A British summer and a Fundi

Oh dear, it has been raining for days.  The garden has exploded with growth and plants are falling over everywhere, what with gale force winds and the water building up on flower heads.  I got soaked walking round the grassy path because the now-tall grasses either side have bowed down with the rain.

  I think I took the picture below last weekend - a few warm and sunny hours which enabled a lawn-mowing.

The plants in front of the wall are all self seeded.  I used to weed everything out; it looked much tidier, but not nearly so pretty.  In the foreground is a bronze fennel (that will have to come out, but I have it other places), then there is white Feverfew and that little orange flower that I call Hawkweed, they look lovely together.  The delphiniums (which I am very proud of, having grown them from seed collected from my sister's garden) are in tubs and are protected from slug damage by copper tape which works very well.  I am certain now, having experimented, that delphiniums will grow unprotected in the open garden if only the basal clumps are big enough when they are first planted out.  So I am growing these bigger, and then they will withstand the early slug attacks and outgrow them.  I already have two plants that are coping in this way.

Two days ago we had a gale force gust of wind which threw our outside table, complete with the garden umbrella, against the wall, breaking two spokes and damaging the fabric cover.  It was new last year so I was very sorry about it.  Anyway Paul took it off to the workshop and removed the spokes which he wood glued and cramped up overnight.  He found some metal channel, perfect size, which he has screwed alongside the breaks to strengthen them. I got the old Singer sewing machine
out and patched the cover, and all is now good again.  We have always tried to 'make do and mend'; it's very satisfying!  A friend of ours who has lived in Africa calls Paul a 'fundi' - someone who can repair anything!

Predators and pretty weeds

I was standing out in the garden just after 7am a couple of days ago when I heard a desperate screeching 'chak';  a jackdaw flying very fast with a buzzard in hot pursuit.  I had never seen a buzzard so low over the garden.  I clapped and shouted - the buzzard wheeled off.  Jackdaw lived to see another day.  I'm sure the screech was a cry for help.  I know they all have to eat - the buzzard probably has young ones to feed.
Today, we have just followed a sparrowhawk down the lane for about a quarter of a mile.  They quite regularly appear suddenly at hedge level or below, flying very fast.  This one was practically skimming the tarmac.  It turned towards a field gate, alighting on it, and having to fly off again as our car passed by.  There are a lot of them; I think they do mostly get sparrows - there are a lot of those here too.

I took the picture of the border (which is MUCH better in real life) - the hardy geraniums, pink and blue, are lovely and will give another show later if I tidy them up after the first flush.  The small white flower clusters are Ground Elder flowers (shock horror) - I will break them off before they seed, but they are pretty and I sometimes let them do this.  And the big green architectural leaves are Hogweed - the plants are so sturdy that they hold up the clumps of weaker perennials.   I cut off the flowering heads so that only the lower strong stalks and leaves are left.  At the far end is a cardoon, a monster that is already 7 feet tall and still growing.  I like it better when it is just a great silver grey clump in April, before it starts to send up the flower spikes.

A lucky escape for the cuckoo wasp

I saw a brightly colured insect a week or so ago; and then again yesterday (well, probably not the same one!). Got a better look yesterday and saw that it looked like a fly, about half an inch long, front end vivid electric green and the back end bright red.   As I was committing this to memory in order to look it up, it suddenly flew into a cobweb.  No spider came, but the 'fly' just became more entangled as it struggled to free itself.  I pulled it out, web and all, with a little twig and then, by gaining a purchase on the wood the fly was able to drag itself clear and flew off.
It was Chrysis ignita - a ruby-tailed cuckoo wasp; it doesn't sting, and is so nicknamed because they are a parasite of Mason bees, they add their own eggs to the nest, as the birds do.

Here's a similar tale from my pre-blog diary of May 2015 -
I noticed a Daddy-Long-Legs trying in vain to detach itself from a bit of cobweb on one of the porch shelves.  I used to be so scared of them (DLLs not shelves!) but not so now, and I enclosed it in my hand, first so that I could get at the bit of web and then holding DLL's stuck leg in one hand and gently pulling at the strand of web in the other; the web came off and he flew away.  There didn't seem to be a spider in the vicinity but DLL couldn't free himself unaided.

A swarm of bees !!!

We have had a lot of rain over the past few days; the garden has exploded with growth and I shook the delphiniums and lupin spikes (gently) so that the weight of the water wouldn't bend them over and break them.
Today we witnessed something that I have only ever seen twice before in my life - a bee swarm.  We were outside working when I heard the noise, and there, coming across the yard about 20 feet up was a dark cloud of thousands of bees, in a sort of circling, moving mass.  It was an astonishing sight.  Our old dog, oblivious, was flat out asleep in the sun.  I ran through the house to call him indoors, lest they should descend upon him.  He came to the whistle - I quickly grabbed my camera and cautiously went back out.  The swarm was moving across our garden and I watched as it descended onto the building roof.   The whole mass seemed to contract as they settled on the woodwork and in a few minutes all had gone quiet.
I did a bit of research about them.  They are probably on a 'stopover' while the scouts are sent out looking for a permanent home.

Jackdaws

The young jackdaws have fledged and there is such a cawing and noisy, 'chacking' flapping going on in the trees near the nests, one of which is in the eaves of our house.  It's easy to tell a young jackdaw in flight; they flap furiously but don't get along so smoothly or as fast as the adults.  The commotion in the trees seems to be as they beg for food from their parents.  There has only been one down the chimney this year and it went back up on its own, but in previous years we have had to open the access hole in the register plate above the woodburner and wait until the youngster was brave enough to come out into the room.   With a window wide open and the curtain drawn over closed panes, the bird would then fly straight to the light and be free again; occasionally one would leave a feathery and sooty wing-strike mark on the wallpaper before flying out.
I wrote this on 22nd. June last year, before I was doing this blog.
"....the bird was too scared to come down the hole - I went with the torch to have a look and it was just sitting right on the edge so I made a grab for its legs and got it, lots of screeching and flapping but I smoothed it down to be quiet and took it to the open window, where it took off across the yard."
I know a lot of people don't like them and they are a bit of a nuisance, but they seem full of character with a very strong social bond.  And I like their blue eyes.
10th. June  Later - I just went down to fetch the post and this youngster was in the corner by the stable - I moved closer to get a picture  - it was rather worried and flapped up to this bit of wood.  The parent started loud cawing from nearby.  It all went quiet as I moved away.

Lupin, Clematis and Welsh Poppies

This pink lupin must be about 18 years old  so it's doing really well.  I counted 20 primary flower spikes on it.  It comes up very reliably in spite of growing between rocks which hide colonies of slugs and snails.  Maybe they don't like the mint, which also grows there.  The pink in the shrubs behind is Weigela.

Another pink flower, but in a lovely soft old fashioned shade, is the semi double clematis called Broughton Star, which is climbing and tumbling all over the wall - one of the few plants I have ever bought from a nursery.

The yellow Welsh poppies have seeded all over the garden in semi shade, they are so pretty and there are a few in a soft orange colour.  I have been looking up whether I can eat the seeds - I've been buying poppy seeds to put into a loaf I make, and these flowers will produce millions!

Rhododendron ponticum

The "wild" rhododendrons seem particularly lovely this year; we always had one at my childhood home so I have a sentimental attachment, but in parts of the UK it is considered a pest.  The flowers are very prettily freckled in the throat.

Dame Dandelion

Lots of dandelion 'clocks' at the moment and it's lovely to see the goldfinches coming for the seeds.  I found this poem (below), so thought I would share it. (Not one of mine).

Dame Dandelion was young and fair
Bright and golden was her hair
Then what a change took place one night!
Her golden hair turned silver white

And Oh! then, what a sight to see!
No hair at all where hair should be!
For the wind came up with a mighty puff -
And blew away all Dame Dandelion's fluff
And left her to stand on her One Green Leg
Alone in the grass, as bald as an egg.

Red deer

A red deer hind crossed the lane directly in front of our car at about 9.30 pm yesterday evening.   The lane is narrow and has 6' high, very wide hedgebanks there, and fields beyond on either side.  The deer appeared, descending, from the right, took maybe one stride and took off almost vertically to clear the left hand hedge.  A second earlier and we would have collided - it doesn't bear thinking about.  She sprang so effortlessly; she was very big; it was like seeing a 12 hand pony suddenly appearing in front of us.  The overgrowth of summer obscures our view and encourages the wildlife close; it's a dangerous time for the deer and for us.  We keep our speed down but must be vigilant - bikers beware - your louder engine might help.

Goat Willow fluff

It's the time of year for the great Willow Fluff drift.  For a couple of weeks now, the tiny white 'fairies' have been floating across the garden - usually lazily, but if the wind gets up it becomes a blizzard.  They stick to everything but are especially obvious around our windows and in the netting on the gate.  Of course each one hides a seed, and they will germinate anywhere and everywhere - in the top of pots and containers and in the paving cracks and wall joints.  The Goat Willow tree is one of the first to colonize untended ground here; it's an attractive tree, not very big but spreading out to a shapely sphere of soft green.  Prior to the flowers producing fluff they are those lovely silvery 'pussy willow' buds in the early spring, and it is then known as 'Palm' in the North.  The older outer branches drop or break off to the ground, and simply continue to grow in their horizontal position, sending up  more branches and rooting into whatever soil they happen to touch.

My blackbird's back

She came to the door this afternoon and hopped indoors.  I was grating cheese to make a savoury loaf, and I threw her a couple of gratings, which she loved.   She looked slightly scruffy so I wonder if she has finished breeding for this year and is starting to moult, but that would be unusual - she must be in between broods though I think, it is usually worms and insects only on the menu when they are feeding young ones.  Her husband is a scaredy cat, and doesn't come close to us.

This picture was taken last year when she suddenly appeared on the table right next to me.  Notice the dog, lower left corner, who is keeping an eye on her.  She has been coming since 2014; more so in the winter, when we always throw her a few biscuit crumbs.

A wasp on the Alliums

Rather dull today after our lovely weather. There has been a large wasp visiting these Alliums for a few days - today there were two wasps.  The other flowers in the photo are Alkanet and perennial Cornflower.   The wasp reminded Paul of buying penny ice lollies from the baker when he was a boy; there would sometimes be a wasp frozen into them.  He would eat all round the wasp, then take it back to the baker's to complain, and be given another ice lolly.