It has been a strange week: I have been self isolating as I have some lurgy. Which one? Who knows? There have been very few 'recorded' cases of the dreaded virus in Somerset, so it is totally unlikely, but as people are not tested, the real figures won't be known. I am not so bad that I need any medical or hospital intervention apart from help from the usual stuff one might have in a drawer: night nurse etc. Can't remember last time I had a cold or flu or whatever! Some of the time I have been well enough to sit in the conservatory and in the last couple of days even venture out for the purpose of taking a picture or two, and yesterday even pruned a couple of bushes. There has been time for thought, and for appreciation of my small garden, and leafing through books.
(1) Bird in the Hand? I would rather have two in the bush, or many birds in the garden.
Watching the birds this week has been a joy. I sit still, and yet some birds seem to feel the binoculars on them. I daren't reach for the camera, preferring to watch their antics. Coal tits, great tits, blue tits, long tail tits, gold crests, wrens, blackbirds, sparrows, dunnocks, robins, jays, a handsome male pheasant right up to the window of the conservatory, bl***y pigeons, magpies, jays in just one week! Feeding and some collecting nesting material, lots of splashing around int he bird bath, chasing each other and more. We have daily visits from a bird of prey who perches in the trees over the wall, usually scattering the perching pigeons, but above one pigeon came to rest just above it!
(2) Corydalis Beth Evans is putting a wonderful show in the bed just an arms length from where I have been sitting in the conservatory. I realised I showed this last week, but it is another clump, and they have cheered me up so much, they deserve to be mentioned for its 'medicinal properties'.
(3) Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb' is darkening up nicely in the spring sunshine. It is feeling at home now, and will prove in time to be a useful little shrub in just the right place. I am particularly fond of this one, as it is growing from a cutting, which rooted from a fine little specimen which I had planted in my previous gravel garden. For now it is surrounded by low lying creeping thymes
(4) Just how does a Rosemary fair after a good prune? This Rosemary has been in this spot for less than three years and has more than paid back not only to the bees and bumblebess, but also as flavouring in the kitchen, as well as 'greenery' in my Vase on Monday. Another season will see it outgrow it spot, and is rather 'unpleasant' in its shape. Already its successor, a good plant started as a cutting is flourishing in the front 'mediterranean' garden. There cats may well mark it, so this spring I shall be starting some back garden successors. As soon as those prove to have taken, this old plant will most probably be grubbed out.
(5) Green curtains of Kenilworth Ivy through which the wren loves to search for it food. Soon it will be covered in so many little flowers, mostly insignificant, but I shall enjoy observing which insects visit them. When the cemetery people made an awful bodge of repairing the wall in 2017, its bare uneven poorly dressed stone seemed to be so much of bone of contention. To think that a few of the seeds had remained and so quickly have recolonized the sunny side, is a wonder of nature.
This plant has an unusual method of propagation. The flower stalk is initially positively phototropic and moves towards the light. After fertilisation, it becomes negatively phototropic and moves away from the light. This results in seed being pushed into dark crevices of rock walls, where it is more likely to germinate.
(6) Persicaria Red Dragon has some fine looking red shoots thickening out and on the blocks reading for its spring sprint.....
Hopefully over the next few days I shall continue to improve....we have Matthew Biggs coming to the gardening club!
Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. Hope you are on the mend. I love that corydalis, I can't seem to keep them going. Enjoy MB!
ReplyDeleteI hope your lurgy is just a general cold/flu and you recover quickly! I love Persicaria 'Red Dragon' so look forward to seeing it fill out for you.
ReplyDeleteIs that auricula next to the coradylia? Whatever it is, the 2 go well together. Love the story of the stone wall regaining its clothes, but how was it bungled by the cemetery folk? I've never been impressed w/the intelligence of pigeons, but your fella there seems to really need some educating. Hope he survived his brave perch.
ReplyDeleteThat is Primula Lilac Lace and yes they do go fairly well, the colour of the primula though is lilac and the corydalis more salmon. They just gave the contract to the lowest bidder, who really didn't have a clue about pointing, and after all it was not on a 'public ie users side' so they did not invest any thought. We have so many pigeons here I am pleased even if they get chased away, and if a few end up being eaten, that is fine by me.
DeleteHope you're feeling better soon. It is fun watching the birds in the garden. I noticed my wool pot (recently filled) had been ransacked while I was at work this morning. I watched a wren battling to remove some wool last spring and it was the most entertaining thing ever!
ReplyDeleteWatching the antics is really entertaining. You reminded me of the days when we had a dog and after we had brushed her on the patio, the wren could come hunting and fly off with beak fulls. Looked this up and was interested to read that the length should be kept small. I usually empty the contents of my hairbrush and will be sure to cut the lengths down to 3 inches or so.
DeleteSo glad you felt well enough to post as I loved this, especially learning about the Kenilworth Ivy. I have a large patch of it on a wall and was keen to grub it out in favour of aubretia. Now I know how clever it is I shall see it spared!
ReplyDeleteAt least it will be worth keeping a small patch and observing it...should be room for both, but the Kenilworth ivy is no work at all.
DeleteOh Noelle I hope that you are soon on the mend. We have been watching birds flitting about in the garden over the last week or so. Unfortunately a robin was trapped in my greenhouse overnight a couple of weeks ago and since then I've noticed a couple of other birds fly in and then flap about in a panic 😥 I've noticed that my 'Red Dragon' has just started to blow fire again too.
ReplyDeleteI love that pink corydalis! I used to grow a yellow variety but it was much too warm and humid here for it to survive long. Hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteYour Ladyship: Many thanks, I am honoured that you have taken the time of day to respond. I am improving many thanks. Tugging my forelock, and secretly wondering whether to own up that my yellow Corydalis cheilanthifolia in the true style of cottagers was 'acquired' from the nursery of some big house.
DeleteSorry to hear you have been unwell. In response to your question 'how does a Rosemary fair after a good prune?' In my experience by dying back. It may be I cut it back too early in the year, but its put me off doing anything to them since.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for this. I shall be sure to take more cuttings before this one is completely removed. In the meantime the bees are having a wonderful source and I shall keep on chopping for the kitchen etc.
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