More misc.

The second day of spring?

Saturday 21st March 2015

Saturday again and another blogging day.  It is impossible to imagine a more beautiful morning.  The skies were the deepest blue.  The grass was glistening with such a heavy dew that there may have been a touch of frost overnight.  And the air was full of bird song when I went out before eight o'clock to photograph the sky.  It looked and sounded like spring but there was a chill in the air (4 degrees C) so it didn’t quite feel springlike.

The blue skies arrived a day too late for yesterday’s solar eclipse and the vernal equinox.  Today is the second day of spring (according to the astronomical seasons).  But nothing is simple.  If you prefer to use the meteorological calendar, spring started three weeks ago on the first day of March.  And there is also my personal “daffodil calendar” which claims that spring started on the fifth of March when the first daff opened in our garden.

The blue skies over Skyhill . . . the view over the top of the house from the patio.

. . . and the view from the back door.

This week started in the usual manner.  Another Sunday - another trip to Ramsey.  

We were held up by a very slow tailback of cars in Lezayre Road and when we turned into Parliament Square we saw the reason.  There had been a one horsepower vehicle ahead of us.

We parked at the Co-op and walked down to the harbour with  leftover bread for the swans.  The swans were further downstream than usual, apart from two which were sleeping on a mud bank above the swing bridge.  The tide was out and they had gathered together in the shelter of the harbour wall just below Market Square.  There were also six Canada geese with them and a few mallard ducks.  

As well as being the greediest, the herring gulls are the most observant of the harbour birds.  We didn’t see any when we walked down the quay but they must have been watching us.  As soon as Tim started to open the packet of bread the herring gulls appeared en masse, closely followed by the black headed gulls.   When the bread was nearly finished some pigeons and jackdaws arrived and formed an orderly queue before polishing off the crumbs.

There was an article in the Guardian about bread being bad for ducks.  Perhaps we shouldn't take left-over crusts for the swans.  But we only feed them every week or two and they only get homemade wholemeal bread made with local stone-ground flour. The article suggested a long list of alternative foods which looked either too expensive like mealworms, or too time consuming like “grapes (cut in half)” and earthworms.  Do they seriously think anyone is going to spend hours digging up earthworms to feed to ducks?

We walked down Parliament Street on the way back to the car and passed the Courthouse - probably the most photographed building in Ramsey.  

The Courthouse is actually the former courthouse, and also the former police station.  It is currently still in use as the local post office.  We are hoping that it doesn’t soon become the former post office because there are plans afoot  to close the post office and open a sub post office in a room at the back of the Spar shop..  The Ramsey residents are up in arms and have been marching, signing petitions and putting up posters.

Ramsey seems to be shrinking gradually.  The high street is being killed off by internet shopping and businesses relocating to Douglas.  There have even been rumours that our bank may eventually close its Ramsey branch and have a counter in the Spar. I can imagine a future when only the supermarkets, a few coffee shops and hairdressers, and about half a dozen Estate Agents still survive . . .  as well as the ever-expanding Spar, of course.

On the way home we stopped in the glen road so that I could photograph the lambs.  They had been frisking around when we drove to the shops and now they were relaxing in the midday warmth (which wasn’t really very warm).

When I see sheep in the peaceful Manx countryside, the words “Where sheep may safely graze” often creep into my mind.  I checked the quote and found that it didn’t come from a half-remembered hymn as I had suspected.  It is of course from a translation of the lyrics of a secular Bach cantata and praises good shepherds and rulers.  The Manx sheep appear to be safe and content, but we seldom see any shepherds so the words are less appropriate than I thought.

When we got home I saw two long tailed tits on the feeder and called Tim.  He pointed out a wren in the flower bed which I hadn't noticed.  I fetched the camera.  After taking a quick photo of the wren, which promptly disappeared under a shrub, I went back to see the long tailed tits but they had also gone.  Luckily my one wren photo was better than I expected.

Monday was overcast again.  One of those days when it is on the verge of drizzling all day but manages to stay dry most of the time.  We walked up Skyhill.  The path was muddy but not as bad as we expected.  I wondered whether the conifers were starting to suck up some water from the ground.  

The larches inside the plantation compete for light.  They grow straight and tall and the only side branches were way above our heads.  We stopped at the top of the track where there is a larch at the edge of the plantation near the old stone wall.   It gets more light and has some lower side branches.  I took some magnified photos of its twigs.  The minute and perfectly formed cones were already visible and the bright green leaf shoots were just starting to show colour.  The first signs of life after winter.  Soon the larches will be greening.

It is worth enduring the cold, dark months of winter because they are always followed by the annual miracle of spring . . . new life out of the dead land.  It isn’t April yet and it’s too early for lilacs - but March is time of the earliest blossom on the trees.  After a damp Tuesday shopping trip, we stopped on the way home so that I could take a photograph of a beautiful tree. My Tuesday photo didn’t show the true beauty of the tree, so we returned on Wednesday before a Brookdale walk when the light was better.

I thought the tree might be a variety of cherry but after looking at photos on the computer I have changed my mind.  The close-ups of the blossom look exactly like almond flowers.  There are not many almond trees on the Island because we are too far north for them to produce nuts.  But who cares about nuts when the flowers are so lovely.

The leaf buds on the trees are swelling and a few have already burst into new leaf.  The horse chestnuts at Ballakillingan are always ahead of the other big trees.  They are the first to get their new leaves, the first to flower and the first to change colour in autumn.  But some of the smaller trees burst into leaf early too.  Willows (left) and elders (right), which we passed on our walk, were both showing signs of new life.

It is gradually getting warmer.  I was clearing sticks and leaves from the bank above the stream in the afternoon and I could work comfortably without gloves.  I even saw a bumblebee feeding on the heather in the back garden.

The cold weather may be fighting a losing battle but it isn’t giving up without a fight.  The grass was white with frost on Thursday morning but the sun was shining and the temperature was expected to creep up to double figures.  Maximums of 10 degrees C isn’t bad for this time of year.  

Later in the morning I saw a goldfinch on the sunflower seed feeder - the first one that I have seen this year.  

After tea we walked up through Skyhill plantation and checked the boundary wall where I think I may be able to climb over the fence to visit the keeill.  I am sure it will be possible. The air was rather hazy because the wind has been blowing from the east. I will wait for clearer skies because I want to photograph the views from the keeill as well as the remains of the building. But the real reason may be that I am a coward and trespassing makes me nervous - so I am putting off the excursion into the fields as long as possible.  I would ask for permission but I don’t know who to ask.  These old upland farms have been uninhabited for years and are just used for grazing.

On our way back we passed the horses.  They were relaxing in the sunshine at the top of the paddocks and were all conforming to a smart casual dress code . . . . .

. . . . . apart from one shaggy pony who looked slightly embarrassed about being the only one not wearing a jacket.

While we were walking along the muddy mountain bike path at the top of the plantation we heard a deep-throated bird call.  We couldn’t see the bird but Tim thought it must be a raven.  We checked some audio clips on the computer the next day and decided that he was right.

By Friday we were becoming concerned about our great tits - the pair which  booked the next box this year.  For a couple of days we have only seen one bird which we think is the male.  He spends a lot of time perched on or near the box - calling to his mate.  I hope she hasn’t dumped him for another male or been eaten by the sparrowhawk or one of the local cats.

The great event of the solar eclipse turned out to be a damp squib.  There was heavy cloud all morning and although it gradually got a bit darker towards the time of the maximum eclipse (about 90% when viewed from the Island - if we had been able to view it), it wasn’t much darker than days when the sun is just hidden behind heavy rain clouds.

All in all not a very memorable day considering it was allegedly the first day of spring.

PS  Good news on the great tit front.  There was a pair of tits near the box this morning (Saturday).  It may not the the original pair but I like to believe that the male, which has been patiently guarding the box, has been reunited with his wife - or at least found a new girlfriend. Perhaps I should have written "partner", I am not sure whether political correctness extends to great tits!