A general view of the chicken pen showing their raised housing and the large elder and hawthorne shrubs that they like to sit  and scratch under. They are enjoying searching for bugs in the newly cut grass.

Recently spotted this flower on the fishing lake and didn’t know what it was. Looking in the guide books suggests a Common Hemp nettle Galeopsis tetrahit .

Amazing growth in just a week - the nest is looking a bit crowded and no sign of the swan feather decoration. While working on the roof Colin managed to photograph one of the parents too.

Staff from Myerscough college recently held an away day at Forrest Hills which included a morning of fly fishing with instruction by Margaret Forrest (who often teaches at Forrest Hills) followed by an afternoon of golf.

The swallows nesting in the resource centre are progressing and looking slightly less alien. It is amazing how much they develop in a week. Meanwhile others in one of the older buildings have already fledged. One particular family can usually be seen as a gang of four sitting together on a wire fence or in a tree, occasionally still being fed by a parent.

This year there seems to have been more swallows, swifts and house martins than usual. They are a pleasure to watch in the evenings as they fly low over the ground and in amongst the buildings.

Spotted this damselfly on the edge of the fishing lake. It is probably a relatively common Blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans though other suggestions welcome.

A selection of recently seen butterflies including this Comma - Polygonia c-album feeding on a bramble near the fishing lake; Small skipper - Thymelicus sylvaestris feeding on a Shepherd’s purse in the grass verge of one of the meadows; and finally a Speckled wood Pararge aegeria seen in the wood near these dramatic foxgloves.

Follwing advice from Alan Schofield from Growing with Nature, this year we tried planting a run of both broad beans and climbing french beans in our greenhouse (we would have used a polytunnel but don’t yet have one).  The french beans in particular are cropping much better than outside and are easier to pick and manage.

Everything has been late this year because of the cold start. Our first Maris Bard new potatoes were dug today.

One of the challenges of having a curved building is finding curved gutters! Not having a vast range to choose from we decided to make our own from straight aluminium gutters which are cut and welded to the right shape.

We realised we were taking too long building the resource centre when a pair of swallows moved in and nested inside the top floor of the building! The nest is beautifully lined, probably with swan feathers from around the lake, though the youngsters themselves are unlikely to win any beautiful baby competitions at the moment. They seem completely oblivious to building work going on around them.

We have also started to play a CD of swift calls (bought from the Swift Conservation Trust) every evening from the resource centre towers. This is intended to attract young swifts, who might then think of moving into the swift boxes in the tower next year when they return.

One large bed in the vegetable plot is planted with Phacelia tanacetifolia, a crop used as a green manure to build up the soil fertility. It also has the benefit of lovely purple flowers which bees love. The whole bed seems to hum as you walk past it.