Moving meadows

The field, continues it’s journey into summer, never has it provided more pleasure than this year, and it’s always been a delight, but being on our doorstep, it is a wonderful distraction from the woes of the world.

The weather we have had since lock-down has made it quiet magical. So many insects and butterflies  After the heavy rain of the last few days, when the clouds clear and the sun breaks through, the bugs and butterflies rise up with the warmth from the ground. It makes me smile.

This was yesterdays treat, a dark green fritillary  

The name comes, if you are wondering, from the colour underneath the wing.

They like to feed on knapweed 

Knapweed is a plant we introduced to the field, about eight or nine years ago, having had work done to remedy a problem from theoutflow of the septic tank ( sorry you weren’t expecting that were you?) we took the opportunity to reseed the area with a native wildflower seed mix,  some of the species decided the field wasn’t for them, but the knapweed liked the neighbourhood and flourished

The bees are delighted.

Run for home

It’s been nice to go out and about today, the weather broke over night and the temperature dropped to a more comfortable level than it has been for the last few days, it’s been necessary to dodge some heavy showers though. 

The last week has been a good weather window for the farmers, they’ve been able to cut their grass crop for winter fodder in without too much weather angst, today’s weather forecasting must make the task so much easier than it was for their forebears .

So there I was, admiring the colours and patterns of the freshly cut fields

and having a very nice time, until the wind suddenly picked up and I realised it had ‘gone a bit dark over Bill’s mothers’. 

Time to run for home, at least it was downhill!

Wading in

A heron in the field pond, I don’t think I’ve seen one wade in quiet so deep before, not quite up to his neck in it, this is about as deep as it gets (too deep for a chicken we established).

After a week of windy weather, which played havoc with our Internet connection (the  wind dropped and it seemed to ‘self heal’,  but who knows the real reason) the UK has experienced one of its hottest Easters on record, very pleasant to be out and about in, but a also a little worrying, the ground is so dry, moorland fires have been a problem yet again. Sadly people just don’t seem to understand how easily a fire can start and just how long peat can burn for.

Nature has been dead in  tooth and claw, kestrels are nesting in a dead tree in a neighbouring field, but the jackdaws are mobbing them, I hope they manage to rear their chicks,  and I don’t think the three dead goldfish found in the yard are the herons work, more likely to be the cat’s antics.

Sometimes a little magic flies by

We’ve been away, we’ve been to Rutland Water for a couple of nights in the campervan.  we had a lovely time, I hired an electric bike, such fun! I went wheeeeeee!

I’ve not ridden a bike for many many moons.

After that we went on to the nature reserve, and watched nature in all its Spring busyness.

From a hide we watched the osprey, they were a little too far way for my camera, but we were much closer to them than we had been before, in addition there was a large TV screen showing live footage taken by cameras looking directly into the nest.

Now that sound like an excellent day, doesn’t it? We settled down for the evening, with a glass of wine and some tasty Long Clawson stilton cheese.

And  then the magic arrived

A barn owl flew in across the meadow, next to the camping field, quartering, searching for prey,  it swooped past us time after time

It’s the first time I’ve seen a barn owl in the wild, I’ve had other owl encounters.

It went on and on, taking prey off to its nest

and returning, to our delight.

The next morning, Mr Uphilldowndale went out on his bike at about 7:15 am, for a proper bike ride, one with pace and miles and without me going wheeeeeee all the time.

After he had gone I contemplated making a second cup of tea, I sat up in bed and peeped around the curtain and there it was again.

Right in my face, this time carrying its breakfast.  I’m such a lucky girl. 

All the photos were taken through the tinted privacy glass of the van, the last image with added condensation…

Slow to germinate part two

Following on from my last post (eventually) where explored the underground vaults of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank. 

Back up into the life giving light for this post: the setting is glorious,  its both contemporary,

 

and  historic

not to mention scientific

the precious seeds are nurtured,

given the exactly the right  conditions for their development, hot,cold, damp, dry reflecting their origins from around the globe.

Then lavished with care, moving from the laboratory to the glasshouses.

where highly skilled staff  cater for their every need

Oh how I love the shapes,

 

forms

and colours to be found in nature

When we’d finished our very special tour, we spent some time in the grounds of Wakehurst, which is in Sussex not London, please note! With its abundant wildlife, look how you can see the colour of the flower through the bees wing.

There is scrumptious sculpture

and wild meadows

(oh I’m a sucker for a wild flower meadow).

Cut, Muck and Roll

The field was mown, and basked in sun, once it was rowed up and baled there was haste to get it wrapped and off the field, we’ve had some dramatic storms and torrential rain.  The contractors worked through the night, it was about four thirty AM when they came into our field.

My patch of meadow flowers in the foreground is left for Mr Uphilldowndale to cut with his precious scythe, when it has fully seeded.

Today the field was mucked, Spud was delighted.

Thirty days wild. June 30th

The best thing that you can do for nature is too make it part of your life. That’s why we’re asking thousands of people to make room for nature in their everyday lives this June. Please spread the word amongst friends, colleagues and family and get them to sign up, too! After all, all our lives are better if they’re a bit wild… ‘

I’ve signed up to 30 Days Wild with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust,  with the aim of blogging each day, a little bit of the nature of my world.

That’s it, its a wrap. We’ve arrived a little hurriedly, at the 30th of June.  The long summer days have cast their light through the north facing windows each evening, just for a few minutes; we call it the ‘sun on the lintel’ moment’.

The meadow is cut and basks in the hot sun. Just as it should.

I took this photo at dusk the other evening, just after they had finished mowing.

Thirty days wild. June 29th

The best thing that you can do for nature is too make it part of your life. That’s why we’re asking thousands of people to make room for nature in their everyday lives this June. Please spread the word amongst friends, colleagues and family and get them to sign up, too! After all, all our lives are better if they’re a bit wild… ‘

I’ve signed up to 30 Days Wild with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust,  with the aim of blogging each day, a little bit of the nature of my world.

I particularly like this grass,  there is something about the rhythm of it, it reminds me of a zip fastener…

Thirty days wild. June 28th

The best thing that you can do for nature is too make it part of your life. That’s why we’re asking thousands of people to make room for nature in their everyday lives this June. Please spread the word amongst friends, colleagues and family and get them to sign up, too! After all, all our lives are better if they’re a bit wild… ‘

I’ve signed up to 30 Days Wild with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust,  with the aim of blogging each day, a little bit of the nature of my world.

Spud the dog has been with me every day on of our Thirty days wild.

Thirty days Wild. June 27th

Magnificent meadows

At dusk the  fields with copious quantities of buttercups have a beautiful soft glow about them. That is difficult to try and capture, I tried.