A new visitor

We had a new visitor to our garden today. A male Siskin. It is the first time since we came here nearly five years ago that we have had a Siskin.



The Cherry in the front is at its peak. The first of the Bluebells also flowered in the sunshine and new Tulips are coming out every day.

In the Garden

It was a beautiful sunny day on Monday and I spent much of the morning in the garden doing some of the first serious tidying up and weeding of the year. Although there are a couple of pairs of frogs in amplexus in the ponds there is no sign of frogspawn yet. Everyone else is reaching the tadpole stage so it’s not very promising for this year. I also came across a lone male – presumably looking for a female.




I found my first male Smooth Newt of the year – you can tell his sex by the bright belly and the crest down his back though the latter tends to lie flat and be very hard to see when he’s out of the water. He wasn’t overly impressed at being placed in such an undignified position to be photographed but he didn’t squirm. Usually it’s not possible to get a photo of the underside because they just turn themselves right way up since you can’t hold them tightly for fear of hurting them.


My favourite find of the day was a couple of catkins in the hedge. There is something really delightful about having grown a hedge from seeds and seedlings and reaching the stage where it provides flowers and seeds. I think these are the male catkins of the Sallow or Goat Willow whose female catkins are the well-known pussy willow.


Over one of the ponds there hang the dead stalks of a sedge which make an attractive photograph reflected on the water’s surface.



The daffodils, large and small varieties, are at their peak at the moment but there are none of the white Narcissi out yet.


The first of the Tulips have opened and the Green Hellebores and Christmas Roses are still flowering well.


In the front garden we get mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) – the wild form of the Cultivated Mushroom every year under the hedge. The fruiting bodies always appear the third week in March and the first time I found them I thought initially they were St George’s Mushrooms which are said to appear on 23rd April every year.

8th April 2008

 



After a wet and very overcast start the day turned sunny and comparatively warm. In the garden the Tulips are beautiful just now.



At the opposite end of the size scale are the tiny Scilla sibirica bulbs.


I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the fish. We have a separate pond for them, on the patio. They are not easy to photograph but I tried sneaking up them today. Must try harder, as my school reports used to say!


Throughout the day, from dawn to dusk we have House Sparrows twittering away around the garden. Far louder than them are the Starlings which sit on the chimneys and gutters making every type of chirp and weird noise, even imitating the Nokia ring-tone on occasion.

Sunday 6th April 2008

 

Snow overnight but by the time I got outside the sun was shining and what was left was drip dripping off the shrubs and trees.


The snow had rather battered the daffodils but the newly blooming tulips had coped well and will shortly be at their best.


A long-overdue task has been the need to take off a large limb from the Willow. It has been overhanging the doctor’s car park and for the last couple of years I have had to prune the branches every couple of weeks. I could only do the job when the car park is empty and there doesn’t seem to have been a suitable Sunday until today. It was hard work but it’s a job well done.


And there’s plenty of wood for the fire!

7th March 2008

 

I should have known better than to imply this morning that the garden was boring at the moment. Once the stratus clouds lifted and the sun came out I explored and found all sorts of interesting things including the first Tulip of the year.


The Hyacinths are well out already.


And in the tubs the Primulas and Primroses have been out throughout the winter but the birds now seem to have stopped picking at them so they are looking much better.


Under the hedge the Cowslips are coming out. I love them.


In the middle pond a male frog of a fair size is waiting for the females to appear. When picked up to check he was a male and not a female (though with its slim body there wasn’t much doubt) he croaked pleasantly at me. A couple of years ago we had about a dozen of them really croaking loudly and it was a tremendous sound.


Although I have seen frogs previously this year this is the first one that has appeared ‘naturally’ – i.e. without being disturbed while weeding or cleaning out ponds.