Late to the party

Last week: a party without any punters

This post was almost called 'A party but nobody came'; but eventually a few did show up, though later and in much smaller numbers than usual.  The buddleja in our garden has been here longer than we have, and is both very mature (that's the polite description) and very large.  There are varieties with better-coloured flowers, but I'm not complaining too much, as it's very floriferous and usually attracts large numbers of butterflies.  This year, however, it was in flower for about three weeks before there was much butterfly activity; whereas in past years I could count a dozen or more peacocks and red admirals at peak times on its flowers, until this week there was no more than one of each, plus a few small whites, around.  I've now seen at least two peacocks and at least five red admirals, plus one tortoiseshell, one painted lady and one elegantly shaped female brimstone; but that's paltry compared to past years.  No commas or meadow browns at all this year, although a speckled wood did flit past me in another part of the garden today.  I assume that the August hatching of this year's brood is a little later this year, and I see that the RSPB is attributing the low numbers of butterflies to the warm weather last December keeping caterpillars active when there was no food available.  I hope this autumn's lot fare better.  (One thought about the meadow browns: I used to see a lot of these on my lavender and oregano, but have seen hardly any since the lavender was removed.  Perhaps the lavender was the big attraction, with the oregano a mere sideshow?)

This week: Red admirals

Peacock

and a female brimstone

The weather has turned warm again, with some rain and (today) a big thunderstorm (that sent water from the greenhouse roof cascading into a badly-placed seed tray outside!  fortunately the contents were to be thrown away anyway).  The inside of the greenhouse got a bit of a watering through the roof vents, which were open because of the warmth, but luckily no damage was done.  The seedtrays of hardy annuals in there were kept nicely moist as a result, and I don't suppose the tomatoes in the growbags will complain either.  Some of the seeds sown the other week, including winter veg in the coldframe, are starting to germinate; it's obviously ideal weather for them. 

Young birds continue to turn up in the garden: today a young woodpigeon and two young bullfinches, not yet in full adult plumage.  And one night there was a tawny owl calling persistently, or perhaps two; one sounded shrill, and was perhaps a youngster looking for territory, with the other one staking its claim.

A bit of a mystery today: a sudden shower of white feathers from on high.  A sparrow briefly picked one up, then seemed to decide it didn't know what to do with it, lost interest and flew off without it.  There's no sign of a carcass, nor am I sure what bird they came from (seagull? chicken??) or what might have happened to it!  Some of them are fair-sized feathers, and I can't imagine a raptor flying overhead with such a large bird in its claws - but I can't think of any other explanation!

The posh shed

After the demolition

The new summerhouse is now complete, and a great improvement on the old one (and not just because the old one was rotting away).  It's slightly larger and allows us to fit in a big enough table for four to eat, either inside or on the veranda, and refinements such as insulation and windows that open should allow it to be used in a greater range of weathers.  Having a summerhouse in that corner of the garden also provides a significant focal point; in the brief gap between the demolition of the old one and the construction of the new one that part of the garden felt quite featureless.  In the latter stages of the work we were able to use it in the evenings, but just as it was finished the weather turned blustery and showery, so we're waiting for better weather to enjoy it fully!

All finished!

The rain is very welcome despite curtailing work in the garden; everything was getting a bit dry.  And it obliged me to crack on with work in the greenhouse, pricking out seedlings (that should have been dealt with long ago) and sowing seeds of hardy annuals and overwintering veg.

I see that the cyclamen have started flowering; autumn isn't far away.

The adult birds are finishing their moult and returning to the garden; we've had at least one adult robin back (thus far tolerating the youngster who is dominating the patio) and more blackbirds about, as well as the pair of chaffinches and various tits, and a brief visit by a male bullfinch picking seeds off a tall grass (I'm always surprised how such a chunky bird can balance on thin stems without bringing them crashing down).  A group of young goldfinches was feeding in the plum tree one day, and a hen party of five female pheasants came to strut about in the rain, pecking at fallen plums and posing on top of the garden table.  A willow warbler also visited the birdbath; we usually see them around the time of their migration and I've always assumed that they were on passage, but this bird was moulting (either an adult, or a juvenile getting its adult plumage) and I doubt that a bird undergoing the stress of moulting would be undertaking a flight to Africa.  Anyway it's too early for them to migrate, so it looks as though this one at least has spent its summer around here.  There would be plenty of food for it at the moment as there have been a great many flies about; a flock of the local house martins was feeding over the garden for a couple of days, and the sparrows were also fly-catching, sometimes just over our heads (which could be disconcerting for us, though it didn't seem to bother them!).  We still have large sparrow parties on the lawn and in the shrubs, and enjoying perching on the garden bench.  One day there was a distant bird-call, and all the sparrows immediately dived for cover; it must have been an alarm, because a couple of minutes later the sparrowhawk dashed across the bottom of the garden.  The warning system obviously worked that time.

Courgettes, I've had a few ...

... and I'll be having quite a few more, I think.  Six courgette plants is really rather too much of a good thing, although I've managed to deal with all the crop in the kitchen so far, without letting any of them turn into marrows.  The other glut at the moment is the plums; not such a heavy crop this year, but this made them easier to thin out and the remaining ones are a good size as well as reasonably sweet.  Fortunately most of them are low down on the tree (I'd guess that frost damaged the blossom further up) which makes picking easy; we leave the higher ones for the birds, and indeed the blackbirds are enjoying them greatly.  The raspberries are now over, the apples still to come.  Of the veg, the last broad bean plants succumbed to rust and are now gone, and the runners very, very belatedly planted out.  The leeks are still waiting to be transplanted, but a few lettuce plants have gone in and are doing well.  In the greenhouse, my very late tomatoes are in their growbags and doing nicely, as are the aubergines (I still live in hope of getting a crop from these!).

... a few more ...

... and some plums

On the flower front, the sweet william are pretty much past, but the pinks are still flowering away and the late summer flowers (Phlox 'White Admiral', Japanese anemone and the like) are starting.  The dahlias are a very mixed bunch; 'Bishop of Auckland' and 'Ambition' are doing well but the others have done little (in fairness, some of them are swamped by the dogwood and other neighbours) and I think 'Bishop of Llandaff' has disappeared entirely.  The big success this year has been the sweet peas.  I've grown a better selection of varieties, I think, and given them rather better positions in the garden (along the front of the veg plot, alongside the courgettes), and there has been a vase of them in the house continually for weeks now. 

The weather has improved, with a lot of warm, sunny days; in fact the garden is now very dry and I've had to water the more susceptible plants.  The dry border at the bottom of the garden is faring rather better this year now that I've moved the moisture-lovers; only the Lysimachia clethroides is flagging in the heat, and the new eryngium seems happy.

The sparrows seem to be on their last brood of youngsters and are still feeding them, though the juveniles of other species appear to be independent.  There are a number of young blackbirds, a couple of young dunnocks and a very independent little robin who tries to see off the sparrows.  There was a family of mistle thrushes in the rowan tree one day, feeding on the berries, and there are young coal tits about too.  A few sparrow feathers on the lawn suggest that the sparrowhawk is also still around, and a red kite was circling the other day.  There are also a lot of house martins feeding overhead, though I've seen few swallows and hardly any swifts here this year.  A nuthatch has been tapping in the trees at the bottom of the garden, and the yellowhammers are still yammering away in the nearby hedgerows.

After the outbreak of bird pox here a year or two back there have been very few greenfinches about, but I have seen a male here recently and presumably he and his mate have raised a brood as unfortunately we found a dead youngster below the dining room window one day (with the usual tell-tale mark on the window where it had hit).  He was duly buried in the usual gooseberry bed.  This also became the last resting place of a dead rat which one of the local cats kindly left for us; obligingly it was left under one of the gooseberry bushes so all I had to do was to dig a hole next to it and tip it in.