Wasp

Posted on April 10, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Blog, Blogging, Buzz, Cat, Chase, Environment, Garden, Insect, Life, Sting, Wasp2 Comments

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Wasp! I’ve stood on one and been stung before now. I don’t like them but I can live with them, except when they built a nest in between some bricks and started coming out into the kitchen when they emerged. I got up one morning and there were a few wasps flying round the kitchen. Two many to catch and I didn’t have any fly spray so I had to hoover them up in the vacuum cleaner. I felt guilty about it. Then over the next week we had more every morning. I had to book pest control in the end.

Now years later I just had a huge wasp fly into the living room. It must have come in from the garden when my partner went outside.

The cats ears pricked up and he started looking up and jumping onto cupboards to try and catch it. I don’t think chewed wasp would be good for him. Then it flew onto the window behind a net curtain.

I shouted my partner as I could not reach. A plastic tub and a magazine were used to trap it, now its free flying around outside.

Phew! Strange how insects can be so upsetting. Wasps are useful for eating pests and pollenation. And thankfully I didn’t have to vacuum it up!

Dawn chorus

Posted on April 9, 2019April 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Birdsong, Blog, Car alarm, Cars, Garden, Joy, Life, Melody, Music, Noise, Traffic, TrillsLeave a comment

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I came downstairs about an hour ago and the sweet, loud, melodious song of birds was filling the air. At this time of year in the spring it seems louder and more beautiful than ever. Fizzing through the air like ripe electricity. A great pleasure to listen to.

Then cutting through it the insistent alarm call, not of a blackbird, but a ruddy car alarm! The bird song quietened for about five minutes, a car engine started up in the street, and traffic noise commenced. But soaring high above it the melodies of a Blackbird and its mate have resumed. Liquid notes rising and falling in complicated trills… And that ruddy car alarm again!

Stray cat

Posted on April 6, 2019April 6, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cat, Cheeky, Fun, Funny, Garden, Home, Humour, Life, Poem, Poetry, Stray cat9 Comments

You like our garden, stray cat,

You like my kitty cats food.

You like sitting on my

Soon to be erected shed!

You drink out of the pond,

Walk on wet concrete

And leave your 🐾 paw prints

Eat from picnic sandwiches

Sit on the benches

And deck chairs

Climb the trees

Chase the birds

Act like you own the place?

But then go home!

Plastic in my garden

Posted on April 6, 2019April 6, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Environment, Garden, Green, Life, Plants, Plastic, Spring, TreeLeave a comment

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My partners been out putting seeds in the garden, pottering with plant pots and sitting in a chair in the sun.

Two magpies are trying to pull twigs off a buddlea Bush, they are building a raggadey nest in the top of one of the trees. They managed to break off 3 or 4 twigs while we watched.

It was so nice I decided to take a few photos. The first is the chair my partner was sitting in. He didn’t want his photo taken second is the cherry tree. With blossom buds about to burst. The third is another tree at the side of the garden, with a great big waving piece of white plastic in the top of it! I don’t know how it got there but I think it must have blown up in a storm. It doesn’t look like a plastic bag, maybe some plastic wrapping? Things are getting green. We need to wash plastic flower pots to reuse them, but I caught my partner burning perfectly good ones! Grr….

Nest building

Posted on April 1, 2019April 1, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bird, Branches, Environment, Garden, Magpie, Nest, Nest building, Trees, Twigs2 Comments

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We have a couple of magpies in the garden. They have decided to build an untidy nest in the top of a tall sycamore tree. I know their reputation for collecting things to line their nests with, but today I witnessed both of them picking up twigs over twice their body lengths. I watched the resulting tangle with amusement. Both of them had the long twigs held horizontal in their beaks. The trouble was, like a dog with too long a stick trying to get through a door, the sticks got caught on branches as they tried to fly up to the nest. Once the twig fell back to the ground and it took the magpie a few minutes to get it firmly back in its beak and properly balanced.

Seeing them both high in the tree top trying to tuck bits into their nest was fascinating. I do worry for other local birds as they have been known to steal baby birds but I do admire their tenacity.

Vinca

Posted on March 31, 2019March 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Garden, Green, Life, Plant, Purple, VincaLeave a comment

A scrambling, ground cover plant with pointed shiny green leaves and striking purple flowers. They have five petals that seem to spiral down to the pentagram at the centre. I think you can also get white and also blue versions with variegated leaves.

We just got this plant for the garden where I’m hoping it will take over from the ivy that is covering a large section of ground.

Helibores

Posted on March 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Flowers, Garden, Helibores, Life, Plants, SpringLeave a comment

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Another plant I love in the spring are Helibores. The flowers range from bright white, pale green, pink and green and deeper pink. Sometimes the flowers are upright and you can get double species, but mainly their flower heads droop down and you need to lift up the flower to see its true beauty. There are sometimes dappled patterns and flecks of darker colours. The centre of the flower is quite prominent, backed by a slightly darker centre.

The leaves are deep green and shiny, sometimes five lobed. The borders are sometimes slightly serrated. I don’t know all the types of Hellibores there are but if you want an unusual plant that flowers early in the year and keeps flowering into April then they are worth getting. They offer some food for early insects. If you like your tulips and daffodils you could also try these. They are easy to keep and I grow mine with pulmonaria which come up a little bit later.

Daffodils

Posted on March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Daffodils, Garden, Gardening, Life, Plants, Pruning, Spring, Tree, TulipsLeave a comment

These are from our garden. The reason why they are not still in the garden? We had to have a tree cut down and they were likely to be squashed underneath its limbs. And so they are now in a vase in the kitchen.

In fact we have had a lot of work done over the last couple of months so plants have been squished a bit. We also need rain to bring the perennials that are still dormant underground into leaf and flower. Hopefully we will have some more significant rain in the next couple of weeks.

I particularly love the tulip flowers. I go for dark rich colours….. If we ever get the garden done I will post some photos.

Magnolia flower 🌸

Posted on March 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Garden, Magnolia, Pink, Spring, Tree, WhiteLeave a comment

We have a small Magnolia Stellata tree that has come into blossom this week .

There are many species of Magnolia from tiny blossoms to as big as a human head. They range from pure white to dark pink. They are beautiful and spellbinding. Our tree is only just coming into flower but others are full of blossoms. Masses of pink and white petals adorn the local trees.

Magnolia can be affected by frost and seem to like sunlight. We were lucky to get ours to grow. All I would say is follow the instructions carefully if you intend to plant your own.

Shed arrival

Posted on March 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bicycles, Blogging, Garden, Life, Shed, SummerhouseLeave a comment

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This morning a shed and summerhouse we ordered arrived. I got them because they were ex display models so they cost half the price they should have. DSC_1291_optimized

I’m not sure why I wanted a summer house as well. I have this idea that I’m going to sit out in the garden in the summer and use it to paint in.

The builder is putting them up at the moment. We have also had some fencing put up because the back of the garden was getting so overgrown it had pulled the bit of fencing down that had been there for years. We intend to plant clematis and honeysuckle against it.

That’s about all I’m going to say about it. It’s a big cost. But if it means we can store and save all my husbands collection of old bicycles and stop them from rusting it’s a good idea.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Garden