Monday 20th October, 2014
This isn't the best time of the year to write a hiking/gardening diary/blog. After taking a couple of cloud photos ten days ago, I didn't pick up my camera again for over a week.
White clouds to the north east at about 9-30 a.m.
Gaudy clouds to the south east a few days earlier at about 7-30 a.m. Sunrises will be an hour earlier soon when the clocks are adjusted for winter. Unless I have got in a muddle and they are an hour later. It doesn't matter. Sunrises will be at the normal time . . . just a little later every day until the shortest day . . . it's just the clocks that change!
I think eight days without a single photo may be a record for me this year . . . but I am not going to waste time checking.
The weather hasn't been great for photography. It has been proper autumn weather, wet and windy. Very nearly five inches of rain fell during the last twelve days and the wind got up to gale force more often than not. Tonight the wind is expected to change up a gear - to severe gale force as the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo passes over the island.
I thought I would try to get back to the habit of compiling a new post every weekend but I am a confirmed procrastinator and it is Monday already and I doubt whether this will be finished until tomorrow. The weekend is the logical time to sort out photos and write some waffle because there is even less of interest on the TV than there is during the week. I think we are all supposed to be out raving at clubs or drinking ourselves stupid in pubs at the weekend. Or maybe they just think that everyone enjoys endless tacky talent (?) shows, celebrity dancing competitions, and various other "reality" TV stuff.
I have been working in the garden during the intervals between showers, scooping wet leaves out of the ditch where our little stream is flowing quite vigorously, or pruning a few more collapsed hydrangeas and cutting back sodden oregano and knapweed.
Last week I picked up four 3 gallon builders buckets of beech pods and leaves off the front lawn so that I could mow the grass on Friday . I think at least another four buckets full have fallen since I mowed. Back to square one but at least the grass is shorter.
In desperation I decided to take a few indoor photos of the miniature roses that I bought when we had visitors this year. I don't normally buy indoor plants because I always neglect them and then feel guilty. But I like to have flowers in the spare bedroom when we have house guests and prefer living plants to cut flowers.
When my sister visited us in May, I bought a little pot of miniature yellow roses. I planned to plant them in a large pot as soon as they had finished flowering and leave them outside until autumn and then move them into the conservatory. It is hard to believe but the last bud hasn't opened yet and the little pot of straggly roses is still sitting on the dining room window sill - waiting to finish flowering. The light wasn't really suitable for this photo and the background was more interesting than the rosebud - so it is hardly more than a silhouette.
These red roses are mere babies in comparison. They date back to August when our daughter and granddaughters visited. They are on the living room window sill and have one bud as well as the three floppy open flowers.
I tried to find some interesting autumn colour but the leaves are being ripped off the trees by the high winds. The beech down by the road (on the right of the photo) that usually puts on a good display has lost most of its leaves. It is always the first to react to autumn. The beech on its immediate left is still green. This happens every year. I wonder whether they are slightly different genetically or whether the tree on the left is just more sheltered from the prevailing wind which blows down the glen from the south west.
The azalea mollis has lost most of its leaves too, but some of the remaining few are quite an interesting colour.
The most memorable incident since the last post was a "visit" from a tiny goldcrest that tried to fly through our living room window. Luckily Tim heard it crashing into the glass and called me. He thought it was likely to be dead but we looked out of the window and could see that it was still breathing. So I dashed out into the rain and picked it up.
I am never sure how much to intervene when birds get into difficulty but I always pick up small birds that fly into the windows and stun themselves. I used to do it in case the dogs found them on the ground. Now there are no more dogs but there are neighbouring cats prowling around. But in this case I was more worried about the heavy rain. The goldcrest needed to be kept warm and dry until it had time to recover.
I moved it from my right hand into the left so that I could take some "selfies" of my hand and the bird. It looked very miserable at first.
After a while it opened its eyes and then it started wriggling. I took it to the back door and opened my hand. It sat up but made no attempt to fly away. I was worried about its left foot. It seemed unable to move its toes.
Then I took it back to the living room thinking that it might prefer to leave from that window. The rain had almost stopped. It was looking better and its foot looked all right - but it was still reluctant to leave.
After taking that photo I took the bird outside near the bird feeder. The rain had stopped but it was too wet to use the camera because there were still drips falling from the trees. It just sat on my hand until I gave it a little push and then it flew off strongly until it reached the white buddleia half way up the garden where it stopped for a rest.
Goldcrests, and the similar but rarer firecrests, are the smallest of the British birds. They weigh only about 5 to 7 grams. I have never seen a firecrest but we do get goldcrests occasionally in the garden. They search for insects in the shrubs and trees but never visit the bird feeder.
PS I saw a goldcrest again on Monday morning, bouncing around happily in the cotoneaster near the rose bed. I wonder whether it was "my" goldcrest.
No comments:
Post a Comment