A New Hobby and duckling watch

A mixed day today, as due to unit sickness I have had to work my requested annual leave time, and have had to go into ITU for 5 hours this afternoon. So I was up and out at 7am this morning, catching up with field work and walking the dogs up the Gop. The old Gop farm is now up for sale ( at something like 2 million pounds) and the villagers are bursting for news of who will buy it. The farm is one of the largest, well known land marks in the locality, and seems to hold a great deal of nostalgia for the older members of the community. The dovecote (above) which overlooks the village, is in a state of disrepair, but is a listed building and remains the best known structure for miles.
Anyhow I took the dogs on the path behind Gop farm ( where George caught and killed his first baby rabbit! yerch)
and spend a lovely hour or so naming local wild flowers, with my trusty pocket idiots guide to British country flowers as reference.
Early purple orchids cover the hillside (above) and in one square mile of so I counted cowslips,charlock,shepherd's purse,the tiny dog violet, red campion, and wood Sorrel (below). and strange as it may seem I have enjoyed learning about what actually is what.

For those who want news of the ducklings, they are as hysterical as ever and putting on weight and height at a phenomenal rate. Below is a pic of five of them watching my other hand sliding their "swimming pool" into view.