Category: Garden

This is quite a shock when the woodpecker arrives alongside the little birds.

This Acer is always spectacular and changes quickly. Some of the trees have lost all their leaves and the Maple and Hazel in the background are still changing. At the same time there are still flowers.

Elsewhere there are various paintings and images containing snatches of what I think was formerly one of the largest shunting yards in Europe. Currently a new life is obviously planned for it. There is frantic work clearing and levelling going on. It is sometimes as noisy when the yard operated, but he lights are more localised and so less bright. Who knows what out view will contain next?

For a lot of people part of the joy of a garden is wildlife. Ours is certainly built to attract it, though the birds always seem to ignore the bird boxes in favour of the scruffy hedgerows.

We also have bird feeders. The arguments for and against are difficult to balance, but we have them. Considerable time has been spent stopping grey squirrels getting at them and making sure that large birds don’t dominate too much.

Recently I have been filming from the house using a little telephoto attachment on an old smart phone. Below are a couple of mixes from the filming. Warning – the first contains a sparrowhawk. The second is a medley of clips with bird sounds recorded in the garden.

November 2023 and it has been wet, but today it looked good. Ruth, Simon and I set to. First off was reducing the lawn yet again and planting some grasses, kindly donated by some friends. The other two are currently planting spring bulbs in the middle of that lawn.

Next up was to re-fix a rail along the top cross path and plant some similarly donated raspberry canes.

Finally, I had already halved the size of one of the benches, but it was a bit high for shorter legs than mine, so I adjusted that and then put some steps in next to it to start another access path through that bit of shrubbery. I put in a willow arch to highlight the entrance at the other end.

Over a couple of sessions before today, Ruth had also been clearing and planting grasses in a section of the hillside below the shelter, which are also looking good.

Time for a sit on the adjusted bench and look at the view.

Amidst a chaos of building work, a day of path clearing, pruning and bed sorting alongside a harvest that was edible and one that spreads plants to other gardens.

Ruth was away for a couple of weeks, so I was in charge. These are some of the photos I sent her as updates. The weird mixture of rain and drought has led to some giant plants, virtually no apples and an absolute glut of red roses. The Heron surplanted the usual crows and magpies. The cut and come again cauliflower is very successful. A change of location and regular watering brought a smile to the face of a sad fern.

Although most of the leaves have now gone, some are still clinging on to green. The weather is cool and damp, rather than cold and the sun was so warm the other day that I couldn’t leave milk outside while we had a cup of coffee. There are quite a few flowers around, some early some late. There were seven female pheasants and one male in the garden at once one day.

The strange weather continues with some trees going into leaf drop routines early and others late, giving an extended display. We have a confused hazel that has green leaves and catkins, when most trees are now bare. Fungi all over the place, as usual and I improved a table top in time to match the Acers outside.