Mother pheasant returns with her chicks!

Remember the empty nest syndrome when  our wild pheasant decided to have her nest in the garden and she bravely sat and incubated her eggs through all that dreadful wet weather and the first day of anything like decent weather they hatched and were gone. She would take her young chicks away from here to try and keep them safe as pheasants are very nervous and shy when they have young with them. Today she returned with four chicks who are now quite strong and growing. I managed to sneak a photo of them whist they were searching for bits of peanuts that had fallen out of the bird feeders hung in a tree in the orchard.

Hen pheasant returns with her chicks

And the winner is.....ME!!!!!!!!

I won!!! and I am now officially the AA's Friendliest B&B in the whole of the UK!! I have added the official picture today. We had  3 wonderful days in London and  stayed 2 nights at the excellent  Royal Horseguards Hotel where the awards ceremony took place. The first night we went to see Noises off at the Novello Theatre and roared with laughter the whole show. The next day was the awards luncheon and the champagne flowed, perhaps a bit too much for some! Not for me thank fully, I did manage not to  trip up or fall off my high heels! The AA presented each of the 25 finalists with a beautiful engraved glass decanter and framed certificate to show that they had been a finalist. This is in itself  a great achievement when you consider that the AA chose the 25 finalists out of 3,500 places they inspect for their quality standard star ratings. Eventually the compere said "We are down to the last 3,  the 2 runners up and the winner" I thought I must be in with a chance or they have forgotten me! When it was announced that I was the winner I was thrilled, surprised and quite over whelmed but it is brilliant and apparently Chris Evans mentioned me and my win on his BBC radio 2 breakfast show the next day a couple of times, thank you! Here are some pictures taken at the awards ceremony.

All the finalists

Guess what! It's sunny today!

Today we have been blessed with a sunny day and some warmth with it too. I took a couple of photos to show you our Lake.....pond! The first photo is from across the pond looking towards the farmhouse with our summerhouse in view. The second is from a slightly different angle.

New arrival in the village.

We are 1 mile from the nearest village and today I spotted a new arrival for spring. This gorgeous foal is in a field by the stream that runs through the village. His mother is saying "he's my baby and I am watching you!"