Saturday 6th June, 2015
Last Saturday
The week started with a morning walk in Brookdale plantation. We haven’t walked a lot recently so we just went up as far as the view site, an area where the trees were felled about twenty years ago and we can see across the glen to Skyhill. I don’t think any trees have been replanted here but there are a lot of young conifers which must have come up from seed. I am not confident about identifying conifers but I read that the original plantings in Brookdale were mainly Sitka spruce and Japanese larch. Some of the young trees are obviously pines and I would guess that they are lodgepole pines which were planted in many of the Island’s plantations.
Young Sitka spruce on the left and centre (foreground) and lodgepole pine on the right?
A closer view of the new shoots and cones on the pine.
The brambles and bluebells have both benefitted from getting extra light due to the recent larch felling. There should be a good crop of blackberries in the autumn and there were pretty patches of bluebells near the path. I tried to resist the temptation to take more bluebell photographs because I took too many last week but I weakened on the way down.
The first practice session for the TT was held in the evening but wasn’t completed because of rain. The forecast doesn’t look good for Monday evening’s practice either, and Tuesday could be showery, but there are rumours of better weather by Wednesday.
Sunday.
It is hard to believe that summer is due to start tomorrow. It is still colder than usual for the end of May - barely 12 degrees C and it feels even colder in the strong north-westerly wind. But the summer flowers are beginning to open - tentatively. The first foxglove buds are on the verge of bursting . . .
. . . and a couple of oxeye daisies in the back garden have already taken the plunge.
I sent an oxeye photo to a friend in Johannesburg and she commented that it looked exactly like a shasta daisy. I wondered whether they were related and checked on the internet. Sure enough the oxeye was one of the original parents of the shasta, which is a hybrid produced in 1890 by the American horticulturist Luther Burbank. I was totally bemused by the botanical name of the shasta - Leucanthemum × superbum - until I realised that I was mentally mispronouncing it. The second part of the name isn’t a reference to some dubious celeb who has been voted “Rear of the Year” but is simply superb with -um tacked on the end. I don’t expect Luther Burbank was familiar with British slang or he might have had second thoughts about that name.
I did a bit of weeding so that I wouldn’t feel too guilty about the garden which is going to be neglected for a week after our son arrives on Wednesday and started making lists of things to be done before the road closures disrupt our normal routine after the racing starts on Saturday.
An almost full moon rose over North Barrule in the late afternoon. The shadows of the craters don’t show up so well on the full moon as they did on the half moon photos that I have taken in the past - must be due to the angle of the sunlight.
Monday morning
The day dawned bright and sunny with bright blue skies and just a light breeze but the afternoon’s forecast didn’t look promising! “Comments: Heavy rain. Standing water on roads, risk of localised flooding. Unusually windy for early June, with gales/ severe gales for a time, causing some disruption and damage. Some coastal overtopping in places at high tide tonight.”
The big question - should I try to mow before the rain starts or should I leave it for tomorrow? I was saved by the weather. The wind strengthened and the clouds arrived earlier than expected so I decided to put off the mowing and to have a pleasant ramble around the garden taking photos before the wild weather arrived and damaged the flowers.
The first flowers have opened on my favourite rhododendron.
And there are also a few flowers on this yellow one.
I like the colour of this weigela and the bumblebee seems to like the pollen.
I nearly overlooked a lovely delicate little veronica.
Tuesday morning,
Another bright, sunny, breezy morning. The calm after the storm but plenty of evidence lying around of yesterday afternoon’s wind and rain which more than lived up to expectations. The trees had been thrashing around in the gale force wind and there was minor debris everywhere. I picked up two builders buckets of twiggy bits from the front lawn. But the garden survived more or less unscathed. The only damage was to one lower branch on the white buddleia which had twisted and split.
Further good news is that it is too wet to mow so that task has been put off until tomorrow. We had nearly one and three quarter inches of rain - and more showers were forecast for this morning although there isn’t much evidence of them so far.
But others weren’t as lucky as we were. Record winds for June, with gusts of 63 mph, were recorded. The story about the weather on the Manx Radio website had the headline “Carnage at campsites across Island” and reports that “Chairman of Colby Football Club Dickie Gale says their campsite completely blew away, one tent making it's way into the next field with four mattresses inside.” It was the worst possible time to break wind speed records because this is TT fortnight and a lot of the fans are staying at the campsites.
Wednesday morning.
The drive down to the airport wasn’t as nerveracking as it might have been. Our son was arriving on an early flight from London City and most of the bikers were not out and about when we left. It takes just under an hour to drive from our home to the airport in the south of the Island. Ronaldsway airport looks very much like any other small regional airport . . .
. . . but the iconic sculpture of the Three legs of Mann outside the terminal is unique. It was created by Manx artist and sculptor, Bryan Kneale, and is said to resemble aircraft parts.
Thursday
I took a few more garden photos. Here are the goldfinches using my modified niger feeder. I tied the perforated plastic lid of an old margarine container under the feeder to catch the seed which falls out of the holes while they are eating. Some of the birds prefer to sit on the lid instead of using the perches.
Then I found a group of self-seeded aquilegia in the front garden - all different colours due to the bees' experiments with cross pollination. Every year there seem to be even more variations. It is the first time I have seen the pale pink ones in our garden.
This collage shows the same purple and white aquilegia from two different angles.
And here is another rhododendron, not quite my favourite but it runs the crimson one a very close second.
Now it is Saturday again. The week started with wild weather and the end promises to be almost as bad. The poppies by the front steps have taken a bit of a beating but they are putting up a good fight considering the conditions.
The main race scheduled for today has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon because we are expecting gales again - ”Windy this morning, with the southwesterlies increasing to becoming strong to gale force, giving gusts of 40-50 mph on low ground and 50-60 mph over the hills. Unpleasant conditions are likely again for campers, . . . “ It is just gales this time - no rain. At least the campers can be grateful for small mercies.
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