ELEPHANT, FROG, HERON AND OTHER BIRDS

Let me start with the elephant in the - rock. A fossil shores with sand ripples turned vertical near Brighouse bay. This was just before I ended up on my backside in wet mud sliding down the coastal path - and 30 minutes back to the car. Actually, as it is a fossil perhaps mammoth or mastodon would be a better title?

Here is the hunting heron performing for its audience of mallard.

And here a close-up of its intent.

In the second half of this video you are spared more torment as the heron takes the frog it has caught off screen to swallow whole. 

Mr Pheas is regularly wandering around under the feeders outside my window totally unflustered by whirling blue tits, grey tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits and strutting pigeons.

And the marigolds are still flowering as they have all winter. Thought I ought to mention flowers as this is supposed to be a garden blog.

Time for supplies - have just been to the local garden centre (just been sold) and stocked up with potting compost, pelleted hen manure and Growmore. Spring must be springing a bit. They say that it will be warmer in North-east Scotland than on the Med. this week. 

Trump, Brexit, weather - the whole world is nuts!

And whilst all this is going on we have a chaffinch with the Fringilla papillomavirus of a foot. Not a pretty sight. We have had a few cases over the years, all chaffinches so it must be infectious. The will have difficulties perching and I have only seen them ground feeding.

And suddenly the garden is filled with chatter - the trees at the far end are crowded with starlings.

Yesterday we walked the garden and were surprised at how the snowdrops had spread - this is not just  dividing and replanting, though that helps, they have self seeded abundantly. As we go around the pond the wild duck amble away up the other side - here on the right.

I have finally emptied the big sack of chippings and raked out on the path by the shed, R has weeded the strawberry bed and I have scattered some pelleted hen manure. whilst I was doing this I noticed a great tit with a damaged wing scurrying about looking for cover. There is not much I can do, something will catch it sooner or later.

It was so wet last night the golf course was closed and R grabbed me for a walk up the disused railway line at Broughton-in-Furness. I find it strange that once I went to school on the train that ran here, from Foxfield to Coniston. )I only travelled from Torver to Coniston and back and only for a while until I got a small biker and rode the 2 1/2 miles there and back - no traffic then!) Of course it got Beechinged - it would have made a wonderful tourist line but . . perhaps it is better this way and the Woodland Valley is quiet and away from the visitors.

We are waiting for a storm to arrive the weather people have named Doris!
(Doris was a sea nymph, a child of Oceanus and Tethys - hence all the rain?)   

Thursday and she seems to have missed us to the south - lots of rain but, unless we are in the eye of the storm, calm now. Time to publish this blog.

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS!

As another dark day emerges from winter's gloom

and the garden is shrouded in clinging mist

 and sodden from overnight rain

I think back and realise that on Thursday 16th we will have been in this house for 10 years!

And so - do I plod on with the blog, detailing the changes to the garden (let alone the world)?

Today I took the bulbs stored through the winter and forgotten, sprouting in their cardboard box, and planted them in small patches around the garden.

As I trundle about the cock pheasant grunts to himself and avoids me. I am not surprised that he rarely flies, being so chunky. We don't see much of his other half at this time of year - she is presumably exhibiting a low profile - not something one could say about him.

We are back from Scotland where on can see the most odd things in gardens, up trees. This is a small sample of the curiosities beside the lower road in Kippford - logs with eyes and even false teeth halfway up a tree.

Back here the witch hazel, hamamelis, is in flower (and scent). We have this orange one rather than the usual yellow.

Got this video from by the pond - note the plastic deterrent in the distance failing miserably. Glad I'm not a frog.

And there are snowdrops everywhere due to our replanting in the green after flowering each year.
The price of snowdrop bulbs from retailers is ridiculous but then we have a lot so . . . with a bit of work every year we have more.

So - 10 years here - time to stop the blog and take up something else? Like dieting?
Which I have.

R weeded today (Monday) and I had a big bonfire, cut down a large branch of elder clad in ivy and brought with it a lot of our giant rose. I am well punctured now despite gloves. The cold wind has eased and there is warmth in the sun.

And on Tuesday morning, apart from it being St. Valentine's Day, we had a visitor to the pond - a little egret.

One day the egret, next day the grey heron, today the pair of mallard are back. I went to get the video camera and it had blackbirds and collared doves drinking, a grey wagtail, but had been set too low and missed the above!

Better luck next time.

BOGGED DOWN AND BIRDLIFE

The thing about February is the feeling that winter is nearly over - but it isn't. Snowdrops are out, the odd shrub is flowering out of season, we have frost (or as at present loads of rain).

In fact the garden is a quagmire so I stay off then lawns. It was a good thing I cleared out the streams - though we have new springs and consequently patches of sodden grass.

It is all not helped by a bad back so no barrowing about of compost and such. (Anyway the wheelbarrow had a puncture. Put the inner tube under water - nothing, no little stream of bubbles. Pumped it up - next day flat. In the end took it to  a tyre place and they stuck a new tube in for a tenner.)

Up this morning to an avian world - heron by the pond, pheasant in the field and the mallard are back, bottoms up feeding in the pond. We thought they had abandoned us but not to be. They will, no doubt, eat the frog spawn from the frogs not eaten by the heron - but that's the way the world goes. Choices, choices - frogs or herons, tadpoles or ducks!

Sorry for no blog but been away in Bonnie Scotland. Cold and frosty at the moment but then the sun comes out and a sense of spring arrives with a little warmth.

Whilst away we saw lots of interesting birds - peregrine falcon, skylark, kite, nuthatch and on way home went to Caerlaverock WWT and saw lots of duck, 3 types swan and waders plus water rail.

Back home the tree sparrows are at the feeders. 

The cold weather gets into me bones and muscles - gives me a sinking feeling -

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

So I have been out finishing weeding the rose bed and plonking some compost around the plants. Most of the weeds are not truly weeds but forgetmenots that have seeded themselves across the bed.
R has been trying up and clearing the dead grass from the fig on the bank.
We have had help from JW and he has put a gutter on the Wendy House and dealt with a small bit of rot in the door. 
The calendulas are still flowering - strange, snowdrops and marigolds together.

So one day a frosty start and clear skies, the next overcast and gloomy. One thing to say about British weather, it is never the same one week (day?) to the next.

The new spring by the apple tree is draining but I shall have to get out the old slotted pipe.

Meanwhile a mole has dug a run across on of the paths by the rhubarb bed.

I am surprised by the tenacity of herbs in the garden - marjoram here - but even the mint is still green let alone rosemary, sage and thyme - yes we have a small bit of parley too - cue for a song?

And the snowdrops come and come.

As do the moles as you can see next to the snowdrops in this pic.

I have been to Potato Day at Greenodd Village Hall with R and both my sisters! R bought some gladioli corms and a couple of seed packets. A pound to get in and soup, cake and cup of tea for a fiver. Got home and attacked the stream - upper half, digging out detritus, sorting springs and carting loads of watercress too the compost heap. Now for a fire in the wood burner, a small beer and feet up.

Fog!

Wednesday morning and the day begins with  bird triple - heron hunting frogs from the pond, geese heading west to the Duddon and the song thrush is back, early, singing its triple phrases. It would be a gardening day if we were not going out. The Thursday and the temperature struggles to get above zero - where did that come from? (Actually Europe)(A bit like a last gift before Brexit.)

WE ARE WITH SNOWDROPS

So it is official - winter is over and the snowdrops are coming out - well, I'd like to think so - but we do have our first flowers. The seasons do seem less well defined than they used to be. Whether that is due to global warming or myself just getting a bit withered? 

And then I turn on the TV to see blizzards in Scotland and the south east of England. Just cold here and one flash of lightning, one rumble of thunder. R has gone and got her torch from the drawer in the kitchen.

Today I was picking up sticks after the gales - a back breaking business and one R steadfastly refuses to do.

I also dug out the spring by the apple tree so the surrounding lawn can dry a little. It will need a length if the old slotted pipe. (In a hill far away was an old slotted pipe - etc.) I went up to a small stream higher up the wood and found a hole in the bed into which all the water was flowing - wonder if that is the source of the spring lower down.

I continue to keep the birds going - this blackbird (I know it is brown) (look at the shadow) has been busy demolishing the apples that have not survived leaving only the skin.

I will not mention the grey squirrel (d*** done so) but it is interesting how much red there is in its colour.
The sneaky video camera has been rather unproductive recently - especially as the grass around it has been excavated by at least one badger. All I seem to capture are images of myself.

I have left the ornamental grasses uncut and they do give some structure to the flower beds. Perhaps I should go for more than odd clumps and do a bit of the mass planting thing? On the other hand I don't think R is too keen on grasses so . . . 

Snow everywhere else but all were had was a sprinkling, a bit of ice and now all gone (Friday morning).

 The sarcococcus continues to flower outside the back door (the one at the side) and its perfume wafts around us each time we pass by.
On the other side of the door, in a disintegrating pot, is a female skimmia (males don't have berries).
It really needs reporting, pruning, feeding and some TLC. After the neglect it is suffering from PTSD.

I have been out trimming back catmint and roses and have tried a new way of getting rid of moss - have descaled the kettle and poured the hot contents onto the stuff. Now we wait and see. It will probably thrive!

BACK TO GARDENING AT LAST

2 versions of the same morning -

At this time of year the remnants of the past year and the new year are together - old lace cap hydrangea flowers light up the wood with their paper heads.

The buds on the azaleas and rhododendrons are fat and full of promise.

Calendulas are still flowering here and there -

The rose Golden Showers continues to glow in these dark days.

The image below shows the tired steps, these by the beech hedge, which need new risers and a fresh coating of stone chips.

And in the flower beds the first white buds are coming on the snowdrops, the early pale yellow crocus are in bud. They are in the rose bed which, today I began organising. Right roses have been pruned, some of the mass of self sown forgetmenots removed and the underplanting of catmint (nepeta) trimmed back. Then I barrowed up some old compost and started to cover the open earth.

Of course I started with bare hands but a thorn under a thumbnail made me go for the gloves - never learn.

And the wind and rain, with a hey nonny no, came again. It is wild Wednesday, the wind is howling and there will be plenty of twigs etc to pick up in the wood. 

What is it with dreams? Last night I dreamed about the Soggy Bottom Boys (Oh! Brother where art thou? - Coen Bros.) but there were eight or nine of them and I haven't seem the film for years. It makes one wonder what else is stored between my ears.

After many useless attempts (with a too small lens pin the camera) managed to get this image of a long tailed tin in the peanut feeder - poor but perhaps adequate.