So...whats normal....?

It was around the time we were still looking for a place to buy here in Pembury that I learnt of a lady somewhere in Oxfordshire that had recorded as much as she could in her garden for about fifteen years.  In that time she had found two new Icumen wasp species for the UK.  Now, there are certainly plenty of Icumen species out there, thousands.  However, I think finding two new species in your own garden just by recording what you see over a period of time is pretty amazing.  Without making any effort to visit any specific sites or going to nature reserves etc.
So, from that point I was determined that I would try to record things that happen/happened in our garden (im not expecting any new species for the UK).
So, we moved in September 2012....and here we are in April 2013.  Well, okay, I can use as an excuse all the ins and outs of moving and then having to get plenty of work done on the house.....but the work has been, mostly, finished now....for a little while.  So, no excuse apart from laziness really.

Lets get something clear from the start...im not 54....thats the house number...

So, off we go then.  Ive spent the last couple of days taking some photos and generally looking round the garden.  My wife has, generally, been laughing and thinks im a bit of a nerd to start a blog about our garden (let alone a blog about birds!).  The problem here is...she may well star in this blog...though she probably hasnt thought that one through....
My wife is the gardener, if it was up to me the whole garden would be turned over to a wild flower meadow with a few trees.  Although she wont allow this...booooo....she has relaxed, under my continued pressure, allowing a few wild things to remain in the garden.
Birds have played a large part of my life over the past dozen years or so and will feature here.  But there will be plants....and amphibians....all sorts.....if it moves or grows I will try to record it in, at least, photo form.  I will try to give everything a name (its proper name that is!!).

Heres the garden.  80' long and about 20' wide (sorry, im old, im not doing metric).  So...is this normal for a garden size.  Probably not.  We had looked at plenty of houses in Pembury with smaller gardens.  So...possibly not then.  We are lucky in that case, plenty of room for us to do things.  Plenty of room for our little boy to run around.