WHAT'S IN A NAME?

In the last blog I referred to myself as Uncle Blog but my sister has reminded me that I am actually known to one of my nephews as Uncle Maniac.

I have no idea why!

Mmmm!

First butterfly and bumble bee today and the treecreeper was in the big sycamore, flying down then moving up the tree searching for food in cracks and crevices, often upside down under a branch.

The primroses on the banking are bursting forth and, when the sun shines upon them, the yellow crocus by the Wendy House are magnificent.

My gardener R weeded the asparagus bed and then moved to undergrowth clearance in the wood. (As a show of gratitude, at 4 pm, I brought her a cup of tea and a biscuit to her writing shed.)

I mowed the lawn - in two sittings (except I did it standing as a sit on mower would not manage our terrain.) Many gardeners do it standing - mow I mean.

Then I spot weeded the thousands of thistles in the lawn so soon we will have thousands of brown spots - but little feet, come summer, will not have thousands of prickles. The lawns are not pristine so the daisies and plantain can stay for now.

I am not a bowling green man - far too lazy.

Note:- gardeners with hormone implants just mow.

THE RETURN OF THE OLD BLOGGER

Yes, the old blogger is back - you cannot get rid of me so easily. Microwaved I may be but not cooked yet.

First job, walk around the garden.

Second job, pick daffodils for the house. (R did that).

Third job, nap for 15 minutes as exhausted.

Fourth job, drink cup of coffee.

Fifth job - "Hello bloggers everywhere, your Uncle Blog is back". (Ref. Uncle Mac and Swedish Rhapsody, Nellie the Elephant etc.)

The fine warm week has meant that flowers and leaves are sprouting throughout the garden. Unfortunately the offspring of the big sycamore have taken the advent of spring as a signal to germinate as well - seedlings in every cranny and Nook.

Down in the depths of the

pond something has stirred -

actually thousands and thousands of taddies, tadpoles to the literary minded, have left their eggs and are waiting to be eaten by the ducks and Heron.

This is just a fraction of the puddle of slimy black stuff!

If birds can eat them then why - no, I do not think I will go there, even fried.

Though I have eaten frogs legs (cooked of course), and snails, and . . .

Ah! Yes, the first rhubarb from the forcing pot is being cooked this moment.

Mmmm!

And I know the joke and I am having mine with custard.

MOLES, HUMAN HAIR AND THE MAN FROM ...

Coming home from the supermarket in the rain we met a car - R said it's the man from - ?

We came up with Uncle, Laramie and the Pru' in quick succession. Now, doesn't that date us?

Enough - it is raining - soft Cumbrian rain - mizzle. (A cross between mist and drizzle and extremely wetting.)

The other night I went out of the back door

to put the kitchen scraps on the compost heap and saw this - vapour trails and Jupiter below and right of the moon. You can just see the gable end of the roof at the bottom and there has been a bit of fun with the sky - it is only black and white. This is the nearest I have got to being able to see the moon at its largest for many years - as it is close to the earth - too much cloud.

Still mizzling so here is a picture

of a frosted beech leaf on chicken wire.

Finally to moles - I have had an American idea from an Irish cousin of R in Belgium for getting rid of moles -

put a piece of human hair down each mole hole and the moles will retreat.

The snag is I have just been sent to the barber for a number 2 all over and I do not think R would like me snipping off a lock or two of her hair.

Blogging off for a day or two now as busy in Manchester.

THE WORLD IS ORANGE

Sitting up in bed this morning, drinking the cup of tea R had brought me, I stared out of the window and up the garden. It was misty and the trees were slightly insubstantial. Having just been away and going away I realised what a haven this place is - an escape from Japan and Libya and Budgets and so on. A day's weeding the woodland area would do Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi a world of good, then we could have a bonfire and sit on a bench in the sun with a nice cup of tea, and have a chat. He could forget all the troubles back home and consider retiring to nice oasis in the desert.

Back to sanity - as I could not get Gaddafi I settled for R who went a-weeding in the woods without so much as a small rant.

I, own up lad, used some long lasting weedkiller on the chipping paths - I know, not organic, but, when one may not be able to do so much gardening, it helps.

I put small sticks by the wild daffodils so that I can identify them later in the year - I want to divide the clumps and move them to the hedge banking now it has been laid.

I am about to pop out and tidy the willow arch - the England/Ireland Rugby match is too strenuous emotionally for this fragile chap. Perhaps I will nip in and watch the end. The result could affect my mood for the rest of the day.

The forecast is rain tomorrow.

I have sown some Verbena bonariensis in a seed tray but the marigolds (Calendulas) R chose in the garden centre can wait a week or two more. They will be sown straight into the ground outside and then thinned. A further sowing every two weeks or so will give flowers through the summer.

They are not my favourite plant but R had a thing about orange.

I suspect she would be delighted if she woke one morning and found me jaundiced - then I would fit the decor!

I might not be so happy.

THE FLOWERS ARE COMING

There is a lot coming into flower but I have just been to Manchester and there the blossom is now really getting going, as are the hawthorn leaves.

In the garden daffs, primroses, quince, primulas, anemone blanda, crocus and even the wild golden saxifrage out - as shown here.

Other things are staring to break - leaves on the wild rose, buds on the flowering currant and so on and so on . . .

The furry buds on the Magnolia stellata are filling (second image) as are the camellia.

Just back from Manchester - 2 down, 17 to go (family know what I am rabbiting on about) - and will only be doing weekend blogs for the next few weeks.

Today went to Beetham Garden Centre for lunch but failed to find what was looking for - bought new gloves for R and myself with Gardener's World vouchers.

Then stopped at the delightful Kath's Garden Plants behind the Heaves Hotel near Levens but they had just sold all their plants of euphorbia characias wulfenii.

Came home and ordered three from the Crocus site with G. World discount. They are to go at the bottom corner of the garden, opposite the Wendy House, across the stream - they will fill the space quite quickly.

We also have an invasion or two. Mowing the banking has revealed a plethora of holes - presumably vole-holes as they are too small for rats.

And then there are the moles up in the top corner where it is wild - it/they must be coming in from the field. What keeps a sheep out is no good for moles.

It is all 'oles at the moment!

R has gone out for a biryani - can only have this on Fridays due to unfortunate side effects which will cause problems on Monday.

Now, how to get rid of the moles - if I am to avoid traps, heavy metal music played into the runs and poison - I wonder of a vindaloo in each run would do it?

Probably the moles will just shout where is the naan bread and pickle!

LAWNMOWER MAN

Loved the film but this is for real - yes, I have done it, started the mowing. It needed doing before the grass got too long or I got ambushed by rain.

There was a frost this morning which went quite quickly so by this afternoon the grass had dried out enough, just, so . . .

Really I have a stupid garden for mowing - more like a field on a hillside with bog at the bottom - sit-on mower out so plug away on foot.

This morning, whilst I was knocking a little white ball over grass much better maintained than at home, R laboured with the brambles and undergrowth. She is very good at it. Perhaps I could loan her to others? I wonder how much I could charge?

The daffs are now flowering and we have had our first vase of wild ones - Narcissus pseudonarcissus. I always knew my Latin would come in useful even if I could not pass it at O level.

Down in the pond the frogspawn is maturing and teeny taddies can be seen inside the eggs.

The crocus we have in the garden are mainly the yellow, purple and light purple common ones but we do have one little gem - a pale yellow one flowering unobtrusively in the rose bed.

Despite trying to remember where new plants were put and so on there are always surprises from loss of memory and plants that self sow - primroses in the lawn, a geranium in the fig pot.

Snowdrops are being divided now they are going over and replanted, a few bulbs at a time in each new place.

I did not think there was much new could be done with the wood chippings I put on the woodland path but an enterprising Great Tit is using it for nesting material in on of the nest boxes.

There is a rabbit hole in the brambles under the old dead tree.

This means we have RABBITS living in the garden!!!!!!

How much are foxes?

GLOOM AND PINK WATER

Let us start with the gloom - keep popping into garden and then it rains - we both struggled on manfully (and womanfully)(well, personfully), she at the brambles - which drive us mad - and me a bit of planting and stream digging.

I put in a pulmonaria and a purple sage, both bought on the market in Ulverston this morning.

R had an avid discussion with the stallholder over orange Cosmos - did they exist, were they the same as white Cosmos but orange - she had seen them on the internet.

I also put in six red Geum Mrs Bradshaw in a clump with another we already possessed - should make a blazing show in the summer.

Then out with the spade and fork and wheelbarrow digging out the overgrown banks of the stream - heavy stuff.

I cleared the dead grass from the bottom of the willow which make up the tunnel and managed not to chop away the Lonicera haliana and Clematis montana planted to eventually clamber all over the framework.

Thursday the pond sprung a leak and the frogspawn was high and dry - quick rake of mud and plug of hole and it filled up again - spawn happy.

In our kitchen R put a cutting off our

basil into an old ink bottle. After a while I noticed that the water it was rooting in had turned pink!

The new plant seems healthy and contented - though probably ready to be potted on - and there was no residual ink in the bottle. It was not a pinkwell! (Sorry!)

Explanations in an email to darbishire@doctors.org.uk.

Sorry - no prize.

AN EDGY DAY

Yesterday I put in a wooden edging to the divide between the flowerbeds and the lawn (or somewhat rough grass area).

It makes it look a bit tidier and, I hope, will make mowing easier.

You can see in the picture a line of grassy tufts to the right of the wooden edging - these are Miscanthus and Stipa gigantea and will form a natural wall of vegetation between the house and the lovely septic tank on the left. There is a small bed in front of the tank edged by stones and we have put buddleias from cuttings in here.

The second image shows other types of edging I have employed - stones from the garden and old wooden poles garnered from the hedge. The latter are now going a bit rotten (aren't we all?) (speak for yourself, she says) and will need replacing in due course.

The third picture is of the professional

edging done to the professional path around the front of the house - one of the few things we contracted out when we started the garden - really to get it done and done properly. Incidentally it also shows the colour we managed to get into the banking though this photo was taken in November last year. Of course the nasty December sorted out the greenery.

I am sitting here writing this blog and R has just finished washing the kitchen floor - such is life.

Later I am to have my portrait painted by DC - how he is going to turn 2 piggy eyes in a blob of lard into something presentable is beyond me.

Perhaps his isn't!

COLOUR CREEPS IN

Sitting inside the house, on a day when we went to the funeral of a good friend who died too young, I thought I would show some colour photographs.

The red monster on the right is an old amaryllis that my son C abandoned when he moved to London. We rescued it and watered it and fed it and this is one of five flowers on the first stem - there is a second stem not yet out.

The second picture is of a

single crocus that has appeared outside the kitchen doors in the bed by the paving. I did not plant it so the garden is moving in a mysterious way - or I did plant it and have forgotten - much more likely.

But not all the colour in the

garden is flowers - here are some wonderful red rhubarb leaves just emerging. The strange thing is that the same under the forcing pot is no bigger - so we will have to wait.

I was asked the other day if I talked to the plants in my garden.

Well I do - though it usually consists of "Bug*** that nettle, da** that bramble, come out you ******* sod."

The sod is a sod of earth of course!?

BIRDS AND BONFIRES AND BOTTOMS

Now there is a title to conjure with.

Yesterday it was a beautiful day and we decided to leave the garden in the morning and walk down the Canal to the Bay Horse Inn and have a coffee, return and do some shopping.

As we passed under the railway bridge we saw a cormorant sitting in the top of a fifty foot tree - very odd, R had to skip to avoid a mute swan who had decided that the middle of the footpath was a good place to sit, and then we met a friend who was taking photographs. He said that he had passed some walkers who had said that further down the canal were lots of ducky birds.

Did they mean geese, moorhens, coots or even ducks? The expression just stuck in my head - so now I have let it escape.

When we got home I started doing a bit in the garden including dismantling a decrepit rustic fence which I had put up to hide the septic tank.

The wood from it was dry and, I thought would burn well - little light above head moment.

Remember this heap of brushwood from the hedge-laying?

Well, I started a fire beside it with some newspaper and a wigwam of the dry sticks. Gradually I added brushwood from the enormous mound - it had taken several days to stack it, ten feet high and fifteen feet across.

Two and a half hours later with the sun going down this is what was left - I was too tired to put sausages on sticks and potatoes into the hot ashes.

This afternoon I tidied up - the fire was still well alight, and I added a collection if fallen twigs and wood from up on the hill. It is smoking still.

So to why the bottom in the title - to a tale of a prat fall.

I went out for lunch with a friend NC as we are wont to do once a month or so, and we decided to be a pair of schoolboys and climb a craggy hill. Now as one gets a little older that faculty called balance becomes less effective, so, coming down I did a whoosher onto my backside on wet grass - wet shirt, wet jacket and more especially wet trousers and underpants.

I drove home sitting on a piece of groundsheet to protect me from the leather seat.

Yeah!, yeah! Go on have a good laugh.

BRIDGES AND STEPPING STONES

Phew! Gardening hard whilst I can. R is still raking the bankings to get rid of the dead grass. I got out weedkiller (sorry not organic but . . ) and had a go at the giant marsh thistles in the lawn and brambles on the wood.

Yesterday I repaired or replaced the small bridges over the stream - with sawn off pieces of old scaffolding planks.

This released eight large flattish stones for something.

After a night's thought I decided to make a line of stepping stones in the lawn from the bottom of the zigzag path to the gravelled veg. bed path.

The reason is that the lawn there and around the Bramley apple had become very boggy.

Time for an explore.

The garden is on a steep bank over rock where the field falls to a lower level. Water runs underground and emerges in ever new places. Last year, in the wood there was a mole hill, which I cleared away. On looking into the hole left I could see running water heading down to the lawn.

When I went into the wood to look at the minor stream which comes from a spring in the field it disappeared into a sump hole halfway down its length. Obviously it was emerging by the apple tree.

So I blocked up the hole in the bottom of the stream and hope that that will dry out the garden lower down.

Apart from that it was shifting more horse muck. The muck from the bottom of the heap moved into the garden more than four years ago still smells very strongly.

So do I after all that so off for a shower and a cup of tea.

OH! NO, THE GRASS IS GROWING

Precisely, especially in the boggier areas.

Panic - mowing approaching at a rate of knots - and too early in the year.

£100 voucher arrived from Gardeners' World Magazine - now to decide how to spend it - see blog 21st February.

The heads on the daffodils dropping ready to flower and some out.

Today's job is shifting manure. It is a bit late but we have seen so little sun recently - and every time it comes out I am elsewhere doing something else - so I am behind.

Crocusses (or is it croci?) are coming up where I do not want them or cannot see them. These will have to be moved but one always leaves the odd corm behind.

These are the tete-a-tete by the back door.

R continued to clear bankings and I moved some offending crocus hidden under a bush to the banking where they should naturalise.

I also dug up a lot of foxgloves from the lily bed and replanted them in the woodland area - more appropriate. There is and aggressive climber we were given when we moved in and this has been transferred to behind the decking by the Wendy House.

Now, horror of horrors, the spanish bluebells by the fence from the previous owner - which I though I had killed off, are coming up - drastic action needed to try and protect our native bluebells at the top of the wood.

So, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

WAKING GARDEN AND NOT FAULTY BASIL

The garden is waking up slowly, buds are starting to break on the flowering currant - I suggested that R used some as decoration in the church but it was declined.

I suppose the aroma of cat pee from the shrub might be a bit inappropriate.

The first Daffodils are out - a small clump of tete-a-tete by the back door. Today we had our first Lesser celandine.

Several indoor jobs have been done like repotting the orchid on which the last crop of flowers had gone - there is a new stem growing.

The pot of basil bought in the autumn in the local

supermarket still flourishes on the kitchen windowsill.

They always put too many plants in each pot but if they are reduced to about half a dozen they manage to thrive. A warm kitchen, south facing windowsill and water when needed all help.

C's amaryllis, which he abandoned in his cottage when he left for London, has a main stem two feet high and growing. It is now opening revealing a deep red cluster of flowers. There is a second stem about a foot high. I have had to stake it in the pot as it is now top heavy and liable to fall over.

In the past, when the flowers are over, I have cut off the flowering stem but have now learned this is wrong. Leave the stem and the bulb reabsorbs its goodness - GW Magazine - cut down when dead.

Still, we now have 4 potted bulbs at various stages of growth.

Soon we will have to extend the house to make room for them.

THE FROGSPAWN HUNTERS (AND TOM AND BOB)

This morning the garden was honoured by the great great grandchildren of Tom S.

We walked down the path to the left in the photograph and with the help of a ladle scooped gelatinous stuff out of the pond by the Wendy House.

They had come with their granddad SS in search of frogspawn, clutching two jars and a plastic box into which we put some spawn, water and a bit of weed from the pond - watercress.

Then we went on a tour of the garden, had a biscuit and a drink and a peer into my daughter's VW campervan which has been lodging with us for the winter.

Now to Tom and Bob - if you creep around the back of the church in Lindal-in-Furness at this time of year you can see snowdrops spelling out their names. These were put in many years ago - it was by J, I and E's great great grandfather - and the names are still legible.

It is surprising that they have not lost their shape after so long.

It is good to share the garden, especially with children, and try to answer their questions - try.

IN GARDENERS WORLD MAGAZINE!

On Page 177 of the Special 20th Anniversary Edition, March issue of Gardeners' World Magazine is The Nook!

They have an item for befores and afters and I popped off a email and pics and have won £100 in gardening vouchers - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I attached the following blurb -

"We moved to The Nook in February 2007, having built a house on the site of a 1920's prefab.

I was retiring and out two acres of land gave us something to do! There's a small area of natural woodland at the top of the garden where wild bluebells grow. We have a natural stream running through the middle, and I also dug out a pond. The fruit and veg beds were all double dug the first time around but are now simply forked and top dressed (if necessary).

Our latest addition has been a garden office by the pond which is the perfect place for my wife to enjoy her writing."

Mind you, with the winter, it is looking a bit 'after' now.

Mind you, after this winter I am looking a bit 'after' now.

FROST AND OLD FRIENDS

There was snow on the hills yesterday and a bit of frost.

There is a cold wind blowing today.

R cleared some of the banking of dead grass, new brambles and so on and I levelled a mound near the septic tank, moved a rhododendron up by the azaleas and a Senecio, (they do not call them that now but Brachyglottis!), to the lower banking to match one across the path. Whilst doing so I noticed more early primroses in flower.

Some of the remaining dead plants - old teasel stems by the compost bins - and beech leaves still on the hedge were rime edged first thing.

Actually most of the hedge beech are only a foot or so high. They were given to us by a friend who has a huge beech tree that seeds everywhere and wanted rid.

The frost was very fleeting this morning and had gone by 8 o'clock.

Working in the garden can sometimes be a welcome distraction - I learned at lunchtime of the death of a friend, Stephen - digging turf and shovelling soil helps a little.

Often the garden can be a haven from cares, a place to detach oneself from the world - yet also a place to think without interruption.

It is a place where one can find peace and contemplation as well enjoyment.

I saw an Aquaslide for sale on the John Lewis website - old memories of Stephen's and our families hurtling down a sheet of wet plastic into the bushes. Perhaps I will buy one?

CHIPPING AWAY

Yesterday I was naughty!

R kept telling me that I had done enough and come in but I wanted to finish chipping willow and buddleia prunings and then spreading the bits onto the woodland path. I went deaf and finished the job so one less thing to do.

The buddleia makes wonderful chippings but the willow is a nightmare - it had been cut in the autumn and lay on a banking all winter but much of the wood was still green and, if shoved into the ground, would have struck - and as it was put into the chipper it gummed up the works again and again.

Of course I have now cut back the buddleia by the bird feeders and they have nowhere to queue up. Also, today R saw a strange bird walking around these feeders - the sparrowhawk is back!

The next picture is of our first primrose in the new bed down by the Wendy House.

Other flowers are appearing including this wonderfully orange Witch Hazel.

Perhaps I prefer the pale yellow on but have to admit this is a corker. It was bought at Kath's Garden Plants at Heaves Hall near Levens.

Stinking Hellebore, rogue wallflowers and the first signs of the wild golden saxifrage are all here. Spring is not too far away?

Yet it is still really nippy.

And kins are back - must get the stuff H and N recommended to stop my finger ends splitting.

ANTHONY ROWLEY

With a Roley, Poley, Gammon and Spinach, Heigh-ho!

Yes - I went to dig out the pond and Anthony Rowley and mate have given me the perfect excuse.

The first frogspawn appeared this morning so all I could do was work around it leaving a good margin.

No doubt the mallard will be back later in the spring as will the heron - the one with the evil eye.

Elsewhere in the garden R continues weeding, I continue barrowing muck and have moved sticks to the paving for chipping - for the woodland paths.

I dug up an overgrown Sidalcea, split it and shoved it in some grass on the top of a bank near the veg beds. Then I prepared the soil and planted 9 scented lilies. These came from Sarah Raven's catalogue - expensive but each group of three bulbs in a sealed plastic bag, the three bags in another mesh bag and this in a sacking bag with her name on it and this in a cardboard box with paper packing. Obviously the wrapping cost more than the lilies.

Up in the wood the ground is erupting with daffs and crocuses. The snowdrops are splendid and we are planning where to move divided clumps to spread the white carpet for next year.

Like Mrs Dale - I have my worries - I am terribly worried about (no not Jim) but my Mahonia which looks too stick like. Has it fallen to the harsh winter? Amazingly the ceanothus has survived when all around here have not.

It is raining again.

Tomorrow we go to look at a real garden tucked under Whinfell Beacon - and lunch with S and K.

CHILDREN IN THE GARDEN

It is winter, it is wet, it is muddy, it is cold so where do the Grandchildren want to be - no, not on the nice warm kitchen near the Aga but out in the spitting rain kicking a football, walking along the top of walls with a six feet drop to paving, seeing how deep the stream is, or just mucking about - the operative word is mucking.

They also have a routine when they come to

stay. Run up the woodland paths and J pats the little boy by the path shown here. He has followed us for almost thirty years - nothing special, made of concrete but a bit different and not completely tasteless.

The paths through the wood need a new layer of wood chippings again - I have the sticks and the chipper but as yet not the motivation so they are getting muddy.

At last there is scent in the garden - the

sarcococcus by the back door and a hammamelis lower down.

Also, looking out of the study window the other day I saw our one-legged cock chaffinch.

He has been around for about two and a half years now and I never thought he would survive. He hops around on the ground living off the dropped seed from the feeders.

I have never seen him on a feeder - not easy with one leg.

Perhaps we should call him Cassidy but only the ancient would make the connection.

Now I am in trouble - if you remember the TV cowboy series I am calling you ancient!

THE GARDEN IS WAKING

The are stirrings in the shrubbery!

When we first came one of the first things I did was to nip to a local garden centre, that was closing, and bagged, very cheaply I think, a Magnolia grandiflora. It has, when mature, large creamy scented flowers in mid to late summer - no it has not flowered yet - keep hoping that this year may be the one?

The undersides of the leaves are a wonderful orange/brown colour. Often, by May the tree looks a bit moth eaten, especially the terminal leaves, but then it picks up. This spring it is not looking to bad but I cannot see any obvious flower buds.

Under the leaves of the Magnolia is the residence known as Roy's Cottage.

A bit small for all but mice I have noticed a coal tit inspecting it. However it will need a bit of renovation as the walls will have to be repointed.

I must have taken this picture about a month ago as I have now removed that lower Magnolia branch to raise its canopy a bit. When fully grown we will need to be able to walk under it. (I mean when the tree is fully grown . . . . )

I have got R into the garden, when it is not raining or she is not writing,

and here she has been sent out to do some heavy duty snowdrop picking.

Her choice of jacket is clearly chosen in order to match the undersides of the Magnolia leaves.

Could only a woman think of that?

Mind you my gardening trousers are usually the colour of pond mud!

WHAT'S IN A TITLE

So why this heading, this title?

Well, when I looked at the stats for the blog I found that there were some unusual places listed as countries from which readers had accessed the blog, apart from Devon that is.

Oh! Yes there were the expected - UK, USA, Canada, some European countries, even India, South Africa, but Brazil and the C's - China, Croatia and Colombia?

I decided to investigate - which blogs were the most popular?

By far the two winners were titled Self Perpetuation and Hot Pic of the Day and Herbs! I think we can all see why the second got a lot of hits even though it was mainly about Horseradish!

Which brings me to the deep spiritual meaning of the first which was about plants that scatter their seed - on second thoughts I can see a connection between the two!

Back to the garden - what is in a name?

Oh! the lovely Grey Squirrel or as I prefer - the tree-rat.

It has been trying to get at the sunflower hearts in this feeder for ages but so far failed.

And yesterday it was trying in the rain too.

In the second photo it has given up and is contemplating where to get its lunch sitting on the shed roof.

If I confront one up a tree it will shower me with invective - hiding behind a branch or limb and chattering away at me.

I have just looked out of the study window and it is rummaging around in the old grass under the rhododendrons. Presumably it is attempting to find some old peanuts or hazelnuts it or one of the jays buried last year.

And the male Kestrel is back sitting on the same ash branch outside my window.

Is my feeding of the birds just providing lunch for the hawk?

PS. I have dug up the last of the leeks and we have got a little from them though some bolted.

I have also found a row of cuttings I stuck in in the late autumn and forgot - rosemary, roses, buddleia, redcurrant and some I am not sure what they are as the labels have gone walkabout - one of the joys of garden is the surprises self sown plants and so on can give - now I am back to Self Perpetuation!

Perhaps I should call this blog Hot Birds in the Garden and see how many hits I get?!