and I really make an effort to make the most of the good days – those days when you get up in the morning and feel like changing the world.  But however you feel, whatever your health, you can always enjoy the little things in life, using your senses to the full, listening to a robin sing, watching blue tits on the bird table – and the scent of flowers – did you know that snowdrops have a very delicate, fresh, green smell?

Pumpkin Soup for Bonfire Night

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Pumpkin Soup for Bonfire Night

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Snap up the pumpkins left over from Halloween and make some spicy soup for bonfire night.  There’s nothing quite like sipping hot spicy pumpkin soup gathered around the bonfire and watching the flames and sparks drift into the night sky.

Pumpkin freezes quite well so when you’ve scraped out all the pumpkin flesh to make Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns, cut it into cubes and put into a polythene bag.  It will store in the fridge for up to 3 days or will freeze for over a month.

The seeds can be dried to use in bread and muesli – or to feed to the birds during the cold winter months.

Visit the recipe page for a not too spicy pumpkin soup recipe.

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Poppies in November

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Poppies in November

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It’s time for bonfire night but I’m still picking sweet peas, the nasturtiums are going strong – and the poppies are still in full flower, brightening up the garden on these musty, misty mornings.  It’s just as well we had an Indian summer as the runner beans were planted so late, due to a very cold and wet May, that I doubted we would be picking any beans at all.  So maybe the seasons are moving – and we should plan summer holidays in September next year?

Whatever, I have really enjoyed picking sweet peas right through October.  I put some in the lounge where I sit in the evenings but also some on the window ledge near the sink – where I seem to spend an awful lot of my time.  I do really enjoy cooking vegetables I have grown myself – they taste much better and they are so much fresher – but it is more time consuming than preparing clean, bug-free supermarket varieties.

The rabbits are also enjoying the long season as they get a nasturtium leaf (and sometimes a flower) every day.  As the Nasturtium Flower Fairy says, as soon as the frosts come, the nasturtiums are “… gone willy-nilly, umbrellas and all”.

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Nasturtiums in November

The Song of The Nasturtium Fairy is from ‘A Flower Fairy alphabet’ by Cicely Mary Barker

 

Wittenham Cider

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Samhain – All Hallows Eve – time to make Wittenham Cider – many years ago my aunt gave me this recipe – it’s from a very old newspaper cutting._DSC0086s

Wittenham Cider

3 1b apples
12 pints water
2 lb granulated sugar
3 lemons
empty pop bottles

You will need 2 large clean buckets – one to make the cider in and another to strain the cider into. Approximately 3 lb of apples – any sort – a mixture is best and windfalls are fine. Wash them and chop or mince them up (including peel core and pips) and put them in the bucket.

Pour on 12 pints of cold, unboiled, water. (The original recipe is so old it says 6 quarts of water.)

Leave for a week, stirring night and morning.

Strain through a stocking held over a sieve or colander into the second bucket.

Stir in 2 lb of granulated sugar and the grated rind and juice of three lemons.

Strain again and bottle. Plastic pop bottles will do fine.

It should be drinkable within a week.

If not drinking straight away you will need to release the tops of the bottles regularly so they don’t explode – or you can use old port bottles with corks.

The Nuthatch

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Nuthatches like sunflower seeds as well as peanuts.

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Our neighbour works wonders with bits of old iron and he made this very innovative bird feeder which all the birds love and the cat hasn’t found out how to get onto yet.  We get visits from a pair of nuthatches, they usually pick up a peanut and fly off to eat it but this one stayed long enough to be photographed.

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I have also seen nuthatches eating melon seeds but they prefer peanuts.  The hens like melon seeds too.

New Zealand White Rabbits

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This is Cowslips latest litter, 5 weeks old.

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Baby rabbits must be some of the most adorable babies – once they have all their fur and their eyes are open.  They are born blind and deaf and pink-skinned but by 3 weeks old they are miniature versions of their mum hopping about their pen.

By 5 weeks old, the babies always scramble for a bit of their mum’s green food – this time of year it’s Shepherd’s Purse, rocket, spinach, dandelions, clover and the occasional nasturtium leaf (they love nasturtiums but they are quite strong so one leaf a day is enough).