It was my birthday last week, I was given some beautiful scented lilies and a lens for the camera, I haven’t yet got to grips with the lens, the sensation is not unlike like swapping the family hatch back for a high performance sports car, I am not in quite in control, but I can ‘feel’ it’s potential. More test drives required.
This little bird is a chick from one of two families of blue tits that have been nesting in holes in the barn wall, he sat on the edge most of yesterday, while the parents worked their socks off feeding him, Tom and I were beginning to wonder if he would get so fat he would be stuck for the duration, in the end he gave it a go and we found him on the grass, or maybe one of the other chicks gave him a push.
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew. Christopher Logue
Well not quite we found him on the grass, twice, not much bigger than a butter ball, he looked very vulnerable and the cats looked very interested; we poked him back in the hole,(about 7ft off the ground) and left Moss the dog on sentry duty, keeping the cats at bay: there is not much more we can do, nature will have to take it’s course.
The other brood are about 16ft off the ground, so popping them back in the nest wont be so easy.
Another hot sunny day, the photograph,a back lit leaf of a smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria
The seeds of next years ‘honesty’ (Lunaria annua), all neatly stored in a ‘blister pack’
Honesty flowers attract butterfly’s, I like its silvery seed pods (a favourite with flower arrangers) that will develop as the summer progress, I suppose that’s where it’s Latin name originates from, they look rather moon like; it grows on a pile of rocks at the bottom of the yard.
(Note to self, to try and get some established in the garden.)
The local herons have been spending a lot of time by the pond, eyeing up the fish. I don’t think they manage to take many as our pond has steep sides and herons won’t step into deep water they will only wade in from the shallows. I like seeing a heron by the pond and don’t begrudge them a few fish, we have more than enough and I think the golden orfe are now too big for the herons to tackle.
How ever Inspector Gadget explains that doing what comes naturally (to a heron) is reportable offence
‘Theft of Goldfish from Pond - main suspect - local Heron’
I disturbed a heron yesterday, it flew off and perched in the sycamore tree, they do look rather ridiculous sat in a tree, there is something about herons that doesn’t seem to add up, as though there was a miscalculation at the design stage, herons legs look like they might snap and their beaks look too heavy, (I’ve yet to manage to get a photograph of one, so I’ll cheat)
the ability of herons to catch fish led to a belief that their legs must produce some magical substance that attracted the fish, this resulted in anglers scattering pieces of herons legs around the fishing ground, in an attempt to attract fish, now don’t try this at home because
and such a fishy incident will result in even more paper work for Gadget.
I adore our pond, you can see why,
We built it six years ago, we borrowed a mini digger and a dumper truck and Mr Uhdd set to work, it ended up a different shape and a bit bigger than the original plan (not unlike the heron) and the liner cost as much as the new sofa we planed to buy at the time, six years on we still haven’t bought a sofa, but I have no regrets, the pond investment was the right one and the old sofa will be fashionable again soon. The pond is spring fed and whilst it doesn’t run all year round it is a big enough body of water not to need topping up. We were amazed by how quickly wildlife just turned up and took over it, (treat of treat has been a visiting kingfisher) This summer I will be on a mission to get more photographs of some of the visitors, this is the best I managed last year
I think I shall make a mug of tea and go up to the pond, bliss.
Now the serious chicken keepers may pour scorn on such sentimentality; but I have to admit I was rather fond of the old bird. She has been living out a comfortable retirement from egg production, getting a bit slower and detached from the rest of the flock as the weeks passed, but never the less she seemed to be happy. I had been making sure she got her fair share of food, chickens can be ruthless about ‘pecking orders’ and getting the biggest share of the nosh.
I miss her about the place, she had taken to spending her day near the house, in the herb bed, basking in the sun by the rosemary bush if the weather was fair or seeking shelter under a conifer if it rained. I think Moss the dog misses her, Thing Two’s favourite position was just out of the reach of Moss, but not out of her sight, it drove Moss mad that she couldn’t get past the gate to round her up, Thing Two was indifferent to Moss’s frantic barking, however I don’t think the neighbours will miss Moss barking so much.
Thing Two failed to turn up at the hen house at dusk on Wednesday night, I searched around for her but couldn’t find her I thought she must have ben picked off by a fox, but eventually I found her on Thursday, down by the compost heap, it seems to have been a case of death by ‘natural causes’ rather than the fox, I am relieved about that, and very relived that she hadn’t got to the stage where she became ill rather than old and we had to humanely kill her.
I’ll not forget, back in my flower shop days making a posy of forget-me-not’s and lily of the valley, for a child’s funeral, it was delicate, pretty, ephemeral.
I’ve written before how flowers can send you back in time, date stamp a time and place, be it happy or sad, Dame Honoria Glossop writes about a similar experience, as does Bo; today’s flower thought was a little melancholy, but I have a lighter one to write about as well, I’ll be back soon.
Gusty winds the other day must have dislodged this nest, I found it on the ground
It’s a work of art, dainty, only four inches wide and two deep, it’s constructed from a wide selection of materials, lichens, mosses, twigs, we could identify, both cat and the dog hair and it’s lined with feathers
We were impressed by it’s craftsmanship and as Tom commented
‘ And just think, birds haven’t got any hands.’
He has a point, you try building that with no other tool than a beak!
Sadly they will have to start all over again, with better foundations.
in search of a gift for an 80th Birthday, the cold weather has meant that things aren’t as far advanced as one would hope by now
In the poly tunnel, it was much warmer, it was possible to haul from the back of your mind the memory of just what a summers day feels like.
It’s a proper ‘plantsman’ nursery, not your garden center sort of place, if you are looking for patio heaters, plastic herons and bags of pot pouri, it would be best not to ask, just discretely leave and look else where. The owner said I could take some photographs, I only had ten minutes to spare before I was supposed to be at an appointment four villages away, but I think I’ve established I can return with the camera another day
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