sunshine and showers

I went for a walk round the garden after the rain a few days ago and took these photos. I love the rain drops on the leaves.

 The hyacinth in the tub by the door smell lovelly as you walk past them.

 We had a beautiful hot, sunny week last week and I took the oportunity to paint my rocking chair to protect it from the weather.

My Poor Ash Tree

This was my lovely Ash tree in January. The birds loved it almost as much as I do. The larger birds like crows would sit at the top, jackdaws would sit slightly lower down and the smaller birds like sparrows and chaffinch and members of the tit family would perch on the lower branches. I hung bird feeders on the lower branches and would have a constant stream of avarian visitors throughout the day.

 The sparrows would nest in the ivy growing up the trunk and in the spring there would be insignificant purple flowers appear before the leaves, undoubtedly of great importance to many insect varieties.

 But the neighbours don't love my Ash tree and have been having mild heart attacks every time the wind blows for years. And at the beginning of February the council came and did this to my poor Ash tree. They wanted to take it down completely, but I managed to save this much of it in the hope it will shoot out again and become a proud tree again, after all it was here before any of us were and probably before the house.

I think it looks like something from the witches garden in  a horror story now. A lonesome crow still manages to find a perch on it in keeping with the image.

And the sparrows are still nesting in the ivy.

A Windy Morning in the Garden

Last year I didn't take any Geranium or Fuchsia cuttings as I had taken quite a few the year before, but I stupidly left them all outside over winter and lost all the geraniums. Most of the Fuchsias survived but were very late flowering so today I managed to beg a few cuttings from a neighbour and have potted them up in  improvised incubators and put them on a windowsill. I will do some more later and also some Fuchsias.

This is one of the cuttings I took a couple of years ago and had a go at training into a standard. Not bad for a first attempt, even if it has got a kink in the stem. I'll have another go this year with a different variety.

It was very windy today, but this part of the garden, apart from being very untidy is very sheltered, so I decided to make room for the two Chrysanthemums in the picture above which  I bought yesterday.

Elijah's Tears was always too close to Mahonia, so I moved him a little way away. I hope he isn't too upset, he will have more room and not be battered against Mahonias sharp leaves anymore. Finn decided after all that hard wok it was time for a tea break!

Job done. Chrysanths planted were I can enjoy them whilst having my tea break, some crocus scattered and planted around them and some of the Brompton Stock seedlings I started a couple of months ago planted as well. I hope they'll be alright they seem very small to survive the winter and the slugs.

And lastly this fungi is growing on one of my Buddlea bushes. Does anyone know what it is and if I should worry about it?

This is a piece of Leylandii deadwood I have left standing in the garden for the Honeysuckle to clamber over. It used to have a bird table on top of it but Tara cat kept jumping on it and broke it so now I just hang the bird feeders from it. The Blue tits love the suet treat I put in the green holder, but they have finished  it up and I haven't got another one yet, so they were actually eating the Nijer seed , which no-one seems to want, yesterday.

They have peeled the bark off to get to the bugs underneath, revealing a myriad of holes and tunnel ways.

The bugs themselves are about the size of a fruit fly and are mite-like in appearance. There are clusters of eggs revealed as well. 

 I spent ages this afternoon sawing a coconut in half for the Blue tits, only to discover it was old and mouldy inside, so I scraped it out, cleaned it up and filled it with suety treats. Here are the two halves hanging up.

 One had a mixture of bird seed in  and this one has some fruit in as well. I hope they enjoy it until I can get another treat for the holder.

 Smudge had to come and supervise proceedings. I was wondering why my poor Fuchsia's roots were all exposed until I caught him rubbing himself against it. Naughty cat.

Garden Visitors

The nearest I've got to gardening this week is feeding the birds and painting my hall in Fuschia and Poinsetta red. The bluetits love this suet feeder, no-one seems to like the nijer seed in the feeder below, I bought it to attract Goldfinches but they prefered the Golden chorus I scatter on the ground. The Sparrows like the cheap wild bird seed I buy in 20 kilo sacks and they get through a large feeder a day, although they are wasteful little things and drop quite a lot on the ground. (Why is it almost every wasted seed they drop germinates in my flowerbed, while hardly any of the seeds I plant come to anything?) If I don't fill it up quick enough they will eat the songster mix in the smaller feeder, but this is not really a favourite.

Sorry about the quality of this video, the birds wouldn't wait for me to clean the window!

Every night last week the honeysuckle by my living room window was visited by a moth at around 8o'clock, I haven't seen it since Saturday though.

Brick paths and rosehip wine.

Here are some photos I took in the garden today.

 The caption on the sign just about sums up my philosophy on life.

I salvaged some bricks from a neighbours skip and am making a path around the edge of the grass to stop me walking across it and turning it into a muddy mess again this winter. After I had laid them out I had to cut back my Rosa Rugosa so that I could actually walk on it! There were lots of big, red hips on the bits I cut off which I usually leave for the birds, but this year I'm trying making wine with them as well as the wild Dog rose ones I usually use. Here's the recipe I used:
2lb rose hips
1tsp citric acid (I didn't have any so I used the juice of an orange- no lemons either!)
3lb sugar
1 gallon boiling water
1tsp yeast, nutrient &pectic enzyme
Wash the rosehips and then either crush them or cut them in half. Put the sugar in a polythene bucket with them and cover with the water. Stir well to dissolve the sugar. When cool enough to be able to put your finger in comfortably add yeast, acid,enzyme and nutrient. Cover closely and leave in a warm place for a fortnight, stirring daily. Strain through a sieve into a fermentation jar and fit airlock. When wine clears siphon into a fresh jar and leave for a further 3 months before racking again and bottling.
Rose hip wine made with wild rosehips was the first wine I ever made. I hope this version will taste as good!

Not so lazy day in the garden

Well Autumn is with us now , so the lazy days in the garden are replaced with busy days in the garden! Yesterday my friend Jane took me to my favorite garden centre http://www.penralltnursery.co.uk/, this was quite a treat as I haven't been able to get there since I stopped driving. We spent a pleasurable hour or so wandering round and I bought some Winter flowering Pansies, some double daisies and some Hyacinth bulbs plus a suet treat for the birds.

Today I spent the morning clearing the patch of dead nettle under the front hedge ready to plant and adding compost to the ground.

I found this little fellow under the elephants ears, I hope he keeps the slugs away from the pansies.

All planted out.

And my pots replanted as well.

I'm not going to be able to move tomorrow!