Tuesday 18 April 2017

OF MICE AND MANY OTHER THINGS


Here is a very particular little mouse very familiar to Beatrix Potter, always trying to keep her place tidy despite the messy insects and spiders.

This one is foraging for seeds dropped from the kitchen feeder.


The skimmia is resplendent - this is the male one - covered in bumble bees and, better, honey bees from somewhere. The scent of the flowers can be sensed from some way away and is quite heady.

The woodpecker is still visiting but very twitchy and flies off at the slightest alarm. R is monitoring the duck, or rather drake population on the pond - varies from one to four. Perhaps they are all adolescent and shy - NO that never applies to male mallard who are very aggressive when fuelled by the urges of spring. It can be tough being a duck.

The varying colours by the stream are a delight now the Japanese maple is coming into leaf - red.
Today has been picking up yet more sticks, assaulting nettles and brambles (the latter are everywhere) and debating whether the deep area of soggy leaf mould by the top wall is worth excavating and using. I wonder how many weed seeds are in there waiting to burst forth.

The daffs are going over but some later narcissi still ok. Waiting to see how the naturalised camassias on the banking will do this year.
  The pond is looking good even if the ducks are away now and she is sitting on eggs in her nest on the tarn above the spade forge.


The blossom will not last much longer - the Victoria Plum has already lost most of its flowers - but the cherries are so splendid I cannot resist another couple of pics.


This morning I looked out of our bedroom window at the garden - a frost was already fading in the sunshine, a squirrel scurried up the top banking and a rabbit was sitting on the lawn eating fallen cherry petals, not the grass but petals. Obviously a bunny with taste.
  
And finally a blast of colour before the North Koreans go bananas - just read the book In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park - reminds me of Wild Swans by Jung Chang but in some ways worse.



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