A butterfly on the snowdrops

Rather more settled weather recently, with a sunny and mild weekend over the last few days; very pleasant weather for March, but now returning to something chillier and more seasonable, though still dry.  At least I know that the automatic vents on the greenhouse work when the temperature rises!  The warmth brought out the insect life - several bumblebees were working the crocuses and winter honeysuckle, and a tortoiseshell butterfly was looking for nectar on the snowdrops (surely an unusual pairing?).

The bullfinches have been around quite a lot, as has the wren; the woodpecker (gt spotted) has visited, and a pair of partridges have also been about.  The large number of blackbirds that were in the garden in early winter has diminished to a single pair, who may be nesting.

Bergenia, brunnera, comfrey and winter jasmine

The Tete-a-tete daffodils in the windowbox and big pot are in flower, and the big daffodils are now starting to open.  The crocuses and bergenia are in full flower, and the brunneras are beginning to put out a few tentative sprays of bloom.  The snowdrops are fading.  It's definitely early spring rather than late winter!

Ill wind

Back from a very snowy holiday in Norway.  Meanwhile, what fell as snow in Scandinavia fell as rain in the UK, resulting in even more severe flooding in places.  The flooding isn’t a problem here high on the wolds, but there was also a very major gale last weekend, which is another matter in an exposed location like ours.  The ash trees around the garden’s perimeter shed the usual load of small firewood (some of it larger than usual), but we also gained a number of bigger logs from a huge old ash tree in the middle of the village which was badly damaged and needed major surgery as a result.

A posy of violets and Cyclamen coum

The temperatures have continued to be mostly mild, though, with no real cold in sight (yet …), and between the rain storms and showers there has been bright sunshine.  The snowdrops and winter aconites are in full flow, as are the hellebores, Cyclamen coum and the earliest crocuses, and the winter shrubs are also lapping it up.  There are buds on some of the daffodils, and other early spring plants are putting out tentative flowers: the pulmonaria, bergenia, comfrey and violets.  So too, unfortunately, are the earliest weeds like bittercress.  Some plants don’t seem to have stopped for winter; there are a few tatty flowers on last year’s calendulas, and the potted red chrysanthemum on the patio, which threw out a couple of small flowers in December, hasn’t bothered to drop its leaves.  The ‘Whitewell Purple’ crocuses at the bottom of the garden have settled in well and proliferated very satisfactorily, although some of them are uncomfortably close to the lawn edge (or maybe the lawn has spread, which is quite possible); must remember to move some of them once they’ve died back.  This year they’re making enough of a statement to be seen from the house.

In the veg garden, the shallots have gone in (and a couple of them replanted after something dug them up – animal rather than bird, as it left some droppings as well).  Spring sowing has started in the greenhouse.

The birds are also in spring mode.  We saw a few more birds than usual in Norway, including Siberian tits, a Siberian jay, a pair of dark unidentified hawks (goshawks?) and also a small owl (Northern hawk owl?) watching the world go by from the top of a tree, but it’s good to be back and to see all the small doings of our own birds.  The other day we had a wren poking about in a clump of grass and emerging triumphant with a big fat green caterpillar; a male bullfinch keeping watch while his lady foraged; a robin having a late afternoon bath before going to roost; a goldfinch hanging around the seed container, obviously tempted to try to land on it but unsure of its ability to do so; two song thrushes having a territorial dispute; and a blackbird tentatively trying out a few phrases of song.  Yesterday I accidentally disturbed birds twice: once by stepping out of the back door into a group of partridges, who panicked and flew off, and once by opening a window just as the sparrowhawk was flying through the garden, most effectively (but unintentionally) scaring it away.  And last week we had a woodpecker drumming repeatedly in the big ash tree; neighbours report that they have had two of them, one of which has taken to drumming on a metal radio aerial (in morse code?).

A snow shower

More gales, more rain - and last night a little snow (but the sun is melting it fast).  It does look as if the weather might be turning a little colder, though still nothing very bad on the horizon.

Things haven't changed much in the garden since my last post, nor have I done anything significant out there - it hasn't been weather that encourages you to go out and garden.  The birds are pairing up, though; the robins are now an item, and dunnocks and at least some blackbirds have paired too.  I'm sure there are two wrens, too; I saw one down feeding while another was singing nearby.  A couple of cock pheasants have been in, and a small group of partridges were in the veg plot the other day.  Otherwise it's just January going on February, more or less as normal!

Mild January weather

The Christmas period was indeed wet and windy, with short and sharp bouts of bad weather interspersed with bright and sunny days.  There has been a lot of flooding (again) on lower ground, but we have been little affected other than being able to collect the usual large volume of firewood blown out of the three ash trees.  The winds have eased from the first week in January, and the rain has become less frequent.  There have been a very few frosty nights, with icy roads one morning last week, but no serious cold; daytime temperatures are mostly in single figures but not dipping below, and on bright days there is a trace of warmth in the sun.  No forecast of ice and snow yet.

Given the relatively mild weather I had thought that there might be snowdrops out in early January, but they’re only starting now, and it’s G. elwesii that have come out first.  (I may have disturbed the G. atkinsii at some point and slowed them down; they certainly need moving from the bottom of the garden where they can’t be seen from the house.)  The winter aconites are beginning to show, as are some Cyclamen coum.  Other interest is from the usual winter shrubs, with some of the hellebores coming into bud and a few one-off flowers elsewhere (bergenia, some tatty choisiya buds).

Garden activity has been limited to some ground-clearing in the veg patch and pruning the big apple tree; this year I’ve managed to take off the branches that were reaching for the sky, so that everything is now in reach of the top of the stepladder.  You’re supposed to be able to throw your hat through the middle of a pruned apple tree, and there’s plenty of room now to do that (supposing you wanted to); all the unwanted water shoots have been dealt with, and some thinning has opened up more space for air to circulate through the tree.

In the greenhouse, everything is being kept at a comfortable temperature, and most of the autumn-sown seeds are responding satisfactorily – sweet peas coming on nicely, ammi germinating and initial signs of life from the larkspur.  The orlaya is being a bit reluctant (only one seedling); I may need to have another go with that.

The birdlife has spring on its mind.  The usual birds are flocking to the patio for feeding, clearly enjoying the chance of a quick meal in chilly weather, but the robins have started singing about territory, and there are signs of them pairing up (two of them occasionally bickering but half hanging out together), and I heard a thrush singing somewhere nearby today.  A wren has been about a lot too.  And we were delighted to see our lame pigeon back in the garden this week – still hobbling a bit, but clearly getting around rather more comfortably than in the autumn (so the sparrowhawk hasn’t got him, not yet anyway ….).

All wrapped up

The wrapping up has been done; not the Christmas presents, but the greenhouse.  All nicely bubble-wrapped against the frost, at least the walls are; the roof proved just too tricky (and I ran out of bubble-wrap).  We had had one frosty night, and the brugmannsia was looking very peaky, so it had to be time to turn on the heating, and make the greenhouse as draught-proof as reasonably possible.  I'm quite pleased with the result, and the temperature in there is now about 7C.  A couple of hardy seedlings have been put out in the cold frame but the rest are benefitting from the extra warmth, especially the sweet peas, which are germinating much better with a little extra heat.

The frost was something of a one-off, though, and it has been more a case of battening down than wrapping up.  The wind got up the other day and it has been quite blustery from time to time (and more of the same is forecast - a windy Christmas rather than a white one).  The relatively mild and damp weather is tempting a few flowers to come into bloom - there's an honesty plant with a flower truss under the hedge, and there are a few flowers on the bergenia.  Tellingly, some weed seedlings are showing in places - always a sign of warmish soil. 

The bullfinch has been around several times, and today was accompanied by his lady bullfinch.  They are very partial to the sweet rocket seeds, and - given that they're quite stocky birds - are quite acrobatic in working over such spindly and fragile stems.  I had thought of clearing the dead stems away, but now I'm glad I didn't.  The goldfinches, on the other hand, have been feeding on the seeds of the Big Yellow Thing (bupthalmum?).  The mistle thrush has been a rather noisy presence all week, and occasional pheasants and partridges wander in at times, especially when there's shooting going on in the surrounding estates.  I haven't seen the sparrowhawk this week, though I'm sure it won't have gone away.

Red in tooth and claw

When mentioning the sparrowhawk in my last post, I almost added that we haven't actually seen it catch anything.  Presumably it does, otherwise it wouldn't hang about here so much; and it may be responsible for some of the little piles of feathers that appear from time to time about the garden.  Yesterday, however, I witnessed it striking lucky.  I was in the new greenhouse (having a ponder about greenhousy things) when a woodpigeon flew onto the wall under the rowan, looking hunched, slow and unhappy.  This usually means that it knows its time has come, and in such circumstances pigeons tend to find a sheltered spot on the ground in which to sit down and expire.  After a few minutes it flew onto the lawn and laboriously made its way towards the border under the dining room window.  It never made it, though, because the sparrowhawk appeared from nowhere, landed on it and dispatched it with considerable efficiency, then tucked into a generous supper.  Other birds of course made themselves scarce, except for a hen blackbird who had been picking over the soil among the raspberry canes and who opted to crouch down behind a clump of grass, doing a very convincing impression of a clod of earth.  After a while a male pheasant turned up to scavenge for seeds dropped under the feeder, and actually wandered over to see what the hawk was doing, getting within about 15 feet of it; either it was a very dim pheasant, or it worked out that the hawk had quite enough food for the moment and wasn't about to attack anything else for a bit.  The meal was still going on when dusk fell, so I left the hawk to get on with it with a view to clearing up after it in the morning.  I was actually very keen for it to leave as little behind as possible, both because I don't much like having to deal with dismembered remains and also because of the difficulty of finding somewhere in this garden, with its shallow soil, to dig a deep enough hole to bury something the size of a woodpigeon.  I had to do that last year, when a sick pigeon expired on the patio, and I had to excavate a shallow grave for it.

This morning, however, there was only a pile of feathers on the lawn; not even a wing or tail, let alone the bones.  Down in the damson hedge at the bottom of the garden I found more feathers - but I doubt if the hawk had taken the carcass there; it would have had to drag it at ground level, which is more the action of an animal than a bird, and it would have had to eat all the bones.  So my guess is that the hawk left the carcass, which was picked up, and devoured (bones and all) in the shelter of the hedge, by a four-legged predator - perhaps a cat but also possibly a fox.  At least the poor pigeon had a swift end, and nature dealt with the body in its own efficient way.  And no need for another shallow grave.

More cheerfully, a little flock of long-tailed tits passed through the garden this afternoon, all trying to get onto the peanut container for a quick snack before flitting off into the neighbouring gardens.  This week's partridge tally was 20, all wandering off in a long line past the back door, over the drive and out on to the road.  We also have two dunnocks feeding together; already paired up in preparation for spring.  And the mistle thrush has been around, as has a male bullfinch.

The weather is still mild, and there has been little rain, but the air is very damp and the lawn is now much too wet for cutting.  There has been some fog but no frost; and rain is coming in the next few days.

The plant picture has changed little, but walking down the garden one day I was stopped in my tracks by a trace of scent; yes, the winter honeysuckle on the other side of the garden had put out two tiny flowers.  It's remarkable how the fragrance carries.  It's an ungainly shrub, but I can forgive it a lot for its winter flowers.

Under glass

My new greenhouse is now fully in place - :)).  Today I bought it a heater, and some bubble-wrap, to prepare it for the winter.  The more tender plants have been sheltering in there for a couple of weeks while the greenhouse was being finished (long story there....) and they seem happy, but the temperatures have been relatively mild on the whole so far and they'll need a little heat to tide them over the winter months.  The sweet peas have been put in there too, and seem to be coming up better than they were doing in the cold frame (which has been relocated next to the greenhouse door); this could be because of the better light, slightly better warmth or the fact that they're now out of the reach of slugs and snails (there are a couple of truncated shoots that look as if they've been nibbled off).  I have good intentions of better-organised sowing for next year ....

The weather has not only been on the mild side, with only a few frosts, but also quite dry.  We're wondering whether we might actually manage to cut the lawn, which is looking decidedly shaggy.  Colder weather is forecast for next week, but that leaves me time to get my tulips planted: a Sarah Raven collection of Prinses Irene, Couleur Cardinal and Havran (a deep purple).  They will go in the bottom bed under the big tree, where I hope they'll make a good splash of colour.  I haven't managed to organise the pots this year; they still contain last year's bulbs, which probably won't do well, but maybe that will make me more willing to dig them out after flowering so that summer bedding can go in.

The yellow chrysanths are still blooming, a little shabbily now, but otherwise it's winter colour only - the viburnums, winter jasmine and, if you look closely, a few cyclamen.  The holly berries have all been eaten by the birds (but we managed to pick some for Christmas decorations before they all went).

We do have a lot of blackbirds this year.  A large flock of small birds has been in the top of the ash tree a few times; it's hard to see what they are (finches? buntings?).  A wren has been around, which is encouraging after our run of hard winters.  And one day we had at least 50 partridges in the garden; they just kept on coming.  They seem to be finding food in the veg plot; this must be weed seeds (there isn't anything else there at the moment other than the leeks and garlic, which are ok) so I'm happy to leave them to it.  The sparrowhawk still visits occasionally, although the closest shave in the last few days was when a cat - a new, blue-grey one - pounced on some birds feeding on the patio (they all escaped, fortunately).