Lincolnshire has a flag

I have seen a few of these flags appearing recently, and wondered why. It turns out that it is the new Lincolnshire Flag.

The flag features a red cross with a gold fleur-de-lys in the centre on a blue and green quartered background. A gold border represents the crops grown in the county. The blue on the flag represents the sea and sky of Lincolnshire and the green symbolises the fields, while the fleur-de-lys represents the City of Lincoln.

Feeding the birds

It's winter, and although it has not been a hard winter yet, we have started to feed the birds again. Not only does it help them to survive the winter, but it also encourages them to come closer to the house. We put out fat balls, peanuts and mixed seed, this helps to encourage different varieties of birds.

Here is a Great-tit enjoying the peanuts.

Here is a Blue-tit enjoying the peanuts.

Find out more about birds at:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/

Willow

Whilst we are still at the start of winter it is nice to see that the willow is starting to think about spring already. The willow has started to produce its catkins and they looked lovely in the low winter sun today.

Fungi

We have a lot of different types of fungi on our land. Here are some I found today.

Plane trails

We have a lot of planes travelling over this part of the world. Sunday was a lovely sunny day and this plane trail was making lovely shapes whilst it was evaporating.

Tuberolachnus salignus, the giant willow aphid

These are Giant Willow Aphids. They live on the sap from the willow trees. I am not sure whether they will be a problem yet, since they have lots of natural predators.

Fox paw print

I found this fox paw print whilst out walking around our willow field. We know foxes live close by and sometimes we can smell where they have been walking.