A deer's-eye view of my workshop. I love working under that white gazebo, but it has become a bit too cold for that recently. This is the last of about 6 gazebos I bought years ago. One by one they have succumbed to the elements and what finally does for them is either wind or snow. They are very flimsy and cannot take the weight. Each one lasts 2 or 3 years, which is not bad for £18.
I am working inside with no heating right now, because the tiny little Hungarian coal stove in there has developed a split around it which is threatening to fall apart and spread hot coals over the floor. I should have repaired it during the Summer, but who thinks of buying a Winter coat when it is 29 degrees C. outside?
The building itself is the only agricultural one on this patch. All the others are concrete block sheds which were barracks for the soldiers who guarded the WW2 underground bomb dump about a quarter of a mile away up the track. A third of all the bombs Britain dropped on Germany were stored in that old stone mine which became the dump.
About three miles from here there is a network of disused stone mines which stretch around for over 10 miles. Churchill had an escape pad down there, and the 1950s government had a nuclear bunker complete with air conditioning and generators which are still in working order. It was sold recently to a genuine troll.
About 2 years ago I noticed a dramatic drop in the numbers of rabbits around that field. Before then I couldn't look up without seeing at least 4 or 5 of the fluffy critters nibbling away at the fringe beside the trees and bushes, and now I haven't seen one for ages. Nobody knows what is happening to them.
I heard that all British wildlife has declined by 70% since the 1970s. That is a depressing statistic. Then I heard that myxomatosis has jumped species and is now infecting hares.
The conditions for rabbits here is perfect, and it cannot be modern agricultural methods causing their decline, because there isn't any apart from a bit of hay making once a year. It is not myxomatosis either - I would have seen infected bunnies if it were.
If you break one link in the chain, everything begins to come apart. This little area had so much wildlife a couple of years ago that it looked like a Shell Oil poster on a classroom wall.
The stoats and weasel's, buzzard's and fox's larder is getting low on provisions, and you cannot buy those gazebos any more. This could be the last one.
Was it an old stable?
ReplyDeleteStables, pigsty, storage. It's about 1&0 years old.
Delete180
DeleteIt looks like a prefab. It should be listed.
ReplyDeleteNot a prefab. New roof, new steel doors, new windows and a bit of new wall to close the wide door up.
DeleteSad about the rabbits. I hope that gazebo is pegged down well. Hurricane Oscar on its way this weekend.
ReplyDeleteRopes not strings.
DeleteI sometimes walk down the lane by our old farm and Tess looks through the gates into our old fields. We never see a rabbit and yet when we were at the farm the fields were infested with rabbits. Like you I wonder where they have all gone.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment it is a mystery.
DeleteAround here there are lots of rabbits in some rural areas and not many in others. Their invironment must be changing and their numbers are dwindling like the hedgehogs. We used to see so manyhedgehogs in our garden .... now, not a one !!!
ReplyDeleteI love the photograph of your workshop ..... I was going to say that it looks as if a hobbit works there but you are far from being a hobbit !!! XXXX
My feet are the right size, but the rest of me isn't.
DeleteI just need you to know that I can spell environment !!! XXXX
DeleteWho knows what's going on with wild life? We now have rafters of wild turkeys wandering the streets of our Boston neighborhood. For the last couple of years they've appeared around Thanksgiving time and stayed through the winter. Not recommended for dinner.
ReplyDeleteYou mean those huge black things? They appear around Thanksgiving? The ones which Davey Crocket used to look out for? Are they suicidal?
DeleteHere I've seen no Rabbits and very few Hares. As a result there are no more Foxes around, but signs of Badgers are everywhere. Both Roe Deer and Wild Boar are a menace; far too many. There seems to be imbalance.
ReplyDeleteThere are many wild boar in the Forest of Dean.
DeleteA fascinating and informative post, Tom. Around here (Kent) we too seem to have lost all the rabbits and hedgehogs. But badgers flourish (if the number of smelly dead ones by the roadsides is any indication).
ReplyDeleteI always fancied working in the woods making chestnut stakes under a tarpaulin lean-to as they do around here. Using my hands doing useful work and being almost part of nature.
I've always fancied being a charcoal burner for artists. Summer spent stacking and building the pile, Winter spent controlling the smoulder. Occasionally going into town for a beer and a lumpe sum in the Spring for the sale. Peace...
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