May garden

And this week’s stars are . . . . . the siskin family!

Saturday 23rd May 2015

Sunday

It was unfair of me to criticise our birds’ lack of intelligence last week.  Their apparent aversion to the new niger feeder must have just been due to a natural suspicion of anything unfamiliar.  I can sympathise.  It always takes me a while to relax about using any new bit of household equipment - and new computer stuff always gives me nightmares and usually stays in its box for a few days until I get up the courage to unpack it.  On Sunday the first brave male siskin took the plunge!

The bird feeder has been attracting lots of customers.  The greenfinch was back . . . eating sunflower seeds with a friend.  But nothing much is happening in the bird box although Tim saw the great tits there again briefly so they don’t seem to have abandoned the nest yet.  Without opening the box, it is hard to tell whether there is a problem - or whether the eggs were laid later than usual and they are still brooding.  We don’t want to risk disturbing them so we will have to curb our curiosity.  They definitely aren’t feeding babies yet.

In the evening I took a photo of the clematis after light shower of rain.  I sent it to my daughter and commented “ Pity I can't email the perfume.”

Monday

Two Wood pigeons landed on front lawn and strolled around  in the rain pecking at something. They appeared to be eating weed leaves - possibly sorrel. 

 They have been nesting in the conifer in the next door garden again this year but I haven’t been wasting time trying to photograph them landing on the tree.  I still remember how frustrating that was last spring.  We see them flying around frequently, and there is constant cooing in the glen, but they seldom land in our garden.  

When the rain stopped I got up the courage to “liberate” a small blackthorn bush at the edge of the plantation.  I have wanted one for years but haven’t seen any for sale in the garden centres.   I hope I got enough root for it to survive the ordeal.  It has been planted up by the new bit of fence at the top of the garden (in the “sandpit”).  It wasn’t the best possible place as it is too close to the climbing roses - but it is windy up there and the blackthorn needed to be supported by a good stake or to be tied to the fence.  I didn’t have a suitable stake so the position by the fence seemed to be the next best option.

The male siskin was back on the niger feeder for a second day in succession and was becoming quite possessive.  A  female  chaffinch tried to join in and was threatened. 

I believe the collective noun for goldfinches is a charm of goldfinches.  I wonder whether siskins and chaffinches have collective nouns.  I would suggest an aggression of siskins and a squabble of chaffinches!

Later a female siskin arrived.  She dithered around for a while but she eventually worked out how to extract the seed.

And then a goldfinch got up the courage to join her and try the niger seed.

Tuesday

I did another session on the path.  I may even finish removing the grass by the end of the week.  Removing grass paths is part of my plan to make the garden more manageable.  I am approaching my mid-seventies and it is becoming increasingly obvious that I am not getting any younger.  The easier the garden is to maintain - the longer I will be able to manage it.  So I need to do some hard work now to save work in future.

The plants up in the sandpit are looking all right - so far.  On my way back from a tour of inspection, I noticed something odd on the new leaves on our small oak near the gate into the plantation.  At first glance I thought the small round objects might be ladybirds but on closer inspection I realised that they must be small wasp galls.  I removed the leaves and brought them inside to photograph with the old galls  (oak nuts)  that I picked up a few weeks ago.

The first rhododendron is flowering.

It isn’t my favourite - which is just as well because the plant doesn’t look very healthy and may not last long.  A couple of branches have already died back and been removed.  I tried putting a thick mulch of leaf mould under the shrub but the cats from over the road used it as a toilet and I don’t think the plant enjoyed the cat manure.  So now it has a layer of stones on top of the leaf mould to deter the cats.  Unfortunately my garden seems to be a cat magnet.  They used to frequent the front garden only - when the back garden was zoned for free-range dogs.  But now they wander everywhere although I chase them out if I see them.

My favourite of the rhododendron family has to be the azalea mollis.  This is partly because we can enjoy it from the comfort of the living room. It is right outside the window.  I can even see the top of the shrub from my computer desk on the far side of the room.

But the main reason must be the incredible colour of the flowers.

There has been very little butterfly activity again this week.  The little green veined white butterfly is still around and is occasionally joined by a second one.

Wednesday

I came inside after weeding buttercups in daffodil bed and saw the first baby bird of the year.  It was a  baby siskin begging for food from its parents.  It was quivering its wings frantically . . .

. . . but the parents were busy eating niger seed and ignored it.

At times it quivered so violently that it nearly took off!

If it hadn’t been begging for food, I might not have realised that it was a baby.  It  looked almost exactly like the female - just slightly yellower and a bit plumper.  That may be because it had its feathers fluffed out - or possibly it was was fatter because it had been sitting in the nest being waited on hand and foot by the parents.

The first hawthorn flowers opened.

On the subject of hawthorns, I found an interesting photo of two traditional Manx “hawthorn tables” in George Quayle’s book.  He says they were usually about three feet high and from six to twelve feet in circumference and were used for drying milk buckets and dish cloths.  My rather amateurish attempt at a hawthorn table is probably a bit too tall and not flat enough - in need of trimming.  This is a tricky task as the tree is growing on a bank and it is hard to reach across the top.  I don’t have any milk buckets that need drying but the hawthorn may fulfil another more fanciful purpose  as  protection “against all kinds of evil.”

There is a good clump of bluebells up behind the hawthorn table.

Thursday.

I got down to some serious garden work.  First mowing and then trimming edges.  Tim loaded all the garden refuse and other recycling into the old car for a trip to the tip.  But the car wouldn’t start.  The battery was dead.  So we had to take it to Ramsey to see whether it could be recharged.  

The first oriental poppy opened near the front steps.  It isn’t the bud which I photographed three weeks ago.  That one was affected by the cold, wet weather and didn’t manage to open fully.

Friday.

I finished trimming the edges of the lawns.  That is not quite true because it is never finished.  By the time it is all done the bits which were done first are growing again.  Then I had another session of digging out grass before we did the shopping in Ramsey.  We bought a new battery for the red Golf because the old one turned out to be terminally dead.

The wildflower bank is changing with the seasons.  The primroses, violets bugle and barren strawberries which attracted the bees earlier in spring are now overshadowed by taller plants.  There are drifts of the delicate white pignut flowers and the first meadow buttercups have opened.  Soon they will have had their turn and the even taller meadowsweet, wild oregano and knapweed will will taking over.

The garden is bursting at the seams with self-seeded yellow poppies, bluebells and aquilegia.  They are quite useful because they hide the ugly dying leaves of the snowdrops and daffodils.

Saturday  

The second oriental poppy opened and is rather a fine specimen.

These “granny’s bonnets” have actually burst out of the garden and seeded themselves outside our gate.

And finally, I am rather good at taking “if only” photos.  Photos which would be great if only I had taken them a fraction of a second earlier or later . . . if only the subject hadn’t moved . . . if only I had held the camera steady, etc. etc.  Here is an if only photo of a male siskin feeding his two babies this morning.  If only the camera had focussed on the birds instead of the flowers in the foreground . . .