Midsummer

I harvested the potatoes last week - about 25kg weight - am really pleased. There are still four or five pots of potatoes, but they can stay there for a while. I might plant the pots up again before Christmas though, in the greenhouse. I've not tried that before. We pulled all the broad beans plants too, lovely with an onion sauce for Sunday lunch!

So I had a vacant space - no longer! I've been out in the garden, dodging the showers, and have sown peas, beetroot, carrots, rocket and salad mix, as well as planting out some lettuce, chard and kale. I'm not sure if any of the seeds will germinate, apart from the peas - small seeds struggle in my sandy soil, but anything will be a bonus And I've sown some more lettuce and cabbage (primo) in pots ...

The weather had been horrid for so long - we have had some sunshine over the weekend, but it's beginning to get me down (although I really don't like the hot weather) ... there's still a couple of weeks before the children finish school ...

Garden (winged) visitors ...

As we've watched the garden develop over the five summers we've been here, we've also gained an interest in our garden visitors ... with the apple and cherry trees and the unruly fig against the back wall, there are plenty of hiding places and a varying food supply throughout the year. We're not such tidy gardeners, after all, so there is plenty to keep the insect population going, but I don't go looking for them!

The birds come to us ... and recently I added to their menu by putting up a bird feeder.

We've had all the common varieties of finch ... but few tits although I know they frequent the garden ... we hear them regularly. There was a great tit nest in the hollow trunk of the apple tree, but it was raided by a cat, so I'm not surprised, just saddened.

They're getting through half a feeder a day of seed (not all eaten, they sort it through, throwing to the ground anything they don't want ... so there is plenty for the ground feeding black birds and robins, and I suspect also the occasional raid by pigeons and rats). I've since put up a nut feeder in the hope of luring back some of the tits, but it's not as popular and is as likely to be used by finches as tits. Maybe the tits will return next spring.

One of our two cats had a bell on his collar but was still able to hunt as he knew how to move without it sounding, the other had lost her bell altogether ... so I've now given them two bells each, much harder for them to move so quietly. We've had no kills brought home since, certainly!

Recently, we learned to identify the tawny owl by call ... not the twit-twoo call, we know that well and hear it occasionally, but the screech of a location call. We know there are owls living in a steep, wooded valley behind the house ... but having heard the call on SpringWatch (and recognised it from our time on holiday - see Bolt Hole) we were surprised to hear it one night at home ... we ended up outside in our nightwear, watching as it looped round above the houses after dark.

Another surprise this week, to see a SparrowHawk perched high up in the conifer tree ... I had thought earlier this week that something was upsetting the local gull population (some of them are nesting on chimneys down the road) and thought I saw a glimpse of a predator of some kind, but was unable to identify it at the time. This time it was gone before I could grab a camera, but we all had a good view and identification was easy!

Something Old for Something New ...

The church of which I'm part was partly destroyed by incendiaries in 1941 ... it was rebuilt after the war, but in haste, and we have struggled to maintain the building ever since, because of the damp that now infests the walls. Long before I came to worship here, the church have been working towards redeveloping the site ... and this week, the project began:



We'd been to a meeting on the site for the developer to take some publicity pictures before the demolition started ... not so good in the pouring rain, but the photographer coped marvellously! Then on to somewhere else for refreshments and a radio interview. It was on the way home that we saw the first piece being taken out of the side of the church ... so I stopped to get some pictures. I could have watched for hours, it was fascinating A small crowd soon gathered, and DH spent a while talking to folk explaining what's happening, while I snapped away with the camera:



You could hear maisonery falling inside the church with a tremendous noise ... all very dramatic. I expect it will come down quite quickly now Lots of memories for different folk, but a millstone round the neck of the church for many years now. It will be some time before we can meet on site again, in a new church surrounded by flats, but the church continues as we meet each week in a local school. We're not simply biding our time, waiting for a cosy, warm and dry building in which to meet - while we're in the school we have contact with an area we don't usually visit ... how to make the best of it, that's the question!

Out of Place

I've been meaning to show these to you for a while ... this is the second year they've nested on the slipway next to the water ...



Last year they had four cygnets, although sadly none survived. I'm not sure how many they started with this year, but this little one is the only one I've seen. Perhaps they'll have more success with just one to look after, but they don't give the impression of being particularly clever swans ... look where the nest is situated ...



... right by the foot ferry Nice to see them when you catch the boat, but hardly a safe place to raise the kids

Bolt Hole

This is the view from the bedroom window of my bolt-hole ... our holiday home on the other side of Devon. It's a place where I relax the minute I walk in the door ... it's been a haven for us for nearly 13 years now.

This view looks north, across a field where there are remains of a Roman villa, so we have the assurance that it will never be built on (we are surrounded on three sides by housing). Which means that we have a wealth of wildlife around us and we are constantly surprised at the variety. This time we saw the usual range of birds (blackbird, great tit, blue tit, sparrow, pigeon and the inevitable gulls!) as well as fledglings (esp. great tit - they flock in the hedgerow and make such a lot of noise), swifts, swallows ... and the magnificent sight of a tawny owl, looping round and round the houses late one night, calling constantly ...

A neighbour told us that she nests in the oak tree that is part of the boundary between our garden and the field, and has been a successful mother, with chicks these past two years - a shame we won't be there this year to see them fledge.

We caught only a glimpse of another joy - the bats. We are used to seeing three or four flying round the garden at this time of year, but only had a good view of one this year.

We put up another bird feeder ... and our most regular visitor is the squirrel family ...


Not such good photo against the light - but you have to take your chances, they are such acrobats!

Heron

I've watched the river at low tide so often and seen little except at a distance ... but this time the heron was there and on our side of the water and content to be watched as he fished his way down the river. He only flew up to go past us safely before landing again a way downstream.

Vegetables

We're in full swing now:

• broad beans - in flower
• lettuces - some planted out, more seedlings in the greenhouse
• cucumbers - germinated
• tomatoes (for grow bag) - germinated
• tomatoes (from neighbour) - in trough outdoors (front garden!)
• runner beans - canes up and seeds planted
• garlic - ready soon
• cabbages - planted out, more seedlings in greenhouse
• squash (cobnut, courgette, spaghetti) - sown yesterday
• parsnips - germinated
• carrots - not so good as usual, still worth another try
• potatoes (pots and bed) - all sprouting now

I love this time of year!

Tulips

These have been just glorious for a couple of weeks, although they're going over now. I do hope I can keep them for next year, although I don't have a great deal of success with tulips from year to year. I wanted to take a picture of them as part of the larger colour scheme (such as it is!) in the garden - they go very well - but I can't seem to get a photo with the true colour of the surroundings It comes out so bland, while in real life it's all very vibrant. The irises are just breaking into colour in the back garden, and the gladioli in the front garden - I put them together in a vase indoors and they are spectacular

Easter Holidays #5 - back home

Back home, spring has sprung ...


And we have lots of visitors helping themselves to whatever they need for their nests ...

Easter Holidays #4 - Chiltern Open Air Museum

We would never have considered going, except that someone gave us a leaflet while she was collecting door to door for some charity or other ... it's a great place! The weather helped, it was fine and sunny, but it's a real haven. We took all day to look round, taking time to watch the sheep dogs working amongst other things.

The woodland walk was shady and cool and very welcome, ending as it does near the tea room!

Easter Holidays #3 - National Trust

We have a family membership of the NT and make good use of it around the country. This Easter we visited the Chilterns, a place we've never been before ... I didn't take so many pictures, especially at Waddesdon (too ornate to be able to capture any real sense of it), but it's not always the buildings that make a place special.


Besides Waddesdon, we visited West Wycombe and Hughenden Manor (the home of Disraeli) where the girls helped plant potatoes in the kitchen garden and we were all given seed potatoes to take home ... our garden path is now lined with pots of different varieties of potatoes!

Easter Holidays #2 - Paignton Zoo

I let the girls go off by themselves, so I was able to wander at my own pace and in my own direction! The elephants have to be my favourite animal, but these Colobus moneys were so much fun (although they look fairly miserable)


There were two baby baboons that kept the crowd amused most of the day, and I love the giraffes and the big cats ... and DD1 showed me the meerkats that I'd somehow missed along the way ...


There were other babies, too, including the rare black rhino - why is it we are so attracted to small creatures?

Easter Holidays #1 - The Eden Project

One of my favourite places, it's different each time we visit. This time there were the bulb displays, as well as the 'green motor show' and some new exhibits, including the spiral garden ...

April in the Garden

Speaking of garden - I love this time of year! The clematis montana has been in flower for a couple of weeks, and now the cherry blossom has joined in the cascade, too



We have tomato and cucumber seedlings in the greenhouse, and broccoli and lettuce seedlings hardening off before planting. The peas are showing, the carrots in the raised bed have germinated for once, and rocket and beetroot, too. The potatoes in the main bed are sprouting now, and we've planted six tubs of seed potatoes we were given at Hughenden (NT) walled garden I must get some more lettuce on the go, and am just biding my time before getting going with squash, chard, sunflowers and beans. Oh yes, the broad beans are well on their way, too ...

But there's plenty of weeding to be done (DH's job) - mostly in the flower beds, which are a fair way down the priority list but DH likes the distraction when he's busy - that's Friday's day off sorted then

In an age of steam ...

The South Devon Railway opened for the season this weekend ... nostalgia rules, OK?

Hidden Away

Hidden away among the side streets and ancient courtyards of Totnes is an architectural practice



One of those places that catches your eye - but you have to look twice ...

Wood Pile

I came across this wood pile while out walking recently. Although fresh cut, the moss and lichen indicate how healthy the growth had been and how unspoilt the area.

I leave a pile of wood in my garden as a site for insects and small animals, and I wondered how many species already inhabit this haven ... I may return later in the year and see if it's still there (if so, I shall avoid the temptation to lift a log and see!).

Sunbury Park

I paid a visit to Sunbury Park recently, and to the walled garden in particular. It's a quiet place, despite the new gallery and tea shop ... the gallery was built to house the Millennium Tapestry and only opened last summer, but is well supported, even at this time of year.

The plants are beginning to bud, and the birdlife is making it's presence felt - we heard a woodpecker, but couldn't catch sight of it, as well as various tits and the usual garden birds.

The walled garden is an oasis so close to the bustle, although the village itself is relatively unspoilt. It was a warm day, warm enough to sit out and listen to the quiet ... to be still.

Next Move

The broad beans I planted a month ago have mostly sprouted now, although the seed was old. So have the lettuce and cabbage (Primo) seeds I planted last week ... it's looking good so far!

Trimmed some of the strawberry plants - there is already a flower on one in the greenhouse. And DD1 planted the potatoes (Marfona) in what used to be her plot ... we didn't trench them so will have to be careful about covering them as they grow. So many little jobs to be done ... the weather has been co-operative, but we've not had much time this week. Hopefully it will last a little longer.

Getting going

I've been ready to do stuff in the garden for a couple of weeks, but time and weather have conspired against me ...

Today was sunny and warm, and not too wet. I concentrated on repairs to the greenhouse, while DH began to dig over this year's potato patch. Then we worked on filling the two new raised beds ... one for carrots and beetroot (I find it so hard to get them to germinate in our sandy soil and windy garden) and the other probably for celeriac. I also planted up some cabbage (Primo) and the first lettuce.

Much more to do ... and no time to take photos today!