I don't know about you but that April was just WEIRD! I would not have believed it was possible to have a Lockdown like that and have been saying (a lot), 'you couldn't make this up!' You the same?

Normally April is a very busy month for me, between work for my private client (an exclusive Club near Dairsie), the Fairmont Hotel nearby and bookings for experiences at Hammer Inn.

But this April there was none of that, of course.

Keeping busy

Instead, I busied myself with maintenance and got the mews chambers all freshly painted (call me ‘King Creosote’) as well as keeping up with the usual bird care and grass cutting.

I probably spend an average of 90 minutes a day just on the routine chores that are required, including cleaning out mewses, scrubbing baths, greasing jesses, food prep, and so on.

There's never a day-off when you keep birds of prey!

Here’s a wee summary of some of the stuff we’ve been up to over the past week or two, which includes:

archery and golf competitions (husband v wife!)
getting to grips with my new Marshall GPS tracking system
enjoying Lavazza coffees (our most favourite ever)
home-made wood-fired pizza
business planning
barn-owl videograms

Q&A on falconry hoods

I did a video about falconry hoods and part 1 is now up on our YouTube channel. It covers the why, when and what-if questions we got. Anything else you're curious to know?

New products

Debbie and I also worked on some new products for the business, to offer something virtual when physical is just not an option. We came up with a few:

adoptions - of Altai the Golden Eagle or Fergus the Eagle Owl, with personal updates
videograms - personalised messages for celebrations or just to say hi when you can't see someone in person
membership - for real TSC enthusiasts: behind the scenes access.

What do you reckon? Is there anything else you'd like to see us doing? We're definitely open to your suggestions so please do let us know if you have any ideas.

Weekly Live sessions

Rhu and Peter playing in the flying field

We've also been doing weekly Lives on Facebook each Sunday, called Live at 5, which have been a great way of connecting with folks near and far - I absolutely love doing them. Last week we had Pete and Rhu on with us, our dogs. (Peter is a Patterdale and Rhu's a Hungarian Vizsla.) You can see that episode here.

This week's Live at 5 is all about my young Peregrine, Logan. If you've been following me for a while, you may recall Fletcher - a fantastic little tiercel Peregrine who always flew with gusto - and I am pleased to say that Logan is shaping up in the same way. We've done a blog post of him bathing that I hope you'll find interesting - it's certainly something you wouldn't normally be able to see in the wild. You can find it here: https://www.thescottishcountryman.co.uk/blog-posts/peregrine-bathing.

Sunday's FB Live at 5 about Logan will be inside our members-only group, so please won’t you sign up to join us! Membership is just £6/month, which works out at around £1.50 a week - and we're working hard to make sure that represents brilliant value for money ;-)

Spring in the East Neuk

Our East Neuk weather is warming up slowly and we're able to spend more time outside, so - in a bid to end on an uplifting note - here are some images from the past week or so at Hammer Inn. Nature is the best solace I know of in turbulent times…