Tuesday, 19 April 2016

On provocation













If you come here often then you know how I like to dream about a world where everything is quieter and calmer. It seems to me that so much is designed to provoke a reaction from us. The most important thing is to get our attention. Never mind how it makes us feel. Just irritate those brain cells so that we look and notice and remember and hopefully are driven to rant a bit.

If I want to shout at the radio, then I think they must feel they've done their job. If I read a book that leaves me hanging at the end of absolutely every chapter then the formula is working. Even if it's really annoying.

As a quiet sensitive dreamer I'm finding it all a bit much. I like a little understatement in my life. I like to discover things are amazing all by myself without four foot high red and black banner headlines screaming it at me. I like the small things that make me go, "Oh, that's nice," and then let me slip back into a happy daydream. I fear I may be living in the wrong century.

In the interests of not overwhelming you I bring you unassuming pictures of gooseberry flowers and a light dusting of plum blossom. Feel free to be underwhelmed. If you like you can murmur a soft, "Oh." And maybe if you like them you can add a quiet, "Nice." Yours calmly, CJ xx

Saturday, 16 April 2016

And that was the end of the frog







nesting swan


coot babies
kingcups
gunnera
coot nest
Spring is well under way now despite the chilly temperatures. We saw tiny coot babies this afternoon, three of them together, as well as nesting swans, moorhens and coots. We even got to watch some nest building by the partner of the coot in the last picture. He was bringing in dry grasses and helping Mrs Coot arrange it nicely ready for the chicks.

By the water the gunnera is starting to sprout and in the hedgerows things are turning ever greener. It was good to get outside and feel a little sunshine and listen to a little birdsong. Here in electronic land things are driving me bananas. There's some sort of email hiccup going on so that whenever I leave a comment on someone's blog I receive an email saying my email won't be delivered. So although I can comment on blogs, the email telling the blog owner I've commented isn't being sent. I've no idea how to fix it, and I've a horrible feeling I'll need to get a new email address and it will all be hideously complicated and make me Very Cross.

It's tempting to do nothing, but the pleasure of the blog world is in connecting with people, so if my emails are not going through that's a problem. If anyone has any suggestions they will be gratefully received, although I fear there are no quick fixes. I think the problem is that google thinks I'm sending spam. As I understand it, google particularly doesn't like yahoo addresses. I only have a yahoo address because I messed up getting a gmail address and couldn't fix it. Honestly, it's a wonder I have a blog at all.

There was great wildlife drama over breakfast the other day. A magpie ate a frog. He snatched him up, got him over to a raised bed and proceeded to stab him to death with his beak, thereby also getting to the juicy bits inside. The littlest boy was half out of the window trying to perform a late frog rescue, while the biggest boy (the birdwatcher) was shouting, "He needs the meat, he needs the meat". It was all a bit much over breakfast I can tell you. So we are one frog down now, which is good news for the slugs.

I'm off to glare at google and yahoo now and grind my teeth for a bit. It feels especially annoying being classed as spam when so much actual spam gets through. Hardly seems fair. Wishing you all a lovely relaxing Sunday in the sun. CJ xx

Sunday, 10 April 2016

Beneath the surface














enclosing wall, built in 1770




I had a productive morning in the garden yesterday, emptying the wormery and spreading the lovely worm compost over one or two of the raised beds. The worms are no more, so I cleaned out the wormery completely and I've ordered a new batch. They are quite amazing little creatures, turning vegetable matter into crumbly fertile soil teeming with microbes. The compost worms are different from earthworms, although earthworms are equally hardworking, taking organic matter from the surface and distributing it through the soil. What goes on underground is complicated, vast and essential to healthy plant life. Good soil is built over years of caring for it, adding manure and compost and avoiding chemicals, which can disrupt the healthy balance of organisms.

In the afternoon we went for a wander at the local deer park. It was first enclosed for hunting at the end of the 13th century, and is the last remaining medieval deer park in the area. A wall was built around the outside in 1770. The land is fantastic, as you would imagine with a place that has had minimal human interference. There are many ancient trees and I was impressed with the amount of dead wood that had been left lying around - great for insects and those who feed on them. We saw two or three green woodpeckers and a greater spotted woodpecker as well.

The mounds are anthills, literally thousands of them. They form on undisturbed land over many years and are made by yellow meadow ants. They're great for biodiversity as the mounds and the ants support other creatures and plant life. In fact the ants are a major food source for green woodpeckers.

All of the dead wood is great for fungi as well. I like to go in the autumn and see what's growing. All of that unseen life, teeming below the surface of things. There's so much more than meets the eye in these amazing ecosystems.

Friday, 8 April 2016

Five on Friday



spot the tadpole





Joining in with Amy and Five on Friday.

1. The Easter hols are rolling to the end far too quickly, although sometimes just keeping up with the demands for food is quite overwhelming. There's a bit of a Rubik's cube mania here at the moment. Before that it was juggling. I made them all three little bean bags each, and I'd have taken a photo if I could find them but they seem to have mysteriously disappeared. We had a crafternoon yesterday and made some cards and things with stamps and copious quantities of ink. I like to give handmade cards, even if they are a bit rough and ready. 

2. The frogspawn in the garden is rapidly turning into tadpoles. They are mostly huddled together at the moment, but the braver ones are having little swims about. 

3. On a grander scale, I watched a programme about the gardens at Buckingham Palace the other day. They are absolutely phenomenal, organic of course, and teeming with wildlife. Apparently there are 85 different birds that visit and 10 times more fungi than in the surrounding parks. There are royal beehives there and wild areas and ducklings on the lake. I'd never seen it all before and I was absolutely blown away. I would like to be the Queen after all. Or even the Queen's gardener. 

4. I've been trying a little calligraphy in the evenings. It's something that doesn't come instantly, more of a long slow process. Late at night I write things out in a sort of unwinding way. I'm not really sure where to start, but starting somewhere has to be a good thing. I'm tired by then and I can't always be bothered to find a quote to copy so sometimes I just write lists of words.

5. Do you imagine it will be warming up any time soon? I'm hoping for some lovely picnic weather soon. I've just about adjusted to it not being winter any more and I'm bracing myself for all of the outdoor work to be done. But it seems unseasonally chilly. I nearly froze at the park on Wednesday. I'm feeling the need to wear a t-shirt and sit in the sun for a bit. The littlest boy is dallying with shorts already of course. Although today he wore the evacuee costume with sunglasses and an odd hat. Anything that will persuade him to change out of his pyjamas.

Wishing all a good weekend. CJ xx

Sunday, 3 April 2016

Plot and garden







We spent a good day in the sun at the allotment last week. I got the middle boy to take his Trangia and he made us lunch of savoury rice and veggie sausages. The boys played in the trees and by the stream and made the food and ate and did things with sticks and knives and I managed to get loads done in the time we were there. 

Lots of weeding, with lots more still to do of course, and broad beans and radishes sown, Okay, that doesn't sound like much now I've written it down, but it did at the time. The littlest boy fell in the stream. Apparently the biggest boy waved his stick (wand) at him in grand Harry Potter fashion and shouted "Relashio" (they are all about the Harry Potter spells at the moment). The littlest boy said, "What does that do?", then fell forward onto his knees in the stream and backwards completely into the water. You could hear the others laughing from half a mile away. A bit later on the middle boy fell in the stream as well. Not to be outdone, you know. 

It was such a gorgeous day there were loads of other plotholders there. I'd forgotten what a good community spirit there is. Vandalism has started up again after a winter break unfortunately. Everyone is duly outraged. 

I spotted a couple of brimstone butterflies, the primrose yellow ones. Such a fantastic name. They hibernate as adults and start flying in April.

I tackled the garden today. Mulched the raised beds with compost and manure. Topped up some of the pots. Swept and tidied. Inside I planted  more seeds. Dark red lupins, white foxgloves, ammi, lime green nicotiana, cucumbers, squashes, courgettes and achocha. Spring is here.