More garden

Some unexpected visitors.

Saturday 16th May, 2015.

The week started with a stiff breeze and showers of cherry petals . . . like pink and white snowflakes wafting across the front lawn.  There is nothing quite like falling cherry blossom to bring on an attack of the poeticals.  Perhaps it is due to the sense of sadness at the loss of the glorious transient beauty.

But that happens every year and this week will be remembered for a much more unusual sight.  You may remember (or, more likely, may not remember) that I wrote about seeing possible hedgehog droppings in the back garden in the post of April 18.  I also wrote that I didn’t expect to see a hedgehog.  Well, I was wrong, very wrong.

On Saturday evening I came inside after working in the front garden and was amazed to see a prickly bottom in the flower bed under the kowhai tree.

I called Tim, grabbed my camera, and forgot all about cooking supper.  The visitor spent ages fossicking amongst the violets, bugle and wood sorrel  but I got rather frustrated because it didn’t lift its head and all I got was one photo after another of a prickly back and maybe one eye if I was lucky.

I gave up and started cooking and then Tim said that the hedgehog had left the flower bed and was walking across the lawn.  I rushed outside.  It didn’t get frightened and roll up into a spiky ball but it did stop and examined me suspiciously before walking on towards the daffodils under the hawthorns.  

Hedgehogs were probably deliberately introduced to the Isle of Man fairly recently.   In a book by Thomas Quayle, esq. General View of the Agriculture of the Isle of Man published in 1812 he states  “. .  .there are no toads nor snakes of any description.  Nor have foxes, hedgehogs, or moles yet found admittance.”

There is a rather nice story about a crate of hedgehogs being rescued from a shipwreck. It may be true but it could be an early version of an urban myth.  The story was recounted in an article in the October 1885 edition of the magazine THE MANX NOTE BOOK: Containing Matters Past and Present connected with the Isle of Man. Edited by A.W Moore, M. A., and illustrated throughout by John Miller Nicholson.  This is the link to the article - Some Remarks on the Mammals of the Isle of Mann - http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/manxnb/v04p119.htm

I think our little resident pest control expert is working overtime to catch up on work after taking time off over winter - or he hasn’t been told that hedgehogs are nocturnal animals.  He was back on Sunday in the early afternoon.  We saw him in the same place but he decided to move down onto the lower terrace, behind the pheasant trap, and spent some time plucking up enough courage to launch himself off the wall.  It wasn’t a very long drop as the wall is only about two or three bricks high at that point.  

After that he went back into “nose on the ground/snuffling through the plants” mode.  We couldn’t see what he was finding to eat but we could see that he stopped frequently to chew on a tasty morsel.  The wind was too cold to stay outside with the camera for long so we left him in peace and came inside to do a bit more hedgehog research.  I found out the they can walk up to 2 kms at night in search of food and that they have poor eyesight.  When we returned later he had disappeared.

Work in the garden continues in fits and starts.  I dither around doing odd bits of general maintenance like weeding, trimming the edges of the lawns, mowing and hedging. I go from one thing to another - never finishing any particular task except the mowing.   And I also try to fit in a few sessions on the “projects”.  The “sandpit” is almost finished.  On Monday Tim hammered in a split pole fence post and I tied up the short section of recycled fencing.

I am not efficient enough to have proper before and after photos of the “sandpit”.  The “before” one was only taken after I had already removed most of the old fence and cut back some of the small trees . . .

. . . and the after one was taken from a different angle before the project was completed.  About half of the compacted earth has been loosened and two rooted climbing rose cuttings planted by the fence but I need another session or two (or three) before I am ready for a proper “after” photo.

The weather wasn’t suitable for feeding gulls on Sunday so we took a packet of thawed bread crusts to the harbour before our Tuesday visit to the shops.  There were some fishing boats tied up at the quay and they wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.  It was low tide and there was almost no water in the harbour.

There wasn’t even enough water for the only pair of swans that we saw to swim up to the quay.  One was asleep.

The other one had been preening. It swam a bit  closer to see what was happening but didn’t seem particularly interested.  So we gave the bread to the herring gulls instead.  They always appreciate our offerings.  Tim made sure that one unfortunate bird with a broken leg got a fair share.  It didn’t seem to be too badly handicapped by having only one functioning leg.

We called in at the pet shop to buy a new feeder for the niger seed.  I don’t think it will turn out to be a worthwhile investment.  The birds seem to be scared of it.  It is made of plastic and has very small holes just above the perches - far too high tech for our country bumpkin birds.  I thought the siskins might be clever enough to use it but they prefer the sunflower seeds or  the more familiar peanut feeders.  

When we returned from Ramsey we saw that our hedgehog was back and was taking a nap in the sun up on the back lawn near a large chunk of slate that we put there for the butterflies.  They like to rest on the sun warmed rock.

I was worried when the hedgehog didn’t move for ages and had a close look using the binoculars.  It was a relief to see that he was breathing. 

 After a while he woke up and walked across the grass.

We lost sight of him behind some shrubs and he hasn’t been seen since.  

There hasn’t been much butterfly activity this week.  I saw an unidentified small white butterfly fluttering up by the wild flower bank on Tuesday afternoon.  Then a robin pounced, missed his prey, and the butterfly disappeared quickly into the neighbouring garden.  On Thursday there were two butterflies in the same part of the garden while I was mowing  - a male orange tip and a green veined white.  

I have finally resumed work on digging out strips of grass for the new path near the plum tree.  I gave up on this project when I had a few twinges of back pain months ago.  Before digging out turfs, I weeded out bits of grass that had come up around the paving slabs and loosened the soil.  I won’t put the paving slabs in their final position or plant anything until I have eradicated all the bits of grass root.  I don’t like bare earth but I shall have to be patient.  Unfortunately the cats from across the road do like the bare soil and think it is an excellent toilet area.  

I have been wandering around as usual - taking photos of the flowers as they open.  The azaleas are providing a splash of colour down in the shrubbery . .  .

and the crabapple blossom is lovely.

I have also been trying to get a good photo of an unusual coloured Welsh poppy down by the gate.  Most of the flowers are a plain yellow (like those in the group photo) but sometimes there is one with darker edges to the petals and occasionally there is one which is almost orange.  It is hard to capture the true colour in sunlight, so I went down in the late afternoon only to find that the flower I wanted to photograph had closed for the night.  Eventually I managed to get an early morning photo when it was partly in the shade and almost open.

On Friday the blogging week ended with another rare sighting - this time a green finch.  They used to visit the garden fairly often but this is the first one that we have seen for many years.  According to the British Trust for Ornithology  “ . . .  their populations took a tumble in the mid-to late-1990s following the emergence of a disease that was new to them.”  

Wet garden

Not the best of weeks . . .

Saturday 9th May, 2015

Not the best of weeks for sunlovers, or for out of date old left wing sympathisers like me. It rained most of the week and the wrong side won the UK elections.

It started raining while I was finishing last Saturday’s post and continued for twenty-four hours.  We had nearly two inches of rain.  47mm to be more exact, which was slightly more than we had in the whole of April.  So the garden had a really good watering and I  had an excellent excuse to be lazy.

The skies didn’t clear until after lunch on Sunday so we cancelled our visit to the swans and spent most of the weekend  indoors - trying to keep warm.  These cold snaps after the central heating has been turned off are a nuisance.  It seems too wimpish to turn it on again.  So we freeze for a while before deciding that we might as well be  wimps.

I took a few photos through the kitchen window on Sunday morning - of soggy birds on the feeder.  This little female siskin spent ages pecking away a the peanuts because her preferred food, the sunflower seeds, hadn’t been replenished yet.

After the rain stopped, Tim filled the sunflower seed feeders and the goldfinches arrived.  They are our fussiest customers.  The other finches and the tits will make do with peanuts after the sunflower seeds are finished but the goldfinches show no interest in peanuts. I read that they are particularly fond of niger seed but they seem happy enough with the sunflower seeds.

Bank holiday Monday brought sunshine but there was still a cool breeze.  We took the blue Golf out for a drive.  It spends most of its life sitting in the garage because we use the old car for short trips to the supermarket and the tip.  The north of the Island was looking very pretty . . . green fields and bright gold gorse hedges.  There were also a number of fields of rape in full flower - carpeted with brilliant yellow.

We stopped briefly at the Point of Ayre and I took a quick photo through the car window of the silhouette of the mountains.

The cherry trees down by the road were looking good when we returned home.  I think they have benefitted from the work done on the beeches about eighteen months ago.  We got some young men in to cut down one large beech by the gate and to prune the lower branches on the others.  Now the cherries get more light.

After lunch we walked up through Skyhill plantation - our first walk for a week.

Butterflies are still in short supply.  Only two sightings of unidentified whites so far this week, one in the back garden and one in the broadleaf section of the plantation.

The dry weather was short lived.  By Tuesday morning it was raining again. 

(PS Ditto Wednesday morning. I checked the rain gauge on Tuesday afternoon.   Another 24mm of rain had fallen.  If you add in Wednesday’s 5mm, it adds up to 3 inches so far this month and the first week isn’t over yet. 

PPS Total for this month up to 4 inches on Saturday morning).

I saw a male blackbird collecting food for babies on front lawn in the rain.  I am not sure whether his nest is in the holly hedge or the conifers in the next door garden.

After writing about niger seed on Monday I was tempted to buy some from the pet shop when we went in to stock up on bird food.  It is hard to resist impulse items.  I put half a cup in the empty mesh basket on feeder where Tim usually puts sunflower seed.  We hoped for some signs of enthusiasm about this new addition to the menu but apparently our birds thought it was dangerous - or didn’t recognise it as food.  They refused to even look at the seed until I put some sunflower seeds in the basket too.  Eventually the siskins started eating the niger seed and on Wednesday morning the chaffinches had joined in.  No sign of interest from the goldfinches yet.

We are not sure about the state of play in the bird box.  The great tits are still visiting the box, especially in the early morning . . .  possibly sitting on eggs.  Tim even saw one taking in a bit more nesting material this week. They are not feeding babies yet.   Last year the babies left the box on May 26.  If they are on a similar timetable this year they should be due to start feeding soon because the babies are fed for about three weeks before they leave the nest..

On Tuesday I photographed the buds on the pink clematis.  I love the creepers on the railings in front of the house but the long shoots are a nuisance.  They need to be cut back almost weekly because they seem to grow a couple of inches every day and - if they are allowed to - they try to block our access up the steps to the front door.  

The next morning  I saw that the first flowers were opening . . .  ten days later than last year.

I also saw that the first flowers on the white clematis had opened.  This was a gift from a friend last spring and I have been debating the best place to plant it for a whole year.  I moved it into a large pot and just waited for inspiration to strike.  Now I think I know the perfect place but it will have to wait in its pot until the oriental poppies have finished flowering and die back because I will have to stand on them to dig a hole.  I want to plant it on the south side of the wisteria.  I think it will look good if it climbs up the trellis on the wall and hides the bare lower branches of the wisteria.  Unlike the pink one, it isn’t a rampant variety of clematis so it should be easy to keep under control.

There are a lot of buds on the wisteria but it we will have to wait a bit longer for the flowers.

Thursday promised to be one of those perfect spring days but didn’t quite live up to its promise.  There was a fair amount of cloud lurking around and a coolish breeze.  Although there were plenty of sunny spells it didn’t warm up as much as we hoped.  But it did warm up enough for another butterfly sighting.  This one was a male orange tip.  It posed very nicely for photographs in the sunshine but I was hoping for a cloud to come over because I knew the bright sun would bleach the deep colour of the orange tips to his wings in a photo.  

When a cloud eventually did oblige, the butterfly promptly folded up his wings and didn’t spread them again until the sun reappeared.   You can see the true colour of the upper wing in the narrow strip visible above the wing nearest the camera in the next photo.

It was very frustrating but I did get the best orange tip photos that I have taken so far even if his wing tips look more gold than orange.

While I was chasing the butterfly I saw one of my favourite bumblebees on the bugle - a common carder.

After lunch we walked in Skyhill plantation again.  I stopped at the top to photograph the new cones on the larch . .

. . . and the Scots pine.

The seasons are changing. The sheep have been moved from the high pasture where they have been grazing all winter and replaced with cattle for the summer.

We were all busy early on Friday.  I was loading the dishwasher and looking out of the window, Tim was catching up on the news on TV in the aftermath of the UK elections (which I have been trying to ignore as far as possible because it is too depressing), and a blackbird and thrush were collecting food for their children on the back lawn.  I saw the blackbird first.  He was obviously a successful hunter gatherer.

Then the thrush arrived with one small bug in its beak.  I watched its hunting tactics.  It hopped around for a while and then stopped in a sunny spot and stood there patiently, listened, looked around and finally pounced.

After dithering for an hour or two, I decided to mow the grass before our shopping trip.  

And finally my blogging week ended the same way that it started.  Wet. It started to rain as soon as we got home from the shops and I watched the rain falling on the new mown grass with a smug satisfaction that only another gardener will understand.

Cold garden

More thinking and looking - and not enough gardening.

Saturday 2nd May, 2015

One of the benefits of blogging is that it makes me more observant.  I wander around with a camera and see things that I wouldn’t normally notice and the camera captures the image.  I also spend a lot of time thinking about the things that I see . . . but my thoughts tend to be more elusive.  One of our teachers at school used to say that information went in one of our ears and out the other and my thoughts still behave in the same way.  I would need a mental butterfly net to capture them all for the blog because most of them vanish into thin air  . . . just as well really!

Sunday was sunny with bright blue skies but a chill in the air again.  Some of the plants seem to be confused by the weather.  I thought there were only going to be a handful of flowers on the azalea mollis this year  but the flowers which are opening now are just a small first flush - there are still plenty of flower buds which are nowhere near opening.  

And I saw one bud on an oriental poppy by the front steps which is already showing colour.  The other buds are still quite small.  This bud is beating the first one from 2014 by two weeks.

After visiting the Co-op to get the Sunday newspaper, we walked down to visit the swans.  It was low tide so they were all down near the market square and the harbour entrance.  Their usual haunt in the old harbour area was just exposed mud.  Conditions weren’t ideal for feeding them because the stiff breeze blew the bread back onto the pavement when Tim tried to throw it into the water.  Then the breeze caught the packet of bread and turned it upside down - depositing all the contents onto the pavement.  The swans loss was the herring gulls gain.  They cleaned up the unexpected bonanza in less than half a minute.

I was still thinking about the changes to the old harbour mouth that I wrote about last week.  The Market Square, in front of St Paul’s church, used to be part of the “old lake” before it was filled in.  It is said that the water was six feet deep at high tide.   When the church was completed in 1822 there was a landing place in front of the church.  Constance Radcliffe wrote “This ceased to exist when the Market Place was filled in from 1835, but its comparatively short period of use was long remembered in stories of how ships used to moor immediately in front of St Paul’s.”   Now the square is used as a car park.  I doubt whether anyone will feel nostalgic about it in future.

On our way back to the car we passed the statue representing two of our our early Viking kings -  Godred Crovan (King Orry) and his son Olaf playing chess - under a flowering cherry tree outside the Old Courthouse.

Everything changes so fast at this time of year that it is easy to miss things even if you are trying to be observant.  I wasn’t aware of the new leaves opening on the hawthorns and suddenly they were green.

When we got up on Monday morning the temperature had dropped to zero.  The day alternated between sunny spells and showers.  I tried to remain optimistic and told myself that one good thing about a cold spell is that it should slow down the growth of the weeds and grass so I can spend more time on my pet projects like the redevelopment of the sandpit.  I am already planning the planting but haven’t even finished digging out the stones yet. . .  or started on the fence.

Tuesday was sunny most of the time but the warmth of the sun was no match for the stiff breeze that was bitterly cold and felt as though it was coming directly from the Arctic.  The rest of the week has remained too cold for comfortable gardening except in sunny, sheltered corners of the garden.  So work has almost ground to a halt this week apart from an afternoon devoted to mowing.  I did achieve a bit of weeding, some more work on the sandpit and the inevitable edging.   It is annoying that grass grows so much more vigorously at the edges of the lawns. Edging is worse than painting the Sydney bridge - I need to start again before I have even finished.

I didn’t pick a good year for my daffodil recording project.  For some reason the flowers were more sparse than usual and some varieties didn’t flower at all.  The clumps may be too congested but I think I will put off dividing them for another year in case they are just “resting”.  To add to the problem I got confused about some of the flowers.  The colours seemed to fade as the flowers aged and I couldn’t be sure whether some of the paler ones were a different variety or just older flowers.  Here is a collage of some of the better photos.

I prowled around with my camera on Tuesday and managed to get a good photo of a bumblebee enjoying the bugle flowers on the wildflower bank.

The cold weather seems to deter the butterflies and I only saw one all week.  It was a green veined white and flitted around the back garden on Wednesday morning, visiting a series of wild violets.

While I was chasing the butterfly I noticed that the first bluebell had opened . . .

. . . and that the buds on the apple tree were on the verge of opening.

A few days ago I picked up these oak galls.  They had fallen onto the path at the top of the garden from an overhanging oak branch.  I had always assumed that they were oak apples but after checking on the net, I am not sure.  They look more like a different type of wasp gall - oak marbles, also known as oak nuts (the galls formed by another tiny gall wasp, Andricus kollari).

There have been two mysteries that have been haunting me and I think I may have the answers.  The first concerned an oak seedling which was growing in the back garden.  It wasn’t in a place where an acorn from one of the oaks in the plantation could have landed.  Then it occurred to me that Alexander, the smallest of our Schipperke boys, used to collect toys - like feathers and small stones - and carry them around with him.  Anything small and plastic and left lying around by visiting grandchildren was also considered fair game.  So it is quite possible that he picked up an acorn and carried it around the garden before accidentally planting it near the big white buddleia.  Tim dug out the little oak tree and planted it in a more appropriate place near one of the streams in the plantation.

The other mystery was the identity of a small evergreen tree near a path in the plantation.  I picked a sprig a few years ago in an attempt to identify it and took occasional photos of the tree but it didn’t seem to have any special features - just ordinary leaves and small clusters of insignificant white flowers.  I put the sprig in a glass of water and it decided to grow so I moved it to a pot of compost.  It is doing well and the colour of the new shoots makes me think that it could be a type of photinia.

Another plant with colourful new shoots is the pieris.  Unfortunately it didn’t enjoy the frost at the beginning of the week.  The before and after photos show that only a few of the more sheltered shoots survived.

Our feathered friends have also been feeling the cold.  The early birds at the feeder have their feathers so fluffed out that they look as though they are wearing puffa jackets.

But even if it is on the chilly side, the garden is a riot of colour.  The view from the kitchen window is a combination of gold and various shades of green . . .

. . . . and the front garden is dominated by the pink and white of the flowering cherry blossom . . . .

. . .  with the early morning sky joining in the colour scheme.